f CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Date Due WAY Ain't 5' — I-W' 1 H iy4 9 OCT 1^1^ 154 U S. K«ni/ -i deJ If- ii \nf iTB, ■ wuv i la 54xi ^ Vfitt,-*5H '?ir'? (Aj •^||^£J|£^2^ '■^ „ ,r U l"* ■MS. TSSTba — E68-J ' lOKK T V ■^'B^l iT |>|.| wmm nwM-1 1^^6 HS • ■ .JlL-i JMBO^i o-on *V ^.i^:;^ '©«:£ 1^^ -SJ^; 4" - , <39SnES3> „___ Cornell University Library PA 6308.E5A2 1854 Life and letters of Marcus Tullius Cicer 3 1924 026 480 339 .i..,o..i Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026480339 K: Fbnden,. C 2 CG If LU IF Z k DMETTEIS ®i' M4KC0^ TfftLIKIS CICERO. -%^^^s 1, O H" IS O TT, HEIiTRY 6. BOECN YOKE STKEET, COTEWT GAHUjIlN.- MB c c c :s:l'Vtii . THE LIFE AND LETTERS MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, THE LIFE OF CICERO. DY DR. MIDDLETON. CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. TRANSLATED BY WM. MELMOTH. CICERO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS. TRANSLATED BY DR. HEBERDEN. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1854. l.l'JUAHY ;^=k±:B^de LONDON : BRADBUET AND EVANS, PRINTEBS, WHITEFRIARS. CONTENTS. PAGE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF CICERO 1 CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS 331 CICERO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS 619 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN HERVEY, LORD KEEPER OF HIS MAJESTv's PRITY SEAL. My Lord, The public will naturally expfect, that in choosing a patron for the Liff of Cicero I should address myself to some person of illHstrious rank, distinguished by Ms parts and eloquence, and bearing a principal share in the great affaors of the nation ; "who, according to the usual style of dedications, might he the proper subject of a comparison with the hero of my piece. Your lordship's name will confirm that expectation, and your character would justify me in running some length into the parallel ; but my experience of your good sense forbids me the attempt. For your lordship knows what a disadvantage it would he to any character to be placed in the fcame light witlj that of Cicero ; that all such comparisons must be invidious and adulatory ; and that the following history will suggest a reason in every page, why no man now living can justly be compared with him. I do not impute this to any superiority of parts or genius peculiar to the ancients ; for human nature has ever been the same in all ages and nations, and owes the difference of its improvements to a difference only of culture, and of the rewards proposed to its industry : where these are the most amply provided, there we shall ^ways find the most numerous and shining examples of human perfection. In old Rome, the public honours were laid open to the virtue of every citizen ; which, by raising them in their turns to the command of that mighty empire, produced a race of nobles superior even to kings. This was a prospect that filled the soul of the ambitious, and roused every faculty of mind and body to exert its utmost force : whereas in modem states, men's views being usually confined to narrow bounds beyond which, they cannot pass, and a partial culture of their talents being sufficient to procure everything that their ambition can aspire to, a great genius has seldom either room or invitation to stretch itself to its full size. You see, my lord, how much I trust to your good-nature, as well as good sense, when in an epistle dedicatory, the proper place of panegyric, I am depreciating your abilities instead of extolling them ; but I remember that it is a history which I am offering to your lordship, and it would ill become me, in the front of such a work, to expose my veracity to any hazard : and my head, indeed, is now so full of antiquity that I could wish to see the dedicatory style reduced to that classical simplicity with which the ancient writers used to present their books to their friends or patrons, at whose desire they were written, or by whose authority they were published : for this was the first use and the sole purpose of a dedication ; and as this also is the real ground of my present address to your lordship, so it will be the best argument of my epistle, and the most agreeable to the character of an historian, to acquaint the public with a plain fact, that it was your lordship who first advised me to undertake the Life of Cicero ; and, when from a difBdence of my strength and a nearer view of the task, I began to think myself unequal to the weight of it, your lordship still urged and exhorted me to persist, till I had moulded it into the form in which it now appears. Thus far your lordship was carried by that love for Cicero, which, as one of the best critics of antiquity asfiures us, is the undoubted proof of a true taste. I wish only that the favour which you have since shown to my English Cicero, may not detract from that praise which is due to your love j^ the Roman : but, whatever censure it may draw upon your lordship, I cannot prevail with myself to conceal, what does bo much honour to my work, that, before it went to the press, your lordship not only saw and approved, but, as the aincerest mark of your approbation, corrected it. It adds no small credit to . The family seat was about three miles fi-om the town, in a situation extremely pleasant, and well adapted to the nature of the climate. It was sur- rounded with groves and shady walks, leading from the house to a river called Fibrenus, which was divided into two equal streams by a little island, covered with trees, and a portico contrived both for study and exercise, whither Cicero used to retire when he had any particular work upon his hands. The clearness and rapidity of the stream, murmur- ing through a rocky channel ; the shade and verdure of its banks, planted with tall poplars ; the remark- able coldness of the water, and above all, its falling by a cascade into the nobler river Liris, a little below the island ; gives us the idea of a most beau- tiful scene, as Cicero himself has described it. When Atticus first saw it, he was charmed with it, and wondered that Cicero did not prefer it to aU his other houses ; declaring a contempt of the laboured magnificence, marble pavements, artificial canals, and forced streams of the celebrated villas of Italy, compared with the natural beauties of this place". The house, as Cicero says, was but small and humble in his grandfather's time, according to the ancient frugality, like the Sabine farm of old Curius ; till his father beautified and enlarged it into a handsome and spacious habitation. But there cannot be a better proof of the delight- ^ De Lege Agrar. con. RuU. ad Quu'ites, 1. 1 De Legib. ii. 3 ; V;il. Maxim, ii. 2. « Hin. Ep. " Ad Att. ii. !1 ; Odyss. ts. 27. " DeLegili. ii. 1, 2,3. fulness of the place; than that it is now possessed by a convent of monks, and called the ViUa of St. Dominic P. Strange revolution ! to see Cicero's porticoes converted to monkish cloisters ! the seat of the most refined reason, wit, and learning, to a nursery of superstition, bigotry, and enthusiasm ! What a pleasure must it give to these Dominican Inquisitors, to trample on the ruins of a man, whose writings, by spreading the light of reason and liberty through the world, have been one great instrument of obstructing their vmwearied pains to enslave it ! Cicero, being the first-bom of the family, re- ceived, as usual, the name of his father ^d grand- father, Marcus. This name was properly personal, equivalent to that of baptism with us, and imposed with ceremonies somewhat analogous to it, on the ninth day, called the lustrical, or day of purification'; when the child was carried to the temple by the friends and, relations of the family, and, before the altars of the gods, recommended to the protection of some tutelar deity. TuUius was the name of the family ; which, in old language, signified flowing streams, or ducts of water, and was derived, therefore, probably from their ancient situation, at the confluence of the two rivers'. The third name was generally added on account of some memorable action, quality, or accident, which distinguished the founder, or chief person, of the family. Plutarch says, that the surname of Cicero was owing to a wart or excrescence on the nose of one of his ancestors, in the shape of a vetch, which the Romans called cicer" : but Pliny tells us, more credibly, that all those names, which had a reference to any species of grain, as the Fabii, Len- tuli, &c. were acquired by a reputation of being the best husbandmen or improvers of that species*. As Tullius, therefore, the family name, was derived from the situation of the farm, so Cicero, the sur- name, from the culture of it by vetches. This, I say, is the most probable ; because agriculture was held the most liberal employment in old Rome, and those tribes, which resided on their farms in the country, the most honourable ; and this very grain, from which Cicero drew his name, was, in all ages of the republic, in great request with the meaner people ; being one of the usual largesses bestowed upon them by the rich, and sold everywhere in the theatres and streets ready parched or boiled for pre- sent use'^. Cicero's grandfather was living at the time of his birth ; and from the few hints which are left of him, P Appresso la Villa di S. Domenico ; liora cosi nominato questo luogo, ove nacque Cioei'ono, oome dice Pietro Mai-so, laqualo Villa i discosta da Arpino da tre migUa. — Vid, Leand. AlbertiDeserittione d'ltalia, p. ac?. 1 Est Nundina Komanorum dea, a none nascentium die nuncupata, qui lustricus dicitur j est autem dies lustricus, quo infautes lusti-antur et nomen aocipiimt. — Macrob. Sat. i. 16. ' Pompoius Festus in voce Tullius. ' This has givm rise to a blunder of some sculptors, who, in the busts of Cicei-o, have formed the resemblance of this vetch on his nose ; not reflecting, that it was the name only, and not the vetckitseU, which was transmitted to him by his ancestors. ' Hist. Nat. xviii. 3, 1. » In cicore, atque faba, bona tu perdasque lupinis, Latus ut in circo spatiere, aut Kneus ut stes. HoR. Sat. 1. ii. 3. 182. Ncc, siquid fricti cicoris probat et nucis emtor. Are Poet. 249. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. seems to have been a man of business and interest in his country". He was at the head of a pai'ty in Arpinum, in opposition to a busy turbulent man, M. Gratidius, whose sister he had married, who was pushing forward a popular law, to oblige the town to transact all their affairs by ballot. The oause was brought before the Consiji Scaurus ; in which old Cicero behaved himself so well, that the consul paid him the compliment to wish that a man of his spirit and virtue would come and act with them in the great theatre of the republic, and not confine his talents to the narrow sphere of his own corporation?. There is a saying likewise recorded of this old gentleman, That the men of those times were like the Syrian slaves — the more Greek they knew, the greater knaves they were' ; which carries with it the notion of an old patriot, severe on the importation of foreign arts, as destructive of the discipline and manners of his country. Tliis grand- father had two sons — Marcus the elder, the father of our Cicero ; and Lucius, a particular friend of the celebrated orator M. Antonius, whom he ac- ■ companied to his government of Cilicia* ; and who left a son of the same name, frequently mentioned ' by Cicero with great affection, as a youth of excel- lent virtue and accomplishments ■*. His father Marcus also was a wise and learned man, whose merit recommended him to the fami- liarity of the principal magistrates of the republic, especially Cato, L. Crassus, and L. Csesar" ; but being of an infirm and tender constit\ition, he spent his life chiefly at Arpinum, in an elegant retreat and the study of polite letters''. But his chief employment, from the time of his having sons, was to give them tlie best education which Rome could afford, in hopes to excite in them an ambition of breaking through the indo- , lence of the family, and aspiring to the honours of the state. They were bred up with their cousins, the young Aculeos, in a method approved and directed by L. Crassus ; a man of the first dignity, as well as the first eloquence in Rome, and by those very masters whom Crassus himself made use of °. The Romans were of all people the most careful and exact in the education of their children : their ' J>e Legib. ii. 1. y Ac uoBtro quldem huic, cuin res esset ad se delata. Consul Scaurus, utm^im. inquit, M. Cicero, isto animo atque virtute, in summa republica ncbiscum versari, quiun in municipali roluisses! — Ibid. iii. 16. * NoHtros homines similes esse Syrorum venalium ; ut quisque optime Graeee sciret, ita esse nequissimum. — De Orat. ii. 66. N.B. — A great part of the slaves in Rome were Syrians for the pirates of Cilicia, who used to infest the coasts ol Syria, carried all their captives to the market of Delos, and sold them there to the Greeks, through whose hands they usually passed to Home : those slaves, therefore, who had lived the longest with their Grecian masters, and consequently talked Greek the best, were the most prac- ; tised in all the little tricks and craft that seivitude natu- [ rally teaehes; which old Cicero, like Cato the Censor, \ imputed to the arts and manners of Greece itself. — Vid. i Adr. Turneb. in jooos Ciceronis. « De Oi-at. ii. 1. k De Finib. v. 1 ; ad Att. i. S. ' ■ Ep. Fam. xv. 4 ; De Orat. ii. 1. •^ Qui cum esset infirma valetudiae, hie fore ffitatem egit in Uteris De Legib. ii. 1. fi Cumque nos cum consobrinis nostris, Aculeonis filils, et ea disceremus, qua Crasso placerent, et ab iis doctorl- bUB, qulbus alio uteretur, enidtremm*. — ^De Orat, ii. 1. attention to it began from the moment of their birth ; when they committed them to the care of some prudent matron of reputable character and condition, whose business it was to form their first habits of acting and speaking ; to watch their growing passions, and direct them to their proper objects ; to superintend their sports, and suffer nothing immodest or indecent to enter into them ; that the mind preserved in its innocence, nor de- praved by a taste of false pleasure, might be at liberty to pursue whatever was laudable, and apply its whole strength to that profession, in which it desired to excels It was the opinion of some of the old masters, that children should not be instructed in letters till they were seven years old ; but the best judges advised, that no time of culture should be lost, and that their literary instruction should keep pace with their moral ; that three years only should be allowed to the nurses, and when they first began to speak, that they should begin also to learn s. It was reckoned a matter likewise of great importance, what kind of language they were first accustomed to hear at home, and in what manner not only their nurses, but their fathers and even mothers, spoke ; since their first habits were then necessarily formed, either of a pure or corrupt elocution ; thus the two Gracchi were thought to owe that elegance of speaking, for which they were famous, to the institution of their mother Cortfelia ; a woman of great politeness, whose epistles were read and admired long after her death for the purity of their language''. This probably was a part of that domestic disci- pline, in which Cicero was trained, and of which he often speaks ; but as soon as he was capable of a more enlarged and liberal institution, his father brought him to Rome, where he had a house of his own', and placed him in a public school, under an eminent Greek master, which was thought the best way of educating one who was designed to appear on the public stage, and who, as Quintilian ob- serves, ought to be so bred as not to fear the sight of men, since that can never be rightly learned in solitude, which is to be produced before crowds^. Here he gave the first specimen of those shining abilities, which rendered him afterwards so illus- trious ; and his school-fellows carried home such stories of his extraordinary parts and quickness in learning, that their parents were often induced to visit the school, for the sake of seeing a youth of such surprising talents'. About this time a celebrated rhetorician, Plo- tius, first set up a Latin school of eloquence in Rome, and had a great resort to him"". Young Cicero was very desirous to be his scholar, but was f Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu propinqua, cujus probatis spectatisque moribus, omnia cujuspiam familie soboles committeretur, &c, — quffi disciplina et severitas eo pertinebat, ut sincera et integi-a et nuUis pravitatibus detorta uniuscujusque natura, toto statim pectore arri- peret artes honestas, &c.— Tacit. Dial, de Oi-atorib. 28. y Quintil. i, 1. l Ibid. ; it. in Brut. p. 319, edit. Sebast. Corradi. ' This is a farther proof of the wealth and flourishing condition of his family ; since the rent of a moderate house in Rome, in a reputable part of the city, fit for on* of equestrian rank, was about two hundred pounds sterUng per annum. k anintil. 1. 2. 1 Plutarch, in his Lite. ■» Suston. de Claris Rhetoribus, c. 2. B 2 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF over-ruled in it by the advice of the learned, who thought the Greek masters more useful in forming him to the bar, for which he was designed. This method of beginning with Greek is approved by Quintilian ; because the Latin would come of itself, and it seemed most natural to begin from the fountain, whence all the Roman learning was derived : yet the rule, he says, must be practised with some restriction, nor the use of a foreign lan- guage pushed so far to the neglect of the native, as to acquire with it a foreign accent and vicious pronunciation". Cicero's father, encouraged by the promising genius of his son, spared no cost nor pains to im- prove it by the help of the ablest masters, and among the other instructors of his early youth, put him under the care of the poet Archias, who came to Rome with a high reputation for learning and poetry, when Cicero was about five years old, and lived in the family of LucuUus*' : for it was the custom of the great in those days to entertain in their houses the principal scholars and philosophers of Greece, with a liberty of opening a school, and teaching, together with their own children, any of the other young nobility and gentry of Rome. Under this master, Cicero applied himself chiefly to poetry, to which he was naturally addicted ; and made such a proficiency in it, that while he was still a boy, he composed and published a poem, called Glaucus Pontius, which was extant in Plu- tarch's timeP. After finishing the course of these puerile stu- dies, it was the custom to change the habit of the boy for that of the man, and take what they called the mardy gown, or the ordinary robe of the citi- zens : this was an occasion of great joy to the young men ; who, by this change, passed, into a state of greater liberty and enlargement from the power of their tutors'. They were introduced at the same time into the forum, or the great square of the city", where the assemblies of the people were held and the magistrates used to harangue to them from the rostra, and where all the public pleadings and judicial proceedings were usually transacted : this therefore was the grand school of business and eloquence ; the scene on which all the affairs of the empire were determined, and where the foun- dation of their hopes and fortunes was to be laid : so that they were introduced iuto it with much solemnity, attended by all the friends and depend- ants of the family; and after divine rites performed in the capitol, were committed to the special pro- tection of some eminent senator, distinguished for his eloquence or knowledge of the laws, to be in- structed by his advice in the management of civil affairs, and to form themselves by his example for useful members and magistrates of therepublic. Writers are divided about the precise time of changing the puerile for the manly gown : what seems the most probable is, that in the old re- n Quiatil. i. 1. *> Pro Archia, i. 3. P Plutarch. This Glaucus was a fisherman of Anthe- don, in Bceotia ; who, upon eating a certain herb, jumped into the sea, and became a sea-god : the place wa3 ever after called Glaucus'a Leap ; where there was an oracle of the god, in great vogue with all seamen ; and the story jurnished the argument to ono of ^schylus's tragedies. — Fausan. Bceot. c. 22. 1 Cum primum pavido custos milii purpura oessit. I'ehs, Sat. v. 30. public is was never done till the end of the seven, teenth year ; but when the ancient discipline began to relax, parents, out of indulgence to their chil- dren, advanced this iera of joy one year earlier, and gave them the gown at sixteen, which was the custom in Cicero's time. Under the emperors it was granted at pleasure, and at any age, to the great or their own relations ; for Nero received it from Claudius, when he just entered into his four- teenth year, which, as Tacitus says, was given before the regular season^ Cicero being thus introduced into the forum, was placed under the care of Q. Mucins Scaevola the augur, the principal lawyer, as well as states- man of that age ; who had passed through all the offices of the republic, with a singular reputation of integrity, and was now extremely old. Cicero never stirred from his side ; but carefully treasured up in his memory all the remarkable sayings which dropt from him, as so many lessons of prudence for lua future conduct " ; and after liis death applied him- self to another of the same family, Scsevola the high-priest, a person of equal character for probity and skill in the law ; who, though he did not pro- fess to teach, yet freely gave his advice to all the young students who consulted him'. Under these masters he acquired a complete knowledge of the laws of his country ; a foundation useful to all who design to enter into public affairs; and thought to be of such consequence at Rome, that it was the common exercise of boys at school, to learn the laws of the Twelve Tables by heart, as they did their poets and classic authors". Cicero particularly took such pains in this study, and was so well acquainted with the most intricate parts of it, as to be able to sustain a dispute on any question with the greatest lawyers of his age': so that in pleading once against his friend S. Sulpicius, he declared, by way of raillery, what he could have made good likewise in fact, that if he provoked him, he would profess himself a lawyer in three days' time. The profession of the law, next to that of arms and eloquence, was a sure recommendation to the first honours of the republic^, and for that reason was preserved as it were hereditary in some of the noblest families of Rome ' ; who, by giving their advice gratis to all who wanted it, engaged the favour and observance lof their fellow citizens, and acquired great authority in all the affairs of state. It was the custom of these old senators, eminent for their wisdom and experience, to walk every morning up and down the forum, as a signal of their offering themselves freely to all, who had occasion to consult them, not only in cases of law, but in their private and domestic affairs'. But in ' Ann. xii. 41 ; Vid. Norris Cenotaph. ; Piaan. Disser. ii. o. 4 ; It. Sueton. August. 8 ; ct Notas Pitisci. ■ De Amieit. 1. t Brut. p. 89. edit. Seb. Corradi. " De Lcgib. ii. 23. » Ep. Fam. viL 22. y Pro Muricna, 13. * Ibid. 14. » Cluorum vero patrcs aut majores aliqua gloria pra»U- terunt, ii student plerumque in eodem genere laudis excel- lere ; ut Q. Mucius P. filius, injure oivili Off. i. 32. it. 19. " M. vero Manilium nos etiam vidimus transverse am- bulantem foro ; quod erat insigne, eum, qui id faccret, facere civibus omnibus consilii sui copiam. Ad quos olim et ita ambulantes et in solio sedentes domi ita adibatur, non solum ut do jure oivili ad eos, verum etiam de fiUa collooanda-de omni denlque aut officio aut ucgotio refer- retur.— De Orat. ui. 33. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 5 later times they chose to sit at home with their doors open, in a kind of throne or raised seat, like the confessors in foreign churches, giving access and audience to all people. This was the case of the two Sctevolas, especially the augur, whose house was called the oracle of the city ' ; and who, in the Marsic wai-, when worn out with age and infirmities, gave free admission every day to all the citizens, as soon aslt was light, nor was ever seen by any in his bed dulling that whole wai-''. But this was not the point that Cicero aimed at, to guard the estates only of the citizens : his views were much larger ; and the knowledge of the law was but one ingredient of many, in the character which he aspired to, of a universal patron, not only of the fortunes, but of the lives and liberties, of his countrymen ; for that was the proper notion of an orator, or pleader of causes, whose profession it was to speak aptly, elegantly, and copiously, on every subject which could be offered to him, and whose art therefore included in it all other arts of tlie liberal kind, and could not be acquired, to any perfection, without a competent knowledge of whatever was great and laudable in the universe. This was his own idea of what he had undertaken ° ; and his present business therefore was, to lay a foundation fit to sustain the weight of this great character : so that while he was studying the law under the Sctevolas, he spent a large share of his time iu attending the pleadings at tlie bar, and the public speeches of tlie magistrates, and never passed one day without writing end reading some- thing at home ; constantly taking notes, and making comments on what he read. He was fond, when very young, of an exercise, which had been recom- mended by some of the great orators before him, of reading over a number of verses of some esteemed poet, or a part of an oration, so carefully as to retain the substance of them in his memory, and then deliver the same sentiments in different words, the most elegant that occurred to him. But he soon grew weai-y of this, upon reflecting, that his authors had already employed the best words which belonged to their subject ; so that if he used the same, it would do him no good ; and if different, would even hurt him, by a habit of using worse. He applied himself therefore to another task of more certain benefit, to translate into Latin the select speeches of the best Greek orators, which gave him an opportunity of observing and employing all tlie most elegant words of his own language, and of enriching it at the same time witli new ones, borrowed or imitated from the Greek'. Nor did he yet neglect his poetical studies ; for he now translated Aratus on the Phenomena of the Heavens, into Latin verse, of which many fragments are still extant ; and published also an original poem of the heroic kind, in honour of his countryman C. Marius. This was much admired, and often read by Atticus j and old Sctevola was so pleased with it, that in an epigram, which he seems to have made upon it, he declares, that it would live as long « Est cuira sino dubio domus jurisconsult! totiua ora- lulum civi talis. Testis est hujusco Q. Muoii janua ot vcstibulum, quod in cj\is infirmissima voletudino, affec- taqiie jam mtate, maxima quotidie frcquentia civium, ao fiummorum hominum splondore celebratur.— Do Orat. i. <5. '' I'hllip. viii. 10. » De Orat. i. 5, fi, 13, 10. f Do Orator, i. 34. as the Roman name and leai-ning subsisted s. There remains still a little specimen of it, describing a memorable omen given to Marius from the oak of Arpinum, which from the spirit and elegance of the description shows, that his poetical genius was scai-ce inferior to his oratorical, if it had been cul- tivated with the same diligence''. He published anotlier poem also, called Limon ; of which Donatus has preserved four lines in the life of Terence, in praise of the elegance and puiity of that poet's style'. But while he was employing himself in these juvenile exercises for the improvement of his invention, he appUed himself with no less industry to philosophy, for the eiJargement of his mind and understanding ; and, among his other masters, was very fond at this age of Pheedrus the Epicurean ; but as soon as he had gained a little more experi- ence and judgment of things, he wholly deserted and constantly disliked the principles of that sect ; yet always retained a particular esteem for the man, on account of his learning, humanity, and politeness''. The peace of Rome was now disturbed by a domestic war, which writers call the Italic, Social, or Marsic. It was begun by a confederacy of the principal towns of Italy, to support their demand of the freedom of the city. The tribune Drusus had made them a promise of it, but was assassin- ated in the attempt of publishing a law to confer it. This made them desperate, and resolve to extort by force what they could not obtain by entreaty'. They alleged it to be unjust to exclude them from the rights of a city which they sustained by their arms ; that in all its wars they furnished twice the number of troops which Rome itself did ; and had raised it to all that height of power, for which it now despised them"'. This war was carried on for above two years, with great fierceness on both sides, and various success : two Roman consuls were killed in it, and their armies often defeated ; tiU the confederates, weakened also by frequent losses, and the desertion of one ally after another, were forced at last to submit to the superior fortune of Rome". During the hurry of the war, the B Eaque, ut ait Scsvola de fratris mei Mario, — canescet saiclls inaumerabilibus. — De Leg. i. 1. Ii Hie Jovis altisoni subito pinnata satellce Arboris e tninco, serpentis saucia morsu, Subjugat ipsa fci-is ti-ansfigens unguibus ongueni Scmioniuuim, et vai'ia graviter ccrvice micautem ; Quern BO intorqneatem lonians rostroque cruentans, Jam satiata oiiimos, jam duros ulta dolorcs, Abjicit effioutem, et lacei-atum adfligit in unda, Beque obitu a soils, nitidos convertit ad ortus. HoDC ubi praspetibus pennis lapsuque volantem Conspexit Marius, divini numinis augur. Taustaque signa sua; laudis, reditusquo notavit ; FoTtibus intonuit coeli Pater ipso sinistris. Sic aquils cloriunfirmavit Juppiter omen. De Divin. i. 47* 1 Wo have no account of the argument of this piece, or of the meaning of its title ; it was probably nothing more than the Greek word Aei/Ltei)!', to intimate that tlie poem* like a moadow or garden, exhibited a variety of different fancies and flowers. The Greeks, as Pliny says, were fond of giving such titles to their books as nwB^KTai.'Eyx*'- piSioi/, Aeifuiv, ic, [PriDf. Hist. Nat,,] and Pampliilua the Grammarian, as Suidas tells us, published a An/uil/, or a collection of yarioua subjects.— Vid, in PamphiL k Ep. Fam. xiii. 1. ' Philip, xii. 27. » Veil. Pat, ii. 15. " Flor. iii. IS. 6 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF business of the forum was intermitted ; the greatest part of the magistrates, as well as the pleaders, being personally engaged in it : Hortensius, the most flourishing young orator at the bar, was a volunteer in it the first year, and commanded a regiment the second ", Cicero likewise took the opportunity to make a campaign, along with the consul Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great : this was a constant part of the education of the young nobility, to learn the art of war by personal service, under some general of name and experience ; for, in an empire raised and supported wholly by arms, a reputation of martial virtue was the shortest and surest way of rising to its highest honours ; and the constitution of the government was such, that as their generals could not make a figure even in camps, without some institution in the politer arts, especially that of speaking gracefully P; so those who applied themselves to the peaceful studies, and the management of civil affairs, were obliged to acquire a competent share of military skill, for the sake of governing provinces, and commanding armies, to which they all succeeded of course from the administration of the great offices of the state. In this expedition Cicero was present at a con- ference between Pompeius the consul, and Vettius the general of the Marsi, who had given the Romans a cruel defeat the year before, in which the Consul Rutihus was kiUedi. It was held in sight of the two camps, and managed with great decency : the consul's brother Sextus, being an old acquaintance of Vettius, came from Rome on purpose to assist at it ; and at the first sight of each other, after lamenting the unhappy circumstance of their meet- ing at the head of opposite armies, he asked Vettius by what title he should now salute him, of friend or enemy ? to which Vettius replied, ' ' Call me friend by inchnation; enemy, by necessity''." Which shows, that these old warriors had not less politeness in their civil, than fierceness in their hostile, encounters. Both Marius and Sylla served as lieutenants to the consuls in this war, and commanded separate armies in different parts of Italy : but Marius per- formed nothing in it answerable to his great name and former glory : his advanced age had increased his caution ; and after so many tiiumphs and con- sulships, he was jealous of a reverse of fortune ; so that he kept himself whoUy on the defensive, and, like old Fabius, chose to tire out the enemy by declining a battle; content with snatching some little advantages, that opportunity thr^w into his hands, without suffering them however to gain any against him". Sylla, on the other hand, was ever active and enterprising ; he had not yet obtained the consulship, and was fighting for it, as it were, in the sight of his feUow-citizens ; so that he was constantly urging the enemy to a battle, and glad of every occasion to signalise his military talents, and eclipse the fame of Marius ; in which he succeeded to his wish, gained many considerable victories, and took several of their cities by storm, particularly Stabise, » Brut. 426. w Quantum dicendi gravitate et copia valeat, in quo ipso inest qusedam dignitasimperatoria. — Pro Lege Manilla, J4. q Appian. Bell. Civ. p. 376. I* Quern te appellem, inquit ? at ille ; Yoluntaie hos- pitem, necessitate hostem. — Phil. xii. 11. G Plutar. in Mar. a town of Campania, which he utterly demolished'. Cicero, who seems to have followed his camp, as the chief scene of the war, and the best school for a young volunteer, gives an account of one action, of which he was eye-witness, executed with great vigour and success ; that, as Sylla was sacnticmg before his tent in the fields of Nola, a snake hap- pened to creep out from the bottom of the altar ; upon which Postumius the haruspex, who attended the sacrifice, proclaiming it to be a fortunate omen, called out upon him to lead his army immediately against the enemy. Sylla took the benefit of the admonition ; and drawing out his troops without delay, attacked and took the strong camp of the Samnites under the walls of Nola". This action was thought so glorious, that SyUa got the story of it painted afterwards in one of the rooms of his Tusculan villa *. Thus Cicero was not less diligent in the army, than he was in the forum, to observe everything that passed ; and contrived always to be near the person of the general, that no action of moment might escape his notice. Upon the breaking out of this war, the Romans gave the freedom of the city to all the towns which continued firm to them ; and at the end of it, after the destruction of three hundred thousand lives, thought fit, for the sake of their future quiet, to grant it to all the rest : but this step, which they considered as the foundation of a perpetual peace, was, as an ingenious writer has observed, one of the causes that hastened their ruin ; for the enor- mous bulk to which the city was swelled by it, gave birth to many new disorders, that gradually cor- rupted and at last destroyed it ; and the discipline of the laws, calculated for a people whom the same walls would contain, was too weak to keep in order the vast body of Italy : so that from this time chiefly, all affairs were decided by faction and vio- lence, and the influence of the great, who could bring whole towns into the forum from the remote parts of Italy, or pour in a number of slaves and foreigners under the form of citizens ; for when the names and persons of real citizens could no longer be distinguished, it was not possible to know, whe- ther any act had passed regularly by the genuine suffrage of the people?. The ItEdic war was no sooner ended, than another broke out, which, though at a great distance from Rome, was one of the most difScult and desperate in which it ever was engaged, against Mithridates, king of Pontus, a martial and powerful prince, of a restless spirit and ambition, with a capacity equal to the greatest designs ; who, disdaining to see all his hopes blasted by the overbearing power of Rome, and confined to the narrow boundary of his heredi- tary dominion, broke through his barrier at once, and over-ran the lesser Asia like a torrent, and in one day caused eighty thousand Roman citizens to be massacred in cold blood'. H is forces were ' Pint, in Sylla. In Campano autem agro Stabis oppi- dmn fuere usque ad Cn. Pompoimu et L. Carbonem con- aules, pridie Kalendas Mail, quo die L. Sylla, legatus bello sociali, id delevlt, quod nunc in villas abiit Intcrcidit ibi et Taurania — Plin. Hist N. iii. 5. ^ In Sylla scriptum historia videmus, quod te inspec- tante factum est, ut qnum ille in agro Nolano immolaret ante pra;torium, ab inflma ara subito anguis eu;ergeret, quum qmdem C. Postumius haruspex orabat ilium, Ac- re Dlvm. i. 33 ; ii. 30. x pijn. jjist. N. xxii. 6. y De la Grandeur des Romaius, ic, o 9. ■ Pro Lege Manil. 3. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. imswerable to the vastness of his attempt, and the inexpiable war that he had now declared against the republic : he had a fleet of above four hundred ships, with an army of two hundred and fifty thou- sand foot, and fifty thousand horse ; all completely armed, and provided with military stores, fit for the use of so great a body ». Sylla, who had now obtained the consulship, as the reward of his late services, had the province of Asia allotted to him, with the command of the war against Mithridates' : but old Marius, envious of his growing fame, and desirous to engross every commission which offered either power or wealth, engaged Sulpicius, an eloquent and popular tribune, to get that allotment reversed, and the command transferred from Sylla to himself, by the suffrage of the people. This raised great tumults in the city between the opposite parties, in which the son of Q. Pompeius the consul, and the son-in-law of Sylla, was killed. Sylla happened to be absent, queuing the remains of the late commotions near Nola ; but, upon the news of these disorders, he hastened with his legions to Rome ; and having entered it after some resistance, drove Marius and his accomplices to the necessity of saving them- selves by a precipitate flight. 1113 was the begin- ning of the first civil war, properly so called, which Rome had ever seen, and what gave both the occa- sion and the example to all the rest that followed. The tribune Sulpicius was taken and slain; and Marins so warmly pursued, that he was forced to plunge himself into the marshes of Mintumum, up to the chin in water ; in which condition he lay concealed for some time, till being discovered and dragged out, he was preserved by the compassion of the inhabitants who, after refreshing him from the cold and hunger whiclfhe had suffered in his flight, furnished him with a vessel and all necessa- ries to transport himself into Africa". Sylla in the meanwhile having quieted the city, and proscribed twelve of his chief adversaries, set forward upon his expedition against Mithridates ; but he was no sooner gone, than the civil broils broke out afresh between the new consuls, Cinna and Octavius, which Cicero calls the Octavian war"!. For Cinna, attempting to reverse all that Sylla had established, was driven out of the city by his col- league, with six of the tribunes, and deposed from the consulship. Upon this he gathered an army, and recalled Marius, who, having joined his forces with him, entered Rome in a hostile maimer, and, with the most horrible cruelty, put all SyUa's friends to the sword, vrithout regard to age, dignity, or former services. Among the rest fell the Consul Cn. Octavius, the two brothers L. Ceesar and C. Csesar, P. Crassus, and the orator, M. Antonius, whose head, as Cicero says, was fixed upon that rostra, where he had so strenuously defended the republic when consul, and preserved the heads of so many citizens ; lamenting, as it were ominously, the misery of that fate which happened afterwards to himself, from the grandson of this very Anto- • Appian. Bell. Mitbxidat., inlt. p. 171. 1> Id. Bell. Civ. L i. 383. ' Pro Plan. 10. This account, that Cicero gives more than once, of Marius's escape, maJies it probable, that the common story of the Gallic soldier, sent into the prison to kill him, was forged by some of the later writers, to make the relation more tragical and affecting. •i Do Dif. i. 2 i Philip, xiv. 8. nius. Q. Catulus also, though he had been Marius's colleague in the consulship and his victory over the Cimbri, was treated with the same cruelty; for when his friends were interceding for his hfe, Marius made them no other answer but, ** he must die, he must die ;" so that he was obhged to kill himself". Cicero saw this memorable entry of his country- man Marius, who, in that advanced age, was so far from being broken, he says, by his late calamity, that he seemed to be more alert and vigorous than ever ; when he heard him recounting to the people, in excuse for the cruelty of his return, the many miseries which he had lately suffered ; when he was driven from that country which he had saved from destruction ; when all his estate was seized and plundered by his enemies ; when he saw his young son also the partner of his distress ; when he was almost drowned in the marshes, and owed his life to the mercy of the Miatumensians ; when he was forced to fly into Africa in a small bark, and become a suppliant to those to whom he had given king- doms : but that since he had recovered his dignity, and all the rest that he had lost, it should be his care not to forfeit that virtue and courage which he had never lost'. Marius and Cinna having thus got the repubUc into their hands, declared them- selves consuls : but Marius died unexpectedly, as soon almost as he was inaugurated into his new dignity, on the 13th of January, in the 70th year of his age ; and, according to the most probable account, of a pleuritic fevers. His birth was obscure, though some call it eques- trian ; and his education wholly in camps, where he leamt the first rudiments of war under the greatest master of that age, the younger Scipio, who destroyed Carthage ; till by long service, dis- tinguished valour, and a peculiar hardiness and patience of discipline, he advanced himself gra- dually through all the steps of military honour, with the reputation of a brave and complete sol- dier. The obscurity of his extraction, which de- pressed him with the nobility, made him the greater favourite of the people, who, on all occasions of danger, thought him the only man fit to be trusted vrith their lives and fortunes, or to have the com- mand of a difficult and desperate war : and in truth, he twice delivered them from the most desperate with which they had ever been threatened by a foreign enemy. Scipio, from the observation of his mar- tial talents, while he had yet but an inferior com- mand in the army, gave a kind of prophetic testi- mony of his future glory : for being asked by some of his officers, who were supping with him at Nu- mantia, what general the republic would have, in case of any accident to himself j That man ! replied he, pointing to Marius, at the bottom of the table. In the field he was cautious and provident; and while he was watching the most favourable oppor- tunities of action, affected to take all his measures e Cum necessariis Catoli deprecantibusnon semel respon- dit, sed saepe, moriatnr. — Tusc. Disp. v. 19 ; DeOxat iii. 3. t Post Red. ad ftuir. 8. E Plutarch, in Mar. The celebrated orator L. Crassus died not long before of the same disease, which might probably be then, as I was told in Rome that it is now, the peculiar distemper of the place. The modem Romans caU it puntura, which seems to carry the same notion, that the old Romans expressed by percuctut frigore i intimatmg the sudden stroke of cold, upon a body un- usually heated. 8 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF from augurs and diviners ; nor ever gave battle, till, By pretended omens and divine admonitions, he had inspired his soldiers with a confidence of victory : so that his enemies dreaded him, as something more than mortal ; and both friends and foes believed him to act always by a peculiar impulse and direc- tion from the gods. His merit, however, was wholly military, void of every accomplishment of learning, ivhich he openly affected to despise ; so that Arpi- num had the singular felicity to produce the most glorious contemner, as well as the most illustrious improver, of the arts and eloquence of Rome. He made no figure, therefore, in the gown, nor had any other way of sustaining his authority in the city, than by cherishing the natural jealousy between the senate and the people ; that by his declared enmity to the one, he might always be at the head of the other, whose favour he managed, not with any view to the public good, for he had nothing in him of the statesman or the patriot, but to the advance- ment of his private interest and glory. In short, lie was crafty, cruel, covetous, perfidious ; of a temper and talents greatly serviceable abroad, but turbulent and dangerous at home ; an implacable enemy to the nobles, ever seeking occasions to mor- tify them, and ready to sacrifice the republic, which he had saved, to his ambition and revenge. After a life spent in the perpetual toils of foreign or do- mestic wars, he died at last in his bed, in a good old age, and in his seventh consulship ; an honour that no Roman before him ever attained ; which is urged by Cotta, the Academic, as one argument amongst others, against the existence of a Provi- dence **. The transactions of the forum were greatly inter- rupted by these civil dissensions ; in which some of the best orators were killed and others banished. Cicero however attended the harangues of the ma- gistrates, who possessed the rostra in their tm-ns : and being now about the age of twenty-one, drew Tip probably those rhetorical pieces which were published by him, as he tells us, when very young, and are supposed to be the same that still remain, on the subject of Invention ; but he condemned and retracted them afterwards in his advanced age, as unworthy of his maturer judgment, and the work only of a boy, attempting to digest into order the precepts, which he had brought away from school '. In the meanwhile, Philo, a philosopher of the first name in the academy, with many of the principal Athenians, fled to Rome from the fiiry of Mithri- dates, who had made himself master of Athens, and ^ Natus equestri loco. [Veil. Pat. ii. 11.] Be P. Africani discipulum ae militem. [pro Balb. 20 ; Val. Max. viii. 15.] Populus Romanus non alimu repellendis tantis hostibus magis idoneuin, quam Marium est ratus. [Veil. Pat. ik 12.] Bis Itaiiam obsidione et metu liberavit servitutis. [in Cat. iv. 10.] Omnes socii atque hostes credere, illLaut mentem divinam esse, aut deorum nutu cimcta portendi. [Sallust. Bell. Jug. 92.] Conspicuse felicitatis Arpinum, sive unicum literarum gloriosissimuni contemptorem, sive abundantissimum fontem iutueri velis. [Val. Max. ii. 2.] Quantum bellooptimustantum pace pessimus ; immodicus glorise insatiabilis, impotens, semperque inquietus. [Veil. Pat. ii. 11.] Cur oinniuni perfidiosiesimus, C. Marius, Q,. Catulura, prajstantissima dignitate virum, mori potuit jubere ? — cur tarn feliciter, .septimuni consul, domi suas senex est mortuus? [De Nat. Deor. iii. 32,] i Qua; pueria aut adolescentulis nobis, ex commen- tariolis nostris inchoata ac rudia cxciderunt, vix hac s^ate digna, ct boc usu, &c.— De Orat. 1.2; Quintil. I, iii. 6. all the neighbouring parts of Greece. Cioero im- mediately became his scholar, and was exceedingly taken with his philosophy ; and by the help of such a professor, gave himself up to that study with the greater inclination, as there was cause to apprehend that the laws and judicial proceedings, which he had designed for the ground of his fame and fortunes, would be wholly overturned by the continuance of the public disorders ''. But Cinna's party having quelled all opposition at home, while SyUa was engaged abroad in the Mithridatic war, there was a cessation of arms within the city for about three years, so that the course of public business began to flow again in its usual channel ; and Molo the Rhodian, one of the principal orators of that age, and the most cele- brated teacher of eloquence, happening to come to Rome at the same time, Cicero presently took the benefit of his lectures, and resumed his oratorical studies with his former ardour '. But the greatest spur to his industry was the fame and splendour of Hortensius, who made the first figure at the bar, and whose praises fired him with such an ambition of acquiring the same glory, that he scarcely allowed himself any rest from his studies either day or night. He had in the house with him Diodotus the Stoic, as his preceptor in various parts of learning, but more particularly in logic, which Zeno, as he tells us, used to call a close and contracted eloquence, as he called eloquence an enlarged and dilated logic; comparing the one to the fist or hand doubled ; the other, to the palm opened ". Yet with all his atten- tion to logic, he never sufi'ered a day to pass with- out some exercise in oratory, chiefly that of de- claiming, which he generally performed with his fellow students, M. Piso and Q. Pompeius, two young noblemen a little older than himself, with whom he had contracted an intimate friendship. They declaimed sometimes in Latin, but much oftener in Greek ; because the Greek furnished a greater variety of elegant expressions, and an opportunity of imitating and introducing them into the Latin ; and because the Greek masters, who were far the best, could not correct and improve them, unless they declaimed in that language". In this interval Syllawas performing great exploits against Mithiidates, whom he had driven out of Greece and Asia, and confined once more to his own territory; yet at Rome, where Cinna was master, he was declared a public enemy, and his estate confiscated. This insult upon his honour and fortunes made him very desirous to be at home again, in order to take his revenge upon his adver- saries : so that after all his success ia the war, he was glad to put an end to it by an honourable peace ; the chief article of which was, that Mithri- dates should defray the whole expense of it, and content himself for the future with his hereditary kmgdom. On his return, he brought away with ^ Eodem tempore, cum princeps acodemis Philo, cum Athenicnsiiun optimatibns, Mithridatico hello domo pro- fugisset, Romamque venisset, totum ei me tradidi, Sic- Brut. 430. 1 Eodem anno Moloni dedimus operam.— Ibid. " Zenoquidemille, aquodisciplinaStoioorumestmanu demonstrare solebat, quid inter has artes interesset. Nam cum compresserat digltos, pugnumque f eoerat, dialecticam aiebat ^usmodl esse ; cum autem diduxerat, et manum dilataverat, palma illius similem eloqueotiam esse dicebaU —Orator. 2S3. edit. Lamt, " Brut. pp. 3i7, 43a MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. him from Athens the famous library of Apellicon, the Teian, in which were the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, that were hardly known before in Italy, or to be found indeed entire anywhere else". He wrote a letter at the same time to the senate, setting forth his great services, and the ingratitude with which he had been treated ; and acquainting them, that he was coming to do justice to the re- public and to himself upon, the authors of those violences. This raised great terrors in the city, which, having lately felt the horrible effects of Marius's entry,- expected to see the same tragedy acted over again by Sylla. But while his enemies were busy in gathering forces to oppose him, Cinna, the chief of them, was killed in a mutiny of his own soldiers. Upon this Sylla hastened his march, to take the benefit of that disturbance, and landed at Brundisinm with about thirty thousand men. Hither many of the nobility presently resorted to him, and among them young Pompey, about twenty-three years old, who, without any public character or commission, brought along vrith him three legions which he had raised by Ms own credit out of the veterans who had served under his father. He was kindly received by Sylla, to whom he did great service in the progress of the war, and was ever after much favoured and employed by himi'. Sylla now carried all before him : he defeated one of the consuls, Norbanus, and by the pretence of a treaty vrith the other consul, Scipio, found means to corrupt his army, and draw it over to himself : he gave Scipio however his life, who went into a voluntary exile at Marseilles'. The new consuls chosen, in the mean time, at Rome were Cn. Papirus Carbo and young Marius ; the first of whom, after several defeats, was driven out of Italy, and the second besieged in Prseneste ; where being reduced to extremity, and despairing of relief, he wrote to Damasippus, then prsetor of the city, to call a meeting of the senators, as if upon business of importance, and put the principal of them to the sword. In this massacre many of the nobles perished, and old Scsevola, the high- priest, the pattern of ancient temperance and pru- dence, as Cicero calls him, was slain before the altar of Vesta* : after which sacrifice of noble blood to the manes of his father, young Marius put an end to his own life. Pompey at the same time pursued Carbo into Sicily; and having taken him at Lilybeum, sent his head to Sylla, though he begged his life in an abject manner at his feet : this drew some reproach upon Pompey, for killing a man to whom he had been highly obliged on an occasion where his father's honour and his own fortunes were attacked. But this is the constant effect of factions in states, to make men prefer the interests of a party, to all the considerations either of private or public duty ; and it is not strange, that Pompey, young and ambitious, should pay more regard to the power of Sylla, than to a scruple of honour or » Plut. Life of Sylla. P Appian. Bell. Civ. 1. 1. 397. 399. •I Sylla cum Scipione inter Cales et Teanum— leges inter so et eonditiones contulerunt ; non tenuit onmino collo- quium illud fidem, a vi tamen ct periculo abfuit.— Philip. xiLll. ' Pro Bextio, 3. ■ De Nat. Deor, iii. as. gratitude'. Cicero, however, says of this Carbo, that there never was a worse citizen, or more wicked man'' : which will go a great way towards excusing Pompey's act. Sylla having subdued all who were in arms against him, was now at leisure to take* his full revenge on their friends and adherents j in which, by the detestable method of a proscription, of which he was the first author and inventor, he exer- cised a more infamous cruelty than had ever been practised in cold blood in that, or perhaps in any other city". The proscription was not confined to Rome, but carried through all the towns of Italy i where, besides the crime of party, which was pardoned to none, it was fatal to be possessed of money, lands, or a pleasant seat ; all manner of licence being indulged to an insolent army, of carving for themselves what fortunes they pleased^. In this general destruction of the Marian faction, J, Cffisar, then about seventeen years old, had much difficulty to escape vrith his life : he was nearly allied to old Marius, and had married Cin- na's daughter ; whom he could not be induced to put away, by all the threats of Sylla, who, con- sidering him for that reason as irreconcileable to his interests, deprived him of his wife's fortune and the priesthood, which he had obtained. Csesar therefore, apprehending still somewhat worse, thought it prudent to retire and conceal liimself in the country, where, being discovered accidentally by Sylla's soldiers, he was forced to redeem his head by a very large sum : but the intercession of the vestal virgins, and the authority of his powerful relations, extorted a grant of his life very unwiUingly from Sylla, who bade them take notice, that he, for whose safety they were so solicitous, would one day be the ruin of that aristocracy, which he was then establishing with so much pains, for that he saw many Mariuses in one C8esar^ The event confii-med Sylla's prediction ; for by the experience of these times, young Csesar was in- structed both how to form and to execute that scheme, which was the grand purpose of his whole life, of oppressing the liberty of his country. t Sed notis tacentibus Cn. Carbonis, a quo admodum adolGBcens de paternia bonis in foro dimicans protectus es, juBBu tuo interempti mora animis hominum obver- aabitur, non Bine allqua reprehensione : quia tam ingrato facto, plus L. Syllae viribus, quam propria indulsisti vere- cundiie Val. Max. v. 3. ^ Hoc vero, qui Lilybei a Pompeio nostro eat interfec- tns, improbior nemo, meo judicio, fuit. — Ep. Fam. ix. 21. X Primus iUe, et utinam ultimus, exemplum proscrip- tionisinvcnit, &c.— Veil. Pat. ii. 28. N.B.— The manner of proscribing was, to write down the namea of those who were doomed to die, and expose them on tables fixed up in the public places of the city, with the promise of a certain reward for the head of each person so proscribed. So that though Marius and Cinna massacred their enemies with the same cruelty in cold blood, yet they did not do it in the way of proscription, nor with the offer of a reward to the murderers. y Namque uti quisque domum aut vlllam, postremo aut vas aut veatimentum alioujus concupiverat, dabat operam, ut is in prOBcriptornm numero essot.— Neque prius fims jugulandi fuit, quam Sylla omnea sues divitiis explevit.- Sallust. Bell. Cat. c. 51 ; Plutar. in Syll. X Soirent eum, quem inoolumem tanto opere oupercnt, quandoqiie optimatium partlbns, quas secuni simul de- fendiBsent, exitio futurum; nam Caeaari multos Marios inesse. [Sueton. J. Cica. c. 1 ; Plutar. in Cks.] Cmnsgener, cnjusfiliam ut repndiai-et, nullo modocompclli potuit— Veil. Pat. ii. 42. 10 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF As soon as the proscriptions were over, and the scene grown a little calm, L. Flaccus, being chosen interrex, declared Sylla dictator for settling the state of the republic without any limitation of time, and ratified whatever he had done, or should do, by a special kw, that empowered him to put any citizen to death without hearing or trial". This office of dictator, which in early times had oft been of singular service to the republic in cases of diffi- culty and distress, was now grown odious and sus- pected, in the present state of its wealth and power, as dangerous to the public liberty, and for that reason had been wholly disused and laid aside for one hundred and twenty years past' : so that Flaccus's law was the pure effect of force and terror ; and though pretended to be made by the people, was utterly detested by them. Sylla, how- ever, being invested by it with absolute authority, made many useful regulations for the better order of the government ; and by the plenitude of his power changed in a great measure the whole consti- tution of it, from a democratical to an aristocratical form, by advancing the prerogative of the senate, and depressing that of the people. He took from the equestrian order the judgment of all causes, which they had enjoyed from the time of the Gracchi, and restored it to the senate; deprived the people of the right of choosing the priests, and replaced it in the colleges of priests : but above all, he abridged the immoderate power of the tri- bunes, which had been the chief source of all their civil dissensions ; for he made them incapable of any other magistracy after the tribunate ; restrained the liberty of appealing to them ; took from them their capital privilege, of proposing laws to the people ; and left them nothing but their negative ; or, as Cicero says, the power only of helping, not of hurting, any one'^. But that he might not be suspected of aiming at a perpetual tyranny, and a total subversion of the republic, he suffered the consuls to be chosen in the regular manner, and to govern, as usual, in all the ordinary affairs of the city ; whilst he employed himself particularly in reforming the disorders of the state, by putting his new laws in execution ; and in distributing the confiscated lands of the adverse party among his legions : so that the republic seemed to be once more settled on a legal basis, and the laws and judicial proceedings began to flourish in the forum. About the same time Molo the Rhodian came again to Rome, to solicit the payment of what was due to his country, for their services in the Mithridatic war ; which gave Cicero an opportunity of putting himself a second time under his direction, and perfecting his oratorical talents by the farther instructions of so renowned a master '^ : whose abilities and character were so highly reverenced, that he was the first of all foreigners, who was ever allowed to speak to the senate in Greek without an interpreter'. Which shows in what vogue the Greek learning, and especially eloquence, flourished at this time in Rome. " De Leg. Agrar, con. Hull. Ui. 2. b Cujus "honoris usurpatio per annos cxx in+orraiasa^ut Jippareat populum Romanum usuiu dictatoris non tarn desiderasse, quam timuisae potestatem imperii, quo priores ad vinAtcandam maximis periculis rompubiicam usi fuerant.— Veil. Pat. ii. 28. ' Ve Legil). iil. 10 ; It. vid. PigJi. Amml, ad A. 0rb. cm. d Brut, p. 434. Cicero had now run through all that course of discipline, which he lays down as necessary to form the complete orator : for, in his treatise on that subject, he gives us his own sentiments in the per- son of Crassns, on the institution requisite to that character ; declaring, that no man ought to pretend to it, without being previously acquainted with everything worth knowing in art or nature ; that this is implied in the very name of an orator, whose profession it is to speak upon every subject which can be proposed to him ; and whose eloquence, without the knowledge of what he speaks, w.ould be the prattle only and impertinence of children'. He had learned the nidiments of gi-ammar and lan- guages from the ablest teachers ; gone through the studies of humanity and the politer letters with the poet Archias ; been instructed in philosophy by the principal professors of each sect ; Fheedms the Epi- curean, Philo the Academic, Diodotus the Stoic : acquired a perfect knowledge of the law, from the greatest lawyers, as well as the greatest statesmen of Rome, the two Scsevolas : all which accomplish- ments were but ministerial and subservient to that, on which his hopes and ambition were singly placed, the reputation of an orator. To qualify himselt therefore, particularly for this, he attended the pleadings of all the speakers of his time ; heard the daily lectures of the most eminent oratons of Greece, and wjis perpetually composing somewhat at home, and declaiming under their correction : and that he might neglect nothing, which could help in any degree to improve and polish his style, he spent the intervals of his leisure in the company of the ladies ; especially of those who were re- markable for a politeness of language, and whose fathers had been distinguished by a fame and repu- tation of their eloquence. While he studied the law, therefore, under Scievola the augur, he fre- quently conversed with his wife Lcelia, whose discourse, he says, was tinctured with all the elegance of her father Ltelius, the politest speaker of his agefT: he was acquainted likewise with her daughter Mucia, who married the great orator L. Crassus ; and with her grand-daughters, the two Licinise; one of them, the wife of L. Scipio; the other, of young Marius ; who all excelled in that delicacy of the Latin tongue, which was peculiar to their families, and valued themselves on pre- serving and propagating it to their posterity. Thus adorned and accomplished, he offered him- self to the bar about the-age of twenty-six ; not as others generally did, raw and ignorant of their business, and wanting to be formed to it by use and experience'; but finished and qualified at once to sustain any cause which should be committed to him. It has been controverted both by the ancients and moderns, what was the first cause in which he was engaged : some give it for that of P. Quinctlus ; others, for S. Roscius : but neither of them are in the right ; for in his oration for " Eum auto omnes oxterarum gentium in Bonatu glno interprete auditum constat.— Val. Max. ii. 2. f Ac mea quidem sententia, nemo poterit esse omni laude cumulatus orator, nisi erit omnium rerum magna- rum atque artium soientiam conacoutus,— Do Orat. i 6. ii.2. B Logimus epistolas Cornelia;, matria Gracchorum— auditus est nobis Lajliffi, Caii iiliic, sspe sermo : ergo iUam patris ologantia tinotam vidimus ; et flliaa cgus Muela« ambas, quarum sermo mihi fuit notua, &o.— Brut 319 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 11 Quinctius he expressly declares, that he had pleaded other causes before it; and in that for Roscius, says only, that it was the first public or criminal cause, in which he was concerned : and it is rea- sonable to imagine, that he had tried his strength, and acquired some credit in private causes, before he would venture upon a public one of that im- portance ; agreeably to the advice, which Quinc- tiliau gives to his young pleaders', whose rules are generally drawn from the practice and example of Cicero. The cause of P. Quinctius was, to defend him from an action of bankruptcy, brought against him by a creditor who, on pretence of his having for- feited his recognizance, and withdrawn himself from justice, had obtained a decree to seize his estate, and expose it to sale. The creditor was one of the public criers who attended the magistrates, and, by his interest among them, was likely to oppress Quinctius, and had already gained an advantage against him by the authority of Hortensius, who was his advocate. Cicero entered into the cause, at the earnest desire of the famed comedian, Roscius, whose sister was Quinctius's wife'' : he endeavoured at first to excuse himself; alleging, that he should not be able to speak a word against Hortensius, any more than the other players could act with any spirit before Roscius ; but Roscius , would take no excuse, having formed such a judg- ment of him as to think no man so capable of supporting a desperate cause, against a crafty and powerful adversary. After he had given a specimen of himself to the city in this, and several other private causes, he undertook the celebrated defence of S. Roscius of Ameria, in his 27th year; the same age, as the learned have observed, in which Demosthenes first began to distinguish himself in Athens ; as if in these geniuses of the first magnitude that was the proper season of blooming towards maturity. The case of Roscius was this : — His father was killed in the late proscription of Sylla ; and his estate, worth about 60,000Z. sterling, was sold among the con- fiscated estates of the proscribed, for a trifling sum to L. Cornelius Chrysogonus, a young favourite slave whom Sylla had made free, who, to secure his possession of it, accused the son of the murder of his father, and had provided evidence to convict him ; so that the young man was likely to be de- prived, not only of his fortune, but, by a more villanous cruelty, of his honour also and his life. All the old advocates refused to defend him, fearing the power of the prosecutor, and the resentment of Sylla' ; since Roscius's defence would necessarily lead them into many complaints on the times, and the oppressions of the great : but Cicero readily undertook it, as a glorious opportunity of enlisting himself into the service of his country, and giving a public testimony of his principles and zeal for that liberty, to which he had devoted the labours of Ms life. Roscius was acquitted, to the great honour of Cicero ; whose courage and address in defending him was applauded by the whole city ; so >> Brut. 433. ' duintil. xii. 6. '' Pro Quinct 24. * Ita loqui homines ;— huic patronoB propter Cbrysogoni gratiam defuturos, — ipso nomine parricidii et atrocitate criminiB fore, ut hie nullo negotio tolleretur, com a nullo defensus sit.— Patronos huio defuturos putaverunt j desunt. Qui libere dicat, qui cum tide defendat, non deeai profecto, Judices. — Fro Roscio Amer. 10, 11. that from this moment he was looked upon as an advocate of the first class, and equal to the greatest causes'". Having occasion, in the course of his pleading, to mention that remarkable punishment which their ancestors had contrived for the murder of a parent, of sowing the criminal alive into a sack, and throwing him into the river, he says, that the meaning of it was, to strike him at once as it were out of the system of nature, by taking from him the air, the sun, the water, and the earth ; that he, who had destroyed the author of his being, should lose the benefit of those elements, whence all things derive their being. They would not throw him to the beasts, lest the contagion of such wickedness should make the beasts themselves more furious : they would not commit him naked to the stream, lest he should pollute the very sea, which was the purifier of all other pollutions ; they left him no share of anything natural, how vile or common soever ; for what is so common as breath to the living, earth to the dead, the sea to those who float, the shore to those who are cast up ? Yet these wretches live so, as long as they can, as not to draw breath from the air ; die so as not to touch the ground ; are so tossed by the waves as not to be washed by them ; so cast out upon the shore as to find no rest even on the rocks ". This passage was received with acclamations of applause ; yet, speaking of it afterwards himself, he calls it the redundancy of a juvenile fancy, which wanted the correction of his sounder judgment ; and, like all the compositions of young men, was not applauded so much for its own sake, as for the hopes which it gave of his more improved and ripened talents ". The popularity of his cause, and the favour of the audience, gave him such spirits, that he exposed the insolence and villany of the favourite Chryso- gonus with great gaiety ; and ventured even to mingle several bold strokes at Sylla himself ; which he took care, however, to palliate, by observing that, through the multiplicity of Sylla's aflairs, who reigned as absolute on earth as Jupiter did in heaven, it was not possible for him to know, and necessary even to connive at, many things which his favourites did against his willP. He would not complain, he says, in times Uke those, that an innocent man's estate was exposed to public sale ; for were it allowed to him to speak freely on that head, Roscius was not a person of such consequence that he should make a particular complaint on his account ; but he must insist upon it, that by the law of the proscription itself, whether it was Flac- cus's the interrex, or Sylla's the dictator, for he knew not which to call it, Roscius's estate was not forfeited, nor liable to be soldi. In the conclusion, he puts the judges in mind, that nothing was so much aimed at by the prosecutors in this trial, as, by the condemnation of Roscius, to gain a prece- dent for destroying the children of the proscribed : he conjures them, therefore, by all the gods, not to be the authors of reviving a second proscription, more barbarous and cruel than the first ; that the senate refused to bear any part in the first, lest it should be thought to be authorised by the pubUo "• Prima causa puhlica, pro S. Boscio dicta, tantuid com- mcndationis habuit, ut non ulla esset, qoK non nostro digna patrocinio videretur. Deinceps inde multK.— Brut. 434. " Pro Koao. 26. o Orat 258. ed. Lamh. p Fro Base. 45. 4 Ibid. 43. 12 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF council ; that it was their business by this sen- tence to put a stop to that spirit of cruelty, which then possessed the city, so pernicious to the re- public, and so contrary to the temper and character of their ancestors. As by this defence he acquired a great reputation in his youth, so he reflects upon it with pleasure in old age, and recommends it to his son, as the surest way to true glory and authority in his coun- try, to defend the innocent in distress, especially when they happen to be oppressed by the power of the great ; as I have often done, says he, in other causes, but particularly in that of Roscius, against Sylla himself in the height of his power'. A noble lesson to all advocates, to apply their talents to the protection of innocence and injured virtue ; and to make justice, not profit, the rule and end of their labours. Plutarch says, that presently after this trial Cicero took occasion to travel abroad, on pretence of his health, but in reality to avoid the effects of Sylla' s displeasure ; but there seems to be no ground for this notion ; for Sylla's revenge was now satiated, and'his mind wholly bent on restoring the public tranquillity ; and it is evident, that Cicero continued a year after this in Rome without any apprehension of danger, engaged, as before, in the same task of pleading causes " ; and in one espe- cially, more obnoxious to Sylla's resentment, even than that of Roscius : for in the case of a woman of Arretium, he defended the right of certain towns of Italy to the freedom of Rome, though Sylla himself had deprived them of it by an express law; maintaining it to be one of those natural rights, which no law or power on earth could take from them : in which also he carried his point, in oppo- sition to Gotta, an orator of the first character and abilities, who pleaded against him'. But we have a clear account from himself of the real motive of his journey : my body, says he, at this time was exceedingly weak and emaciated ; my neck long and small; which is a habit thought liable to great risk of life, if engaged in any fatigue or labour of the lungs ; and it gave the greater alarm to those who had a regard for me, that I used to speak without any remission or variation, with the utmost stretch of my voice, and great agitation of my body ; when my friends, therefore, and physicians, advised me to meddle no more with causes, I resolved to run any hazard, rather than quit the hopes of glory which I proposed to myself from pleading: but'when I considered, that by managing my voice, and changing my way of speaking, I might both avoid all danger, and speak with more ease, I took a resolution of travelling into Asia, merely for an opportunity of correcting my manner of speaking : so that after I had been r Ut nos et saepe alias et adolesceutes, contra L. SuIIje dominaatis opes pro S. Hoscio Amerino fecimus : qua:, ut scis, extat oratio. — De Offic. ii. 14. s Prima causa publica pro S. Roseio dicta — deinceps inde multae — itaque cum essem biennixmi versatua in cau- sis.— Brut. pp. 434, 437. t Populua Romanus, L. Sulla dictatore ferente, comitiis centuriatig, mmiicipiis civitatem ademit ; ademit iifidcm agi'os: de agris ratum est : fuit enim populi potcstas : de civitate ne. tamdiu quidem valuit, quamdiu ilia Siillami tomporis arma valuerunt. — Atque ego hauc adolescentulus rausam cum agcrem, contra hpminem disertissimum, contvadicente Ootta, et sulia vivo, Judicatum esU — Pro Dam. ad Fontif. 33 ' pro C««ina, 33. two years at the bar, and acquired a rejiutation in the forum. I left Rome, &c.'' He was twenty-eight years old, when he set for- ward upon his travels to Greece and Asia — the fashionable tour of aU those, who travelled either for curiosity or improvement : his first visit was to Athens, the capital seat of arts and sciences, where some writers teE us that he spent three years', though in truth it was but six months. He took up his quarters with Antiochus, the principal philoso- pher of the old Academy ; and under this excell^t master renewed, he says, those studies which he had been fond of from liis earliest youth. Here he met with his school-fellow T. Pomponius, who, from his love to Athens, and his spending a great part of his days in it, obtained the surname of Atticus?; and here they revived and confirmed that memorable friendship which subsisted between them through life with so celebrated a constancy and affection. Atticus, being an Epicurean, was often drawing Cicero from his host Antiochus to the conversation of Fhsdrus and old Zeno, the chief professors of that sect, in hopes of making him a convert ; on which subject they used to have many disputes between themselves : but Cicero's view in these visits was but to convince himself more effectually of the weakness of that doctrine, by observing how easily it might be confuted, when explained even by the ablest teachers^. Yet he did not give himself up so entirely to philosophy as to neglect his rhetorical exercises, which he per- formed still every day very diligently with Deme- trius the Syrian, an experienced master of the art of £p caking*. It was in this first journey to Athens, that he was initiated most probably info the Eleusinian myste- ries : for, though we have no account of the time, yet we cannot fix it better than in a voyage under- taken both for the improvement of his mind and body. The reverence with which he always speaks of these mysteries, and the hints that he has dropped of their end and use, seem to confirm what a very learned and ingenious writer has delivered of them, that they were contrived to inculcate the unity of God, and the immortality of the soul''. As for the first, after observing to Atticus, who was one also of the initiated, how the gods of the popular reli- gions were all but deceased mortals advanced from earth to heaven, he bids him remember the doctrine of the mysteries, in order to recollect the univer- sality of that truth : and as to the second, he declares his initiation to be in fact, what the name itself implied, a real beginning of life to him ; as it taught the way, not only of living with greater pleasure, but of dying also with a better hope". » Brut. 437. ^ Busebii (Jhron. y Pomponius— ita enim se Athenia coUocavit, ut sit psene unus ex Atticis et id etiam cognomine videatur habiturua. — De Fin. v. 2. « De Fin. i. 5 ; De Nat. Deor. i. 21. B Eodem tamen tempore apud Demetrium Syrum, veterem et non ignobilem dicendi magiatrum studiose cxerceri solebam.— Brut. 437. b See Mr. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, vol. i. c Ipsi, illi, majorum gentium dii qui habentur, hinc a nobis in cffilum profecti reperientur — reminiscere, quoniam csinitiatus, qua; traduntur mysteriia ; turn denique quam hoc late pateat intelliges.— Tusc. Clu!£st. i. 13. Initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera principia vitffi oog- novimua : neque solum cum la^titia vivendi rationem ac- oepimua.sedetiamcumspemeliorcmoriendi.-DeLeg. ii. 14. N. B. These mysteries Avere celebrated at stated Beasous MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 18 From Athens he passed into Asia, where he gathered about him all the principal orators of the country, who kept him company through the rest of his voyage ; and with whom lie constantly exer- cised himself in every place, where he made any stay. The chief of them, says he, was Menippus of Stratonica, the most eloquent of all the Asiatics ; and if to be neither tedious nor impertinent be the characteristic of an Attic orator, he may justly he ranked in that class. Dionysius also of Magnesia, .Sschylua of Cnidos, and Zenooles of Adramyttus, were continually with me, who were reckoned the first rhetoricians of Asia. Nor yet content with these, I went to Khodes, and applied myself again to Molo, whom I had heard before at Rome ; who was both an experienced pleader, and a fine writer, and particularly expert in observing the faults of his scholars, as well as in his method of teaching and improving them : his greatest trouble with me was, to restrain the exuberance of a juvenile imagina- tion, always ready to overflow its banks, within its due and proper channel^. But as at Athens, where he employed himself chiefly in philosophy, he did not intermit his orato- rical studies, so at Rhodes, where his chief study was oratory, he gave some share also of his time to philosophy, with Posidonius, the most esteemed and learned Stoic of that age, whom he often speaks of with honour, not only as his master, but as his friend °. It was his constant care, that the progress of the year, with solemn shows and a great pomp of machi- nery, which drew a mighty concourse to them from all countries. L. Crassus, the great orator, happened to come two days after they were over, and would gladly have per- suaded the magistrates to renew them ; hut not heing able to prevail, left the city in disgust ^ : which shows iKiw cautious they were of making them too cheap, when they refused the sight of them out of the proper season, to one of the first senators of Rome. The shows are supposed to have exhibited a representation of Heaven, Hell, Elysium, Purgatory, and all that related to the future state of the dead ; heing contrived to inculcate more sensibly, and ex- emplify the doctrines delivered to the initiated : and as they were a proper subject for poetry, so they are frequent- ly alluded to by the ancient Poets. Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, begs of him, at the request of Chilius, an eminent poet of that age, to send them a relation of the Eleusinian rites, which were designed probably for an episode or embellishment to some of Chilius's works 2. This confirms also the probability of that ingenious com- ment, which the same excellent writer has given on the sixth book of the jEneid, where Virgil, as he observes, in describing the descent into hell, is but tracing out in their genuine order the several scenes of the Eleusinian shows s^ il Brut. 437. He mentions a story of this Posidonius, which Pompey often used to tell ; that after the Mithridatic war, as he was returning from Syria towards Borne, he called at Rhodes, on purpose to hear him ; hut heing informed, on hie arrival there, that he waSextremely ill of the gout, he - had a mind however to see him ; and in his visit, when, after the first compliments, he began to express his concern for finding him so ill, that he could not have the pleasure to hear him : But you can hear me, replied Posidonius ; nor shall it be said, that on the account of any bodily pain, I suffered so great a man to come to me in vain ; upon which he entered presently into an argument, as he lay ^ Diutius essem moratus, nisi Atheniensibus, quod mysteria non ref errent, adqua: biduo serins veneram, suc- censuissera. — ^De Orat. iii. 20. 2 Chilius te rogat, et ego ejus rogatu 'Eu^oATrtSw;' varpid Ad Att. i. 5. 3 See Divine Legation of Moses, p. lfJ2. of his knowledge should keep pace with the improve- ment of his eloquence ; he considered the one as the foundation of the other, and thought it in vain to acquire ornaments, before he had provided neces- sary furniture. He declaimed here in Greek, because Molo did not understand Latin ; and upon ending his declamation, while the rest of the company were lavish of their praises, Molo, instead of paying any compliment, sat silent a considerable time, till observ- ing Cicero somewhat disturbed at it, he said, " Aa for you, Cicero, I praise and admire you; but pity the fortune of Greece, to see arts and eloquence, the only ornaments which were left to her, transplanted by you to Rome'. Having thus finished the circuit of his travels, he came back again to Italy, after an excursion of two years, extremely improved, and changed as it were into a new man : the vehe- mence of his voice and action was moderated ; the redundancy of his style and fancy corrected ; his lungs strengthened, and his whole constitution confirmed^. This voyage of Cicero seems to be the only scheme and pattern of travelling from which any real benefit is to be expected : he did not stir abroad till he had completed his education at home ; for nothing can be more pernicious to a nation, than the necessity of a foreign one ; and after he had acquired in his own country whatever was proper to form a worthy citizen and magistrate of Rome, he went, confirmed by a maturity of age and reason against the impressions of vice, not so much to learn, as to polish what he had learned, by visiting those places, where arts and sciences fiourished in their greatest perfection. In a tour, the most delightful of the world, he saw everything that could entertain a curious traveller, yet stayed no- where any longer than his benefit, not his pleasure, detained him. By his previous knowledge of the laws of Rome, he was able to compare them with those of other cities, and to bring back with him whatever he found useful, either to his country or to himself. He was lodged, wherever he came, in the houses of the great and the eminent ; not so much for their birth and wealth, as for their virtue, knowledge, and learning; men honoured and reve- renced in their several cities, as the principal patriots, orators and philosophers of the age. These he made the constant companions of his tra- vels, that he might not lose the opportunity, even on the road, of profiting by their advice and expe- rience ; and, from such a voyage, it is no wonder that he brought back every accomplishment which could improve and adorn a man of sense. Pompey returned about this time victorious from Africa, where he had greatly enlarged the bounds upon his bed, and maintained with great eloquence, that nothing was really good, but what was honest ; and being all the while in exquisite torture, he often cried out, O pain, thou Shalt never gain thy point; for be as vexatious as thou wilt, I will never own thee to be an evil. This was the perfection of Stoical heroism, to defy sense and nature to the last : while another poor Stoic, Dionysius, a scholar of Zeno, the founder of the sect, Avhen by the torture of the stone, he was forced to confess, that what his master had taught him was false, and that he felt pain to be an evil, is treated by all their ^vi-iters, as a poltroon and base deserter. "Which shows, that all their boasted fimmess was owing rather to a false notion of honour andreputation, than to any real principle, or conviction of reason. — Nat. Deor. ii. 24 ; De Finib. v. 31. f Plutar. Life of Cic. e Brut. 438. 14 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of the empire, by the conquest and addition of many new countries to the Roman dominion. He was received with great marks of respect by the dictator Sylla, who went out to meet him at the head of the nobiUty, and saluted him by the title of Magnus, or the Great, which from that autho- rity was ever after given to him by all people. But his demand of a triumph disgusted both Sylla and the senate, who thought it too ambitious in one who had passed through none of the public offices, nor was of age to be a senator, to aspire to an honour which had never been granted, except to consuls or praetors: but Pompey, insisting on his demand, extorted Sylla's consent, and was the first whose triumphal car is said to have been drawn by elephants, and the only one of the eques- trian order who had ever triumphed ; which gave an unusual joy to the people, to see a man of their own body obtain so signal an honour ; and much more, to see him descend again from it to his old rank and private condition among the knights'". While Pompey, by his exploits in war, had ac- quired the surname of the Great, J- Csesar, about six years younger, was giving proofs likewise of his military genius, and serving as a volunteer at the siege of Mitylene ; a splendid and flourishing city of Lesbos, which had assisted Mithridates in the late war, and perfidiously delivered up to him M. Aquilias, a person of consular dignity, who had been sent ambassador to that king, and after the defeat of the Roman army had taken refuge in Mitylene, as in a place of the greatest security. Mithridates is said to have treated him with the last indignity ; carrying him about in triumph, mounted upon an ass, and forcing him to proclaim everywhere aloud, that he was Aquilius, who had been the chief cause of the war. But the town now paid dear for that treachery, being taken by storm, and almost demolished by Q. Thermus ;, though Pompey restored it afterwards to its former beauty and liberty, at the request of his favourite freedman, Theophanes. In this siege Ciesar ob- tained the honour of a civic crown ; which, though made only of oaken leaves, was esteemed the most reputable badge of martial virtue ; and never be- stowed, but for saving the life of a citizen, and killing at the same time an enemy". Sylla died while Cicero was at Athens, after he had laid down his dictatorship ' and restored liberty to the republic, and, with an uncommon greatness of mind, lived many months as a private senator and with perfect security in that city where he had exercised the most bloodj tyranny : but nothing was thought to be greater in his cha- racter, than that during the three years, in which 1" Bellum in Africa maximum confecit, victorem exerci- turn deportavit. Quid vero tam inauditum, quam equltem Romanum triumpliai-e ? [Pro Lege Man. 21,] Africa vero tota subacta— Magnique nomine," spolio inde capto, eques Ronianus, id quod antea nemo, curm triumphali invec- tus est. [Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 26.] Roma; priimun juncti elepliantes subiere currum Pompeii Magni Africano tri- umpho. rib. viii. 2; Plutar. in Pomp.] ^ Quid Mitylenffi ? qua; certe vcstrge, Quiritee, belli lege, et victoriae jure fact® sunt : urbs ot natura et situ, et de- seriptione EBdiliciorum et pulchritudine, imprimis nobilis. [De Leg. Agrar. ii. 16.] A Thenno in expiignatione Mi- tylenarum corona civica donatus est. [Suet. J, Ca?s. 2.] Jlinc civica; coronEe.militumvirtutisinsigneclarissimum. [.Plin. Hist. Nat. xvi. 4 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 18 ; Appian. Bell. Mithrid. p. 184 ; Val, Max, ix. 13.] the Marians were masters of Italy, he neither dis- sembled his resolution of pursuing them by arms, nor neglected the war which he had upon his hands ; but thought it his duty, first to chastise a foreign enemy, before he took his revenge upon citizens''. His family was noble and patrician, Which yet, through the indolency of his ancestors, had made no figure in the republic for many gene- rations, and was almost sunk into obscurity, till he produced it again into light, by aspiring to the honours of the stiite. He was a lover and patron of polite letters, having been carefully instituted himself in all the learning of Greece and Rome ; but from a peculiar gaiety of temper, and fondness for the company of mimics and players, was drawn, when young, into a life of luxury and plea- sure ; so that when he was sent qusestor to Marius in the Jugurthine war, Marius complained, that in so rough and desperate a service, chance had given him bo soft and delicate a qusestor. But whether roused by the example, or stung by the reproach, of his general, he behaved himself in that charge with the greatest vigour and courage, suf- fering no man to outdo bite in any part of military duty or labour, making himself equal and familiar even to the lowest of the soldiers, and obliging them all by his good offices and his money ; so that he soon acquired the favour of the army, vrith the character of a brave and skilfiil commander ; and lived to drive Marius himself, banished and proscribed, into that very province where he had been contemned by him at first as his qusestor'. He had a wonderful faculty of conc^ealing his passions and purposes, and was so different from himself in different circumstances, that he seemed as it were to be two men in one : no man was ever more mild and moderate before victo^; none more bloody and cruel after if". In war ne prac- tised the same art, that he had seen so successM to Marius, of raising a kind of enthusiasm and contempt of danger in his army, by the forgery of auspices and divine admonitions : for which end he carried always about with him a little statue of Apollo taken from the temple of Delphi ; and whenever he had resolved to give battle, used to embrace it in sight of the soldiers, and beg the speedy confirmation of its promises to him"". From an uninterrupted course of success •^ Vix quidquam in Syllffi operibus clarius duxerim, quam quod, cum per triennlum Cinnanffi Marianaequo partes Italiam obsiderent, ncque illaturum se bellum eia dissimulavit, nee quod ei-at in manibus omisit ; existima- vitque ante frangendum hostem, quam ulciscendnm civem. — Veil. Pat, ii. 24. 1 Geutis Patricia nobilis fuit ; familia prope jam ex- stincta majormn ignavia : Uteris Grascis atque Latinis juxta atque doctissime eruditus.— [Sallust. Bell. Jug. 95.] Usque ad quffisturse sue comitia, vitam libidinc, vino, ludicr% artis amore inquinatam perduxit. Quapropter C. Marium consulem moleste tulisse traditur, quod sibi, aa- perrimum ill Africa bellum gerenti, tam delicatus quS6to»' sorte obvenisset, &c. [Yal. Max. vi. 9 ; Sallust. Bell. Jug. 95.] """ Ad simulanda negotia altitude ingenii incredibilis. [St-iUust. BeU. Jugurth. 95.] quae tam diversa, tamque inter se contraria, si quis apud animum suum expendere velit, duos in uno homine Syllaa fuisse erediderit. [Val. Max. vi. 9.] Adeo enim Sjlla fuit dissimilis bellator ac victor, ut diim vincit justissiuio lenior ; post vietoriam audito fuei'it crudelior — ut in eodem homine duplicis ac diversis* sirai auimi conspiceretur exemplum. — Veil. Pat. ii. 25. "" Quotles prfflium conunittere destinabat, parvum MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 16 and prosperity he assumed the surname, unknown before to the Romans, of Felix or the fortunate ; and would have been fortunate indeed, says Velleius, if his life had ended with his victories ". Pliny calls it a wicked title, drawn from the blood and oppression of his country ; for which posterity would think him more unfortunate, even than those whom ile had put to deaths. He had one felicity, however, peculiar to himself, of being the only man in history, in whom the odium of the most barbarous cruelties was extinguished by the glory of his great acts. Cicero, though he had a good opinion of his cause, yet detested the inhu- manity of his victory, and never speaks of him with respect, nor of his government but as a, proper tyranny ; calling him a master of three most pestilent vices, luxury, avarice, cruelty'. He was the first of his family, whose dead body was burnt: for having ordered Marius's remains to be taken out of his grave, and thrown into the river Anio, he was apprehensive of the same insult upon his own, if left to the usual way of burial"'. A little before his death, he made his own epitaph, the sum of which was, that no man had ever gone beyond him, in doing good to his friends, or hurt to his enemies ^. As soon as Sylla was dead, the old dissensions, that had been smothered awhile by the terror of his power, burst out again into a flame between the two factions, supported severally by the two consuls, Q. Catulus and M. Lepidus, who were wholly opposite to each other in party and politics. Lepidus resolved at all adventures to rescind the acts of Sylla, and recall the exiled Marians ; and began openly to solicit the people to support him in that resolution : but his attempt, thongh plau- sible, was factious and unseasonable, tending to overturn the present settlement of the republic, which, after its late wounds and loss of civil blood, wanted nothing so much as rest and quiet to re- cover a tolerable degree of strength. Catulus's father, the ablest statesman of his time, and the chief assertor of the aristocratical interest, had been condemned to die by Marius : the son, there- fore, who inherited his virtues, as weU as principles, and was confirmed in them by a resentment of that injury, vigorously opposed and effectually ApoUinis signumDelphis sublatuzn, in conspectu militum complexus, orabat, uti promissa maturaret. — Yal. Max. i. 2 ; De Div. i. 33. *> Quod quidem usiu-passet justissime, si eundem efc vin- cendi et vivendi finem habuisset. — Veil. Pat. ii. 27. P Unus hominum ad hoc ffivi Felieis sibi cognomen as- ecruit — civili nempe sanguine, ac patriee oppugnatione adoptatus, &c.— Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. 1 Qui trium pestiferorum vitiorum, luxuriEC, avaritise, crudelitatis, magister f uit.-^De Fin. iii. 22 ; De Offic. ii. 8. ' Quod baud ecio an timens sue corpori, primus e patriciis ComeliiB igne voluit cremari. — ^De Leg. ii. 22 ; Val. Max, ix. 2. ' Plutarch, in SylL The following votive inscription was .found in Italy, in the year 1723, near Cicero's Arpinum, between Atina and Bora, which had been dedicated probably by Sylla, about the time of his assuming the surname of Felix, soon after his first success and defeat of the chiefs, who wore in arms against him at home : — 10 VI QUOD PERICVLVM FBLICITBR BVASBKIT L. SVLLA V. S. LA. disappointed all the designs of his colleague ; who, finding himself unable to gain his end without recurring to arms, retired to his government of Gaul, with intent to raise a force sufficient to sub- due all opposition ; where the fame of his levies and military preparations gave such umbrage to the senate, that they soon abrogated his command. Upon this he came forward into Italy at the head of a great army, and having possessed himself of Etruria vrithout opposition, marched in a hostile manner towards the city, to the demand of a second consulship. He had with him several of the chief magistrates, and the good wishes of all the tribunes, and hoped by the authority of the Marian cause, which was always favoured by the populace, to advance himself into Sylla's place, and usurp the sovereign power of Rome. Catulus in the mean time, upon the expiration of his oliice, was invested with proconsular authority, and charged with the defence of tlii3 government ; and Pompey also, by a decree of the senate, was joined with him in the same commission ; who, having united their forces before Lepidus could reach the city, came to an engagement with him near the Milvian bridge, within a mile or two from the walls, where they totally routed and dispersed his whole army. But Cisalpine Gaul being still in the possession of his lieutenant, M. Brutus, the father of him who afterwards killed Csesar, Pompey marched forward to reduce that province : where Brutus, after sustaining a siege in Modena, surrendered himself into his hands ; but being conducted, as he desired, by a guard of horse to a certain village upon the Po, he was there killed by Pompey's orders. This act was censured as cruel and unjust, and Pompey generally blamed for killing a man of the first quality, who had sur- rendered himself voluntarily and on the condition of his life : but he acted probably by the advice of Catulus, in laying hold of the pretext of Brutus's treason, to destroy a man who, from his rank and authority, might have been a dangerous head to the Marian party, and capable of disturbing that aristocracy which Sylla had established, and which the senate and all the better sort were very desirous to maintain. Lepidus escaped into Sardinia, where he died soon after of grief to see his hopes and fortunes so miserably blasted : and thus ended the civil war of Lepidus, as the Roman writers call it, which, though but short-lived, was thought considerable enough by Sallust to be made the subject of a distinct history, of which several frag- ments are still remaining'. As Cicero was returning from his travels to- wards Rome, full of hopes and aspiring thoughts, his ambition was checked, as Plutarch tells us, by the Delphic oracle ; for, upon consulting Apollo by what means he might arrive at the height of glory, he was answered, by making his own genius, and not the opinion of the people, the guide of his life ; upon which he carried himself after his re- turn with great caution, and was very shy of pre- ' M. Lepido, Q. Catulo consulibus, civile helium pa;no citius oppressum est quam inciperet— fax illius motus ab ipso SyllK rogo exarsit. Cupidus namque rerum novarum per insolentiam Lepidus, acta tanti viri resoindere pai-abat, nee immerito, si tamen posset sine magna clade reipublicas, &e.— Plor. iii. 27; Plutar. in Pomp.; Appian-. i. 416; Sallust. Fragment. Hist. 1. i; Val. Max. vi. 2; Pigh. Annal. A. n. 676. 16 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF tending to public honours. But though the rule be very good, yet Cicero was certainly too wise, and had spent too much of his time with philoso- phers, to fetch it from an oracle which, according to his own account, had been in the utmost con- tempt for many ages, and was considered by all men of sense as a mere imposture ". But if he really went to Delphi, of which we have not the least hint in any of his writings, we must impute it to the same motive that draws so many travellers at this day to the Holy House of Loretto ; the curio- sity of sefiing a place so celebrated through the world for its sanctity and riches. After his re- turn, however, he was so far from observing that caution which Plutarch speaks of, that he freely and forwardly resumed his former employment of pleading ; and after one year more spent at the bar, obtained in the next the dignity of Quaestor. Among the causes which he pleaded before his qusestorship was that of the famous comedian Roscms, whom a singular merit in his art had re- commended to the familiarity and friendship of the freatest men in Rome *. The cause was this : One 'annius had made over to Roscius a young slave, to be formed by him to the stage, on condition of a partnership in the profits, which the slave should acquire by acting. The slave was afterwards killed, and Roscius prosecuted the murderer for damages, and obtained, by a composition, a little farm worth about eight hundred pounds, for his particular share. Fahnius also sued separately, and was sup- posed to have gained as much ; but pretending to have recovered nothing, sued Roscius for the moiety of what he had received. One cannot but observe from Cicero's pleading the wonderful esteem and reputation in which Roscius then flourished, of whom he draws a very amiable picture. — Has Roscius then, says he, defrauded his partner? Can such a stain stick upon such a man ? who, I speak it with confidence, has more integrity than skill, more veracity than experience : whom the people of Rome know to be a better man than he is an actor ; and while he makes the first figure on the stage for his art, is worthy of the senate for his virtue y. In another place he says of him, that he was such an artist, as to seem the only one fit to come upon the stage ; yet such a man, as to seem the only one unfit to come upon it at all^ : and that his action was so perfect and admirable, that when a man excelled in any other profession, it was grown into a proverb to call him a Roscius ^. His daily pay for acting is said to have been about thirty pounds sterling.'' Pliny computes his yearly profit » Pyri'hi temporiljus jam ApoUo versus facere deslerat— curisto modo jam oraciilanon eduntur, non modo nostra aBtate, sed jam diu, ut modo nihil possit esse contemptius ? Quomodo autem ista vis evanuit ? an postquam homines minus creduli esse cceperunt?— De Div. ii. 56, 67. » Nee vulgi tantum favorem, vcrum etiam principum familiaritates amplexus est.— Val. Max. viii. 7. y Q,uem populus Romanus meliorem virum, quam his- trionem esse arbitratur ; qui ita dignissimus est scena, propter artificium ; ut dignissimus sit cm-ia;, propter abs' tinentiam.— Pro Q. Rose. 6. '■ Pro Quinct. 25. » Ut in quo qaisque artificio exceileret, is in suo genero Roscius diceretur. — ^De Orat. i. 28. ' Ut merccdem diurnam de publico mille denarios solus acceperit.— Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10. at four thousand pounds ' ; but Cicero seems to late it at five thousand. He was generous, benevolent, and a contemner of money ; and after he had raised an ample fortune from the stage, gave his pains to the publip for many years without any pay : whence Cicero urges it as incredible, that he, who in ten years past might honestly have gained fifty thousand pounds, which he refused, should be tempted to commit a fraud for the paltry sum of four hundred ''. At the time of Cicero's return from Greece, there reigned in the forum two orators of noble birth and great authority, Cotta and Hortensius, whose glory inflamed him with an emulation of their virtues. Cotta's way of speaking was calm and easy, flowing with great elegance and propriety of diction ; Hor- tensius's, sprightly, elevated, and wajmoing both by his words and action ; who being the nearer to him in age, about eight years older, and exceUing in his own taste and manner, was considered by him more particularly as his pattern, or competitor rather, in glory **. The business of pleading, though a profession of all others the most laborious, yet was not mercenary, nor undertaken for any pay; for it was illegal to take money, or to accept even a present for it : but the richest, the greatest, and the noblest of Rome freely offered their talents to the service of their citizens, as the common guar- dians and protectors of the innocent and distressed'. This was a constitution as old as Romulus, who assigned the patronage of the people to the patri- cians or senators, without fee or reward : but in succeeding ages, when, through the avarice of the nobles, it was become a custom for all clients to make annual presents to their patrons, by which the body of the citizens was made tributary as it were to the senate, M. Cincius, a tribune, pub- lished a law, prohibiting all senators to take money or gifts on any account, and especially for pleadmg causes. In the contest about this law, Cicero mentions a smart reply made by the tribune to C. Cento, one of the orators who opposed it; for when Cento asked him with some scorn. What is it, my little Cincius, that you are making all this stir about .' Cincius replied. That you, Cains, may pay for what you uses. We must not imagine, however, that this generosity of the great was wholly disin- terested, or without any expectation of fruit ; for it brought the noblest wt nch a liberal mind could re- c H.S, quingenta annua meritasse prodatur.— Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 39. ^ Decern his annis proximis H.S. sexagies lionestissime consequi psluit : noluit.— Pro Roscio, 8. '^ Duo turn excellebant oi-atores, qui me iniltandi cu- piditate incitarent, Cotta et Hortensius, &c.— Brut. 440. < Diserti igitur hominis, et facile laborantis, quodque in patriis est moribus, multorum cjiusas et non gi-avate et gratuito defendcntis, beneficia et patrocinia late patent.— De Offio. ii. 19. e Quid legem Cinciam de donis et muneribus, nisi quia vectigalis jam et stipendiaria plebs esse Senatui cceperat ? [Liv. xxxiv. 4.] Consurgunt Patres legemque Cinciam flagitant, qua eavetur antiquitus, ne quis ob causam orandam peeuniam donumve accipiat. [Tacit. Aiin.il. xi. 5.] M. Cincius, quo die legem de donis et muneribus tulit, cum C. Cento prodiisset, et satis contumeliose, Quid fers Cinciole ? quEsisset ; TJt emas, inquit, Cai, si uti veils. — Cic. de Orat. ii. 71. This Cincian law was moAe in the year of Rome 549 ; and recommended to the people, as Cicero tells us, by Q. Pabius Maximus, in the extremity of his age. De Sencct. 4.— Vid. Pigh, Anna!, tom. ii. p, 218, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 17 ceive, the fruit of praise and honour from the public voice of their country : it was the proper instrument of their ambition, and the sure means of advancing them to the first dignities of the state : they gave their labours to the people, and the people repaid them with the honours and preferments which they had the power to bestow : this was a wise and happy constitution, where, by a necessary connexion between virtue and honour, they served mutually to produce and perpetuate each other ; where the re- ward of honours excited merit, and merit never failed to procure honours ; the only policy which can make a nation great and prosperous. Thus the three orators just mentioned, according to the custom and constitution of Rome, were all severally employed this summer in sueing for the different offices, to wliich their different age and rank gave them a right to pretend ; Cotta for the consulship, Hortensius the sedileship, Cicero the quaestorship j in which they all succeeded : and Cicero especially had the honour to be chosen the first of all his competitors by the unanimous suf- frage of the tribes ; and in the first year in which hewascapableof it by law, the thirty-first of his age.' The qusestors were the general receivers or trea- surers of the republic ; whose number had been gradually enlarged with the bounds and revenues of the empire from two to twenty, as it now stood from the last regulation of Sylla. They were sent annually into the several provinces, one with every proconsul or governor, to whom they were the next in authority, and had the proper equipage of ma- gistrates, the lictors carrying the fasces before them ; which was not, however, allowed to them at Rome. Besides the care of the revenues, it was their business also to provide corn and all sorts of grain, for the use of the armies abroad and the public consumption at home. This was the first step in the legal ascent and gradation of public honours, which gave an imme- diate right to the senate, and after the expiration of the office, an actual admission into it during life : and though, strictly speaking, none were held to be complete senators, till they were enrolled at the next lustrum in the list of the censors ; yet that was only a matter of form, and what could not be de- nied to them, unless for the charge and notoriety of some crime, for which every other senator was equally liable to be degraded. These qusestors, therefore, chosen annually by the people, were the regular and ordinary supply of the vacancies of the senate, which consisted at this time of about five hundred : by which excellent institution the way to the highest order of the state was laid open to the virtue and industry of every private citizen ; and the dignity of this sovereign council maintained by a succession of members, whose distinguished merit had first recommended them to the notice and fa- vour of .their country". ' Me cum queestorem in primis — cunctis suffragiis po- pulus RomanuB faoiebat.— In Pis. 1 ; Brut. 440. " Quzestura, primus gradus honoris [in Verr. Act. i. 4.] Populmn Romanum, cujus honoribus in amplissimo con- cilio, et in altissimo gradu dignitatis, aique in hac omnium terrarum arce coUocati sumus. [Post. red. ad Sen. 1.] Ita magistratus annuos creaverunt, ut concilium senatus reipubliose proponerent sempitemum ; deligerentur autem in id concilium ab universe populo, aditusque in ilium summuin ordinem omnium civium induatriee ac virtuti patoret.— Pro Sext. 65. The consuls of this year were Cn. Octavius and C. Scribonius Curio ; the first was Cicero's par- ticular friend, a person of singular humanitv and benevolence, but cruelly afflicted with the "gout, whom Cicero therefore urges as an example against the Epicureans, to show that a life supported by innocence could not be made miserable by pain''. The second was a professed orator, or pleader at the bar, where he sustained some credit, without any other accomplishment of art or nature, than a certain purity and splendour of language, derived from the institution of a father who was esteemed for his eloquence : his action was vehement, with so absurd a manner of waving his body from one side to the other, as to give occasion to a jest upon him, that he had learnt to speak in a boat. They were both of them, however, good magistrates ; such as the present state of the republic required, firm to the interests of the senate, and the late estab- lishment made by Sylla, which the tribunes were labouring by all their arts to overthrow. These consuls, therefore, were called before the people by Sicinins, a bold and factious tribune, to declare their opinion about the revocation of Sylla's acts, and the restoration of the tribunician power, which was now the only question that engaged the zeal and attention of the city : Curio spoke much against it with his usual vehemence and agitation of body ; while Octavius sat by, crippled with the gout, and wrapt np in plasters and ointments : when Curio had done, the tribune, a man of a humorous wit, told Octavius, that he could never make amends to his colleague for the service of that day ; for if he had not taken such pains to beat away the flies, they would certainly have devoured him'. But while Sicinius was pursuing his sediti- ous practices, and using all endeavours to excite the people to some violence against the senate, he was killed by the management of Curio, in a tumult of his own raising". We have no account of the precise time of Cicero's marriage; which was celebrated most pro- bably in the end of the preceding year, immediately after his return to Rome, when he was about This account of the manner of filling up the senate is confirmed by many other passages of Cicero's works: for example; when Cicero was elected aedile, the next su- perior magistrate to the quaestor, and before his entrance into that oifice, he took a journey into Sicily to coUeet evidence against Verres ; in the account of which voyage he says, that he went at his own charges, though a senator, into that province, where he had before been quaistor. [In Verr. i. 6.] Again; when the government of Cilicia was allotted to him, he begged of young Curio, as he did of all his friends in the senate, not to sufiTer it to be pro- longed to him beyond the year. In his absence. Curio, who before had been only quxstor, was elected tribune ; upon which Cicero, in a congratulatory letter to him on that promotion, taking occasion to renew his former re- quest, says, that he asked it of him before, as of a senator of the noblest birth, and a youth of the greatest interest ; but now of a tribune of the people, who had the power to grant him what he asked. — Ep. Fam. ii. 7. k De Finib. ii. 28. 1 Cinio copia nonnulla verhorum, nuUo alio bono, tenuit oratorum locum, [Brut. 350 ; "it. 323.] Motus erat is, quein C. Julius in perpetuum notavit, cum ex eo, in utramque partem toto corpore vacillante, quaesivit, quis loqueretur e lintre — Nunquam, inquit, Octavi, coUegjc tuo gratiam referes : qui nisi se suo more jactavisaet, hodie te istic muses comedissent, — Ibid. 324. ■" Vide Sallust. Fragm. Hist. 1.3. Orat, Maori ; Pigh. Ann. 677. C 18 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF thirty years old : it cannot be placed later, because his daughter was married the year before his consulship, at the age only of thirteen ; though we suppose her to be born this year on the fifth of August, which is mentioned to be her birthday". Nor is there any thing certain delivered of the family and condition of his wife Terentia ; yet from her name, her great fortune, and her sister Fabia's being one of the vestal virgins", we may conclude that she was nobly descended. This year, there- fore, was particularly fortunate to him, as it brought an increase not only of issue, but of dignity into his family, by raising it from the equestrian to the senatorian rank ; and by this early taste of popular favour, gave him a sure presage of his future ad- vancement to the superior honours of the republic. SECTION 11. The provinces of the quaestors being distributed to them always by lot, the island of Sicily happened to fall to Cicero's share". This was the first country which, after the reduction of Italy, became a prey to the power of Rome'', and was then thought considerable enough to be divided into two provinces of Lilybeum and Syracuse; the former of which was allotted to Cicero : for though they were both united at this time under one prsetor or supreme governor, S. Peducseus, yet they continued still to have each of them a dis- tinct quaestor '=. He received this office not as a gift, but a trust ; and considered it, he says, as a public theatre, in which the eyes of the world were turned upon him ; and that he might act his part with the greater credit, resolved to devote his whole attention to it ; and to deny himself every pleasure, every gratification of his appetites, even the most innocent and natural, which coxild obstruct the laudable discharge of if*. Sicily was usually called the granary of the republic* ; and the quaestor's chief employment in it was to supply com and provisions for the use of the city : but there happening to be a peculiar scarcity this year at Rome, it made the people very clamorous, and gave the tribunes an opportunity of inflaming them the more easily, by charging it to the loss of the tribuuician power, and their being left a prey by that means to the oppressions of the great'. It was necessary therefore to the public quiet, to send out large and speedy supplies from Sicily, by which the island was like to be drained ; so that Cicero had a difficult task to furnish what was sufficient for the demands of the city, without being grievous at the same time to the poor natives : n NonisSextil. — Ad Att. iv. 1. o Ascon. Orat. in Tog. Cand. a Me qujEStorem Siciliensis excepit annus. — ^Brut. 440. b Prima omnimn, id quod omamentum imperii est, provincia est appellata. — In Verr. iii. 1. c Quaestores utriusque provinciffi, qui isto praetore luerunt. — ^Ib. 4. " "I Ita quEEstor sum factus, ut mihi honorem ilium non solum datiun, sed etiam creditum, ut me quasturamque meam quasi in oliquo terrai-um orbis tbeatro versari existimai-em ; ut omnia semper, quje jucunda videutur esse, non modo his extraordinariis cupiditatibus, sed etiam ipsi naturas ac necessitati denegarem. — In Verr. v. 14. * lUe M. Cato sapiens, cellam penariam reipublicse, mitricem plebis Romanse, Siciliam nominavit, — lb. ii. 2. ' Vid. Orat. Cottse in fragment. Saliust. yet he managed the matter with so much prudence and address, that he made very great exportations, vrithout any burthen upon the province ; showing great courtesy all the while to the dealers, justice to the merchants, generosity to the inhabitants, humanity to the allies ; and in short, domg all manner of good offices to everybody ; by which he gained the love and admiration of all the Sicili- ans, who decreed greater honours to him at his departure, than they had ever decreed before to any of their chief governors s. During his resi- dence in the country, several young Romans of quality, who served in the army, having committed some great disorder and offence against martial discipline, ran away to Romefor fear of punishment; where being seized by the magistrates, they were sent back to be tried before the praetor in Sicily : but Cicero undertook their defence, and pleaded for them so well, that he got them all acquitted''; and by that means obliged many considerable families of the city. In the hours of leisure from his provincial aifairs, he employed himself very diligently, as he used to do at Rome, in his rhetorical studies ; agreeably to the rule which he constantly inculcates, never to let one day pass vrithout some exercise of that kind : so that on his return from Sicily his orato- rical talents were, according to his own judgment, in their fuU perfection and maturity'. The coun- try itself, famous of old for its school of eloquence, might afford a particular invitation to the revival of those studies : for the Sicilians, as he teUs us, being a sharp and litigious people, and after the expulsion of their tyrants, having many contro- versies among themselves about property, which required much pleading, were the firstwho invented rules and taught an art of speaking, of which Corax and Tysias were the first professors : an art which, above all others, owes its birth to liberty, and can never flourish but in a free air''. Before he left Sicily he made the tour of the island, to see every thing in it that was curious, and especially the city of Syracuse, which had always made the principal figure in its history. Here his first request to the magistrates, who were showing him the curiosities of the place, was to let him see the tomb of Archimedes, whose name had done so much honour to it ; but to his surprise he perceived that they Icnew nothing at all of the matter, and even denied that there was any such tomb remain- ing : yet as he was assured of it beyond all doubt by the concurrent testimony of writers, and remem- bered the verses inscribed, and that theip was a sphere with a cylinder engraved on some part of it, he would not be dissuaded from the pains of searching it out. When they had carried him 8^ Frumenti in summa oaritate maximum numerum miseram : negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus Justus, mu- nicipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus : excogitati quidam erant a Siculis honores in me inauditi. — Pro Plane. 26. *> Plutarch's Life of Cic. ' Jam videbatiu: illud in me, quicquid esset, esse per- fectum, et habere maturitatem quandam suam. — Brut. 440. ^ Cum sublatis in Sicilia tyrannis res privatBe longo intervallo judiciis repeterentur, turn primum, quod esset acuta ilia gens et controversa natura, artem et prsecepta Siculos Coracem et Tysiam conscripsisse. [Brut. 75.] Hjec una res in onmi libero populo, maximeque in pacatig, tranquillisque civitatibus semper iioruit, semperque do- minata est.— De Orat. i. 8. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 19 therefore to the gate, where the greatest numher of their old sepulchres stood, he observed, in a spot overgrown with shrubs and briars, a small column, whose Head just appeared above the bushes, with the figure of a Sphere and cylinder upon it ; this, he presently told the company, was the thing that they were looking for ; and sending in some men to dear the ground of the brambles and rubbish, he found the inscription also which he expected, though the latter part of all the verses was effaced. Thus, Says he, one of the noblest cities of Greece, and once likewise the most learned, had known nothing of the monument of its most deserving and itigenlous oitiien, if it had n6t been discovered to them by a native of Arpinum'. At the expiration of his year he took leave of the Sicilians by a kind and aifectionate speech, assuring them of his pro- tection in all their affairs at Rome ; in which he was as good as his word, and continued ever after their constant patron, to the great beneiit and advantage of the province. He came away extremely pleased with the success of his administration ; and flattering himself that all Rome was celebrating his praises, and that the peo- ple would readily grant hun everything that he de- sired i in which imagination he landed at Puteoli, a considerable port adjoiuing to Baise, the chief seat of pleasure in Italy, where there was a perpetual resort of all the rich and the great, as well for the delights of its situation, as the use of its baths and hot waters. But here, as he himself pleasantly tells the story, he was not a little mortified by the first friend whom he met, who asked him, how long he had left Rome, and what news there.' "When he answered, that he came from the provinces, " From Africa,I suppose," says another ; and, uponhis reply- ingwith some indignation, "No, Icomefrom Sicfly," a third who stood by, and had a mind to be thought wiser, said presently, "How ! did you not know that Cicero was qusestor of Syracuse .* " Upon which, perceiving it in vain to be angry, he fell into the humour of the place, and made himself one of the company who came to the waters. This mortifica- tion gave some little check to his ambition, or taught him rather how to apply it more successfully ; and did hhn more good, he says, than if he had received all the compliments that he expected ; for it made him reflect, that the people of Rome had dull ears, but quick eyes ; and that it was his business to keep him- self always in their sight ; nor to be so solicitous how to make them hear of him, as to make them see him : so that from this moment he resolved to stick close to the forum, and to live perpetually in the yiew of the city ; nor to suffer either his porter or his sleep to hinder any man's access to him". At his return to Rome, he found the consul, L. Lucullus, employing all his power to repel the at- tempts of a turbulent tribune, L. Quinctius, who had a manner of speaking peculiarly adapted to inflame the multitude, and was perpetually exerting it, to persuade them to reverse Sylla's acts°. These acts were odious to all who affected popularity, especially to the tribunes, who could not brook, with any patience, the diminution of their ancient power ; yet all prudent men were desirous to support them, as the best foundation of a lasting peace and firm ' Tnso. Quffist.-v. 3. ■» Pro Planoio, 26. " Homo cum summa fotestate praedituB, turn ad fn- flammandos animos muliitudiuiB accommodjitua. — Pro Cluent.2e; Plutarch, in Lucull. settlement of the republic. The tribune Sicinius made the first attack upon them soon after Sylla's death,but lost his life in the quarrel; which, iiisteau of quenching, added' fuel to the flame ; so that C. Cotta, one of the next consuls, a man of modei ate principles and obnoxious to neither party, made it his business to mitigate these heats, by mediating between the senate and the tribunes, and remitting a part of the restraint that Sylla had laid upon them, so far as to restore them to a capacity of holding the superior magistracies. But a partial restitution could not satisfy them ; they were as clamorous ■ StUl as ever, and thought it a treachery to be quiet, till they had recovered their whole rights ; for which purpose, Quinctius was now imitating his predeces- sor Sicinius, and exciting the populace to do them- selves justice against their oppressors, nor suffer their power and liberties to be extorted from them by the nobles. But the vigour of Lucullus pre- vented him from gaining any farther advantage, or making any impression this year to the disturbance of the public peace". C. Verres, of whom we shall have occasion to say more hereafter, was now also prsetor of the city, or the supreme administrator of justice ; whose decrees were not restrained to the strict letter of the law, but formed usually upon the principles of com- mon equity ; which, while it gives a greater liberty of doing what is right, gives a greater latitude withal of doing wrong ; and the power was never in worse hands, or more corruplly administered, than by Verres : for there was not a man in Italy, says Cicero, who had a law-suit at Rome, but knew, that the rights and properties of the Roman people were determined by the will and pleasure of his whore'. There was a very extraordinary commission granted this year to M. AUtonius, the father of the triumvir ; the inspection and command of all the coasts of the Mediterranean : a boundless power, as Cicero calls it'. Which gave him an opportunity of pltmdering the provinces, and committing all kinds of outrage on the allies. He invaded Crete without any declaration of war, on purpose to en- slave it ; and with such an assurance of victory, that he carried more fetters with him than arms'. But he met with the fate that he deserved : for the Cretans totally routed him in a naval engagement, and returned triumphant into their ports, with the bodies of their enemies hanging on their masts. Antonius died soon after this disgrace, infamous in his character, nor in any respect a better man, says Asconius, than his Son". But Metellus made Nisi forte C. Cotta, ex factione media consul, aliter quam metu jura quadam tribunis plebis restituit; et quimquam L, Sicinius primus do potestate tribunicia loqui ausus, mussitantibus vobis circumventus erat. — Lucullus superioreannoquantisanimisieritinL, Quinctium, vidis- tis.— "Vide Sallust. Hist. Fragment. 1. 3. Orat. Maori Li- cinil ; Flut. in LuouU. P tJt nemo tain rusticanus homo, Romam ex ullo muni- cipio vadimonii causa venerit, quin sciret jura omnia' prstoris urboni nutu atque arbitrio Chelidonis meretri- culae gubernari. — In Verr. v. 13. 1 M. Antonli infinitum illud imperium, — lb. ii. 3. r Primus invaait insulam M. Antonius, cum ingeuti quidem victoriiB spe atque flducia, adeo ut plures catenas in navibus, quam arma portaret. — Flor. iii. 7. ■ Autonium.cum multacontrasociorumsalutem, multa contra utilitatem provinoiarum et faceret et cogitaret, in mediis c^us injurils et cupiditatibus mors opprcsslt. — ^In Verr. Iii. 91. C 2 20 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the Cretans pay dear for their triumph, by the entire conquest of their country ; in which war, as Floras says, if the truth must be told, the Romans were the aggressors; and though they charged the Cretans with favouring Mithridates, yet their real motive was the desire of conquering so noble an island'. Mithridates also had now renewed the war against Rome ; encouraged to it by the diversion which Sertorius was giving at the same time in Spain to their best troops and ablest generals, Metellus and Pompey : so that Lucullus, who on the expiration of his consulship had the province of Asia allotted to him, obtained with it, of course, the command of this war. But while their arms were thus em- ployed in the different extremities of the empire, an ugly disturbance broke out at home, which, though contemptible enough iu its origin, began in a short time to spread terror and consternation through all Italy. It took its rise from a few gla- diators, scarce above thirty at the first, who broke out of their school at Capua, and having seized a quantity of arms, and drawn a number of slaves after them, posted themselves on Mount Vesuvius ; here they were presently surrounded by the prsetor Clodius Glaber, with a good body of regular troops ; but forcing their way through them with sword in hand, they assaulted and took his camp, and made themselves masters of all Campania. From this success their numbers presently increased to the size of a just army of forty thousand fighting men : with which they made head against the Roman legions, and sustained a vigorous war for three years, in the very bowels of Italy ; where they defeated several commanders of consular and prsetorian rank ; and, puffed up with their victories, began to talk of attacking Rome. But M. Crassus the prsetor, to whom the war was committed, having gathered about him all the forces which were near home, chastised their insolence, and drove them before him to the extremity of Rhegium, where, for want of vessels to make their escape, the greatest part was destroyed, and among them, their general Sparta- cus, fighting bravely to the last at the head of his desperate troops". This was called the servile war, for which Crassus had the honour of an ovation ; it being thought beneath the dignity of the republic to graat a full triumph for the conquest of slaves : but to bring it as near as possible to a triumph, Crassus procured a special decree of the senate to authorise him to wear the laurel crown, which was the proper ornament of the triumph, as myrtle was of the ovation". The Sertorian war happened to be finished also, fortunately near the same time. The author of it, Sertorius, was bred under C. Marius, with whom he had served in all his wars, with a singular repu- tation, not only of martial virtue, but of justice and clemency : for though he was firm to the Ma- rian party, he always disliked and opposed their cruelty, and advised a more temperate use of their power. After the death of Cinna, he fell into Sylla's hands, along with the consul Scipio, when the army abandoned them : Sylla dismissed him with life, on the account, perhaps, of his known mode- t Creticum bellum, siveravolumusnoscere, noBfecimus sola vincendi nobilem insulam cupiditate. — Flor.iii.7. « Vide Flor. iii. 20. * Pint, in Crass.— Crasse, quid est, quodconfecto formi- dolosissimo bello, eoronam illam lauream tibi tantopere de^jcrni volueris ? — In Pison. 24. ration ; yet taking him to be an utter enemy to his cause, he soon after proscribed and drove him to the necessity of seeking his safety in foreign coun- tries. After several attempts on Africa and the coasts of the Mediterranean, he found a settlement in Spain, whither all who fled from Sylla's cruelty, resorted to him, of whom he formed a senate, which gave laws to the whole province. Here, by his great credit and address, he raised a force sufficient to sustain a war of eight years against the whole power of the republic ; and to make it a question, whether Rome or Spain should possess the empire of the worid. Q. Metellus, an old experienced commander, was sent against him singly at first, but was so often baffled and circumvented by his superior vigour and dexterity, that the people of Rome were forced to send their favourite Pompey to his assistance, with the best troops of the empire. Sertorius main- tained his ground against them both ; and after many engagements, in which he generally came off equal, often superior, was basely murdered at a pri- vate feast, by the treachery of Perpema ; who, being the next to him in command, was envious of his glory, and wanted to usurp his power. Perpema was of noble birth, and had been praetor of Rome, where he took up arms vrith the consul Lepidus, to reverse the acts of Sylla, and recall the proscribed Marians, and after their defeat carried off the best part of their troops to the support of Sertorius?: but instead of gaining what he expected from Ser- torius's death, he ruined the cause, of which he had made himself the chief, and put an end to a war that was wholly supported by the reputation of the general ; for the revolted provinces presently sub- mitted ; and the army having no confidence in their new leader, was easily broken and dispersed, and Perpema himself taken prisoner. Pompey is celebrated on this occasion for an act of great prudence and generosity : for when Perpema, in hopes of saving his life, offered to make some important discoveries, and to put into his hands all Sertorius's papers, in which were several letters from the principal senators of Rome, pressing him to bring his army into Italy for the sake of overturning the present government, he ordered the papers to be burnt without reading them, and Perpema to be kiUed without seeing him^. He knew, that the best way of healing the discontents of the city, where faction was perpe- tually at work to disturb the pubUc quiet, was, to ease people of those fears which a consciousness of y Sylla et consulem, ut praadiximus, exaxmatumque Sertorium, proli quanti mox belli facem ! et multos alios dimisit incolumes. — ^Vell. Pat. ii. 25. 29. Jam Africa, jam Balearibus insulis fortunam expertas, missusque in oeeajium — tandem Hispaniam armavit^ Satis tanto hosti uno iraperatore resistere resKomana non potuit: additus Metello Cn. Pompeius. Hi copias viri diu, et ancipiti semper acie attrivere : nee tamen prius bello, quam suormn soeleve, et insidiis, extinotus est — Flor. iii. 22, ' Ilia in tantum Sertorium ajmis extulit, ut per quinquen- nium dijudicari non potuerit, Hispanis, Romanisve in armis plus esset roboris, et uter populiis alteri pariturus forct — Veil. Pat. ii. 90. A M. Perpema et aliis eonjuratis convivio interfectus est, octavo ducatus sui anno ; magnus dux, et adversos duos ilnpcratores, Pompeium et Metellum, saepe par, frequentiusviotcr.— Epit.Liv. .OS. Vide etiam Plutarch, in Sertorio et Pomp. ; Appian. p. 418. ' Plutarch, in Pomp. ; Appian. 423. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 21 guilt would suggest, rather than push them to the necessity of seeking their security from a change of affairs, and the overthrow of the state'. As he returned into Italy at the head of his victorious army, he happened to fall in luckily with the re- mains of those fugitives who, after the destruc- tion of Spartacus, had escaped from Crassus, and were making their way in a hody towards the Alps, whom he intercepted and entirely cut off to the number of five thousand j and in a letter upon it to the senate, said, that Crassus indeed had defeat- ed the gladiators, but that he had plucked up the war by the roots'". Cicero, likewise, from a par- ticular dislike to Crassus, affected in his public speeches to give Pompey the honour of finishing this war, declaring, that the very fame of his coming had broken the force of it, and his presence extin- guished it'. For this victory in Spain, Pompey obtained a second triumph, while he was stUl only a private citizen, and of the equestrian rank : but the next day he took possession of the consulship, to which he had been elected in his absence ; and, as if he had been bom to command, made his first entry into the senate in the proper post to preside in it. He was not yet fuU thirty-six years old, but the senate, by a decree, dispensed with the incapacity of his age and absence ; and qualified him to hold the highest magistracy, before he was capable by law of pretending even to thelowest ; and, by his authority, M. Crassus was elected also for his colleague''. Crassus's father and elder brother lost their lives in the massacres of Marius and Cinna ; but he himself escaped into Spain, and lay there concealed till Sylla's return to Italy, whither he presently resorted to him, in hopes to revenge the ruin ot his fortunes and family on the opposite faction. As he was attached to Sylla's cause both by interest and inclination, so he was much considered in it ; and being extremely greedy and rapacious, made use of all his credit to enrich himself by the plun- der of the enemy, and the purchase of confiscated estates, which Cicero calls his hai-fest. By these methods he raised an immense wealth, computed at many millions, gathered from the spoils and calamities of his country. He used to say, that no man could be reckoned rich, who was not able to maintain an army out of his own rents". And if the accounts of antiquity be true, the number of his slaves was scarce inferior to that of a fuU army ; which, instead of being a burthen, made ■^ lu tanto civiumnmuero, magna multitudo est corum, qui propter metum pcenfe peccatorum Buorum conscii, novos motus conversionesque reipublicaj quaeriint. — Pro Sext. 46. 1> Plut. in Pomp, c Quod bellum expectatione Pompeii attenuatum atque imminutum est ; adventu Bublatmn et sepultum. [Pro Leg. Manil. ll.]^Qui etiam servitia virtute victoriaque domuisset, — Pro Best. 31. '• Pompeius hoe quoque triumpho, adhnc Eques Ro- manus, ante diem quam consulatum iniret, curni urbem inveotus est.— Veil. Pat. ii. 30. Quid tarn singulare, quam ut ex S. 0. legibus solutus, consul ante fieret, quam ullum alium magistratum per leges capere licuisset? Quid tarn incredibile, quam ut iterum EquesRomanus S. C. triumpharet ? — Pro Leg. Man. 21 ; VidePlutai-ch. in Pomp. ^ Illam Syllani temporis messem. — Farad, vi, 2. Multi ex te audierunt, cum diceres, neminem esse divi- tem, nisi qui exercitum alere posset suis fnictibus.— lb. 1. one part of his revenue j being all tramed to some useful art or profession, which enabled them not only to support themselves, but to bring a share of profit to their master. Among the other trades in his family, he is said to have had above five hun- dred masons and ai-chitects constantly employed in building or repau-ing the houses of the city'. He had contracted an early envy to Pompey, for his superior credit both with Sylla and the people ; which was still aggravated by Pompey's late attempt to rob him of the hononr of ending the servile war : but finding himself wholly unequal to his rival in military fame, he applied himself to the arts of peace and eloquence, in which he obtained the character of a good speaker ; and by his easy and familiar address, and a readiness to assist aU who wanted either his protection or his money, acquired a great authority in all the public affairs ; so that Pompey was glad to embrace and oblige him, by taking him for his partner in the consulship. Five years were now almost elapsed, since Cicero's election to the qusestorship ; which was the proper interval prescribed by law, before he could hold the next office of tribune or eedile ; and it was necessary to pass through one of these in his way to the superior dignities : he chose, therefore, to drop the tribunate, as being stripped of its ancient power by the late ordinance of Sylla, and began to make interest for the sedileship, while Hortensius at the same time was sueing for the consulship. He had employed all this interval in a close attend- ance on the forum, and a perpetual course of pleading s, which greatly advanced his interest in the city ; especially when it was observed that he strictly complied with the law, by refusing not only to take fees, but to accept- even any presents, in which the generality of patrons were less scrupu- lous ''. Yet all his orations within this period are lost ; of which number were those for M. Tullius and L. Varenus, mentioned by QuintiUian and Priscian, as extant in their time. Some writers tell us, that he improved and per- fected his action by the instructions of Roscius and .^sopus ; the two most accomplished actors in that, or perhaps in any other age, the onein comedy, the other in tragedy'. He had a great esteem in- deed for them both, and admired the uncommon perfection of their art : but though he conde- scended to treat them as friends, he would have disdained to use them as masters. He had formed himself upon a nobler plan, drawn his rules of action from nature and philosophy, and his prac- tice from the most perfect speakers then living in the world ; and declares the theatre to be an im- proper school for the institution of an orator, ?s teaching gestures too minute and unmanly, and labouring more about the expression of words, than of things''; nay, he laughs someti mes at Horten- f Plutarch; in Crass. S Cum igitur essem in plurimis causis, et in principibus patronis quinquennium fere versatus. — Brut. p. 440. ^ Plutarch, in Cicer. ' Ibid. ^ Quis neget opus esse oratori in hoc oratorio motu, statuque Roscii gestum i — tamen nemo suaserit studiosis dicendi adolesoentibua in gestu discendo histriouum more elaborare.— Do Orat. i. 59 ; Vide Tuso. Disp. iv. 25. Omnes autem bos motus subsequi debet gestus ; non bio, verba exprimens, scenicua, sed imiversam rem et sen- tentiani : non demonstratione, sed significatione declarans, laterum inflectione hao forti ac virili, non ab scena ft histriotiibuB.— lb. iii. 59. 22 THE HISTORV OP THE LIFE OF sius for an action too foppish and theatrical', who used to be rallied on that very acooqnt by the other pleaders with the title of the player ; so that, in the cause of P. Sylla, Torquatus, a free speaker on the other side, called him, by way of ridicule, Dionysia, an actress of those times, in great request for her dancing". Yet Hortensius himself was so far from borrowing his manner from the stage, that the stage borrowed from him ; and the two cele- brated actors just mentioned, Roscius and ^sopus, are said to have attended all the trials in which he pleaded, in order to perfect the action of the theatre by that of the forum ; which seems indeed to be the more natural method of the two, that they who act in feigned life should take their pattern from the true ; not those who represent the true,, copy from that which is feigned". We are told, however, by others, what does not seem wholly improbable, that Cicero used to divert him- self sometimes with Roscius, and make it an ex- ercise, or trial of skill between them, which could express the same passion the most variously, the one by words, the other by gestures". As he had now devoted himself to a life of business and ambition, so he omitted none of the usual arts of recommending himself to popular favour, and facilitating his advancement to the superior honours. He thought it absurd, that when every little artificer knew the name and use of all his tools, a statesman should neglect the knowledge of men, who were the proper in- struments with which he was to work : he made it his business therefore to learn the name, the place, and the condition of every eminent citizen ; what estate, what friends, what neighbours he had ; and could readily point out their several houses, as he travelled through Italy'. This knowledge, which is useful in all popular govern- ments, was peculiarly necessary at Rome ; where the people, having much to give, expected to be much courted j and where their high spirits and privileges placed them as much above the rank of all other citizens, as the grandeur of the re- public exceeded that of all other states ; so that every man, who aspired to any public dignity, kept a slave or two in his family, whose sole busi- ness it was to learn the names and know the per- sons of every citizen at sight, so as to be able to whisper them to his master, as he passed through the streets, that he might be ready to salute them all familiarly, and shake hands with them, as his particular acquaintance''. 1 Patamus — Patronum tuum cerviculam jactaturum. — In Verr. iii. 19. "" L. Torquatus, subagresti homo ingenio et infestivo.^ non jam histrionem ilium diceret, sed gesticularlam, Dionysiamque cum jiotissiipffi saltatricula: nomine appel- laret.— Aul. Gell. i. a. " Genus hoc totum oratores, qui sunt veritatis ipsius actores, reliquerunt ; jmitatores autera veritatis, histri- ones, occupavcrunt.— At sine dubio in omni re vincit imi- tationem Veritas. — De Or.it. iii. flfa". " Satis cdnstat, contendere eum cum ipso histrione so- litum, utrum ille ssepius eandem sententiam variis ges- tibus efficeret, an ipse per eloquentije copiam sermone diverse pronunciaret — Macrob. Saturn, ii. 10. p Plutarch, in Cic. '1 Yide De Petitione Consulat. xi. Mercemur servum, qui dictet nopiina: Ijevum" Qui fodiat latus, et eogat trans pondera dextram Porrigere. Hie multum in Fabia yalet, ille Veliija : Cuilibet hie fasces dabit, &c. — Hqb. Epist. i. ti. Plutarch says, that the use of these nomenclators was contrary to the laws ; and that Cato for that reason, in sueing for the public offices, would not employ any of them, but took all that trouble upon himself. But that notion is- fully confuted by Cicero, who, in his oration for Murena, rallies the absurd rigour of Cato's stoical principles, and their inconsistency with common life, from the very cir- cumstance of his having a nomenclator — " What do you mean," says he, " by keeping a nomencla- tor .' The thing itself is a mere cheat : for if it be your duty to call the citizens by their names, it is a shame for your slave to know them better than yourself. Why do you not speak to them before he has whispered you ? Or, after he has whis- pered, why do you salute them, as if you knew them yourself.' Or, when you have gained your election, why do you grow careless about saluting them at all.' All this, if examined by the lilies ot social life, is right ; but if by the precepts of your philosophy, very wicked'." As for Cicero himself, whatever pains he is said to have taken in this way, it appears from several passages in his letters, that he constantly had a nomenclator at his elbow on all public occasions '. He was now in his thirty-seventh year, the proper age for holding the Eedileship, which was the first public preferment that was properly called a magis- tracy, the qusestorship being an office only or place of trust, without any jurisdiction in the city, as the sediles had". These aediles, as well as all the infe- rior officers, were chosen by the people voting in their tribes ; a manner of electing of all the most free and popular : in which Cicero was declared sedile, as he was before elected queestor by the unanimous suffrage of all the tribes, and preferably to all his competitors'. There were originally but two sediles, chosen from the body of the people on pretence of easing the tribunes of a share of their trouble, whose chief duty, from which the name itself was derived, was to take care of the edifices of the city, and to inspect the markets, weights, and measures, and regulate the shows and games, which were publicly exhibited op the festivals of their gods". The senate after- wards, taking an opportunity when the people were in good humour, prevailed to have two more created from their order and of superior rank, called curule sediles, from the arm-chair of ivory in which they saf^ : but the tribunes presently repented of their concession, and forced the senate to consent, that these new adiles should be chosen indifferently from ' Plutarch, in Cato. % » Pro Murena, .T6. ' tJt nemo nullius ordinis homo noraenclatoiii notus fuerit, qui mihi obviam non venerit. — Ad Att. iv. 1. « This will explain what Cicero says above of Pompey'a entering upon the consulship, at an age, when he was in- capable even of the lowest magistracy.— But though strictly speaking, the sediloship was the first wftich was called a magistracy ; yet Cicero himself, and all the old writers, give the same title also to the tribunate and qujestorship. 'Mecumquffistoreminprimis, Eedilempriorem — cunctis sufFragiis populus Romanus faciebat.— In Pison. 1, •»■ Dionys. Hal. vi. 411. * — dabit, eripietque curule Cui volet importunus ebur.— Hor. Ep. i. 6. Signa quuquo in soUa nossem formata curuli, Et totum Nu^idffl seulptile dentis opus. Ov'D. de Pont. iv. 9 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 23 the patrician or plebeian familieay. But whatever difference there might be at first between the curule and plebeian sediles, their province and authority seem in later times to be the same, with- out any distinction but what was nominal j and the two who were chosen the first, were probably called the curule cediles, as we find Cicero to be now styled. This magistracy gave a precedence in the senate, or a priority of voting and speaking, next after the consuls and prsetors ; and was the first that qualified a man to have a picture or statue of himself, and consequently ennobled his family^ : for it was from the number of these statues of ancestors, who had borne curule offices, that the families of Rome were esteemed the more or less noble. After Cicero's election to the sedileship, but before his entrance into the office, he undertook the famed prosecution of C. Verres, the late prsetor of Sicily, charged with many flagrant acts of injus- tice, rapine, and cruelty, during his triennial govern- ment of that island. And since this was one of the memorable transactions of his life, and for which he is greatly celebrated by antiquity, it will be neces- sary to give a distinct and particular relation of it. The public administration was at this time, in every branch of it, most infamously corrupt : the great, exhausted by their luxury and vices, made no other use of their governments, than to enrich themselves by the spoils of the foreign provinces : their business was to extort money abroad, that they might purchase offices at home, and to plun- der the allies, in order to corrupt the citizens. The oppressed in the meanwhile found it in vain to seek relief at Rome, where there was none who cared either to impeach or to condemn a noble criminal ; the decision of all trials being in the hands of men of the same condition, who were usually involved in the same crimes, and openly prosti- tuted their judgment on these occasions for favour or a bribe. This had raised a general discontent thi:ough the empire, with a particular disgust to that change made by Sylla, of transferring the right of judicature from the equestrian to the senatorian order, which the people were now impatient to get reversed : the prosecution therefore of Verres was both seasonable and popular, as it was likely to give some check to the oppressions of the nobi- fity, as well as comfort and relief to the distressed subjects. All the cities of Sicily concurred in the impeach- ment, excepting Syracuse and Messana ; for these two being the most considerable of the province, Verres had taken care to keep up a fair correspon- dence with them. Syracuse was the place of his residence, and Messana the repository of his plun- der, whence he exported it all to Italy : and though he would treat even these on certain occasions very arbitrarily, yet in some flagrant instances of his rapine, that he might ease himself of a pai't of the envy, he used to oblige them with a share of the spoil" : so that partly by fear, and partly by favour, y Liv. vi. ad fin. " Antiquiorem in senatu sententiae dicendse locum — ^jus imaginls ad memoriam, posteritatemque prodendam. — In Verr. v. 14. " Ergo, inquiet aliquis, donavitpopuloSyracusanoistam hereditatem, &c.— InVerr. ii. 18. Messana tuorum adjutrix scelerum, libidinum testis, priedaTum ac furtonun receptrix,&o. — In Verr. iii. 8. it. 11. he held them generally at his devotion ; and at the expiration of his government, procured ample testi- monials from them both in praise of his administra- tion. AH the other towns were zealous and active in the prosecution, and, by a common petition to Cicero, implored him to undertake the management of it ; to which he consented, out of regard to the relation which he had borne to them as qusestor, and his promise made at parting, of his protection in all their affairs. Verres, on the other hand, was supported by the most powerful famihes of Rome, the Scipios and the Metelli, and defended by Hor- tensius, who was the reigning orator at the bar, and usually styled the king of the forum' ; yet the diffi- culty of the cause, instead of discouraging, did but animate Cicero the more, by the greater glory of the victory. He had no sooner agreed to undertake it, than an unexpected rival started up, one Q. Csecilius, a. Sicilian by birth, who had been quaestor to Verres ; and, by a pretence of personal injuries received from him, and a particular knowledge of his crimes, claimed a preference to Cicero in the task of accusing him, or at least to bear a joint share in it. But this pretended enenay was in reality a secret friend, employed by Verres himself to get the cause into his hands in order to betray it : his pretensions, however, were to be previously decided by a kind of process called divination, on account of its being wholly conjectural, in which the judges, without the help of witnesses, were to divine, as it were, what was fit to be done : but in the first hearing Cicero easily shook off this weak antagonist, rallying his character and pretensions with a great deal of wit and humour, and showing, " that the proper patron of such a cause could not be one who offered himself forwardly, hut who was drawn to it unwil- lingly from the mere sense of his duty; one.whom the prosecutors desired, and the criminal dreaded ; one qualified by his innocence, as well as experience, to sustain it with credit ; and whom the custom of their ancestors pointed out and preferred to it." In this Speech, after opening the reasons why, con- trary to his former practice, and the rule which he had laid down to himself, of dedicating his labours to the defence of the distressed, he now appeared as an accuser, he adds : " the provinces are utterly undone ; the allies and tributaries so miserably oppressed, that they have lost even the hopes of redress, and seek only some comfort in their ruin : those, who would have the trials remain in the hands of the senate, complain, that there are no men of reputation to undertake impeachments, no severity in the judges : the people of Rome, in the meanwhile, though labouring under many other grievances, yet desire nothing so ardently, as the ancient discipline and gravity of trials. For the want of trials, the tribunician power is called for again ; for the abuse of trials, a new order of judges is demanded ; for the scandalous behaviour of judges, the authority of the censors, hated before as too rigid, is now desired and grown popular. In this license of profligate criminals, in the daily com- plaints of the Roman people, the infamy of trials, the disgrace of the whole senatorian order, as I thought it the only remedy to these mischiefs, for men of abilities and integrity to undertake the cause 1> In foro ob eloquentiam rege causarum. — Ascon. Ar- gum. in Divinat. 24 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of the republic and the laws, so I was induced the more readily, out of regard to our common safety, to come to the relief of that part of the adminis- tration, which seemed the most to stand in need of it'." This previous point being settled in favour of Cicero, a hundred and ten days were granted to him by law for preparing the evidence ; in which he was obliged to make a voyage to Sicily, in order to examine witnesses, and collect facts to support the indictment. He was aware, that all Verres's art would be employed to gain time, in hopes to tire out the prosecutors, and allay the heat of the public resentment : so that for the greater dispatch he took along with him his cousin, L. Cicero, to ease him of a part of the trouble, and finished his progress through the island in less than half the time which was allowed to him **, In all the journeys of this kind, the prosecutor's charges used to be publicly defrayed by the pro- vince, or the cities concerned in the impeachment : hut Cicero, to show his contempt of money, and disinterestedness in the cause, resolved to put the island to no charge on his account ; and in all the places to which he came, took up his quarters with his particular friends and acquaintance in a private manner, and at his own expensed The Sicilians receivei him everywhere with all the honours due to his uncommon generosity, and the pains which he was taking in their service : but at Syracuse he met with some little affronts from the influence of the praetor Metellus, who employed all his power to obstruct his inquiries, and discourage the people from giving him infor. mation. He was invited however by the magis- trates with great respect into their senate, where after he had expostulated with them a little for the gilt statue of Verres, which stood there before his face, and the testimonial which they had sent to Home in his favour ; they excused themselves to him in their speeches, and alleged, that what they had been induced to do on that occasion was the eifect of force and fear, obtained by the intrigues of a few, against the general inchnation ; and to convince him of their sincerity, delivered into his hands the authentic accounts of many robberies and injuries which their own city had suffered from Verres in common with the rest of the province. As soon as Cicero retired, they declared his cousin Lucius the public guest and friend of the city, for having signified the same good will towards them, which Cicero himself had always done ; and, by a second decree, revoked the public praises which they had before given to Verres. Here Cicero's old antagonist, Csecilius, appealed against them to the praetor ; which provoked the populace to such a degree, that Cicero could hardly restrain them from doing him violence : the prsetor dismissed the senate, and declared their act to be irregular, and would not suffer a copy of it to be given to Cicero ; whom he reproached at the same time for betraying the dignity of Rome, by submitting not c Divinat. 3. (1 Ego Siciliam totam quinquaginta diebus sic obii..— In Terr. Act. i. 2. e In Siciliam sum inquirendi causa profectuB, quo in negotio — ad hospites meos, ac neceasarios, caugse com- munia defenaor diverti potius, quam ad eos, qui a me con- silium petivissent, Nemini meua adventus labori aut Bumptul, nequo publice neque privatum fuit,— In Verr. i, 6, only to speak in a foreign senate, but ma foreign language, and to talk Greek among Grecians'. But Cicero answered him with such spirit and resolution, urging the sanction of the laws, and the penalty of contemning them, that the prsetor was forced at last to let him carry away aU the vouchers and records which he required e. But the city of Messana continued obstinate to the last, and firm to its engagements with Verres : so that when Cicero came thither, he received no compliments from the magistrates, no offer of refreshments or quarters ; but was left to shift for himself, and to be taken care of by private friends. An Indignity, he says, which had never been offered before to a senator of Rome ; whom there was not a king or city upon earth, that was not proud to invite and accommodate with a lodg- ing. But he mortified them for it severely at the trial, and threatened to call them to an account before the senate, as for an affront to the whole order*". After he had finished his business in Sicily, having reason to apprehend some danger in returning home by land, not only from the robbers, who infested all those roads, but from the malice and contrivance of Verres, he chose to come back by sea, and arrived at Rome, to the surprise of his adversaries, much sooner than he was expected', and full charged with most manifest proofs of Verres's guilt. On his return he found, what he suspected, a strong cabal formed to prolong the affair by all the arts of delay which interest or money could pro- cure'', with design to throw it off at least to the next year, when Hortensius and Metellus were to be consuls, and Metellus's brother a prsetor, by whose united authority the prosecution might easily be bafiled : and they had already carried the matter so far, that there was not time enough left within the current year to go through the cause in the ordinary forms. This put Cicero upon a new pro- ject, of shortening the method of the proceeding', so as to bring it to an issue at any rate before the present prsetor M. Glabrio and his assessors, who ' Ait indiguum f acinus esse, quod ego in senatu Grsca verba fecissem : quod quidem apud Grxcos Grjece locutus eaaem, id ferri uullo modo posse. — In Verr. iv. 06 ; Vide ib. 62, 63, 64. Valerius Maximus says, that the Roman magistrates were anciently so jealous of the honour of the republic, that they never gave an answer to foreigners but in Latin ; and obliged the Greeks themselves to. speak to them al- ways by an interpreter, not only in Home, but in Greece and Aaia ; in order to inculcate a reverence for the Latin tongue through all nations. [Lib. ii. 2.] But this piece of discipline had long been laid aside ; and the Greek lan- guage had obtained such a vogue in Home itself, that all the great and noble were obliged not only to learn, but ambitious everywhere to speak it. B Vide in Verr. iv. 62, 63, 64, 65. li Ecquae civitas est — ^Rex denique ecquis est, qui Sena< torem populi Romani tecto-ac dome non invitet ? &c.— In Verr. iv. 11. * Non ego a Vibone Veliam parvulo navigio inter fngiti- vorum prsedonum, ac tua tela venissem — omnis iUa mea festinatio fuit cum periculo capitis. — ^In Verr. ii. 40 ; Vido Ascon. Argum, in Divinat. ^ Reperio, Judices, hsec ab istis consilia inita et consti- tuta, ut quacunque opus esset ratione res ita duceretur, ut apud M. Metellum prxtorem causa diceretur. — ^In Verr. i. 9. II Cicero summo consilio videtur in Verrem vel contra* here tempera dicendi maluiase, quam in eum annum, quo erat Q. Hortensius consul futurus, incidere.— Quintil, vi.S. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERQ. 26 were like to be equal judges™, instead therefore of spending any time in speaking, or employing his eloquence, as usual, in enforcing and aggra- vating the several articles of the charge, he resolved to do nothing mors than produce his witnesses, and offer them to be interrogated: where the novelty of the thing, and the notoriety of the guilt, which appeared at once from the very recital of the depositions, so confounded Hortensius, that he had nothing to say for his client ; who, despair- ing of all defence, submitted, without expecting the sentence, to a voluntary exile". From this account it appears, that of the seven excellent orations, which now remain on the sub- ject of this trial, the first two only were spoken, the one called the Divination, the other the first action, which is nothing more than a general preface to the whole cause : the other five were published afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to be spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence : for as this was the only cause in which Cicero had yet been engaged, or ever designed to be engaged as an accuser, so he was willing to leave these orations as a specimen of his abilities in that way, and the pattern of a just and diligent impeachment of a great and corrupt magistrate **, In the first contest with Csecilius he estimates the damages of the Sicilians at above eight hundred thousand pounds' ; but this was a computation at large, before he was distinctly informed of the facts : for after he had been in Sicily, and seen what the proofs actually amounted to, he charges them at somewhat less than half that sum '^ : and though the law in these causes gave double damages, yet no more seems to have been allowed in this than the single sum; which gave occasion, as Plutarch intimates, to a suspicion of some corrup- tion or connivance in Cicero, for suffering so great an abatement of the fine : but if there was any abatement at all, it must needs have been made by the consent of all parties, out of regard perhaps to Verres's submission, and shortening the trouble of the prosecutors : for it is certain, that so far from leaving any imputation of that sort upon Cicero, it highly raised the reputation both of his abilities and integrity, as of one, whom neither money could bribe, nor power terrify from prosecuting a public oppressor ; and the Sicilians ever after retained the highest sense of his services, and on all occasions testified the utmost zeal for his person and in- terests. From the conclusion of these orations we may observe, that Cicero's vigour in this cause had drawn upon him the envy and ill will of the no- ™ Mihi certum est non committere, ut in hac causa prstor nobis consiliumque mutetur. — ^Act. i, 18. ° Faciam lioc — ut utar testibus statim. — Ibid. — Sed tantummodo citarct testes — et eosHortensio interrogandos daret: qua arte ita est fatigatus Hortensius, ut nihil, contra quod diceret, inveniret : ipse etiam Verres, despe- rate patroeinio, suasponte discederet in exilium. — ^Argum. Asconii in Act. i. ° In caeteris orationibus defensor futurus, aecusationis officium his libris, qui Verrinarum nomine nuncupantur, compensare decrevit ; et — in una causa vim hujus artis et eloquentis demonstrare, — ^Ascon. Argum. in Lib. et in Verr. P Quo nomine abs te, C. Verres, seatertium millies ex lege repeto. — Divin. in Officii. 5. 1 Dicimus C. Verrem— quadringenties sesterttum ex Sicilia contra leges abstulisse. — Act, i. 18. bility : which was so far however from moving him, that in open defiance of it he declares, " that the nobles were natural enemies to the virtue and industry of all new men ; and, as if they were of another race and species, could never he reconciled or induced to favour them, by any observance or good offices whatsoever ; that for his part there- fore, like many others before him, he would pursue his own course, and make his way to the favour of the people, and the honours of the state, by his diligence and faithful services, without regarding the quarrels to which he might expose himself. — That if in this trial the judges did not answer the good opinion which he had conceived of tliem, he was resolved to prosecute, not only those who were actually guilty of corruption, but those too who were privy to it : and if any should be so audacious, as to attempt by power or artifice to influence the bench, and screen the criminal, he would call him to answer for it before the people, and show himself more vigorous in pursuing him, than he had been even in prosecuting Verres'." But before I dismiss the cause of Verres, it will not be improper to add a short account of some of his principal crimes, in order to give the reader a clearer notion of the usual method of governing provinces, and explain the grounds of those frequent impeachments and public trials, which he will meet with in the sequel of this his- tory : for though few of their governors ever came up to the full measure of Verres's iniquity, yet the greatest part were guilty in some degree of every kind of oppression with which Verres him- self was charged. This Cicero frequently intimates in his pleading, and urges the necessity of con- demning him for the sake of the example, and to prevent such practices from growing too general to be controlled*. The accusation was divided into four heads ; 1. of corruption in judging causes ; 2. of extortion in collecting the tithes and revenues of the republic ; 3. of plundering the subjects of their statues and wrought plate, which was his peculiar taste ; 4. of illegal and tyrannical punishments. I shall give a specimen or two of each from the great number that Cicero has collected, which yet, as he tells us, was but a small extract from an infinitely greater, of which Verres had been actually guilty. There was not an estate in SicUy, of any con- siderable value, which had been disposed of by will for twenty years past, where Verres had not his emissaries at work to find some flaw in the title, or some omission in executing the conditions of the testator, as a ground of extorting money from the heir. Dio of Halesa, » man of eminent quality, was in quiet possession of a great inheritance, left to him by the will of a relation, who had enjoined him to erect certain statues in the square of the city, on the penalty of forfeiting the estate to the Eryoinian Venus. The statues were erected according to the will ; yet Verres, having found r Proinde siqui sunt, qui in hoc reo aut potentes, aut audaces, aut aitifices ad corrumpendum judicium velint esse, ita sint parati, ut disceptante populo Romano mecum sibi rem videant futuram, &c, — In Verr, v, 71 - « Quid igituT dicet ? focisse alios,— Sunt quffidam om- nino in te singularia— quaedam tibi cum multis communia. Ergo omittam tuos peculatus, ut ob jus dicendum pecu- niae acceptas— quae forsitan alii quoque fecerint, &c. — lb, iii. 88. 26 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF some little pretence for cavilling, suborned an obscure Sicilian, one of bis own informers, to sue for tbe estate in the name of Venus ; and wben the cause was brought before bim, forced Dio to com- pound with him for about nine thousand pounds, and to yield to him also a famous breed of mares, with all the Taluable plate and furniture of his house '. Sopater, an eminent citizen of Haliciae, had been accused before the late preetor, C. Sacerdos, of a capital crime, of which he was honourably acquitted ; but whenVerres succeeded to the govern- ment, the prosecutors renewed their charge, and brought him to a second trial before their new prsetor ; to which Sopater, trusting to his inno- cence and the judgment of Sacerdos, readily sub- mitted without any apprehension of danger. After one hearing the cause was adjourned, when Timar- chides, the freedman and principal agent of Verres, came to Sopater, and admonished him as a friend, not to depend too much on the goodness of his cause and his former absolution, for that his adversaries had resolved to offer money to the praetor, who would rather take it for saving, than destroying a criminal, and was unwilling likewise to reverse the judgment of his predecessor. Sopater, surprised at this intimation, and not knowing what answer to make, promised to consider of it ; but declared himself unable to advance any large sum. Upon consulting his friends, they all advised him to take the hint, and make up the matter ; so that in a second meeting with Timarchides, after alleging his particular want of money, he com- pounded the affair for about seven hundred pounds, which he paid down upon the spot"^. He now took all his trouble to be over : but after another hearing, the cause was still adjourned; and Timar- chides came again to let him know that his accusers had offered a much larger sum chan what he had given, and advised hira, if he was wise, to consider well what he had to do. But Sopater, provoked by a proceeding so impudent, had not the patience even to hear Timarchides, but flatly told him that they might do what they pleased, for he was deter- mined to give no more. All his friends were of the same mind, imagining, that whatever Verres himself might intend to do, he would not be able to draw the other judges into it, being all men of the first figure in Syracuse, who had judged the same cause already with the late prjetor, and acquitted Sopater. When the third hearing came on, Verres ordered Petilius, a Roman knight, who was one of the bench, to go and hear a private cause, which was appointed for that day, and of which he was like- wise the judge. Petilius refused, alleging that the rest of his assessors would be engaged in the present trial. But Verres declared, that they might all go with him too if they pleased, for he did not desire to detain them ; upon which they all presently withdrew, some to sit as judges, and t Hie est Dio — de quo multis primariis viris testibus satiefactum est, H. S. undecies numeratum esse, ut earn cauaam, in qua ne tenuissima quidem suspieio posset esse, igto cognoscente obtineret : praeterea greges nobilissima- nim equarum abaotos : argenti vestisque stragulse domi quod fuorit esse direptum. — In Verr. ii. 7. " Post ad amicos retullt. Qui cum ei fuissent auctores redimendx salutis, ad Timarcbidem venit. Expositis suis difficultatibus, hominem od H. 8. Ixxx, perduoit, eamquo ei pecuniam numerat. — lb. ii. 28, some to serve their friends in the other cause. Minucius, Sopater's advocate, seeing the bench thus cleared, took it for granted that Verres would not proceed in the trial that day, and was gomg out of the court along with the rest ; when Verres called him back, and ordered him to enter upon the defence of his cUent. " Defend him!" says he; "before whom.'" "Before me," replied Verres, " if you think me worthy to try a paltry Greek and Sicilian." "I do not dispute your worthiness," says Minucius, " but wish only that your assessors were present, who are so well acquainted with the merits of the cause." "Begin, I tell you," says Verres, " for they cannot be present." " No more can I," replied Minucius ; " for Petilius begged of me also to go, and sit with him upon the other trial." And when Verres with many threats required him to stay, he abso- lutely refused to act, since the bench was dismissed, and so left the court together with all the rest of Sopater's friends. This somewhat discomposed Verres ; but after he had been whispered several times by his clerk Timarchides, he commanded Sopater to speak what he had to say in his own defence. Sopater implored him by all the gods not to proceed to sentence till the rest of the judges could be present : but Verres called for the wit- nesses, and after he had heard one or two of them in a summary way, without their being interrogated by any one, put an end to the trial, and condemned the criminal*. Among the various branches of Verres's illegal gains, the sale of offices was a considerable article: for there was not a magistracy of any kind to be disposed of either by lot or a free vote, which he did not arbitrarily sell to the best bidder. The priesthood of Jupiter at Syracuse was of all others the most honourable : the method of electing into it was to choose three by a general vote out of three several classes of the citizens, whose names were afterwards cast into an urn, and the first of them that was drawn out obtained the priesthood. Verres had sold it to Theomnastus, and procured him to be named in the first instance among the three ; but as the remaining part was to be decided by lot, people were in great expectation to see how he would manage that which was not so easily in his power. He commanded, therefore, in tbe first place, that Theomnastus should be declared priest, without casting lots ; but when the Syracusians remonstrated against it as contrary to their religion and the law, he called for the law, which ordered, that as many lots should be made as there were persons nominated, and that he whose name came out the first, should be the priest. He asked them, ' ' how many were nominated ; ' ' they answered, "three." " And what more then," says he, "is required by the law, than tliat three lots should be cast, and one of them drawn out.'" They answered, " Nothing :" upon which he presently ordered three lots, with Theompastus's name upon every one of them, to be cast into the urn, and so by drawing out any one, the election was deter- mined in his favour r. * Turn rcpente iste testes citari jubet. Dicit unuset alter breviter. Nihil interrogatur. Prseco, dixisse pronun- oiat, Iste, properans de sella, exiluil : hominem innocen- tem, a C, Sacerdote absolutiuu, indicta causa, de sententia soribs,medici,haruBpicisqueoondemiiavit. — In Verr. ii.30. 7 Numquid igitur oportet nisi tres sortes oonjioi, unam MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 27 The tenth of the corn of all the conquered towns io Sicily belonged to the Romans, as it had for- merly done to their own princes, and was always gathered in kind and sent to Rome : but us this was not sufficient for the pubUc use, the praetors had an appointment also of money from the trea- sury to purchase such farther stores as were neces- sary for the current year. Now the manner of collecting and ascertaining the quantity of the tithes was settled by an old law of King Hiero, the most moderate and equitable of all their ancient tyrants : but Verres, by a strange sort of edict, ordered, that the owner should pay what- ever the collector demanded ; but if he exacted more than his due, that he should be liable to a Sne of eight times the value". By this edict he threw the property, as it were, of the island into the power of his officers, to whom he had farmed out the tithes ; who, in virtue of the new law, seized into their hands the whole crop of every town, and obliged the owners to give them whatever share of it, or composition in money, they thought fit i and if any refused, they not only plundered them of all their goods, but even tortured their per- sons, till they had forced them to a compliance'. By this means Verres, having gathered a sufficient quantity of corn from the very tithes to supply the full demands of Rome, put the whole money, that be had received from the treasury, into bis own poclcet'' ; and used to brag, that he had got enough from this single article to screen him from any impeachment : and not without reason ; since one of his clerks, who had the management of this corn-money, was proved to have got above ten thousand pounds from the very fees which were allowed for collecting it". The poor husbandmen, in the mean time, having no remedy, were forced to run away from their houses, and desert the tillage of the ground ; so that from the registers, which were punctually kept in every town, of all the occupiers of arable lands in the island, it appeared, that during the three years' government of Verres, above two thirds of the whole number had entirely deserted their farms, and left their lands uncultivated''. Apronius, a man of infamous life and character, was the principal farmer of the tithes : who, when reproached with the cruelty of his ei^actions, made no scruple to own, that the chief share of the gain was placed to the account of the preetor. These words were charged upon him in the presence of educi ^ Nihil. Conjici jubet tres, in quibua omnibus soriptum csset nomen Theomnasti, Fit clamor maximus — ita Jovis illud sacerdotiiun nmplissimum per hano ratio- nem Tkeownasto datur. — In Verr. ii. 51 . ^ Tota Hieronioa lege rejeota et repudiata — edictum, Judices, audite preeclarum ; quantum deoumanus edi- disset aratorem sibi decumffi daro oportere, ut tantum arator decumano daro cogeretur — &o. — lb. iii. 10. ■* Apronius venit, omne instrumentum dirlpuit, fami- liara abduxit, peous abegit — hominem corripi et suspendl jussit in oleastro, &o.— lb. S3. ^ Jam vero ab isto omnem illam ex ffirario peouniam, quam hia oportuit civitatibus pro frumento dari, lucrifac- tam videlis.— lb. 75, &o. <= Tu ex pecunia publioa H. S. tredecies soribam tnum permiiisu tuo cum abstuiiese fateare, reliquam tibi uUam defenaionem putas ease ? — lb. 80. ■* Agvrinensis ager — ducentos quinquagiata aratoica babnit pi-imo anno preeture tarn. Quid tertio anno ? Qo- tag|ata— boo persque in omni agro decumano reperiotls. —lb. 51, 58, Sio. Verres and the magistrates of Syracuse, by one Rubrius, who offered a wager and trial upon the proof of them i but Verres, without showing any concern or emotion at it, privately took care to hush up the matter, and prevent the dispute from proceeding any farther =. The same wager was offered a second time, and in the same public manner, by one Soandilius, who loudly demahded judges to decide it : to which Verres, not being able to appease the clamour of the man, was forced to consent, and named them presently out of his own band, Cornelius his physi- cian, VolusiuB his soothsayer, and Valerius his crier ; to whom he usually referred all disputes, in which he bad any interest. Soandilius insisted to have them named out of the magistrates of Sicily, or that the matter should be referred to Rome : but Verres declared, that he would not trust a cause, in which his own reputation was at stake, to any but his own friends ; and when Soandilius refused to produce his proofs before such arbitrators, Verres condemn- ed him in the forfeiture of his wager, which was forty pounds, to Apronius'. C, Heius was the principal citizen of Messana, where he lived very splendidly in the most magni- ficent house of the city, and used to receive all the Roman magistrates with great hospitality. He had a chapel in his house, built by his ancestors, and furnished with certain images of the gods, of ad^ mirable sculpture and inestimable value. On one side stood a Cupid of marble, made by Praxiteles ; on the other, a Hercules of brass, by Myron ; with a little altar before each god, to denote the religion and sanctity of the place. There were likewise two other figures of brass of two young women, called Canepbora;, with baskets on their heads, carrying things proper for sacrifice after the man- ner of the Athenians, the work of Polycletus. These statues were an ornament not only to Heius, but to Messana itself, being known to everybody at Rome, and constantly visited by all strangers, to whom Heius's house was always open. The Cupid had been borrowed by C. Claudius, for the decora- tion of the forum 'n his sedileship, and was care- fully sent back to Messana ; but Verres, while he was Heius's guest, would never sutfer him to rest, till he had stripped his chapel of the gods and the canephorse ; and to cover the act from an appear- ance of robbery, forced Heius to enter them into his accounts, as if they had been sold to him for fifty pounds ; whereas at a pubUc auction in Rome, as Cicero says, they had known one single statue of brass, of a moderate size, sold a little before for a, thousands. Verres had seen likewise at Heius's Eorum omnium, qui decumani vooabantur, princepa erat Q. iUe Apronius, quern videtis : de cujus improbitate singulari graviHsimarum legationum querimonias audiatia. — In Verr. ii. 9. Cum palam Syraouais, te aui^iente, maximo conventu, P. Rubrius ft. Apronium aponsione laoessivit, ni Apronius dictitai-et, te aibi in deoumia ease sooium, &o,— lb. 67. ' Hio tu medicum et haruspioem, et prseoonem tuum recuperatores dabis ? [ib. liU.] Isto viros optimos reoupe- ratores dat, eundem ilium medicum Cornelium et harus- picem Volusianum, et Valerium prjeconem.— Ib. 21, it. 11. Soandilius piiatnlare de conventu recuperatores. Turn iate negat ae de existimatione auacuiquam, nisi suia, com- miaaurum— cogit Scandilium quinque iUa millia niunmuro dai'e atque adnumerare Apronio. — Ib. 60. S Brat apud Heium saoraiium magna oum dignitate in ledibua, a majoribua traditum, perantiquuin i in quo sign* 28 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF house, a suit of curious tapestry, reckoned the hest in Sicily, being of the kind which was called Atta- lic, richly interwoven with gold ; this he resolved also to extort from Heius, but not till he had se- cured the statues. As soon therefore as he left Messaua, he began to urge Heius, by letters, to send him the tapestry to Agrigentum,for some particular service which he pretended; but when he had once got it into his hands, he never restored it''. Now Messana, as it is said above, was the only city of Sicily that persevered to the last in the interest of Verres ; and at the time of the trial sent a pub- lic testimonial in his praise by a deputation of its eminent citizens, of which this very Heius was the cliief. Yet when he came to be interrogated and cross-examined by Cicero, he frankly declared, that though he was obliged to perform what the authority of his city had imposed upon him, yet that he had been plundered by Verres of his gods, which were left to him by his ancestors, and which he never would have parted with on any conditions whatsoever, if it had been in his power to keep them '. Verres had in his family two brothers of CiUcia, the one a painter, the other a sculptor, on whose judgment he chiefly relied in his choice of pictures and statues, and all other pieces of art. They had been forced to fly from their country for robbing a temple of .\pollo, and were now employed to hunt out every thing that was curious and valuable in Sicily, whether of public or private property. These brothers having given Verres notice of a large silver ewer, belonging to Pamphilus of Lily- bseum, of most elegant work, made by Boethus'', Verres immediately sent for it, and seized it to his own use ; and while Pamphilus was sitting pensive at home, lamenting the loss of his rich vessel, tlie chief ornament of his sideboard, and the pride of his feasts, another messenger came running to him, with orders to bring two silver cups also, which he was known to have, adorned with figures in relief, to be shown to the praitor. Pamphilus, for fear of greater mischief, took up his cups and carried them away himself : when he came to the palace Verres happened to be asleep, but the brothers were walk- ing in the hall, and waiting to receive him ; who, as soon as they saw him, asked for the cups, which he accordingly produced. They commended the work ; whilst he with a sorrowful face began to complain, that if they took his cups from him, he should have nothing of any value left in his house. The bro- thers, seeing his concern, asked how much he piiicherrima quatuor, summo artificio, summa nobilitate, &.C. [In Verr. iv. 2.] C. Claudius, cujus adilitatem mag- nificentissimam sciinus fuisso, usus est hoc Cupidine tarn diu, dum forum diia immortalibus, populoque Romano liabuit ornatum. — Haec omnia, quEe dixi, signa ab Heio de sacrario Verres abatuUt, &c. [ib, 3.] Ita jussisti, opinor, ipsum in tabulas rcferre. [ib, 6.] In auctione siguum icueum non magnum H. S. cxx millibus veuii-e non vidi- mu.s ? — ^In Verr. iv. 7. ^ Quid ? ilia Attalica, tota Sicilia nomiuata, ab eodem Heio peripetasmata emere oblitus es ? — At quomodo ab&- tulit?&c.— Ib. 12. i duid enim poterat Heius respondere ? — Primo dixit, se ilium publice laudare, quod sibi ita mandatum esset : deinde neque se ilia habuisse venalia, neque ulla oondi- tione, Hi utrura vellet liceret, adduci unquam potuisse ut venderet ilia, &c. — In Verr. iv. 7- ^ A celebrated Carthaginian sculptor, who left many famous works behind him, — Yid. Flin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 12 ; it. zxxiv, 8, would give to preserve them ; in a word, they de- manded forty crowns ; heofl'ered twenty: but while they were debating, Verres awaked and called for the cups, which being presently shown to him, the brothers took occasion to observe, that they did not answer to the account that had been given of them, and were but of paltry work, not lit to be seen among his plate ; to whose authority Verres readily submitted, and so Pamphilus saved his cups'. In the city of Tindaris there was a celebrated image of Mercury, which had been restored to them from Carthage by Scipio, and was worshipped by the people with singular devotion, and an annual fessival. This statue Verres resolved to have, and commanded the chief magistrate, Sopater, to see it taken down and conveyed to Messana. But the people were so inflamed and mutinous upon it, that Verres did not persist in his demand at that time ; but when he was leaving the place, renewed his orders to Sopater, with severe threats, to see his command executed. Sopater proposed the mat- ter to the senate, who universally protested ageunst it : in short, Verres returned to the town, and in- quired for the statue ; but was told by Sopater, that the senate would not suffer it to be taken down, and had made it capital for any one to meddle with it without their orders. " Do not tell me," says Verres, " of your senate and your orders ; if you do not presently deliver the statue, you shall be scourged to death vrith rods." Sopater with tears moved the affair again to the senate, and related the prsetor's threats ; but in vain ; they broke up in disorder, without giving any answer. This was reported by Sopater to Verres, who was sitting in his tribunal : it was the midst of winter, the weather extremely cold, and it rained very heavily, when Verres ordered Sopater to be stripped, and carried into the market-place, and there to be tied upon an equestrian statue of C. Marcellus, and exposed, naked as he was, to the rain and the cold, and stretched in a kind of torture upon the brazen horse ; where he must necessarily have perished, if the people of the town, out of compassion to him, had not forced their senate to grant the Mercuiy to Verres ™. Young Antiochus, King of Syria, having been at Rome to claim the kingdom of Egypt in right of his mother, passed through Sicily at this time on his return home, and came to Syracuse ; where Verres, who knew that he had a great treasure with him, received him with a particular civility ; made him large presents of wine, and all refreshments ' Cybiratas sunt fratres — quorum alterum fingere opinor e cera solitum esse, alterum esse pictorem. — Canes vena- ticos diceres, ita odorabantur omnia et pervestigabant. — In VeiT. iv. 13. Hemini Pamphilum Lilyboetanum mihi narrare, cum iste ab sese hydriam Boethi manu factam, prseclaro opere et grandi pondere, per potestatem abstulisset ; se sane tristem et conturbatum domum revertisse, &c. — Ib. 14. "» Turn iste : Quam mihi religionem narras ? quam pce- nam ? quem senatum ? Vivum te non relinquam : moriere virgis, nisi signum traditur — ^Erat hiems summa, tem- pestas, ut ipsum Sopatrmn dicere audlstis, perfrigida ; imber maximus, cum ipse imperat lictoribus, ut Sopatmm — prsecipitem in foi'um dejieiant, nudumque constituant — cum esset vinctus nudua in aire, in imbi-i, in frigore. Neque tamen finis huio injuris crudelitatique fiebat. doneo populus atquo universa multitude, atrocitate rei eommota, senatum damore coegit, ut ei simulacrum illud Mercurii polliceretur.— Ib. 39, 40. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 29 for his table, and entertained him most magnifi- cently at supper. The king, pleased with this com- pUment, invited Verres in his turn to sup with him ; when his sideboard was dressed out in a royal man- ner with his richest plate, and many vessels of solid gold set with precious stones ; among which there was a large jug for wine, made out of one entire gem, with a handle of gold to it. Verres greedily surveyed and admired every piece ; and the king rejoiced to see the Roman praetor so well satisfied with his entertainment. The next morning, Verres sent to the king to borrow some of his choicest ves- sels, and particularly the jug, for the sake of show- ing them, as he pretended, to his own workmen ; all which, the king having no suspicion of him, readily sent. But besides these vessels of domestic use, the king had brought with him a large candle- stick, or branch for several lights, of inestimable value, all made of precious stones, and adorned with the richest jewels, which he had designed for an offering to Jupiter Capitolinus ; but finding the repairs of the capitol not finished, and no place yet ready for the reception of his offering, he resolved to carry it back vrithout showing it to anybody, that the beauty of it might be new and the. more surpiising when it came to be first seen in that tem- ple. Verres, having got intelligence of this candle- stick, sent again to the king, to beg by all means that he would favour him with a sight of it, promis- ing that he would not suffer any one else to see it. The king sent it presently by his servants, who, after they had uncovered and shown it to Verres, expected to carry it back with them to the king ; but Verres declared, that he could not sufiiciently admire the beauty of the work, and must have more time to contemplate it ; and obliged them therefore to go away and leave it with him. Several days passed, and the king heard nothing from Verres ; so that he thought proper to remind him, by a civil message, of sending back the vessels ; but Verres ordered the servants to call again some other time. In short, after a second message with no better suc- cess, the king was forced to speak to Verres him- self ; upon which Verres earnestly entreated him to make him a present of the candlestick. The king affirmed it to be impossible, on the account of his vow to Jupiter, to which many nations were witnesses. Verres then began to drop some threats, but finding them of no more effect than his entreat- ies, he commanded the king to depart instantly out of his province : declaring, that he had received intelligence of certain pirates, who were coming from his kingdom to invade Sicily. The poor king, finding himself thus abused and robbed of his trea- sure, went into the great square of the city, and in a public assembly of the people, calling upon the gods and men to bear testimony to the injury, made a solemn dedication to Jupiter of the candle- stick, which he had vowed and designed for the capitol, and which Verres had forcibly taken from him". When any vessel, richly laden, happened to arrive in the ports of Sicily, it was generally seized o Rex maximo conventu Syracusis in foro flens, ac deos hominesque contestans, clamare coepit, — candela- brum factum e gcmmis, quod in Capitolium iniBsxu:ns easet, id eibi C. Verrem abstuljsse. — Id etsi antea jam mente et cogilatione sua consecratum esset, tamen turn se in illo conventu civium Romanorum dare, donare, dicare, consccrare Jovi Optimo Maximo, &c.— In Verr. iv. 28, 29. by his spies and informers, on pretence of its com- ing from Spain, and being filled with Sertorius's soldiers : and when the commanders exhibited their biUs of lading, vrith a sample of their goods, to prove themselves to be fair traders, who came from different quarters of the world, some producing Tyrian purple, others Arabian spices, some jewels and precious stones, others Greek wines and Asia- tic slaves ; the very proof, by which they hoped to save themselves, was their certain ruin : Verres declared their goods to have been acquired by piracy, and seizing the ships with their cargoes to his own use, committed the whole crew to prison, though the greatest part of them perhaps were Roman citizens. There was a famous dungeon at Syracuse, called the Latomiae, of a vast and horrible depth, dug out of a solid rock, which, having originally been a quarry of stone, was converted to a prison by Dionysius the Tyrant. Here Verres kept great numbers of Roman citizens in chains, whom he had first injured to a degree that made it necessary to destroy them ; whence few or none ever saw the light again, but were commonly strangled by his orders °. One Gavins, however, a Roman citizen of the town of Cosa, happened to escape from this dread- ful place, and run away to Messana ; where, fancy- ing himself out of danger, and being ready to embark for Italy, he began to talk of the injuries which he had received, and of going straight to Rome, where Verres should be sure to hear of him. But he might as well have said the words in the praetor's palace, as at Messana ; for he was pre- sently seized and secured till Verres's arrival, who, *- coming thither soon after, condemned him as a spy of the fugitives, first to be scourged in the market- place, and then nailed to a cross, erected for the purpose, on a conspicuous part of the shore, and looking towards Italy, that the poor wretch might have the additional misery of suffering that cruel death in sight as it were of his home p. The coasts of Sicily being much infested by pi- rates, it was the custom of all prsetors to fit out a fleet every year, for the protection of its trade and navigation. This fleet was provided by a contribu- tion of the maritime towns, each of which usually furnished a ship, with a certain number of men and provisions : but Verres for a valuable consideration sometimes remitted the ship, and always discharged as many of the men as were able to pay for it. A fleet however was equipped of seven ships ; but for show rather than service, without their complement either of men or stores, and wholly unfit to act against an enemy ; and the command of it was o QuaBCimque navis ex Asia veneret, statim certis indi- cibus ct custodibus tenebatur: vectores omnes in Lato- mias conjiciebantur : onera atque merces in praetoriam domum deferebantur— eoB Sertorianos milites esse, atquo a Dianio fugere dicebat, &c. — In Verr. 1. 5. 56. Latomias Syracusanas onmes audistis. Opus est ingens magnificum regum ac tyrannorum. Totum est ex saxo mirandam in altitudinem depresso— nihil tain clausum ad exitus, nihil tam tutum ail custodias, nee fieri nee cogitari potest. [lb. 27.] Career llle, qui est a crudelissimo tyranno Dionysio factus, quae LatomiBe vocantur, in istius imperio domicilium civium Romanorum fuit. — ^Ib. 55. p Gavius hie quem dico, Cosanus, cum in illo numero civium ab isto in vinela conjectus esset, et nescio qua ra- tione clam e Latomiis protugisset^loqui Messana; coepit, et queri, se civem Romanum in vinela conjectum, sibi recta iter esse Romam, Verri se pra?.=to advenionti futu- nmi, &c, — lb. CI. 30 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF giren by him, not to his qnsestor, or one of Ms lieutenants, aa it was usual, but to Cleomenes a Syracusian, whose wife was bis mistress, that he might enjoy her company the more freely at home, while the husband was employed abroad. For in- stead of spending the summer, as other governors used to do, in a progress through his province, he quitted the palace of Syracuse, and retired to a lit- tle island, adjoining to the city, to lodge in tents, or rich pavilions, pitched close by the fountain of Are- thusa ; where, forbidding the approach of men or business to disturb him, he passed two of the hot months in the company of his favourite women, and all the delicacy of pleasure that art and luxury could invent '. The fleet, in the mean time, sailed out of Syra- cuse in great pomp, and saluted Verres and his company, as it passed; when the Roman prsetor, says Cicero, who had not been seen before for many days, showed himself at last to the sailors, standing on the shore in slippers, with a purple cloak and vest, flowing down to his heels, and leaning on the shoulder of a girl, to view this formidable squad- ron': which, instead of scouring the seas, sailed no farther after several days, than into the port of Pachynus. Here, as they lay peaceably at anchor, they were surprised with an account of a number of pirale frigates, lying in another harbour very near to them : upon which, the admiral Cleomenes cut his cables in a great fright, and, with all the sail that he could make, fled away towards Pelorus, and escaped to land : the rest of the ships followed him as fast as they could ; but two of them, which sailed the slowest, weretaken by the pirates, and one of the captains killed : the other captains quitted their ships, as Cleomenes had done, and got safe to land. The pirates, finding the ships deserted, set fire to them all that evening, and the next day sailed boldly into the port of Syracuse, which reached into the very heart of the town ; where, after they had satisfied their curiosity, and filled the city with a general terror, they sailed out again at leisure, and in good order, in a kind of triumph over Verres and the authority of Rome". The news of a Roman fleet burnt, and Syracuse insulted by pirates, made a great noise through all 4 Erat et Nice, facie eximia, uxor Cleomenis Syracusani — istc autem cum vir esset Syracusis, uxorem ejus parurn poterat animo Boluto ao libero tot in acta dies secum ha- bere. Itaque excogitat rem singulai-em. Naves, quibus legatus prasfuerat. Cleomeni tradit. Classi popuU Ro- mani Cleomenem Syracusanuai praeesse jubet. Hoc eo facit, ut non solum ille abesset a dome — Nam ffistate summa, quo tempore eseteri praetores obire provinciam, et concursare consiieverimt, eo tempore — ad luxuriem, libidinesque suas — tabernacnla, carbaseis intenta velia, coUocari jussit in littore, &c — In Verr. v. 31. r Ipse autem, qui visus multis diebus non esset, turn SB tamen in conspectum nautis paullisper dedit. Stetit boleatus praetor populi Roman! cum pallio purpureo, tunicaque talari, mullercula nixus in littore. — lb. 33. Quintilian greatly admires this short description, as placing the very scene and fact before our eyes, and sug- gesting still much more than is expressed by it : [viii. 3.] but the concise elegance and expressive brevity, in which its beuuty consists, cannot possibly be preserved in a translation. 9 Tunc prffldonum dux Heraeleo repentepraeter spem, non sua virtute — victor, classem pulcherrimam populi Bomani in littus expulsam et ejectam, eiun primum ad- vesperasceret, inilammari incendique jussit, &c.— lb. 35, '36. Sicilv The captains, in excuse of themselves, were'forced to tell the truth ; that their ships were scandalously unprovided both with men and stores, and in no condition to face an enemy ; each of them relating how many of their sailors had been discharged by Verres's particular orders, on whom the whole blame was justly laid. When this came to his ears, he sent for the captains, and after threatening them very severely for talking in that manner, forced them to declare, and to testify it also in writing, that every one of their ships had its full complement of all things necessary ; but finding, after all, that there was no way of stifling the clamour, and that it would necessarily reach to Rome, he resolved, for the extenuation of his own crime, to sacrifice the poor captains, and put them all to death, except the admiral Cleomenes, the most criminal of them all, and at his request the commander also of his ship. In consequence of this resolution, the four remaining captains, after fourteen days from the action, when they suspected no danger, were arrested and clapt into irons. They were all young men, of the principal families of Sicily, some of them the only sons of aged parents, who came presently in great conster- nation to Syracuse, to solicit the praetor for their pardon. But Verres was inexorable ; and having thrown them into his dungeon, where nobody was suffered to speak with them, condemned them to lose their heads ; whilst all the service that their unhappy parents could do for them, was to bribe the executioner to dispatch them with one stroke, instead of more, which he brutally refused to do, unless he was paid for it, and to purchase of Timarchides the liberty of giving them burial'. It happened, however, before this loss of the fleet, that a single pirate-ship was taken by Verres's lieutenants, and brought into Syracuse; which proved to be a very rjch prize, and had on board a great number of handsome young fellows. There was a band of musicians among them, whom Verres sent away to Rome a present to a friend ; and the rest, who had either youth, or beauty, or skill in any art, were distributed to his clerks and depen- dents, to be kept for his use ; but the few who were old and deformed, were committed to the dungeon and reserved for punishment". The captain of these pirates had long been a terror to the Sicilians; so that they were all eager to see his person and to feed their eyes with his execution : but being rich, he found means to redeem his head, and was care- fully kept out of sight, and conveyed to some private custody, till Verres could make the best market of him. The people in the mean time grew impatient and clamorous for the death of the pirates, * Cleomenem et navarchos ad se vocari jubet ; accusat eos, quod hujusmodi de se sermcnes habueriut : rogat ut id facere desistant, et in sua quisque navi dicat se tantum habuisse nautarum, quantum oportuerit. Illi se osten- dunt quod vellet esse facturos. Iste in tabulas refert ; ob- signat signis amicorum. Iste hominibus miseris inno- centibusque injici catenas jubet. Veniunt Syraeusas parentes propinquique miserorum adolescentium, &c.^ In Verr. v. 39. 40, »Sec. « Erat ea navis plena juventutis formosissimae, plena argenti facti atque signati, multa cum stragula veste— siqui senes aut deformes eraut, eos in ho-stium numero duclt, qui aliquid formae, setatis, artifioiique habebant, abducit omnes, nonnuUos scribis suis filio, cohortique distribuit. Symphoniacos homines sex cuidam amico suo Romam muneri misit, &c. — lb. 25, &c. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 31 vhom all other prsetors used to execute as soon as taken; and knowing the number of them to be great, could not be satisfied with the few old and decrepit, whom Verres willingly sacrificed to their resentment. He took this opportunity, therefore, to clear the dungeon of those Roman citizens, whom he had reserved for such an occasion, and now brought out to execution as a part of the pirati- cal crew ; but to prevent the imprecations and cries, which citizens used to make of their being free Romans, and to hinder their being known also to any other citizens there present, he produced them all with their heads and faces so muffled up, that they could neither be heard nor seen, and in that cruel manner destroyed great numbers of innocent men". Sut to finish at last this whole story of Verres : after he had lived many years in a miserable exile, forgotten and deserted by all his friends, he is said to have been relieved by the generosity of Cicero?; yet was proscribed and murdered after aU by Marc Antony, for the 'sake of his fine statues and Corinthian vessels, which he refused to part with' : happy only, as Lactantius gays,, before his death, to have seen the more deplorable end of his old enemy and accuser, Cicero". But neither the condemnation of this criminal, nor the concessions already made by the senate, were able to pacify the discontents of the people j they demanded still, as loudly as ever, the restora- tion of the tribunician power, and the right of judicature to the equestrian order ; till after various contests and tumults, excited annually on that account by the tribunes, they were gratified this year in them both ; in the first by Pompey the consul. In the second by L. Cotta the praetor''. The tribunes were strenuously assisted in all this straggle by J. Csesar", and as strenuously opposed by all who wished well to the tranquillity of the city : for long experience had shewn that they had always been, not only the chief disturbers of the public peace, by theabuse of their extravagant power, but the constant tools of all the ambitious, who had any designs of advancing themselves above the laws * : for fay corrupting one or more of the tribunes , which they were sure to effect by paying their full price, they could either obtain from the people whatever they wanted, or obstruct at least whatever should be attempted against thera : so that this act was generally disliked by the better sort, and gave a suspicion of no good intentions in Pompey ; who, to rei^iove all jealousies against him on this, or any other account, voluntarily took an oath, that on the expiration of his consulship he would * Archlpiratam ipsuni vidit nemo — cum omues, ut mos est, conciurrerent, quffirereut, videre cuperent, &c, [In Verr. v. 26,'] Cum maximus numerus deesset, turn iste iu eonim locum, quos domum Buam de piratis abduxerat, Bubstituere ccepit cives RomanoSj quos in carcerem autea conjecerat, Itaque alii cives Romani ne cognoscerentur, capitibus obvolutis e carcere ad palum atgue necem rapiebantur, &c.— lb. 28, &c. Quid de multitudine dicemus eorum, qui capitibus in- volutis in piratarum captivoi'umquc numero produceban- tur, ut securi ferirentur. — lb. €0. 7 Senec. vi. Suasor. 6. * Plia. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 2. * Lactan. ii, 4. ^ Hoc consulatu Fompeius tribuniciam poteatatem re- stituit, cujus imaginem Sylla sine re reliquerat. — ^Vell. I'at, ii. 30, c Auctores restituends tribuniciae potestatis enixisslme juvit.— Sueton. iu J. Caes. 5. ii De Legib. lil. 9. accept no public command or government, but content himself with the condition of a private senator'. Plutarch speaks of this act as the effect of Pompey's gratitude to the people for the extraor- dinary honours which they had heaped upon him : but Cicero makes the best excuse for it after Pompey's death, which the thing itself would bear, by observing that a statesman must always con- sider not only what is best, but what is necessary to the times ; thatPompeyweU knew the impatience of the people ; and that they would not bear the loss of the tribunician power much longer ; and it was the part, therefore, of a good citizen not to leave to a bad one the credit of doing what was too popular to be withstood'. But whatever were Pompey's views in the restitution of this power, whether he wanted the skill or the inclination to apply it to any bad purpose, it is certain that he had cause to repent of it afterwards, when Caesar, who had a better head with a worse heart, took the advantage of it to his ruin ; and by the help of the tribunes was supplied both with the power and the pretext for overturning the republic b. As to the other dispute, about restoring the right of judging to the knights, it was thought the best way of correcting the insolence of the nobles, to subject them to the judicature of an inferior order, who, from a natural jealousy and envy towards them, would be sure to punish their oppressions with proper severity. It was ended however at last by a compromise, and a new law was prepared by common consent, to vest this power jointly in the senators and the knights ; from each of which orders a certain number was to be drawn annually by lot, to sit in judgment together with the prsetor upon all causes'*. ' But for the more effectual cure of that general license and corruption of morals, which had in- fected all orders, another remedy was also provided this year, an election of censors : it ought regularly to have been made every five years, but had now been intermitted from the time of Sylla for about seventeen. These censors were the guardians of the disciphne and manners of the city', and had a power to punish vice and immorality by some mark of infamy in all ranks of men, from the highest to the lowest. The persons now chosen were L. Gellius and Cn. Lentulus ; both of them men- tioned by Cicero as his particular acquaintance, and the last as his intimate friend''. Their authority, after so long an intermission, was exercised with that severity which the libertinism of the times required ; for they expelled above sixty-four from the senate for notorious immoralities, the greatest part for the detestable practice of taking money for e Qui cum consul laudabiliter jurasset, se in nullam provinciam ex eo magietratu iturmn. — Veil. Pat. ii. 31. ' DeLegib. 3. 11. s "Ore 5^ Kal fLtlMara tu Ilo^irTjV^ fieTefie\7]tTs r^y STjfj.apx'taJ'—aya'ya'ySyrt aSdis .iirl t6 apxatov, Ap- plan. ii. p. 445, ^ Per idem tempus Cotta judicandi mxinus, quod C. Gracchus ereptum senatui, ad Equites, Sylla ab illis ad Senatum transtulerat, aequaliter inter uu-umqueordinem partitusest,— Veil, Pat, ii, 32, ' Tu es prffifectus moribus, magister veteris disciplina: ac severitatis, — Pro Cluentio, 46. b Nam mihi cum aiubobus est amicitia : cum altero vero, maguUB usus et summa necessitudo. — Pro Cluentio, 42. 32 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF judging causes', and among them C. Antonius, the uncle of the triumvir ; subscribing their reasons for it, that he had plundered the allies, declined a trial, mortgaged his lands, and was not master of his estate": yet this very Antonius was elected sedile and praetor soon after in his proper course, and within six years advanced to the consulship : which confirms what Cicero says of this censorian animadversion, that it was become merely nominal, and had no other effect than of putting a man to the blush". From the impeachment of Verres, Cicero entered upon the sedileship, and in one of his speeches gives us a short account of the duty of it : "I am now chosen sedile, says he, and am sensible of what is committed to me by the Roman people : I am to exhibit with the greatest solemnity the most sacred sports to Ceres, Liber, and Libera ; am to appease and conciliate the mother Flora to the people and city of Rome, by the celebration of the public games ; am to furnish out those ancient shows, the first which were called Roman, with all pos- sible dignity and religion, in honour of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva ; am to take care also of all the sacred edifices, and indeed of the whole city, &c.° " The people were passionately fond of all these games and diversions ; and the public allowance for them being but small, according to the frugality of the old republic, the aediles supplied the rest at their own cost, and were often ruined by it. For every part of the empire was ransacked for what was rare and curious, to adorn the splendour of their shows : the Forum, in which they were ex- hibited, was usually beautified with porticoes built for the purpose, and filled with the choicest statues and pictures which Rome and Italy afforded. Cicero reproaches Appius for draining Greece and the islands of all their furniture of this kind for the ornament of his sedileshipP; and Verres is said to have supplied his friends, Hortensius and Me- tellus, with all the fine statues of which he had plundered the provinces "J. Several of the greatest men of Cicero's time had distinguished themselves by an extraordinary expense and magnificence in this magistracy ; Lu- cuUus, Scaurus, Lentulus, Hortensius', and C. Antonius ; who, though expelled so lately from the senate, entertained the city this year with stage-plays, whose scenes were covered with silver; in which he was followed afterwards by Murena' : ' Quos autem duo censores, clarissimi viri furti et cap- tarum pecuniarimi nomine notaverunt ; ii non modo in aenatimi redierunt, sed etiam lllarum ipsai'um rerum judiciis absoluti sunt.— Pro Cluent. 42 ; it. Pigh. Annal. ad A. U. 683. " Asconius in Orat. in Tog. Cand. n Censoris judicium nihiil fere damnato affert praster rul)orem. Itaque quod omnis ea judicatio versatur tan- tummodo in nomine, animadversio ilia ignominia dicta est. — ^Fragment, e lib. iv. De Uepub. ex Nonio. In Verr. v. 14. P Omnia signa, tabulas, omamentorum quod superfuit in fanis et communibus locis, tota e Grscia atque insulis omnibus, honoris populi Romani cauaa, deportavit. — Pro Dom. ad Pont. 43. 1 Asconius. ' De Offic. ii. l(t. " Ego qui trinoB ludos ledilis feceram, tamen Antonii ludis commovebar. Tibi, qui casu nullos feceras, nihil hujus istara ipsam, quam tu irridos, ai'genteam scenam adverBatam putas ? — Pro Muren. 20. Mox, quod etiam in munioipiis imitantur, C. Antonius ludos scena argentea fecit ; itom L. Murena. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxlii. 3. yet J. Csesar outdid them all : and in the sports exhibited for his father's funeral, made the whole furniture of the theatre of solid silver, so that wild beasts were then first seen to tread on that metal': but the excess of his expense was but in proportion to the excess of his ambition ; for the rest were only purchasing the consulship, he the empire. Cicero took the middle way, and observed the rule which he prescribed afterwards to his son, of an expense agreeable to his circumstances"; so as neither to hurt his character by a sordid illibera. lity, nor his fortunes by a vain ostentation of magnificence ; since the one, by making a man odious, deprives him of the power of doing good j the other, by making him necessitous, puts him under the temptation of doing ill : thus Mamercus, by declining the sedileship through frugality, lost the consulship^: and Csesar, by his prodigality, was forced to repair his own ruin by ruining the republic. But Cicero's popularity was built on a more solid foundation, the affection of his citizens, from a sense of his merit and services ; yet, in compli- ance with the custom and humour of the city, he furnished the three solemn shows above mentioned, to the entire satisfaction of the people : an expense which he calls little, in respect to the great ho- nours which he had received from themy. The Sicilians, during his sedileship, gave him effectual proofs of their gratitude, by supplying him largely with all manner of provisions which their island afforded, for the use of his table and the pubUc feasts, which he was obliged to provide in this magistracy : but instead of making any private advantage of their liberality, he applied the whole to the benefit of the poor ; and by the help of this extraordinary supply contrived to reduce the price of victuals in the markets. ^ Hortensius was one of the consuls of this year ; which produced nothing memorable but the dedi- cation of the Capitol by Q. Lutatius Catulus. It had been burnt down in Sylla's time, who under- took the care of rebuilding it, but did not live to see it finished, which he lamented in his last illness, as the only thing wanting to complete his felicity". By his death that charge fell to Catulus, as being consul at the time, who dedicated it this summer with great pomp and solemnity, and had the honour to have his name inscribed on the front"". On thu occasion of this festival, he is said to ' Cjosar, qui postea dictator fuit, primus in aedilitatc, munere patris funebri, oinni apparatu arena: argentco usus est, ferasque argenteis vasis incedcre turn primum visum.—Plin. I-list. Nat. xxxiii. 3. " Quare si postulatur a populo — faciendum est, modo pro facultatibus ; nos ipsi ut fecimus. — De Offic. ii. 17. » Ibid. y Nam pro amplitudine honormn , quos cimctis sufTra- giis adepti simius, sane exiguus sumtus »edilitatis f nit.— lb- 33. I Plutarch, in Cic. " Hoc tamen felicitati suaj defuisse confessus est, quod Capitolium non dedicavisset,— Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. Curam victor Sylla suscepit, neque tamen dedicavit: boo unum felicitati negatum.— T.acit. Hist. iii. 72. "> The following inscription was found in the ruins of the Capitol, and is .supposed by some to be the very original which Catulus put up ; where it remained, as Tacitus says, to the time of Vitellius lb. Q. LVTATIVS (i. V. Q. N. CATVLVS. COS. SVBSTKVCTIONEJt. ET TABVLARIVM. EX S. C. FACIVNDVM. CVRAV. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 33 have introduced some instauces of luxury not known before in Kome, of covering the area, in which the people sat, vfith a purple veil, imitating the colour of the sky, and defending from the in- juries of it ; and of gilding the tiles of this noble fabric, which were made of copper : for though the ceilings of temples had before been sometimes gilt, yet this was the first use of gold on the out- side of any building'^. Thus the Capitol, like all ancient structures, rose the more beautiM from its ruins ; which gave Cicero an opportunity of paying a particular compliment to Catulus in Yerres's trial, where he was one of the judges : for Verres having intercepted, as it is said above, the rich candlestick of king Antiochus, which was designed for the Capitol, Cicero, after he had charged him with it, takes occasion to say, " I address myself here to you, Catulus, for I am speaking of your noble and beautiful monument : it is your part to show not only the severity of a judge, but the animosity of an accuser. Your honour is united with that of this temple, and, by the favour of the senate and people of Rome, your name is conse- cratqd vrith it to all posterity : it must be your care therefore that the Capitol, as it is now re- stored more splendidly, may be furnished also more richly than it was before ; as if the fire had been sent on purpose from heaven, not to destroy the temple of Jupiter, but to require from us one more shining and magnificent than the former''." In this year Cicero is supposed to have defended Fonteius and Caecina. Fonteius had been praetor of the Narbonese Gaul for three years, and was ' afterwards accused by the people of the province, and one of their princes, Induciomarus, of great oppression and exactions in his government, and especially of imposing an arbitrary tax on the exportation of their wines. There were two hear- ings in the cause, yet but one speech of Cicero's remaining, and that so imperfect, that we can hai'dly form a judgment either of the merit or the issue of it. Cicero allows the charge of the wines to be a heavy one, if true ^ ; and by his method of defence one would suspect it to be so, since his pains are chiefly employed in exciting an aversion to the accusers, and a compassion to the criminal. For, to destroy the credit of the wit- nesses, he represents the whole nation, "as a drunken, impious, faithless people ; natural ene- mies to all religion, without any notion of the sanctity of an oath, and polluting the altars of their gods with human sacrifices : and what faith, what piety," says he, " can you imagine to be in ^ Cluod primus omnium invenit Q. Catulus, cum Capi- tolium dedicaret. — Plin. xis. 1. Cum sua aetas varie de Catulo existimaTerit, quod tegulas areas Capitolii inau- raaset primus. — lb. xxxiii. 3. Thougli Pliny calls Catulus theiirst inventor of these purple veils, yet Lucretius, who, as some think, died in this year, or, as others more pro- hably, about sixteen years after, spealcs of them as of common use in all the theatres. Carbasus ut quondam ma^is inteuta theatris. Lib. vi. 108. Et vulgo facitmt id lutea, russaque vela, Et ferrugina, cum magnis intenta theatris, Per malos volgata, trabesque trementia flutant. Lib. iv. 73. J. Cffisar covered the whole Formn with them, and the latei- emperors the amphitheatres, in all their shows of gladiators and other sports,— Dio, xliii. '^ In Verr. iv. 31. ' Pro Fontoio, S. those, who think that the gods are to be appeased by cruelty and human blood'?" And to raise at last the pity of the judges, he urges in a pathetic peroration the intercession and tears of Fonteius' sister, one of the vestal virgins, who was then present ; opposing the piety and prayers of this holy suppliant, to the barbarity and perjuries of the impious Gauls ; and admonishing the bench of the danger and arrogance of slighting the suit of one, whose petitions, if the gods should reject, they themselves must be all undone, &c. ^ The cause of Csecina was about the right of suc- cession to a private estate, which depended on a subtle point of law"", arising from the interpreta- tion of the praetor's interdict : it shows, however, his exact knowledge and skill in the civil law, and that his public character and employment gave no interruption to his usual diligence in pleading causes. After the expiration of his aedileship he lost his cousin Lucius Cicero, the late companion of his journey to Sicily ; whose death he laments with all the marks of a tender affection, in the following letter to Atticus. ' ' You, who of all men know me the best, will easily conceive how much I have been afflicted, and what a loss I have sustained both in ray public and domestic life : for in him I had everything which could be agreeable to a man, from the obliging tem- per and behaviour of another. I make no doubt, therefore, but that you also are affected with it, not only for the share which you bear in my grief, but for your own loss of a relation and a friend, accom- plished with every virtue j who loved you, as well from his own inclination, as from what he used to hear of you from me," &c.' What made his kinsman's death the more unlucky to him at this juncture, was the want of his help in making interest for the prsetorship, for which he now offered himself a candidate, after the usual interval of two years*, from the time of his being chosen aedUe : but the city was in such a ferment all this summer, that there was like to be no elec- tion at all : the occasion of it arose from the publi- cation of some new laws, which were utterly disliked and fiercely opposed by the senate. The first of them was proposed in favour of Pompey, by A. Gabinius, one of the tribunes, as a testimony of their gratitude, and the first fruits, as it were, of that power which he had restored to them. It was to grant him an extraordinary commission for quell- ing the pirates, who infested the coasts and navi- gation of the Mediterranean, to the disgrace of the empire, and the ruin of all commerce' ; by which an absolute command was conferred upon him through all the provinces bordering on that sea, as far as fifty miles within land. These pirates were grown so strong, and so audacious, that they had taken several Koman magistrates and ambassadors prisoners, made some successful descents on Italy itself, and burnt the navy of Rome in the very port ' Pro Fontcio, 10. B Ibid. 17. ^ Tota mihi causa pro Cfficinfl, de verbis interdicti fuit: res involutas definiendo explicavimus. — Orator. 29. > Ad Attic, i. ^ Ut si sedilis fuisses, post biennium tuus annus esset. — Ep. Fam. X. 25. 1 Quis navjgavit, qui uon se aut mortis aut Bervitutis periculo conunitteret, cum aut hieme aut referto prajdo* num mari navigaret ? — Pro Lege Manil. U. D 34 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of Ostia"'. Yet the grant of a. power so exorbitant and unknown to the laws was strenuously opposed hy Catulus, Hortensius, and all the other chiefs of the senate, as dangerous to the public liberty, nor fit to be entrusted to any single person : they alleged, " That these unusual grants were the cause of all the misery that the republic had suffered from the proscriptions of Marius and Sylla, who, by a perpetual succession of extraordinaiy commands, were made too great to be controlled by the autho- rity of the laws ; that though the same abuse of power was not to be apprehended from Pompey, yet the thing itself was pernicious, and contrary to the constitution of Rome i that the equality of a democracy required, that the public honours should be shared alike by all who were worthy of them ; that there was no other way to make men worthy, and to furnish the city with a number and choice of experienced commanders : and if, as it was said by some, there were really none at that time fit to command but Pompey, the true reason was, because they would suffer none to command but Pompey"." All the friends of LucuUus were pai'ticularly active in the opposition ; apprehending, that this new commission would encroach upon his province and command in the Mithridatic war : so that Gabinius, to turn the popular clamour on that side, got a plan of the magnificent palace, which Lucullus was build- ing, painted upon a banner, and carried about the streets by his mob ; to intimate, that he was making all that expense out of the spoils of the republic". Catulus, in speaking to the people against this law, demanded of theu\, if everything must needs be committed to Pompey, what they would do if any accident should befall him? Upon which, as Cicero says, he reaped the just fruit of his virtue, when they all cried out with one voice, that their dependencewouldthenbeupon himP. Pompey him- self, who was naturally a great dissembler, affected not only an indifference, but a dislike to the employment, and begged of the people to confer it on somebody else j and, after all the fatigues which he had undergone in their service, to give him leave to retire to the care of his domestic affairs, and spare him the trouble and odium of so invidious a commissioni. But this seeming self- denial gave a handle only to his friends to extol his modesty and integrity the mote effectually ; and, since there had been a precedent for the law a few years before, in favour of a man much inferior both in merit and interest, M. Antonius', it was carried n» Qui ad vos ab oxtoria ntitionibus venii'ent, querar, cum legati populi Roman! redempti suit ? Morcatoribus tutum maro uon fuisSQ dicam, cum duodecim secures in potestatera praDdonmu pcrvenerint ?— Quid ego Ostienae incommodum, atquo illam labem at ignomiulam roipub- licffi querar, cum prope inspectautibus vobis, claasis on, oui consul populi Romani prtEpositus esaot, a prBcdoalbus capta atque oppreasa eat ?— Pro Lege Man. 12. n Die, 1. xxxvi- p. Ifi. ° Tugurium ut jam videatur easo ilia villa, quam ipao tribuDus plebia pictam olim ia eouciouibua cxplicabat, quo fortissimum ao summum civem — in invidiam vocoi-ct. —Pro Soxt. 43. p Qui cum CI vobia quajreret, si in uno Cn. Pompcio omnia ponei'ctia, si quid eo factum casct, in quo spem esaetis habituri ?— Cepit magnum buie virtutia fructum, cum omnea una propo voce, in eo ipao vos aiJem habitui-os case dixiatia.— Pro Lege Man. 20. 1 Dio, 1. xxxvi. p. 11. ' Sed idem hoe ante biounium in M. Antonii prtctm'a dccretum Veil. Pat. ii. 31. against the united authority of all the magiBtrates, but with the general inclination of the people : when, from the greatest scarcity of provisions which had been known for a long time in Rome, the credit of Pompey's name sunk the price of them at once, as if plenty had been aotuaUy restored'. But, though the senate could not hinder the law, yet they had their revenge on Gabinius, the author of it, by preventing his being chosen one of Pom- pey's lieutenants, which was what he chiefly aimed at, and what Pompey himself solicited': though Pompey probably made him amends for it in some other way ; since, as Cicero says, he was so neces- sitous at this time, and so profligate, that, if he had not carried his law, he must have tuined pirate himself". Pompey had a fleet of five hundred sail allowed for this expedition, with twenty-four lieutenants chosen out of the senate' ; whom he distributed so skilfully through the several sta- tions of the Mediterranean, that in less than fifty days he drove the pirates out of all their lurking holes, and in four months put an end to the whole war : for he did not prepare for it till the end of winter, set out upon it in the beginning of spring, and finished it in the middle of summer^. A second law was published by L. Otho, for the assignment of distinct seats in the theatres to the equestrian order, who used before to sit promis- cuously vrith the populace ; but by this law four- teen rows of benches, next to those of the senators, were to be appropriated to their use ; by which he secured to them, as Cicero says, both their dignity and their pleasure*. The senate obtained the same privilege of separate seats about a hundred years before, in the consulship of Scipio Africanus, which highly disgusted the people, and gave occasion, says Livy^as all innovations are apt to do, to much debate and censure ; for many of the wiser sort condemned all such distinctions in a free city, as dangerous to the public peace : and Scipio himself afterwards repented, and blamed himself for suf- fering it". Otho's law, we may imagine, gave still greater offence, as it was a greater affront to the people, to be removed yet farther from what of all things they were fondest of, the sight of plays and shows : it was carried however by the authority of 8 Quo die a vobis mai-itimo bello prspositus eat impo- rator, tanta repente vilitaa annonffi ex summa inopia ot caritate roi frumentariie consccnta est, uniua hominis ape ot nomino, quantum vix ex summa ubertato agrorum diuturna pax efficero potuiaaot. — Pro Lego Man. 15. ' No legarctur A. Gabinius Cn. Fompeio cxpotenti ao postulanti. — ^Ib. 19. u Niai rogationem do piratico boUo tulissot, profccto egeatato ac improbitate coactus piraticam ipse fociaset— Poat rodit. in Senat. 6. '^ Plutarch, in Pomp. y Ipso autom, ut a Brundisio profoctus est, undequin- quageaimo dio totam ad iinperi\un populi llomani Cili- oiamadjunxit— it.\tantumbellum — Cn.Pompeiusextrema liiome apparavlt, inounte vore suscepit, media restate oon- feeit — Pro Lege Man. 12. ^ L. Otho, vir fortis, meua neccsaarius, cqueatri ordini reatitiiit non solum dignitatem, Bed etiam voluptatem. — Pro Mur. 19. ■^ P. Afi'icanus ille superior, ut dieitur, non aolum a aapiontissimia liomiuibua, qui turn crant, verum etiam a aoipao Ba;po accusatus est, quod emu consul csset— paasus oaset turn primiun a populari eonacsau scnatoria subsellia sopai'iu-i — Pro Cornel. 1. Pragmeut. ox Asconio. [Liv. 1. xxxiv. r4.] Ea res avertit vulgi animum ot favorem Scipionis vchomontoi' quiiasavit.— Val. Max. ii. 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. Sfi the tribune, sllid is frequently referred to by the classic writefs, A^ an act very memorable'', and what made much noise in its time. C. Cornelius also, another tribune, was pushing forward a third law, of a graver kind, to prohibit bribery in elections by the sanction of the severest penalties : the rigour of it highly displeased the senate, whose warm opposition raised great dis- orders in the city ; so that all other business was interrupted, the elections of magistriites adjourned, and the consuls forced to have a guard. The matter however was compounded, by moderating the severity of the penalties in a new law offered by the consuls, which was accepted by Cornelius, and enacted in proper form under the title of the Calpurnlan law, from the name of the consul C. Calpumius Fiso°. Cicero speaks of it still as rigorously drawn* ; for besides a pecuniary fine, it rendered the guilty incapable of any public office or place in the senate. This Cornelius seems to have been a brave and honest tribune, though somewhat too fierce and impetuous in asserting the rights of the citizens : he published another law, to prohibit any man's being absolved from the obligation of the laws, except by the authority of the people ; which, though a part of the old constitution, had long been usurped by the senate, who dispensed Willi the laws by their own decrees, and those often made clandestinely, when a few only were privy to them. The senate being resolved not to part with so valuable a privilege, prevailed with another tribune to inhibit the publication of it, when it came to be read ; upon which Cornelius took the book from the clerk, and read it himself. This was irregular, and much inveighed against, as a violation of the rights of the tribunate; so that Cornelius was once more forced to compound the matter by a milder law, forbidding t'ae senate to pass any such decrees, unless when two hundred senators were present'. These disturbances how- ever proved the occasion of an unexpected honour to Cicero, by giving him a more ample and public testimony of the people's affection ; for in three different assemblies convened for the choice of prsetors, two of which were dissolved without effect, he was declared every time the first praetor, by the suffrages of all the centuries'. The praetor was a magistrate next in dignity to the consuls, created originally as a colleague or assistant to them in the administration of justice, and to supply their place also in absence'^. At first there was but one ; but as the dominion and affairs of the republic increased, so the number of praetors was gradually enlarged from one to eight. They were chosen, not as the inferior magistrates, by tie people voting in their tribes, but in their centuries, as the consuls and censors also were. In the first method, the majority of votes in each tribe determined the general vote of the tribe, and b sedilibusque magnus in primis Eques Othone contempto sedet HoR. Ep. iv. 15. Sic libitum vano, qui nos distinxit, Othoni. Juv. iii. 159. ' Bio, 1. xxxvi. c. 18. 1 Erat enim aeverissime scriptaCalpumia. — ProMur.23. * Asconii argument. — Pro Coraelio. ' Nam cum propter dilationem comitiomm ter prsetor primus c£j^turiis cunctis reUimtiatus Sum, — -Pro Lege Manil, 1. B Aul. GelL xiii. 15. a majority of tribes determined the election, in which the meanest citizen had as good a vote as the best : but in the second the balance of power was thrown into the hands of the better sort, by a wise contrivance of one of their kings, Servius Tullius ; who divided the whole body of the citizens into a hundred and ninety-three centuries, accord- ing to a census or valuation of their estates ; and then reduced these centuries into six classes according to the same rule, assigning to the first or richest class ninety-seven of these centuries, or a majority of the whole number : so that if the centuries of the first class agreed, the affair was over, and the votes of all the rest insignificant''. The business of the praetors was to preside and judge in all causes, especially of a public or crimi- nal kind, where their several jurisdictions were assigned to them by lot"; and it fell to Cicero's to sit upon actions of extortion and rapine, brought against magistrates and governors of provinces'^; in which, as he tells us himself, he had acted as an accuser, sat as a judge, and presided as praetor'. In this office he acquired a great reputation of in- tegrity by the condemnation of Licinius Macer, a person of praetorian dignity and great eloquence ; who would have made an eminent figure at the bar, if his abilities had not been sullied by the infamy of a vicious life"". " This man," as Plutarch relates it, " depending upon his interest, and the influence of Crassus, who supported him with all his power, was so confident of being acquitted, that without waiting for sentence, he went home to dress him- self, and, as if already absolved, was returning towards the court in a white gown ; but being met on his way by Crassus, and informed that he was condemned by the unanimous suffrage of the bench, he took his bed, and died immediately." The story is told differently by other writers : " That Macer was actually in the court expecting the issue ; but perceiving Cicero ready to give judg- ment against him, he sent one to let him know that he was dead, and stopping his breath at the same time with a handkerchief, instantly expired ; so that Cicero did not proceed to sentence, by which Macer' s estate was saved to his son Licinius Calvus, an orator afterwards of the first merit and eminence"." But from Cicero's own account it appears, that after treating Macer in the trial with great candoiu' and equity, he actually condemned him, with the universal approbation of the people ; and did himself much more honour and service by it, than he could have reaped, he says, by Macer's friendship and interest, if he had acquitted him°. ManUius, one of the new tribunes, no sooner entered into his office, than he raised a fresh dis- turbance in the city, by the promulgation of a law •> From this division of tlie people into classes, the word classical, which we now apply to writers of the first rank, is derived : for it signified originally persons of the first doss, all the rest being styled infra classem,— Aul. GelL vii. 13. ' In Verr. Act. i. B. ^ Postulatur apud me praetorem primum de pocuniia ropetundis. — Pro Cornel. 1. fragm. ' Accusavi de peeuniis repetundis, judex sedi, prator qujBsivi, &c. — Pro Rabir. Post. 4. " Brutus, 362. " Plutarch, in Cio. ; Val. Mux. ix. 12. o Nos hie incredibili ac singulari populi voluutate de C. Macro transegimus : cui cum jequi fuissemus, tamen multo majorem fmctum ex popixli existimationo, illo damnato, cepimus, quam ex ipsius, si absolutua esiet, gratia cepissemus. — Ad Att. i. 4. D 2 30 THE HISTORY OF THJi LIFE OF for granting to slaves set free a right of voting among the tribes ; which gave so much scandal to all, and was so vigorously opposed by the senate, that he was presently obliged to drop if : but being always venal, as Velleius says, and the tool of other men's power, that he might recover his credit with the people, and engage the favour of Pompey, he proposed a second law, that Pompey, who was then in Cilicia extinguishing the remains of the piratic war, should have the government of Asia added to his commission, with the command of the Mithridatic war, and of all the Roman armies in those parts'. It was about eight years since LucuUus was first sent to that war, in which, by a series of many great and glorious acts, he had acquired a reputation both of courage and conduct equal to that of the greatest generals : he had driven Mithridates out of his kingdom of Pontus, and gained several memorable victories against him, though supported by the whole force of Tigranes, the most potent prince of Asia ; till his army, harassed by perpetual fatigues, and debauched by his factious officers, particularly by his brother- in-law young Clodius', began to grow impatient of his discipline, and to demand their discharge. Their disaffection was still increased by the un- lucky defeat of one of his lieutenants, Triarius ; who, in a rash engagement with Mithridates, was destroyed with the loss of his camp, and the best of his troops : ■ so that as soon as they heard that Glabrio, the consul of the last year, was appointed to succeed him, and actually arrived in Asia, they broke out into an open mutiny, and refused to follow him any further, declaring themselves to be no longer his soldiers : but Glabrio, upon the news of these disorders, having no inclination to enter upon so troublesome a command, chose to stop short in Bithynia, without ever going to the army*. This mutinous spirit in LucuUus's troops, and the loss of nis authority with them, which Glabrio was still less qualified to sustain, gave a reasonable pretext to Manilius's law ; and Pompey's success against the pirates, and his being upon the spot with a great army, made it likewise the more plau- sible : so that after a sharp contest and Opposition from some of the best and greatest of the senate, the tribune carried his point, and got the law con- firmed by the people. Cicero supported it with all his eloquence, in a speech from the rostra, which he had never mounted tiU this occasion : where, in displaying the character of Pompey, he draws the picture of a consummate general, with all the strength and beauty of colours which-words can give. He was now in the career of his fortunes, and in sight as it were of the consulship, the grand object of his ambition ; so that his conduct was suspected to flow from an interested view of facili- tating his own advancement, by paying this court to Pompey's power : but the reasons already inti- mated, and Pompey's singular character of modesty and abstinence, joined to the superiority of his p Ascon. in Orat. pro Cornel. ; Die, 1. xxxvi. 20. q Semper venalie, et alienas minister potentise, legem tulit, ut bellimi Mithridaticum per Cn. Pompeium ad- ministrai-etur.— Veil. Pat. iL 33. ^ Post, exercitu L. LucuUi sollicitato per nefandum scelus, fugit illinc.— De Haruspiciun Respons. 20; Plu- tnj-ch, in LucuU. » Pro Lego Monil. 2, 9 ; Plutarch, ib. ; Dio, 1, xxxvi. p. 7. military fame, might probably convince him, that it was not only safe, but necessary at this time, to commit a war, which nobody else could finish, to such a general ; and a power, which nobody else ought to be entrusted with, to such a man. This he himself solemnly aflSrms in the conclusion of his speech: " I call the gods to witness," says he, " and especially those who preside over this temple, and inspect the minds of all who administer the public affairs, that I neither do this at the desire of any one, nor to conciliate Pompey's favour, nor to procure from any man's greatness, either a sup- port in dangers, or assistance in honours : for as to dangers, I shall repel them, as a man ought to do, by the protection of my innocence ; and for honours, I shall obtain them, not from any single man, nor from this place, but from my usual laborious course of life, and the continuance of your favour. What- ever pains therefore I have taken in this cause, I have taken it all, I assure yon, for the sake of the republic ; and so far from serving any interest of my own by it, have gained the ill will and enmity of many, partly secret, partly declared ; unneces- sary to myself, yet not useless perhaps to you : but after so many favours received from yon, and this very honour which I now enjoy, I have made it my resolution, citizens, to prefer your vrill, the dignity of the republic, and the safety of the provinces, to all my own interests and advantages whatsoever'." J. CaBsar also was a zealous promoter of this law; but from a different motive than the love either of Pompey or the republic : his design was, to recommend himself by it to the people, whose favour, he foresaw, would be of more use to him than the senate's, and to cast a fresh load of envy on Pompey, which, by some accident, might he improved aufterwards to his hurt ; but his chief view was to make the precedent familiar, that, whatever use Pompey might make of it, he himself might one day make a bad one". For this is the common effect of breaking through the barrier of the laws, by which many states have been ruined ; when, from a confidence in the abilities and integrity of some eminent citizen, they invest him, on pressing occasions, with extraordinary powers, for the com- mon benefit and defence of the society : for though power so entrusted may in particular cases be of singular service, and sometimes even necessary ; yet the example is always dangerous, furnishing a per- petual pretence to the ambitious and ill-designing, to grasp at every prerogative which had been granted at any time to the virtuous, till the same power, which would save a country in good hands, oppresses it at last in bad. Though Cicero had now full employment as prse- tor, both in the affairs of state and public trials : yet he found time still to act the advocate, as well as the judge, and not only to hear causes in his own tribunal, but to plead them also at the tribunals of the other prsetors. He now defended A. Cluen- tius, a Roman knight of splendid family and for- tunes, accused before the prsetor Q. Naso of poison ing his &ther in law Oppianicus, who a few years before had been tried and banished for an attempt to poison Cluentius. The oration, which is extant, lays open a scene of such complicated villany, by poisons, murder, incest, suborning witnesses, con-upting judges, as the poets themselves have ' Pro Lege Maoil, 24. " Dio, 1. xxxvi. p. 31. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 37 never feigned in any one family ; all contrived by the mother of Cluentius against the life and fortunes of her son : " But what a mother i " says Cicero ; " one, who is hurried blindfold by the most cruel and brutal passions ; whose lust, no sense of shame restrains ; who by the viciousness of her mind per- verts all the laws of men to the worst ends ; who acts with such folly, that none can take her for a hiiman creature ; with such violence, that none can imagine her to be a woman ; with such cruelty, that none can conceive her to be a mother ; one, who has confounded not only the name and the rights of nature, but all the relations of it too : the wife of her son-in-law 1 the stepmother of her son ! the invader of her daughter's bed ! in short, who has nothing left in her of the human species but the mere form*." He is supposed to have' defended several other criminals this year, though the pleadings are now lost, and particularly M. Fundanius ; but what gives the most remarkable proof of his industry, is that during his prsetorship, as some of the ancient writers tell us, though he was in full practice and exercise of speaking, yet he frequented the school of a celebrated rhetorician, Gnipho''. We cannot suppose that his design was to learn anything new, but to preserve and confirm that perfection which he had already acquired, and prevent any ill habit from growing insensibly upon him, by exercising himself under the observation of so judicious a mas- ter. But his chief view certainly was, to give some countenance and encouragement to Gnipho himself, as well as to tlie art which he professed ; and by the presence and authority of one of the first magis- trates of Rome, to inspire the young nobles with an ambition to excel in it. When his magistracy was just at an end, Mani- lius, whose tribunate expired a few days before, was accused before him of rapine and extortion : and though ten days were always allowed to the criminal to prepare for his defence, he appointed the very next day for the trial. This startled and offended the citizens, who generally favoured Manilius, and looked upon the prosecution as the effect of malice and resentment on the part of the senate, for his law in favour of Pompey. The tribunes therefore called Cicero to an account before the people, for treating Manilius so roughly j who in defence of himself said, that as it had been his practice to treat all criminals vritli humanity, so he had no design of acting othervrise vrith Manilius, but on the contrary, had appointed that short day for the^trial, because it was the only one of which he was master ; and that it was not the part of those who wished well to ManiUus, to throw off the cause to another judge. This made a wonderfiil change in the minds of the audience, who applauding his conduct, desired then that he would undertake the defence of ManiUus, to which he consented ; and stepping up again into the rostra, laid open the source of the whole affair, with many severe reflections upon the enemies of Pompey ^. The trial, however, was dropped, on ac- count of the tumults which arose immediately after in the city, from some new incidents of much greater importance. » Pro aucnt. 70. 7 Scholam ejus claros viros frequenfcasse aiunt ; in his AL Ciceronem, etiam cum preetura fimgeretur. — Sueton. de clar. Gnunmat. 7 ; Macrob. Saturn, iii. 12, Hutnrch, in Cio. At the consular election, which was held tJiis summer, P. Autronius Psetus and P. Cornelius Sylla were declared consuls ; but their election was no sooner published, than they were accused of bribery and corruption by the Calpurnian law, and being brought to trial, and found guilty before their entrance into ofiSce, forfeited the consulship to their accusers and competitors, L. Manlius Tor- quatus and L. Aurelius Cotta. Catiline also, . who from his prsetorship had obtained the pro- vince of Afric, came to Rome this year to appear a candidate at the election, but being accused of extortion and rapine in that government, was not permitted by the consuls to pursue his pre- tensions". This disgrace of men so powerful and desperate engaged them presently in a conspiracy against the state, in which it was resolved to kill the new con- suls, with several others of the senate, and share the government among themselves : but the effect of it was prevented by some information given of the design, which was too precipitately laid to be ripe for execution. Cn. Piso, an audacious, needy, factious young nobleman, was privy to it* ; and, as Suetonius says, two more of much greater weight, M. Crassus and J. Caesar ; the first of whom was to be created dictator, the second his master of the horse : but Crassus's heart failing him, either through fear or repentance, he did not appear at the appointed time, so Chat Csesar would not give the signal agreed upon, of letting his robe drop from his shoulder '. The senate was parti- cularly jealous of Fiso, and hoping to cure his dis- affection by making him easy in his fortunes, or to remove him at least from 'the cabals of his asso- ciates, gave him the government of Spain, at the instance of Crassus, who strenuously supported him as a determined enemy to Pompey. But be- fore his setting out, Csesar and he are said to have entered into a new and separate engagement, that the one should begin some disturbance abroad, while the other was to prepare and inflame matters at home : but this plot also was defeated by the unexpected death of Piso ; who was assassinated by the Spaniards, as some say, for his cruelty, or, as others, by Pompey's clients, and at the instigation of Pompey himself. Cicero, at the expiration of his preetorsh'i', would not accept any foreign province ', the usu„! " Qui tibi, cum L. 'Volcatius consul in consilio f uisset, ne petondi quldem potestatem esse voluerunt, — Orat. in Tog. cand. Catilina, pecuniarum repetundarmn reus, prohibitus erat petere consulatum. — Sail. Bell. Cat. 18. b Cn, Fiso, adolescens nobilis, summs audacix, egens, factiosus — cum hoc Catilina et Autronius, consilio coju- municato, parabant in Capitolio h. Cottam et L, Torqua- tum consules interficere, Ea re cognita, rursus in Nonas Feb. consilium csdis transtulerant. — Ibid. c Ut prineipio anni senatum adorirentur, et trueidatis, quos placitum esset, dictatiu-am Crassus iuvaderet, ipse ab eo Magister Equitum diceretur.-^Crassum pcenitentia vel metu diem csedi destinatum non obiisse, idcirco, no Csesarem quidem signum, quod ab eo dari convenerat, dedisse,— Sueton, in J, Cses, 9, d Pactumque, ut simul foria ille, ipse Roraee, ad res novas consurgerent. — ^Ibid. Sunt, qui dioantj imperia ejus injnsta barbaros nequi- visse pati : alii autem, equites illos, Cn. Pompeii veteres ollentes, voluntate ejus Pisoncm aggressoa. — Sail. Bell. Cat, 19, e Tu in provinciam ire noluisti : non possum !d in te 38 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OF reward of that magistracy, and the chief fruit which the generality proposed from it. He had no particular love for money, nor genius for arms, so that those gOTernments had no charms for him : the glory which he pursued was to shine in the eyes of the city, as the guardian of its laws, and to teach the magistrates how to execute, the citizens how to ohey them. But he was now preparing to sue for the consulship, the great object of all his hopes J and his whole attention was employed how to obtain it in his proper year, and without a re- pulse. There were two years necessarily to inter- vene between the praetorship and consulship ; the first of which was usually spent in forming a gene- ral interest, and soliciting for it as it were in a private manner ; the second in suing for it openly in the proper form and habit of a candidate. The affection of the city, so signally declared for him in all the inferior steps of honour, gave him a strong presumption of success in his present pre- tensions to the highest : but as he had reason to apprehend a great opposition from the nobility, who looked upon the public dignities as a kind of birth-right, and could not brook their being inter- cepted and snatched from them by new men ' ; so he resolved to put it out of their power to hurt him, by omitting no pains which could be required of a candidate, of visiting and soliciting all the citizens in person. At the election therefore of the tribunes on the sixteenth of July, where the whole city was assembled in the field of Mars, he chose to make his first effort, and to mix himself with the crowd, on purpose to caress and salute them familiarly by name : and as soon as there was any vacation in the forum, which happened usually in August, he in- tended to make an excursion into the Cisalpine Gaul, and in the character of a lieutenant to Piso, the governor of it, to visit the towns and colonies of that province, which was reckoned very strong in the number of its votes, and so return to Rome in January following e. While he was thus em- ployed in suing for the consulship, L. Cotta, a remarkable lover of wine, was one of the censors, which gave occasion to one of Cicero's jokes, that Plutarch has transmitted to us, that happening one day to be dry with the fatigue of his task, he called for a glass of water to quench his thirst*, and when his friends stood close around him as he was drink- ing. You do well, says he, to cover me, lest Cotta should censure me for drinking water. He wrote about the same time to Atticus, then at Athens, to desire him to engage all that band of Pompey's dependants who were serving under him in the Mithridatic war ; and by way of jest, bids him tell Pompey himself, that he would not take it ill of him, if he did not come in person to his election ''. Atticus spent many years in this re- sidence at Athens, which gave Cicero an opportu- nity of employing him to buy a great number of reprehendere, quod in meipso praetor — probavi. — Pro Muven. 20. f Non idem mihi licot quod iis, qui nobili gonere nati sunt, quibus omnia populi Romani beneficia dormieiitibus deferuntur. — In Veix. v. 70. S Ciuoniam videtur in suffragiis multum posse Gallia, cumRomaia judiciis forum refrixcrit, excurremus mense Beptembri legati ad Pisonem. — Ad Att. i. 1. •» Illam manum tu mihi curaut praestes, Pompeii nostri amici. Nega mo ei iratum foro, si ad mea comitia non venerit. — Ibid. statues for the ornament of his several villas, espe- cially that at Tusculum, in which he took the greatest pleasure'; for its delightful situation in the neighbourhood of Rome, and the convenience of an easy retreat from the hurry and fatigues of the city : here he had built several rooms and gal- leries, in imitation of the schools and porticoes of Athens, which he called likewise by their Attic names of the Academy and Gymnasium, and de- signed for the same use of philosophical conferences with his learned friends. He had given Atticus a general commission to purchase for him any piece of Grecian art or sculpture, which was elegant and curious, especially of the literary kind, or proper for the furniture of his academy "■ ; which Atticus executed to his great satisfaction, and sent him at different times several cargoes of statues, which arrived safe at the port of Cajeta, near to his Formian villa'; and pleased him always so well, both in the choice and the price of them, that upon the receipt of each parcel he still renewed his orders for more. " I have paid (says he) a hundred and sixty-four pounds, as you ordered, to your agent Cincius, for the Megaric statues. The Mercuries, which you mentioned, of Pentelician marble, with brazen heads, give me already great pleasure ; wherefore I ivould have you send me as many of them as you can, and as soon as possible, with any other statues and ornaments which you think proper for the place, and in my taste, and good enough to please yours i but above all, such as will suit my gym- nasium fand portico : for I am grown so fond of all things of that kind, that though others pro- bably may blame me, yet I depend on you to assist me"." Of all the pieces which Atticus sent, he seems to have been the most pleased with a sort of com- pound emblematical figures, representing Mercury and Minerva, or Mercury and Hercules jointly upon one base, called Hermathense and Herme- racte : for Herculeis being the proper deity of the Gymnasium, Minerva of theAcademy, and Mercury common to both, they exactly suited the purpose for which he desired them". But he was so intent on embellishing this Tusculan villa with all sorts of Grecian work, that he sent over to Atticus the ^ Qus tibi mandavi, et quae tu convenire intelliges nostro Tuspulano, velim, ut scribis, cures; nos ex omnibus molestiis et laboribus uno illo in loco conquiescimus. — Ad Att. i. 6. ^ Quicquid ejusdem generis habebis, dignnm Acaderaia quod tibi videbitur, ne dubitaveris mittere, et arc« nos- trE oonfldito.— Ad Att. i. 9 ; vid. it. 6, 6, 10. ' Signa, quae curasti, ea sunt ad Cajetam exposita.— Ibid. 3. m Ibid. 8. n Hermatbena tua me valde delectat. — Ibid. 1. Quod ad me de Hermathena scribis, per mihi gratun^ est — quod pt Hermes communo omnium, et Minerva singulare est insigne ejus gymnasii, — Ibid. 4. Signa nostra et Herme- raclas, cum commodissime poteris, velim imponas. — Ibid. 10. The learned generally talte these HerimraclcB and Her- maihcnce to be nothing more than a tall square pedestal of stone, which was the emblem of Mercury with the head of the other deity, Minerva or Hercules, upon it, qf which sort there ai'e several still extant, as we see them de- scribed in the books of imtiquities. But I am apt to think, that the heads of both the deities were sometimes also joined together upon the same pedestal, looking dif- ferent ways, as we see in those antique figures which are now indiscriminately called Janus's, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 39 plans of his ceilings, which were of stucco-work, in order to bespeak pieces of sculpture or painting to be inserted in the compartments ; with the covers of two of his wells or fountains, which according to the custom of those times they used to form after some elegant pattern, and adorn with figures in relief. Nor was he less eager in making a collection of Greek books, and forming a library, by the same opportunity of Atticus's help. This was Atticus's own passion, who having free access to all the libraries of Athens, was employing his slaves in copying the works of their best writers, not only for his own use, but for sale also, and the common profit both of the slave and the master : for Atticus was remarkable above all men of his rank for a family of learned slaves, having scarce a footboy in his house who was not trained both to read and write for himP. By this advantage he had made a very large collection of choice and curious books, and signified to Cicero his design of selling them ; yet seems to have intimated withal, that he ex- pected a larger sum for them than Cicero would easily spare ; which gave occasion to Cicero to beg of him in several letters to reserve the whole number for hira, tUl he could raise money enough for the purchase. " Pray keep your books," says he, " forme, and do not despair of my being able to make them mine ; which if I can compass, I shall think myself richer than Crassus, and despise the fine villas and gardens of them alii." Again: "Take care that you do not part with your library to any man, how eager soever he may be to buy it ; for I am setting apart all my little rents to purchase that relief for my old age'." In a third letter, he says, " That he had placed all his hopes of comfort and pleasure, whenever he should retire from business, on Atticus's reserving these books for him'." But to return to the affairs of the city. Cicero was now engaged in the defence of C. Cornelius, who was accused and tried for practices against the state in his late tribunate, before the praetor Q. Gallius. This trial, which lasted four days, was one of the most important in which he had ever been concerned : the two consuls presided in it ; and all the chiefs of the senate, Q. Catulus, L. Lucullas, Hortensius, &c. appeared as vritnesses against the criminal' ; whom Cicero defended, as Quintilian says, not only with strong, but shining arms, and with a force of eloquence that drew acclamations from the people". He published two Frxterea typo3 tibi mando, quoa in tectorio atrioli possim includere, et putealia sigillata duo. — Ad Att. i. 10. P In ea erant pueri literatissiini, anagnostffl optimi, et pliirimi librarii; ut ne pedissequus quidem quisquam esset, qui non utrumque honmi pulchre facere posset. — Com. Nep. in vita Attioi, 13. 1 Libros tuos conserva, et noli desperare, eos me meos facere pos-se : quod si assequor, supero Crassum divitiis, atque omnium vices et prata contemno — rAd Attic, i. 4. ' Bibliothecani tuam cave cuiquam despondeaa, quamvis acrem amatorem inveneris. — ^Ibid. 10. " Velim cogites, id quod mihi poUicitus es, quemadmo- dum bibliotbecam nobis conficere possis. Omnem spem delectationis nostrs, quam cum in otinm venerimus, habere volumus, in tua humanitate positam habemus.-^ Ibid. 7. ' Ascon. Argum. ° Nee fortibus mode, sedetiam fulgentibus preeliatus est Cicero in causa Goinelii. — ^Lib. viii. 3. orations spoken in this oause, whose loss is a public detriment to the literary world, since they were reckoned among the most finished of his compo- sitions: he himself refers to them as such" ; and the old critics have drawn many examples from them of that genuine eloquence, which extorts applause and excites admiration. C. Papius, one of the tribunes, published a law this year to obhge all strangers to quit the city, as one of his predecessors, Pennus, had done likewise many years before him. The reason which they alleged for it, was the confusion occasioned by the multitude and insolence of foreigners, who assumed the habit and usurped the rights of citizens ; but Cicero condemns all these laws as cruel and inhos- pitable, and a violation of the laws of nature and humanity^. Catiline was now brought to a trial for his oppressions in Africa : he had been soliciting Cicero to undertake his defence ; who at one time was much incUned, or determined rather to do it, for the sake of obliging the nobles, especially Csesar and Crassus, or of making Catiline at least his friend, as he signifies in a letter to Atticus: " I design," says he, " at present to defend my com- petitor Catiline ; we have judges to our mind, yet such as the accuser himself is pleased with : I hope, if he be acquitted, that he vrill be the more ready to serve me in our common petition ; but if it fall out otherwise, I shall bear it with patience. It is of great importance to me to have you here as soon as possible : for there is a general persua- sion, that certain nobles of your acquaintance will be against me ; and you, I know, could be of the greatest service in gaining them over^." But Cicero changed his mind, and did not defend him"; upon a nearer view perhaps of his designs and traiiorous practices; to which he seems to allude when, describing the art and dissimulation of Catiline, he declares, that he himself was once almost deceived by him, so as to take him for a good citizen, a lover of honest men, a firm and faithful friend, &C.'' But it is not strange, that a candidate for the consulship, in the career of his ambition, should think of defending a man of the first rank and interest in the city, when all the consular senators, and even the consul himself, Torquatus, appeared with him at the trial, and gave testimony in his favour. Whom Cicero excused, when they were afterwards reproached with it, by observing, that they had no notion of his treasons, nor suspicion at that time of his conspiracy ; but out of mere humanity and com- passion defended a friend in distress, and in that crisis of his danger overlooked the infamy of his Ufe". His prosecutor was P. Clodius, a young noble- man as profligate as himself ; so that it was not diflicult to make up matters with such an accuser, who for a sum of money agreed to betray the 1 Orator. 67, 70. y Uau vero urbia prohibere peregrines sane inhumanum est.— De Offlc. iii. 11. 2 Ad Attic, i. 2. " Ascon. in Tog. oand. 1> Meipsum, ms, Inquam, quondam iUe paene decepil, cum et civis mihi bonus, et optimi cujusquo cupidus, et flrmua amicus et fidelis videretur.— Pro Cselio, 6. c Aecusati sunt uno nomine oonsulares — affuorunt Cati- liniE, eumque laudarunt. Nulla tum patebat, nulla erat cognita conjuratio, &c. — Pro Syll. 29. 40 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF cause, and suffer him to escape" : which gave occasion to what Cicero said afterwards in a speech against him in the senate, while they were suing together for the consulship : "Wretch! not to see that thou art not acquitted, but reserved only to a severer trial and heavier punishment i^." It was in this year, as Cicero tells us, under the consuls Cotta and Torquatus, that those prodigies hap- pened, which were interpreted to portend the great dangers and plots that were now hatching against the state, and broke out two years after in Cicero's consulship ; when the turrets of the Capitol, the statues of the gods, and the brazen image of the infant Romulus sucking the wolf, were struck down by lightning'. Cicero being now in his forty-third year, the proper age required by laws, declared himself a candidate for the consulship along with six com- petitors, P. Sulpicius Galba, L. Sergius Catilina, C. Antonius, L. Cassius Longinus, Q. Cornificius, C. Licinius Sacerdos. The two first were patri- cians, the two next plebeians, yet noble ; the two last the sons of fathers who had first imported the public honours into their families : Cicero was the only new man among them, or one born of eques- trian rank"". Galba and Cornificius were persons of ■* A Catilina pecuniam accepit, ut tuipissime prsevari- caretui-. — De Harusp. Resp, 20. B O miser, qui non sentias illo judicio te non absolutum, verum ad aliquod severiuH judicium, ac majus suppliciuni reservatum. — Orat. in Tog. cand. * Tactus eat ille etiam, qui hanc urbem condidit, Romu- lus : quem inauratmn in Capitolio parvum atque lactan- tem, uberibus lupinis inhiantem fuisse meministis. — In Catil. iii. 8, This same figure, as it is generally thought, formed in brass, of the infants Romulus and Remus sucking the wolf, is still preserved and shown in the Capitol, with the marks of a liquefaction by a stroke of lightning on one of the legs of the wolf. Cicero himself has described the prodigy in the following lines : Hie sUvestris erat Romani nominis altrix Martia ; quae parvos Mavortis semine natos Uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat. Quae tiun cum pueris ilammato fulminis ictu Concidit, atque avulsa pedum vestigia liquit. De Divinat. i. 12. It was the same statue, most probably, whence Virgil di-ew his elegant description : . Geminos huic ubera cireum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos. Blam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et corpora fiugere lingua. .£neid. viii. 631. The martial twins beneath their mother lay. And hanging on her dugs with wanton play Securely suck'd : whilst she reclined her head To lick their tender limbs, and form them as thoy fed. B ?fonne tertio et tricesimo anno mortem obiit? quae est ffitas, nostris legibus, decern annis minor, quam con- Solaris — Philip, v. 17. h The distinction of pati-ician, plebeian, and nohlcy may want a little explication. The title of patrician belonged only, in a proper sense, to those families of which the senate was composed in the earliest times, either of the kings, or the first consuls, before the commons had obtained a promiscuous admission to the public honours, and by that means into the senate. All other families, how considerable soever, were constantly styled plebeian. Patrician then and plebeian are properly opposed to each other ; but noble common to them both : for the character of nobility was wholly derived from the curule magi^tra- cia which any family had borne ; and those which could great virtue and merit: Sacerdos without any particular blemish upon him ; Cassius lazy and weak, but not thought so wicked as he soon after appeared to be; Antonius and Catiline, though infamous in their lives and characters, yet by intrigue and faction had acquired a powerfiil in- terest in the city, and joined all their forces against Cicero, as their most formidable antagonist, in which they were vigorously supported by Crassus and Csesar'. This was the state of the competition ; in which the practice of bribing was carried on so openly and shamefully by Antonius and Catiline, that the senate thought it necessary to give some check to it by a new and more, rigorous law ; but when they were proceeding to publish it, L. Mucins Orestinus, one of the tribunes, put his negative upon them. This tribune had been Cicero's client, and de- fended by him in an impeachment of plunder and robbery ; but having now sold himself to his enemies, made it the subject of all his harangues to ridicule his birth and character, as unworthy of the consulship : in the debate therefore which arose in the senate upon the merit of his negative, Cicero, provoked to find so desperate a confederacy against him, rose up, and after some raillery and expos- tulation with Mucins, made a most severe invec- tive on the flagitious lives and practices of his two competitors, in a speech usually called in Toga Candida, because it was delivered in a white gown, the proper habit of all candidates, and from which the name itself was derived''. Though he had now business enough upon his hands to engage his whole attention, yet we find him employed in the defence of (1. GaUius, the prsetor of the last year, accused of corrupt practices in procuring that magistracy. Gallius, it seems, when chosen aedile, had disgusted the people by not providing any wUd beasts for their entertain- ment in his public shows ; so that to put them into good humour when he stood for the prastorship, he entertained them with gladiators, on pretence of giving them in honour of his deceased father'. This was his crime, of which he was accused by M. Callidius, whose father had been impeached before by Gallius. CaUidius was one of the most eloquent and accurate speakers of his time, of an easy, flowing, copious style, always deUghting, though seldom warming his audience ; which was the only thing wanting to make him a complete orator. Besides the public crime just mentioned, he charged Gallius with a private one against him- self, a design to poison him ; of.which he pretended to have manifest proofs, as well from the testimony of witnesses, as of his own hand and letters : but he told his story with so much temper and indo- lence, that Cicero, from his coldness in opening a fact so interesting, and where his life had been attempted, formed an argument to prove that it could not be true. " How is it possible," says he, boast of the greatest number, were always accounted the noblest ; so that many plebeians surpassed the patricians themselves in the pomt of nobility. — Vid. Ascon. argum. in Tog. cand. ' Catilina et Antonius, quanquam onmibus maxime infamis eorum vita esset, tamen multum poterant. Coi- crant enim ambo, ut Cieeronem consulatu dejicerent, adjutoribus usi firmissimis, M. Crasso et C. Cossare.— Ascon. argum. in Tog. cand. ^ Ibid. 1 Ascon. not. ibid. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 41 " Callidius, for you to plead in snch a manner, if you did not know the thing to be forged ? How could you, who act with such force of eloquence in other men's dangers, be so indolent in your own ? Where was that grief, that ardour, which was to extort cries and lamentations from the most stupid ? We saw no emotion of your mind, none of your body; no striking your forehead, or your thigh; no stamping with your foot : so that instead of feeling ourselves inflamed, we could hardly forbear sleeping, whUe you were urging all that part of your charge"." Cicero's speech is lost, but Gallius was acquitted ; for we find him afterwards revenging himself in the same kind on this very Callidius, by accusing him of bribery in his suit for , the consulship". J. Cffisar was one of the assistant judges this year to the prsetor, whose province it was to sit upon the sicarii, that is, those who were accused of killing, or carrying a dagger with intent to kill. This gave him an opportunity of citing before him as criminals, and condemning by the law of assas- sinate, all those, who in SyUa's proscription had been known to kill, or receive money for killing a proscribed citizen ; which money Cato also, when he was qusestor the year before, had made them refund to the treasury". Csesar's view was, to mortify the senate and ingratiate himself with the people, by reviving the Marian cause, which had always been popular, and of which he was natui-ally the head, on account of his near relation to old Marius : for which purpose he had the hardiness likewise to replace in the Capitol the trophies and statues of Marius, which Sylla had ordered to be thrown down and broken to pieces p. But while he ,was prosecuting with such severity the agents of Sylla's cruelty, he not only spared, but favoured Catiline, who was one of the most cruel in spilling the blood of the proscribed ; having butchered with his own hands, and in a manner the most brutal, C. Marius Gratidianus, a favourite of the people, nearly related both to Marius and Cicero ; whose head he carried in triumph through the streets to make a present of it to Syllai. But Csesar's zeal provoked L. PauUus to bring Catiline also under the lash of the same law, and to accuse him in form, after his repulse from the consulship, of the murder of many citizens in Sylla's proscription : of which though he was notoriously guilty, yet, contrary to all expectation, he was acquitted'. Catihne was suspected also at the same time of another heinous and capital crime, an incestuous commerce with Fabia, one of the vestal virgins, and sister to Cicero's wife. This was charged upon him so loudly by common fame, and gave such scandal to the city, that Fabia was brought to a trial for it ; but either through her innocence, or " Brutus, pp. 402, 3. » Epist. Fam. viii. 4. " Plutarch, in Cato. ; Sueton. J. Cass. 11. P Quorum auctoritatem, ut, quibus posset modis, di- minueret, trophsa C. Marii, a Sylla olim disjecta, resti- tuit.— Suet. ib. 1 Qui hominem carissimum populo Romano — omni cruciatu yivum lacerarit ; stantl eoUmxi gladio sua dex- tera secuerit ; cum sinistra capillum ejus a vertice teneret, &c.— Vid. De Fetitione Consulat. 3. Quod caput etiam turn plenum animae ct spiritus, ad Syllfim, usque a Janiculo ad aedem ApoUinis, manibus ipse suis detulit.— In Tog. cand. ' Bis absolutum Catilinam.— Ad Att, i. 16 ; Sallust. Bell. Cat. 31 : Dio, 1. Ivi. p. 34. the authority of her orother Cicero, she was readily acquitted: which gave occasion to Cicero to tell him, among the other reproaches on his flagitious life, that there was no place so sacred, whither his very visits did not carry pollution, and leave the imputation of guilt, where there was no real crime subsisting*. As the election of consuls approached, Cicero's interest appeared to be superior to that of all the candidates : for the nobles themselves, though always envious, and desirous to depress him, yet out of regard to the dangers which threatened the city from many quarters, and seemed ready to burst out into a flame, began to think him the only man qualified to preserve the republic, and break the cabals of the desperate, by the vigour and prudence of his administration : for in cases of danger, as Sallust observes, pride and envy naturally subside, and yield the post of honour to virtue'. The method of choosing consuls was not by an open vote, but by a kind of ballot, or little tickets of wood, distributed to the citizens with the names of the candidates severally inscribed upon each : but in Cicero's case, the people were not content with this secret and silent way of testifying their incli- nations ; but before they came to any scrutiny, loudly and universally proclaimed Cicero the first consul: so that, as he himself declared in his speech to them after his election, he was not chosen by the votes of particular citizens, but the common suf- frage of the city ; nor declared by the voice of the crier, but of the whole Roman people". He was the only new man who had obtained this sovereign dignity, or, as he expresses it, had forced the entrenchments of the nobility for forty years past, from the first consulship of C. Marius, and the only one likewise who had ever obtained it in his proper year, or without a repulse". Antonius was chosen his colleague by the majority of a few cen- turies above his friend and partner Catiline ; which was effected probably by Cicero's management, who considered him as the less dangerous and more tractable of the two. Cicero's father died this year on the twenty- fourth of November!', in a good old age, with the comfort to have seen his son advanced to the supreme honour of the city, and wanted nothing to complete the happiness of his life, but the addition of one year more, to have made him a witness of the glory of his consulship. It was in this year » Cum ita vixisti, ut nou esset locus tarn sanctus, quo non adventus tuus, etiam cum culpa nulla subesset, crimen afferret. — Orat. in Tog. cand. ; vid. Ascon. ad lociun. * Sed ubi periculum advenit, invidia atque superbia post fuere. — Sallust. Bell. Cat. 23. ^ Sed tamen magnificentius esse illo nihil potest, quod meiB comitiis non tabellam vindicem taoitsE libertatis, sed vocem vivam prse vobis indicem vestrarum erga me voluntatiun tulisti6.~Itaque me non extrema tribus suf- fragiorum, sed primi illi vestri coucursus, neque singulse voces prEeconum, sed ima voce universus populus Roma- nus consulem declaravit, — De Leg. Agrar. con, Bull. ii. 2 ; In Fison. 1. X. Eum locum, queni nobilitas prssidiis firmatum, atque omni rationo obvallatum tenebat, me duce rescidistia. — Me esse unum, ex omnibus novis hominibus, de quibus meminisse possumus, qui consulatum petierim, cum primum licitum sit; consul factus sim, cum primum petierim ^De Leg. Agrar. ib. i. 2. 7 Fater nobis decessit ad diem viii. Kal. Decemb.-^d Att. i. 6. 42 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OF also most probably, thougb some critics seem to dispute it, that Cicero gave his daughter Tullia in marriage at the age of thirteen to C. Piso Frugi, a young nobleman of great hopes, and one of the best families in Rome^ : it is certain at least, that his son was born in this same year, as he expressly tells us, in the consulship of L. Julius Ceesar and C. Marcius Figulus". So that with the highest honour which the public could bestow, he received the highest pleasure which private life ordinarily adpaits, by the birth of a son and heir to his family. SECTION III. Cicero was now arrived through the usual gra- dation of honours, at the highest which the people could regularly give, or an honest citizen desire. The offices which he had already borne had but a partial jurisdiction, confined to particular branches of the government ; but the consuls held the reins, and directed the whole machine with an authority as extensive as the empire itself". The subordi- nate magistracies, therefore, being the steps only to this sovereign dignity, were not valued so much for tlieir own sake, as for bringing the candidates still nearer to the principal object of their hopes, who through this course of their ambition were forced to practise all the arts of popularity ; to court the little as well as the great, to espouse the principles and politics in vogue, and to apply their talents to conciliate friends, rather than to serve the public^. But the consulship put an end to this subjection, and with the command of the state gave them the command of themselves : so that the only care left was, how to execute this high office with credit and dignity, and employ the power entrusted to them for the benefit and service of their country. We are now, therefore, to look upon Cicero in a different light, in order to form a just idea of his character: to consider him, not as an ambitious courtier, applying all his thoughts and pains to his own advancement ; but as a great magistrate and statesman, administering the affairs and directing the councils of a mighty empire. And according to the accounts of all the ancient writers, Rome never stood in greater need of the skill and vigilance of an able consul than in this very year. For besides the traitorous cabals and conspiracies of those who were attempting to subvert the whole republic, the new tribunes were also labouring to disturb the 2 TuUiolam C. Pisoni, L. F. Frugi despondimus. — Ad Attic, i. 3. Is. Casaubon, rather than give up an hypo- thesis which he had formed ahout tlie eai-lier date of this letter, will hardly allow that TuUia was marriageable at this time, though Cicero himself expressly declares it.' — Vid. not. varior. in locum. a L. Julio CsBsare et 0. Maroio Figulo Consulibus, filiolo me auctum scito, sfllva Terentia, — Ad Attic, i. 3. b Omnes enim in Consulis jure et imperio debent esse provinciae ^Philip, iv. 4. Tu sxumnum imperium — gu- bernaoula reipublicse — orbis terrarum imperium a populo Romano petebas. — Pro Mur. 35. c Jam urbanam multitudinem, et eonun Btudia, qui conciones tenent, adeptus as, in Pompeio orando, Manilii causa recipienda, Comelio defendendo, &o.— Nee tomen in petendo respublica capeasenda est, neque in senatu, nec^ne in concione : sed hfec tibi retinenda, &c..— De Peti- tione Consulat. 13. present quiet of it ! some of them were publishing laws to abolish everything that remained of Sylla s establishment, and to restore the sons of the pro- scribed to their estates and honours : others, to reverse the punishment of P. Sylla and Autronius, condemned for bribery, and replace them in the senate" : some were for expunging all debts, and others, for dividing the lands of the public to the poorer citizens'" : so that, as Cicero declared both to the senate and the people, the republic was delivered into his hands full of terrors and alarms; distracted by pestilent laws and seditious harangues ; endangered, not by foreign wars, but intestine evils, and the traitorous designs of profligate citizens; and that there was no mischief incident to a state, which the honest had not cause to apprehend, the wicked to expect =. What gave the greater spirit to the authors of these attempts, was Antonius's advancement to the consulship : they knew him to be of the same prin- ciples and embarked in the same designs with themselves, which, by his authority, they now hoped to carry into effect. Cicero was aware of this ; and foresaw the mischief of a colleague equal to him in power, yet opposite in views, and prepared to frustrate all his endeavours for the public ser- vice ; so that his first care, after their election, was to gain the confidence of Antonius, and to draw him from his old engagements to the interests of the republic ; being convinced that all the success of his administration depended upon it. He began, therefore, to tempt him by a kind of argument which seldom fails of its effect with men of his character, the offer of power to his ambition, and of money to his pleasures : with these baits he caught him ; and a bargain was presently agreed upon between them, that Antonius should have the choice of the best province which was to be assigned to them at the expiration of their year^ It was the custom for the senate to appoint what particular provinces were to be distributed every year to the several magistrates, who used afterwards to cast lots for them among themselves ; the praetors for the prsetorian, the consuls for the consular pro- vinces. In this partition, therefore, when Mace- donia, one of the most desirable governments of the empire, both for command and wealth, fell to Cicero's lot, he exchanged it immediately with his colleague for Cisalpine Gaul, which he resigned also soon after in favour of Q. Metellus ; being resolved, as he declared in his inauguration speech, to administer the consulship in such a manner, as to put it out of any man's power either to tempt or terrify him from his duty ; since he neither sought, nor would accept, any province, honour, or benefit, from it whatsoever ; the only way, says he, by which a man can discharge it with gravity and freedom ; so as to chastise those tribunes who wish ill to the republic, or despise those who wish iU to himself B : a noble declaration, and worthy to = Pro SyUa, 22, 23. i Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 41. « De Lege Agrar. eont. Hull. i. 8, 9 ; ii. 3. f CoUegam suum Antonium pactions provincise pepu- lerat, ne contra rempublicam dissentiret — Sail. Bell, Cat. 26. g Cum mihi deliberatum et constitutum sit, ita gerero consulatum, quo imo modo geri graviter et libere potest, ut neque provinciam, nequehonorem, neque ornamentum aiiquod, aut commodum — appetiturus sim.' — Sic me geram, ut poBSim tribunum plebis reipublica; iratum coercere, ' miU iratum contemnere.— Contra RulL i. 8. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 43 be transmittei} to posterity for an example to all magistrates in a free state. By this address he entirely drew Antonius into his measures, and had him ever after obsequious to his will'' ; or, as he himself expresses it, by his patience and complai- sance he softened and calmed him, eagerly desirous of a province, and projecting many things against the state'. The establishment of this concord between them was thought to be of such importance to the public quiet, that in his first speech to the people, he declared it to them from the rostra, as an event the most likely to curb the insolence of the factious, and raise the spirits of the honest, and prevent the dangers with which the city was then threatened''. There was another project likewise which he had much at heart, and made one of the capital points of his administration, to ijnite the equestrian order with the senate into one common party and interest. This body of men, next to the senators, consisted of the richest and most splendid families of Rome, who, from the ease and affluence of their fortunes, were naturally vpell-affected to the prosperity of the republic ; and being also the constant farmers of all the revenues of the empire, had a great part of the inferior people dependent upon them. Cicero imagined, that the united weight of these two orders would always be an over-balance to any other power in the state, and a secure barrier against any attempts of the popular and ambitious upon thp common liberty '. He was the only man in the city capable of effecting such a coalition, being now at the head of the senate, yet the darling of the knights ; who considered him as the pride and ornament of their order, whilst he, to ingratiate himself the more with them, affected always in public to boast of that extraction, and to call him- self ^n eqijestrian ; and made it his special care to protect them in all their affairs, and to advance their credit and interest : so that, as some writers tell us, it was the authority of his coiisulship that first distinguished and established them into a third order of the state'". The policy was certainly very good, and the republic reaped great benefit from it in this very year, through which he had the whole body of knights at his devotion, who, with Atticus at Qieir head, constantly attended his orders, and served as a guard to his person ■' : and if the same maxim had been pursued by all succeeding consuls, it might probably have preserved, or would cer- h Plutarch in his life. ' In Pison. 2. ■* Quod ego et concordia, quam mihi constitui cum co)l^a, invitissimis iis hominibus, qiios in consulatu inimicos esse et animis et corporis actibus providi, omni- bus prospexi sane, &c. — Con. Rull. ii. 37. ' TJt miiltitudinem cum principibus, equestrem ordinem cum senatu conjunxerim. — ^In Pison. 3. Neque ulla vis tanta reperietur, quse eonjunctionem vestram, equitumque Romanorum, tantamque conspirationem bonorum om- nium perfringere possit. — ^In Catil. iv. 10. "> Cicero demum stabillvit equestre nomen in consulatu Buo ; ei senatum concilians, ex eo se ordine profeetum celebrans, et eyus vires peculiari popularitate quaerens : ab illo tempore plane hoc tertium corpus in republipa fac- tum est, coepitque adjici scnatui populoqup Romano equester ordo— Plin. Hist. N. 1. xxxiii. 2. " Vos, equites Romani, videte, scitis me ortum e vobis, omnia semper sensisse pro vobis, 5cc. — Pro Rabir. Post. 6. ^-Nunc vero cum equitatus iUe, queni ego in Clivo Capi- tolino, te signifero ac principe, collocaram, senatum dese- merit. — Ad Att. ii. 1. tainly at least have prolonged, the liberty of the republic. _ Having laid this foundation for the laudable discharge of his consulship, he took possession of it, as usual, on the first of January. A little before his inauguration, P. Servilius RuUus, one of the new tribunes, who entered always into their office on the tenth of December, had been alarming the senate with the promulgation of an agrarian law. These laws used to be greedily received by the populace, and were proposed, therefore, by factious magistrates, as oft as they had any point to carry with the multitude figiinst the public good : but this law was of aU others the most extravagant, and, by a show of granting more to the people than had ever been given before, seemed likely to be accepted. The purpose of it was, to create a decemvirate, or ten commissioners, with absolute power for five years over all the revenues of the republic ; to distribute them at pleasure to the citizens ; to sell and buy what lands they thought fit ; to determine the rights of the present pos- sessors i to require an account from all the generals abroad, excepting Pompey, of the spoils taken in their wars ; to settle colonics wheresoever they judged proper, and particularly at Capua j and in short, to command all the money Eind forces of the empire. The publication pf a law conferring powers so expessive, gave a just alarm to all who wished well to the public tranquillity : so that Cicero's first business was to quiet the apprehensions of the city, and to exert all his art and authority to baffle the intrigues of the tribune, As soon, therefore, as he was invested with his new dignity, he raised the spirits of the senate, by assuring them of his reso- lution to oppose the law, and all its abettors, to the utmost of his power ; nor suffer the state to be hurt, or its liberties to be impaired, while the adminis- tration continued in his hands. From the senate he pursued the tribune into his own dominion, the forum ; where, in an artful and elegant speech from the rostra, he gave such a turn to the inclination of the people, that they rejected this agrarian law with as much eagerness as they had ever before received one". He began, "by acknowledging the extraordinary obligations which he had received from them, in preference and opposition to the nobility ; declaring himself the creature of their power, and of all men the most engaged to promote their interests ; that they were to look upon him as the truly popular magistrate ; nay, that be had declared even in the senate, that he would be the people's consuli"." He then fell into a commendation of the Gracchi, whose name was extremely dear to them, professing, " that he could not be against all agrarian laws, when he recollected, that those two most excellent men, who had the greatest love for the Roman people, bad divided the public lands to the citizens ; that he was not one of those consuls, who thought it a crime to praise the Gracchi ; on whose coun- sels, wisdom, and laws, many parts of the present govemnaent were founded' : that his quarrel Wgs to this particular law, which, instead of being popular, or adapted to the true interests of tbp city, was in reality the establishmen t of a tyranny, and a creation o Quis ilnquam tarn secunda condone legem Agrariam suasit, quam ego dissuasi ? — Con. Rull. ii. 37. p Ibid. 3. 1 Ibid. 5. 44 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OP of ten kings to domineer over tliem." This he dis- plays at large, from the natural eifect of that power ■which was granted by it' ; and proceeds to insi- nuate, that it was covertly levelled against their favourite Pompey, and particularly contrived to retrench and insult his authority: " Forgive me, citizens, (says he,) for my calling so often upon so great a name : you yourselves imposed the task upon me, when I was prsetor, to join vrith you in defending his dignity as far as I was able : I have hitherto done aU that I could do ; not moved to it by my private friendship for the man, nor by any hopes of honour, and of this supreme magistracy, which I obtained from you, though with his appro- bation, yet without his help. Since then I perceive this law to be designed as a kind of engine to over- turn his power, I vrill resist the attempts of these men ; and as I myself clearly see what they are aiming at, so I will take care that you shall also see, and be convinced of it too^." He then shows, " how the law, though it excepted Pompey from being accountable to the decemvirate, yet excluded him from being one of the number, by limiting the choice to those who were present at Rome ; that it subjected likewise to their jurisdiction the countries just conquered by him, which had always been left to the management of the general' : upon which he draws a pleasant picture of the tribune RuUus, with all his train of officers, guards, lictors, and apparitors", swaggering in Mithridates's kingdom, and ordering Pompey to attend him, by a manda- tory letter, in the following strain : ** ' P. Servilius Kullus, tribune of the people, decemvir, to Cnseus Pompey the son of Cneeus, greeting.' " He will not add (says he) the title of great, when he has been labouring to take it from him by law*. " ' I require you not to fail to come presently to Sinope, and bring me a suificient guard with you, while T sell those lands by my law, which you have gained by your valour.' " He observes, " that the reason of excepting Pompey was not from any respect to him, but for fear that he would not submit to the indignity of being accountable to their will : but Pompey (says he) is a man of that temper, that he thinks it his duty to bear whatever you please to impose ; but if there be anytliing which you cannot bear yourselves, he will take care that you shall not bear it long against your willsy." He proceeds to enlarge upon " the dangers which this law threatened to their liberties : that instead of any good intended by it to the body of the citizens, its purpose was to erect a power for the oppression of them ; and on pretence of planting colonies in Italy and the provinces, to settle their own creatures and dependants, like so many garrisons, in all the convenient posts of the empire, to be ready on all occasions to support their tyranny : that Capua was to be their head- quarters, their favourite colony ; of all cities the proudest, as well as the most hostile and dangerous ; in which the wisdom of their ancestors would not suffer the shadow of any power or magistracy to remain ; yet now it was to be cherished and advanced to another Rome' : that by this law the lands of ■■ Contra BuUum, ij, 6, 11, 13, 14. " lb. 18. ' lb. 19. » lb. 13. I lb. 20. , r lb. 23. « Ibid. 28, 32. Campania were to be sold or given away ; the most fruitful of all Italy, the surest revenue of the republic, and their constant resource when all other rents failed them ; which neither the Gracchi, who of all men studied the people's benefit the most, nor Sylla, who gave everything away without scruple, durst venture to meddle with"." In the conclusion he takes notice " of the great favour and approbation with which they had heard him, as a sure omen of their common peace and prospe- rity ; and acquaints them with the concord that he had established with his colleague, as a piece of news of all others the most agreeable ; and promises all security to the republic, if they would but show the same good disposition on future occasions which they had signified on that day ; and that he would make those veiy men, who had been the most envious and averse to his advancement, con- fess, that the people had seen farther, and judged better than they, in choosing him for their consid." In the course of this contest he often called upon the tribunes to come into the rostra, and debate the matter with him before the people*" ; but they thought it more prudent to decline the challenge, and to attack him rather by fictitious stories and calumnies, sedulously inculcated into the multi- tude ; that his opposition to the law flowed from no good will to them, but an affection to Sylla's party, and to secure to them the lands which they possessed by his grant; that he was making his court by it to the seven tyrants, as they called seven of the principal senators, who were known to be the greatest favourers of Sylla's cause, and the greatest gainers by it ; the two Lucnlluses, Crassus, Catulus, Hortensius, Metellus, PhUippus, These insinuations made so great an impression on the city, that he found it necessary to defend him- self against them in a second speech to the people", in which he declared, " that he looked upon that law, which ratified aU Sylla's acts, to be of all laws the most wicked, and the most unlike to a true law, as it established a tyranny in the city ; yet that it had some excuse from the times, and, in their present circumstances, seemed proper to be supported ; especially by him who, for this year of his consulship, professed himself the patron of peace"" ; but that it was the height of impudence in Rullus, to charge him with obstructing their interests for the sake of Sylla's grants, when the very law which that tribune was then urging, ac- tually established and perpetuated those grants ; and showed itself to be drawn by a son-in-law of Valgius, who possessed more lands than any other man by that invidious tenure, which were all by this law to be partly confirmed, and partly pur- chased of him*." This he demonstrates from the express words of the law, "which he had studiously omitted, he says, to take notice of before, that he might not revive old quarrels, or move any argu- ment of new dissention in a season so improper': that Rullus, therefore, who accused him of defend- ing Sylla's acts, was of all others the most impudent * Contra Rullimi, ii. 29. '' Si vestrum coramodum spectat, veniat et coram me- cum de agri Campani divisione disputet.^Con. Rull. ii. 28. Commodius fecissent tribuni plebis, Quirites, si, qua5 apud vos de me defemnt, ea coram potius me prse- sente dixissent..— Con. l^ull. iii. 1. " Ibid. d Ibid. iii. 2. « Ibid. iii. 1, 4. t Ibid. iii. 2. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 45 defender of them ; for none had ever affirmed them to he good and legal, but to have some plea only from possession and the public quiet ; but by this law the estates that had been granted by them were to be fixed upon a better foundation and title than any other estates whatsoever." He concludes by renewing his challenge to the tribunes "to come and dispute with him to his face." But after several fruitless attempts, finding themselves wholly unable to contend with him, they were forced at last to submit, and to let the affair drop, to the great joy of the senate. This alarm being over, another accident broke out, which might have endangered the peace of the city, if the effects of it had not been prevented by the authority of Cicero. Otho's law, mentioned above, for the assignment of separate seats to the equestrian order, had highly offended the people, who could not digest the indignity of being thrust so far back from their diversions ; and while the grudge was still fresh, Otho happening to come into the theatre, was received by the populace with an universal hiss, but by the knights with loud applause and clapping. Both sides redoubled their clamour with great fierceness, and from reproaches were proceeding to blows, — till Cicero, informed of the. tumult, came immediately to the theatre, and calling the people out into the temple of Bel- lona, so tamed and stung them by the ■ power of his words, and made them so ashamed of their folly and perverseness, that on their return to the theatre they changed their hisses into applauses, and vied with the Imights themselves in demonstrations of their respect to Othos. The speech was soon after published ; though from the nature of the thmg it must have been made upon the spot, and flowed extempore from the occasion : and as it was much read and admired for several ages after, as a memorable instance of Cicero's command over men's passions, so some have imagined it to be alluded to in that beautiful passage of Virgil'' : Ac veluti magno in populo cum sffipe coOrta est Seditio, ssvitque animis ignoblle vulgus ; Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat ; Turn pietate gravem et meritia si forte virum quem Aspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant ; lUe regit dictis animoB, et pectora mulcet. ViBG. Mn. i. IM. As when sedition fires the ignoble crowd. And the wild rabble storms and thirsts for blood ; Of stones and brands a mingled tempest flies. With all the sudden arms that rage supplies : If some grave sire appears amidst the strife. In morals strict and innocence of life, AH stand attentive, while the sage controls Their wrath, and calms the tempest of their souls. Pitt. -One topic, which Cicero touched in this speech, and the only one of which we have any hint from antiquity, was to reproach the rioters for their want of taste and good sense, in making such a disturbance while Roscius was acting". There happened about the same time a third instance, not less remarkable, of Cicero's great s Plutarch's Life of Cicero. I" Sebaft. Corradi QusEStura, p. 133; iEneid. i. 162. "What gives the greater colour to this imagination is, that Quintilian applies these lines to his character of a com- ' piete orator, which he professedly forms upon the model of Cicero.— Lib. xii, 1. ^ Macrob. Batum. ii. 10. power of persuasion. Sylla had by an express law excluded the children of the proscribed from the senate and all public honours ; which was certainly an act of great violence, and the decree rather of a tyrant, than the law of a free state''. So that the persons injured by it, who were many, and of great families, were now making all their efforts to get it reversed. Their petition was highly equitable, but, from the condition of the times, as highly unseasonable ; for in the present disorders of the city, the restoration of an oppressed party must needs have added strength to the old factions ; since the first use that they would naturally make of the recovery of their power, would be to revenge themselves on their oppressors. It was Cicero's business, therefore, to prevent that inconvenience, and, as far as it was possible, with the consent of the sufferers themselves : on which occasion this great commander of the human affections, as Quin- tilian calls him, found means to persuade those unfortunate men, that to bear their injury was their benefit ; and that the government itself could not stand, if Sylla's laws were then repealed, on which the quiet and order of the republic were established ; acting herein the part of a wise statesman, who will oft be forced to tolerate, and even maintain, what he cannot approve, for the sake of the com- mon good ; agreeably to what he lays down in his book of Offices, that many things which are naturally right and just, are yet, by certain circumstances and conjunctures of times, made dishonest and unjust'. As to the instance before us, he declared in a speech made several years after, that he had ex- cluded from honours a number of brave and honest young men, whom fortune had thrown into so unhappy a situation, that if they had obtained power, they would probably have employed it to the ruin of the state"-. The three cases just mentioned make Pliny break out into a kind of rapturous admiration of the man, who could per- suade the people to give up their bread, their pleasure, and their injuries, to the charms of his eloquence". The next transaction of moment in which he was engaged was the defence of C. Rabirius, an aged senator, accused by T, Labienus, one of the tri- bunes, of treason or rebellion, for having killed L. Saturninus, a tribune, about forty years before, who had raised a dangerous sedition in the city. The fact, if it had been true, was not only legal, but laudable, being done in obedience to a decree of the senate, by which all the citizens were re- quired to take arms in aid of the consuls C. Marius and L. Flaccus. But the punishment of Rabirius was not the thing aimed at, nor the life of an old man worth the pains of disturbing the peace of the city : the design was to attack that prerogative of the senate by which, in the case of a sudden tumult, they could arm the city at once, by requiring the consuls to take care that the r epublic received no detri- k Exclusique patemis opibus liberi, etiam petendorum honorum jure prohiberentiu-.— Veil. Pat. ii. 28. 1 Sic multa, qute honesta natura videntur esse, tempo- ribus fiunt non honesta. — De Offic. iii. 25. ■n Ego adolescentes fortes et bonos, sed uses ea condi- lione fortuna;, ut, si essent magistratus adepti, reipublic* statum convulsuri videi-entiir, comitiorum ratione pri- vavi.— In Pison. 2. n Quo te, M. TuUi, piaculo taceam? &c.— Plin. Hist. 1. vii. 30. 46 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ment : which vote was supposed to give a sanction to everything that was done in consequence of it ; so that several traitorous magistrates had been cut off by it, without the formalities of a trial, in the act of stirring up sedition. This practice, though in use from the earliest times, had always been complained of by the tribunes, as an infringement of the constitution, by giving to the senate an arbitrary power over the lives of citizens, wiiich could not legally be taken away without a hearing and judgment of the whole people. But the chief grudge to it was, from its being a perpetual check to the designs of the ambitious and popular, who aspired to any power not allowed by the laws : it was not difficult for them to delude the multitude ; but the senate was not so easily managed, who by that single vote of committing the republic to the consuls, could frustrate at once all the effects of their popularity, when carried to a point which was dangerous to the state : for since in virtue of it, the tribunes themselves, whose persons were held sacred, might be taken off without sentence or trial, when engaged in any traitorous practices, all at- tempts of that kind must necessarily be hazardous and desperate. This point therefore, was to be tried on the person of Rabirius, in whose ruin the factious of all ranks were interested. J. Caesar suborned La- bienus to prosecute him ; and procured himself to be appointed one of the Duumviri, or the two judges allotted by the prsetor to sit upon trials of treason". Hortensius pleaded his cause, and proved by many witnesses, that the whole accusa- tion was false, and that Saturninus was actually killed by the hand of a slave, who for that service obtained his freedom from the publicP. Csesar, however, eagerly condemned the old man, who appealed from his sentence to the people ; where nothing, says Suetonius, did him so much service, as the partial and forward severity of his judge'. The tribunes in the mean while employed all their power to destroy him ; and Labienus would not suffer Cicero to exceed half an hour in his defence^ ; and, to raise the greater indignation against the criminal, exposed the picture of Satur- ninus in the rostra, as of one who fell a martyr to the liberties of the people. Cicero opened the defence with great gravity, declaring, " that in the memory of man there had not been a cause of such importance, either undertaken by a tribune, or de- fended by a consul : that nothing less was meant by it, than that for the future there should be no senate or public council in the city ; no consent or concurrence of the honest against the rage and rashness of the wicked ; no resource or refuge in the extreme dangers of the republic'. — He implores the favour of all the gods, by whose providence their city was more signally governed than by any wisdom of man, to make that day propitious to the security of the state, and to the life and fortunes of an innocent man." — And having possessed the minds of his audience with the sanctity of the cause, he proceeds boldly to wish, " that he had been at liberty to confess, what Hortensius indeed had proved to be false, that Saturninus, the enemy Suoton. J. Ca!s. 12 ; Dio, p. 42, p ProRabir. 6, 11. 1 Ut ad populum jprovocanti nihil seque ac jiidicia aecr- bitas profuit. — Siieton. ib. 12. ' Pro Rabir. 2. " Ibid. of the Roman people, was killed by the hand of Rabirius' that he should have proclaimed and bragged of it, as an act that merited rewards instead of punishment." — Here he was interrupted by the clamour of the opposite faction ; but he observes it to be "the faint effort of-a small part of the assembly ; and that the body of the people, who were silent, would never have made him consul if they had thought him capable of being disturbed by so feeble an insult ; which he advised them to drop, since it betrayed only their folly and the inferiority of their numbers." — The assembly being quieted, he goes on to declare, " that though Rabirius did not kill Saturninus, yet he took arms with intent to kill him, together with the consuls and all the best of the city, to which his honour, virtue, and duty called him. — He puts Labienus in mind, " that he was too young to be acquainted with the merits of that cause ; that he was not born when Saturninus was killed, and could not be apprised how odious and detestable his name was to all people : that some had been banished for complaining only of his death ; others for having a picture of him in their houses" : that he wondered therefore where Labienus had procured that pic- ture, which none durst venture to keep even at home ; and much more, that he had the hardiness to produce, before an assembly of the people, what had been the ruin of other men's fortunes — that to charge Rabirius with this crime was to condemn the greatest and worthiest citizens whom Rome had ever bred ; and though they were all dead, yet the injury was the same, to rob them of the honour due to their names and memories. — -Would C. Marius, says he, have lived in perpetual toils and dangers, if he had conceived no hopes concerning himself and his glory beyond the limits of this hfe .' When he defeated those innumerable enemies in Italy, and saved the republic, did he imagine that everything which related to him would die with him ? No, it is not so, citizens ; there is not one of us who exerts himself with praise and virtue in the dangers of the republic, but is induced to it by the expectation of a futurity. As the minds of men, therefore, seem to be divine and immortal for many other reasons, so especially for this, that in all the best and the wisest there is so strong a sense of something hereafter, that they seem to reUsh nothing but what is eternal. I appeal then to the souls of C. Marius, and of all those wise and worthy citizens, who, from this life of men, are translated to the honours and sanctity of the gods ; I call them, I say, to witness, that I think myself bound to fight for their fame, glory, and memory, with as much zeal as for the altars and temples of my country ; and if it were necessai-y to take arms in defence of their praise, I should take them as strenuously as they themselves did for the defence of our common safety," &c.' After this speech the people were to pass judg- ment on Rabirius, by the suffrages of all the centuries ; but there being reason to apprehend some violence and foul play from the intrigues of the tribunes, MeteUus, the augur and prsetor of that year, contrived to dissolve the assembly by a stratagem before they came to a vote? : and the greater affairs that presently ensued, and engaged ' Pro Kabir. 6. " Ibid. 10. » Ibid. 9. y Dio, 1. ixxvii. 42. MARCUS TULLIUS CICEllO. 47 the attention of the city, prevented the farther prosecution and revival of the cause. But Csesar was more successful in another case, in which he was more interested,— his suit for the high priesthood, a post of the first dignity in the republic, vacant by the death of Metellus Pius. Labienus opened his way to it by the publication of a new law, for transferring the right of electing from the college of priests to the people, agreeably to the tenor of a former law, which had been repealed by Sylla. Csesar's strength lay in the favour of the populace, which, by immense bribes and the profusion of his whole substance, he had gained on this occasion so effectually, that he carried this high office before he had yet been prsetor, against two consular competitors of the first authority in Rome, Q. Catulus and P. Servilius Isauricus ; the one of whom had been censor, and then bore the title of prince of the senate, and the other been honoured with a triumph : yet he pro- cured more votes against them, even in their own tribes, than they both had out of the whole number of the citizens^. Catiline was now renewing his efforts for the consulship with greater vigour than ever, and by such open methods of bribery, that Cicero pub- lished a new law against it, with the additional penalty of a ten years' exile j prohibiting likewise all shows of gladiators withia two years from the time of suing for any magistracy, unless they were ordered by the will of a person deceased, and on a certain day therein specified'. Catiline, who knew the law to be levelled at himself, formed a design to kill Cicero, with some other chiefs of the senate'', on the day of election, which was appointed for the twentieth of October ; but Cicero gave information of it to the senate the day before, upon which the election was deferred, that they might have time to deUberate on an affair of so great importance : and the day following, in a full house, he called upon Catiline to clear himself of this charge ; where, without denying or excusing it, he bluntly told them that there were two bodies in the republic, meaning the senate and the people, the one of them infirm with a weak head, the other firm without a head ; which last had so well deserved of him, that it should never want a head while he lived. He had made a declaration of the same kind and in the same place a few days before, when upon Cato's threatening him with an impeachment, he fiercely replied, that if any fiame should be excited in his fortunes, he would extinguish it, not with water, but a general ruin*^. These declarations startled the senate, and con- vinced them that nothing but a desperate conspiracy, ripe for execution, could inspire so daring an as- surance : so that they proceeded immediately to that decree which was the usual refuge in all cases 2 Ita potentissimoa duos competitores, multumque et state et dignitate autecedeutes, supcrayit ; ut plura ipse in eorum tribubus Buffragia, quam uterque in omnibus tulerit.— Suet. J. Caes. 13 ; vide Pigb. Aunal. ° Pro Muren. 23; In Vatin. 15. ^ Dio, L xxxvii. 43. <= Turn enim dixit, duo corpora esse reipublicEe — unum debile, iufirmo capite ; alterum firmum, sine capite : huic, cum ita dc se meritum easet, caput, se vivo, non defutu- nun.^Cum idem illc paucis diebua ante Catoni, judicium minitanti, respondiaset, — Si quod esaet in auaa fortunaa incendium excitatum, id ae non aqua, aed rujna,reetinc- tnrum.-J"ro Muren. 25. -' of imminent danger, of ordering the consuls to take care that the republic received no harm''. Upon this Cicero doubled his guard, and called some troops into the city ; and when the election of consuls came on, that he might imprint a sense of his own and of the public danger the more strongly, he took care to throw back his gown in the view of the people, and discovered a shining breast-plate, which he wore under it" : by which precaution, as he told Catiline afterwards to his face, he prevented his design of killing both him and the competitors for the consulship, of whom D. Junius Silanus and L. Licinius Mureua were declared consuls elect'. Catiline, thus a second time repulsed, and breath- ing nothing but revenge, was now eager and impa- tient to execute his grand plot : he had no other game left ; his schemes were not only suspected, but actually discovfered by the sagacity of the con- sul, and himself shunned and detested by all honest men ; so that he resolved without farther delay to put all to the hazard of ruining either his country or himself. He was singularly formed both by art and nature for the head of a desperate conspiracy ; of an illustrious family, ruined fortunes, profligate mind, undaunted courage, unwearied industry ; of a capacity equal to the hardiest attempt, with a tongue that could explain, and a hand that could execute its. Cicero gives us his just character in many parts of his works, but in none a more lively picture of him than in the following passage '' : " He had in him," says he, " many, though not express images, yet sketches of the greatest virtues j was acquainted with a great number of wicked men, yet a pretended admirer of the virtuous. His house was furnished with a variety of temptations to lust and lewdness, yet with several incitements also to industry and labour : it was a scene of vicious pleasures, yet a school of martial exercises. There never was such a monster on earth, compounded of passions so contrary and opposite. Who was ever more agreeable at one time to the bestcitizens ? who more intimate at another with the worst ? who a man of better principles ? who a fouler enemy to this city .' who more intemperate in pleasure ? who more patient in labour ? who more rapacious in plundering ? who more profuse in squandering .' He had a wonderful faculty of engaging men to his friendship, and obliging them by his observance ; sharing with them in common whatever he was master of ; serving them with his money, his inter- est, his pains, and, when there was occasion, by the most daring acts of viUany ; moulding his nature to his purposes, and bending it every way to his will. With the morose, he could live se- verely ; with the free, gaily ; with the old, gravely ; with the young, cheerfully ; with the enterprising, audaciously j with the vicious, luxuriously. By a temper so various and pliable, he gathered about him the profligate and the rash from all countries, yet held attached to him at the same time many ■1 SaU. Bell. Cat. 29 ; Plutarch, in Cic, e Deseendi in campum — cum ilia lata insignique lorica — ut oinnes boni animadverterent, et cum in metu et perieulo cimsulem viderent, id quod factum est, ad opem prffisidiumque meum concurrerent. — Pro Muren. 26, f Cum proximis comitiia conaularibua, me conaulcm in campo et competitores tuoa interfieere voluisti, compreasi conatus tuos nefarioa amieorum praesidio.' — In Cat. i. 5. s Brat ei consilium ad faoinua aptum : consilio autem Deque lingua, neque manus deerat. — In Cat. iii. 7. >> Pro Cael. 6, 6. 48 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF brave and worthy men, by the specious show of a pretended virtue." With these talents, if he had obtained the con- sulship, and with it the command of the armies and provinces of the empire, he would probably, like another Cinna, have made himself the tyrant of his country : but despair and impatience, under his repeated disappointments, hurried liim on to the mad resolution, of extorting by force what he could not procure by address. His scheme how- ever was not without a foundation of probability, and there were several reasons for thinking the present time the most seasonable for the execution of it. Italy was drained in a manner of regular troops ; Porapey at a great distance, with the best army of the empire ; and his old friend Antonius, on whose assistance he still depended', was to have the command of all the forces that remained. But his greatest hopes lay in Sylla's veteran soldiers, whose cause he had always espoused, and among whom he had been bred ; who, to the number of about a hundred thousand, were settled in the several dis- tricts and colonies of Italy, in the possession of lands assigned to them by Sylla, which the gene- rality had wasted by their vices and luxury, and wanted another civil war to repair their shattered fortunes. Among these he employed his agents and ofScers in all parts, to debauch them to his service ; and in Etruiia, had actually enrolled a considerable body, and formed them into a little army under the command of Manlius, a bold and experienced centurion, who waited only for his orders to take the field''. We must add to this what all writers mention, the universal disaffection and discontent which possessed all ranks of the city, but especially the meaner sort, who from the uneasiness of their circumstances, and the pressure of their debts, wished for a change of government : so that if Catiline had gained any little advantage at setting out, or come oiF but equal in the first battle, there was reason to expect a general decla- ration in his favour'. He called a council therefore of all the conspira- tors, to settle the plan of their work, and divide the parts of it among themselves, and fix a proper day for the execution. There were about thirty- five, whose names are transmitted to us as princi- pals in the plot, partly of the senatorian, partly of the equestrian order, with many others from the colonies and municipal towns of Italy, men of fa- milies and interest in their several countries. The senators were, P. Cornelius Lentulus, C. Cethegus, P. Autronius, L. Cassius Longinus, P. Sylla, Serv. Sylla, L. Vargunteius, Q. Curius, Q. Annius, M. Porcius Lecca, L. Bestia". Lentulus was descended from a patrician branch of the Cornelian family, one of the most numerous as weU as the most splendid in Rome. His grand- father had borne the title of prince of the senate, and was the most active in the pursuit and destruction of C. Gracchus, in which he received 1 Inflatum turn spe militmn, turn collegse mei, ut ipso dicebat, promissis. — Pro Muren. 23. ^ Castra sunt in Italia contra rempublicam in Etruriaa faucibus coUocata. — ^In Cat. i. 2 ; it, ii. 6. 1 Sed omnino cuncta plebes, novai'um rerum studio, Catiline iucepta probabat — quod si primo prxlio CatiHna superior, aut sequa manu disccssisset, profecto magna clades, &o.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 27, 2D. n> Ibid. 17. a dangerous wound". The grandson, by the favour of his noble birth, had been advanced to the con- sulship about eight years before, but was turned out of the senate soon after by the censors, for the notorious infamy of his life, till by obtaining the prffitorship a second time, which he now actually enjoyed, he recovered his former place and rank in that supreme council". His parts were but moderate, or rather slow ; yet the comeliness of his person, the gracefulness and propriety of his action, the strength and sweetness of his voice, procured him some reputation as a speakerP. He was lazy, luxurious, and profligately wicked ; yet so vain and ambitious, as to expect from the over- throw of the government, to be the first man in the republic ; in which fancy he was strongly flattered by some crafty soothsayers, who assured him from the sibylline books, that there were three Corne- liuses destined to the dominion of Rome ; that Cinna and Sylla had already possessed it, and the pro- phecy wanted to be completed in him'. With these views he entered freely into the conspiracy, trust- ing to Catiline's vigour for the execution, and hoping to reap the chief fruit from its success. Cethegus was of an extraction equally noble, but of a temper fierce, impetuous, and daring to a de- gree even of fury. He had been warmly engaged in the cause of Marius, with whom he was driven out of Rome ; but when SyUa's affairs became prosperous, he presently changed sides, and throw- ing himself at Sylla' s feet, and promising great services, was restored to the city'. After Sylla's death , by intrigues and faction, he acquired so great an influence, that while Pompey was abroad, he governed all things at home ; procured for Antonius, that command over the coasts of the Mediterranean, and for Lncullns, the management of the Mithri- datic war*. In the height of this power, he made an excursion into Spain, to raise contributions in that province, where meeting with some opposi- tion to his violences, he had the hardiness to insult, and even wound, the proconsul Q. Metellus Pius'. But the insolence of his conduct and the infamy of his life gradually diminished, and at last de- stroyed his credit ; when finding himself controlled by the magistrates, and the particular vigilance of Cicero, he entered eagerly into Catiline's plot, and was entrusted with the most bloody and desperate ° Num P. Lentuimn, principem senatus? Complures ^ alios summos viros, qui cum L. Opimio Consuls armati Graccbmu in Aventinum persecuti sunt ? quo in praelio Lentulus grave vulnus accepit.i — Phil. viii. 4 ; In Cat. iv. 6. ° Lentulus quoque tunc maxime pr^tor, &c. — ^Flor. iv. 1 ; Dio, p. 43 ; Plut. in Cic. P P. Lentulus, cujus et excogitandi et loquendi tardi- tatem tegebat forms dignltas, corporis motus plenus et artis et venustatis, vocis et suavitas et magnitudo.— Brut. 350. q Lentulimi autem sibi confirmasse ex fatis sibyUinis, haruspicmnque responsis, se esse tertium ilium Come- lium, ad quem regnum hujus urbis atque imperimn per- venire esset necesse, &c.— In Cat. iiL 4 ; it. iv. 6. ' Quid Catilina tuis natalibus, atque Cethegi Inveniet quisquam sublimius ? Juv. Sat. viii. 231 ; Appian. 399. 8 Hie est M. Antonius, qui gratia Cotta consulis et Cethegi factione in senatu, curationem infinitam nactus, &c.— Asoon. in Verr. ii. 3 ; Plut. in Lucull. ' Quis de C. Cethego, atque ejus in Hispaniam profec- tione, ac de vulnere Q. Metelli Pii cogitat, cui non ad illius poenam career aedificatus esse videatui?— Pro Syll. 26. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 49 part of it, the task of massacring their enemies within the city. The rest of the conspirators were not less illustrious for their birth". The two Syllas were nephews to the dictator of that name ; Autro- nius had obtained the consulship, but was deprived for bribery ; and Cassius was a competitor for it with Cicero himself. In short, they were all of the same stamp and character ; men whom disap- pointments, ruined fortunes, and flagitious lives, had prepared for any design against the state ; and all whose hopes of ease and advancement depended on a change of affairs, and the subversion of the republic. At this meeting it was resolved, that a general insurrection should be raised through Italy, the different parts of which were assigned to different leaders ; that Catiline should put himself at the head of the troops in Etruria ; that Rome should be fired in many places at once, and a massacre begun at the same time of the whole senate, and all their enemies ; of whom none were to be spared except the sons of Pompey, who were to be kept as hostages of their peace and reconciliation with the father ; that in the consternation of the fire and massacre, Catiline should be ready with his Tuscan army, to take the benefit of the public confusion, and make himself master of the city : where Len- tulus, in the meanwhile, as first in dignity, was to preside in their general councils ; Cassius to ma- nage the affair of firing it, Cethegus to direct the massacre*. But the vigilance of Cicero being the chief obstacle to all their hopes, Catiline was very desirous to see him taken off before he left Rome ; upon which two knights of the company undertook to kill him the next morning in his bed, in an early visit on pretence of business?. They were both of his acquaintance, and used to frequent his house ; and knowing his custom of giving iree access to all, made no doubt of being readily admitted, as C. Cornelius, one of the two, afterwards confessed*. The meeting was no sooner over, than Cicero had information of all that passed in it ; for by the intrigues of a woman named Fulvia, he had gained over Curius her gallant, one of the conspi- rators of senatorian rank, to send him a punctual account of all their deliberations. He presently imparted his intelligence to some of the chiefs of the city, who were assembled that evening, as usual, at his house ; informing them not only of the design, hut naming the men who were to execute it, and the very hour when they would be at his gate : all which fell out exactly as he foretold ; for the two knights came before break of day, but had the mor- tification to find the house well guarded, and all admittance refused to them". » Curii, Porcii, Sylla;, Cethegi, Antonii, Vargunteii, atque LoDginl : quae f amiliae ? quae senatus insignia ? &c. — Flor. iv. 1. * Cum Catilina egrederetur ad exercltum, Lentulus in urbe relinqueretur, Cassius incendiis, Cethegus cadi prs- poneretuT.— Pro Syll. 19 ; Via. Plut. in Cicer. 7 Dixisti paullulum tibi esse morae, quod ego viverem : reperti sunt duo Equites Romani, qui te ista cura libera- rent, et sese ilia ipsa nocte ante lucem me meo in lectulo interfecturos pollioerentur In Catil. i. 4; it. Sallust. Bell. Cat. 20. * Tune tuus pater, Cornell, id quod tandem aliquando confitetur, illam sibi officiosam provinciam depoposcit. — Pro Syll. IS. ■ Domum meam majoribus prsesidiis munivi: exclusi oos, quos tu mane ad me salutatum miseras ; cum ilU ipsi Catiline was disappointed likewise in another affair of no less moment before he quitted the city ; a design to surprise the town of Praaneste, one of the strongest fortresses of Italy, within twenty-five miles of Rome ; which would-have been of singular use to him in the war, and a sure retreat in all events : but Cicero was stUl beforehand with him, and, from the apprehension of such an attempt, had previously sent orders to the place to keep a special guard ; so that when Catiline came in the night to make an assault, he found them so well provided, that he durst not venture upon the experiment''. This was the state of the conspiracy, when Cicero delivered the first of those four speeches, which were spoken upon the occasion of it, and are StUl extant. The meeting of the conspirators was on the sixth of November, in the evening; and on the eighth he summoned the senate to the temple of Jupiter in the capitol, where it was not usually held but in times of public alarm". There had been several debates before this on the same sub- ject of Catiline's treasons, ^and his design of killing the consul ; and a decree had passed at the motion of Cicero, to offer a public reward to the first dis- coverer of the plot ; if a slave, his liberty, and eight hundred pounds ; if a citizen, his pardon, and six- teen hundred''. Yet Catiline, by a profound dis- simulation, and the constant professions of his innocence, still deceived many of all ranks ; repre- senting the whole as the fiction of his enemy Cicero, and offering to give security for his beha- viour, and to deliver himself to the custody of any whom the senate would name ; of M. Lepidus, of the praetor Metellus, or of Cicero himself: but none of them would receive him ; and Cicero plainly told him, that he should never think himself safe in the same house, when he was in danger by living in the same city with him° : yet he still kept on the mask, and had the confidence to come to this very meeting in the capitol ; which so shocked the whole assembly, that none even of his acquaint- ance durst venture to salute him ; and the consular senators quitted that part of the house in which he sat, and left the whole bench clear to him'. Cicero was so provoked by his impudence, that instead of entering upon any business, as he designed, ad- dressing himself directly to Catiline, he broke out into a most severe invective against him ; and with all the fire and force of an incensed eloquence, laid open the whole course of his villanies, and the notoriety of his treasons. He put him in mind, " that there was a decree already made against him, by which he could take venissent, quos ego jam multis ac summis viris ad me id temporis venturos esse prxdixeram.' — In CatU. i. 4. b Quid ? eum tu Prtzneste Kalendis ipsis Novembribus oceupatumm noctumo impetu confideres? Sensistine illam coloniam meo jussu, meis prxsidiis — esse munitam ? —Ibid. i. 3. Prtsneste — ^natui-a munitum. — ^Vell. Pat. ii. 26. c Niliil hie niunitissimus habendi senatus locus — Xb. i. 1. d Si quia indicasset de conjuratione, quje contra rempub- licam facta erat, praemium, servo, libertatem et sestertia centum; liberto, impunitatem et sestertia cc^-Sallust. Bell. Cat. 30. e Cum a me id responsum tulisses, me nullo mode posse iisdem parietibus tuto esse tecum, qui raagno in periculo essem, quod iisdem moenibus contineremur. — In Catil. i. 8. ' Quia te ex hao tanta frequentia, tot ex tuis amicis ao neceasariis salutavit? Quid, quod adventu tuo ista sub- sellia vacuefacta sunt ? A:e. — lb. i. 7- E 60 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF his life?; and that he ought to have done it long ago, since many, far more eminent and less crimi- nal, had been taken off by the same authority for the suspicion only of treasonable designs ; that if he should order him, therefore, to be killed upon the spot, there was cause to apprehend that it would be thought rather too late than too cruel." — ButJ:here was a certain reason which yet withheld him* "Thoushaltthenbeput to death,"_says he, " when there is not a man to be found so wicked, so desperate, so like to thyself, who will deny it to be done justly. — As long as there is one who dares to defend thee, thou shalt live ; and live so as thou now dost, surrounded by the guards which I have placed about thee, so as not to suffer thee to stir a foot against the republic ; whilst the eyes and ears of many shall watch thee, as they have hitherto done, when thou little thoughtest of it'." He then goes on to give a detail of all that had been concerted by the conspirators at their several meetings, to let him see " that he was perfectly informed of every step which he had taken, or designed to take;" and observes, " that he saw several, at that very time in the senate, who had assisted at those meetings." He presses him, there- fore, to quit the city ; and " since all his councils were detected, to drop the thought of fires and massacres ; — that the gates were open, and nobody should stop him'." Then running over the flagi- tious enormities of his life, and the series of his traitorous practices, he " exhorts, urges, com- mands him to depart, and, if he would be advised by him, to go into a voluntary exUe, and free them from their fears ; that, if they were just ones, they might be safer ; if groundless, the quieter''. That though he would not put the question to the house, whether they would order him into banishment or not, yet he would let him see their sense upon it by their manner of behaving while he was urging him to it ; for should he bid any other senator of credit, P. Sextius, or M. Marcellus, to go into exile, they would all rise up against him at once, and lay vio- lent hands on their consul : yet when he said it to him, by their silence they approved it ; by their suffering it, decreed it; by saying nothing, pro- claimed their consent'. That he would answer likewise for the knights, who were then guarding the avenues of the senate, and were hardly restrained from doing him violence ; that if he would consent to go, they would all quietly attend him to the gates. — Yet, after all, if in virtue of Lis command he should really go into banishment, he foresaw what a storm of envy he should draw by it upon himself ; but he did not value that, if by his own calamity he could avert the dangers of the republic : but there was no hope that Catiline could ever be induced to yield to the occasions of the state, or moved with a sense of his crimes, or reclaimed by shame, or fear, or reason, from his madness". He exhorts him, therefore, if he would not go into exile, to go at least, where he was expected, into Manlius's camp, and begin the war ; provided only, that he would cany out with him all the rest of his crew, — ^That there he might riot and exult at his full ease, without the mortification of seeing one s Haliemus senatus consultum in te, Catilina, vehemens et grave — ^lu Catil. i. 1. li Ibid. 2. ' Ibid. 5. k Ibid. 7. 1 Ibid. 8. "» Ibid. 9. honest man about him".— There he might practise all that discipline to which he had been trained, of lying upon the ground, not only in pursuit of his lewd amours, but of bold and hardy enterprises : there he might exert all that boasted patience of hunger, cold, and want, by which however he would shortly find himself undone." He then introduces an expostulation of the republic with himself, " for his too great lenity, in suffering such a traitor to escape, instead of hurrying him to im- mediate death ; that it was an instance of cowardice and ingratitude to the Roman people, that he, a new man, who, without any recommendation from his ancestors, had been raised by them through all the degrees of honour to sovereign dignity, should, for the sake of any danger to himself, neglect the care of the public safety". To this most sacred voice of my country," says he, "and to all those who blame me after the same manner, I shall make this short answer : that if I had thought it the most advisable to put Catiline to death, I would not have allowed that gladiator the use of one mo- ment's life : for if, in former days, our most illustrious citizens, instead of sullying, have done honour to their memories, by the destruction of Satuminus, the Gracchi, Flaccus, and many others ; there is no ground to fear, that, by killing this parricide, any envy would lie upon me with poste- rity ; yet if the greatest was sure to befall me, it was always my persuasion, that envy acquired by virtue was really glory, not envy : but there are some of this very order, who do not either see the dangers which hang over us, or else dissemble what they see, who, by ^he softness of their votes, cherish Catiline's hopes, and add strength to the conspi- racy by not believing it ; whose authority influences many, not only of the wicked, but the weak ; who, if I had punished this man as he deserved, would not have failed to cry out upon me for acting the tyranf. Now I am persuaded, that when he is once gone into Manlius's camp, whither he actu- ally designs to go, none can be so siUy as not to see that there is a plot ; none so vricked, as not to acknowledge it : whereas, by taking off him alone, though this pestilence would be somewhat checked, it could not be suppressed ; but when he has thrown himself into rebellion, and carried out his friends along with him, and drawn together the profligate and desperate from all parts of the empire, not only this ripened plague of the republic, but the very root and seed of all our evils, will be extirpated with him at once." Then applying himself again to Catiline, he concludes with a short prayer to Jupiter : " With these omens, Catiline, of all pros- perity to the republic, but of destruction to thyself and all those who have joined themselves with thee in all kinds of parricide, go thy way then to this impious and abominable war ; whilst thou, Jupiter, whose religion was established with the foundation of this city, whom we truly call Stator, the stay and prop of this empire, wilt drive this man and his accomplices from thy altars and temples, from the houses and walls of the city, from the lives and for- tunes of us all ; and wilt destroy with eternal punishments, both living and dead, all the haters of good men, the enemies of their country, the plunderers of Italy, now confederated in this detest- able league and partnership of villany." " In Catil. 1. 10. P Ibid. 12. o Ibid. 11. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 61 Catiline, astonished by the thunder of this speech, had little to say for himself in answer to it ; yet, with downcast looks and suppliant voice, he begged of the fathers not to believe too hastily what was said against him by an enemy ; that his birth and past life offered everything to him that was hopeful ; and it was not to be imagined that a man of patrician family, whose ancestors, as well as himself, had given many proofs of their affection to the Roman people, should want to overturn the government ; while Cicero, a stranger and late inhabitant of Rome, was so zealous to preserve it. But as he was going on to give foul language, the senate interrupted him by a general outcry, calling him traitor and parricide : upon which, being furious and desperate, he declared again aloud what he had said before to Cato, that since he was circumvented «nd driven headlong by his enemies, he would quench the flame which was raised about him, by the common ruin ; and so rushed out of the assem- bly i. As soon as he was come to his house, and began to reflect on what had passed, perceiving it in vain to dissemble any longer, he resolved to enter into action immediately, before the troops of the republic were increased, or any new levies made ; so that, after a short conference with Len. tulus, Cethegus, and the rest, about what had been concerted in the last meeting, having given fresh orders and assurances of his speedy return at the head of a strong army, he left Rome that very night with a small retinue, to make the best of his way towards Etrnria^ He no sooner disappeared, than his friends gave out that he was gone into a voluntary exile at Mar- seilles'; which was industriously spread through the city the next morning, to raise an odium upon Cicero for driving an innocent man into banish- ment without any previous trial or proof of his guilt; but Cicero was too well informed of his motions to entertain any doubt about his going to Manlius's camp, and into actual rebellion : he knew that he had sent thither already a quantity of arms, and all the ensigns of military command, with that silver eagle which he used to keep with great super- stition in his house, for its having belonged to C. Marius in his expedition against the Cimbri'. But lest the story should make an ill impression on the city, he called the people together into the forum, to give them an account of what passed in the senate the day before, and of Catiline's leaving Rome upon it. He began by congratulating with them on Cati- line's flight, as on a certain victory; "since the driving him from his secret plots and insidious attempts on their lives and fortunes into open rebellion, was in effect to conquer him : that Cati- line himself was sensible of it, whose chief regret in his retreat was not for leaving the city, but for leaving it standing". — But if there be any here," 1 Turn ille furibundus ; — Quoniam quidem circumven- tU8, inquit, ab inimicis praceps agor, incendiuzn meum ruina eztinguam.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 31. ' Ibid. 32. ■ At eniin sunt, Quirites, qui dicunt a me in exilium ejectum esse Catilinam Ego vehemens ille consul, qui yerbo cives in exilium ejicio, &c. — In Catil. ii. 6, ' Cum fasces, cum tubas, cum signa militaria, cum aquilam illam argenteam, cui ille etiam sacrarium scele- rum domi suae fec^rat, scirem esse prsemissam. — lb. ; Sal- lust. Bell. Cat. 69. » In CatU. ii.'l. says he, " who blame me for what I am boasting of, as you all indeed justly may, that I did not rather seize than send away so capital an enemy ; that is not my fault, citizens, but the fault of the times. Catiline ought long ago to have suffered the last punishment ; the custom of our ancestors, the discipline of the empire, and the republic itself, required it. But how many would there have been who would not have believed what I charged him with ? llow many, who, through weakness, would never have imagined it, or through wickedness would have defended it ? " He observes, " that if he had put Catiline to death, he should have drawn upon himself such an odium as would have rendered him unable to prosecute his accom- plices and extirpate the remains of the conspiracy ; but so far from being afraid of him now, he was sorry only that he went off with so few to attend him* : that his forces were contemptible, if com- pared with those of the republic ; made up of a miserable, needy crew, who had wasted their sub- stance, forfeited their bails, and would run away not only at the sight of an army, but of the praetor's edict. — That those who had deserted his army, and staid behind, were more to be dreaded than the army itself ; and the more so, because they knew him to be informed of all their designs, yet were not at all moved by it : that he had laid open all their coun- cils in the senate the day before, upon which Cati- line was so disheartened that he immediately fled : that he could not guess what these others meant ; if they imagined that he should always use the same lenity, they were much mistaken^ ; for he had now gained what he had hitherto been waiting for, to make all people see that there was a conspiracy : that now, therefore, there was no more room for clemency, the case itself required severity ; yet he would still grant them one thing, to quit the city and follow Catiline ; nay, would tell them the way ; it was the Aurelian road ; and if they would make haste, they might overtake him before night." Then, after describing the profligate life and con- versation of Catiline and his accomplices^, he declares it " insufferably impudent for such men to pretend to plot ; the lazy against the active, the foolish against the prudent, the drunken against the sober, the drowsy against the vigilant ; who, lolling at feasts, embracing mistresses, staggering with wine, stuffed with victuals, crowned with gar- lands, daubed with perfumes, belch in their con- versations of massacring the honest and firing the city. If my consulship," says he, " since-it can- not cure, should cut off all these, it would add no small period to the duration of the republic ; for there is no nation which we have reason to fear, no king who can make war upon the Roman people ; all disturbances abroad, both by land and sea, are quelled by the virtue of one man ; but a domestic war still remains ; the treason, the danger, the enemy is within ; we are to combat with luxury, with madness, with villany. In this war I profess myself your leader, and take upon myself all the animosity of the desperate : whatever can possibly be healed, I will heal ; but what ought to be cut off', I will never suffer to spread to the ruin of the city."" He then takes notice of the report of Catiline's being driven into exile, but ridicules the weakness of it; and says, " that he had put that » In Catil, ii. 2. '' IMd. 3. ' Ibid. 4! " IWd. 5. 52 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF matter out of doubt, by exposing all his treasons the day before in the senate"." He laments " the wretched condition not only of governing, but even of preserving states: For if Catiline," says he, " baffled by my pains and counsels, should really change his mind, drop all thoughts of war, and betake himself to exile, he would not be said to be disarmed and terrified, or driven from his purpose by my vigilance, but uncondemned and innocent to be forced into banishment by the threats of the consul ; and there would be numbers who would think him not wicked, but unhappy, and me not a diligent consul, but a cruel tyrant." He declares, " that though, for the sake of his own ease or cha- racter, he should never wish to hear of Catiline's being at the head of an army, yet they would certainly hear it in three days' time : that if men were so perverse as to complain of his being driven away, what would they have said If he had been put to death ,'' Yet there was not one of those who talked of his going to Marseilles, but would be sorry for it, if it was true, and wished much rather to see him in Manlius's camp"^." He pro- ceeds to describe at large the strength and forces of Catiline, and the different sorts of men of which they were composed ; and then displaying and opposing to them the superior forces of the repub- lic, he shows it to be " a contention of all sorts of virtue against all sorts of vice ; in which, if all human help should fail them, the gods themselves would never suffer the best cause in the world to be vanquished by the worst**." He requires them, therefore, to " keep a watch only in their private houses, for he had taken care to secure the public without any tumult : that he had given notice to all the colonies and great towns of Catiline's retreat, so as to be upon their guard against him : that as to the body of gladiators, whom Catiline always depended upon as his best and surest band, they were taken care of in such a manner as to be in the power of the republic' ; though, to say the truth, even these were better affected than some part of the patricians : that he had sent Q. Metel- ius, the praetor, into Gaul and the district of Pice, num, to oppose all Catiline's motions on that side ; and, for settling all matters at home, had summoned the senate to meet again that morning, which, as they saw, was then assembling. As for those, therefore, who were left behind in the city, though they were now enemies, yet, since they were horn citizens, he admonished them again and again, that his lenity had been waiting only for an opportunity of demonstrating the certainty of the plot : that for the rest, he should never forget that this was his country, he their consul, who thought it his duty either to live with them, or die for them. There is no guard," says he, "upon the gates, none to watch the roads ; if any one has a mind to with- draw himself, he may go wherever he pleases ; but if he makes the least stir within the city, so as to be caught in any overt act against the republic, he shall know that there are in it vigilant consuls, excellent magistrates, a stout senate ; that there are arms, and a prison, which our ancestors pro- vided as the avenger of manifest crimes ; and all l" In Catil. ii. 6. <: liid. 7, 8, 9, 10. d Ibid. U. e Ibid. 1-2, Decrevere uti familise gladiatorial Capuain ct in ceetera municipia distribuerentur pro cujusqiie opi- bus.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 30 this shall be transacted in such a manner, citizens, that the greatest disorders shall be quelled without the least hurry ; the greatest dangers, without any tumult ; a domestic war, the most desperate of any in our memory, by me, your only leader and gene- ral, in my gown ; which I will manage so, that, as far as it is possible, not one even of the guilty shall suffer punishment in the city. But if their auda- ciousness, and my country's danger, should neces- sarily drive me from this mild resolution, yet I will effect, what in so cruel and treacherous a war could hardly be hoped for, that not one honest man shall fall, but all of you be safe by the punishment of a few. This 1 promise, citizens, not from any con- fidence in my own prudence, or from any human councils, but from the many evident declarations of the gods, by whose impulse I am led into this per- suasion; who assist ns, not as they used to do, at a distance, against foreign and remote enemies, hut by their present help and protection, defend their temples and our houses. It is your part, there- fore, to worship, implore, and pray to them, that since all our enemies are now subdued both by land and sea, they would continue to preserve this city, which was designed by them for the most beautiful, the most flourishing, and most powerful on earth, from the detestable treasons of its own desperate citizens." We have no account of this day's debate in the senate, which met while Cicero was speaking to the people, and were waiting his coming to them from the rostra : but as to Catiline, after staying a few days on the road to raise and arm the coun- try through which he passed, and which his agents had already been disposing to his interests, he marched directly to Manlius's camp, with the fasces and all the ensigns of military command displayed before him. Upon this news, the senate declared both him and Manlius public enemies, with offers of pardon to all his followers who were not con- demned of capital crimes, if they returned to their duty by a certain day ; and ordered the consuls to make new levies, and that Antonius should follow Catiline with the army j Cicero stay at home to guard the city'. It will seem strange to some, that Cicero, when he had certain information of Catiline's treason, instead of seizing him in the city, not only suf- fered but urged his escape, and forced him as it were to begin the war. Bat there was good reason for what he did, as he frequently intimates in his speeches ; he had many enemies among the nobility, and Catiline many secret friends ; and though he was perfectly informed of the whole progress and extent of the plot, yet the proofs being not ready to he laid before the public, Catiline's dissimu- lation still prevailed, and persuaded great numbers of his innocence ; so that if he had imprisoned and punished him at this time, as he deserved, the whole faction were prepared to raise a general clamour against him, by representing his admi- nistration as a tyranny, and the plot as a forgery contiived to support it : whereas by driving Catiline into rebellion, he made all men see the reality of their danger ; while from an exact account of his troops, he knew them to be so unequal to those of the republic, that there was no doubt of his being destroyed, if he could be pushed to the necessity of f Sallust. Bell. Cat 36. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 63 declaring himself, before his other projects were ripe for execution. He knew also, that if Catiline was once driven out of the city, and separated from his accomplices, who were a lazy, drunken, thought- less crew, they would ruin themselves by their own rashness, and be easily drawn into any trap which he should lay for them : the event showed that he judged right; and by what happened afterwards both to Catiline and to himself, it appeared, that, as far as human caution could reach, he acted with the utmost prudence in regard as well to his own, as to the public safety. In the midst of sdl this hurry, and soon after Catiline's flight, Cicero found leisure, according to his custom, to defend L. Murena, one of the consuls elect, who was now brought to a trial for bribery and corruption. Cato had declared in the senate, that he would try the force of Cicero's late law upon one of the consular candidates ^ : and since Catiline, whom he chiefly aimed at, was out of his reach, he resolved to fall upon Murena ; yet con- nived at the same time at the other consul, Silanus, who bad married his sister, though equally guilty with his colleague'* : he was joined in the accusa- tion by one of the disappointed candidates, S. Sulpicius, a person of distinguished worth and character, and the most celebrated lawyer of the age, for whose service, and at whose instance, Cicero's law against bribery was chiefly provided '. Murena was bred a soldier, and had acquired great fame in the Mithridatic war, as lieutenant to LucuUus''; and was now defended by three, the greatest men, as well as the greatest orators of Rome, Crassus, Hortensius, and Cicero : so that there had seldom been a trial of more expectation, on account of the dignity of all the parties con- cerned. The character of the accusers makes it reasonable to believe, that there was clear proof of some illegal practices ; yet from Cicero's speech, which, though imperfect, is the only remaining monument of the transaction, it seems probable, that they were such only as, though strictly speaking irregular, were yet warranted by custom and the example of all candidates ; and though heinous in the eyes of a Cato, or an angry compe- titor, were usually overlooked by the magistrates and expected by the people. The accusation consisted of three heads : the scandal of Murena's life ; the want of dignity in his character and family ; and bribery in the late election. As to the first, the greatest crime 'which Cato charged him with was dancing ; to which Cicero's defence is somewhat remarkable: " He admonishes Cato not to throw out such a calumny so inconsiderately, or to call the consul of Rome a dancer ; but to consider how many other crimes a man must needs be guilty of before that of dancing could be truly objected to him ; since no- body ever danced, even in solitude, or a private meeting of friends, who was not either drunk or mad ; for dancing was always the last act of ? Bixi in senatu, me nomen conBularis candidati dela- turum..— Pro Muren. 30. Quod atrociter in senatu dixisti, aut non dixisses, aut BeposuiGsefi.^-Ib. 31 ; Flutar. in Cato. ^ Plutarch, in Cato. ' Legem ambitus flagitasti— gestus est mos ei voluntati et dlgnitati tuae.— Pro Muren. 23. ^ LegatuB L. Lucullo fuit : qua in legatione duxit exer- dtum— magnas copias hostium fudit* urbes partim vi, partim obsidione cepit.— Fro Muren. 9. riotous banquets, gay places, and much jollity: that Cato charged him therefore with what was the effect of many vices, yet with none of those, without which that vice could not possibly subsist ; with no scandalous feasts, no amours, no nightly revels, no lewdness, no extravagant expense," &c.- As to the second article, the want of dignity, it was urged chiefly by Sulpicius, who being noble and a patrician, was the more mortified to be defeated by a plebeian, whose extraction he con- temned : but Cicero " ridicules the vanity of thinking no family good, but a patrician ; shows that Murena's grandfather and great-grandfather had been prsetors ; and that his father also from the same dignity had obtained the honour of a triumph : that Sulpicius's nobility was better known to the antiquaries than to the people ; since his grandfather had never borne any of the principal offices, nor his father ever mounted higher than the equestrian rank : that being there- fore the son of a Roman knight, he had always reckoned him in the same class with himself, of those who by their own industry had opened their way to the highest honours ; that the Curiuses, the Catos, the Fompeiuses, the Mariuses, the Didiuses, the Cseliuses were all of the same sort : that when he had broken through that barricade of nobility, and laid the consulship open to the virtuous, as well as to the noble ; and when a consul, of an ancient and illustrious descent, was defended by a consul, the son of a knight ; he never imagined, that the accusers would venture to say a word about the novelty of a family : that he himself had two patrician competitors, the one a profligate and audacious, the other an excellent and modest man ; yet that he outdid Catiline in dignity, Galba in interest ; and if that had been a crime in a new man, he should not have wanted enemies to object it to him"." He then shows " that the science of arms, in which Murena excelled, had much more dignity and splendour in it than the science of the law, being that which first gave a name to the Roman people, brought glory to their city, and subdued the world to their empire : that martial virtue had ever been the means of conciliating the favour of the people, and recommending to the honours of the state ; and it was but reasonable that it should hold the first place in that city, which was raised by it to be the head of all other cities in the world"." As to the last and heaviest part of the charge, the crime of bribery, there was little or nothing made out against him, but what was too common to be thought criminal; the bribery of shows, plays, and dinners given to the populace; yet not so much by himself, as by his friends and relations, who were zealous to serve him ; so that Cicero makes very slight of it, and declares himself " more afraid of the authority, than the accusation of Cato ; " and to obviate the influence which the reputation of Cato's integrity might have in the cause, he observes, " that the people in general, and all wise judges, had ever been jealous of the power and interest of an accuser ; lest the criminal should be borne down, not by the weight of his crimes, but the superior force of his adversary. Let the authority of th e great prevail," says he , 1 Pro Muren. 6. ' l» Ibid, f, 8, n Ibid. 9, 10, 11, 64 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF '* for the safety of the innocent, the protection of the helpless, the relief of the miserable ; but let its influence be repelled from the dangers and destruc- tion of citizens : for if any one should say, that Cato would not have taken the pains to accuse, if he had not been assured of the crime, he estab- lishes a very unjust law to men in distress, by making the judgment of an accuser to be con- sidered as a prejudice or previous condemnation of the criminal"." He exhorts " Cato not to be so severe on what ancient custom and the republic itself had found useful ; nor to deprive the people of their plays, gladiators, and feasts, which their ancestors had approved ; nor to take from candi- dates an opportunity of obliging by a method of expense which indicated their generosity, rather than an intention to corrupf." But whatever Murena's crime might be, the circumstance which chiefly favoured him was, the difficulty of the times, and a rebellion actually on foot ; which made it neither safe nor prudent to deprive the city of a consul, who by a military education was the best qualified to defend it in so dangerous a crisis. This point Cicero dwells much upon, declaring, " that he undertook this cause, not so much for the sake of Murena, as of the peace, the liberty, the lives and safety of them all. Hear, hear," says he, " your consul, who, not to speak arrogantly, thinks of nothing day and night but of the republic : Catiline does not despise us so far, as to hope to subdue this city with the force which he has carried out with him : the contagion is spread wider than you imagine ; the Trojan horse is within our walls ; which, while I am consul, shall never oppress you in your sleep. If it be asked then, what reason I have to fear Catiline .' none at all ; and I have taken care that nobody else need fear him : yet I say, that we have cause to fear those troops of his, which I see in this very place. Nor is his army so much to be dreaded, as those who are said to have deserted it : for in truth they have not deserted, but are left by him only as spies upon us, and placed as it were in ambush, to destroy us the more securely : all these want to see a worthy consul, an experienced general, a man both by nature and fortunes attached to the interests of the repubhc, driven by your sentence from the guard and custody of the cityi.'* After urging this topic with great warmth and force, he adds; " We are now come to the crisis and extremity of our danger ; there is no resource or recovery for us, if we now miscarry ; it is no time to throw away any of the helps which we have, but by all means possible to acquire more. The enemy is not on the banks of the Anio, which was thought so terrible in the Punic war, but in the city and the forum. Good gods ! (1 cannot speak it without a sigh,) there are some enemies in the very sanctuary ; some, I say, even in the senate 1 The gods grant, that my colleague may quell this rebellion by our arms ; whilst I, in the gown, by the assistance of all the honest, will dispel the other dangers with which the city is now big. But what will become of us, if they should slip through our hands into the new year ; and find but one consul in the republic, and him employed not in prosecuting the war, but in providing a colleague ? Then this plague of Catiline will break out in all Pro Muren. 28. P Ibid. 36. 1 Ibid. 37. its fury, spreading terror, confiision, fire, and sword through the city," Sec' This considera- Hen, so forcibly urged, of the necessity of having two consuls for the guard of the city at the opening of the new year, had such weight with the judges, that without any deliberation they unanimously acquitted Murena, and would not, as Cicero says, so much as hear the accusation of men, the most eminent and illustrious". Cicero had a strict intimacy all this while with Sulpicius, whom he had served with all his interest in this very contest for the consulship'. He had a great friendship also with Cato, and the highest esteem of his integrity ; yet he not only defended this cause against them both, but to take off the prejudice of their authority, laboured even to make them ridiculous ; rallying the profession of Sulr picius as trifling and contemptible, the principles of Cato as absurd and impracticable, with so much humour and wit, that he made the whole audience very merry, and forced Cato to cry out, What a facetious consul have we™ ! But what is more observable, the opposition of these great men in an affair so interesting gave no sort of interruption to their friendship, which continued as fii'm as ever to the end of their Uves : and Cicero, who lived the longest of them, showed the real value that he had for them both after their deaths, by pro- curing public honours for the one, and writing the life and praises of the other. Murena too, though exposed to so much danger by the prosecution, yet seems to have retained no resentment of it ; but during his consulship paid a great deference to the counsels of Cato, and employed all his power to support him against the violence of Metellus, his colleague in the tribunate. This was a greatness of mind truly noble, and suitable to the dignity of the persons ; not to be shocked by the particular couti'adiction of their friends, when their general views on both sides were laudable and virtuous : yet this must not be wholly charged to the virtue of the men, but to the discipline of the republic itself, which by a wise policy imposed it as a duty on its subjects to defend their fellow citizens in their dangers, without regard to any friendships or engagements whatsoever '. The examples of this kind will be more or less frequent in states, in pro- portion as the public good happens to be the ruling principle ; for that is a bond of union too firm to be broken by any little differences about the measures of pursuing it : but where private ambition and party zeal have the ascendant, there every opposition must necessarily create animosity, as it obstructs the acquisition of that good, which is considered as the chief end of life, private benefit and advantage. Before the trial of Murena, Cicero had pleaded another cause of the same kind in the defence of C. Piso, who had been consul four years before, and acquired the character of a brave and vigorous r Pro Muren. 39. * Defendi consul L. Murenam — ^nemo illormn judicum, clarissimis viris accusantibus, audiendum sibi de ambitu curavit, cum bellum jam gerente Catilina, omnes, me auctore, duos consules Kalendis Jan. scirent esse oportere. —Ibid. ' Ibid. 3. « Plut. in Cato. * Hanc nobis a majoribus esse traditam disciplinam, u nuUius amicitia ad propulsanda perieula impediremur.— Pro Sylla, 17. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 55 magistrate : but we have no remains of the speech, nor anything more said of it by Cicero, than that Piso was acquitted on the account of his laudable behaviour in his consulship?. We learn however from Sallust, that he was accused of oppression and extortion in his government ; and that the prosecution was promoted chiefly by J. Csesar, out of revenge for Piso's having arbitrarily punished one of his friends or clients in Cisalpine Gaul^. But to return to the affair of the conspiracy : Lentulus and the rest, who were left in the city, were preparing all things for the execution of their grand design, and soliciting men of aU ranks, who seemed likely to favour their cause, or to be of any use to it : among the rest, they agreed to make an attempt on the ambassadors of the Allobroges ; a warlike, mutinous, faithless people, inhabiting the countries now called Savoy and Dauphiny, greatly disaffected to the Roman power, and already ripe for rebellion. These ambassadors, who were pre- paring to return home, much out of humour with the senate, and without any redress of the griev- ances which they were sent to complain of, received the proposal at first very greedily, and promised to engage their nation to assist the con- spirators with what they principally wanted', a good body of horse, whenever they should begin the war ; but reflecting afterwards, in their cooler thoughts, on the difficulty of the enterprise, and the danger of involving themselves and their coun- try in so desperate a cause, they resolved to dis- cover what they knew to Q.. Fabius Sanga, the patron of their city, who immediately gave intel- ligence of it to the consul*. Cicero's instructions upon it were, that the ambassadors should continue to feign the same zeal which they had hitherto shown, and promise everything that was required of them, till they had got a full insight into the extent of the plot, with distinct proofs against the particular actors in it' : upon which, at their next conference with the con- spirators, they insisted on having some credentials from them to show to their people at home, with- out which they would never be induced to enter into an engagement so hazardous. This was thought reasonable, and presently complied with ; and Vulturcius was appointed to go along with the ambassadors, and introduce them to Catiline on their road, in order to confirm the agreement, and exchange assurances also with him ; to whom Len- tulus sent at the same time a particular letter under liis own hand and seal, though without his name. Cicero, being punctually informed of all these facts, concerted privately with the ambassadors the time and manner of their leaving Rome in the night, and that on the Milvian bridge, about a mUe from the city, they should be arrested with their papers and letters about them, by two of the praetors, L. Flaccus and C. Pontinius, whom he bad in- structed for that purpose, and ordered to lie in 7 Pro Flaooo, 39. ^ Ballust. Bell. Cat. 49. * Ut equitatum in Italiam quamprimum mitterent. — In Catil. iii. 4. ^ Allobroges diu incertmn habuere, quidnam consilii caperenfc— Itaque Q. Fabio Sangse rem onmem, ut cogno- verunt, aperiunt.— Sail. BelL Cat. 41. *= Cicero — ^legatis pr^ecipit, ut Btudium conjurationis ve- hementer simulent, cajteros adeant, bene pollieeantur, dentque operam, ut eos quam maxime manifestos habeant. -Ibid. ambush near the place, with a strong guard of friends and soldiers : all which was successfully executed, and the whole company brought pri- soners to Cicero's house by break of day"". The rumour of this accident presently drew a resort of Cicero's principal friends about him, who advised him to open the letters before he produced them in the senate, lest, if nothing of moment were found in them, it might be thought rash and im- prudent to raise an unnecessary terror and alarm through the city. But he was too well informed of the contents to fear any censure of that kind ; and declared, that in a case of public danger he thought it his duty to lay the matter entire before the public council'. He summoned the senate therefore to meet immediately, and sent at the same time for Gabinius, Statilius, Cethegus, and Lentulus, who all came presently to his house, suspecting notliing of the discovery ; and being informed also of a quantity of arms provided by Cethegus for the use of the conspiracy, he ordered C. Sulpicius, another of the praetors, to go and search his house, where he found a great number of swords and daggers, with other arms, all newly cleaned, and ready for present service'. With this preparation he set out to meet the senate in the temple of Concord, with a numerous guard of citizens, carrying the ambassadors and the conspirators with him in custody : and after he had given the assembly an account of the whole affair, Vulturcius was called in to be examined separately ; to whom Cicero, by order of the house, offered a pardon and reward, if he would faithfully discover all that he knew : upon which, after some hesitation, he confessed that he had letters and instructions from Lentulus to Catiline, to press him to accept the assistance of the slaves, and to lead his army with all expedition towards Rome, to the intent, that when it should be set on fire in different places, and the general massacre begun, he might be at hand to intercept those who escaped, and join with his friends in the citys. The ambassadors were examined next, who de- clared, that they had received letters to their nation from Lentulus, Cethegus, and Statilius ; that these three, and L. Cassius also, required them to send a body of horse as soon as possible into Italy, de- claring that they had no occasion for any foot ; that Lentulus had assured them from the SibyUine books, and the answers of soothsayers, that he was the third Cornelius, who was destined to be master of Rome, as Cinna and Sylla had been be- fore him ; and that this was the fatal year marked for the destruction of the city and empire : that there was some dispute between Cethegus and the d li. Flaccum ct C. Pontinium preetores — ad me vocavi, rem exposui ; quid fieri placeret ostendi — occulte ad pon- tem Milvium pervenerunt — ipsi comprehensi ad me, cum jam dilucesceret, deducuntur.- — ^In Catil. iii. 2, e Cum summis et clarissimis hujus civitatis viris, qui, audita re, frequentes ad me convenerant, literas a me prius aperiri, quam ad aenatum referrem, placeret, ne si nihil esset inventum, temere a me tantus tumultus in- jectus civitati videretur, me negavi esse faptiu-um, ut de periculo publico non ad publicum concilium rem integram deferrem. — lb. iii. 3. ' Admonitu Allobrogum— C. Sulpioium— misi, qui ex Kdibus Cethegi, si quid telorum esset, efferret ; ex quibus ille maximimi sicarum numerum et gladiorum cxtulit.— Ibid. ; it. Plutarch, in Cio. e In Cat. iii. 4. THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE Of rest about the time of firing tlie city ; for while the rest were for fixing it on the feast of Saturn, or the middle of December, Cethegus thought that day too remote and dilatory. — The letters were then produced and opened — first that from Cethe- gus ; and upon showing him the seal, he allowed it to be his ; it was written with his own hand, and addressed to the senate and people of the AUobroges, signifying, that he would make good what he had promised to their ambassadors, and entreating them also to perform what the ambas- sadors had undertaken for them. He had been interrogated just before about the arms that were found at his house ; to which he answered, that they were provided only for his curiosity, for he had always been particularly fond of neat arms ; but after his letter was read, he was so dejected and confounded, that he had nothing at all to say for himself. — Statilius was then brought in, and acknowledged his hand and seal ; and when his letter was read, to the same purpose with Cethegus's, he confessed it to be his own. Then Lentulus's letter was produced, and his seal likewise owned by him ; which Cicero perceiving to be the head of his grandfather, could not help expostulating with him, that the very image of such an ancestor, so remarkable for a singular love of his country, had not reclaimed him from his traitorous designs. His letter was of the same import with the other two ; but having leave to speak for himself, he at first denied the whole charge, and began to question the ambassadors and Vulturcius, what business they ever had vrith him, and on what occasion they came to his house ; to which they gave clear and distinct answers, signifying by whom, and how often, they had been introduced to him ; and then asked him in their turn, whether he had never mentioned anything to them about the Sibylline oracles ; upon which being confounded, or infatu- ated rather by the sense of his guilt, he gave a remarkable proof, as Cicero says, of the great force of conscience ; for not only his usual parts and eloquence, but his impudence too, in which he outdid all men, quite failed him, so that he confessed his crime, to the surprise of the whole assembly. Then Vulturcius desired that the letter to Catiline, which Lentulus had sent by him, might be opened ,' where Lentulus again, though greatly disordered, acknowledged his hand and seal : it was written without any name, but to this effect ; " You will know who I am, from him whom I have sent to you. Take care to show yourself a man ; and recollect in what a situation you are ; and consider what is now necessary for you. Be sure to make use of the assistance of all, even of the lowest." — Gabinios was then introduced, and behaved impudently for a while ; but at last denied nothing of what the ambassadors charged him with. After the criminals and witnesses were with- drawn, the senate went into a debate upon the state of the republic, and came unanimously to the following resolutions : That public thanks should be decreed to Cicero in the amplest manner; by whose virtue, counsel, and providence, the re- public was delivered from the greatest dangers : that Flaccus and Pontinius, the prsetors, should be thanked likewise for their vigorous and punctual execution of Cicero's orders : that Antonius, the other consul, should be praised for having removed from his councils all those who were concerned in the conspiracy. That Lentulus, after having abdi- cated the prsetorship, and divested himself of his robes — and Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius, with their other accomplices also, when taken— Cassius, Coeparius, Furius, Chilo, Umbrenus, should he committed to safe custody; and that a public thanksgiving should be appointed in Cicero's name, for his having preserved the city from a conflagra- tion, the citizens from a massacre, and Italy from a war"". The senate being dismissed, Cicero went directly into the rostra, and gave the people an account of the whole proceeding, in the manner as it is just related : where he observed to them, " That the thanksgiving decreed in his name was the first which had ever been decreed to any man in the gown : that all other thanksgivings had been ap- pointed for some j)articular services to the republic, this alone for saving it* : that by the seizure of these accomplices, all Catiline's hopes were blasted at once ; for when he was driving Catiline out of the city he foresaw, that if he was once removed, there would be nothing to apprehend from the drowsiness of Lentulus, the fat of Cassius, or the rashness of Cethegus : that Catiline was the life and soul of the conspiracy ; who never took a thing to be done, because he had ordered it, but always followed, solicited, and saw it done himself: that if he had not driven him from his secret plots into open rebellion, he could never have delivered the republic from its dangers, or never, at least, with so much ease and quiet : that Catiline would not have named the fatal day for their destruction so long beforehand ; nor ever suffered his hand and seal to be brought against him, as the manifest proof of his guilt ; all which was so managed in his absence, that no theft in any privSte house was ever more clearly detected than this whole con- spiracy : that all this was the pure effect of a divine influence ; not only for its being above the reach of human counsel, but because the gods had so remarkably interposed in it, as to show them- selves almost visibly: for not to mention the nightly streams of light from the western sky, the blazing of the heavens, flashes of lightning, earth- quakes, &o. he could not omit what happened two years before, when the turrets of the capitol were struck down with lightning ; how the soothsayers, called together from all Etruria, declared, that fire, slaughter, the overthrow of the laws, civil war, and the ruin of the city, were portended, unless some means were found out of appeasing the gods : for which purpose they ordered a new and larger statue of Jupiter to be made, and to be placed in a position contrary to that of the former image, with its face turned towards the east ; intimating, that if it looked towards the rising sun, the forum, and the senate-house, then all plots against the state would be detected so evidently, that all the world should see them. That upon this answer, the con- suls of that year gave immediate orders for making and placing the statue ; but from the slow progress of the work, neither they, nor their successors, nor he himself, could get it finished till that very day ; •> In Cat. iii. 5, 6. * Quod mihi primum post hanc urbem conditam togato contigit quae supplicatio, si cum cacteris conferatur, Quirites, hoc interest, quod casteree bene gesta, hKc una conservata r.cpublica oonstituta est,— Ibid. 6. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 67 on which, by the special inSueuce of Jupiter, while the conspirators and witnesses were carried through the forum to the temple of Concord, in that very moment the statue was fixed in its place ; and, being turned to look upon them and the senate, both they and the senate saw the whole conspiracy detected. And can any man," says he, "be such an enemy to truth, so rash, so mad, as to deny, that all things which we see, and above all, that this city, is governed by the power and providence of the gods''?" He proceeds to observe, "that the conspirators must needs be under a divine and judicial infatuation, and could never have trusted affairs and letters of such moment to men barbarous and unknown to them, if the gods had not con- founded their senses : and that the ambassadors of a nation so disaffected, and so able and willing to make war upon them, should slight the hopes of dominion, and the advantageous offers of men of patrician rank, must needs be the effect of a divine interposition; especially when they might have gained their ends, not by fighting, but by holding their tongues." He exhorts them, therefore, " to celebrate that thanksgiving-day religiously with their wives and children'. That for sdl his pains and services he desired no other reward or honour, but the perpetual remembrance of that day : in this he placed all his triumphs and his glory, to have the memory of that day eternally propagated to the safety of the city, and the honour of his con- sulship ; to have it remembered, that there were two citizens living at the same time in the repub- lic, the one of whom was terminating the extent of the empire by the bounds of the horizon itself; the other preserving the seat and centre of that empire". That his case, however, was different from that of their generals abroad, who, as soon as they had conquered their enemies, left them ; whereas It was his lot to live still among those whom he had subdued : that it ought to he their care therefore to see, that the malice of those enemies should not hurt him ; and that what he had been doing for their good should not redound to his detriment ; though as to himself, he had no cause to fear anything, since he should be protected by the guard of all honest men, by the dignity of the republic itself, by the power of conscience, which all those must needs violate who should attempt to injure him : that he would never yield, therefore, to the audaciousness of any, but even provoke and attack all the wicked and the profli- gate : yet if all their rage at last, when repelled from the people, should turn singly upon him, they should consider what a discouragement it would be hereafter to those who should expose themselves to danger for their safety. That for his part, he would ever support and defend in his private condition what he had acted in his consul- ship, and show, that what he had done was not the effect of chance, but of virtue : that if any envy should be stirred up against him, it might hurt the envious, but advance his glory. — Lastly, since it was now night, he bade them all go home, and pray to Jupiter, the guardian of them and the city ; and though the danger was now over, to keep the same watch in their houses as before, for fear of any surprise ; and he would take care, that they should have no occasion t o do it any longer." k In Cat. iii. 8, 9. . ' IWd- 10. » Ibid. 11. While the prisoners were before the senate, Cicero desired some of the senators, who could write short-hand, to take notes of everything that was said ; and when the whole examination was finished and reduced into an act, he set all the clerks at work to transcribe copies of it, which he dispersed presently through Italy and all the provinces, to prevent any invidious misrepresentation of what was so clearly attested and confessed by the criminals themselves", who for the present were committed to the free custody of the magistrates and senators of their acquaintance", till the senate sho\Ud come to a final resolution about them. All this passed on the third of December, a day of no small fatigue to Cicero, who, from break of day till the evening, seems to have been engaged, without any refreshment, in examining the witnesses and the criminals, and procuring the decree which was consequent upon it ; and when that was over, in giving a narrative of the whole transaction to the people, who were waiting for that purpose in the forum. The same night his wife Terentia, with the vestal virgins and the principal matrons of Rome, was performing at home, according to annual custom, the mystic rites of the goddess Bona, or the Good, to which no male creature was ever admitted ; and till that function was over, he was excluded also from his own house, and forced to retire to a neighbour's ; where, with a select council of friends, he began to deliberate about the method of punishing the traitors ; when his wife came in all haste to inform him of a prodigy, which had just happened amongst them ; for the sacrifice being over, and the fire of the altar seemingly extinct, a bright flame issued suddenly from the ashes, to the astonishment of the company ; upon which the vestal virgins sent her away, to require him to pursue what he had then in his' thoughts for the good of his country, since the goddess by this sign had given great light to his safety and gloryP. It is not improbable, that this pretended prodigy was projected between Cicero and Terentia ; whose sister likewise being one of the vestal virgins, and having the direction of the whole ceremony, might help to effect without suspicion, what had been privately concerted amongst them. For it was of great use to Cicero, to possess the minds of the people, as strongly as he could, with an apprehen- sion of their danger, for the sake of disposing them the more easily to approve the resolution that he had already taken in his own mind, of putting the conspirators to death. The day following, the senate ordered public rewards to the ambassadors and Vulturcius for their faithful discoveries'!; and by the vigour of their proceedings seemed to shew an intention of treating their prisoners with the last severity. The city in the mean while was alarmed With the rumour " Constitui senatores, qui omnium indicum 4icta, in- terrogata, responsa perscriberent : describi ab omnibus siatim librariis, dividi passim et pervulgari atque edi populo Romano imperavi divisi toti Italiae, emisi in omncs provincias. — Pro SylL 14, 15. o Ut abdicato magistratu, Lentulus, itemque cajteri in liberie custodiis habeantur. Itaque Lentulus, P. Lentulo Spintheri, qui turn aedilis erat ; Cethegus Cornificio, &c, — Sallust. Bell. Cat. 47. p Plutarch, in Cic. q Prxmia legatis AUobrogum, Titoque Vulturcio de- distis ampUssima.— In Cat* iv< 3. £8 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of fresh plots, formed by the slaves and dependants of Lentulus and Cethegus for the rescue of their masters' ; which obliged Cicero to reinforce his guards ; and for the prevention of all such attempts, to put an end to the whole affair, by bringing the question of their punishment, vrithout farther delay, before the senate ; which he summoned for that purpose the next morning. The debate was of great delicacy and importance ; to decide upon the lives of citizens of the first rank. Capital punishments were rare and ever odious in Kome, whose laws were of all others the least san- guinary ; banishment, with confiscation of goods, being the ordinary punishment for the greatest crimes. The senate, indeed, as it has been said above, in cases of sudden and dangerous tumults, claimed the prerogative of punishing the leaders with death by the authority of their own decrees : but this was looked upon as a stretch of power, and an infringement of the rights of the people, which nothing could excuse, but the necessity of the times, and the extremity of danger. For there was an old law of Porcius Lseca, a tribune, which granted to all criminals capitally condemned, an appeal to the people ; and a later one of C. Grac- chus, to prohibit the taking away the life of any citizen without a formal hearing before the people ' : so that some senators, who had concurred in all the previous debates, withdrew themselves from this, to show their dislike of what they expected to be the issue of it, and to have no hand in putting Roman citizens to death by a vote of the senate'. Here, then, was ground enough for Cicero's enemies to act upon, if extreme methods were pursued : he himself was aware of it, and saw, that the public interest called for the severest punishment, his private interest the gentlest j yet he came resolved to sacrifice all regards for his own quiet to the con- sideration of the public safety. As soon therefore as he had moved the question, what was to be done with the conspirators ; Silanus, the consul elect, being called upon to speak the first, advised, that those who were then in custody, with the rest who should afterwards be taken, should all be put to death". To this, all who spoke after him, readily assented, till it came to J. Caesar, then praetor elect, who in an elegant and elaborate speech, " treated that opinion, not as cruel; since death, he said, was not a punishment, but relief to the miserable, and left no sense either of good or ill beyond it ; but as new and illegal, and contrary to the constitution of the republic : and though the heinousness of the crime would justify any severity, yet the example was dangerous in a free state ; and the salutary use of arbitrary power in good hands, had been the cause of fatal mischiefs when it fell into bad ; of which he produced several instances, both in other cities and their own : and though no f Liberti et pauci ex clientibus Lentuli opifices atque servitia in vicis ad eum eripiendum aollicitabant. — Cethe- gus autem per nuncios familiam, atque libertos suos, leotos et exercitatos in audaciam orabat, ut, grege facto, cum telis ad sese irrumperent.— Sallust. Bell. Cat. 60. B Porcia lex virgas ab omnium civium Romanorum corpore amovit ^libertatem civium lictori eripuit — C. Gracchus legem tulit, ne de capite civium Romanorum iujussu vestro judicaretur.< — Pro Rabirio, 4. t Video de istis, qui se populares haberi volunt, abcsse non neminem, ne de capite videlicet Romani civis senten- tiam ferat ^In Catil. iv. 6. o Sallust. Bell. Cat. SO. danger could be apprehended from these times, or such a consul as Cicero ; yet in other times, and under another consul, when the sword was once drawn by a decree of the senate, no man could pro- mise what mischief it might not do before it was sheathed again : his opinion therefore was, that the estates of the conspirators should be confiscated, and their persons closely confined in the strong towns of Italy ; and that it should be criminal for any one to move the senate or the people for any favour towards them*." These two contrary opinions being proposed, the next question was, which of'them should take place : Caesar's had made a great impression on the assem- bly, and staggered even Silanus, who began to excuse and mitigate the severity of his vote? ; and Cicero's friends were going forwardly into it, as likely to create the least trouble to Cicero himself, for whose future peace and safety they began to be solicitous' : when Cicero, observing the inclination of the house, and rising up to put the question, made his fourth speech, which now remains, on the subject of this transaction ; in which he deli- vered his sentiments with all the skill both of the orator and the statesman ; and while he seemed to show a perfect neutrality, and to give equal com. mendation to both the opinions, was artfully labouring all the while to turn the scale in favour of Silanus's, which he considered as a necessary example of severity in the present circumstances of the republic. He declared, " That though it was a pleasure to him to observe the concern and solicitude which the senate had expressed on his account, yet he begged of them to lay it all aside, and, without any regard to him, to think only of themselves and their families : that he was willing to suffer any persecution, if by his labours he could secure their dignity and safety : that his life had been oft at- tempted in the forum, the field of Mars, the senate, his own house, and in his very bed : that for their quiet he had digested many things against his will without speaking of them ; but if the gods would grant tbat issue to his consulship, of saving them from a massacre, the city from flames, all Italy from war, let what fate soever attend himself, he would be content with it"." He presses them therefore to " turn their whole care upon the state: that it was not a Gracchus, or a Saturninus, who was now in judgment before them ; but traitors, whose design it was to destroy the city by fire, the senate and people by a massacre ; who had soU- cited the Gauls and the very slaves to join with them in their treason, of which they had all been convicted by letters, hands, seals, and their own confessions'. That the senate, by several previous acts, had already condemned them ; by their pub- lic thanks to him ; by deposing Lentulus from his praetorship ; by committing them to custody ; by decreeing a thanksgiving ; by rewarding the wit- nesses : but as if nothing had yet been done, he resolved to propose to them anew the question both of the fact and the punishment : that whatever they intended to do, it must be~determined before " SaUust. Bell. Cat. 61. y Ut SilanuTO, oonsulem designatum non piguerit sen- tcntiam suam, quia mutare turpe erat, inteipretatione lenire.— 8uet. J. Cses. H. » Plutarch. iirCio. » In Catil. iv. 1. <> Ibid. 2. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. m night : for the mischief was spread wider than they imagined ; had not only infected Italy, but crossed the Alps, and seized the provinces : that it was not to be suppressed by delay and irresolution, but by quick and vigorous measures ° : that there were two opinions now before them ; the first, of Silanus, for putting the criminals to death; the second, of Csesar, who, excepting death, was for every other way of punishing ; each, agreeably to his dignity, and the importance of the cause, was for treating them with the last severity : the one thought, that those, who had attempted to deprive them all of life and to extinguish the very name of Rome, ought not to enjoy the benefit of living a moment, and he had showed withal, that this punishment had often been inflicted on seditious citizens : the other imagined, that death was not designed by the gods for a punishment, but the cure of our miseries ; so that the wise never suffered it unwillingly, the brave often sought it voluntarily ; but that bonds and imprisonment, especially if perpetual, were contrived for the punishment of detestable crimes : these therefore he ordered to be provided for them in the great towns of Italy : yet in this proposal there seemed to be some injustice, if the senate was to impose that burthen upon the towns, or some difficulty, if they were only to desire it : yet if they thought fit to decree it, he would undertake to find those, who would not refuse to comply with it for the public good : that Caesar, by adding a penalty on the towns if any of the criminals should escape, and enjoining so horrible a. confinement without a possibility of being released from it, had deprived them of all hope, the only comfort of unhappy mor- tals : he had ordered their estates also to be con- fiscated, and left them nothing but life ; which if he had taken away, he would have eased them at once of all farther pain, either of mind or body : for it was on this account that the ancients invented those infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in this life, who with- out them would have no dread of death itself. That fpr his own part, he saw how much it was his interest that they should follow Caesar's opinion, who had always pursued popular measures ; and by being the author of that vote, would secure him from any attack of popular envy ; but if they fol- lowed Silanus's, he did not know what trouble it might create to himself ; yet that the service of the republic ought to supersede all considerations of his danger : that Csesar, by this proposal, had given them a perpetual pledge of his affection to the state j and showed the difference between the affected lenity of their daily declaimers, and a mind truly popiUar, which sought nothing but the real good of the people: that he could not but observe, that one of those, who valued themselves on being po- pular, had absented himself from this day's debate, that he might not give a vote upon the life of a citizen ; yet by concurring vrith them in all their previous votes, he had already passed a judgment on the merits of the cause : that as to the objection urged by Csesar, of Gracchus's law, forbidding to put citizens to death, it should be remembered, that = In Cata. iv. 3. d Itaque ut aliqua in Vita formido improbia esset posita, apud inferos ejusmodi quaidam iUi antiqui supplicia impiis constituta esee voluerimt, quod videlicet intellige- bant, his remotis, non esse mortem ipsam pertimescen- dam.^^Ibid. 4. those who were adjudged to be enemies, could no longer be considered as citizens ; and that the author of that law had himself suffered death by the order of the people: that since Csesar, a man of so mild and merciful a temper, had proposed so severe a punishment, if they should pass it into an act, they would give him a partner and companion, who would justify him to the people ; but if they preferred Silanus's opinion, it would be easy stiU to defend both them and himself from any imputa- tion of cruelty : for he would maintain it, after all, to be the gentler of the two ; and if he seemed to be more eager than usual in this cause, it was not from any severity of temper, for no man had less of it, but out of pure humanity and clemency." Then after forming a most dreadful image of " the city reduced to ashes, of heaps of slaughtered citi- zens, of the cries of mothers and their infants, the violation of the vestal virgins, and the conspirators insulting over the ruins of their country ; " he affirms it to be " the greatest cruelty to the repub- hc, to show any lenity to the authors of such hor- rid wickedness ; unless they would call L. Csesar cruel, for declaring the other day in the senate, that Lentulus, who was his sister's husband, had deserved to die : that they ought to be afraid rather of being thought cruel for a remissness of punish- ing, than for any severity which could he used against such outrageous enemies : that he would not conceal from them what he had heard to be propagated through the city, that they had not sufficient force to support and execute their sen- tence': but he assured them, that all things of that kind were fully provided ; that the whole body of the people was assembled for their defence ; that the forum, the temples, and all the avenues of the senate were possessed by their friends ; that the equestrian order vied with the senate itself in their zeal for the republic ; whom, after a dis- sention of many years, that day's cause had entirely reconciled and united with them ; and if • that union, which his consulship had confirmed, was preserved and perpetuated, he was confident that no civil or domestic evil could ever again disturb them'. That if any of them were shocked by the report of Lentulus's agents running up and down the streets, and soliciting the needy and silly to make some effort for his rescue, the fact indeed was true, and the thing had been attempted ; but not a man was found so desperate, who did not prefer the possession of his shed, in which he worked, his little hut and bed in which he slept, to any hopes of change from the public confusion ; for all their subsistence depended on the peace and fullness of the city j and if their gain would be interrupted by shutting up their shops, how much more would it be so by burning them ? — Since the people then were not wanting in their zeal and duty towards them, it was their part not to be wanting to the people B. That they had a consul snatched from various dangers and the jaws of death, not for the propagation of his own life, but of their security ; such a consul as they would not always have, watchful for them, regardless of him- self : they had also, what was never known before, the whole Koman people of one and the same mind : that they should reflect how one night had almost demolished the mighty fabric of their ' In Catil. iv. 6. ' n>id. 7. t Ibid. 8. CO THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF empire, raised by such pains and virtue of men, by such favour and kindness of the gods : that by their behaviour on that day they were to provide, that the same thing should not only never be attempted, but not so much as thought of again by any citi- zen*". That as to himself, though he had now drawn upon him the enmity of the whole band of conspirators, he looked upon them as a base, abject, contemptible faction ; but if, through the madness of any, it should ever rise again, so as to prevail against the senate and the republic, yet he should never be induced to repent of his present conduct ; for death, with which perhaps they would threaten him, was prepared for all men; but none ever acquired that glory of life, which they had conferred upon him by their decrees : for to all others they decreed thanks for having served the republic suc- cessfully ; to him alone for having saved it. He hoped therefore, that theremight besome place for his name among the Scipios, FauUuses, Mariuses, Pompeys ; unless it were thought a greater thing to open their way into new provinces, than to provide that their conquerors should have a home at last to return to : that the condition however of a foreign victory was much better than of a domestic one ; since a foreign enemy, when conquered, was either made a slave or a friend : but when citizens once turn rebels, and are baffled in their plots, one can neither keep them quiet by force, nor oblige them by favours : that he had undertaken therefore an eternal war with all traitorous citizens ; but was confident, that it would never hurt either him or his, while the memory of their past dangers sub- sisted, or that there could be any force strong enough to overpower the present union of the senate and the knights' : That in lieu therefore of the command of armies and provinces, which he had declined ; of a triumph and all other honours, which he had refused ; he required nothing more from them, than the perpetual remembrance of his . consulship : while that continued fixed in their minds, he should thiuk himself impregnable : but if the violence of the factious should ever defeat his hopes, he recommended to them his infant son, and trusted, that it would be a sufficient guard, not only of his safety, but of his dignity, to have it remem- bered, that he was the son of one who, at the hazard of his own life, had preserved the lives of them all." He concludes, by exhorting them to "act with the same courage which they had hi- therto shown through all this affair, and to proceed to some resolute and vigorous decree ; since their lives and liberties, the safety of the city, of Italy, and the wliole empire, depended upon it." This speech had the desired effect ; and Cicero, by discovering his own inclination, gave a turn to the inclination of the senate ; when Cato, one of the new tribunes, rose up, and after extolling Cicero to the skies'', and recommending to the assembly the authority of his example and judg- ment, proceeded to declare, agreeably to his temper and principles, "That he was surprised to see any ' debate about the punishment of men, who had begun an actual war against their country : that their deliberation should be, how to secure k In Catil. iv. 9. 1 Ibid. 10. k Quie omnia quia Cato laudibus eztulerat in ccelum [Ep. ad Att, xii. 21.] Ita consulis virtutem ampljficavit, ut universus senatus in ejus scntcntiam transiret.— Veil. Pat. ii. 35. themselves against them, rather than how to punish them : that other crimes might be punished after commission, but unless this was prevented before its effect, it would be vain to seek a remedy after : that the debate was not about the public revenues, or the oppressions of the allies, but about their own lives and liberties; not about the discipline or manners of the city, on which he had oft deli- vered his mind in that place, nor about the greatness or prosperity of their empire, but whether they or their enemies should possess that empire ; and in such a case there could be no room for mercy. That they had long since lost and confounded the true names of things : to give away other people's money was called generosity ; and to attempt what was criminal, fortitude. But if they must needs be generous, let it be from the spoils of the allies ; if merciful, to the plunderers of the treasury: but let them not be prodigal of the blood of citizens, and by sparing a few bad destroy all the good. That Cies'ar indeed had spoken well and gravely concerning life and death ; taking all infernal punishments for a fiction, and ordering the crimi- nals therefore to be confined in the corporate towns ; as if there was not more danger from them in those towns, than in Borne Itself, and more encouragement to the attempts of the desperate, where there was less strength to resist them ; so that his proposal could be of no use, if he was reaUy afraid of them : but if in the general fear he alone had none, there was the more reason for all the rest to be afraid for themselves. That they were not deliberating on the fate only of the con- spirators, but of Catiline's whole army, which would be animated or dejected in proportion to the vigour or remissness of their decrees. That it was not the arms of their ancestors which made Rome so great, but their discipline and manners, which were now depraved and corrupted : that in the extremity of danger it was a shame to see them so indolent and irresolute, waiting for each other to speak first, and trusting, like women, to the gods, without doing anything for themselves : that the help of the gods was not to be obtained by idle vows and supplications ; that success attended the vigilant, the active, the provident ; and when people gave themselves up to sloth and laziness, it was in vain for them to pray ; they would find the gods angry with them : that the flagitious lives of the criminals confuted every argument of mercy : that Catiline was hovering over them with an army, while his accomplices were within the walls, and in the very heart of the city ; so that, whatever they determined, it could not be kept secret, which made it the more necessary to determine quickly. Wherefore his opinion was, that since the criminiis had been convicted, both by testimony and their own confession, of a detestable treason against the republic, they should suffer the punishment of death, according to the custom of their ancestors'." Cato's authority, added to the impression which Cicero had already made, put an end to the debate; and the senate, applauding his vigour and resolu- tion, resolved upon a decree in consequence of it"". And though Silanus had first proposed that opinion, and was followed in it by all the consular senators, yet they ordered the decree to be drawn in Cato's words, because he had delivered himself more fully ' Sallnst. Bell. Cat. S2. ■» Ibid. 53. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. ei and explicitly upon it than any of them". The vote was no sooner passed, than Cicero resolved to put it in execution, lest the night, vrhich was coming on, should produce any new disturbance : he went directly therefore from the senate, attended by a numerous guard of friends and citizens, and took Lentulus from the custody of his kinsman Lentulus Spinther, and conveyed him through the forum to the common prison, where he delivered him to the executioners, who presently strangled him. The other conspirators, Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius, were conducted to their execution by the praetors, and put to death in the same man- ner, together vrith Coeparius, the only one of their accomplices who was taken after the examination". When the affair was over, Cicero was conducted home in a kind of triumph by the whole body of the senate and the knights ; the streets being all illuminated, and the women and children at the windows and on the tops of houses, to see him pass along, through infinite acclamations of the multitude proclaiming him their saviour and de- livererP. This was the fifth of December, those celebrated nones, of which Cicero used to boast so much ever after, as the most glorious day of his life : and it is certain, that Rome was indebted to him on this day for one of the greatest deliverances which it had ever received since its foundation, and which nothing perhaps but his vigilance and sagacity could have so happily effected : for from the first alarm of the plot, he never rested night or day, till he had got full information of the cabals and counsels of the conspirators'! ; by which he easily baffled all their projects, and played with them as he pleased ; and without any risk to the public could draw them on just far enough to make their guilt manifest, and their ruin inevitable. But his masterpiece was the driving Catiline out of Rome, and teasing him as it were into a rebellion before it was ripe, in hopes that by carrying out with him bis accomplices, he would clear the city at once of the whole faction, or by leaving them behind with- out his head to manage them, would expose them to sure destruction by their own folly : for Catiline's chief trust was not on the open force which he had provided in the field, but on the success of his secret practices in Rome, and on making himself master of the city ; the credit of which would have engaged to him of course all the meaner sort, and induced all others through Italy, who wished well to his cause, to declare for him immediately : so that when this apprehension was over, by the seizure and punishment of his associates, the senate thought the danger at an end, and that they had nothing more to do but to vote thanksgivings and festivals ; looking upon Catiline's army as a crew only of fugitives, or banditti, whom their forces were sure to destroy whenever they could meet with them. But Catiline was in condition still to make a stouter resistance than they imagined : he had filled up his troops to the number of two legions, or about twelve thousand fighting men, of which a fourth part only was completely armed, the rest ° Idcirco in ejus sententiam est facta dlscesBio. — Ad Att. xil. 21. » Salhist. Bell. Cat. 55. n Plutarch, in Cio. 1 In eo omnes dies, noctesque consuinsi, ui quid agereut, quid molirentm-, sentirem ac viderem,.— 1a Catil. iii. 2. furnished with what chance offered darts, lances, clubs. He refused at first to enlist slaves, who flocked to him in great numbers, trusting to the proper strength of the conspiracy, and knowing that he should quickly have soldiers enough, if his friends performed their part at home. So that when the consul Antonius approached towards him with his army, he shifted his quarters, and made frequent motions and marches through the moun- tains, sometimes towards Gaul, sometimes towards the city, in order to avoid an engagement {ill he could hear some news from Rome : but when the fatal account came, of the death of Lentulus and the rest, the face of his affairs began presently to change, and his army to dwindle apace, by the desertion of those whom the hopes of victory and plunder had invited to his camp. His first attempt, therefore, was by long marches and private roads through the Apennine, to make his escape into Gaul ; but Q. Metellus, who had been sent thither before by Cicero, imagining that he would take that resolution, had secured all the passes, and posted himself so advantageously with an army of three legions, that it was impossible for him to force his way on that side ; whilst on the otHfer, the consul Antonius with a much greater force blocked him up behind, and enclosed him within the mountains'. Antonius himself had no inclin- ation to fight, or at least with tiatiline; but would willingly have given him an opportunity to escape, had not his quaestor Sextius, who was Cicero's creature, and his lieutenant Fetreius, urged him on against his will to force Catiline to the necessity of a battle ', — who, seeing all things desperate, and nothing left but either to die or conquer, resolved to try his fortune against Antonius, though much the stronger, rather than Metellus ; in hopes still, that out of regard to their former engagements, he might possibly contrive some way at last of throw- ing the victory into his hands". But Antonius happened to be seized at that very time with a fit of the gout, or pretended at least to be so, that he might have no share in the destruction of an old friend, so that the command fell of course to a much better soldier and honester man, Petreius, — who, after a sharp and bloody action, in which he lost a considerable part of his best troops, destroyed Catiline and his whole army, fighting desperately to the last man"^. They all fell in the very ranks in which they stood, and, as if inspired with the genuine spirit of their leader, fought not so much to conquer as to sell their lives as dear as they could, and, as Catiline had threatened in the senate, to mingle the public calamity with their own rum. ^ Spcrabat propediem magnas copias se habiturum, si "Rnmx eocii incepta patravissent — interea servitia repudi- aiat.— SalluBt. Bell. Cat. 56. « Ibid. 67. t Hoc breve dicam : — Si M. Petreii non excellens aninio et amore reipublics virtus, uon gumma auctoritas apud milites, non mirlficus usus in re militari extitisset, nequo adjutor ei P. Sextius ad excitandum Antonium, cohortun- dum, ac impellendum fuisset, datus illo in bello csset hiemi locus, &c. SextiuSj cum sue exercitu, Bumma celeritate est Anto- nium consecutus. Hio ego quid prsedicem, quibus rebus consulem ad rem gerendam excitarit; quot stimulos ad- moverit, &c. — Pro Sext. 5. " AXtiov 5e, Sti 4\mStt alnov Kara rh trwcauorhv iOeXoKaKTiffetv iffX^^ — ^^'^' ^' xxxvii. p. 47. I Sallnst. Bell. Cat. 59. 62 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Thus ended this famed conspiracy, in which some of the greatest men in Rome were suspected to be privately engaged, particularly Crassus and Caesar : they were both influenced by the same motive, and might hope, perhaps, by their interest in the city, to advance themselves, in the general confusion, to that sovereign power which they aimed at. Crassus, who had always been Cicero's enemy, by an oificiousness of bringing letters and intelligence to him during the alarm of the plot, seemed to betray a consciousness of some guilt^ ; and Ctesar's whole life made it probable, that there could hardly be any plot in which he had not some share ; and in this there was so general a suspicion upon him, especially after his speech in favour of the criminals, that he had some difficulty to escape with life from the rage of the knights who guarded the avenues of the senate ; where he durst not venture to appear any more, till he entered upon his prsetorship with the new year'. Crassus was actually accused by one Tarquinius, who was taken upon the road as he was going to Catiline, and, upon promise of pardon, made a discovery of what he knew ; where, after confirming what the other wi^iesses had deposed, he added, that he was sent by Crassus to Catiline, with advice to him not to be discouraged by the seizure of his accomplices, but to make the greater haste for that reason to the eity, in order to rescue them, and revive the spirits of his other friends. At the name of Crassus the senate was so shocked, that they would hear the man no farther ; but calling upon Cicero to put the question, and take the sense of the house upon it, they voted Tarquinius's evidence to be false, and ordered him to be kept in chains, nor to be produced again before them, till he would confess who it was that had suborned him*. Crassus declared afterwards, in the hearing of Sal- lust, that Cicero was the contriver of this affront upon him''. But that does not seem probable ; since it was Cicero's constant maxim, as he fre- quently intimates in his speeches, to mitigate and reclaim all men of credit by gentle methods, rather than make them desperate by an unseasonable severity, — and in the general contagion of the city, not to cut off, but to heal, every part that was curable. So that when some information was given likewise against Caesar, he chose to stifle it, and could jiot be persuaded to charge him with the plot, by the most pressing solicitations of Catulus and Piso, who were both his particular enemies, — the one for the loss of the high-priesthood, the other for the impeachment above-mentioned". Whilst the sense of all these services was fresh, Cicero was repaid for them to the full of his wishes, and in the very way that he desired, by the warm and grateful applauses of all orders of the city. For besides the honours already mentioned, L, Gellius, who had been consul and censor, said in a speech to the senate, that the repubUc owed him y Plutarch, in Cio. 2 Uti nonnulli equites Romani, qui prssidii causa cum telis erant circuni jedem Concordige — egredienti ex senatu Csesari gladlo minitarentur,— [Sallust. Bell. Cat. 49.] Vix pauci complexu, togaque objecta protexerint. Tunc plane deterritus non modo cessit, sed etiam in reliquum annl tempus eoria abstinuit.< — Sueton. J. Cffis. 14, " Sallust. Bell. Oat. 40. ^ Ipsum Crassum ego postea prsdicantem audiri, tan- tam illam contumeliam sibi a Cicerone impositam.^-Ibid. <= Appian. Bell. Civ. 1. ii. p. 430 ; Sallust. Bell. Cat, 49. a civic crown for having saved them all from ruin'' : and Catulus in a full house declared him the father of his country =; as Cato likewise did from the rostra, with the loud acclamations of the whole people' : whence Pliny, in honour of his memory, cries out. Hail thou, who wast first sa- luted the parent of thy conntryK. This title, the most glorious which a mortal can wear, was from this precedent usurped afterwards by those who of all mortals deserved it the least, the emperors ; proud to extort from slaves and flatterers what Cicero obtained from the free vote of the senate and people of Rome. ._^ . Roma Parentem, Roma Pateem Patrije Ciceronem libera dixit. Juv. viii. Thee, Cicero, Rome while free, nor yet enthrall'd To tyrants' will, tby Country's Parent call'd. All the towns of Italy followed the example of the metropolis, in decreeing extraordinary honours to him ; and Capua in particular chose him. their patron, and erected a gilt statue to him''. Sallust, who allows him the character of an excellent consul, says not a word of any of these honours, nor gives him any greater share of praise than what could not be dissembled by an historian. There are two obvious reasons for this reservedness ; first, the personal enmity which, according to tra- dition, subsisted between them ; secondly, the time of publishing his history, in the reign of Augustus, while the name of Cicero was still obnoxious to envy. The other consul Antonius had but a small share of the thanks and honours which were decreed upon this occasion : he was known to have been embarked in the same' cause with Catiline, and considered as acting only under a tutor, and doing penance as it were for past offences ; so that all the notice which was taken of him by the senate, was to pay him the slight compliment above- mentioned, for having removed his late profligate companions from his friendship and councils'. Cicero made two new laws this year ; the one, as it has been said, against bribery in elections; the other, to correct the abuse of a privilege called legatio libera, — that is, an honorary legation, or embassy, granted arbitrarily by the senate to any of its members, when they travelled abroad on their private affairs, in order to give them a public character, and a right to be treated as ambassadors or magistrates ; which, by the insolence of these great guests, was become a grievous burthen upon all the states and cities through which they passed. Cicero's design was to abolish it;, but being driven from that by one of the tribunes, he was content to restrain the continuance of it, which before was unlimited, to the term of one year''. •' L. Gellius, his audientibus, civicam coronam deberi a republica dixit.— In Pison. 3 ; it. A. Gell. v. 6. e MeQ,. Catulus, princeps hujus ordinis, frequentisBJmo senatu Parentem Patrije nominavit. — In Pis. 3. [ f Plutarch, in Cic. — Kdruvos 8* ainhv Kol irorepa TVS Trarpidos tr.pocrayopeia-ai'TOSj iire^Sjiffev & BTJfios- — Appian. p. 431. e Salve, primus omnium Parens Patri^ appellate, &c. — Plin. Hist. N. vii. 30. '' Me inaurata statua donarant: mc patronum unum adsciverant.— In Pis. II. ' Atque etiam coUegse meo laus impertitur, quod eoB qui bi^us conjurationis participes fuissent, a suis et a reipuhlicse consiliis removisset — In Catil. iii. 6. ^ Jam illud apertom est, nihil esse turpius, quam quen- MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 63 At Ms first entrance into his office, L. Lucullus was soliciting tlie demand of a triumph for his victories over Mlthridates, in which he had heen obstructed for three years successively by^the' in- trigues of some of the magistrates', who paid their court to Pompey, by putting this affront upon his rival. By the law and custom of the republic, no general, while he was in actual command, could come within tke gates of Rome without forfeiting his commission, and consequently all pretensions to a triumph ; bo that Lucullus continued all this time in the suburbs, till the affair was decided. The senate favoured his suit, and were solicitors for him", but could not prevail, till Cicero's authority at last helped to introduce his triumphal car into the city" ; making him some amends by this service for the injury of the Manilian law, which had deprived him of his government. After his triumph he entertained the vf hole Roman people with a sumptuous feast, and was much caressed by the nobility, as one vfhose authority would be a proper check to the ambition and power of Pompey : but having now obtained all the honours which he could reasonably hope for in life, and observing the turbulent and distracted state of the city, he withdrew himself not long after from public affairs, to spend the remainder of his days in a polite and splendid retreat". He was a generous patron of learning, and himself eminently learned ; so that his house was the constant resort of the principal scholars and wits of Greece and Rome, where he had provided a well-furnished library, with porti- coes and galleries annexed, for the convenience of walks and literary conferences, at which he himself used frequently to assist ; giving an example to the world of a life truly noble and elegant, if it had not been sullied by too great a tincture of Asiatic softness and Epicurean luxury. After this act of justice to Lucullus, Cicero had an opportunity, before the expiration of his consul- ship, to pay all due honour likewise to his friend Pompey ; who, since he last left Rome, had glo- riously finished the piratic and the Mithridatic war, by the destruction of Mithridates himself: upon the receipt of which news, the senate, at the motion of Cicero, decreed a public thanksgiving in his name of ten days ; which was twice as long as had ever been decreed before to any general, even to Marius himself, for his Cimbric victory ■". But before we close the account of the memo- rable events of this year, we must not omit the mention of one, which distinguished it afterwards as a particular era in the annals of Rome, the birth of Octavius, sumamed Augustus, which happened on the twenty-third of September. Velleius calls quani legari nisi reipublica; causae — quod quidem genus legationis ego consul, quanquam ad commoduni senatus pertinere videatur, tameu adprobante senatu frequentis- siino, nisi mihi levis tribunus plebis turn intercessisset, suatulissem : minui tamen tempus, et quod erat infini- tum, annuum feci.— De Leg. iii. 8. ' Plutarch, in Lucull. "Md. " Cum victor a Mithridatico bello revertisset, ininiifto- nim calumnia triennio tardius, quam debuerat, triumph- avit. Nob enim consules introduximus psne in urbem cumim clarissimi viri. — Academ. ii. 1. " Plutarch, in Lucull. P Quo consule referente, primum decern dierum suppli- catio decreta Cn. Pompeio Mithridate interfecto ; cujus senteutia primum duplicata est supplicatio consularis.— De Provinc, Consular. 11, it an accession of glory to Cicero's consulship ' : but it excites speculations rather of a different sort ; on the inscrutable methods of Providence, and the short-sighted policy of man ; that in the moment when Rome was preserved from destruction, and its liberty thought to be established more flfmly than ever, an infant should be thrown into the world, who, within the course of twenty years, effected what Catiline had attempted, and destroyed both Cicero and the republic. If Rome could have been saved by human counsel, it would have been saved by the skill of Cicero : but its destiny was now approaching : for governments, like natural bodies, have, vrith the principles of their preserva- tion, the seeds of ruin also essentially mixed in their constitution, which, after a certain period, begin to operate and exert themselves to the dissolution of the vital frame. These seeds had long been fermenting in the bowels of the republic; when Octavius came, peculiarly formed by nature and instructed by art, to quicken their operation, and exalt them to their maturity. Cicero's administration was now at an end, and nothing remained but to resign the consulship, according to custom, in an assembly of the people, and to take the usual oath, of his having discharged it with fidelity. This was generally accompanied with a speech from the expiring consul ; and after such a year, and from such a speaker, the city was in no small expectation of what Cicero would say to them : but Metellus, one of the new tribunes, who affected commonly to open their magistracy by some remarkable act, as a specimen of the measures which they intended to pursue, resolved to disap- point both the orator and the audience : for when Cicero had mounted the rostra, and was ready to perform this last act of his office, the tribune would not suffer him to speak, or to do anything more, than barely take the oath ; declaring, that he, who had put citizens to death unheard, ought not to be permitted to speak for himself : upon which Cicero, who was never at a loss, instead of pronouncing the ordinary form of the oath, exalting the tone of his voice, swore out aloud, so as all the people might hear him, that he had saved the republic and the city from min ; which the multitude below confirmed with an universal shout, and with one voice cried out, that what he had sworn was true'. Thus the intended affront was turned, by his pre- sence of mind, to his greater honour ; and he was conducted from the forum to his house, with all pos- sible demonstrations of respect by the whole city. 1 Consulatui Giceronis non mediocre adjecit decus, natus eo ajmo D. Augustus.— -Veil. ii. 36 ; Suet. c. 5 ; Dio, p. 590. ' Ego cum in concione, abiens magistratu, dicere a tri- buno plebis prohiberer, qua; constitueram : cumque is mihi, tantmnmodo ut jurarem, permitteret, sine ulla dubitatione juravi, rempublicam atque banc m*bem mea unius opera esse salyam. Mihi populus Romanus imi- versus non unius diei gratulationem, sed aiternitatem immortalitatemque donavit, cum meum jusjurandiun tale atque tantxmi juratus ipse una voce et consensu approba-! vit. Quo quidem tempore is meus domum fuit e foro reditus, ut nemo, nisi qui mecum esset, civium esse in numero videretur-i — In Pison. 3. Cum ille mihi nihil nisi ut jurarem permitteret, magna voce juravi verissimum pulcherrimumque jusjurandum : quod populus item magna voce me vere jurasso juravit.— Bp. Pam. v. 2. Etenim paullo ante in concione diierat, ei, qui in alios animadvertisset indicta causa, dicendi ipsi potestatem fiei'i non oportere, — Ibid. 64. THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OF SECTION IV. coss, D. JUNIUS Cicero being now reduced to the condition of a private senator, was to take his place on that venerable bench of consulars, who were A. UBB. 691. justly reckoned the first citizens of the cic. 46. republic. They delivered their opinions the first always in the senate ; and siiANus commonly determined the opinions of L. LiciNius "'^ ™^'' • f"'' ^ "'^y ^^^ passed MUEENA. through all the public offices, and been conversant in every branch of the administration, so their experience gave them great authority in all debates ; and having little or nothing farther to expect for themselves, they were esteemed not only the most knowing, hut, generally speaking, the most disinterested, of all the other senators, and to have no other view in their deliberations, but the peace and prosperity of the republic. This was a station exactly suited to Cicero's temper and wishes ; he desired no foreign govern- ments, or command of armies ; his province was the senate and the forum ; to guard, as it were, the vitals of the empire, and to direct all its councils to their proper end, the general good ; and in this advanced post of a consular senator, as in a watch- tower of the state, to observe each threatening cloud and rising storm, and give the alarm to his fellow-citizens from what quarter it was coming, and by what means its effects might be prevented". This, as he frequently intimates, was the only glory that he sought, the comfort with which he flattered himself, that after a life of ambition and fatigue, and a course of faithful services to the republic, he should enjoy a quiet and secure old age, beloved and honoured by his countrymen, as the constant champion and defender of all their rights and liberties. But he soon found himself mistaken, and before he had quitted his office, began to feel the weight of that envy, which is the certain fruit of illustrious merit : for the vigour of his consulship had raised such a zeal and union of all the honest in the defence of the laws, that till this spirit could be broken, or subside again, it was in vain for the ambitious to aim at any power, but through the ordinary forms of the constitution; especially while he, who was the soul of that union, continued to flourish in full credit at the head of the senate. He was now, therefore, the common mark, not only of all the factious, against whom he had declared perpetual war, but of another party not less dan- gerous, the envious too ; whose united spleen never left pursuing him from this moment, till they had driven him out of that city, which he had so lately preserved. The tribune Metellus began the attack : a fit leader for the purpose ; who, from the nobility of his birth, and the authority of his office, was the most likely to stir up some ill humour against him, by insulting and reviling him in all his harangues, for putting citizens to death without a trial ; in all which he was strenuously supported by Csesar, who pushed him on likewise to the promulgation of several pestilent laws, which gave great disturbance to the senate. Cicero had no incUnation to enter ^ Idcirco in h.ic custodia et tanquam in specula coUocati sumus, ut vacuum omni metu populum Homanum nostra vigilia ct prospicientia redderemus. — Phil, vii. 7. into a contest with the tribune, but took some pains to make np the matter with him by the interpo- sition of the women ; particularly of Claudia, the wife of his brother Metellus, and of their sister Mucia, the wife of Pompey : he employed also several common friends to persuade him to be quiet, and desist from his rashness ; but his answer was, that he was too far engaged, and had put it out of his power'' : so that Cicero had nothing left, but to exert all his vigour and eloquence to repel the insults of this petulant magistrate. Csesar, at the same time, was attacking Catulus with no less violence ; and being now in possession of the prsetorship, made it the first act of his office to call him to an account for embezzling the public money in rebuilding the capitol ; and proposed also a law, to efface his name from the fabric, and grant the commission for finishing what remained to Pompey : but the senate bestirred themselves so warinly in the cause, that Csesar was obliged to drop it". This experiment convinced the two magistrates, that it was not possible for them to make head against the authority of the senate, without the help of Pompey, whom they resolved, therefore, by all the arts of address and flattery, to draw into their measures. With this view Metellus published a law, to call him home vrith his army, in order to settle the state, and quiet the public disorders raised by the temerity of Cicero'' : for by throwing all power into his hands, they hoped to come in for a share of it with him, or to embroil him at least with the senate, by exciting mutual jealousies between them : but their law was thought to be of so dangerous a tendency, that the senate changed their habit upon it, as in the case of a public calamity ; and by the help of some of the tribunes, particularly of Cato, resolved to oppose it to the utmost of their power : so that as soon as Metellus began to read it to the people, Cato snatched it away from him ; and when he proceeded still to pronounce it by heart, Minucius, another tribune, stopped his mouth with his band. This threw the assembly into confusion, and raised great commotions in the city ; till the senate, finding themselves supported by the better sort of all ranks, came to a new and vigorous resolution, of suspend- ing both Caesar and Metellus from the execution of their offices'. Csesar resolved at first to act in defiance of them t but finding a strong force prepared to control him, thought it more advisable to retire, and reserve the trial of arms, till he was better provided for it : he shut himself up therefore in his house, where, by a pradent and submissive behaviour, he soon made his peace, and got the decree of their suspension reversed'. But Metellus, as it was concerted pro- bably between them, fled away to his brother Pompey B, that by misrepresenting the state of ^ Quibus ille respondit, sibi non esae integrumt — ^Ep- Fam. V. 2. <= Sueton. J. Caes. 15; Die, 1. sxxvii. p. 49. <1 Dio, ib. ; Plutarch, in Cic. ^ Donee ambo administratione reipublicae decreto pa- trmn sxmimoverentur.' — Sueton. J. Ces. 16. f Ut comperit paratos, qui vi ao per arma prohiberent, dimissis llctoribus, abjectaque prxtexta, domum clam refiigit, pro conditions temporum quietunis — quod cum prseter opinionem evenisset, senatus — aecitum in curiam et amplissimis verbis coUaudatum, in integnmi restituit, inducto priore decreto.— Sueton. ibid. E Plutarch, in Cicer. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 65 things at home, and offering everything on the part of the people, he might instil into hini some prejudices against the immoderate power of Cicero and the senate, and engage him, if possible, to declare for the popular interest. Cicero, in the meanwhile, published an invective oration against Metellift which is mentioned in his epistles under the title of Metellina'': it was spoken iil the senate, in answer to a speech which Metellus had made to the people, and is often cited by Quintilian and others", as extant in their time. The senate having gained this victory over Csesar and Metellus, by obliging the one to submit, the other to leave the city ; Q. Metellus Celer, who commanded in Cisalpine Gaul, wrote a peevish and complaining letter to his friend Cicero, upon their treating his brother the tribune so severely : to which Cicero answered with that freedom, which a consciousness of integrity naturally dictates, yet with all that humanity which the sincerest friendship inspires ; as the reader will observe from the letter itself, which affords many instructive hints both historical and moral. M. T. Cicero to Q. Metellus Celer, Proconsul. " Yon write me word, that considering our mu- tual affection and late reconciliation, you never imagined, that you should be made the subject of public jest and ridicule by me. I do not well under- stand what you mean ; yet guess that you have been told, that, when I was speaking one day in the senate of many who were sorry for my having preserved the republic, I said, that certain relations of yours, to whom you could refuse nothing, had prevailed with you to suppress what you had pre- pared to say in the senate in praise of me : when I said this, I added, that in the affair of saving the state I had divided the task with you in such a manner, that I was to secure the city from intestine dangers, you to defend Italy from the open arras and secret plots of our enemies j but that this glo- rious partnership had been broken by your friends, who were afraid of your making me the least return for the greatest honours and services which you had received from me. In the same discourse, when I was describing the expectation which I had conceived of your speech, and how much I was disappointed by it, it seemed to divert the house, and a moderate laugh ensued ; not upon you, but on my mistake, and the frank and ingenuous con- fession of my desire to be praised by you. Now in this, it must needs be owned, that nothing could be said more honourably towards you, when, in the most shining and illustrious part of my life, I wanted still to have the testimony of your commen- dation. As to what you say of our mutual affection, I do not know what you reckon mutual in friend- ship, but I take it to be this ; when we repay the same good offices which we receive. Should I tell you then, that I gave up «iy province for your sake, you might justly suspect my sincerity : it suited my temper and circumstances, and I find more and more reason every day to be pleased with it : but this I can tell you, that I no sooner resigned it in an assembly of the people, than I began to contrive how to throw it into your hands. I say nothing ^ In illam orationem Metellinara addidi quxdani ; liber tibi mittetur.— Ad Att. i. 13. ' ftuint. I. ix. 3 ; Aiil. Cell, xviii. 7. about the manner of drawing your lots ; but would have you only believe, that there was nothing done in it by my colleague without my privity. Pray recollect what followed ; how quickly I assembled the senate after your allotment, how much I said in favour of you, when you yourself told me, that my speech was not only honourable to you, but even injurious to your colleagues. Then as to the decree which passed that day in the senate, it is drawn in such a strain, that as long as it subsists, my good offices to you can never be a secret. After your departure, I desire you also to recollect what I did for you in the senate, what I said of you to the people, what I wrote to you myself ; and when you have laid all these things together, I leave it to you to judge, whether at your last coming to Rome yon made a suitable return to them. You mention a reconciliation between us ; but I do not comprehend how a friendship can be said to be reconciled, which was never interrupted. As to what you write, that your brother ought not to have been treated by me so roughly for a word : in the first place, I beg of you to believe, that I am exceedingly pleased with that affectionate and fraternal disposition of yours, so full of humanity and piety ; and in the second, to forgive me if in any case I have acted against your brother, for the service of the repubhc, to which no man can be a warmer friend than myself: but if I have been acting only on the defensive, against his most cruel attacks, you may think yourself well used, that I have never yet troubled you with any complaints against him. As soon as I found that he was pre- paring to turn the whole force of his tribunate to my destruction, I applied myself to your wife Claudia, and your sister Mucia, whose zeal for my service I had often experienced, on the account of my familiarity with Pompey, to dissuade him from that outrage ; but he, as Mim sure you have heard, on the last day of the year put such an affront upon me when consul, and after having saved the state, as had never been offered to any magis- trate the most traitorously affected, by depriving me of the liberty of speaking to" the people upon laying down my office. But his insult turned only to my greater honour : for when he would not suffer me to do anything more than swear, I swore with a loud voice the truest, as well as the noblest of aU oaths ; while the people with acclamations swore likewise, that my oath was true. After so signal an injury, I sent to him the very same day some of our common friends, to press him to desist from his resolution of pursuing toe : but his answer was, that it was not then in his power : for he had said a few days before in a speech to the people, that he who had punished others without a hearing, ought not to he suffered to speak for himself. Worthy patriot, and excellent citizen ! to adjudge the man who had preserved the senate from a mas- sacre, the city from fire, and Italy from a war, to the same punishment which the senate, with the consent of all honest men, had inflicted on the authors of those horrid attempts. I withstood your brother, therefore, to his face ; and on the first of January, in a debate upon the republic, handled him in such a manner, as to make him sensible, that he had to do with a man of courage and con- stancy. Two days after, when he began again to harangue, in every three words he named and threatened me : nor had he anything so much at F 66 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF heart, as to effect my ruin at any rate ; not by the legal way of trial, or judicial proceeding, but by dint of force and violence. If I had not resisted his rashness with firmness and courage, who would not have thought, that the vigour of my consulship had been owing to chance, rather than to virtue ? If you have not been informed, that your brother attempted all this against me, be assured that he concealed from you the most material part : but if he told you anything of it, you ought to commend my temper and patience, for not expostulating with you about it : but since you must now be sensible, that my quarrel to your brother was not, as you write, for a word, but a most determined and spite- ful design to ruin me, pray observe my humanity, if it may be called by that name, and is not rather, after so flagrant an outrage, a base remissness and abjection of mind. I never proposed anything against your brother, when there was any question about him in the senate ; but without rising from my seat, assented always to those who were for treating him the most fkvourably. I will add farther, what I ought not indeed to have been concerned about, yet I was not displeased to see it done, and even assisted to get it done ; I mean, the procuring a decree for the relief of my enemy, because he was your brother. I did not, therefore, attack your brother, but defend myself only against him j nor has my friendship to you ever been variable, as you write, but firm and constant, so as to remain still the same when it was even deserted and slighted by you. And at this very time, when you almost threaten me in your letter, I give you this answer, that I not only forgive, but highly applaud your grief ; for I know, from what I feel within myself, how great the force is of fraternal love : but I beg of you also to judge with the same equity of my cause ; and if, without any ground, I have been cruelly and barbarouslyftttacked by your friends, to allow that I ought not only not to yield to them, but on such an occasion to expect the help even of you and your army also against them. I was always desirous to have you for my friend, and have taken pains to convince you how sincerely I am yours : I am still of the same mind, and shall con- tinue in it as long as you please ; and, for the love of you, will sooner cease to hate your brother, than, out of resentment to him, give any shock — to the friendship which subsists between us. Adieu"'." Cicero, upon the expiration of his consiilship, took care to send a particular account of his whole administration to Pompey ; in hopes to prevent any wrong impression there from the calumnies of his enemies, and to draw from him some public declaration in praise of what he had been doing. But Pompey, being informed by Metellus and Cpesar of the ill humour which was rising against Cicero in Rome, answered him with great cold- ness, and, instead of paying him any compli- ment, took no notice at all of what had passed in the affair of Catiline : upon which Cicero expostulates with him in the following letter with some little resentment, yet so as not to irritate a man of the first authority in the republic, and to whom all parties were forwardly paying their court. k Ep. FajD, v. 2. M. T. Cicero to Cn. Pompeius the Great, Emperor'. " I had an incredible pleasure, in common with all people, from the public letter which you sent : for you gave us in it that assurance of peace which, from my confidence in you alo4^ I had always been promising. I must tell you, however, that your old enemies, but new friends, are extremely shocked and disappointed at it. As to the particular letter which you sent to me, though It brought me so slight an intimation of your friendship, yet it was very agreeable : for nothing is apt to give me so much satisfaction, as the consciousness of my services to my friends ; and if at any time they are not requited as they ought to be, I am always content that the balance of the account should rest on my side. I make no doubt, however, but that, if the distinguished zeal, which I have always shown for your interests, has not yet sufficiently recommended me to you, the public interest at least will conciliate and unite us. But that you may not be at a loss to know what it was, which I expected to find in your letter, I wiU tell it you frankly, as my own nature and our friendship require. I expected,out of regard both to the republic and to our familiarity, to have had some compliment or congratulation from you on what I lately acted in my consulship ; which you omitted, I imagine, for fear of giving offence to certain persons : but I would have you to know, that the things, which I have been doing for the safety of my country, are applauded by the testi- mony and judgment of the whole earth ; and when you come amongst us, you will find them done wdth so much prudence and greatness of mind, that you, who are much superior to Scipio, will admit me, who am not much inferior to Lselius, to a share both of your public councils and private friendship. Adieu". Soon after Catiline's defeat, a fresh inquiry was set on foot at Rome against the rest of his accom- plices, upon the information of one L. Vettius, who, among others, impeached J. Ccesar before Novius Niger the qusestor, as Q. Curius also did in the senate ; where, for the secret intelligence, which he had given very early to Cicero, he claimed the reward which had been offered to the first dis- 1 The wordcmperor signified nothingmore in its original use, than the general or chief commander of an army : [Cic. De Orat. i. 48.] in which sense it belonged equally to all who had supreme command in any part of the erapiro, and was never used as a peculiar title. But after a vic- tory, in which some considerable advantage was gained, and great numbers of the enemy slain, the soldiers, by a universal acclamation, used to salute their general in the field with the appellation of emperors ascribing as it were the sole merit of the action to his auspices and con- duct. This became a title of honour, of which all com- manders were proud, as being the effect of success and victory, and won by their proper valour ; and it was always the first and necessary step towards a triimiph. On these occasions, therefore, the title of emperor ■\va3 constajitly assumed, and given to generals in all acts ailtl letters, both public and private, but was enjoyed by thuui no longer than the commission lasted, by which they hatl obtained it ; that is, to the time of their return and CD- trance into the city, from which moment their communJ and title expired together of course, and thoy resUUlOd their civil character, and became private citiziuifl. "■ Ep. ram. V. 7. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 67 coverer of the plot. He affirmed, that what he deposed against Caesar, was told to him by Catiline hhnse'Jf ; and Vetlius offered to produce a letter to Catiline in Caesar's own hand. Caesar found some difficulty to repel so bold an accusation, and was forced to implore the aid and testimony of Cicero, to prove that he also had given early information of Catiline's designs : but by his vigour and interest in the city, he obtained a full revenge at last upon his accusers ; for he deprived Curius of the reward, and got Vettius committed to prison, after he had been miserably handled, and almost killed by the mob ; nor content with this, he imprisoned the quaestor Novius too, for suifering a superior magis- trate to be arraigned before him". Several others, however, of considerable rank were found guilty and banished ; some of them not appearing to their citation, others after a trial ; viz. M. Porcius Lecca, C. Cornelius, L. Vargun- teius, Servius Sylla, and P. Autronius, &c. The last of these, who lost the consulship four years before upon a conviction of bribery, had been Cicero's school-fellow, and colleague in the quaes- torship ; and solicited him with many tears to undertake his defence : but Cicero not only refused to defend him, but, from the knowledge of his guilt, appeared as a witness against him °. P. Sylla also, Autronius's partner and fellow- sufferer in the cause of bribery, was now tried for conspiring twice with Catiline ; once, when the plot proved abortive, soon after his former trial ; and a second time, in Cicero's consulship : he was defended in the first by Hortensius, in the last by Cicero. The prosecutor was Torquatus, the son of his former accuser, a young nobleman of great parts and spirit ; who ambitious of the triumph of mining an enemy, and fearing that Cicero would snatch it from him, turned his raillery against Cicero instead of Sylla ; and to take off the influence of his authority, treated his character with great petulance, arid employed every topic which could raise an odium and envy upon him : he called him a king, who assumed a power to save or destroy, just as he thought fit ; said, that he was the third foreign king who had reigned in Rome after Numa and Tarquinius ; and that Sylla would have run away and never stood a trial, if he had not undertaken his cause : whenever he men- tioned the plot and the danger of it, itwas with so low and feeble a voice, that none but the judges could hear iam ; but when he spoke of the prison and the death of the conspirators, he uttered it in so loud and lamentable a strain, as to make the whole forum ring with it'. Cicero, therefore, in his reply, was put to the trouble of defending himself, as well as his client. " As to Torquatus's calling him foreigner, on the account of his being born in one of the corporate towns of Italy, he owns it ; and in that town, he ° Gum implorato Ciceronis testimonio, qusedam se de conjuratione ultro detulisse docuisset, ne Curio prsemia darentur, eflfecit. Vettium, pro rostris in concione psene diBcerptum, in earcerem conjecit. Eodem Novium qua- Gtorem, quod compelLiri apud b6 majorem potestatem passus esset.— Sueton. Jul. Oses. 17. ° Veniebat ad me, et ssepe veniebat Autroniua raultis cum lachrymiB, supplex, ut se defenderem : — Se meum condiscipulum in pueritia, familiarem in adolescentia, coUcgam in qusestura commemorabat fuisse.— Pro Sylla, vi. 30. P Ibid. vil. 10. says, whence the republic had been twice preserved from ruin ; and was glad that he had nothing to reproach him with, but what affected not only the greatest part, but the greatest men of the city ; Curius, Coruncanius, Cato, Marins, &c. but since he had a mind to be witty, and would needs make him a foreigner, why did nothe call him a foreign consul, rather than a king j for that would have been much more wonderful, since foreigners had been kings, but never consuls, of Rome. He admonishes him, who was now in the course of his preferment, not to be so free of giving that title to citizens, lest he should one day feel the resentment and power of such foreigners : that if the patricians were so proud, as to treat him and the judges upon the bench as foreigners, yet Torquatus had no right to do it, whose mother was of Asculumi. Do not call me, then, foreigner any more, says he, lest it turn upon yourself ; nor a king, lest you be laughed at ; unless you think it kingly, to live so as not to be a slave, not only to any man, but even to any appetite ; to contemn all sensual pleasures ; to covet no man's gold or silver, or anything else ; to speak one's mind freely in the senate ; to consult the good, rather than the humour of the people ; to give way to none, but to withstand many : if you take this to be kingly, I confess myself a king : but if the insolence of my power, if my dominion, if any proud or arrogant saying of mine provokes you, why do not you urge me with that, rather than the envy of a name, and the contumely of a groundless calumny ? " — He proceeds to show, " that his kingdom, if it must be called so, was of so laborious a kind, that there was not tt man in Rome who would be content to take his place.'" He puts him in mind, " that he was disposed to indulge and bear with his pert- ness, out of regard to his youth and to his father — though no man had ever thrown the slightest aspersion upon him, without being chastised for it — but that he had no mind to fall upon one whom he could so easily vanquish ; who had neither strength, nor age, nor experience enough for him to contend with : he advised him however not to abuse his patience much longer, lest he should be tempted at last to draw out the stings of his Speech against him*." As to the merits of the cause, though there was no positive proof, yet there were many strong presumptions against Sylla, with which his adversary hoped to oppress him : but Cicero endeavoured to confute them, by appealing " to the tenor and character of his life ; protesting in the strongest terms, that he, who had been the searcher and detector of the plot, and had taken such pains to get intelligence of the whole extent of it, had never met with the least hint or suspicion of Sylla's name in it ; and that he had no other motive for defending him, but a pure regard to justice ; and as he had refused to defend others, nay, had given evidence against them from the knowledge of their guilt, so he had undertaken Sylla's defence, through a persuasion of his inno- cence'." Torquatus, for want of direct proof, threatened to examine Sylla's slaves by torture : this was sometimes practised upon the demand of the prosecutor ; but Cicero observes upon it, " that the effect of those torments was governed always by the constitution of the patient, and the q Pro SyUa, vii. 8. s Ibid. 16. ■• Ibid. 9. t Ibid. 30. 68 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF firmness of liis mind and body ; by the will and pleasure of the torturer, and the hopes and fears of the tortured ; and that in moments of so much anguish there could be no room for truth :" he bids them " put Sylla's life to the rack, and examine that with rigour; whether there was any hidden lust, any latent treason, any cruelty, any audaciousness in it : that there could be no mistake in the cause, if the voice of his perpetual life, which ought to be of the greatest weight, was but attended to^." Sylla was acquitted ; but Cicero had no great joy from his victory, or comfort in preserving such a citizen, who lived afterwards in great confidence with Csesar, and commanded his right wing in the battle of Pharsalia'' ; and served him afterwards in his power, as he had before served his Kinsman Sylla, in managing his confiscations and the sale of the forfeited estates. About the time of this trial Cicero bought a house of M. Crassus, on the Palatine hill, adjoin- ing to that in which he had always lived with his father, and which he is now supposed to have given up to his brother Quintus. The house cost him near thirty thousand pounds, and seems to have been one of the noblest in Rome ; it was built about thirty years before by the famous tribune, M. Livius Drusus ; on which occasion we are told, that when the architect promised to build it for him in such a manner, that none of his. neighbours should overlook him : but if you have any skill, replied Drusus, contrive it rather so, that all the world may see what 1 am doings. It was situated in the most conspicuous part of the city, near to the centre of all business, overlooking the forum and the rostra ; and what made it the more splendid, was its being joined to a portico or colonnade, called by the name of Catulus, who built it out of the Cimbric spoils, on that area where Flaccus formerly lived, whose house was demolished by public authority for his seditious practices with C. Gracchus^, In this purchase he followed the rule which he recommends in his Offices, with regard to the habitation of a principal citizen ; that his dignity should be adorned by his house, but not derived from it" : where he men- tions several instances of great men, who by the splendour of their houses on this very hill, which were constantly striking the eyes of the people, and imprinting a notion of their magnificence, made their way the more easily to the highest honours of the republic. A. Gellius tells us, that having resolved to buy the house, and wanting money to pay for it, he borrowed it privately of his client Sylla, when he was under prosecution ; but the story taking wind, and being charged upon him, he denied both the borrowing and design of purchasing, yet soon after bought the house ; and wh en he was reproached » Pro Sylla, vii. 28. ^ Vid. Caes. Comment, de Bello Civili. y Cum promittei-et el architeotus, ita se a:diflcaturum, ut libera a conspectu, immunis ab omnibus arbitris esset. — Tu vero, inquit, si quid in te artis est, ita compone domum meam, ut quicquid agam ab omnibus perspiei possit. — Yell. Pat. ii. 14 ; Ep. Fam. v. 6. 2 M. Flaccus, quia cum Graecho conlra reipubliea; sa- lutem fecerat, et senatus sententia est interfcctus ct domus ejus eversa est : in qua porticum post aliquanto Q. Catulus de manubiis Cimbricis fecit Pro Domo, 38, ■ Ornauda est enim dignitas domo, nou ex domo tola quarrenda. — Do Offio. i. 30. with the denial of it, rephed only laughing, that they must be fools to imagine, that when he had resolved to buy, he would raise competitors of the purchase bv proclaiming it''. The story was taken probably fi-om some of the spurious collections of Cicero's Jests ; which were handed about not only after his death, but even in his lifetime, as he often complains to his friends" : for it is certain, that there could be nothing dishonourable in the purchase, since it was transacted so pubUcly, that before it was even con- cluded, one of his friends congratulated him upon it by letter from Macedonia''. The truth is, and what he himself does not dissemble, that he bor- rowed part of the money to pay for it, at six per cent. ; and says merrily upon it, that he was now so plunged in debt, as to be ready for a plot, but that the conspirators would not trust him". It raised indeed some censure upon his vanity, for purchasing so expensive a house with borrowed money : but Messala, the consul, happening soon after to buy Antronius's house at a greater price, and with borrowed money too, it gave him some pleasure, that he could justify himself by the example of so worthy a magistrate : by Messala's purchase, says he, I am thought to have made a good bargain ; and men begin to be convinced, that we may use the wealth of our friends, in buy- ing what contributes to our dignity^ But the most remarkable event, which happened in the end of this year, was the pollution of the mysteries of the Bona Dea, or the Good Goddess, by P. Clodius ; which, by an unhappy train of consequences, not only involved Cicero in an unexpected calamity, but seems to have given the first blow towards the ruin of the republic. Clodius was now quaestor, and by that meaiis a senator ; descended from the noblest family in Rome, in the vigour of his age, of a graceful person, lively wit, and flowing eloquence ; but with all the advantages of nature, he had a mind incredibly vicious ; was fierce, insolent, audacious, but above all, most profligately wicked, and an open contemner of gods and men ; valuing nothing, that either nature or the laws allowed ; nothing, but in proportion as it was desperate and above the reach of other men ; disdaining even honours in the common forms of the republic ; nor relishing pleasures, but what were impious, adulterous, inccstaousE. He had IJ Aul. Gell. xii. 12. c Ais enim, ut ego diseesserim omnia omnium dicta, in his etiam Sestiana in mo conferri. Quid ? tu id pateris? nonne detendis ? nonne resistis ? &c.— Ep. Fam. vii. 32. Sie audio Cajs-arem— si quod afferatnr ad eum pro meo, quod meum non est, rejicere solere. — ^Ibid. ix. 16. ^ Quod ad me pridem seripseras, velle te bene eveniro, quod do Crasso domum emoram— Emi earn ipsam domum H. S. XXXV. aliquanto post tuaiii gratulationem.— Ep. Fam. V. 6. « Itaque scito, mo nunc tantum habere aris nlieni, ut cupiam eonjurare, si quisquam recipiat. Sed partim me excludunt, &c.— Ibid. f Ea emptione et nos bene emisso judicati sumus ; et homines iutelligere caperunt, lieere araicorum facultati- bus in emendo ad dignitatem aliquam pervenire.— Ad Att. i. 13. s Exorta est ilia reipubliea; saeris, rcligionibus, aucto- ritati vcbtrte, judiciis publieis f unesta quxstura : in qua idem iste deos, hominesque, pudovem, pudieitiam, senii- tus auotoritatem, jus, fas, leges, judicia violavil, &C.— Do Ilaruspic. Rcsp. 20. Qui ita judicia poenamque oontcmpscrat, ut eum niliil MARCUS TOLLIUS CICERO. 60 an intrigue witli Csesar's wife Pompeia, who, sccoriling to annual custom, was now celebrating in her house those awful and mystic sacrifices of the goddess, to which no male creature was ever admitted, and where eTcrything masculine was so scrupulously excluded, that even pictures of that sort were covered during the ceremony''. This was a proper scene for Clodius's genius to act upon ; an opportunity of daring, beyond what man had ever dared before him : the thought of mixing the impurity of his lusts with the sanctity of these venerable rites flattered his imagination so strongly, that he resolved to gain access to his mistress in the very midst of her holy ministry. With this view he dressed himself in a woman's habit, and by the benefit of his smooth face, and the introduction of one of the maids, who was in the secret, hoped to pass without discovery: but by some mistake between him and his guide, he lost his way when he came within the house, aud fell in unluckily among the other female ser- vants, who detecting him by his voice, alarmed the whole company by their shrieks, to the great amazement of the matrons, who presently threw a veil over the sacred mysteries, while Clodius found means to escape by the favour of some of the damsels '. The story was presently spread abroad, and raised a general scandal and horror through the whole city: in the vulgar, for the profanation of a religion held the most sacred of any in Rome ; in the better sort, for its offence to good manners, and the discipline of the republic. Cassar put away his wife upon it ; and the honest of all ranks were for pushing this advantage against Clodius as far as it would go, in hopes to free themselves by it of a citizen, who by this, as well as other specimens of his audaciousness, seemed born to create much disturbance to the state'. It had been the constant belief of the populace, that if a man should ever pry into these mysteries, he would be instantly struck blind : but it was not possible, as Cicero says, to know the truth of it before, since no man, but Clodius, had ever ven- tured upon the experiment : though it was now found, as he tells him, that the blindness of the eyes was converted to that of the mind'. delectaret, quod aut per natuxam fas esset, aut per leges liceret.— Pro Mil. 16. P. Clodius, homo nobilis, disertus, audax ; qui neque diceadi, neque faciendi ullum, nisi quern vellet, nosset modum ; malorum propositorum executor acerrimus, in- famis etiam sororis stupro, &c. — Tell. Pat. ii. 46. ^ ulii velari pictura julietur, Quxcunque alterius sexus imitata figuraoi est. JuvEN. vi. 339. Quod quidem sacrificium nemo ante P. Clodium in onmi memoria vlolavlt quod fit per Virgines Vestales ; fit pro populo Komano ; fit in ea domo, quse est in im- perio ; fit incredibili ceremonia ; fit ei deas, cujus ne nomen quidem viros scire fas est. — ^De Harusp. Resp. 17. ' P. Clodium, Appii filium, credo te audisse cum veate muliebri deprehensmn domi C. Cffisaris, cum pro populo fieret, eumque per manus servulas servatum et cductum ; rem esse insigni infamia. — Ad Att. i. 12. ' Videbam, illud scelus tarn importunum, audaciam tom inunanem adolescentis, furentis, nobilis, vulnerati, non posse arceri otii finibus : erupturum illud malum aliquando, si impunitum f uisset, ad pemiciem civitatis.— De Harusp. Resp. 3. ' Aut quod oculos, ut opinio illius religionis est, non pcrdidisti. Quia cnim ante te sacra ilia vir sciens viderat. The affair was soon brought before the senate, where it was resolved to refer it to the college of i. uRB. 692. priests, who declared it to be an abo- cio. 46. minable impiety ; upon which the coss. consuls were ordered to provide a law M. rupms for bringing Clodius to a trial for it piso, before the people". But Q. Fufius M. VALERIUS Calenus, one of the tribunes, support- MEssALA. g^ ,jy g^ ^^^ ciodian faction, would not permit the law to be oifered to the suffrage of the citizens. This raised a great ferment in the city, while the senate adhered to their former reso- lution, though the consul Piso used all his endea- vours to divert them from it, and Clodius, in an abject manner, threw himself at the feet of every senator ; yet, after a second debate in a full house, there were fifteen only who voted on Clodius' side, and four hundred directly against him ; so that a fresh decree passed, to order the consuls to recom- mend the law to the people with all their authority, and that no other business should be done till it was carried". But this being likely to produce great disorders, Hortensius proposed an expedient, which was accepted by both parties, that the tri- bune Fufius should publish a law for the trial of Clodius by the prsetor, with a select bench of judges. The only difference between the two laws was, whether he should be tried by the people or by particular judges : but this, says Cicero, was everything. Hortensius was afraid lest he should escape in the squabble without any trial, being persuaded that no judges could absolve him, and that a sword of lead, as he said, would destroy him ; but the tribune knew that in such a trial there would be room for intrigue, both in choosing and cor- rupting the judges, which Cicero likewise foresaw from the first ; and wished, therefore, to leave him rather to the effect of that odium in which his cha- racter then lay, than bring him to a trial where he had any chance to escape". Cloius's whole defence was, to prove himself absent at the time of the fact ; for which purpose, he produced men to swear that he was then at ut quisquam ptenam, quae sequeretur illud scelus, scire posset ? — De Harusp. Resp. 18. Poena omnis oculorum ad caecitatem mentis est con- versa. — Pro Domo, 40. 1" Id sacrificium ciun Vixgines instaurassent, men- tioriem a Q. Cornificio in senatu factam — post rem ex S. C. ad Pontifices relatam ; idque ab eis nefas esse decra- tum ; deinde ex S. C. consules rogationem promulg.isse : uxori Cffisarem nuncium remisisse — In hac causa Piso, amicitia P. Clodii ductus, operam dat, ut ea rogatio — antiquetur, &c. — Ad Att. i. 13. n Senatus vocatur ; cum deccmeretur frequenti senatu, contra pugnante Pisone, ad pedes omnium sigillatim accedente Clodio, ut consules populiun cohortarentur ad rogationem accipiendam : homines ad xv. Curioni, nul- lum S. C. facienti, assenserunt, ex altera parte facile cccc. fuerunt. — Senatus decernebat, ut ante, quam rogatio lata esset, ne quid ageretur. — Ibid. 14. o Postea vero quam Hortensius excogitavit, ut legem de religione Fufius tribunus plebis ferret : in qua nihil aliud a consulari rogatione differebat, nisi judicxun genus, (in CO autem erant omnia) pugnavitque ut ita fieret ; quod et sibi et aliis persuaserat, nuUis iUum judicibus efi'ugere posse ; contraxi vela, perspiciens inopiam judicum.— Hor- tensius— non vidit illud, satins esse ilium in infamia et sordibus relinqui, quam inflrmo judicio committi. Sed ductus odio properavit rem deducere in judicium, cum ilium plumbeo gladio jugulatum ii-i tamen dicerct— A me tamen ab initio consilium Hortensii roprehendebatiir,— Ad Att. i. 16. 70 THE HISTORF OF THE LIFE OF Interamna, about two or three days' journey from the city. But Cicero being called upon to give his testimony, deposed, that Clodius had been with him that very morning at his house in RomeP. As soon as Cicero appeared in the court, the Clodian mob began to insult him with great rudeness ; but the judges rose up, and received him vrith such respect, that they presently secured him from all farther affronts i. Caesar, who was the most par- ticularly interested in the affair, being summoned also to give evidence, declared, that he knew nothing at all of the matter ; though his mother Aurelia, and sister Julia, who were examined before him, had given a punctual relation of the whole fact : and being interrogated, how he came then to part with his wife ? he replied, that all who belonged to him ought to be free from suspicion as well as guilt^. He saw very well how the thing was like to turn, and had no mind to exasperate a man of Clodius's character, who might be of good service to him for the advancement of his future projects. Plutarch says, that Cicero himself was urged on to this act against his will, by the importunity of his wife — a fierce, imperious dame, jealous of Clodius' sister, whom she suspected of some design to get Cicero from her, which by this step she hoped to make desperate. The story does not seem impro- bable ; for, before the trial, Cicero owns himself to be growing every day more cool and indifferent about it ; and in his railleries with Clodius after it, touches upon the forward advances which his sister had made towards him ; and at the very time of giving his testimony, did it with no spirit, nor said anything more, as he tells us, than what was so well known that he could not avoid saying it^. The judges seemed to act at first with great gravity ; granted everything that was asked by the prosecutors ; and demanded a guard to protect them from the mob ; which the senate readily ordered, with great commendation of their pru- dence : but when it came to the issue, twenty-five only condemned, while thirty-one absolved him. Crassus is said to have been Clodius's chief mana- ger in tampering with the judges, employing every art and instrument of corruption as it suited the different tempers of the men; and where money would not do, offering even certain ladies and young men of quality to their pleasure. Cicero says, that a " more scandalous company of sharpers never sat down at a gaming-table : infamous sena- tors, beggarly knights, with a few honest men among them, whom Clodius could not exclude ; who, in a crew so unUke to themselves, sat with sad and mournful faces, as if afraid of being infected with the contagion of their infamy ; and that Catu- lus, meeting one of them, asked him what they meant by desiring a guard ; were they afraid of p Plutarch, in Cio. ; Val, Max. viii. .5. 1 Me vero teste producto ; Credo te — audisse, quse con- aurrectio judicum facta sit, ut me circumsteterint, &c. — Ad Att. i. 16. r Negavit se quidquam comperiase, quamvis et mator Aurelia, et soror Julia, apud eosdem judices, omnia ex fide retalissent : interrogatusque, cur igitur repudiasBet uxorem ? — Quoniam, inquit, meos tam suBpicione quam orimine judico earere oportere. — Suet. J. Cass. 74. s Nosmetipai, qui Lycurgei a principio fuissemus, quo- tidie demitipramur. — Ad Att. i. 13. Neque dixi quicquam pro testimonio, nisi quod erat ita notum atque testatum, ut non possem prjpterire. — Ibid. 16. being robbed of the money which Clodius had given them'.'" This transacHon, however, gave a very serious concern to Cicero, who laments " that the firm and quiet state of the republic which he had estab- lished in his consulship, and which seemed to he founded in the union of all good men, was now lost and broken, if some deity did not interpose, by this single judgment : if that," says he, " can be called a judgment, for thirty of the most contemptible scoundrels of Rome to violate all that is just and sacred for the sake of money, and vote that to be false which all the world knows to be true." As he looked upon himself to be particularly affronted by a sentence given in flat contradiction to his tes- timony, so he made it his business on all occasions to display the iniquity of it, and to sting the several actors in it with all the keenness of his raillery". In a debate soon after in the senate, on the state of the republic, taking occasion to fall upon this affau-, he " exhorted the fathers not to be discouraged for having received one single wound, which was of such a nature that it ought neither to be dissembled nor to be feared ; for to fear it, was a meanness ; and not to be sensible of it, a stupidity : that Len- tulus was twice acquitted ; Catiline also twice ; and this man was the third, whom a bench of judges had let loose upon the republic. But thou art mistaken, Clodius," says he ; " the judges have not reserved thee for the city, but for a prison : they designed thee no kindness by keeping thee at home, but to deprive thee of the benefit of an exile. Wherefore, fathers, rouse your usual vigour; resume your dignity ; there subsists still the same union among the honest : they have had, indeed, a fresh subject of mortification, yet their courage is not impaired by it : no new mischief has befallen us ; but that only, which lay concealed, is now dis- covered, and, by the trial of one desperate man, many others are found to be as bad as he''." Clodius, not caring to encounter Cicero by for- mal speeches, chose to tease him with raillery, and turn the debate into ridicule. ' ' You are a fine gentleman, indeed," says he, " and have been at Baise." " That's not so fine," replied Cicero, " as to be caught at the mysteries of the goddess." " But what," says he, " has a clown of Arpinum to do at the hot wells ?" " Ask that friend of yours," replied Cicero, ** who had a month's mind to your Arpinum clownJ." " Yon have bought a t Nosti Calvum — biduo per unum servum, et eum ex gladiatorio ludo, eonfecit totum negotium. Arcessivit ad se, promiait, intercesBit, dedit. Jam vero (O dii boni, rem perditam !) etiam noctea certarum muliermn, atque ado- lescentulorum nobiliiun introduetiones nonnuUia judici- bus pro mercedis cumulo fuerunt — xxv. judices ita fortes fuerunt, ut summo proposito periculo vel perire malue- rint, quam perdere omnia, xxxi. fuenmt, quos fames ma^is quam fama commoverit. Quorum Catulus cum vidisset quendam ; — Quid vos, inquit, prEEsidium a nobis postulabatis? an, ne numml vobis eripcrentur, timebatis? Maoulosi senatores, nudi equites- — paucl tamen boui inerant, quos rejectione fugare ille non poterat; qui mresti inter sui diasimiles et mcerentes sedebant, et contagiono turpitudinis vebementer permovebantiur. — Ad Att. i. 16.^ ^ Insectandia vero, exagitandisque nummariis judici- bus, omnem omnibus studiosis ac fautoribus illius victo- riae Tra^^ijffiay eripui. — ^Ibid. ^ Ibid. y This is supposed to refer to his sister Clodia, a lady famous for her intrigues ; wbo bad been trying all arts to tempt Cicero to put away Terentia, and to take her for his -wife. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 71 house," says he'. "You should have said, judges," replied Cicero. " Those judges," says he, " would not believe you upon your oath." " Yes," replied Cicero, " twenty ^five of them gave credit to me ; while the rest would not give any to you, but made you pay your money beforehand." This turned the laugh so strongly on Cicero's side, that Clodius was confounded, and forced to sit down'. But being now declared enemies, they never met vrithout some strokes of this kind upon each other ; which, as Cicero observes, must needs appear flat in the nar- ration, since all their force and beauty depended on the smartness of the contention, and the spirit with which they were delivered'. The present consuls were M. Pupius Piso and M. Messala; the first of whom, as soon as he entered into office, put a slight affront upon Cicero : for his opinion having been asked always the first by the late consuls, Piso called upon him only the second, on Catulus the third, Hortensius the fourth. This, he says, did not displease him, since it left him more at liberty in his voting, and freed him from the obligation of any complaisance to a man whom he despised". This consul was warmly in the interest of Clodius ; not so much out of friend- ship, as a natural inclination to the worst side; for, according to Cicero's account of him, he was a man " of a weak and wicked mind ; a churlish, captious sneerer, without any turn of wit, and making men laugh by his looks rather than jests ; favouring neither the popular nor the aristocratical party ; from whom no good was to be expected, because he wished none, nor hurt to be feared, because he durst do none ; who would have been more vicious, by having one vice the less, sloth and laziness," &c.'^ Cicero frankly used the liberty which this consul's behaviour allowed him, of delivering his sentiments without any reserve ; giving Piso him- self no quarter, but exposing everything that he did and said in favour of Clodius, in such a manner as to hinder the senate from decreeing to him the province of Syria, which had been designed, and, in a manner, promised to him °. The other consul, Messala, was of a quite different character ; a firm and excellent magistrate, in the true interests of his country, and a, constant admirer and imitator of Cicero'. About this time, Cicero is supposed to have made that elegant oration, still extant, in the de- fence of hi s old preceptor, the poet Archias : he * Though Clodius reproaches Cicero here for the extra- vagant purchase of a house, yet he himself is said to have given afterwards near four times as much for one, viz. about 119,000!. sterling.— Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xxxvi. 15. > Ad AM. i. 16. ^ Nam caetera non possimt habere neque vim, neque venustatem, remoto illo studio contentionis. — Ibid. = Ibid. 13. <^ Neque id magis amicitia Clodil ductus, quam studio perditarum rerum, atque partium. — Ibid. 14. Consul autem ipse parvo animo et pravo ; tantum oavil- lator genere illo moroso, quod etiam sine dicacitate ride- tur ; facie magis, quam facetiis ridiculus : nihil agens cum republica, sejunctus ab optimatibus: a quo nihil speres boni reipublicas, quia non vult ; nihil metuas mali, quia non audet Ibid. 13. Uno vitio minus vitiosus, quod iners, quod somni plenus. —Ibid. 14. " Consulem nulla in re consistere unquam sum passus : desponsam homini jam Syrlam ademi. — ^Ibid. 16. ' Messala consul est egregius, fortis, constans, diligens, nostri laudator, amator, imitator. — Ibid. 14. expected for his pains an immortality of fame from the praise of Archias's muse ; but, by a contrary fate of things, instead of deriving any addition of glory from Archias's compositions, it is wholly owing to his own that the name of Archias has not long ago been buried in oblivion. From the great character given by him of the talents and genius of this poet, we cannot help regretting the entire loss of his works : he had sung in Greek verse the tri- umphs of Marius over the Cimbri, and of LucuUus over Mithridates ; and was now attempting the consulship of Cicero e : but this perished with the rest, or was left rather unfinished and interrupted by his death, since we find no farther mention of it in any of Cicero's later writings. Pompey the Great returned to Rome about the beginning of this year, in the height of his fame and fortunes, from the Mithridatic war. The city had been much alarmed about him, by various reports from abroad, and several tumults at home; where a general apprehension prevailed of his coming at the head of an army to take the govern- ment into his hands'". It is certain, that he had it now in his power to make himself master of the republic without the hazard even of a war, or any opposition to controul him. Csesar, with the tri- bune Metellus, was inviting him to it, and had no other ambition at present than to serve under him : but Pompey was too phlegmatic to be easily induced to so desperate a resolution ; or seems rather, in- deed, to have had no thoughts at all of that sort, but to have been content with the rank which he then possessed, of the first citizen of Rome, with- out a rival. He had lived in a perpetual course of success and glory, without any slur, either from the senate or the people, to inspire him with sentiments of revenge, or to give him a pretence for violent measures ; and he was persuaded that the growing disorders of the city would soon force all parties to create him Dictator, for the settlement of the state ; and thought it of more honour to his character to obtain that power by the consent of his citizens, than to extort it from them by violence. But what- ever apprehensions were conceived of him before his coming, they all vanished at his arrival ; for he no sooner set foot in Italy, than he disbanded his troops, giving them orders only to attend him in his triumph ; and, with a private retinue, pursued his journey to Rome, where the whole body of the people came out to receive him with all imaginable gratulations and expressions of joy for his happy return'. By his late victories he had greatly extended the barrier of the empire into the continent of Asia, having added to it three powerful kingdoms'', Pon- tus, Syria, Bithynia, which he reduced to the con- e Nam et Cimbricas res adolescens attigit, et ipsi illi C. Mario, qui durior ad haec studia videbatur, jucundus fuit. Mithridatieum vero bellum, magnum atque difficile, totum ab hoc expressum est ; qui libri non mode L. Lu- cullum, verum etiam populi Romani nomen illustrant. — Nam quas res in consulatu nostro vobiseum simul pro salute urbis atque imperii gessimus, attigit hie verslbus atque inchoavit : quibus auditis, quod mihi magna res et jucunda visa est, hunc ad perficiendum hortatus sum. — Pro Archia, 9, 11. ^ Plutarch, in Pomp. ' Ibid. ^ Vi Asia, quse imperium antea nostrum temsiuabat, nunc tribus novis provinciis ipsa cingatur. — Dc Froviu. Consular. 12. THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF dition of Roman provinces ; leaving all the other kings and nations of the East tributary to the republic, as far as the Tigris. Among his other conquests, he took the city of Jerusalem, by the opportunity of a contest about the crown between the two brothers, Hircanus and Aristobulus. The lower town was surrendered to him with little or no opposition, but the fortress of the temple cost him a siege of three months ; nor would he have taken it then so easily, as Dio tells us', had it not been for the advantage that the besieged gave him by the observance of their weekly sabbaths, on which they abstained so religiously from all work as to neglect even their necessary defence. He showed great humanity to the people, and touched no part of the sacred treasure, or vessels of gold, which were of an immense value °' ; yet was drawn by his curiosity into such a profanation of their temple, as mortified them more than all that they had suf- fered by the war : for, in taking a view of the buildings, he entered with his officers not only into the holy place, where none but the priests, but into the holy-of holies, where none but the high priest was permitted by the law to enter : by which act, as a very, eminent writer, more piously perhaps than judiciously, remarks, he drew upon himself the curse of God, and never prospered afterwards". He carried Aristobulus and his children prisoners to Rome, for the ornament of his triumph, and settled Hircanus in the government and the high priesthood, but subject to a tribute. Upon the receipt of the public letters which brought the account of his success, the senate passed a decree, that, on all festival days, he should have the privi- lege to wear a laurel crown with his general's robe ; and in the equestrian races of the Circus, his tri- umphal habit ; an honour which, when he had once used, to show his grateful sense of it, he ever after prudently declined, since, without adding anything to his power, it could serve only to increase the envy which many were endeavouring to stir up against liim **. On tile merit of these great services, he did many acts abroad of a very extraordinary nature ; gave what laws he pleased to the whole East; distri- buted the conquered countries at discretion to the kings and princes who had served him in the wars ; built twenty-nine new cities, or colonies ; and divided to each private soldier about fifty pounds sterling, and to his officers in proportion ; so that the whole of his donative is computed to amount to above three millions of our moneyP. His first busiaess, therefore, after his return, and what he had much at heart, was to get these acts ratified by public authority. The popular fajction • promised him everything, and employed all their skill to diver.t him from a union with Cicero and the senate, and had made a considerable impression upon him ; but he found the state of things very different from their representations, saw Cicero still in high credit, and, by his means, the authority of the senate much respected ; which obliged him to use great management, and made him so cautious of offending any side that he pleased none. Cicero ' Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 3G. n' At Cn. Pompeius, captis Hierosolymis^ victor ex iUo fano nihil attigit. — Pro Flacco 28. " Pridcaux, Connect, part ii. p. 343. o Dio, 1. xxxvii, p. .39. P Plin. Hist. 1. xxxvii. 2 ; Appian. Do 13cllQ Mithridat. says of his first speech, that it was neither agree- able to the poor, nor relished by the rich ; disap- pointed the seditious, yet gave no satisfaction to the honesf!. As he happened to come home in the very heat of Clodius's aifair, so he was presently urged by both parties to declare for the one or the other. Fufius, a busy factious tribune, demanded of him, before the people, what he thought of Clo- dius's being tried by the praetor and a bench of judges ? To which he answered, very aristocrati- cally, as Cicero calls it, that he had ever taken the authority of the senate to be of the greatest weight in all cases. And when the consul Messala asked him, in the senate, what his opinion was of that profanation of religion, and the law proposed about it ; he took occasion, without entering fnto parti- culars, to applaud in general all that the senate had done in it ; and upon sitting down, told Cicero, who sat next to him, that he had now said enough, he thought, to signify his sentiments of the matter'. Crassus, observing Pompey's reserve, resolved to push him to a more explicit declaration, or to get the better of him at least in the good opinion of the senate ; rising up, therefore, to speak, he launched out, in a very high strain, into the praises of Cicero's consulship ; declaring himself indebted to it for his being at that time a senator and a citi- zen, nay, for his very liberty and bis life ; and that as often as he saw his wife, his family, and his coun- try, so often he saw his obligations to Cicero. This discomposed Pompey, who was at a loss to under- stand Crassus's motive ; whether it was to take the benefit of an opportunity, which he had omitted, of ingratiating himself with Cicero, or that he knew Cicero's acts to be in high esteem, and the praise of them very agreeable to the senate ; and it piqued him the more, for its coming from a quarter whence it was least to be expected ; from one whom Cicero, out of regard to him, had always treated with a particular slight. The incident, however, raised Cicero's spirits, and made him exert himself before his new hearer, Pompey, with all the pride of his eloquence : his topics were, the firmness and gra- vity of the senate ; the concord of the equestrian order ; the concurrence of all Italy ; the lifeless remains of a baffled conspiracy ; the peace and plenty which had since succeeded : all which he displayed with his utmost force, to let Pompey see his ascendant still in that assembly, and how much he had been imposed upon by the accounts of his new friends*. Pompey likewise, on his' side, began presently to change his tone, and affected, on ail public occasions, to pay so great a court to Cicero, that the other faction gave him the nickname of Cnaeus Cicero : and their seeming union was so generally agreeable to the city, that they were both of them constantly clapped whenever they appeared 1 Prima concio Pompeii — non jucimda miseris, inania improbis, beatis non grata, bonis non gravis. Itaque fri- gebat.— Ad Att. i. 14. f Mihique, ut flssedit, dixit, se putare satis ab se etiam do istis rebus esse responsum. — Ibid. " Proxime Pompeium sedebam; intellexi hominem moveri ; utrum Crassmn iuire earn gratiam, quam ipse priEtermisisset. Ego autem, dii boni, quomodo cvevepirepeviriiiJL'rii' novo auditori Pompeio !— Hsec erat infS&ftriSt de gravitate or- dinis, de equestri concordia, de conseiisione Italia, de immortuis reliqiiiis con jurationis, de vilitate, de otio. — A(\ Atti 14. iMARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 73 in the theatre, without a hiss from any quarter'. Yet Cicero easily discovered that all this outward civility was hut feigned and artificial ; that he was full of envy within, and had no good intentions towards the public ; nothing candid or sincere j nothing great, generous, or free in him". There was one point which Tompey resolved to carry this summer against the universal inclination of the city — the election of L. Afranius, one of his creatures, to the consulship ; in which he fights, says Cicero, " neither with authority nor interest, hut with what Philip of Macedon took every fort- ress into which he could drive a loaded ass*." Plutarch .says, that he himself distributed the money openly in his own gardens ; but Cicero mentions it as a current report, that the consul Piso had under- taken to divide it at his house : which gave birth to two new laws, drawn up by Cato and his bro- ther-in-law Domitius Ahenobarbus, and supposed to be levelled at the consul ; the one of which gave a liberty to search the houses even of magistrates, on informations of bribery ; the other declared all those enemies to the state, at whose houses the dividers of money were found?. Pompey, however, obtruded Afranius upon the city, by which he dis- gusted all the better sort both of the senate and people*. He had been making preparation all this summer for his triumph, which he deferred to his birth-day, the thirtieth of September, having resided in the meanwhile, as usual, in the suburbs ; so that the senate and people, in compliment to him, held their assemblies generally, during that time, with- out the walls ; some of which are mentioned to have been in the Flaminian Circus*. His triumph lasted two days, and was the most splendid which had ever been seen in Rome. He built a temple to Minerva out of the spoils, with an inscription giv- ing a summary of his victories : that he had finished a war of thirty years ; had vanquished, slain, and taken two millions one hundred and eighty-three thousand men ; sunk or taken eight hundred and forty-six ships ; reduced to the power of the empire a thousand five hundred and thirty-eight towns and fortresses ; and subdued all the countries between the lake Mseotis and the Red Sea"". Quintus Cicero, who, by the help and interest of his brother, was following him at a proper distance, through all the honours of the state, having been praetor the last year, now obtained the government ' Usque eo, ut nostri illi comissatorea cosjurationis, barbatuli juvenes, ilium in sermonibus Cn^um CictRONEM appellent. Itaque et ludis et gladiatoribus mirandas iTTtaTjfiaalaSt sine ulla pastoricia fistula, auferebamus.^- AdAtt. i. 16. « N(t8, ut ostendit, admodum diligit, aperte laudat; occulte, sed ita ut perspieuum sit, invidet ; nihil come, nihil simplejt, nihil ^v Tois ro\trtKOis honestum, nihil illustro, nihil forte, nihil libenim. — Ibid. 13. * In eo neque auctoritate, neque gratia pugnat ; sed quibua Philippus omnia castella expugnari posse dicebat, iu quEe modo asellus onustus aui-o posset ascendei'e. — Ibid. 16. y Consul autem ille — suscepisse negotium dicitur, et domi divisores habere: sed S. C, duo jam facta sunt odiosa, quod in consulem facta putantur. Catena et Domitio pos- tulante, ic.— Ibid. 16. ^ Consul est impositus nobis, quem nemo prater nos philosophos aspicere sine suspii'atu posset. — Ibid. 18. * Fufius in eoncionem produxit Pompeium ; res ageba- tur in Circo Flaminio.— Ibid. 14. of .\sia ; a rich and noble province, comprehending the greatest part of what is called Asia Minor. Be- fore he went to take possession of it, he earnestly pressed Atticus, whose sister he married, to go along with him as one of his lieutenants ; and re- sented his refusal so heinously, that Cicero had no small trouble to make them friends again. Thei'e is an excellent letter on this subject from Cicero to Atticus, which I cannot forbear inserting, for the light which it gives us into the genuine characters of all the three, as well as of other great men of those times, with a short account also of the pre- sent state of the republic. Cicero to Atticus. " I perceive from your letter, and the copy of my brother's which you sent with it, a great alteration in his affection and sentiments with regard to you ; which affects me with all that concern which my extreme love for you both ought to give me ; and with wonder, at the same time, what could possibly happen either to exasperate him so highly, or to effect so great a change in him. I had observed, indeed, before, what you also mistrusted at your leaving us, that he had conceived some secret dis- gust which shocked and filled his mind with odious suspicions ; which, though I was often attempting to heal, and especially after the allotment of his province, yet I could neither discover that his re- sentment was so great, as it appears to be from your letter, nor find that what I said had so great an effect upon him as I wished. I comforted my- self, however, with a persuasion that he would contrive to see you at Dyrrhachium, or some other place in those parts ; and, in that case^ made no doubt but that all would be set right ; not only by your discourse, and talking the matter over between yourselves, but by the very sight and mutual em- braces of each other. For I need not tell you, who know it as well as myself, what a fund of good- nature and sweetness of temper there is in my bro- ther, and how apt he is both to take and to forgive an offence. But it is very unlucky that you did not see him, since, by that means, what others have artfully inculcated has had more infiuence on his mind than either his duty, or his relation to you, or your old friendship, which ought to have had the most. Where the blame of all this lies, it is easier for me to imagine than to write, being afraid lest, while I am excusing my own people, I should be too severe upon yours ; for, as I take the case to be, if those of his own family did not make the wound, they might at least have cured it. When we see one another again, I shall explain to you more easily the source of the whole evil, which is spread somewhat wider than it seems to be. As to the letter which he wrote to you from Thessalonica, and what you suppose him to have said of you to your friends at Rome, and on the road, I cannot ^ Cn. POMPEIUS. Cn. p. MAGNUS. IMP. BeLLO. XXX. ANNOBUM. CONFECTO. fusis. fugatis. occisis. in deditionem accbptis. hominum, centies. vicies. semel. centenis. lxxxiii.m. Dephessis aut capt. navjbus. Dcccxlvi. Oppmis. Castelus. M.n.xxxvnr. IN FIDEM BBCEPTIS. Terris. a M.EOTr. Lacc. ad Rubrum. Mare, subactis. VoTUM. .MBRiTO. Minerva. Pj.in; Hist, Nat. vii. 36. 74 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF conceive what could move him to it. But all my hopes of making this matter easj, depend on your humanity ; for if you will but reflect, that the best men are often the most easy, both to be provoked and to be appeased ; and that this quickness, if I may so call it, or flexibility of temper, is generally the proof of a good-nature ; and above all, that we ought to bear with one another's infirmities or faults, or even injuries ; this troublesome affair, I hope, will soon be made up again. I beg of you that it may be so. For it ought to be my special care, from the singular affection which I bear to you, to do everything in my power that all who belong to me may both love and be beloved by you. There was no occasion for that part of your letter, in which you mention the opportunities which you have omitted of employments, both in the city and the provinces, as well at other times as in my con- sulship. I am perfectly acquainted with the inge- nuity and greatness of your mind, and never thought that there was any other difference between you and me, but in a different choice and method of life : whilst I was drawn, by a sort of ambition, to the desire and pursuit of honours, you, by other maxims, in nowise blameable, to the enjoyment of an ho- nourable retreat. But for the genuine character of probity, diligence, exactness of behaviour, I neither prefer myself, nor any man else, to you ; and as for love to me, after my brother and my own family, I give you always the first place. For I saw, and saw it in a manner the most Meeting, both your solici- ■ tude and your joy in all the various turns of my affairs ; and was often pleased as well with the ap- plause which you gave me In success, as the com- fort which you administered in my fears ; and even uow, in the time of your absence, I feel and regret the loss, not only of your advice, in which you excel all, but of that familiar chat with you, in which I used to take so much delight. "Where then shall I tell you that I most want you ? in public affairs ? where it can never be permitted to me to sit idle ; or in my labours at the bar .' which I sus- tained before through ambition, but now to preserve my dignity ; or in my domestic concerns .' where, though I always wanted your help before, yet, since the departure of my brother, I now stand the more in need of it. In short, neither in my labours nor rest ; neither in business nor retirement j neither in the forum nor at home ; neither in public nor in private affairs, can I live any longer without your friendly counsel and endearing conversation. We have often been restrained, on both sides, by a kind of shame, from explaining ourselves on this article ; hut 1 was now forced to it by that part of your letter, in which you thought fit to justify yourself and your way of life to me. But to return to my brother : in the present state of the iU humour which he expresses towards you, it happens, how- ever, conveniently, that your resolution of declining all employments abroad was declared and known long beforehand, both to me and your other friends ; so that your not being now together cannot be charged to any quarrel or rupture between you, but to your judgment and choice of life. Where- fore both this breach in your union will undoubt- edly be healed again, and your friendship with me remain for ever inviolable, as it has hitherto been. We live here in an infirm, wretched, tottering re- pubUc : for you have heard, I guess, that our knights are now almost disjoined again from the senate. The first thing which they took amiss was the decree for calling the judges to account, who had taken money in Clodius's affair : I happened to be absent when it passed ; but hearing after- wards that the whole order resented it, though without complaining openly, I chid the senate, as I thought, with great effect ; and in a cause not very modest, spoke forcibly and copiously. They have now another curious petition, scarce fit to be endured, which yet I not only bore with, but de- fended. The company, who hired the Asiatic reve- nues of the censors, complained to the senate that, through too great an eagerness, they had given more for them than they were worth, and begged to be released from the bargain. I was their chief advocate, or rather, indeed, the second ; for Cras- sus was the man who put them upon making this request. The thing is odious and shameful, and a public confession of their rashness ; but there was great reason to apprehend, that if they should ob- tain nothing, they would be wholly alienated from the senate ; so that this point also was principally managed by me. For, on the first and second of December, I spoke a great deal on the dignity of the two orders, and the advantages of the concord between them, and was heard very favourably in a full house. Nothing, however, is yet done, but the senate appears well disposed ; for Metellus, the consul elect , was the only one who spoke against us ; though that hero of ours, Cato, was going also to speak, if the shortness of the day had not pre- vented him. Thus, in pursuit of my old measures, 1 am supporting as well as I can that concord which my consulship had cemented : but since no great stress can now be laid upon it, I have pro- vided myself another way, and a sure one, I hope, of maintaining my authority ; which I cannot well explain by letter, yet will give you a short hint of it. I am in strict friendship with Pompey — I know already what you say — and will be upon my guard as far as caution can serve me, and give you a far- ther account some other time of my present conduct in politics. You are to know, in the meanwhile, that Lucceius designs to sue directly for the con- sulship ; for he will have, it is said, but two com- petitors : Csesar, by means of Arrius, proposes to join with him ; and Bibulus, by Piso's mediation, thinks of joining with Csesar. Do you laugh at this ? Take my word for it, it is no laughing matter. What shall I write farther? What? There are many things ; but for another occasion. If you would have us expect you, pray let me know it : at present I shall beg only modestly what I desire very earnestly, that you would come as soon as possible. December the fifth '^." As to the petition of the knights, mentioned in this letter, Cato, when he came afterwards to speak to it, opposed it so resolutely, that he prevailed to have it rejected, which Cicero often condemns as contrary to all good policy ; and complains some- times in his letters, that Cato, though he was the only man who had any regard for the republic, yet frequently did mischief by pursuing his maxims absurdly, and without any regard to the times''. <^ Ad Att. i. 17. ^ Unus est, qui curet, constantia magis et integritatc, quam, ut mihi videtur, consilio et ingenio, Cato; qui miseros publicanos, quos habuit amantissimos sui, tertium jam mensem vexat, neque eis a scnatu responsum dari patitur.— Ad Att. i. 18 ; it. ii. ). MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 76 And upon a review of the transactions whicli had passed since his consulship, and the turn which the public affairs were then taking, he seems to foretell that the republic could not stand much longer ; since this very year had orerthrown the two main pillars of it, which he had been erecting with such pains — the authority of the senate, and their union with the knights =. Q. Csecilius Metellus and L. Afranius were now consuls. The first had been praetor in Cicero's „ „no consulship, and commanded an army a. UBB. 693. . , „r' J ac. 47. agamst Catilme, and was an excellent (^ss. magistrate and true patriot ; a firm op- ij. c^ciLius poserofall the factious, and aprofessed MBTEU.U8 enemy also to Pompey ; in which he cELBR, was the more heated by a private re- i, AFKANiBs. sentment of the affront offered to his sister Mucia, whom Pompey had lately put away '. His partner, Afranius, was the creature of Pom- pey's power ; but of no credit or service to him, on the account of his luxury and laziness, being fonder of balls than of business. Cicero calls him a consul whom none but a philosopher could look upon without sighing ; a soldier without spirit, and a proper hut for the raillery of the senate, where Falicanus abused him every day to his face ; and so stupid, as not to know the value of what he had purchased B. By the help of this consul and some of the tri- bunes, Pompey imagined that he should readily obtain the ratification of his acts, together with an Agrarian law, which he was pushing forward at the same time, for the distribution of lands to his sol- diers ; but he was vigorously opposed in them, both by the other consul, Metellus, and the gene- rality of the senate''. LucuUus declared, that they ought not to confirm his acts in the gross, as if they received them from a master, but to consider them separately, and ratify those only which were found to be reasonable'. But the tribune Flavins, who was the promoter of the law, impatient of this opposition, and animated by Pompey's power, had tlie hardiness to commit Metellus to prison ; and when all the senate followed, and resolved to go to prison too, he clapped his chair at the prison-door to keep them out : but this violence gave such a general scandal to the city, that Pompey found it * Nam ut ea breviter, qu£e post discessum tuum acta sunt, coUigam, jam exclames necesse est, res Komanas diutius stare non posse. Sic ille annus duo firmaraenta reipubKcse per me unum constituta, erertit : nam et senatus auctoritatem abjecit, etordinum concordiam disjunxit. — Ad Att. i. 18, * Metellus est consul egregius, et nos amat, &c. — ^Ibid. 18, 19, 20 ; Dio, 1. xxxvii. p. 62. 8 Quem nemo prjeter nos philosopbos aspicere Bine sus- pu'atu posset. Auli autem Glina, dii Immortales ! quam ignavus et sine animo miles ! quam dignus, qui Falicano, sicut facit, OS ad male audienduni quotidie prasbeat ! lUe alter ita nihil est, ut plane quid emerit, ncsciat. Auli filius vero ita se gerit, ut ejus consulatus non eon- sulatuB sit. Bed magni nostri vTr^tov.—Ad Att. ibid. ; Dio, ibid. '' Agraria autem promulgata eat a Flavio, sane levis, 4o.— Ad Att. i. 18. Agraria lex a Flavio tribune plebiB vehementer agita- batur, auctore Pompeio : — Nihil populare habebat praeter auctorem : — Huic toti ration! agrarise senatus adversaba- tur, suspicans Pompeio novam quandam potentiam qusri. —Ibid. 19. ' Dio, I. xxxvii. 52, advisable to draw oflT the tribune, and release the consul''. In order to aUay these heats, Cicero offered an amendment to the law, which satisfied both parties, by securing the possessions of all pri- vate proprietors, and hindering the pubHc lands from being given away. His proposal was, that out of the new revenues which Pompey had ac- quired to the empire, five years' rents should be set apart to purchase lands for the intended dis- tribution'. But the progress of the affair was suspended by the sudden alarm of a GaUic war, which was always terrible to Rome ; and being now actually commenced by several revolted nations, called for the immediate care and attention of the government"". The senate decreed the two Gauls severally to the two consuls ; and required them to make levies without any regard to privilege or exemption from service ; and that three senators should be chosen by lot, one of them of consular rank, to be sent with a public character to the other Gallic cities, to dissuade them from joining in the war. In the allotment of these ambassadors, the first lot hap- pened to fall upon Cicero ; but the whole assembly remonstrated against it, declaring his presence to be necessary at Rome, and that he ought not to be employed on such an errand. The same thing hap- pened to Pompey, on whom the next lot fell, who was retained also with Cicero, as two pledges of the public safety". The three at last chosen were Q. Metellus Creticus, L. Flacous, and Lentulus. The Transalpine Gaul, which was the seat of the war, fell to the lot of Metellus, who could not contain his joy upon it for the prospect of glory which It offered him. " Metellus" says Cicero, " is an ad- mirable consul ; I blame him only in one thing : for not seeming pleased with the news of peace from Gaul. He longs, I suppose, to triumph. I wish that he was as moderate in this as he is excel- lent in all other respects"." Cicero now finished in the Greek language, and in the style and manner of Isocrates, what he calls a Commentary or Memoirs of the transactions of his Consulship ; and sent it to Atticus, with a desire, if he approved it, to publish it in Athens and the cities of Greece. He happened to receive a piece at the same time, and on the same subject, from Atticus, which he rallies as rough and un- polished, and without any beauty, but its simphcity. •t Dio, 1. xxxvii. 52. 1 Ex hac ego lege, secunda concionis voluntate, omnia toUebam quas ad privatorum incommodum pertinebant. — TJnam rationem non rejiciebam, ut ager hac adventitia pecunia emeretur, quaj ex novis veotigalibus per quin- quennium reciperetur. — Magna cmn Agrariorum gratia connrmabam omnium privatorum possessioneB, (is eniin est noster exercitua, hominum, ut tute scis, locupletium) populo autom et Pompeio (nam id quoque volebam) satis- faciebam emptione. — Ad Att. i. 19. ™ Scd hKC tota res interpellata bello refrixerat. — Ad Att. i. 19. " Senatus decrevit, ut consules duas Gallias sortirentur ; delectus haberetur ; vacationes ne valerent ; legati cum auctoritate miitterentur, qui adirent Galliie civitates. — Cum de consularibus mea prima sora exisset, una voce aenatua frequena me in urbe retinendum censuit. Hoc idemi post me Pompeio aecidit ; ut nos duo, quasi pi^-nora reipublicEe retineri videremur, — Ibid. o Metellus tuus est egregius consul : unum reprehendo, quod otium e Gallia nunciari non magnopere gaudet. Cupit, credo, triumpbare. Hoc vellem mediocrifts ; CEetera egregia . — Ibid , 20, 76 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF He sent his own work also to Posidonias of Rhodes, and begged that he would undertake the same argument in a more elegant and -masterly manner. But Posidonius answered him with a compliment, that instead of being encouraged to write by the perusal 'of his piece, he was quite deterred from attempting it. Upon which Cicero says jocosely, that he had confounded the whole Greek nation, and freed himself from the importunity of those little wits, who had been teasing him so long, to be employed in writing the histoi-y of his actsP. What he says in excuse for taking that task upon himself, is, that it was not a panegyric, but a history ; which makes our loss of it the greater, since it must have given a more exact account of those times, than can now be possibly had, in an entertaining work, finished with care and elegance ; which not only pleased himself, as it seems to have done very highly, but, as he tells us, everybody else : " If there be anything in it," says he, "which does not seem to be good Greek, or polite enough to please your taste, I will not say what Lucullus told you of his own history at Panormus, that he had scattered some barbarisms in it, on purpose to make it appear to be the work of a Roman : for if anything of that kind should be found in mine, it is not with design, but Contrary to my in- tention'." Upon the plan of these memoirs, he composed afterwards a Latin poem in three books, in which he carried down the history to the end of his exile, but did not venture to publish it till several years after : not that he was afraid, he says, of the re- sentment of those whom he had lashed in it, for he had done that part very sparingly, but of those rather whom he had not celebrated, it being end- less to mention all who had been serviceable to him'. This piece is also lost, except a few frag- ments scattered in different parts of his other writings. The three books were severally inscribed to three of the Muses ; of which his brother ex- presses the highest approbation, and admonishes him to bear in mind what Jupiter recommends in the end of Urania, or the second book ; which concluded probably with some moral lesson, not unlike to what Calliope prescribes in the third'. p Tua iQa — horridula milii atque incompta visa sunt : sed tamen erant ornata hoc ipso, quod ornamenta neglex- orant : et ut mulieres, ideo bene olere, quia nihil olebaut, videbantur. — Ad me rescripsit jam Rhodo Posidonius, se nostrum illud inr6fjt-fTjfia cum legeret, non modo non ex- citatum ad scribendum, sed etiam plane perterritum esse. — Contm-bavi GrEeeam nationem : ita vulgo qui instabantj ut darem sibi quod oraarent, jam exhibere mihi modes- tiam destiterunt. — Ad Att. ii. 1. q Commentarium consulatus mei Graaco compositiun ad to misi ; in quo si quid erit, quod homini Attico minus Grjecum, eruditumque videatur, non dicam, quod tibi, ut opinor, Panormi Lucullus de suis historiis dixerat,- — se, quo facilius illas probaret Romani hominis esse, idcirco bai-bara quffidam et a6\otKa dispersisse. Apud me si quid erit ejusmodi, mo imprudente erit et invito.' — Att. i. 19. ' Seripsi etiam versibus tres libros de temporibus meis, quos jam pridem ad te misissem, si esse edendos putassem . — sed quia vcrebar uon eos, qui se lasos ai-bitrarentur, etenim id feci parce et molUter ; sed eos, quos erat iniini- tum bene de me meritos omnes nominaro.— Ep. Fam. i. 9- " Quod me admones de nostra Urania, suadesque ut meminerim Jovis orationem , quae est in extreme illo libro ; ego vero memini, et ilia omnia mihi magis soripsi, quam Cffiteria.— Ep. ad Quint, Frat. ii. 9. ; vid. Ad. Att. ii. 3. ; Do Divin. ill. Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventa;, Quosque adeo Consul virtute animoque petisti, Hos rctiue ; atque auge famam laudesque bonorum. That noble course, in which thy earliest youth Was train'd to virtue, liberty, and truth. In which , when Consul, you such honour won , While Rome with wonder and applause look'd on, The same pursue ; and let each growing year A fresh increase of fame and glory bear. He published likewise at this time a collection of the principal speeches which he had made in his consulship, under the title of his Consular Orations : he chose to make a separate volume of them, as Demosthenes had done of his Philippics, in ordei to give a specimen of his civil or political talents ; being of a different manner, he says, from the dry and crabbed style of the bar, and showing, not only how he spoke, but how he acted. The two first were against the Agrarian law of RuUus ; the one to the senate, the other to the people : the third on the tumult about Otho : the fourth, for Rabirius : the fifth, to the sons of the proscribed : the sixth, upon his resigning the province of Gaul : the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, on the affau' of Catiline : vrith two more short ones, as aopen- dixes to those on the Agrarian law. But of these twelve, four are entirely lost ; the third, fifth, and sixth, with one of the short ones ; and some of the rest left maimed and imperfect. He published also at this time in Latin verse a translation of the Prognostics of Aratus, which he promises to send to Atticus with the volume of his orations' ; of which work there are only two or three small fragments now remaining. Clodius, who had been contriving all this while how to revenge himself on Cicero, began now to give an opening to the scheme, which he had formed for that purpose. His project was, to get himself chosen tribune, and in that o&ce to drive him out of the city, by the publication of a law, which by some stratagem or other he hoped to obtrude upon the people". Bat as all patricians were incapable of the tribunate, by its original in- stitution, so his first step was to make himself a plebeian, by the pretence of aa adoption into a plebeian house, which could not yet be done with- out the suffrage of the people. This case was wholly new, and contrary to all the forms ; want- ing every condition, and serving none of the ends, which were required in regular adoptions ; so that on the first proposal it seemed too extravagant to be treated seriously, and would soon have been hissed off with scorn, had it not been concerted and privately supported by persons of jnuch more weight than Clodius. Csesar was at the bottom of it, and Pompey secretly favoured it : not that they intended to ruin Cicero, but to keep him only under the lash ; and if they could not draw him ' Puit enim mihi commodmn, quod in eis orationibus, quEe Philippicae nominantur, enituerat civis ille tuus De- mosthenes, etquod se ab hocrefractariolojudicialidicendi genere abjunxerat, ut aejJt.v6rsp6s tls et iroMTiKtirepos videretur, ciuai-e, ut mea? quoque essent orationes, qiiffi consularcs nominarentur.— Hoc totum aufjia curabo ut habeas : et quoniam te cum scripta, turn res me^ delectant, iisdem libris perspicies, et quae gesserim, et quge dixeriiu. —Ad Att. ii. 1. Pi-oguostica mea cum oratiunculis propediem expecta. —Ibid. " lUe autem non simulat, sed plane tribimus plebis fieri oupit.— Ad Att. ii. 1, MARCUS TULIIUS CICERO. 77 into their measures, or make him at least sit quiet, to let Clodius loose upon Mm. The solicitor of it was one Herennius,- an obscure, hardy tribune, who first moved it to the senate, and afterwards to the people, but met with no encouragement from either : for the consul Metellus, though brother- in-law to Clodius, warmly opposed if ; and de- clared, that he would strangle him sooner with his own hands, than suffer him to bring such a dis- grace upon his family? : yet Herennius persisted to press it, but without any visible effect or success; and so the matter hung through the remainder of the year. Cicero affected to treat it with the contempt which it seemed to deserve ; sometimes rallying Clodius with much pleasantry, sometimes ad- monishing him with no less gravity : he told him in the senate, that his attempt gave him no man- ner of pain ; and that it should not be any more in his power to overturn the state, when a plebeian, than it was in the power of the patricians of the same stamp in the time of his consulship^. But whatever face he put outwardly on this affair, it gave him a real uneasiness within, and made him unite himself more closely with Pompey, for the benefit of his protection against a storm, which he saw ready to break upon him ; while Pompey, ruffled likewise by the opposition of the senate, was as forward on his side to embrace Cicero, as a person necessary to his interests. Cicero, how- ever, imagining that this step would be censured by many, as a desertion of his old principles, takes frequent occasion to explain the motives of it to his friend Atticus, declaring, " That the absolution of Clodius, the alienation of the knights, the in- dolence and luxury of the consular senators, who minded nothing but their fish-ponds, their carps and mullets, and yet were all envious of him, made it necessary for him to seek some firmer support and alliance That in this new friendship he should attend still to what the Sicilian wag, Epi- charmus, whispered, ' Be watchful and distrust, for those are the nerves of the mind".' " On another occasion he observes, *' That his union with Pompey, though useful to himself, was more useful to the republic, by gaining a man of his power and authority, who was wavering and irresolute, from the hopes and intrigues of the factious : that if this could not have been done without drawing upon himself a charge of levity, he would not have pur- chased that, or any other advantage, at such a price ; but he had managed the matter so, as not to be thought the worse citizen for joining with Pompey, but Pompey himself the better, by declaring for '^ Venim praeclare Metellus impedit et impediet.' — Ad Att. ii. 1. y ftui consul inclpientem furere atque conantem, sua se manu interfectui-um, audiente senatu dixerit. — Pro Cae- lio, 24, 2 Sed neque magnopere dixi esse nobis laboi-andum, quod nihilo magis ei liciturum esset plebeio rempublicam perdere, quam similibus ejus me consule patriciis esset lieitum— Ad Att. ii. 1. ■ Cum hoc ego me tanta familiaritate conjunxi, ut uter- que nostrum in sua I'atione munitior, et in republica £nnior hac conjunctione esse possit. Et Bi Us novis amicitiis implioatl sunius, ut crebro mihi vjiferiIIeSiculus,insusurretEpicbarmus, cantilenam illam suam: Na0e Kol fie^yaff' drtiarfTv. &p6pa ravra rwv (ppevuv . Ad Att. i, VJ. him. — That since Catulus's death, he stood single and unsupported by the other consulars in the cause of the aristocracy ; for, as the poet Rhinton says, ' some of them were good for nothing, others cared for nothing'''. But how much these fish- mongers of ours envy me, says he, I will write you word another time, or reserve it to our meeting. Yet nothing shall ever draw me away from the senate ; both because it is right, and most agree- able to my interest, and that I have no reason to be displeased with the marks of respect which they give me"." In a third letter he says, "You chide me gently for my union with Pompey : I would not have you to think, that I sought it only for my own sake ; but things were come to such a crisis, that if any difference had happened between us, it must have caused great disturbance in the republic ; which I have guarded against in such a manner, that without departing from my own maxims, I have rendered him the better, and made him remit somewhat of his popularity : for you must know, that he now speaks of my acts, which many have been incensing him against, much more gloriously than he does of his own : and declares, that he had only served the state successfully, but that I had saved it"". "What good this will do to me, I know not ; but it will certainly do much to the re- public. What if I could make Csesar also a better citizen, whose winds are now very prosperous ; should I do any great harm by it .' Nay, if there were none who really envied me, but all were encouraging me as they ought, it would yet be more commendable to heal the vitiated parts of the state, than to cut them off : hut now, when that body of knights, who were planted by me in my consulship, with you at their head, as our guard in the capitol, have deserted the senate, and our consulars place their chief happiness in training the fish in their ponds to feed from their hands, and mind nothing else ; do not yon think, that J. am doing good service, by managing so, that those who can do mischief, will not ? For as to our friend Cato, you cannot love him more than I do ; yet, with the best intentions and the greatest integrity, he often hurts the republic ; for he de- livers his opinion, as if it were in the polity of Plato, not in the dregs of Romulus '. What could be more just, than to call those to an account who had received money for judging ? Cato proposed, the senate agreed to it ; the knights presently de- clared war against the senate, not against me ; for I was not of that opinion. What more impudent, than to demand a release from their contract ? yet it was better to suffer that loss, than to alienate the b Illud tamen velim existimes, me banc viani optima- tium post Catuli mortem nee prasidio uUo nee comitatu tenere. Nam ut ait miinton, ut opinor, Oi /xiy Trap' ovSey uffLV, ots S" ovSev /jie\€U Ad Att. i. 20. c Mihi vero ut invideant piscinarii nostri, aut scribam ad te alias, aut in congressum nostrum reservabo, A cui-ia autem nulla me res divellet.' — Ibid. ^ Queni de meis rebus, in quas multi eum incitarant, multo Bcito gloriosius, quam de suis prsedicare. Sibi euim beue gestffi, mibi conservatas rcipublicffl, dat testimonium. —Ibid. ii. 1. c Nam Catonem nostrum non tu amas plus, quam ego. Sed tamen ille Optimo animo uteus, et summa fide, nocet interdum rcipublica? ; dieit enim tanquam in Platonis TTO A.I rgia, non tanquam inltomulifxce, sontentiaui, — Ad Att. ii. I.' 78 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ■whole order : but Cato opposed it, and prevailed ; so that now, when the consul was thrown into pi'ison, as well as in all the tumults which have lately happened, not one of them would stir a foot ; though, under me, and the consuls who succeeded me, they had defended the republic so strenu- ously," &c.'. In the midst of these transactions, Julius Caesar returned from the government of Spain, which had been allotted to Urn from his prsetorship, with great fame both for his military and political acts. He conquered the barbarous nations by his arms, and civilized them by his laws ; and having sub- dued the whole country as far as the ocean, and been saluted emperor by the soldiers, came away in all haste to Rome, to sue at the same time for the double honour of a triumph and the consulship ". But his demand of the first was, according to the usual forms, incompatible with his pretensions to the second ; since the one obliged him to continue without the city, the other made his presence necessary within : so that finding an aversion in the senate to dispense with the laws in his favour, he preferred the solid to the specious, and dropped the triumph, to lay hold on the consulship ''. He designed L. Lucceius for his colleague, and pri- vately joined interests with him, on condition that Lucceius, who was rich, should furnish money sufficient to bribe the centuries. But the senate, always jealous of his designs, and fearing the effects of his power, when supported by a colleague sub- servient to his will, espoused the other candidate, Bibulus, with all their authority, and made a com- mon purse, to enable him to bribe as high as his competitors ; which Cato himself is said to have approved'. By this means they got Bibulus elected, to their great joy; a man firm to their in- terests, and determined to obstruct all the ambitious attempts of Csesar. Upon Caesar's going to Spain, he had engaged Crassus to stand bound for him to his creditors, who were clamorous and troublesome, as far as two hundred thousand pounds sterling : so much did he want to be worth nothing, as he merrily said of himself K Crassus hoped, by the purchase of his friendship, to be able to make head against Pompey in the administration of pubhc affairs : but Csesar, who had long been courting Pompey, and labouring to disengage him from a union with Cicero and the aristocratical interest, easily saw, that as things then stood, their joint strength f Restitit et pei-vicit Cato. Itaque nunc, consule in car- cere incluso, sjEpe item seditione commota , aspii-avit nemo eorum, quorum ego concursu, itcmque consules, qui poet mofuerunt, rempublicam defendere soletant.— Ad Att. ii. 1. s Jura ipsorum permissu statuerit ; inveteratam quon- dam barbariam ex Gaditanorum moribua et disciplina delerit— Pro Balbo, !9. Pacataque provincia, pari festinatione, non expectato euccessore, ad triumphiim simul consulatumque decesait. — Sueton. J. Cses. 18 ; vid, it. Dio. 1. xxxvii. p. 54. ^ Dio, ibid. i Pactus ut is, quoniam inferior gratia esset, pKcuniaque polleret, nummos de suo, communi nomine per centuriaa pronuntiaret. ftua cognita re, optimates, quos metus ceperat, niliil non ausurum eum in summo magistratu, concordi et consentiente collega, auctoreg Bibulo fuerunt tantuudem pollicendi : ac plerique pecunias contulerunt ■ no Catone quidem abnuente earn largitionem e republica fieri— Sueton. J. Cses. 19. ^ Plutarch, in J. C»9. ; Appian. De Bello Civ. ii. p. 432 j Sueton. ib, 18. would avail but little towards obtaining what they aimed at, unless they could induce Pompey also to join with them : on pretence, therefore, of recon- ciling Pompey and Crassus, who had been constant enemies, he formed the project of a triple league between the three ; by which they should mutually oblige themselves to promote each others' interest, and to act nothing but by common agreement : to this Pompey easily consented, on account of the disgust which the senate had impoliticly given him, by their perverse opposition to everything which he desired or attempted in the state. This is commonly called the first triumvirate ; which was nothing else in reality but a traitorous conspiracy of three, the most powerful citizens of Rome, to extort from their country by violence what they could not obtain by law. Pompey's chief motive was, to get his acts confirmed by Csesar in his consulship; Caesar's, by giving way to Pompey's glory, to advance his own ; and Crassus's, to gain that ascendant, which he could not sustain alone, by the authority of Pompey and the vigour of Csesar'. But Csesar, who formed the scheme, easUy saw, that the chief advantage of it would necessarily redound to himself : he knew that the old enmity between the other two, though it might be palliated, could never be healed with- out leaving a secret jealousy between them ; and as by their common help he was sure to nwike himself superior to all others, so by managing the one against the other, he hoped to gain at last a superi- ority also over them both". To cement this union therefore the more strongly by the ties of blood, as well as interest, he gave his daughter Julia, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, in marriage to Pompey : and from this era all the Roman writers date the origin of the civil wars which afterwards ensued, and the subversion of the re- public in which they ended". -tu causa malorum Pacta tribus dominis communis Roma — Lttcan. i. 85. Hence flow'd our ills, hence all that civil flame. When Rome the common slave of three became. Cicero might have made what terms he pleased with the triumvirate ; been admitted even a part- ner of their power, and a fourth in their league ; which seemed to want a man of his character to make it complete. For while the rest were engaged in their governments, and the command of armies abroad, his authority would have been of singular use at home, to manage the affairs of the city, and solibit what they had to transact with the senate or * Hoc consilium Pompeius habuerat, ut tandem acta in transmarinis provinciis per Cassarem confirmarentur con- Bulem : Cffisar autem, quod animadvertebat, se cedendo Pompeii gloriae aucturum smam ; et invidia communis potentiffi in ilium relegata, confirmaturum vires suaa: Crassus, ut quem principatmn solus assequi non poterat, anctoritate Pompeii, viribus teneret Cssaris. — Veil. Pat. ii. 44. " Sciebat enim, se alios facile omnes ipsorum auxilio, deinde ipsos etiam, unnm per alterum, baud multo postea superaturum esse.— Dio, 1. xxxvii. 6.5. " Inter eum et On. Pompeium et M. Crassum inifa po- tcntiffi aocietas, quse urbi orbique terrarum, nee minus diverse quoque tempore, etiamipais exitiabilisfuit —Veil. Pat. U. 44. Motiun ex Metello consule civicum, 4ec. HoR. Carm. ii.l. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 79 people. Caesar therefore was extremely desirous to add him to the party, or to engage him rather in particular measures with himself ; and no sooner entered into the consulship, than he sent him word by their common friend Balbus, that he would be governed in every step by him and Pom- pey, with whom he would endeavour to join Cras- 8US too". But Cicero would not enter into any engagements jointly with the three, whose union he abhorred ; nor into private measures with Caesar, whose intentions he always suspected. He thought Pompey the better citizen of the two ; took his views to be less dangerous, and his temper more tractable ; and imagined, that a separate alliance with him would be sufficient to screen him from the malice of his enemies. Yet this put him under no small difficulty : for if he opposed the trium- virate, he could not expect to continue well with Pompey ; or, if he served it, with the senate : in the first, he saw his ruin ; in the second, the loss of his credit. He chose, therefore, what the wise will always choose in such circumstances, a middle way ; to temper his behaviour so, that with the con- stancy of his duty to the republic, he might have a regard also to his safety, by remitting somewhat of his old vigour and contention, without submit- ting to the meanness of consent or approbation ; and when his authority could be of no use to his country, to manage their new masters so, as not to irritate their power to his own destruction ; which was all that he desiredP. This was the scheme of poUtics, which, as he often laments, the weakness of the honest, the perverseness of the envious, and the hatred of the wicked, obliged him to pursue. One of his intimate friends, Papirius Paetus, made him a present about this time of a collection of books, which fell to him by the death of his brother Servius Claudius, a celebrated scholar and critic of that age'. The books were aE at Athens, where Servius probably died ; and the manner in which Cicero writes about them to Atticus, shows what value he set upon the present, and what pleasure he expected from the use of it. " Papirius Paetus," says he, " an honest man, who loves me, has given me the books which his brother Servius left ; and since your agent Cincius tells me, that I may safely take them by the Cincian law', I readily signified my acceptance of them. Now if you love me, or know that I love you, I Cfflsar consul egit eas res, quarum me partieipem esse voliiit — ^me in tribus sibi eonjunctissimis consulajibus esse voluit.— De Provin. Consular. 17. Nam fuit apudme Cornelius, hunc dico Balbum, Csesaris familiarem. Is affirmabat, emn omnibus in rebus meo et Pompeii consilio usurum, daturumque operam ut cum Pompeio Crassum conjungeret. Hie sxmt haec. Conjunctio mihi summa cum Pompeio ; si placet etiam cum Ccesare. —Ad Att. ii. 3, P Nihil jam a me asperum in quenquam fit, nee tamen quidquam populare ac dissolutum ; sed ita tempcrata tota ratio est, ut reipublica constantiam praistem, privatis rebus nieis, propter infirmitatem bonorum, iniquitatem malevo- lorom, odium in me improborum ; adhibeam quandanr eautionem.. — Att. i. 19. 1 Ut Servius, frater tuus, queni literatissimum fuisse judico, facile diceret, hie versus Plauti nou est.^-Ep. Fara. ix. 16. ' The pleasantry which Cicero aims at, turns on the name of Atticus's agent being the same with that of the author of the law ; as if , by being of that family, his au- thority was a good waft-ant for taking any present. beg of you to take care by your friends, clients, hosts, freedmen, slaves, that not a leaf of them be lost. I am in extreme want both of the Greek books, which I guess, and the Latin, which I know him to have left : for I find more and more comfort every day, in giving all the time, which I can steal from the bar, to those studies. You will do me a great pleasure, a very great one, I assure you, by showing the same diligence in this, that you usually do in all other affairs, which you take me to have much at heart," &c. ' While Cicero was in the country in the end of the year, his architect Cyrus was finishing for him at Rome some additional buildings to his house on Mount Palatine : but Atticus, who was just returned from Athens, found great fault with the smallness of the windows ; to which Cicero gives a jocose answer, bantering both the objection of Atticus, and the way of reasoning of the architects : " You little think, (says he,) that in finding fault with my windows, you condemn the Institution of Cyrus* ; for when I made the same objection, Cyrus told me, that the prospect of the fields did not appear to such advantage through larger lights. For let the eye be A ; the object B, C ; the rays D, E ; you see the rest. If vision indeed were performed, as you Epicureans hold, by images flying off from the object, those images would be well crowded in so strait a passage ; but if by the emission of rays from th,e eye, it will be made commodiously enough. If you find any other fault, you shall have as good as you bring ; unless it can be mended without any cost to me'^." Caesar and Bibulus entered now into the consul- ship, with views and principles wholly opposite to each other ; while the senate were a. uRB. 694. pleasing themselves. with their address, in procuring one consul of their own, to check the ambition of the other, and expecting now to reap the fruit of it. But they presently found upon a Nius 3iBiints. trial, that the balance and constitution of the republic was quite changed by the overbearing power of the three ; and that Caesar was too strong to be controlled by any of the legal and ordinary methods of opposition : he had gained seven of the tribunes, of whom Vatinius was the captain of his mercenaries ; whose task it was to scour the streets, secure the avenues of the forum, and clear it, by a superior force, of all who were prepared to oppose them. Clodius, in the mean time, was pushing on the affair of his adoption ; and soliciting the people to confirm the law, which he had provided for that purpose. The triumvirate pretended to be against it, or at least to stand neuter ; but were watching Cicero's motions, in, order to take their measures from his conduct, which they did not find so obse- quious as they expected. In this interval it hap- pened, that C. Antonius, Cicero's colleague, who had governed Macedonia from the time of his consulship, was now impeached and brought to a trial for the mal-administration of his province ; and being found guilty, was condemned to perpetual exile. Cicero was his advocate, and, in the course of his pleading, happened to fall, with his usual freedom, into a complaint of the times and the ' Ad Att. i. 20. ' Referring to the celebrated piece of Xenophon, called by that name. » Ad Att, ii. 3. cic. 48, coss. C. JULIUS CJESAR, M. CAiPUR- 80 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF oppression of the republic, in a style that was interpreted to reflect severely upon their present rulers. The story was carried directly to Ciesar, and represented to him in such colours, that he resolved to revenge it presently on Cicero, by bringing on Clodius's law ; and was so eager in it, that he instantly called an assembly of the people, and being assisted by Pompey, as augur, to make the act legal and auspicious, got the adoption ratified by the people through all the forms ==, within three hours from the time of Cicero's speaking. Bibulus, who was an augur too, being advertised of what was going forward, sent notice to Pompey, that he was observing the heavens and taking the auspices, during which function it was illegal to transact any business with the people y. But Pompey, instead of paying any regard to his mes- sage, gave a sanction to the proceeding, by pre- siding in it ; so that it was carried without any opposition. And thus the bow, as Cicero calls it, which had been kept bent against him and the republic, was at last discharged'^ ; and a plain admonition given to him, what he had to expect, if he would not be more complying. For his danger was brought one step nearer, by laying the tribunate open to Clodius, whose next attempt would probably reach home to him. These laws of adoption were drawn up in the style of a petition to the people, after the following form : — " May it please you, citizens, to ordain, that P. Clodius be, to all intents and purposes of law, as truly the son of Fonteius, as if he were begotten of his body in lawful marriage ; and that Fonteius have the power of life and death over him, as much as a father has over a proper son : this, citizens, I pray you to confirm in the manner in which it is desired^." There were three conditions absolutely necessary to make an act of this kind regular : first, that the adopter should be older than the adopted, and in- capable of procreating children, after having endea- voured it without success when he was capable : secondly, that no injury or diminution should be done to the dignity, or the religious rites of either family : thirdly, that there should be no fraud or collusion in it ; nor anything sought by it, but the genuine effects of a real adoption. All these par- ticulars were to be previously examined by the college of priests ; and if after a due inquiry they ^ Hora fortasse sexta diei questus sum in judicio, cum C. Antonium defcnderem, qussdam de republica quajmihi visa simt ad causam miseri illius pertinere. Hiec homines improbi ad quosdam viros fortes longe aliter atque a me dicta erant, detulerunt. Hora nona, illo ipso die, tu es adoptatus.— Pro Dome, 16 ; Vid. Sueton. J, Caps. 20; y Negant fas esse agi cum popiilo cum de ccelo servatum sit. Quo die de te lex curiata lata esse dicatur, audes ncgare de ccelo esse servatum ? Adest praesens vir singxilari virtute M. Bibulus : hunc consulem illo ipso die con» tendo servasse de ccelo.— Pro Domo, 15. ^ Fuerat ille annus tanquam intentus arcus in me unum, sicut vulgo rerum ignari loquebantur, re quidem vera in universam rempublicam traductione ad plebem furibundi hominis.— Pro Sext. 7. » The lawyers and all the later "wi-iters, from the autho- rity of A. Gellius, call this kind of adoption, which was confirmed by a law of the people, an adrogation .- but it does not appear that there was any such distinction in Cicero's time, who, as oft as he speaks of this act, either to the senate or the people, never uses any other tenn than that of ad option. ^Yido. A. GelL 1. v. 10. approved the petition, it was proposed to the suffrage of the citizens living in Rome, who voted according to their original division into thirty curiae, or wards, which seem to have been analogous to our parishes^ ; where no business however could be transacted, when an augur or consul was ob- serving the heavens. Now in this adoption of Clodius, there was not one of these conditions observed : the college of priests was not so much as consulted ; the adopter Fonteius had a wife and children ; was a man obscure and unknown, not full twenty years old when Clodius was thii-ty-five, and a senator of the noblest birth in Rome : nor was there anything meant by it, but purely to evade the laws, and procure the tribunate : for the affair was no sooner over, than Clodius was eman- cipated, or set free again by his new father from all his obligations •=. But these obstacles signified nothing to Caesar, who always took the shortest way to what he aimed at, and valued neither forms nor laws, when he had a power sufficient to con- trol them. But the main trial of strength between the two consuls was about the promulgation of an agrarian law, which Csesar had prepared, for distributing the lands of Campania to twenty thousand poor citizens, who had each three children or more. Bibulus mustered all his forces to oppose it, and came down to the forum full of courage and resolution, guarded by three of the tribunes and the whole body of the senate ; and as oft as Caesar attempted to recommend it, he as often interrupted him, and loudly remonstrated against it, declaring, that it should never pass in his year. From word's they soon came to blows ; where Bibulus was roughly handled, his fasces broken, pots of filth thrown upon his head; his three tribunes wounded, and the whole party driven out of the forum by Vatinius, at the head of Ceesar's mob^. MTien the tumult was over, and the forum cleared of their adversaries, Csesar produced Pompey and Crassus into the rostra, to signify their opinion of the law to the people ; where Pompey, after speaking largely in praise of it, declared in the conclusion, that if any should be so hardy as to oppose it with the sword, he would defend it with his shield. Crassus applauded what Pompey said, and warmly pressed the acceptance of it ; so that it passed upon the spot without any farther contradiction*. Cicero was in the country during this contest, but speaks of it with great indignation in a letter to Atticus, and wonders at Pompey's policy, in supporting Caesar in an act so odious, of alienating the best revenues of the republic ; and says, that he must ^ Comitiis curiatis. c Quod jus est adoptionis, Poutifices? Nempe, ut is adoptet, qui neque procreare liberos jam possit, et cum potuerit, sit cxpertus. Quae denique causa cuique adop- tionis, quse ratio generum. ac dignitatis, qua sacronim, quasri a pontiflcum coUegio solet. Quid est horum in ista adoptione qusesitum ? Adoptat annos viginti natus, etiam minor, senatorem. Liberorumne causa? at procreare potest. Habet uxorem : suscepit etiam liberos. Qute omnis notio pontificum cimi adoptarere esse debuit, &c. —Pro Domo, adPontif. 13, ^ Idemque tu — nomine C. Caesaris, clementissimi atque optimi viri, seelere vero atque audacia tua, M. Bibulum foroj curia, templis, locis publicis omnibus expulissee, inclusuni domi contineres.. — In Vatin. 9 ; Dio, xxxviiJ. 61 ; Suet J. Caes. 20 ; Plutarch, in Porap. ^ Dio, ibid. » MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 81 lot think to make them amends by his rents on mount Libanus, for the loss of those which he aad taken from them in Campania^ The senate md all the magistrates were obliged, by a special clause of this law, to take an oath to the observance of it ; which Cato himself, though he had publicly declared that he would never do it, was forced at last to swallows. Bibulus made his complaint the next day in the senate, of the violence offered to his person ; but finding the assembly so cold and intimidated, that nobody cared to enter into the affair, or to move anything about it, he retired to his house in despair, with a resolution to shut himself up for the remain- ing eight months of the year, and to act no more in public but by his edicts'". This was a weak step in a magistrate armed with sovereign authority; for though it had one effect, which he proposed by it, of turning the odium of the city upon his col- league, yet it had another that overbalanced it, of strengthening the hands and raising the spirits of the adverse party, by leaving the field wholly clear to them. As Csesar's view in the agrarian law was to oblige the populace, so he took the opportunity, which the senate had thrown into his hands, of obliging the knights too, by easing them of the disadvantageous contract, which they had long in vain complained of, and remitting .^ third part of what they had stipulated to pay' ; and when Cato still opposed it with his visual firmness, he ordered him to be hurried away to prison. He imagined, that Cato would have appealed to the tiibunes ; but seeuig him go along patiently, without speaking a word, and reflecting, that such a violence would create a fresh odium, without serving any pur- pose, he desired one of the tribunes to interpose and release him''. He next procured a special law, from tl^ie people, for the ratification of all Pompey's acts in Asia ; and in the struggle about it, so terrified and humbled LucuUus, who was the chief opposer, that he brought him to ask pardon at his feet'. He carried it still with great outward respect towards Cicero ; and gave him to understand again by Balbus, that he depended on his assistance hi the agrarian law : but Cicero contrived to be out of the way, and spent the months of April and May in his villa near Antium, where he had placed his chief collection of books" ; amusing himself f Cna>iis quiclem jioster jam plane quid cogitet, noscio. — Afl Alt. ii. 16. Quid dices ? Vectigal te nobis in monte Antilibano con- stituisse, agri Campani abstulisse.*— Ibid, s Dio, xxxviii. 61 . '» Ac po3toro die in senatu conquestum, nee quoquam reperto, qui super tali constematione referre, aut censere aliquid auderet — in cam coegit desperationem, ut quoad potestato abii-et, dome abditus nihil aliud quam per odieta obnunciarot.— Sueton. J. Cica. 20. ' 13io, xxxviii. 62. I" Plutai-eh. in Caea. ' L. Lucullo, liberius resistenti tantum calumniarum metum iajecit, ut ad genua ultro sibi accedcret.' — Sueton. J. Cks. 20. " Nam aut fortitcr rcsistendum est legi Agraria, in quo est qusGdam dimicatio, scd plena laudis : aut quiescendum, quod estnon dissimilc, atque ire in Solonium, aut Antium : aut etiam adjuvandum, quod a mo aiunt Csesarem sic expeetare, ut non dubitet Ad Att. ii. 3. Itaque aut libris me delecto, quorum habeo Antii festi- vam copiam, ant fluctus numero. — ^Ibid. G. with his studies and his children, or as he says jocosely, in counting the waves. He was pro- jecting however a system of geography, at the request of Atticus, but soon grew weary of it, as a subject too dry and jejune to admit of any orna- ment" ; and being desired also by Atticus to send him the copies of two orations which he had lately made, his answer was, that he had torn one of them, and could not give a copy ; and did not care to let the other go abroad, for the praises which it bestowed on Pompey ; being disposed rather to recant, than publish them, since the adoption of Clodlus". He seems Indeed to have been too splenetic at present to compose anything but Invectives ; of which kind he was now drawing up certain anecdotes, as he calls them, or a secret history of the times, to be shown to none but Atticus, in the style of Theopompus, the most satirical of all writers: for all his politics, he says, were reduced to this one point, of hating bad citizens, and pleasing himself with writing against them : and since he was driven from the helm, he had nothing to wish, but to see the wreck from the shore ; or, as Sophocles says p. Under the shelter of a good warm roof, With mind serenely ealm and prone to sleep, Heal' the loud storm and beating rain without. Clodlus, having got through the obstacle of his adoption, begfan without loss of time to sue for the tribunate ; whilst a report was Industriously spread, which amused the city for a while, of a breach between him and Csesar. He declared everywhere loudly, that his chief view in desiring that office was, to rescind all Cjesar's acts ; and Csesar, on his part, as openly disclaimed any share In his adoption, and denied him to be a plebeian. Tills was eagerly carried to Cicero by young Curio, who assured him, that all the young nobles vrere as much Incensed against their proud kings as he himself, and would not bear them much longer ; and that Memmlus and Metellus Nepos had de- clared against them : which being confirmed also by Attlcus's letters, gave no small comfort to Cicero ; all whose hopes of any good depended, he says, upon their quarrelling among themselves'., n Etenim 'yewypa Cum ille — tertio die post quam in curia, quam in ros- tris, quam in republica Horuisset, integerrima a:tate, Optimo habitu, maximis viribus, eriperetur bonis omni- bus atque universae eivitati — Cum me intuens flentem signiiicabatinterruptis atque morieutibus vocibus, quanta impenderet procella urbi, quanta tempestas eivitati — ^ut non se emori, quam spoliari suo praesidio cum patriam, turn etiam me doleret. — Ex hac igitur domo progressa ilia mulier de veneni celeritate dieere audebit ? — Pro Cffilio, 24. c Et numquid novi omnino : et quoniam Nepos proficis- citur, cuinam augxn-atus deferatur, quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possum. Vide levitatem meam ! Sed quid ego ha^c, qua cupio deponere, et toto animo atque omni cura (piKoaocpeiv ? Sic, inquam, in animo est i vellem ab initio. — Ad Att. ii. 6. An ingenious French writer, and an English one also not less ingenious, have taken occasion from this passage to f oi*m a heavy charge against Cicero both in his civil and moral character. The Frenchman descants with great gravity on the foible of human nature, and the astonishing weakness of our Orator, in suffering a thought to drop from him, which must for ever ruin his credit, with posterity, and destroy that high opinion qfhis virtue, which he labours everywhere to inculcate. But a proper attention to the general tenor of his conduct would easily have convinced him of the absurdity of so severe an interpretation ; and the facts produced in this history abundantly show, that the passage itself cannot admit any other sense than what I have given to it, as it is rendered also by Mr. Mongault, the judicious translator of the Epistles to Atticus, viz. that the augurate was the only bait that could tempt him ; not to gO into the measures of the triumvirate, for that was never in his thoughts, "but to accept anything from them, or suffer himself to be obliged to them.— See Hist, de I'Bxil de Cic^ron, p. 42 ; Considerations on the Life of Cicero, p. 27. ^ Ego tecum, tanquam mecumloquor. — ^Ad Att. viii. 14. c Sacerdotium denique, cum, quemadmodum te existi- marc arbitror, non diffleillime consequi possem, non appetivi.— Idem post injuriam acccptam— studui quam 88 THE HISTOKY OF THE LIFE OF within twenty miles of Rome, yet he never stirred from his retreat to solicit or offer himself for it, which he must necessarily have done, if he had any real desire to obtain it. Cicero's fortunes seemed now to be in a tottering condition : his enemies were gaining ground upon him, and any addition of help from the new magis- trates might turn the scale to his ruin. Catulus used to tell him, that he had no cause to fear anything ; for that one good consul was sufficient to protect him ; and Rome had never known two bad ones in office together, except in Cinna's tyranny^ But that day was now come ; and Rome saw ia this year, what it had never seen before in peaceful times since its foundation, two profligate men advanced to that high dignity. These were L. Calpurnius Piso and A, Gabinius ; the one, the father-in-law of Csesar, the other, the creature of Pompey. Before their A. URB. 695. entrance into office, Cicero had con- cic. 49. ceived great hopes of them, and not T r,.rnr',D wltHout rcasoii J for, by the marriage L. CALPUR- n 1 . ■■ 1 11- T tf Nius piso ^^ ^^s daughter, he was alhed to Fiso ; A. GABINIUS. who continued to give him all the marks of his confidence, and had employed him, in his late election, to preside over the votes of the leading cent^l^y ; and when he entered into his office, on the first of January, asked his opinion the third in the senate, or the next after Pompey and Crassus^: and he might flatter himself also, probably, that on account of the influence which they were under, they would not be very forward to declare themselves against him**. But he presently found himself deceived : for Clodius had already secured them to his mea- sures, by a private contract, to procure for them, by a grant of the people, two of the best govern- ments of the empire ; for Piso, Macedonia, with Greece and Thessaly ; for Gabinius, Cilicia : and when this last was not thought good enough, and Gabinius seemed to be displeased with his bargain, it was exchanged soon after for Syria, with a power of making war upon the Partbians'. For this price they agreed to serve him in all his designs, and particularly in the oppression of Cicero ; who, on omatissima senatuspopulique Rcmani deme jiidiciainter- cedere. Itaque ct augur postea fieri volui, quod antea neglcxeram. — Ep. Fam. xv. 4. f Audieram ex sapientissimo homine, Q. Catulo, non saspc unum consulem improbum, duos veronunquam post Romam conditam, excepto illo Cinnano tempore, fui^e. Quare meam causam semper fore firmissiraam dicere sole- bat,dum vel unus in republica consul osset. — Post Red. in Sen. 4. e: Consules se optime ostendunt.— Ad Quint. Frat. i. 2. Tu misericors me affinem luum, quern tuis comitiis pra;- rogativae primum custodcm prjefeceras ; quern kaleudis Januariis tertio loco oententiam rogaras, eonstrictum inimi- cis reipubliese tradidisti. — Post Red. in Sen. 7 ; In Pis. 5, 6. l» The author of the Exile of Cicero, to aggravate the pei-- fidy of Gabinius, tells us, that Cicero had defended him in a capital cause, and produces a fragment of the oration : but he mistakes the time of the fact ; for that defence was not made till several years after this consulship ; as we shall see hereafter in its proper place. — Hist, de I'Exil de Ciceron, p, 115. i Foedns fecerunt cum tribune plebis palam, u t ab eo provincias acciperent, quas vellent— id autem foedus meo sanguine ictum sanciri posse dicebant.—Pro Scxt. 10. Cui quidem cum Ciliciam dedisses, mutasti pactionem et Gabinio, pretio amplificato, Syriam nominatun dedisti. ■—Pro Domo, 9, that account, often calls them, not consuls, but brokers of provinces, and sellers of their country^. They were, both of them, equally corrupt m their morals, yet very different in their tempers. _ Piso had been accused the year before, by P. Clodius, of plundering and oppressing the allies: when by throwing himself at the feet of his judges in the most abject manner, and in the midst of a violent rain, he is said to have moved the compassion of the bench, who thought it punishment enough for a man of his birth, to be reduced to the necessity of prostrating himself so miserably, and rising so deformed and besmeared with dirt^ But in truth, it was Csesar's authority that saved him, and recon- ciled him at the same time to Clodius. In his outward carriage he affected the mien and garb of a philosopher, and his aspect greatly contributed to give him the credit of that character : he was severe in his looks, squalid in his dress, slow in his speech, morose in his manners, the very picture of antiquity, and a pattern of the ancient republic; ambitious to be thought a patriot, and a reviver of the old discipline. But fiiis garb of rigid virtue covered a most lewd and vicious mind: he was surrounded always with Greeks, to imprint a notion of his learniug : but while others entertained them for the improvement of their knowledge, he, for the gratification of his lusts, as his cooks, his pimps, or his drunken companions. In short, he was a dirty, sottish, stupid Epicurean ; wallowing in all the low and filthy pleasures of life ; till a false opinion of his wisdom, the splendour of his great family, and the smoky images of ancestors, whom he resembled in nothing but his complexion, re- commended him to the consulship ; which exposed the genuine temper and talents of the man™. His colleague Gabinius was no hypocrite, but a professed rake from the beginning ; gay, foppish, luxurious ; always curled and perfumed, and living in a perpetual debauch of gaming, wine, and women ; void of every principle of virtue, honour, and pro- bity ; and so desperate in his fortunes, through the extravagance of his pleasures, that he had no other resource, or hopes of subsistence, but from the ^ Non consules, sed mercatores provinciarum. ac vcndi- tores vestrae dignitatis.— Post Red. in Sen. 4. • L. Piso, a P. Clodio accusatus, quod graves et intolera- biles injurias sociis intulissot, baud dubiae ruina; mctuni fortuito auxilio vitavit — quia jam satis graves euni pcenas sociis dedisse ai-bitrati sunt hue deductura necessitatis, ut abjicere se tarn supplicitcr, aut attollere tarn deformiter cogcretur.^Val. Max. viii, I "' Q,uam tcter incedebat? quam truculentus"? quani ter- ribilis aspectu? Aliquem te ex barbatis ilHs, exeniplum veteris imperii, imaginem antiquitatis,columeu reipublicffi, diceres intueri, Vestitus asperc, nostra bac purpura ple- beia, et pene fusca. CapiVlo ita horrido, ut^-tanta erat gravitasin oculo, tanta eontractio frontis, ut illo super- cilio rcspublica, tanquam Atlante ccelum, niti videretm'. [Pro Sext. 8.] Quia tristem semper, quia tacitumum, quia subhorridum atque incultum videbant, ct quod erat eo no- mine, utiugenerata familise frugalitas videretur ; favebant — etenim animus ejus vultu, flagitia parietibus tegebantiir — laudabat homo doctus pbilosophos nescio quos.— [Ibid. 9.] Jacebatin suo Graicorum foetore etvino — Graeci stipati, quiui in lectulis. sa;pe pliu-es.— In Pis. 10, 2?. His utitur quasi prajfectis libidinum suarum : hi volup- tates omnea vestigant atque odorantur : hi sunt conditores instructoresque convivii, &;c.— Post Red. in Sen. 6. Obrepisti ad honoi-es errore hominum, commendatione fumosarum imaginum, quai'um simile nihil babes prwter colorem.— In Pis. 1. MARCUS TULLiaS CICERO. 89 plunder of the republic. In his tribunate, to pay his court to Pompey, he exposed to the mob the plan of Lucullus's house, to show what an expen- sive fabric one of the greatest subjects of Rome was building, as he would intimate, out of the spoils of the treasury : yet this vain man, oppressed with debts, and scarce able to show his head, found means, from the perquisites of his consulship, to build a much more magnificent palace than LucuUus himself had done". No wonder then that two such consuls, ready to sacrifice the empire itself to their lasts and pleasures, should barter away the safety and fortunes of a private senator, whose virtue was a standing reproof to them, and whose very pre- sence gave some cheek to the free indulgence of their vices. Clodius having gained the consuls, made his ne.^t attempt upon the people, by obliging them with several new laws, contdved chiefly for their advantage, which he now promulgated. First, that com should be distributed gratis to the citizens. Secondly, that no magistrates should take the auspices, or observe the heavens, when the people were actually assembled on public business. Thirdly, that the old companies or fraternities of the city, which the senate had abolished, should be revived, and new ones instituted. Fourthly, to please those also of higher rank, that the censors should not expel from the senate, or inflict any mark of infamy on any man, who was not first openly accused and convicted of some crime by their joint sentence". These laws, though generally agreeable, were highly unseasonable ; tending to relax the public discipline, at a time when it wanted most to be reinforced : Cicero took them all to be levelled at himself, and contrived to pave the way to his ruin ; so that he provided his friend L. Nin- nius, one of the tribunes, to put his negative upon them, especially on the law of fraternities, which, under colour of incorporating those societies, gave Clodius an opportunity of gathering an army, and enlisting into his service all the scum and dregs of the cityr. Dion Cassius says, that Clodius, fearing lest this opposition should retard the effect of his other projects, persuaded Cicero, in an amicable conference, to withdraw his tribune, and give no interruption to his laws, upon a promise and con- dition that he would not make any attempt against himi: but we find from Cicero's account, that it was the advice of his friends, which ioduced him to be quiet against his own judgment ; because the laws themselves were popular, and did not per- sonally affect him : though he blamed himself soon afterwards for his indolence, and expostulated with Atticus for advising him to it ; when he felt to his cost the ad vantage which Clodius had gained by it^ "Alter iingiientis affluens, calamistrata coma, despiciens consciosstuprorum — fefellitneminem — liominem emersum subito ex diutumls tenebris lustroruni ac stupruriiin. — vino, gancis, lenociniis, adulteriisque ciiiifectimi — Pro Sext. 9. Cur ille gurges, heluatus tecum simul reipublicffi sang'.ii- nem, ad ccelum tamen extruxitvillam in Tiisculano visce- ribus 8erarii.-^Pro Domo. 47. ° Vid. Orat. in Fison. 4. et notas Asconii.— Dio, L xxxviii. p. 67. P Collegia, non ea solum, quie senatus sustulerat, resti- tuta, Bed innumerabilia quscdam nova ex omni fa?ce urbis ac servitio eoncltata. — In Pison. 4. 1 Dio, 1. xxxviii, p. (i7. ' Nunquam esses passus mihi persuaderi, utile nobis esse leg:cm de collegiis perferri Ad Att. iii. 15. For the true design of aU these laws was, to introduce only with better grace the grand plot of the play, the banishment of Cicero, which was now directly attempted by a special law, importing, that whoever had taken the life of a citizen uncondemned and without a trial, should be prohibited from fire and water*. Though Cicero was not named, yet he was marked out by the law : his crime was, the putting Catiline's accomplices to death ; which, though not done by his single authority, but by a general vote of the senate, and after a solemn hear- ing and debate, was alleged to be illegal, and con- trary to the liberties of the people. Cicero finding himself thus reduced to the condition of a criminal, changed his habit upon it, as it was usual in the case of a public impeachment, and appeared about the streets in a sordid or mourning gown, to excito' the compassion of his citizens ; whilst Clodius, at the head of his mob, contrived to meet and insult him at every turn ; reproaching him for his 'cow- ardice and dejection, and throwing dirt and stones at him'. But Cicero soon gathered friends enough about him to secure him from such insults : *' the whole body of the knights and tjie young nobility, to the number of twenty thousand", with young Crassus at their head, who all changed their habit, and perpetually attended him about the city, to implore the protection and assistance of the people." The city was now in great agitation, and every part of it engaged on one side or the other. The senate met in the temple of Concord, while Cicero's friends assembled in the capitol ; whence all the knights and the young nobles went in their habit of mourning to throw themselves at the feet of the consuls, and beg their interposition in Cicero's favour. Piso kept his house that day on purpose to avoid them ; but Gabinius received them with intolerable rudeness, though their petition was seconded by the intreaties and tears of the whoM senate : he treated Cicero's character and consul- ship with the utmost derision, and repulsed the whole company with threats and insults for their fruitless pains to support a sinking cause. This raised great indignation in the assembly, — where the tribune Ninnius, instead of being discouraged by the violence of the consul, made a motion, that the senate also should change their habit with the rest of the city ; which was agreed to instantly by a unanimous vote. Gabinius, enraged at this, flew out of the senate into the forum, where he declared to the people from the rostra, "that men were mistaken to imagine that the senate had any power in the republic; that the knights should pay dear_for that day's work, when, in Cicero's con- sulship, they kept guard in the capitol with their drawn swords : and that the hour was now come when those, who lived at that time in fear, should revenge themselves on their enemies : and to con- firm the truth of what he said, he banished L. Lamia, a Roman knight, two hundred miles from the city, for his distinguished zeal and activity in Cicero's service^ ;" an act of power which no ^ Qui civem Romanum indemnatura perimisset, ei aqua et igni interdiceretur. — ^Vell. Pat. ii. 45. t Plutarch, in Cicero, " Pro ma prtesente senatuB, hoiiiinumque viginti millia vestem niutaverunt, — l^ost Red. ad Q,uir, 3, s^ Hio subito cum inci edibilis in Capitolium multitudo ex tota urbe. cunetaqua Italia convenisset, vestem mutan- dam onmes, meque etiam omni ratione, privato coneilio, 90 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF consul before him had ever presumed to exert on any citizen; which was followed presently " by an edict from both the consuls, forbidding the senate to put their late vote in execution, and enjoining them to resume their ordinary dress^. And where is there," says Cicero, " in all history, a more illus- trious testimony to the honour of any man than that all the honest by private inclination, and the senate by a public decree, should change their habit for the sake of a single citizen^ ? " But the resolution of changing his gown was too hasty and inconsiderate, and helped to precipitate his ruin. He was not named in the law, nor per- sonally affected by it : the terms of it were general and seemingly just, reaching only to those who had taken the life of a citizen illegally. Whether this was his case or not, was not yet the point in issue, but to be the subject of another trial ; so that by making himself a criminal before his time, he shortened the trouble of his enemies, discoiiraged his friends, and made his case more desperate than he needed to have done ; whereas, if he had taken the part of commending or slighting the law, as being wholly unconcerned in it, and when he came to be actually attacked by a second law, and brought to a trial upon it, had stood resolutely upon his defence, he might have baffled the mahcfi ot his prosecutors. He was sensible of his error when it was too late ; and oft reproaches Atticus, that being a stander-by, and less heated in the game than himself, he would suffer him to make such blunders''. As the other consul, Piso, had not yet explicitly declared himself, so Cicero, accompanied by his son-in-law, who was his near kinsman, took occa- sion to make him a visit, in hopes to move him to espouse his cause, and support the authority of the senate. They went to him about eleven in the morning, and found him, as Cicero afterwards told the senate, " coming out from a little dirty hovel, fresh from the last night's debauch, with his slip- quoniam publicis ducibus respublica careret, def endendum putarunt. Erat eodem tempore senatus in asde Coneordia?, — cum flenB universus ordo cineinnatum cousulem orabat, nam alter ille horridus et severus domi se consulto tenebat. Qua turn superbia ccenura illud ac labes amplissimi ordinis preces et clarlssimorum civium laerymas repudiavit ? Me ipsum ut contemsit helluo patrise? — Vestris precibus a latrone isto repudiatis, vir incredibili fide — ^L. Niunius ad senatum de republica retulit. Senatusque frequens vestem pro mea saluta mutandam oensuit.' — ^Exauimatus cvolat e senatu^advocatconcionem — en-are homines, si etiamtuni senatum aliquidinrepublica posse arbitrarentur Veaisse tempus lis, qui in timore fuissent, ulciscendi se, — ^L. La- miam — in concione relegavit, edixitque ut ab urbe abesset miUiapassuumducenta^[ProSext. 11, 12, 13; it. Post Bed. in Sen. 5 ] Quod ante id tempus civi Romano contigit ne- mini. — Ep. Fam. xi. 16. y Cum subito edicuut duoconsules, utadsuumvestitum senatores redirent.^-Bp. Fam. xi. 14. z Q,uid enim quisquam potest ex omni memcria sumere illustrius, quam pro uno cive ot bonos omnes privato con- sensu, et universum senatum publico consilio mutasse vestem ? — ^Ibid. 12. a Nam prior lex nos nihil laedebat : quam si, ut est pro- mulgata, laudaro voluissemus, aut, ut erat negligenda, negligere, noeere omnino nobis non potuisset. Mic mihi primum meum consilium defuit ; sed etiam obfuit. Ca=ci, cseci, inquam, fuimus in vestitu mutimdo, in pnpulo rogando. Quod, nisi nominatim meoum agi cccptum esset, pei-niciosum fuit.^ — Me, meos meis tradidi inimicis, in- apectante et tocente te ; qui, si non plus ingenio valebas quam ego, certe timebas minus. — Ad Att. iii. 15. pers on, his head muffled, and his breath so strong of wine, that they could hardly bear the scent of it : he excused his dress, and smell of wine, on the account of his ill health, for which he was obliged, he said, to take some vinous medicines ; but he kept them standing all the while in that filthy place, till they had finished their business." As soon as Cicero entered into the affair, he frankly told them that " Gabinius was so miserably poor as not to be able to show his head, and must be utterly ruined if he could not procure some rich province ; that he had hopes of one from Clodius, but despaired of anything from the senate ; that for his own part it was his business to humour him on this occasion, as Cicero had humoured his colleague in his con- sulship ; and that there was no reason to implore the help of the consuls, since it was every man's duty to look to himself'';" which was all that they could get from him. Clodius, all the while, was not idle, but pushed on his law with great vigour ; and calling the people into the Flaminian circus, summoned thither also the young nobles and the knights who were so busy in Cicero's cause, to give an account of their conduct to that assembly : but as soon as they appeared, he ordered hiJi slaves and mer- cenaries to fall upon them with drawn swords and volleys of stones in so rude a manner, that Horten- sius was almost killed, and Vibienus, another senator, so desperately hurt, that he died soon after of his wounds". Here he produced the two con- suls, to deliver their sentiments to the people on the merit of Cicero's consulship ; when Gabinius declared, with great gravity, that he utterly con- demned the putting citizens to death without a trial. Piso only said, that he had always been on the merciful side, and had a great aversion to cruelty''. The reason of holding this assembly in the Flaminian circus, without the gates of Rome, was to give Csesar an opportunity of assisting at it, who, being now invested with a military com- mand, could not appear within the walls. Caesar, therefore, being called upon, after the consuls, to deliver his mind on the same question, declared, that " the proceedings against Lentulus and the rest were irregulai- and illegal ; but that he could not approve the design of punishing anybody for them ; that all the world knew his sense of the matter, and that he had given his vote against taking away their lives, yet he did not think it right to propound a law at this time about things that were so long pasf." This answer was artful, 'j Egere — Gabinium ; sine provinoia stare non posse : spem habere a tribuno plebis — a senatu quidem desperasse : hujus te cupiditati obsequi, sicut ego fecissem in coUega meo ; nihil esse quod prassidium cousulum implorarem ; sibi quemque consulerc oportere, &c.— In Pison. 6. <: Qui adesse nobilissimos adolescentes, honestissimos equites Romanos deprecatores mea? salutis jusserit ; eosque operarum suarura gladiis et lapidibus objeccrit. — Pro Sext. 12. Vidi hunc ipsum Eortensium, lumen et ornamentum reipublicse pasne interfici servorum manu — qua in turba C. Vibienus, senator, vir optimus, cum hoc cum esset ima, ita est mulctatus, ut vitara amiserit. — ^Pro Mil. 14. •^ Pressa voce et temulenta, quod in cives indemnatos esset aniraadversum, id sibi dixit gravis auctor vehemen- tissime displicere.— Post Red. in ben. 6. Cum esses interrogatus quid sentires de consulatu meo, respondes, crudelitatem tibi non placere. [In Pis. 6.] Te semper misericordem fuisse.— Post Red. in Sen. 7, = Dio, 1. xxxviii. p. BO. JvfARCUS TULLIUS CICEKO. 91 and agreeable to the part which he was then acting ; for while it confirmed the foundation of Clodius's law, it carried a show of moderation towards Cicero, or, as an ingenious writer expresses it, left appearances only to the one, but did real service to the other'. In this same assembly, Clodius got a new law likewise enacted, that made a great alteration in the constitution of the republic, viz. t.he repeal of the .Slian and Fusian laws, by which the people were left at liberty to transact all public business, even on the days called fasti, without being liable to be obstructed by the magistrates on any pretence whatsoever^. The two laws, now repealed, had been in force about a hundred years'" ; and made it unlawful to act anything with the people, while the augurs or consuls were observing the heavens and taking the auspices. This wise constitution was the main support of the aristocratical interest, and a perpetual curb to the petulance of factious tribunes, whose chief opportunity of doing mischief lay in their power of obtruding dangerous laws upon the city, by their credit with the populace. Cicero therefore frequently laments the loss of these two laws, as fatal to the republic ; he calls them " the most sacred and salutary laws of the statCj the fences of their civil peace and quiet, \he very walls and bulwarks of the republic, which had held out against the fierceness of the Gracchi, the audaciousness of Saturninus, the mobs of Drusus, the bloodshed of Cinna, the arras of Sylla^ ;" to be abolished at last by the violence of this worthless tribune. Pompey, who had hitherto been giving Cicero the strongest assurances of his friendship, and been frequent and open in his visits to him, began now, as the plot ripened towards a crisis, to grow cool and reserved ; while the Clodian faction, fearing lest he might be induced at last to protect him, were employing all their arts " to infuse jealousies and suspicions into him of a design against him from Cicero. They posted some of their confidants at Cicero's house, to watch his coming thither, and to admonish him, by whispers and billets put into his hands, to be cautious of venturing himself there, and to take better care of his life ; which was inculcated to him likewise so strongly at home by perpetual letters and messages from pretended frieiids, that he thought fit to withdraw himself ' Exil de Cio&on, p. 133. e lisdem consulibus sedentibua atque inspectantibus lata lex est, ne auspicia valerent, ne qiiis obnimciai-et, ne quia legi interceaeret ; iifc omnibus fastis diebus legem ferre liceret : ut lex JEli% lex Fuaia ne valeret. Qua una roga- tioue quia non intelligat, iiniversani rempublicam esse deletam ? [Pro Sext. 15.] Sustulit duas leges, .^liam et Fueiam, maxime reipublica; salutares. — De Harusp. Resp. 27. The dies fasti were the days on which the courts of law v.'ere open, and the prsetors sat to hear causes, which were marked for tliat purpose in the calendars : but before this Clodian law it was not allowed to transact any business upon them, with the people. ** Centum prope annos legem .^liam efc Fusiam tenue- ramue. — In Pison. fi. ' Deinde sanctissimas leges, iEliam et Fusiam, qua; in Gracchorum feroeitato, et in audaola Saturnini ; et in col- Ihvione Drusi, et in cruore Cinnano, etiam inter Syllana arma vixerunt, solus conculcaria ac pro nihilo putaris. [In Vatin. 9.] Propugnaeula murique tranquilUtatis ct otii. —In Pison. 4. from the city, to his house on the Alban hill'." It cannot be imagined that he could entertain any real apprehension of Cicero ; both Cicero's cha- racter and his own make that incredible : but if he had conceived any, it was not, as Cicero says, against him, but against the common enemies of them both, lest they might possibly attempt some- what in Cicero's name, and, by the opportunity of charging it upon Cicero, hope to get rid of them both at the same time. But the most probable conjecture is, that being obliged, by his engage- ments with Csesar, to desert Cicero, and suffer him to be driven out of the city, he was willing to humour these insinuations, as giving the most plausible pretext of excusing his perfidy. But Cicero had still with him not only all the best, but much the greatest part of the city, de- termined to run all hazards, and expose their lives for his safety' ; and was more than a match for all the strength of Clodius and the consuls, if the triumvirate only would stand neuter. Before things came therefore to extremity, he thought it advis- able to press Pompey in such a manner, as to know for certain what he had to expect from him : some of his chief friends undertook this task ; LucuUus, Torquatus, Lentulus, &c., who, with a numerous attendance of citizens, went to find him at his Alban villa, and to intercede with him not to desert the fortunes of his old friend. He re- ceived them civilly, though coldly ; referring them wholly to the consuls, and declaring, " that he, being only a private man, could not pretend to take the field against an armed tribune, without a public authority ; but if the consuls, by a decree of the senate, would enter into the affair, he would presently arm himself in their defence"'." With this answer they addressed themselves again to the consuls ; but with no better success than before. Gabinius treated them rudely; but Piso calmly told them, that he was not so stout a consul as Torquatus and Cicero had been ; that there was no need of arms, or fighting ; that Cicero might save the republic a second time, if he pleased, by witl^- drawing himself, for if he staid it would cost an infinite quantity of civil blood ; and in short, that neither he, nor his colleague, nor his son in-law Cgesar, would relinquish the party of the tribune". ^ Cum iideni ilium, titme metueret, me caveret, monu- erunt ; iidem me, mihi ilium uni esse inimicissimum, dicerent. — Pro Domo, 1 1 . Quern — domi mex certi homines ad earn rem compositi monuerunt, ut esset cautior : ejusque vitEe a me insidias apud me domi positas esse dixerunt : atque banc ei suspi- cionem alii Uteris mittendis, alii nunciis, alii coram ipai cxcitayerunt, ut ille, cum a me certe nihil timeret, ab iilis, ne quid meo nomine molirentur, cavendum putai-et. —Pro Sext. 18. ' Si ego in causa tam bona, tauto studio senatus, con- sensu tarn incredibili bonorum omnium, tam parato, tota deniqueltalia ad omnem contentionem expedita.— Ibid. 16. >" Nonne ad te L. Lentulus, L, Torquatus, M, LucuUua venit ? Qui omnes ad eum, multique mortales oratum in Albanum obsecratumque venerant, ne meaa fortunas dese- reret, cum reipublicse fortunis conjunctas,— Se contraar- matum tribunura plebis sine conailio publico decertare nolle: consulibus ex senatus consul to rempublicam defen- dentibus, se arma sumpturum.— ^In Pison. 31. n Quid, infelix, reaponderis ?— Te non esse tam fortem, quani ipse Torquatus in consulatu f uisaet, aut ego ; nihil opus esse armis, nihil oontcntione : me posse iterum rein- puhlicam servare, si cessissem ; infinitam csedcm fore, si restitissem. Deinde ad extrcmum, nequc ee, neque gene- 02 THE HISTORY OF THE hii^'}^ OF After this repulse, Cicero resolved to make his last effort on Pompey, by throwing himself in per- son at his feet. Plutarch tells us, that Pompey slipped out at a back door, aird would not see him : but it is certain, from Cicero's account, that he was admitted to an audience; " and when he began to press and even supplicate him, in a manner the most affecting, that Pompey flatly refused to help him ; alleging in excuse of himself, the necessity which he was under of acting nothing against the will of Csesar*'." This experiment convinced Cicero that he had a much greater power to con- tend with than what had yet appeared in sight : he called therefore a council of his friends, with inteat to take his final resolution, agreeably to their advice. The question was, whether it was best to stay and defend himself by force, or to save the effusion of blood by retreating till the storm should blow over. LucuUus advised the first ; but Cato, and above all Hortensius, warmly urged the last ; which concurring also with Mticus's advice, as well as the fears and entreaties of all his own family, made him resolve to quit the field to his enemies, and submit to a voluntary exiled. A little before his retreat, he took a small statue of Minerva, which had long been reverenced in his family as a kind of tutelar deity, and carrying it to the capitol, placed it in the temple of Jupiter, under the title of Minerva, the guardian of the city''. His view might possibly be to signify, that after he had done all which human prudence could contrive for the defence of the republic, he was now forced to give it up to the protection of the gods, since nothing less than the interposition of some deity could preserve it from ruin ; or rather, as he himself seems to intimate, in the uncertain issue of his flight, and the plunder of his goods which was likely to ensue, he had a mind to pre- serve this sacred image, in the most conspicuous part of the city, as a monument of his services, which would naturally excite an affectionate re- membrance of him in the people, by letting them see that his heart was still there, where he had deposited his gods. After this act he withdrew himself in the night, escorted by a numerous guard of friends, who, after a day's journey or two, left him, with great expressions of tenderness, to pursue his way towai'ds Sicily ; which he proposed for the place of his residence, and where, for his eminent services to the island, he assured himself of a kind reception and safe retreat. SECTION V. The wretched alternative to which Cicero was reduced, of losing either his country or his life, is sufficient to confute all the cavils of those who, rum, neque coUcgam suuvn tribuno plebis defuturum.- InPison.Sl. Is, qui nos sibi quondam ad pedes stratos ne aubleva- bat quidem, qui se nihil contra, hujus voluntatem facere posse aiebat.— Ad Att. x 4. P LacrymjE meorum mc ad mortem ire pvohibuorimt.— Ibid. 4 ; Plutai'ch. in Cicero. 1 Nos, qui illamcustodemurbis, omnibus ereptisnostris rebus ac perditis, violari ab impiispassi non sumus, eamque ex nostra domo in ipsius patris domum detulimus. — De Leg. ii. 17. from a hint or two in his writings obscurely thrown out and not well understood, are so forward to charge him with the levity -of temporizing, or sell- ing himself for any bribe which could feed his vanity : for nothing is more evident than that he might not only have avoided this storm, but ob- tained whatever honours he pleased, by entering into the measures of the triumvirate, and lending his authority to the support of their power ; and that the only thing which provoked Ceesar to bring this calamity upon him, was to see all his offers slighted, and his friendship utterly rejected by him^. This he expressly declares to the senate, who were conscious of the truth of it, "that Ceesar had tried all means to induce him to take part in the acts of his consulship ; had offered him com- missions and lieutenancies of what kind and with what privileges he should desire ; to make him even a fourth in the alliance of the three, and to hold him in the same rank of friendship with Pompey himself: all which I refused (says he), not out of slight to Ceesar, but constancy to my principles, and because I thought the acceptance of them unbecoming the character which I sus- tained ; how wisely I will not dispute ; but I am sure that it was firmly and bravely ; when, instead of baiiling the malice of my enemies, 'as 1 could easily have done by that help, I chose to suffer any violence, rather than to desert your interest, and descend from my own rank**." Ceesar continued at Rome till he saw Cicero driven out of it ; but had no sooner laid down his consulship than he began to be attacked and affronted himself by two of the new preetors, L. Domitius and C. Memmius, who called in question the validity of his acts, and made several efforts in the senate to get them annulled by public authority. But the senate had no stomach to meddle with an affair so delicate ; so that the whole ended in some fruitless debates and altercations ; and Csesar, to prevent all attempts of that kind in his absence, took care always, by force of bribes, to secure the leading magistrates to his interests, and so went off to his province of Gaul*^. But as this unex- pected opposition gave some little ruffle to the triumvirate, so it served them as an additional excuse for their behaviour towards Cicero ; alleging, that their own dangers were nearer to them than other people's, and that they were obliged for their own security not to irritate so popular a tribune as Clodius". '>■ Hoc sibi contraxisse videbatur Cicero, quod inter xx. vires dividendo agro Campano esse noluisset. — ^Vell. Pat. U. 45; Ad Alt ix. 2, , b Consul egit eas res, quarum mc participem esse voluit. — Mc illc ut quinqueviratum acciperem rogavit: me in tiibus sibi conjimctissirais consularibus esse voluit ; mihi logationcm, quam. vellem, quanto cum honorc vellem, dctulit. Qua? ego nou ingiato animo, sed obstinatione quadam scntcntiaa repudiavi, &c.— DeProv. Cons. 17- *= Functus consulatu, C. ]\Iemmio, L. Domitio prajtori- bus, de supcrioris anni accis refcrentibus, cognitioncin senatiii detulit : nee illo suscipiente, triduoque per irritas altcrcationes absumpto, in provinciam abiit— ad securita- tem igitur posteri tempnris in magno negotio liabuit obli- gare semper anuuosmagistratus, et e petitonbus non alios adjuvare, aut ad honorem pati pcrvenire, quam qui sibi recepissent propugnatuvos absentiam suam. — Sueton. J. Cffis. 23. 'I lUi autem aliquo turn timorc perterriti, quod acta ilia, atque omnes res anni supcrioris labefactari a prietoribus, iufirmari a senatu, atque principibua civitatis putabant, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. US As soon as it was known that Cicero was gone, Clodius tilled the forum with his band of slaves and incendiaries, and published a second law to the Roman people, as he called them, though there was not one honest citizen or man of credit amongst them ". The law, as we may gather from the scat- tered passages of it, was conceived in the following terms : — "Whereas, M. T. Cicero has put Roman citizens to death unheard and uncondemned ; and for that end forged the authority and decree of the senate : may it please you to ordaia that he be interdicted from fire and water ; that nobody presume to har- bour or receive him, on pain of death ; and that whoever shall move, speak, vote, or take any step towards recalling him,- he shall be treated as a public enemy, unless those should first be recalled to life whom Cicero unlawfully put to death'." The law was drawn by Sext. Clodius, the kinsman and prime minister of the tribune ; though Vatinius also laid some claim to it, and was the only one of senatoriau rank who openly approved its. It was essentially null and invalid, both for the matter and the form : for in the first place it was not pro- perly a law, but what they called a privilege, or an act to inflict penalties on a particular citizen by name, without any previous trial, which was expressly prohibited by the most sacred and funda- mental constitutions of the republic''. Secondly, the terms of it were so absurd, that they annulled themselves ; for it enacted, not that Cicero may or should be, but that he be interdicted, — v/hich was impossible ; since no power on earth, says Cicero, can make a thing to be done before it be done'. Thirdly, the penal clause being grounded on a suggestion notoriously false, that Cicero had forged the decrees of the senate, it could not possibly stanjJ for want of a foundation''. Lastly, though it provided that nobody should harbour him, yet it had not ordered him to be exjielled, or enjoined him to quit the city'. It was the custom, in all tribunum popularem a Be alienare nolebant, suaque sibi propiora pericnla esse, quani mea, loquebantur. — Pro Sext. 18. e Non denique suffragii latorem in ista tua proscijptione quenquam, nisi ftirem ac sicarium reperire potuisti. — Pro Domo, 18. » Vi(i. Pro Domo, 18, 19, 20 ; Post Red. in Sen. ii. 10. B Hanc tibi legem S. Clodius scripsit— homini egentis- simo ac facinorosissimo S. Clodio, socio tui sanguinis. — Hoe tu scriptore, hoc consiliario, hoc ministro — rempubli- cam perdidLsti. fPro Domo, ii. 10, 18.] lUe unus ordinis noBtri diseessu meo — palam exsultavit.. — Pro Sext. G4. >> Vetant leges saeratas, vetant X!I. tabula:, leges privatis lutminibusirrogaii. Ide&teniTnprivilegium, — Pro Domo, 17. ' Non tulit ut interdieatursed ut interdictum sit— Sexte noster, bona venia, quoniam jam dialecticus es — quod fac- tum, non est, sit factum, ferri ad populum, .lut verbis ullis sanciri, aut suffragiis confirmari potest ? [Ibid. 18,] Quid si iis verbis scripta est ista proscriptio, ut se ipsa di.s- solvat ?— Ibid. 19. N. B. The distinction here intimated between interdi- catur, and interdictum sit, deserves the attention of all grammarians. They are commonly used indiflferently, as terms wholly equivalent ; yet according to Cicero's criti- cism, the one, we see, makes the sense absurd, where the other is just and proper. ■s Est enim, quod M. Tullius falsum senatus consultum rctulerit, si igitur retulit falsum senatus consultum, turn est rogatio : si non retulit, nulla est — Pro Domo, 19. ' Tulisti de me ne reoiperer, non ut exirem— pcena est, qui receperit ; quam omnes neglexerunt ; ejectio nulla est. —Ibid. 50. laws made by the tribes, to insert the name of the tribe which was first called to vote, and of the man who first voted in it for the law, that he might be transmitted down with the law itself, as the principal esponser and promoter of it". This honour was given to one Sedulius, a mean obscure fellow, without any settled habitation, who yet afterwards declared that he was not in Rome at the time, and knew nothing at all of the matter : which gave Cicero occasion to observe, when he was re- proaching Clodius with this act, that Sedulius might easily be the first voter, who, for want of a lodging, used to lie all night in the forum ; but it was strange, that when he was driven to the necessity of forging a leader, he should not be able to find a more reputable one". With this law against Cicero, there was another published at the same time, which, according to the stipulation already mentioned, was to be the pay and price for it ; to grant to the two consuls the provinces above specified, with a provision of whatever troops and money they thought fit". Both the laws passed without opposition ; and Clodius lost no time in putting the first of them in execution, but fell to work immediately in plunder- ing, burning, and demolishing Cicero's houses, both in the city and the country. The best part of his goods was divided between the two consuls ; the marble columns of his Palatine house were carried publicly to Piso's father-in-law, and the rich furniture of his Tusculan villa to his neighbour Gabinius, who removed even the trees of his plan- tations into his own groundsP : and to make the loss of his house in Rome irretrievable, Clodius consecrated the area on which it stood to the per- petual service of religion, and built a temple upon it to the goddess Liberty'. While Cicero's house was iu flames, the two consuls, with all their seditious crew around them, were publicly feasting and congratulating each other for their victory, and for having revenged the death of their old friends on the head of Cicero : where, in the gaiety of their hearts, Gabinius openly bragged that he had always been the fa- m Tribus Sergia principium fuit : pro tribu, Sextos L. P. Varro primus solvit. This was the form, as appciU's from fragments of the old laws. — Vid. Frontin. de Aqused. ; Fragment. Legis Thorije, apud rei agrar. Scriptores ; Liv. ix. 38. n Sedulio principe, qui se illo die confirmat Roma non fuisse. Quod si-non fuit, quid te audaeius, qui in ejus no- men ineideris? Quid desperatius, qui ne ementiendo quidem potueris auctorem adumbrare meliorem ? Sin autem is primus solvit, quod facile potui t, propter inopiani tecti in foro pernoctans. [Pro Domo, 30.] Quam Sedulius se negat scivisse. — Ibid. 31. Ut provinciasacciperent, quas ipsivellent : cxercitum et pecuniam quantam vcUent. [Pro Sext. 10. — ^In Pison. 16.] Illo ipso die — mihi reique publica: pernicies, Gabinio et Pisoni provincia rogata est. — Pro Sext. 24. p Uno eodemque tempore domusmeadiripiebatur, arde- bat : bona ad vicinum consulem de Palatio ; de Tusculano ad item alterum vicinum consulem deferebantur. — Post Red. in ,Sen. 7. Cum domus in Palatto, villa in Tusculano. altera ad alterum consulem transferebatur, columns marmoreas ex aedibus meis, inspeotante populo Romano, ad socerum consuliB portabantur: in fundum autem vioini consulis non instrumentum, aut omamenta villas, sed etiam arbores transferebantTir.' — Pro Domo, 24. q Cum suis dicat se manibus domum civis optimi evor- tisse, et e.'mi iisdem nmnibus coosecrasse. — Ibiil. 40. 94 THE HISTORY, OF THE LIFE OF vouiite of Catiline : and Piso, that he was cousin to Cethegus'. Clodius, in the mean while, not con- tent with exerting his vengeance only on Cicero's houses, pursued his wife and children with the same fury : and made several attempts to get young Cicero, the son, into his hands, then about six years old, with an intent to kill him" ; but the child was carefully guarded by the friends of the family, and removed from the reach of his malice. Terentia had taken sanctuary in the temple of Vesta, but was dragged out of it forcibly, by his orders, to the public office or tribunal, where he was sitting, to be examined about the concealment of her husband's effects ; but being a woman of singular spirit and resolution, she bore all his in- sults with a masculine courage'. But while Clodius seemed to aim at nothing in this affair but the gratification of his revenge, he was carrying on a private interest at the same time, which he had much at heart. The house, in which he himself lived, was contiguous to a part of Cicero's ground ; which, being now laid open, made that side of the Palatine hill the most airy and desirable situation in Rome : his intention therefore was, by the purchase of another house' which stood next to him, to make the whole area his own, with the benefit of the fine portico and temple^ annexed : so that he had no sooner de- molished Cicero's house, than he began to treat with the owner of the next, Q. Seius Postumus, a Roman knight, who absolutely refused to sell it : and declared, that Clodius, of all men, should never have it, while he lived. Clpdius threatened to obstruct his windows ; but finding that neither his threats nor offers availed anything, he con- trived to get the knight poisoned ; and so bought the house, after his death, 'at the sale of his effects, by outbidding all who offered for it. His next step was, to secure the remaining part of Cicero's area, which was not included in the consecration, and was now also exposed by his direction to a public auction : but as it was not easy to find any citizen who would bid for it, and he did not care to buy it in his own name, he was forced to pro- vide an obscure, needy fellow, called Scato, to pur- chase it for him, and by that means became master of the most spacious habitation in all the city". r Domus ardebat in Palatio — Consules epulabantur, et in conjuratorum gratulatione versabantur ; cum alter se Ciitilinie delicias, alter Cethcgi consobrinum f uisse diceret. —Pro Domo, 24 ; In Pison. 11 ; Pro Sext. 24. " Yoxabatur uxor mea : liberi ad necem quffirebantur. —Pro Sext. 24. Quid vos uxor mea misera violarat ? Quam vexavistis, raptavistis quid mea filia ?— Quid parvus filius ? — Quid feoerat, quod eum totiespcr insidias interficere voluistis? —Pro liomo, 23. t A te quideni omnia fieri fortissimo, olque amantissime video : nee miror ; nam ad me P. Valerius scripsit id quod ego maxirao cum fletu legi, quemadmodum a Vesta: ad tabulam Valeriam ducta esses. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 2. « Ipse cum loci illius, cum Kdium cupiditate flagraret. — Pro Domo, 41. Monumentum iste, nimquam aut religionem ullam ex- oogitavit : babitare laxe et magnilice voluit : duasque et magnas et nobiles domos conjungere. Eodera puncto temporis quo mcus discessus isti causam csedis eripuit, a Q. Seio contendit, ut domum sibi venderet. Cum iUe id negaret, prima se luminibus ejus esse obstructurum mina- batur. Affirmabat Postumus, se vivo, domum suam istius nunquam futuram. Acutus adolescens ex istius serm'one intellexit, quid fieri oporteret. Hominem veneno aper- This desolation of Cicero's fortunes at home, and the misery which he suffered abroad, in being deprived of everything that was dear to hinl, soon made him repent of the resolution of his flight ; which he ascribes to the envy and treachery of his counsellors, who, taking the advantage of his fears, and the perplexity which he was under, pushed him to an act both ruinous and inglorious. This he chiefly charges on Hortensius ; and though he forbears to name him to Atticus, on account of the strict friendship between them, yet he accuses him very freely to his brother Quintus, of coming every day insidiously to his house, and vrith the greatest professions of zeal and affection, perpetu- ally insinuating to his hopes and fears that hy giving way to the present rage, he could not fail of being recalled with glory in three days' time^. Hor- tensius was particularly intimate at this time with Pompey ; and might possibly be employed to urge Cicero to this step, in order to save Pompey the disgrace of being forced to act against him with a high hand. But let that be as it will, it was Pompey's conduct which shocked Cicero the most ; not for its being contrary to his oaths, which the ambitious can easily dispense with, but to his in- terest, which they never neglect, but through weakness. The consideration of what was useful to Pompey made him depend on his assistance^ ; he could have guarded against his treachery, but could not suspect him of the folly of giving himself entirely up to Csesar, who was the principal mover and director of the whole affair. In this ruffled and querulous state of his mind, stung with the recollection of his own mistakes, and the perfidy of his friends, he frequently laments that he had not tried the fate of arms, and resolved either to conquer bravely or fall honourably ; which he dwells so much upon in his letters, as to seem persuaded that it would have been his wisest course. But this is a problem not easy to be solved : it is certain that his enemies were using all arts to urge him to the resolution of retreating j as if they apprehended the consequences of his stay ; and that the real aim of the triumvirate was, not to destroy, but to humble him ; yet it is no less certain, that all resistance must have been vain, if they had found it necessary to exert their tissime sustulit. Emit domum, licitatnribus defatigatis. in Palatio pulcherrimo prospectu porticum cum conelavi- bu6 pavimentatam trecentura pedum concupierat; am- plissimum peristylum, facile ut omnium domes et laxitate et dignitate superaret : et homo religiosus, cum aedes meas idem emeret et venderet, tamen illis tantis tenebris, non ausus est suum nomen emptioni ascribere. Posuit scilicet Seatonem ilium Pro Domo, 44. At in lis ffidibus, quas tu Q. Seio equite Romano— per te apertissime interfecto, tones. — ^De Harusp. Respon. 14. * Me summa siraulatione amoris, summaque assiduitate quotidiana sceleratissime, insidiosissimeque tractavit, ad- juncto etiam Arrio, quorum ego consiliis, premissis, prlc- ceptis destitutus, in banc calamitatem incidi. — Ad Quint Frat. i. 3. Ssepe triduo summa cum gloria dicebar esse rediturus.— Ibid. 4. y Sed si quisquam f aisset, qui me Pompeii minus libe- rali response perterritum, a turpissimo consilio revocaret. —Ad Att. iii. 15. Multa, quae nientem exturbarent mcam : subitadefectio Pompeii.— Ad Quint. Frat. i. 4. Nullum est meum peccatum, nisi quod iis credidi, a quibus nefas putaram esse me decipi, aut etiam quibus ne id oxpedire quidem arbitrabar.- Ibid. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 95 strSngth against him ; ind that they had already proceeded too far, to suffer him to remain in the city, in defiance of them ; and if their power had been actually employed to drive him away, his re- turn must have been the more desperate, and they the more interested to keep him out ; so that it seems to have been his most prudent part, and the most agreeable to his character, to yield, as he did, to the necessity of the times. But we have a full account of the motives of his retreat, in the speeches, which he made after his return, both to the senate and the people. "When I saw the senate," says he, " deprived of its leaders ; myself partly pushed and partly be- trayed by the magistrates ; the slaves enrolled by name, under the colour of fraternities ; the remains of Catiline's forces brought again into the field, under their old chiefs ; the knights terrified with proscriptions ; the corporate towns with military execution ; and all with death and destruction ; I could still have defended myself by arms ; and was advised to it by many brave friends, nor did I want that same courage, which you had all seen me exert on other occasions ; but when I saw, at the same time, that, if I conquered my present enemy, there were many more behind, whom I had still to conquer; that, if I happened to be conquered, many honest men would fall both with me and after me ; that there were people enough ready to revenge the tribune's blood, while the punishment of mine would he left to the forms of a trial and to posterity ; I resolved not to employ force in de- fending my private safety, after I had defended that of the public without it ; and was willing, that honest men should rather lament the ruin of my fortunes, than make their own desperate by adhering to me ; and if after all I had fallen alone, that would have been dishonourable to myself : if amidst the slaughter of my citizens, fatal to the republic'." In another speech — "If in so good a cause," says he, " supported with such zeal by the senate; by the concurrence of all honest men ; by the ready 'help of all Italy, I had given way to the rage of a despicable tribune, or feared the levity of two contemptible consuls, I must own myself to have been a coward, without heart or head — but there were other things which moved me. That fury Clodius was perpetually proclaiming in his harangues, that what Jie did against me was done by the authority of Pompey, Crassus, and Ca;sar ; that these three were his counsellors in the cabinet, his leaders in the field — one of whom had an army already in Italy, and the other two could raise one whenever they pleased. What then .' Was it my part to regard the vain brags of an enemy, falsely thrown out against those eminent men 1 No ; it was not liis talking, but their silence, which shocked me ; and, though they had other reasons for hold- ing their tongues, yet to one in ray circumstances their saying nothing was a declaration ; their silence a confession : they had cause indeed to be alarmed on their own account, lest their acts of the year before should be annulled by the prastors and the senate ; many people also were instilling jealousies of me into Pompey, and perpetually admonishing him to beware of me ; and as for Cffisar. whom some imagined to be angry with me. ' Post Red. in Sen. 13, 14. he was at the gates of the city with an army, the command of which he had give/i to Appius, my enemy's brother. When I saw all this, which was open and manifest to everybody, what could I do .' When Clodius declared in a public speech, that I must either conquer twice, or perish ; so that neither my victory nor my fall would have restored the peace of the republic*." Clodius, having satiated his revenge upon Cicero, proposed another law, not less violent and unjust, against Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, to deprive him of his kingdom, and reduce it to a Roman province, and confiscate his whole estate., This prince was brother to the king of Egypt, and reigning by the same right of hereditary succession, in full peace and amity with Rome ; accused of no practices nor suspected of any nesigns against the republic, whose only crime was to pe rich and Dovetous j so that the law was an unparalleled act of injustice, and what Cicero, in a public speech, did rot scruple to call a mere robbery''. But Clodius had an old grudge to the king, for refusing to ransom him, when he was taken by the pirates ; and sending him only the contemptible sum of two talents'. And what, says Cicero, must other kings think of their security, to see their crowns and fortunes at the disposal of a tribune, and six hundred mercena- ries"" .' The law passed however without any opposition ; and to sanctify it, as it were, £(nd give it the better face and colour of justice, Cato was charged with the execution of it ; which gave Clodius a double pleasure, by imposing so shame- ful a task upon the gravest man in Rome. It was a part likewise of the same law, aswellas of Cato's commission, to restore certain exiles of Byzantium, whom their city had driven out for crimes against the public peace"'. 'The engaging Cato in such dirty work was a masterpiece, and served many purposes of great use to Clodius : first, to get rid of a troublesome adversary for the remainder of his magistracy : secondly, to fix a blot on Cato himself, aiid show, that the most rigid pretenders to virtue might be caught by a proper bait : thirdly, to stop his mouth for the future, as he openly bragged, from clamouring against extraordinary commissions : fourthly, to oblige him, above all, to acknowledge the vaUdity of his acts, by his sub- mitting to bear a part in them'. The tribune had « Pro Sext. 16, 18, 19. ^ Qui cum lege nefaria Ptolemacum, regem Cypri, fra- trem regis Alexandrini, eodem jure regnantem, causa incognita, pulilieasses, populumquo Romanum ecelere obligasses : cum in ejus regnum, bona, fortunas, latroci- nium hujus imperii immisisses, cujus cum patre, avo, majoribus.societasnobisetamicitiafuiaset.' — Pro Dome, 8. Rex amicus, nulla injuria commemorata, nullis repe- titis rebus, cum bonis omnibus publicai-etur. [Pro Sext. 26.] De quo nulla unquam suspicio durior. — Ibid, a7. c Dio, xxxvjii. p. 78; Appian. 1. ii. 441. •1 En ! cur casteri reges stabilem esse fortunam snam arbitrentur, cum-^videiint, per tribunum aliquem et sex- centas operas se fortunis spoliari, et regno omni posse nndari '—Pro Sext. 27. <= Hujus pecuniffi deportandaa, et si quis suum jus defen- deret, bello gerendo Catoncm prasfecisti. — Pro Dorao, 8. At etiam eo negotio M. Catonis splendorem maculare voluerunt.— Pro Sext. 28. Tu una lege tulisti, ut Cyprius rex— cum bonis omnibus sub priEcone subjiceretur, et exules Byzantium reduce- rentur. £idem, inquit, utraque de re negotium dedi. — Pro Domo, 20. f Bub honorificentissimo ministerii titulo M. Catonem a S6 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF tlie satisfaction to see Cato taken in his trap ; and received a congratulatory letter upon it from Cassar, ac-dressed to him in the familiar style of Caesar to Clodius, which he read publicly to the people, as a proof of the singular intimacy between themf. King Ptolemy, in the mean while, as soon as he heard of the law, and of Cato's approach towards Cyprus, put an end to his life by poison, nnable to bear the disgrace of losing at once both his crown and his wealth. Cato executed his com- mission with great fidelity ; and returned the year following in a kind of triumph to Rome, with all the king's effects reduced into money, amounting to about a million and a half sterling, which he dehvered with great pomp into the public trea- sury''. This proceeding was severely condemned by Cicero, though he touches it in his public speeches with some tenderness for the sake of Cato, wl;om he labours to clear from any share of the iniquity. " The commission," says he, " was contrived, not to adorn, but to banish Cato ; not offered, but imposed upon him. Why did he then obey it ? Just as he has sworn to obey other laws, which he knew to be unjust, that he might not expose him- self to the fury of his enemies, andwithoutdoing any good, deprive the republic of such a citizen. If he had not submitted to the law, he could not have hindered it ; the stain of it would still have stuck upon the republic, and he himself suffered violence for rejecting it, since it would have been a pre- cedent for invalidating all the other acts of that year : he considered, therefore, that since the scandal of it could not be avoided, he was the person the best qualified to draw good out of evil, and to serve his country well, though in a bad cause'." But howsoever this may colour, it can- not justify Cato's conduct, who valued himself highly upon his Cyprian transactions, and for the sake of that commission was drawn in, as Clodius expected, to support the authority from which it fiowed, and to maintain the legality of Clodius's tribunate, in some warm debates even with Cicero himself''. Among the other laws made by Clodius, there was one likewise to give relief to the private mem- bers of corporate towns, against the public injuries of their communities. The purpose of it was specious, but the real design, to screen a ci'eature of his own, one Merula, of Anagnia, who had been punished or driven from his city for some notorious villanies, and who, in return for this service, erected a statue to his patron, on part of the area of Cicero's house, and inscribed it to Clodius, the author of so excellent a law. But as republica relegavit. [Veil. Pat. il. 45.] Non illi ornanclum M. Catonem, setl relegaudum putaverunt ; qui in concione palam dixerint, linguam se evellisse Catoni, quse semper contra extraordinarias potestates libera fuisset. — Quod si ille repudiassct, dubitatis quin ei via esset allata, cum omnia .acta illius anni per ilium unum labefactari vide- rentur?— Pro Sext. 28, 29. Gi-atulari tibi, quod idem in posterum M. Catonem, tribunatu tuo reraovisses.^Pro Pomo, 9. S Literas in concione reeitasti, quas tibi a C, Ciesare missas esse dicercs, Cjesar Pulchro. Cum etiam es argu- mentatus, amoris esse hoc signum, cum nominibus tan turn uteretur. — Ibid. li Plutarch. inCatone; Flor. iii. 9. i Pro Sext. 28, 29. ''Plutarch, in Catone; Pio, 1. xxxix. ICO. Cicero told him afterwards in one of his speeches, the place itself where the statue stood, the scene of so memorable an injury, confuted both the excel- lency of the law and the inscription'. But it is time for us to look after Cicero in his flight, who left Rome about the end of March ; foi on the eighth of April we find him at Vibo, a town in the most southern part of Italy, where he spent several days with a friend named Sica. _ Here he received the copy of the law made against hira, which after some alteration and correction fixed the limits of his exile to the distance of four hundred miles from Italy"". His thoughts had hitherto been wholly bent on Sicily ; but when he was arrived in sight .of it, the prajtor, C. Virgihus, sent him word that he must not set his foot in it. This was a cruel shock to him, and the first taste of the misery of disgrace— that an old friend, who had been highly obliged to him", of the same party and principles, should refuse him shelter in a calamity which he had drawn upon himself by his services to the republic. Speaking of it after- wards, when it was not his business to treat it severely, " See," says he, "the horror of these times ; when all Sicily was corning out to meet me, the prffitor, who had often felt the rage of the same tribune, and in the same cause, would not suffer me to come into the island. What shall I say ? That Virgilius, such a citizen, and such a man, had lost all benevolence, all remembrance of our common sufferings, all his piety, humanity, and faith towards me ? No such thing : he was afraid how he should singly sustain the weight of that storm which had overpowered our joint forces"." This unexpected, repulse from Sicily obliged him to change his route, and turn back again towards Brundisium, in order to pass into Greece : he left Vibo, therefore, that he might not expose his host Sica to any danger for entertaining him ; expect, ing to find no quiet till he could remove himself beyond the bounds prescribed by the law. But in this he found himself mistaken, for all the towns on his road received him with the most public marks of respect : inviting him to take up his quarters with them, and guarding him as he passed through their territories with all imaginable hon- our and safety to his person. He avoided however as much as possible all public places ; and when he came to Brundisium, would not enter into the city, though it expressed the warmest zeal for his ' Legem de injuriis publicis tulisti, Anagnino nescio cni Merulse per gratiam, qui tibi ob earn legem statuam tibi in meis ffidibus posuit ; ut locus ipse in tua tanta injuria legem et inscriptionem statuss refelleret Qujb res Anag- ninis multo majori dolori fuit, quam quae idem ille gladia- tor scelei-a Anagnia feeerat. — Pro Dome, 30. "" Allata est nobis rogatio de pemieie mea, in qua quod correctum est, audicramus esse ejusmodi, ut mihi ultra quadringenta millia liceret esse— statim iter Brmidisium versus contuli— ne et Sica, apud quern emm, periret.— Ad Att. iii. 4. " Plutarch, in Cic. Siciliani petivi animo, quae et ipsa erat mihi, sicut domus ima, conjuncta ; et obtinebatur a Virgilio : quocum me uno vel maxime turn vetusta amicitia, turn mei fratris collegia, turn respublica sociai-at. Vide nunc caliginem teraporum illorum. Cum ipsa ps?ne insula mihi sese obviam ferre vellet, praetor ille ejnsdem tribuni plebia concionibus propter eandem reipublicae causam sa?pe vexatus, nihil amplius dico, nisi me in Siciliam venire noluit, &(■.— Pro Cn. Plane. 40. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 97 sei-vice, and oifered to run all hazards in his de- fencei". In this interval, he mas pressing Attious in every letter, and in the most moving terms, to come to him ; and when he removed from Vibo, gave him daily intelligence of all his stages, that he might still know where to find him, taking it for granted that he would not fail to follow him'i. But Atticus seems to have given him no answer on this head, nor to have had any thoughts of stirring from Rome. He was persuaded, perhaps, that his com- pany abroad could be of no other use to him than to give some little relief to his present chagrin ; whereas his continuance in the city might be of the greatest, not only in relieving, but removing his calamity, and procuring his restoration : or we may imagine, what his character seems to suggest, that though he had a greater love for Cicero than for any man, yet it was always with an exception of not involving himself in the dis- tress of his friend, or disturbing the tranquillity of his life by taking any share of another's misery ; and that he was following only the dic- tates of his temper and principles in sparing him- self a trouble which would have made him suffer more than his philosophy could easily bear. But whatever was the cause, it gave a fresh mortifica- tion to Cicero, who, in a letter upon it, says, " I made no doubt but that I should see you at Taren- tum or Brundisium : it would have been convenient for many reasons ; and above all, for my design of spending some time with you in Epirus, and re- gulating all my measures by your advice : but since it has not happened as I wished, I shall add this also to the great number of my other afflictions''." He was now lodged in the villa of M. Lenius Flaccus, not far from the walls of Brundisium, where he arrived on the seventeenth of April, and on the last of the same month embarked for Dyrrhachium. In his account of himself to his wife — " I spent thirteen days," says he, *' with Flaccus, who for my sake slighted the risk of bis fortunes and life ; nor was deterred by the penalty of the law from performing towards me all the rights of friendship and hospitality : I wish that it may ever be in my power to make him a.proper return; I am sure that I-shall always think myself obliged to do it'." During his stay with Flaccus, he was in no small perplexity about the choice of a convenient place P Cum omnia ilia municipia, quae sunt a Vibone Brmi- dieium, in fide mea essent, iter mihi tutum, multis mini- tantibus, magno cum suo metu pra?stiterunt. Brundisium veni, vel potius ad iiicenia access!. ITrbem unam mihi amieissimam declinavi, quae se vel potius exscindi, quam e Buo complexu ut eriperer facile pateretur. — ProPlancio,41. 1 Sed te oro, ut ad me Vibonem statim venias.— Si id Hon feceris mirabor, sed confide te esse faeturum.— Ad Att, iii. 1. Nunc, ut ad te antea scripsi, si ad nos veneris, consilium totius rei capiemus. — ^Ibid. 2. Iter Brundisium versus contuli — ^nunc tu propera, ut nos consequare, si modo recipiemur. Adhuc invitamur benigne.— Ibid. 3. Nihil mihi optatius cadere posse, quam ut tu me quam primum consequare. — Ibid. 4. ' Non fuerat mihi dubium, quin te Tarenti aut Brun- dieii visurus essem ; idque ad multa pertinuit ; in eis, et ut in Epiro consisteremus, etde reliquis rebus tuo consilio uteremur. Quoniam id non contigit, erit hoc quoque in magno numero nostrornm malorum.— Ibid. 6. • In hortos M. Lenii Flacci me contuli : cui cum omnis mctup, jiublicatio bononim, exilium, mors proponcrctur, for bis residence abroad : Attious offered him his house in Epirus ; which was a castle of some strength, and likely to afford him a secure retreat. But since Atticus cotdd not attend him thither in person, he dropped all tlioughts of that, and was inclined to go to Athens ; till he was informed, that it would be dangerous for him to travel into that part of Greece ; where all those who had been banished for Catiline's conspiracy, and especially Autronius, then resided ; who would have had some comfort in their exile to revenge themselves on the author of their misery, if they could have caught him'. . Plutarch tells us, that in sailing out of Brundi- sium, the wind, which was fair, changed of a sudden, and drove him back again ; and when he passed over to Dyrrhachium in the second attempt, that there happened an earthquake and a great storm, immediately after his landing ; from which the soothsayers foretold , that his stay abroad would not be long. But it is strange, that a writer so fond of prodigies, which nobody else takes notice of, should omit the story of Cicero's dream, which was more to his purpose, and is related by Cicero himself: " That in one of the stages of his flight, being lodged in the villa of a friend, after he had lain restless and wakeful a great part of the night, he fell into a sound sleep near break of day, and when he awaked about eight in the morning, told his dream to those round him : That as he seemed to be wandering disconsolate in a lonely place, C. Marius, with his fasces wreathed with laurel, ac- costed him, and demanded, why he was so melan- choly : and when he answered, that he was driven out of his country by violence ; Marius took him by the hand, and bidding him be of courage, ordered the next lictor to conduct him into his monument ; telling him, that there he should find safety : upon this, the company presently cried out, that he would have a quick and glorious return"." All which was exactly fulfilled ; for his restoration was decreed in a certain temple built by Marius, and for that reason called Marius's Monument ; where the senate happened to be assembled on that oc- casion'^. This dream was much talked of in the family, and Cicero himself, in that season of his dejection, seemed to be pleased with it; and on the first news of the decree's passing in Marius's monu- ment, declared, that nothing could be more divine ; yet in disputing afterwards on the nature of dreams, hsBC perpeti, si acciderent, maluit, quam custodiam mei capitis dimittere. — ^Pro Plancio, 41. Nos Brimdisii apud M. Lenium Flaccum dies xin. fuimus, virum optimum : qui periculum fortimarum et capitis sui pra: mea salute neglexit : neque legis improbis- simae pcena deductus est, quo minus hospitii et amicitia: jus, oflBciumque praestaret. Huic utinam gratiam ali- quando referre possimus; habebimus quidem semper. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 4. t Quod me rogas et hortaris, ut apud te in Epiro sim ; voluntas tua mihi valde gi-ata est.— Sed itineris causa ut diverterem, primum est devium ; deinde ab Autronio et ceteris quatridui ; deinde sine te. Nam casteUmn muni- tum habitanti mihi prodesset, transeunti non est necefasa- rium. Quod si auderem, Athenas peterem : sane ita cadebat ut vellem. Nunc et nostri 'hostes ibi sunt, et te non hajbemus..— Ad Att. iii. 7. « De Divin. i. 28 ; Val. Max. i. 7- I Valerius Maximus calls this monument of Marius the temple of Jupiter ; but it appears from Cicero's account to have been the temple of Honour and Virtue. II 98 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF he asserts them all to be vain and fantastical, and nothing else but the imperfect traces and confused impressions which our waking thoughts leave upon the mind ; that, in his flight therefore, as it was natural for him to think much upon his countryman Marius, who had suffered the same calamity ; so that was the cause of his dreaming of him ; and that no old woman could be so silly, as to give any credit to dreams, if in the infinite number and variety of them they did not sometimes happen to hit right y. When he came to Dyrrhachium, he found con- firmed, what he had heard before in Italy, that Achaia and the neighbouring parts of Greece were possessed by those rebels who had been driven from Rome on Catiline's account. This deter- mined him to go into Macedonia, before they could be informed of his arrival, where his friend, Cn. Plancius, was then qusestor ; who no sooner heard of his landing, than he came to find him at Dyr- rhachium J where, out of regard to his present circumstances, and the privacy which he affected, dismissing his officers, and laying aside all the pomp of magistracy, he conducted him with the observance of a private companion to his head- quarters at Thessalonica, about the twenty-first of May. L. Appuleius was the praetor or chief governor of the province : but though he was an honest man and Cicero's friend, yet he durst not venture to grant him his protection, or show him any public civility, but contented himself with conniving only at what his quaestor Plancius did^ While Cieero staid at Dyrrhachium, he received two expresses from his brother Quintus, who was now coming home from Asia, to inform him of his intended route, and to settle the place of their meeting ; Quintus's design was, to pass from Ephe- sus to Athens, and thence by land through Mace- donia ; and to have an interview with his brother at Thessalonica : but the news which he met vrith at Athens obliged him to hasten his journey to- wards Rome, where the faction were preparing to receive him with an impeachment, for the mil- administration of his province ; nor had Cicero at last resolution enough to see him ; being unable to bear the tenderness of such a meeting, and much more the misery of parting ; and he was appre- hensive, besides, that if they once met, they should not be able to part at all, whilst Quintus's presence at home was necessary to their common interests : so that to avoid one affliction, he was forced (he r Maximeque reliquis earum rerum moventiu* in animis, et agitantur, de quibus vigilantes aut cogitavimus aut egimus. Ufc mihi temporibus illis multum in animo Marius versabatur, recordanti, quam ille gravem Buum casum magno animo, quam constanti tulisset. Hano credo causam de illo somniandi fuisse. — De Divin. ii. 67. An tu censes uUam anum tarn deliram f uturam fuisse, ut somniis crederet, nisi ista casu nonnunquam forte temere coneurrerent ?— Ibid, 68. IS Quo cum venissem cognovi, id quod audieram, ref ertam esse Grxciam sceleratissimorum hominum ae nefariorum. — Qui antequam de. meo adventu audire potuissent, in Macedoniam ad Planciumque perrexi nam simul ao me Dyrrhachium attigisse audivit, statim admeliotoribus dimiasis, insignibus abjectis, veste mutata profectus est.— Thessalonicam me in qusestoriumque perduxit.— Pro Planoio, 41 ; Post Red. in Sen. 14. Hie ego nunc de prstore Maeedonise nihil dicam amplius, nisi eum et civem optimiun semper et mitai amicum fuisse. Bed eadem timuisse qute oaiteros.— Pro Plancio, ibid. says) to endure another most cruel one, that of shunning the embraces of a brother". L. Tubero, however, his kinsman, and one of his brother's lieutenants, paid him a visit on his return towards Italy, and acquainted him with what he had learned in passing through Greece, that the banished conspirators who resided there were actually forming a plot to seize and murder him ; for which reason he advised him to go into Asia ; where the zeal and affection of the province would afford him the safest retreat, both on his own and his brother's account''. Cicero'was dis- posed to follow this advice and leave Macedonia ; for the prcetor Appuleius, though a friend, gave him no encouragement to stay ; and the consul Piso, his enemy, was coming to the command of it the next winter : but all his friends at Rome dissuaded his removal to any place more distant from them ; and Plancius treated him so affection- ately, and contrived to make all things so easy to him, that he dropped the thoughts of changing his quarters. Plancius was in hopes that Cicero would be recalled with the expiration of his quse- storship, and that he should have the honour of returning with him to Rome, to reap the fruit of his fidelity, not only from Cicero's gratitude, but the favour of the senate and people*^. The only inconvenience that Cicero found in his present situation, was the number of soldiers and concourse of people, who frequented the place on account of business with the qusestor. For he was so shocked and dejected by his misfortune, that, though the cities of Greece were offering their services and compliments, and striving to do him all imaginable honours •*, yet he refused to see all company, and was so shy of the public, that he could hardly endure the light ^. For it cannot be denied, that, in this calamity of his exile, he did not behave himself with that firm- ness which might reasonably be expected from one who had borne so glorious a part in the re- public ; conscious of his integrity, and suffering in the cause of his country : for his letters are gene- rally filled with such lamentable expressions of grief and despair, that his best friends, and even a Quintus frater cum ex Asia venisset ante kalend. Mai. et Athenas venisset idib. valde fuit ei properandum, ne quid absens acciperet calamitatie, si quis forte fuisset, qui contentus nostris malis non esset. Itaque euDi malui properare Romam, quam ad me venire: et simul, dicam enim quod verum est, — animum inducere non potiii, ut aut ilium amantissimum mei, mollissimo animo tanb) in moerore aspioerem — atque etiam illud timebam, quod profeeto accidisset, ne a me digredi non posset.— Hujus aoerbitatis eventum altera acerbitate non videndi fratris vitavi.— Ad Att. iii. 9 j Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. ** Cum ad me L. Tubero, mens necessarius, qui fratri meo legatus fuisset, decedens ex Asia venisset, easque insidias, quas mihi paratas ab ezulibus conjuratis audierat, animo amicissimo dctulisset. In Asiam me ire, propter ejus provinciae mecmn et cum frati-e meo necessi- tudinem.— Pro Plancio, 41. c Plancius, homo officiosissimus, me cupit esse secum et adhuo retinet — sperat posse fieri, ut mecum in Italiam decedat. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. Longius, quum ita vobis placet, non discedam.— Ibid. 2. Me adhuc Plancius liberalitate sua retinet — spes horaini est injecta, non eadem, quas mihi-, pos^se nos una decedere : quam rem sibi magno honori sperat fore.' — Ad Att. iii. 22. ■l Plutarch, in Cio. ^ Odi enim celebritatem, fugio homines, lucem aspicero Tix possum.— Ad Att. iii. 7. MARCUS TULLIUS CICBUO. 99 his wife, was forced to admonish him sometimes, to rouse his courage', and remember his former cha- racter. Atticus was constantly putting him in mind of it ; and sent him word of a report, that was brought to Rome by one of Crassus's freed- men, that his affliction had disordered his senses : to which he answered, that his mind was still sound, and wished only that it had been always so, when he placed his confidence on those who per- fidiously abused it to his ruin^. But these remonstrances did not please him ; he thought them unkind and unseasonable, as he in- timates in several of his letters, where he expresses himself very movingly on this subject. "As to your chiding me (says he) so often and so severely, for being too much dejected ; what misery is there, I pray you, so grievous, which I do not feel in my present calamity ? Did any man ever fall from such a height of dignity, in so good a cause, with the advantage of such talents, experience, interest; such support of all honest men? Is it possible for me to forget what I was ? Or not to feel what I am ? From what honour, what glory I am driven.' From what children? What for- tunes? What a brother? Whom, though I love and have ever loved better than myself, yet (that you may perceive what a new sort of affliction I suffer) I refused to see ; that I might neither aug- ment my own grief by the sight of his, nor offer myself to him thus ruined, whom he had left so flourishing : I omit many other things intolerable to me : for I am hindered by my tears : tell me then, whether I am still to be reproached for grieving ; or for suffering myself rather to be de- prived of what I ought never to have parted with but with my life ; which I might easily have pre- vented, if some perfidious friends had not urged me to my ruin within my own walls," &c.'' In another leiter ; " Continue (says he) to assist me, as you do, with your endeavours, your advice, and your interest ; but spare yourself the pains of com- forting, and much more of chiding me : for when you do this, I cannot help charging it to your want of love and concern for me ; whom I imagine to be so afflicted with my misfortune, as to be incon- solable evcQ yourself'." He was now indeed attacked in his weakest part ; the only place in which he was vulnerable : to have been as great in affliction as he was in prosperity, would have been a perfection not given to man : yet this very weakness flowed from a source which rendered him the more amiable in all the other parts of life ; and the same tenderness of disposi- tion which made him love his friends, his children, his country, more passionately than other men. ' Tu quod me hortaris, ut animo sim magno, &:c.— -Bp. Fam. xiv. 14. s Nam quod scriMs te audii-e, me etiam mentis errore ex dolore affici : mihi vero mens Integra est, atque utmani tarn in periculo f uisset, cum ego iis, quitus salutem meam carissimam esse arbitrabar, inimicissimis, crudelissimis- que uBus sum. — Ad Att. iii, 13. Acoepi quatuor epistolaa a te miasas; unam, qua me objurgas, ut sim firmior; alteram, qua Craasi libertum ais tibi de mea sollicitudine macieque narrasse.— Ibid. 15. k AdAtt. iii. 10. * Tu me, ut facia, opera, consilio, gratia juva ; conaolarl jamdesine: objurgare vero noli: quod cum faeis,ego tuum amorem et dclorem desidero ; quem ita affectum mea ffirunma esse arbitror, ut te ipaum nemo consolari potest. -Ibid. 11. made him feel the loss of them more sensibly : " I have twice (says he) saved the republic ; once with glory ; a second time with misery : for I will never deny myself to be a man ; or brag of bearing the loss of a brother, children, wife, country, with- out sorrow. — For what thanks had been due to me for quitting what I did not value'' ?" In another speech : " I own my grief to have been extremely great ; nor do I pretend to that wisdom, which those expected from me, who gave out, that I was too much broken by my affliction : for such a hard- ness of mind, as of body, which does not feel pain, is a stupidity, rather than a virtue. — I am not one of those to whom all things are indiflferent ; but love myself and my friends as our common huma- nity requires ; and he who, for the public good, parts with what he holds the dearest, gives the highest proof of love to his country'." There was another consideration which added no small sting to his affliction ; to reflect, as he often does, not only on what he had lost, but how he had lost it, by his own fault ; in suffering him- self to be imposed upon and deluded by false and envious friends. This he frequently touches upon in a strain which shows that it galled him very severely: "Though my grief (says he) is incre- dible,' yet I am not disturbed so much by the misery of what I feel, as the recollection of my fault, — Wherefore, when you hear how much I am afflicted, imagine that I am suffering the punishment of my foUy, not of the event; for having trusted too much to one whom I did not take to be a rascal"." It must needs be cruelly mortifying to one of his temper ; nicely tender of his reputation, and pas- sionately fond of glory ; to impute his calamity to his own blunders, and fancy himself the dupe of men not so wise as himself : yet after all, it may reasonably be questioned, whether his inquietude of this sort, was not owing rather to the jealous and querulous nature of affliction itself, than to any real foundation of truth : for Atticus would never allow his suspicions to be just, not even against Hortensius, where they seem to lie the heaviest". This is the substance of what Cicero himself says, 1* Unus bis rerapublicam servavi, semel gloria, iterum aerumna mea. Neque enim in hoc me hominem esse infi- ciabor unquam ; ut me optimo fratre, carissimia liberie, fidelifisima conjuge, vestro conspectu, patria, hoc honoris gradu sine dolore caruisse glorier. Quod aifecissem, quod a me beneficium haberetis, cum pro vobis ea, quse mihi essent vilia, reliquissem. — Pro Sext. 22. ' Accepimagnum atque incredibilem dolorem : non nego ; neque istam mihi aaeisco sapientiam, quam nonnuUi in me requirebant, qui me animo nimis fracto et afflicto esse loquebantur — eamque animi duritiem, sicufc corporis, quod cum uritur non sentit, stuporem potius, quam virtutem putarem— non tarn sapiens quam ii, qui nihil ciu-ant, sed tarn amans tuorum ao tui, quam communia humanitaa postulat — qui autem ea relinquit reipublicse causa, a qui- buB summo cum dolore divellitur ei patria cara est. — Pro Domo, 36, 37. ™ Etsi incredibili calamitate afflictus aum, tamen non tam est ex miseria, quam ex culpffi nostrffi recordationo quare cum me aifiictimi et confectum luctu audies, exis- timato me stultitiae mes pcenam ferre gravius, quam eventi ; quod ei crediderim, quem nefarium esse non putar- rim.— Ad Att. iii. 8 ; vide 9, 14, 16, 19, &o. " Nam quod purgaa eos, quoa ego mihi acripsi invidisse, et in eis Catonem : ego vero tantum ilium puto a scelere isto afuisae, utmaxime doleam plus apud me simulationem aliorum, quam istiua fidemvaluisse. Cleteri, quos purgaa, debent mihi purgati esse, tibl si sunt.— Ibid. 16. H 2 100 THE H] STORY OF 'I HE LIFE OF to excuse the exceiss of his grief; and the only ex- cuse indeed wliich can be made for him ; that he did not pretend to be a stoic, nor aspire to the character of a hero : yet we see some writers la- bouring to defend him even against himself ; and endeavouring to persuade us, that all this air of dejection and despair was wholly feigned and as- sumed, for the sake of moving compassion, and engaging his friends to exert themselves the more warmly in soliciting his restoration ; lest his afflic- tion should destroy him before they could effect it". When he had been gone a little more than two months, his friend Ninnius, the tribune, made a motion in the senate to recal him, and repeal the law of Clodius ; to which the whole house readily agreed, with eight of the tribunes, till one of the other two, ^lius Ligus, intei-posed his negative : they proceeded however to a resolution, that no other business should be transacted, till the consuls had actually prepared a new law for that purposeP. About the same time, Quintus Cicero, who left Asia on the first of May, arrived at Rome ; and was received with great demonstrations of respect, by persons of all ranks, who flocked out to meet himi. Cicero suffered an additional anxiety on his account, lest the Clodian cabal, by means of the impeachment, which they threatened, should be able to expel him too : especially since Clodius's brother Appius was the prsetor whose lot it was to sit on those trials'. But Clodius was now losing ground apace ; being grown so insolent on his late success, that even his friends could not bear him any longer : for having banished Cicero, and sent Cato out of his way, he began to fancy himself a matcli for Pompey ; by whose help, or connivance at least, he had acquired all his power ; and, in open defiance of him, seized by stratagem into his hands the son of king Tigranes, whom Pompey had brought with him from the East, and kept a prisoner at Rome, in the custody of Flavius the prsetor ; and instead of delivering him up, when Pompey demanded him, undertook, for a large sum of money, to give him his liberty and send him home. This however did not pass with- out a sharp engagement between him and Flavius, ' ' who marched out of Rome, with a body of men well armed, to recover Tigranes by force : but Clodius proved too strong for him ; and killed a great part of his company, and among them Pa- pirius, a Roman knight of Pompey's intimate acquaintance, while Flavius also himself had some difficulty to escape with life^." Absens potius se dolere simulavit, ut suos, quod dixi- mus, magis eommoveret ; et prEcsens item se doluisse simulavit, ut vir prudentissimus, scenffi, quod aiunt, ser- viret.^Corradi Questura, p. 291. P Decrevit senatus frequens de meo reditu Kal. Jun. dissentiente nullOj'referente L. Ninnio — intercessit Ligus iste nescio qui, additamentum inimicorum meorum. — Om- nia senatus rejiciebat, nisi de -me primum eonsules retu- lissent. — Pro Sext. 31, ' Non multo post discessum mourn me univcrsi revoca- vistis referente L. Ninnio.' — Post Red. in Sen. 2. 1 Hnic ad urbem venienti tota obviam civitas cum lacrymis, gemituqne processerat. — Pro Sext. 31. T Mihi etiani unum de mails in metu est, fratris miscii negotinm.— Ad Att. iii. 8, De Quinto fratre nuntii nobis tristes — sane sum in meo infinito raosrore sollicitus, et eo magis, quod Appii qua»stio est Ibid. 17. 8 Me expulso, Catone amandato, in eum ipsum 66 con- voi'fit, qi!0 auctorc, quo adjutore, in concionibus ca, qua; This affront roused Pompey to thmk of recaihng Cicero ; as well to correct the arrogance of Clodius, as to retrieve his credit, and ingratiate himself with the senate and people : he dropped some hmts of his inclination to Cicero's friends, and particularly to Atticus, who presently gave hira part of the agreeable news : upon which, Cicero, though he had no opinion of Pompey's sincerity, was encou- raged to write to him ; and sent a copy of his letter to Atticus, telUng him at the same time, that if Pompey could digest the affront, which he had received in the case of Tigranes, he should despair of his being moved by anything'. Varro likewise, who had a particular intimacy with Pompey, desired Atticus to let Cicero know, that Pompey would certainly enter into his cause as soon as he heard from Caesar, which he expected to do every day. This intelligence, from so good an author, raised Cicero's hopes, till finding no effects of it for a considerable time, he began to apprehend, that there was either nothing at all in it, or that Caesar's answer was averse, and had put an end to it". The fact however shows what an extraordinary deference Pompey paid to Caesar, that lie would not take a step in this affair at Rome, without sending first to Gaul, to consult him about it. The city was alarmed at the same time by the rumour of a second plot against Pompey's life, said to be contrived by Clodius ; one of whose slaves was seized at the door of the senate with a dagger, which his master had given him, as he confessed, to stab Pompey : which, being accompanied with many daring attacks' on Pompey's person by Clo- dius's mob, made him resolve to retire from the senate and the forum, till Clodius was out of his tribunate, and shut himself up in his own house, whither he was still pursued, and actually besieged by one of Clodius's freedmen, Damio. An outrage so audacious could not be overlooked by the ma- gistrates, who came out with all their forces to seize or drive away Damio ; upon which a general en- gagement ensued, where Gabinius (as Cicero says) " was forced to break his league with Clodius, and gercbat, omnia, quaeqne gesserat, se fecisse et f acere dicebat. Cn. Pompeinm — diutius fnrori suo veniam daturum non arbitrabatnr. Qui ex ejus custodia per insidias regis amici filium, hostem captivum surripuisset ; et ea injuria virum fortissinium lacessisset. Speravit iisdem se copiis cum illo posse confligere, quibuscmn ego nolnissem bono rum periculo dimieare. — Pro Domo, 25. Ad quartmn ab nrbe lapidem pugna facta est : in qua multi ex utraque parte ceciderunt ; plnres tamen ex Flavii, inter quos M. Papirius, eques Komanns, publi- canus, familiaris Pompeio. Flavius sine comite Romam vix perfugit. — Ascon, in Milon. 14. t Sermonem tuum et Pompeii eognovi ex tuis literis. Motum in republica non tantum impendere video, quan- tum tu aut vides, aut ad me consolandnm affers. — Tigi*ane enim neglecto sublata sunt omnia.— Literanim exemplinu, quas ad Pompeinm scripsi, misi tibi.' — Ad Att. iii. 8. Pompeium etiam simulatorem puto. — Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. Ex literis tuis plenus sum expectatione de Ponipeio, quidnam de nobis velit, aut ostendat.— Si tibi stultus esse videor, qui sperem, facio tuo jussu. — ^Ad Att. iii. 14. ^ Expectatlonem nobis non parvam attuleras, cum scripserasVarronem tibi pro amicitia confirmasse, causaiu nostram Pompeium certe suscepturum ; et simul a Cffisare literae, quas expectaret, remissa: essent, auctorem etiain daturum. Utrum id nihil f oit, an advcrsatie sunt Cxs.'U-ia litcra;?— Ibid, 18. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 101 fight for Pompey ; at first faintly and unwillingly, but at last heartily ; while Piso, more religious, stood firm to his contract, and fought on Clodius' side, till his fasces were hroken, and he himself wounded, and forced to run away'.'' Whether any design was really fonned against Pompey's life, or the story was contrived to serve his present views, it seems probable at least that his fears were feigned, and the danger too con- temptible to give him any just apprehension ; but the shutting himself up at home made an impres- sion upon the vulgar, and furnished a better pre- tence for turning so quick upon Clodius, and quelling that insolence which he himself had raised : for this was the constant tenor of his politics, to give a free course to the public dis- orders, for the sake of displaying his own import- ance to more advantage ; thatwhen the storm was at the height, he might appear at last in the scene, like a deity of the theatre, and reduce all again to order ; expecting still, that the people, tired and harassed •by these perpetual tumults, would be forced to create him dictator, for settling the quietof the city. The consuls elect were, P. Cornelius Lentulus, and Q. Metellus Nepos : the first was Cicero's warm friend, the second his old enemy ; the same who put that affront upon him on laying down his consulship : his promotion therefore was a great discouragement to Cicero, who took it for granted that he would employ all his power to obstruct his return ; and reflected, as he tells us, " that, though it was a great thing to drive him out, yet, as there were many who hated, and more who envied him, it would not be difficult to keep him outs'." But Metellus, perceiving which way Pompey's inclina- tion and Caesar's also was turning, found reason to change his mind, or at least to dissemble it ; ind promised, not only to give his consent, but his assistance, to Cicero's restoration. His col- league, Lentulus, in the mean while, was no sooner elected, than he revived the late motion of Ninnius, and proposed a vote to recal Cicero ; and when Clodius interrupted him and recited that part of his law which made it criminal to move anything about it, Lentulus declared it to be no law, but a mere proscription, and act of violence ^ This alarmed Clodius, and obliged him to exert all his arts to support the validity of the law ; he threat- ened ruin and destruction to all who should dare to oppose it ; and to imprint the greater terror, fixed up on the doors of the senate-house, that clause which prohibited all men to speak or act in X Cum hiec non possent diutius jam sustinere, initur consilium de interitu Cn.Pompeii : quo patefacto, ferroque deprehenso, ille inclusus domi tamdiu fuit, quamdiu inimicus lueus in tribunatu. — Pro Sext. 32. Deprehensus denique cum ferro ad senatum is, quern ad Cn. Pompeium interimendum coUocatum fuisse constabat. —In Piscn. 12. Cum tamen— Gabinius coUegit ipse se vix: et contra suum Clodiura, primum simulate; deinde non libenter; ad cxtremum tamen pro Cn.Pompeiovere,vehementerque pugnavit Tu tamen homo religiosus et sanctus, fosdus f rangers noluisti — itaque in illo tumultu fracti fasces, ictus ipse, quotidie tela, lapides, fugEe.-^Ibid. y Inimici sunt multi, invidi psene omnes. Ejioei-e nos magnum fuit, excludere facile est. — ^Ep. Fam. xiv. 3. ^ Cum a tribuno plebis vetaretur, cum praiclarum caput rccitaretur, ne quis ad vos referret — totam iUam, ut ante ilixi, prOBcriptionem, non legem putavit.— Post Red. in Sen. 4, any manner for Cicero's return, on pain of being treated as enemies. This gave a farther disquiet to Cicero, lest it should dishearten his active friends, and furnish an excuse to the indolent for doing nothing : he insinuates therefore to Atticus what might be said to obviate it ; " that all such clauses were only bugbears, without any real force ; or otherwise no law could ever be abrogated; and whatever effect. this was intended to have, that it must needs fall of course with the law itself"." In this anxious state of his mind, jealous of everything that could hurt, and catching at every- thing that could help him, another little incident happened, which gave him a fresh cause of unea- ness : for some of his enemies had published an invective oration, drawn up by him for the enter- tainment only of his intimate friends, against some eminent senator, not named, but generally sup- posed to be Curio, the father, who was now dis- posed and engaged to serve him : he was surprised and concerned, that the oration was made public ; and his instructions upon it to Atticus are some- what curious ; and show how much he was struck with the apprehension of losing -so powerful a friend. " You have stunned me," says he, " with the news of the oration's being published : heal the wound, as you promise, if you possibly can : I wrote it long ago in anger, after he had first written against me ; but had suppressed it so carefully that I never dreamed of its getting abroad, nor can imagine how it slipped out ; but since, as fortune would have it, I never had a word with him in person, and it is written more negligently than my other orations usually are ; I cannot but think that you may disown it, and prove it not to be mine : pray take care of this, if you see any hopes for me ; if not, there is the less reason to trouble myself about it""." His principal agents and solicitors at Rome were, his brother (juintus, his wife Terentia, his son-in- law Piso, Atticus, and Sextius. But the brother and the wife, being both of them naturally peevish, seem to have given him some additional disquiet, by their mutual complaints against each other ; which obliged him to admonish them gently in his letters, that since their friends were so few, they ought to live more amicably among themselves". Terentia however bore a very considerable part of the whole affair ; and instead of being daunted by the depression of the family, and the ruin of tlieir fortunes, seems to have been animated rather the more to withstand the violences of their enemies, and procure her husband's restoration. But one a Tute scripsisti, quoddam caput legis Clodium in curias poste fixisse, ne referri, jieve dici liceret.— Ad Att. iii. 15. Sed vides nunquam esse observatas sanctiones earum Icgum, quaa abrogarentur. Nam si id esset, nulla fere abro- gari posset :— sed cum lex abrogatur, illud ipsum abrogatur, quo'non earn abrogari oporteat. — ^Ibid. 23. 1> Peroussisti autem me deorationeprolata : oulvulneri, «t Boribis, medere, si quid potes. Scripsi equidem olim iratus, quod ille prior scripserat : seditacompresseram, nt nunquam manaturam putarem. Quo modo exciderit ne- soio. Sed quia nunquam aooidit, ut cum co vei-bo uno concertarem ; et quia scripta mihi videtur negligentius, quam cffiteriE, puto posse probari non esse mcam. Id, si putas me posse sanari, cures velim : sin plane peril, mmus laboro.' — Ad Att. iii. 12. c Dc Quinto fratre nihil ego te accusavi, sed vos, cum pi-iEsertim tam pauci estis, volui esse qiuim corjunctissi- mos, — ^Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. 102 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of Cicero's letters to her in these unhappy circum- stances will give the clearest view of her character, and the spirit with which she acted. *' Cicero to Terentia. " Do not imagine that I write longer letters to any one than to yon, unless it be when I receive a long one from somebody else, which I find myself obliged to answer. For I have nothing either to write, nor in my present situation employ myself on anything that is more troublesome to me ; and when it is to you and our dear TuUiola, I cannot write without a flood of tears. For I see you the most wretched of women, whom I wished always to see the happiest, and ought to have made so ; as I should have done, if I had not been so great a coward. I am extremely sensible of Piso's services to us ; have exhorted him, as well as I could, and thanked him as I ought. Your hopes, I perceive, are in the new tribunes : that wiU be effectual, if Pompey concur with them : but I am afraid still of Crassus. You do every- thing for me, I see, with the utmost courage and affection : nor do I wonder at it ; but lament our unhappy fate, that my miseries can only be relieved by your suffering still greater: for our good friend P. Valerius wrote me word, what I could not read without bursting into tears, how you were dragged from the temple of Vesta to the Valerian Bank. Alas, my light, my darling, to whom all the world used to sue for help ! that you, my dear Terentia, should be thus insulted ; thus oppressed with grief and distress ! and that I should be the cause of it ; I, who have preserved so many others, that we ourselves should be undone ! As to what you write about the house, that is, about the area ; I shall then take myself to be restored, when that shall be restored to us. But those things are not in our power. What affects me more nearly is, that when so great an expense is necessary, it should all lie upon you, who are so miserably stripped and plundered already. If we live to see an end of these troubles, we shall repair all the rest. But if the same fortune must ever depress us, will you throw away the poor remains that are left for your subsistence ? For God's sake, my dear life, let others supply the money, who are able, if they are willing : and if you love me, do nothing that can hurt your health, which is already so impaired. For you are perpetually in my thoughts both day and night. I see that you decliae no sort of trouble ; but am afraid, how you will sustain it. Yet the whole affair depends on you. Pay the first regard therefore to your health, that we may attain the end of all your wishes, and your labours. 1 know not whom to write to, except to those who write to me, or of whom you send me some good account. I will not remove to a greater distance, since you are against it; but would have you write to me as often as possible, especially if you have any hopes that are well grounded. Adieu, my dear love, adieu. The 5th of October from Thessalonica. " Terentia had a particular estate of her own, not obnoxious to Clodius's law, which she was now offering to sale, for a supply of their present neces- sities : this is what Cicero refers to, where he entreats her, not to throw away the small remains of her fortunes ; which he presses still more warmly in another letter, putting her in mind, " that lif their friends did not fail in their duty, she could not want money ; and if they did, that her own would do but httle towards making them easy: he implores her therefore not to ruin the boyj who, if there was anything left to keep him from want, would, with a moderate share of virtue and good fortune, easily recover the resf"." The son- in-law, Piso, was extremely affectionate and dutiful in performing all good offices both to his banished father and the family ; and resigned the qusestor- ship of Pontus and Bithynia, on purpose to serve them the more effectually by his presence in Rome : Cicero makes frequent acknowledgment of his kindness and generosity ; " Piso's humanity, virtue and love for us all is so great," says he, " that nothing can exceed it ; the gods grant that it may one day be a pleasure, I am sure it will always be an honour, to him"." Atticus likewise supplied them liberally with money ; he had already furnished Cicero, for the exigences of his flight, with above 2000 pounds ; and upon succeeding to the great estate of his uncle Csecilius, whose name he now assumed, made' him a fresh offer of his purse' : yet his conduct did not wholly satisfy Cicero ; who thought him too cold and remiss in his. service; and fancied, that it flowed from some secret resentment, for having never received from him, in his flourishing con- dition, any beneficial proofs of his friendship : in order therefore to rouse his zeal, he took occasion to promise him, in one of his letters, that whatever reason he had to complain on that score, it should all be made up to him, if he lived to return : " If fortune," says he, " ever restore me to my country, it shall be my special care, that you, above all my friends, have cause to rejoice at it : and though hitherto, I confess, you have reaped but little ^ Tantum scribo, si enint in officio amici, pecunia non deerit, si non erunt, tu efficere tua pecunia non poteris. Per fortunas miseraB nostras, vide ne puerum perditum perdamus : cui si aliquid erit, ne egeat, mediocri virtute opus est, et mediocri fortuna, ut castera consequatur. — Ibid. « Qui Pontum et Bithyniam qusstor pro mea salute neglexit.' — Post Red. in Sen. 15. i?isonis humanitas, virtus, amor in nos omnes tantus est, ut nihil supra esse possit. TJtinam ea res ei voliiptati sit, glnriae quidem video fore.' — Bp. Fam. xiv. 1. f Ciceroni, ex patria fugienti H. S. ducenta et quinqua- ginta milUa donavit. — Corn. Nep. "Vit. Att. 4. Quod te in tanta hereditate ab omni occupatione expe- disti, valde mihi gratum est. Quod facilitates tuas ad meam salutem poUiceris, ut omnibus rebus a te praeter cseteros juver id quantum sit prssidiimi video. — Ad Att. iii. 3(1. This Cfecilius, Attieus's unole, was a famous churl and usurer, sometimes mentioned in Cicero's letters, who adopted Atticus by his will, and left him three-fourths of his estate, which amounted to above 80,000/. sterling. He had raised this greatfortune by the favour chiefly of Lucul- lus, whom he flattered to the last with a promise of making him his heir, yet left the bulk of his estate to Atticus, who had been very observant of his humour : for which fraud, added to his notorious avarice and extortion, the mob seized his dead body, and dragged it infamously about the streets. [Val. Max. vii. 8.] Cicero, congratulating Atticus upon his adoption, addresses his letter to Q. Caeciliua, Q. F. Pomponianus, Atticus. For in assuming the name of the Adopter, it was usual to add also their own family name, though changed in its termination from Pomponius to Pomponianus, to preserve the memory of their real extraction : to which some added also the surname, as Cicero does in the present case.— Ad Att. iii. 20. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 103 benefit from my kindness ; I will manage so for the future, that whenever I am restored, you shall find yourself as dear to me as my brother and my children : if I have been wanting therefore in my duty to you, or rather, since I have been wanting, pray pardon me; for I have been much more wanting to myselfs." But Atticus begged of him to lay aside all such fancies, and assured him, that there was not the least ground for them ; and that he had never been disgusted by anything, which he had either done, or neglected to do for him ; entreating him to be perfectly easy on that head, and to depend always on his best services, without giving himself the trouble, even of reminding him''. Yet after all, the suspicion itself, as it comes from one who knew Atticus so perfectly, seems to leave some little blot upon his character : but whatever cause there might be for it, it is cer- tain, that Cicero at least was as good as his word, and by the care which he took after bis return to celebrate Atticus's name in all his writings, has left the most .illustrious testimony to posterity of his sincere esteem and affection for him, Sextius was one of the tribunes elect ; and being entirely devoted to Cicero, took the trouble of a journey into Gaul, to solicit Csesar's consent to his restoration ; which though he obtained, as well by. his own intercession as by Pompey's letters, yet it seems to have been with certain limitations not agreeable to Cicero : for on Sextius's return to Borne, when he drew up the copy of a law which he intended to propose upon his entrance into office ; conformable, as we may imagine, to the conditions stipulated with Caesar ; Cicero greatly disliked it ; as being too general, and without the mention even of his name, nor pro- viding sufficiently either for his dignity, or the restitution of his estate ; so that he desires Atticus to take care to get it amended by Sextius'. The old tribunes, in the mean while, eight of whom were Cicero's friends, resolved to make one effort more to obtain a law in bis favour, which they jointly offered to the people on the twenty- eighth t)f October : but Cicero was much more displeased with this than with Sextius's : it con- sisted of three articles ; the first of which restored him only to his former rank, but not to his estate : the second was only matter of form, to indemnify the proposers of it : the third enacted, " that if there was anything in it which was prohibited to be promulgated by any former law, particularly by that of Clodius, or which involved the author of such promulgation in any fine or penalty, that in s Ego, si xne aliquando vestri et patriEe compotem for- tima fecerit, certe efficiam, ut maxime Istere unus ex omnibus amicis : zueaque officia ac studia, qnm parum imtea luxerunt (fatendum est enim) sic exequar, ut me £cqu9 tibi ac fratii et liberis nostris restitutum putes. Si quid "in te peccavi, ac potius quoniam peceavi, ignosce : in me enim ipsum peceavi vehementius. — Ad Att. iii. 15. '^ Quod me vetas qnicquam suspicaii accidisso ad animum tuum, quod secus a me erga te commissum, aut praetermissum videretur, gerara tibi morem et liberabor ista cura. Tibi tamen eo plus debeo, quo tua in me iiumanitas fuerit excelsior, quam in te mea. — ^Ibid. 20. ' Hoc interim tempore, P. Sextius, designatus iter ad C. Caesarem pro mea salute suscepit. Quid egerit, quantum piolecerit, nihil ad causam.— Pro Sext. 32. Rogatio Sextii neque dignitatis satis habet nee cautionis. Nam et nominatim ferre oportet, et de bonis diligentius Ecribi : et id acimadvertas velim.— Ad Att. iii. 20. such case it should have no effect." Cicero was surprised, that bis friends could be induced to pro- pose such an act, " which seemed to be against him, and to confirm that clause of the Clodian law which made it penal to move anything for him ; whereas no clauses of that kind had ever been regarded, or thought to have any special force, but fell of course when the laws themselves were repealed : he observes, " that it was an ugly pre- cedent for the succeeding tribunes, if they should happen to have any scruples ; and that Clodius had already taken the advantage of it, when in a speech to the people, on the third of November, he declared, that this act of the tribunes was a proper lesson to their successors, to let them see how far their power extended." He desires Atticus therefore " to find out who was the contriver of it, and how Ninnius and the rest came to be so much overseen as not to be aware of the consequences of if"." The most probable solution of it is, that these tribunes hoped to carry their point with less diffi- culty, by paying this deference to Clodius's law, the validity of which was acknowledged by Cato, and several others of the principal citizens'; and they were induced to make this push for it before they quitted their office, from a persuasion, that if Cicero was once restored, on any terms, or with what restrictions soever, the rest would follow of course ; and that the recovery of his dignity would necessarily draw after it everything else that was wanted. Cicero seems to have been sensible of it himself on second thoughts, as he intimates, in the conclusion of his letter : " I should be sorry," says he, ** to have the new tribunes insert such a clause in their law ; yet let them insert what they please : if it will but pass and call me home, I shall be content vrith it"." But the only project of a law which he approved, was drawn by his cousin C. Visellius Aculeo, an eminent lawyer of that age, for another of the new tribunes, T. Fadius, who had been his quaestor when he was consul : he advised his friends therefore, if there was any prospect of success, to push forward that law, which entirely pleased him ■'. In this suspense of his affairs at Rome, the troops, which Piso had provided for his govern- ment of Macedonia, began to arrive in great num- bers at Thessalonica" : this greatly alarmed him, and made him resolve to quit the place without delay : and as it was not advisable to move farther from Italy, he ventured to come still nearer, and turned back again to Dyrrhachium : for though this was within the distance forbidden to him by ^ Quo major est suspicio malitis alicujus, cum id, quod ad ipsos nihil pertinebat, erat autem contra me, scrip- serunt. Ut novi tribuni plebis si essent timidiores, multo magis sibi eo capite utendum putarent. Neque id a Glodio prsetenniesum est, dixit enim in concione ad diem HI. Non. Novemb.hoc eapitedesignatistribunis plebis pra^ scriptum esse quid liceret. Ut Ninnium et cseteros f ugerit investiges velim, et quis attulerit, Sec. — ^Ad Att. iii. 23. 1 Video enim quosdam clarissimos viros, aliquot locis judica^se, te cum plebe jure agere potuisse.— Pro Dome, 16. ^ Id caput sane nolim novos tribunos plebis iterre : sed perferant modo quidlibet: uno capite quo revocabor, modo res conficiatur, ero contentus. — Ibid. 23^ n Sed si est aliquid in spe, vide legem, quam T. Fadio scripsit Visellius : ea mihi perplacet. — Ibid. » Me adhuo Plancius retinet.— Sed jam cum adventare milites dicerentur, faciendum nobis erit, ut ab eo disce- damUB. — ^Ibid. 22. lOi THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF law, yet lie had no reason to apprehend any clanger, in a town particularly devoted to him, and which had always been under his special patronage and protection. He came thither on the twenty-fifth of November, and gave notice of his removal to his friends at Rome, by letters of the same date, begun at Thessalonica and finished at Dyrrha- chiumP : which shows the great haste which he thought necessary in making this sudden change of his quarters. Here he received another piece of news which displeased him ; " that with tlie consent and assistance of his managers at Rome, the provinces of the consuls elect had been fur- nished with money and troops by a decree of the senate : " but in what manner it affected him, and v.rhat reason he had to be uneasy at it, will be explained by his own letter upon it to Atticus. " When you first sent me word," says he, " that the consular provinces had been settled and pro- vided for by your consent ; though I was afraid lest it might be attended with some ill conse- quence, yet I hoped that you had some special reason for it which I could not penetrate : but having since been informed, both by friends and letters, that your conduct is universally con- demned, I am extremely disturbed at it ; because the little hopes, that were left, seem now to be destroyed : for should the new tribunes quarrel with us upon it, what farther hopes can there be .■' and they have reason to do so ; since they were not consulted in it, though they had undertaken my cause, and have lost by our concession all that influence which they would otherwise have had over it ; especially w"hen they declare, that it was for my sake only that they desired the power of furnishing out the consuls ; not with design to hinder them, but to secure them to my interest ; whereas if the consuls have a mind to be perverse, they may now be so without any risk ; yet let them be never so well disposed, can do nothing without the consent of the tribunes. As to what you say, that, if you had not agreed to it, the consuls would have carried their point with the people ; that could never have been done against the will of the tribunes : I am afraid, therefore, that we have lost by it the affection of the tribunes ; or if that still remains, have lost at least our hold on the consuls. There is another inconvenience still, not less considerable ; for that important declaration, as it was represented to me, that the senate would enter into nothing till my affair was settled, is now at an end ; and in a case not only unnecessary, but new and unprecedented ; for I do not beUeve, that the provinces of the consuls had ever before been provided for until their entrance into ofiBce : but having now broken through that resolution which they had taken in my cause, they are at liberty to proceed to any other business, as they please. It is not however to be wondered at, thatmy friends, who were applied to, should consent to it ; for it was hard for any one, to declare openly against a motion so beneficial to p Dyrrhachium veni quod ct libera civitas est, et in me officiosa. — Ep. Fam. xiv. 1. Nam ego eo nomine sum Dyrrhacliij, lit quam celeiTime quid agatur, audiam, et sum tuto. Civitas enim liicc sL'mper a me defcnsa est, — ^Ibid. 3, (iuod mei studiosos babeo Dyrrhacbinos, ad cos perrexi, cum ilia supcriora Tlicssalonica; scripsisseni. — Ad Att. iii. 22; Kp.Fam. xiv. 1. the two consuls; it was hard, I say, to refuse anything to Lentulus, who has always been my true friend ; or to Metellus, who has given up his resentments with so much humanity; yet 1 am apprehensive that we have alienated the tribunes, and cannot hold the consuls : write me word, I desire you, what turn this has taken, and how the whole affair stands; and write with your usual frankness ; for I love to know the truth, though it should happen to he disagreeable." The tenth of December 1. But Atticus, instead of answering this letter, or rather indeed before he received it, having occasion to visit his estate in Epirus, took his way thither through Dyrrhachium, on purpose to see Cicero, and explain to him in person the motives of their conduct. Their interview was but short ; and after they parted, Cicero, upon some new intel- ligence, which gave him fresh uneasiness, sent another letter after him into Epirus, to call him back again : " After you left me," says he, " I received letters from Rome, from which I perceive that I must end my days in this calamity ; and to speak the truth, (which you will take in good part,) if there had been any hopes of my return, you, who love me so well, would never have left the city at such a conjuncture : but I say no more, lest I be thought either ungrateful, or desirous to involve my friends too in my ruin : one thing I beg ; that you would not fail, as you have given your word, to come to me, wherever I shall happen to be, before the first of January''." While he was thus perplexing himself wdth per- petual fears and suspicions, his cause was proceeding very prosperoiisly at Rome, and seemed to be in such a train, that it could not be obstructed much longer : for the new magistrates, who were coming on with the new year, were all, except the prsetor Appius, supposed to be his friends ; while his enemy Clodius was soon to resign his ofiice, on which the greatest part of his power depended: Clodius himself was sensible of the daily decay of his credit, through the superior influence of Pom- pey, who had drawn Caesar away from him, and forced even Gabinius 'to desert him : so' that, out of rage and despair, and the desire of revenging himself on these new and more powerful enemies, he would willingly have dropped the pursuit of Cicero, or consented even to recal him, if he could have persuaded Cicero's friends and the senate to join their forces with him against the triumvirate. For this end he produced Bibulus and' the other augurs in an assembly of the people, and demanded of them, "whether it was not unlavrful to transact any public business, when any of them were taking the auspices.'" To which they all answered in the affirmative. Then he asked Bibulus, " whether he was not actually observing the heavens as oft as any of Csesar's laws were proposed to the people?" To which he answered in the affirmative : but being produced a second time by the prsetor Appius, he added, "that he took the auspices also in the same manner at the time when Clodius's act of adoption was confirmed by the people :" but Clodius, while he gratified his present revenge, little regarded how much it turned against himself ; but insisted, that " all Caesar's acts ought to be annulled by the senate, as being contrary to the auspices ;" and on -i Xi Att, iii, 24. r Ad Att. iii. 'a. MARCUS TULLtUS CICERO. 105 that condition, declared publicly, that " he himself would bring back Cicero, the guardian of the city, on his own shoulders"." In the same fit of revenge, he fell upon the con- sul Gabinius ; and in an assembly of the people, which he called for that purpose, with his head veiled, and a httle altar and fire before him, conse- crated his whole estate. This had been sometimes done against traitorous citizens, and, when legally performed, had the effect of a confiscation, by making the place and effects ever after sacred and pubUo : but in the present case, it was considered only as an act of madness ; and the tribune Nin- nius, in ridicule of it, consecrated Clodius's estate in the same form and manner, that whatever efficacy was ascribed to the one, the other might justly chal- lenge the same*. But the expected hour was now come, which put an end to his detestable tribunate : it had been uniform and of » piece from the first to the last ; the most infamous and corrupt that Rome had ever seen : there was scarce an office bestowed at home, or any favour granted to » prince, state, or city abroad, but what he openly sold to the best bidder : ' ' The poets («ays Cicero) could not feign a Charyb- dis so voracious as his rapine : he conferred the title of king on those who had it not, and took it away from who had^;'* and sold the rich priest- hoods of Asia, as the Turks are said to sell the Grecian bishoprics, without regarding whether they were full or vacant, of which Cicero gives us a remarkable instance : " There was a celebrated temple of Cybele, at Pessinuns in Phrygia, where that goddess was worshipped with singular devotion, not only by all Asia, but Europe too ; and where the Koman generals themselves often used to pay their vows and make their offerings." Her priest was in quiet possession, without any rival preten- der, or any complaint against him ; yet Clodius, by a law of the people, granted this priesthood to one Brogitarus, a petty sovereign in those parts, to whom he had before given the title of king : " and I shall think him a king indeed," says Cicero, "if ever he be able to pay the purchase money :" but: the spoils of the temple were destined to that use, and would soon have been applied to it, if Deiota- rus, king of Galatia, a prince of noble character, and a true friend to Rome, had not defeated the impious bargain, by taking the temple into his protection, and maintaining the lawful priest against the intruder, nor suffering Brogitarus, s Tu tuo praeipitante jam et debilitato tribunatu, auBpiciorum patronus subito cxtitjsti. Tu M. Bibulum in concione, tu augures produxisti. Te interrogante augures reaponderunt, cum de ecelo servatum Bit, cum populo agi lion posse — tua denique crania actio posterioribus men- sibusfuit, omnia, qux C. Cffisar egisset, quffi contra auspicia cesentacta, per senatum reseindi oportere. Quod si fieret, dicebas, te tuis liumeris me, custudem urbis, in urbem relaturum. — Pro Domo, 15. ' Tu, tu, inquara, capite velato, concione advocata, foculo posito bona tui Gabinii consecrasti in — quid ? exem- plo tuo bona tua nonne L. Ninnius — consecravit ? quod si, quia ad te pertinet, ratum esse negas oportere ; ea jura oonstituisti in prajclaro tribunatu .tuo, quibus in te cou- verais, recusares, alios everteres. — Pro Domo, 47, 48. "1 Roges, qui erant, vendidit ; qui non erant, appellavit — quam denique tarn immancm Charybdim poets fingendo t!.tprimere potuerunt, quiK tantos oxhaurire gurgites pos- •iHt, quantas istc praidas — exaorbuit? — De Harus. Res-p. i7. though his son-in-law, to pollute or touch anything belonging to it*. All the ten new tribunes had solemnly promised to serve Cicero ; yet Clodius found means to cor- rupt two of them, S. Atilius Serranus, and Nume- rius Quinctius Gracchus, by whose help he was enabled still to make head against Cicero's party, and retard his restoration some time longer : but Piso and Gabinius, perceiving the scene to be opening apace in his favour, and his return to be unavoidable, thought it time to get out of his way, and retire to their several governments, to enjoy the reward of their perfidy : so that they both left Rome with the expiration of their year, and Piso set out for Macedonia, Gabinius for Syria. On the first of January the new consul Lentulus, after the ceremony of his inauguration, and his A. uBB. 696. ^^^^ ^^^y paid, as usual, to rehgion, CIO. 60. ' entered directly into Cicero's affair, coss. and moved the senate for his restora- p. CORNELIUS tion^; while his colleague Metellus LBNTUtus declared, with much seeming candour, spiNTHEE, " that though Cicero and he had been (J. cEciuijs enemies, on account of their different METELLUS sentimcnts in politics, yet he would give up his resentments to the autho- rity of the fathers, and the interests of the repub- lic^." Upon which L. Cotta, a person of consular and censorian rank, being asked his opinion the first, said, " that nothing had been done against Cicero agreeably to right or law, or the custom of their ancestors : that no citizen could be driven out of the city without a trial ; and that the people could not condemn, nor even try a man capitally, but in an assembly of their centuries ; that the whole was the effect of violence, turbulent times, and an oppressed republic : that in so strange a revolution and confusion of all things, Cicero had only stepped aside, to provide for his future tranquil- lity, by declining the impending storm ; and since he had freed the republic from no less danger by his absence, than he had done before by his pre- sence, that he ought not only to be restored, but to be adorned with new honours : that what his mad enemy had published against him, was drawn so absurdly both in words and sentiments, that, if X Qui accepta pecunia Pessinuntem ipsum, sedem domi- ciliumque Matris Deorum vastaris, et Brogitaro, Gallo- graico, impure liomini ac nefario, totum ilium locum fanumque vendideris. Sacerdotem ab ipsis aris, pulvina^ ribusque detraxeris. — Quie reges omnes, qui Asiara Euro- pamque tenuerunt, semper summa religiiine coliierunt — ftuiB majores nostri tam sancta duxerunt, ut — nostri imperatores maximis et periculosissimis bellis huic deae vota facerent, eaque in ipso Pessinunte ad illam ipsam principem aram ct in illo loco fanoque persolverent. — Putabo regem, si habuerit unde tibi solvat Nam cum multa regia aunt in Deiotaro, turn ilia maxime, quod tibi nummum nullum dedit. — Quod Pessinuntem per acelus a te violatum," et sacerdote, sacrisque spoliatum recupe- ravit. — Quod casremonias ab -omni vetustate acceptas a Brogitaro poUui non sinit, mavultque generum suum munere tuo, quam illud fanum antiquitate religionis carere.— Ibid. 13; Pro Sext. 26. y Kalendis Januariis. — P. Lentulus consul — simul ac do solemni religione retulit, nihil humanariim renim sibi prius, quam de me agendum judicavit.—Post Red. ad Quir. 5. 2 Qua; etiam coUegje ejus moderatio de mo ? Qui cum inimicitias sibi mecum ex reipublicEe dissensione Buscep- tas esse dixisset, eas se Patribus conscriptia dixit et tem- poribua rcipublicffi pcrmissurum.' — Pro Sext. 32. 106 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF It had been enacted in proper form, it could never obtain the force of a law : that since Cicero there- fore was expelled by no law, he could not want a law to restore him, but ought to be recalled by a vote of the senate." — Pompey, who spoke next, having highly applauded what Cotta said, added, " that for the sake of Cicero's future quiet, and to prevent all farther trouble from the same quarter, it was his opinion, that the people should have a share in conferring that grace, and their consent be joined also to the authority of the senate." After many others had spoken likewise with great warmth in the defence and praise of Cicero, they all came unanimously into Pompey's opinion, and were pro- ceeding to make a decree upon it, when Serranus the tribune rose up and put a stop to it, not flatly interposing his negative, for he had not the assur- ance to do that, against such a spirit and unani- mity of the senate, but desiring only a night's time to consider of it. This unexpected interruption incensed the whole assembly ; some reproached, others entreated him ; and his father-in-law, Op- pius, threw himself at his feet, to move him to desist : but all that they could get from him was a promise to give way to the decree the next morn- ing ; upon which they broke up. ** But the tribune (says Cicero) employed the night, not as people fancied he would, in giving back the money which he had taken, but in making a better bargain, and doubling his price ; for the next morning, being grown more hardy, he absolutely prohibited the senate from proceeding to any act*." This conduct of Serranus surprised Cicero's friends, being not only perfidious and contrary to his engagements, but highly ungrateful to Cicero ; who, in his con- sulship, had been his special encourager and benefactor*". The senate, however, though hindered at present from passing their decree, were too well united, and too strongly supported, to be baffled much longer by the artifices of a faction : they resolved, therefore, without farther delay, to propound a law to the people for Cicero's restoration ; and the twenty-second of the month was appointed for the promulgation of it. When the day came, Fabri- cius, one of Cicero's tribunes, marched out with a strong guard, before it was light, to get possession of the rostra : but Clodius was too early for him : and having seized all the posts and avenues of the forum, was prepared to give him a warm reception : a Turn prlnceps rogatus sententiam L. Cotta, dixit.^- Nihil de me actum esse jure, nihil more majorum, nihil legibus, &e. Quare me, qui nulla lege abessem, non restitui lege, sed senatus auctoritate oportere.' — Post eum rogatus sententiajn Cn. Pompeius, approbata, laudataque Cottas sententia, dixit, sese otii met causa, ut omni populari concertatione defungerer, eensere ; ut ad senatus auctoritatem populi quoquo Homani beneficium adjungeretur. Cum omnes certatim, aliusque alio gravius de mea salute dixisset, fieretque sine uUa varietate dis- cessio : surrexit Atilius ; nfic ausus est, cum esset emptus, intercedere ; noctem sibi ad deliberandum postulavit. , Clamor senatus, querelae, preces, socer ad pedes abjeetus. Ille, 86 aflBrmare postero die moram nuUam esse factu- rum. Creditum est ; discessum est : illi interea delibe- ratori merces, interposita nocte, duplicata est.^Pro Sext. 34. Deliberatio non in reddenda, quemndraodum nonnuUi arbitrabantm:, sed, ut patefactum est, in augenda mercede (ionsumta est. — Post Red.adQuir. 5. b Is tribunus plebis quem ego maximis beneficiis quxs- torem consul omaveram. — ^Ibid. he had purchased some gladiators, for the shows of his ffidileship, to which he was now pretending, and borrowed another band of his brother Appius ; and with these well armed, at the head of his slaves and dependants, he attacked Fabricius, killed several of his followers, wounded many more, and drove him quite out of the place ; and happening to fall in at the same time with Cispius, anothei tribune, who was coming to the aid of his colleague, he repulsed him also with a great slaughter. The gladiators, heated with this taste of blood, " opened their way on all sides with their swords, in quest of Quintns Cicero, whom they met with at last, and would certainly have murdered, if, by the advantage of the confusion and darkness, he had not hid himself under the bodies of his slaves and freedmen, who were killed around him ; where he lay concealed till the fray was over." The tribune Sextius was treated still more roughly, " for being particularly pursued and marked out for destruc- tion, he was so desperately wounded, as to be left for dead upon the spot, and escaped death only by feigning it :" but while he lay in that condition, supposed to be killed, Clodius reflecting, that the murder of a tribune, whose person was sacred, would raise such a storm, as might occasion his ruin, " took a sudden resolution to kill one of his own tribunes, in order to charge it upon his adver- saries, and so balance the account by making both sides equally obnoxious." The victim doomed to this sacrifice was Numerins Quinctius, an obscure fellow, raised to this dignity by the caprice of the miJtitude, who, to make himself the more popular, had assumed the surname of Gracchus : ** but the crafty clown (says Cicero) having got some hint of the design, and finding that his blood was to wipe off the envy of Sextius's, disguised himself presently in the habit of a muleteer, the same in which he first came to Rome, and with a ha.sket upon his head, while some were calling out for Numerius, others for Quinctius, passed undiscovered by the confusion of the two names : but he continued in this danger till Sextius was known to be alive ; and if that discovery had not been made sooner than one would have wished, though they could not have fixed the odium of killing their mercenary where they designed it ; yet they would have less- ened the infamy of one villany, by committing another, which all people would have been pleased with." According to the account of this day's tragedy, " the Tiber and all the common sewers were filled with dead bodies, and the blood wiped up with sponges in the forum, where such heaps of slain had never before been seen but in the civil dissensions of Cinna and Octavius"." c Princeps rogationis, vir mibi amicissimus, Q. Fabri- cius templum aliquanto ante lucem occupavit. Cum forum, comitium, curiam multa de nocte armatis homi- nibus, ac servis occupavissent, impetum facinnt in Fabri- cium, manus afferunt, oecidunt nomiullos, vulnerant multos : venientem in forum, virum optimum M. Cispium — vi depellunt ; casdem in foro maximam faciimt. Universi districtis gladiis in omnibus fori partibus fi*atrem meum oculis quasrebant , voce poscebant — ^Pulsus e rostris in cnmi- tiojacuit, seque servorum et libertorumcorporibus obtexit. Multis vulneribus acceptis ac debilitate corpore contru- cidato, Sextius, se abjecit exanimatus : neque ulla alia re ab se mortem, nisi mortis opinione, depulit.' — At vero illi ipsi parricidffi.— Adeo vim facinoris sui perhorruerant, ut si paullo longior opinio mortis Sextii fuisset, Gracchum ilium suum transferendi in nos criminis causa, occidero MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 107 Clodius, flushed with this victory, " set fire with his own hands to the temple of the Nymphs, where the books of the censors and the public registers of the city were kept, which were all consumed with the fabric itself*^." He then attacked the houses of Milo the tribune, and Csecilius the prsetor, with fire and sword, but was repulsed in both attempts with loss : " Milo took several of Appius's gla- diators prisoners, who, being brought before the senate, made a confession of what they knew, and were sent to jail ; but were presently released by Serranus'." Upon these outrages Milo impeached Clodius in form, for the violation of the public peace : but the consul Metellus, who had not yet abandoned him, with the prsetor Appius, and the tribune Serranus, resolved to prevent any process upon it, " and by their edicts prohibited, either the criminal himself to appear, or any one to cite him'." Their pretence was, " that the quaestors were not yet chosen,"whose ofiice it was to make the allotment of the judges ; while they themselves kept back the election," and were pushing Clodius at the same time into the sedileship, which would screen him, of course, for one year from any pro- secution. Milo therefore, finding it impracticable to bring him to justice in the legal method, resolved to deal with him in his own way, by opposing force to force ; and for this end purchased a band of gladiators, with which he had daily skirmishes with him in the streets ; and acquired a great reputation of courage and generosity, for being the first of all the Romans who had ever bought gladiators for the defence of the republic «. This obstruction given to Cicero's return by an obstinate and desperate faction, made the senate only the more resolute to effect it : they passed a second vote, therefore, that no other business should be done till it was carried j and to prevent all farther tumults, and insults upon the magistrates, ordered the consuls to summon all the people of Italy, who wished well to the state, to come to the assistance and defence of Cicero''. This gave new cogitorint. — Sensit rusticulus, non incautus ; — ^mulioni- cam penulam arripuit, cum qua primum Bomam ad comitia venerit : messoria se corbe contexit : cum qujere- rent alii Numerium, alii Quinctium, gemini nomiais errore serratus est, atque boo scitis omnes ; usque adeo hominem in periculo fuisse, quoad scitum sit, Sextium vivere. Quod niai csaet patefactum paullo cltius, quern vellem, &c. Meministis tum, Judices, corporibus civium Tiberim compleri, cloacas referciri, e foro spongiis effingi sanguinem. — ^Lapidationes persEepe vidimus ; non ita saepe, Bed nimium taoien sspe gladios; csdem vero tantam, tantos acerros corporumexstructos, nisi forte illo Cinnano atque Octaviano die, quis unquam in foro vidit ? — Pro Sext. 35, 36, 37, 38. d Eum qui fedem Nympharum incendit, ut memoriam publicam recensionis, tabulis publicis impressam, extin- gueret.— Pro Mil. 27 ; Parad. 4 ; De Haruspic. Resp. 27. s Gladiatores — compreliensi, in senatum introducti, con- fess!, in vincula conjecti a Milone, emissi a Serrano. — Pro Sext. 39. f Ecce tibi consul, praetor, tribimus plebis nova novi generis edicta proponunt : ne reus adsit, ne citetur.— Pro Sext. 41. e Sed honori summo Miloni nostro nuper fuit, qiiod gladiatoribus emptia reipublica^ causa, quae salute nostra continebatur, omnes P. Clodii conatus furoresque com- pressit.— De Offlc. ii. 17. ^ Itaque postea nihil vos civibus, nihil sociis, nihil regibus respondistis. — Post Red. in Sen. 3, Quid mihi praeclarius acciderc potuit, quam quod illo referente vos decrevistis, ut cuncti ex omni Italia, qui spirits to the honest citizens, and drew a vast con- course to Rome from all parts of Italy, where there was not a corporate town of any note which did not testify its respect to Cicero by some public act or monument. " Pompey was at Capua, acting as chief magistrate of his new colony ; where he presided in person at their making a decree to Cicero's honour, and took the trouble likewise of visiting aU the other colonies and chief towns in those parts," to appoint them a day of general rendezvous at Rome, to assist at the promulgation of the law'. Lentulus at the same time was entertaining the city with shows and stage plays, in order to keep the people in good humour, whom he had called from their private afiairs in the country to attend the public business. The shows were exhibited in Pompey's theatre, while the senate, for the conve- nience of being near them, was held in the adjoining temple of Honour and Virtue, built by Marius out of the Cimbric spoils, and called for that reason Marius's Monument : here, according to Cicero's dream, a decree now passed in proper form for his restoration ; when, " under the joint influence of those deities, honour (he says) was done to virtue ; and the monument of Marius, the preserver of the empire, gave safety to his countryman, the defender of itK" The news of this decree no sooner reached the neighbouring theatre, than the whole assembly expressed their satisfaction by claps and applauses, which they renewed upon the entrance of every senator ; but when the consul Lentulus took his place, they all rose up, and, with acclamations, stretched-out hands, and tears of joy, pubhcly testified their thanks to him. But when Clodius ventured to show himself, they were hardly re- strained from doing him violence, throwing out reproaches, threats and curses upon him : so that in the shows of gladiators, which he could not bear to be deprived of, he durst not go to his seat in the common and open manner, hut used to start up into it at once from some obscure passage under the benches, which on that account was jocosely called "the Appian way," where he was no sooner espied, than so " general a hiss ensued, that it disturbed the gladiators, and frightened their very horses. From these significations (says Cicero) he might learn the difference between the genuine citizens of Rome, and those packed assemblies of the people where he used to domineer ; and that the men who lord it in such assemblies, are the real aversion of the city ; while those who dare not show their heads in them, are received with all demonstrations of honour by the whole people'." rempublicam salvam vellent, ad me unum^ — ^restituendum, et defondendum venirent ? — Post Red. in Sen. 9. In ima mea causa factum est, ut Uteris consularibus ex S. C. cuncta ex Italia, omnes, qui rempublicam salvam vellent, convocarentur.— Pro Sext. 60. i Qui in colonia nuper constituta, cum ipse gereret magistratum, vim et crudelitatem privilegii auctoritate honestissimorum hominum, et publicis Uteris consignavit : princepsque Italiae totiusprjesidium ad meam salutem im- plorandam putavit. — Post Red. in Sen. 11. Hie municipia, coloniasque adiit : hie Italise totius auxilium imploravit — Pro Dome, 12. k Cum in temple Honoris et Virtutis, honos habitus osset virtuti ; Caiiquo Marii, oonsei-vatoris hujus imperii, monumentum, munioipi ejus et reipublicae defensori sedem ad salutem prsebuisset.— Pro Sext. 54 ; it. 66. 1 Audito S. C. ore ipsi, atque absent! senatui plaUsus est 108 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF When the decree passed, the famed tragedian, JSsopus, who acted, as Cicero says, the same good part in the republic that he did upon the stage, was performing tlie part of Telamon, banished from his country, in one of Accius's plays, where, by the emphasis of his voice, and the change of a word or two in some of the lines, he contrived to turn the thoughts of the audience on Cicero. " What he ! who always stood up for the republic ! who, in doubtful times, spared neither life nor fortunes — the greatest friend in the greatest danger — of such parts and talents — O father — I saw his houses and rich furniture all in flames — O ungrateful Greeks, inconstant people ; forgetful of services ! — to see such a man banished ; driven from his country ; and suffer him to continue so ? " — At each of which sentences there was no end of clapping. — In an- other tragedy of the same poet, called Brutus, when instead of Brutus he pronounced TuUius, who established the liberty of his citizens, the people were so affected, that they called for it again a thousand times. This was the constant practice through the whole time of his exile : there was not a passage in any play, which could possibly be applied to his case, but the whole audience pre- sently catched it up, and by their claps and applauses loudly signified their zeal and good wishes for him"". Though a decree was regularly obtained for Cicero's return, Clodius had the courage and ad- dress still to hinder its passing into a law : he took all occasions of haranguing the people against it ; and when he had filled the forum with his mercenaries, " used to demand of them aloud, contrary to the custom of Rome, whether they would have Cicero restored or not j upon which his emissaries raising a sort of dead cry in the negative, he laid hold of it, as the voice of the Roman people, and declared the proposal to be rejected"." But ab universis datus : deinde, cum senatoribus singulis spectatum e senatu redeuntibus: cuinvero ipse, qui ludos faciebat, consul aBsedit : stantes, et manibus passis gratias agentes, et lacryraantes gaudio, suam erga me benevolen- tiam ac misericordiam declararunt : at cum ille f ui'ibimdus venisset, vix se populus Romanus tenuit. — Pro Sext. 55. Is, cum quotidie gladiatores spectaret, nunquam est con- spectus, cum veniret : emergebat subito, cum sub tabulas subrepserat — itaque ilia via latebrosa, qua ille spectatum veniebat, Appia jam vocabatur : qui tamen quo tempore conspectus erat, non mode gladiatores, sed equi ipsi gladiatorum repentinis sibilis extimescebant. Videtisne igitur, quantum inter populum Romanum, et concionem intersit ? Dominos concionuni omni odio populi notari ? Quibus autem consistere in operarum concionibus non liceat, eos omni populi Romani signifieatione decorari ? — Pro Sext. 59. n» Recenti nuncio de illo S. C. ad ludos, scenamque perlato, summus artifex, ct mebercule semper partiuni in republica tanquam in scena, optimatimn, flens et recenti lietitia et misto tlolore ac desiderio mei — summi cnim poetse ingcnium non solum arte sua sed etiam dolore expriraebat. Quid enim ? qui rem^publicam certo animo acljuverit, siatuerit, steterit cum Achivis — re dubia nee dubitarit vitam offcrre, nee capiti pepereerit,- summwn amieum summo in bello- — summo ingenio praditum- — Pater — li(SC omnia vidi inflammari — ingratifici Argivi, inanes Graii, immemores benefieii! — exulare, slmlis, sisiis pelli, pulsum patimini — quffi significatio fuerit omnium, quae declaratio voluntatis ab universo populo Romano ? Nominatim sum appellatus in Bruto, Tulliiu, qui liber- ialem civibus stabiliverat. Millies rovocatmu est. — Pro Sext. 56, .W, 6fl. n Ille tribimus plebis qui de me — non majoi-um suorum. the senate, ashamed to see their authority thus in- sulted, when the whole city was on their side, re- solved to take such measures in the support of their decrees, that it should not be possible to defeat them. Lentulus therefore summoned them into the Capitol, on the twenty-fifth of May, where Pompey began the debate, and renewed the motion for recalling Cicero ; and in a grave and elaborate speech ,which he had prepared in writing, and delivered from his notes, gave him the honour of having saved his country". All the leading men of the senate spoke after him to the same effect ; but the consul Metellus, notwithstanding his promises, had been acting hitherto a double part; and was all along the chief encourager and supporter of Clodius. When Servilius therefore rose up, a person of the first dignity, who had been honoured with a triumph and the censorship, he addressed himself to his kinsman Metellus, and, " calling up from the dead all the family of the Metelli, laid before him the glorious acts of his ancestors, with the conduct and unhappy fate of his brother, in a manner so moving, that Metellus could not hold out any longer against the force of the speech, nor the authority of the speaker, but with tears in his eyes gave himself up to Servilius, and professed all future services to Cicero" — in which he proved very sincere, and from this moment assisted his colleague in promoting Cicero's restoration; "so that in a very full house of four hundred and seven- teen senators, when all the magistrates were pre- sent, the decree passed, without one dissenting voice but Clodius'sr," which gave occasion to Cicero to write a particular letter of thanks to Metellus, as he had done once before upon his first declara- tion for him*!. Some maybe apt to wonder why the two tribunes, who were Cicero's enemies still as much as ever, did not persevere to inhibit the decree, since the negative of a single tribune had an indisputable force to stop aU proceedings ; but when that nega- tive was wholly arbitrary and factious, contrary to the apparent interest and general inclination of the citizens, if the tribune could not be prevailed with by gentle means to recal it, the senate used to enter into a debate upon the merit of it, and pro- ceed to some extraordinary resolution of declaring sed Grfficulorum institute, concionem interrogare solebat, velletne me redire : et cum erat reclamatum semivivis mercenariorum vocibus ; populum Romanum negare dice- bat.— Pro Sext. 59. o Idem ille consul cum ilia ineredibilis multitudo Ro- mam, et paene Italia ipsa venisset, vos frequentissimos in Capitolium convocavit— [Post Red. ijiSen. 10.] Cumvir is, qui tripartitas orbis terranim eras atque regiones tribiis triumpliis huic imperio adjimctas notavit, de scripto senteiitia dicta, mihi uni testimonium patriae conservata? dedit.— Ibid. 61. p Qu. Metellus, et inimicus et fi-ater inimici perspecta vestra voluntate, omnia privata odia deposuit : quern P. Servilius — et auctoritatis et orationis suae divinaquadam gravitate ad sui generis, communisque sanguinis f.icta, virtutesque revocavit, ut haberet in consilio et fratrem ab inferis — et omnes Metellos, prffistantissimos cives — itaque extitit non mode salutis defensor, — verum etiam adscriptor dignitatis meaj. Quo qnidem die, cum vos ccccxvn. ex senatu essetis, magistratus autem hi omncs adcsscnt, dis- sensit unus.— Post Red. in Sen. 10. CoUacrymavit vir egregius ao vere Metellus, totumque S8 P. Servilio dicenti etiam turn tradidit, Nee illam divi- nam gravitatem, plenam antiquitatis, diutius — potuit sus- tinere.— Pro Sext. 62. q Ep. Fam. v. 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 109 the author of such an opposition an enemy to his country, and answerable for all the mischief that was likely to ensue, or of ordering the consuls to take care that the republic received no detriment ; which votes were thought to justify any methods, how violent soever, of removing either the obstruc- tion or the author of it, who seldom cared to ex- pose himself to the rage of an inflamed city, headed by the consuls and the ' senate, and to assert his prerogative at the peril of his life. This in effect was the case at present ; when the consul Lentulus assembled the senate again the next day to concert some effectual method for pre- venting all fui-ther opposition, and getting the de- cree enacted into a law : but before they met, he called the people likewise to the rostra, where he, and all the principal senators in their turns, re- peated to them the substance of what they had said before in the senate, in order to prepare them for the reception of the law. Pompey particularly exerted himself in extolling the praises of Cicero, declaring " that the republic owed its preservation to him, and that their common safety was involved in his ;" exhorting them '* to defend and support tlie decree of the senate, the quiet of the city, and the fortunes of a man who had deserved so well of them ; that this was the general voice of the senate, of the knights, of all Italy ; and, lastly, that it was his own earnest and special request to them, which he not only desired, but implored them to grant^" When the senate afterwards met, they proceeded to several new and vigorous votes to faciUtate the success of the law: first, " That no magistrate should presume to take the auspices, so as to disturb the assembly of the people, when Cicero's cause was to come before them ; and that if any one attempted it, he should be treated as a public enemy. Secondly, " That, if through any violence or odstruction, the law was not suffered to pass within the five next legal days of assembly, Cicero should then be at liberty to return, without any farther authority. Thirdly, " That public thanks should be given to all the people of Italy who came to Rome for Cicero's defence, and that they should be desired to come again, on the day when the suffrages of the people were to be taken. Fourthly, " That thanks should be given like- wise to all the states and cities which had received and entertained Cicero ; and that the care of his person should be recommended to all foreign nations in alliance with them ; and that the Roman generals, and all who had command abroad, should be ordered to protect his life and safety'." ' Quorum princeps ad rogandos et ad cohortandos vos fait Cn. Pompeius — primum vos docuit, meis consiliis rempuWicam esse servatam, causamque meam cum com- muni salute conjunxit ; hortatusque est, ut auctoritatem senatus, statum civitatis, fortunas civis bene meriti defen- deretis: tum in perorando posuit, vos rogari a senatu, rogari ab cquitibus, rogari ab Italia cuncta ; denique ipse ad extremum pro meavos salute non rogavit solum, verum etiam obsecravit. — Post Red. ad Quir. 7. s Quod est postridie decretum in curia — ne quis de ccelo servarct ; ne quis moram uUam afiferret ; si quia aliter fecisset, cum plane eversorem reipublicas fore,' — Addidit, si diebus quinque quibus agi de me potuisset, non esset actum, redirem in patriam omni auctoritate reeuperata. Ut iis, qui ex tota Italia saliitis mese causa convenerant. One cannot help pausing a while to reflect on the great idea which these facts imprint of the character and dignity of Cicero ; to see so vast an empire in such a ferment on his account as to postpone all their concerns and interests, for many months successively, to the safety of a single senator', who had no other means of exciting the zeal or engaging the affections of his citizens but the genuine force of his personal virtues, and the merit of his eminent services : as if the republic itself could not stand without him, but must fall into ruins, if he, the main pillar of it, was removed, whilst the greatest monarchs on earth, who had any afi'airs with the people of Rome, were looking on to expect the event, unable to procure any answer or regard to what they were soliciting, till this affair was decided. Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, was particularly affected by it, who, being driven out of his kingdom, came to Rome about this time to beg help and protection against his re- bellious subjects ; but though he was lodged in Pompey's house, it was not possible for him to get an audience till Cicero's cause was at an end. The law, now prepared for his restoration, was to be offered to the suffrage of the centuries : this was the most solemn and honourable way of transacting any public business where the best and gravest part of the city had the chief influence, and where a de- cree of the senate was previously necessary to make the act valid ; but in the present case there seem to have been four or five several decrees, provided at different times, which had all been frustrated by the intrigues of Clodius and his friends till these last votes proved decisive and effectual'^. Cicero's resolution upon them was, "to wait till the law should be proposed to the people; and, if by the artifices of his enemies it should then be obstructed, to come away directly upon the authority of the senate, and rather hazard his life than bear the loss of his country any longer"." But the vigour of the late debates had so discouraged the chiefs of the faction, that they left Clodius single in the opposition. Metellus dropped him, and his brother Appius was desirous to be quief ; yet it was above two months still from the last decree before Cicero's friends could bring the affair to a general vote, which they effected at last oil the fourth of August. There had never been known so numerous and solemn an assembly of the Roman people as this — all Italy was drawn together on the occasion ; it was reckoned a kind of sin to be absent, and neither age nor infirmity was thought a sufficient agerentiu- gratiae : atque iidem ad res redeuntes, ut veni- rent, rogarentur. Quern enim unquam senatus eivem, nisi me, nationibus exteris commendavit ? oujus unquam propter salutem, nisi meam, senatus publice sociis populi Komani gratias cgit ? De me uno P. C, decreverunt, ut qui provincias cum impe- rio obtinerent, qui quaestores legatique essent, salutem et vitam meam eustodirent. — Pro Sext. 60, 61. ' Nihil vos civibus, nihil sociis, nihil regibus respondis- tis. Nihil judices sententiis, nihil populus suffragiis, nihil hie ordo auctoritate declarant : mutum forum, elingueni curiam, tacitametfractamcivitatemvidebatis. — PostKed. in Sen, 3, " Vid, Pro Sext, 60, et Notas Manutii ad 61. " Mihi in animo est legum lationem expeetare, et si ob- trectabitur, utar auctoritate senatus, et potius vita quani patria carebo.' — Ad Att. iii. 26. y Bedii cum maxima dignitate, fratre tuo altero consulc reducente, altero praetore petente. — Pro Domo, ,33. no THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF excuse for not lending a helping hand to the resto- ration of Cicero. All the magistrates exerted themselves in recommending the law, excepting Appius and the two tribunes, who durst not venture however to oppose it. The meeting was held in the Field of Mars, for the more convenient recep- tion of so great a multitude, where the senators divided among themselves the task of presiding in the several centuries and seeing the poll fairly taken. The result was, that Cicero was recalled from exile by the unanimous suffrage of all the centuries, and to the infinite joy of the whole city^. Clodius however had the hardiness not only to appear, but to speak in this asseitbly against the law, but nobody regarded or heard a word that he said. He now found the difference mentioned above between a free convention of the Roman people and those mercenary assemblies where a few desperate citizens, headed by slaves and gladi- ators, used to carryaU before them. " Where now," says Cicero, "were those tyrants of the forum , those haranguers of the mob, those disposers of king- doms ?" This was one of the last genuine acts of free Rome, one of the last efforts of public liberty, exerting itself to do honour to its patron and de- fender; for the union of the triumvirate had already given it a dangerous wound, and their dissention, which not long after ensued, entirely destroyed it. But it gave some damp to the joy of this glorious day that Cicero's son-in-law Piso happened to die not long before it, to the extreme grief of the family, without reaping the fruits of his piety, and sharing the pleasure and benefit of Cicero's return. His praises however will be as immortal as Cicero's writings, from whose repeated character of him we learn " that for parts, probity, virtue, modesty, and for every accomplishment of a fine gentleman and fine speaker, he scarce left his equal behind him among all the young nobles of that age*." Cicero had resolved to come home in virtue of the senate's decree, whether the law had passed or not ; but perceiving from the accounts of all his friends, that it could not be defeated any longer, he embarked for Italy on the fourth of August, the very day on which it was enacted, and lauded the next -at Brundisium, where he found his daugh- ter TuUia already arrived to receive him. The day happened to be the annual festival of the foundation of the town, as well as of the dedication ^ Quo die quis civiB fuit, qui non nefas esse putai'et, quacunque aut ffitate ant valetudine esset, non se de salute mea sententiam ferre ? — Post Red, in Sen. H. Nemo sibi nee valetudinis- excnsationeiu nee senectutis satis justam pntavit. — Pro Sext. 52. De me cum omnes magistratus promulgassent, prieter imum prsetorem, a quo non erat postulandum, fratrem iniraici mei, prieterque duos de lapide emptoa tribunes plebis— nulHs eomitiis unquam multitndinem hominum tantam, neque splendidiorem fuisse Vos rogatores, vos distributores, vos eustodes fuisse tabularum..— In Pison. 15. a Piso ille gener mens, cui pietatis suk fruetum, neque ex me, neque a populo Romano ferre lieuit. — Pro Sext. 31. Studio autem neminem nee industria majore cognovi; quanquam ne ingenio quidem qui prEestiterit, facile dixe- rim, C. Pisoni, genero meo. Nullum illi tempus vacabat, aut a forensi dictione, jiut a commentatione domestica, aut a suribendo aut a cogitando. Itaque tantos processus facie- bat, ut evolare non exeurrere videbatur, &c. — alia de Ulo majora dici possunt. Nam nee continentia, nee pietate, nee ullo genere virtutis, quenquam ejusdem astatis cum illo couferendum puto.— Brut. pp. 397, 390. of the temple of Safety at Rome, and the birth-day likewise of TuUia: as if Providence had thrown all these circumstances together to enhance the joy and solemnity of his landing, which was celebrated by the people with the most profuse expressions of mirth and gaiety. Cicero took up his quarters again with his old host Lenius Flaccus, who had entertained him so honourably in his distress, a person of great learning aswell as generosity. Here he received the welcome news in four days from Rome, that the law was actually ratified by the people with an incredible zeal and unanimity of all the centuries'". This obliged him to pursue his journey in all haste, and take leave of the Brundi- sians, who, by all the offices of private duty, as well as public decrees, endeavoured to testify their sincere respect for him. The fame of his landing and progress towards the city drew infinite multitudes from all parts to see him as he passed, and con- gratulate him on his return ; " so that the whole road was btit one continued street from Brundisium to Rome, lined on both sides with crowds of men, women, aiid children j nor was there a praefecture, town or colony throuigh Italy, which did not de- cree him statues or public honours, and send a deputation of their principal members to pay him their compliments ; that it was rather less than the truth, as Plutarch says, what Cicero himself tells us, that all Italy brought him back upon its shoulders". But that one day, says he, was worth an immortality, when on my approach towards the city the senate came out to receive me, followed by the whole body of the citizens, as if Rome itself had left its foundations, and marched forward to embrace its preserver*." As soon as he entered the gates he saw " the steps of all the temples, porticoes, and even the tops of houses covered with people, who saluted him with a universal acclamation as he marched forward towards the Capitol, where fresh multitudes were expeeting his arrival ; yet in the midst of all this joy he coidd not help grieving," h e says, within 1" Pridie Non. Sextil. Dyrrhaehio sum profectus, illo ipso die quo lex est lata de nobis. Brundisium veni Nonis : ibi mibi Tulliola mea prssto fuit, natali suo ipso die, qui easu idem natalis erat Brundisinse colonise ; et tus Ticins salutis. Quae res animadversa a multitudine, summa Bnuidisinorum gratulatione celebrata est. Ante diem sextum Id. Sext. cognovi. Uteris Quinti fratris, mirifico studio omnium jetatum atque ordinum, iucredibili con- cursu Italiae, legem eomitiis centiu-iatis esse perlatmn.^ AdAtt. iv. I. Cumque me domus eadem optimorum et doctissimorum virorum, Lenii Flaeci, et patris et fratris ejus laetissima accepisset, qus proximo anno mcerens receperat, et suo periculo praesidioque defenderat.' — Pro Sext. 63. (^ Mens quidem reditus is fuit, ut a Brundisio usque Komam agmen perpetuum totius Italis viderem. Neque enim regio fuit ulla, neque prsefectura, neque municipium aut colonia, ex qua non publico ad xne venerint gratulatum. Quid dicam adventus meos? Quid effusiones hominum ex oppidis ? Quid conem'sum ex agris patrum familias cum conjugibus ac liberis? &:c ^In Pison. 22. Italia cuueta psne suis humeris reportavit. — ^Post Red. in Sen. 15. Itinere toto urbes Italise festos dies agero adventus mei videbantur. Vise multitudine legatorumundiquemissorum celebrabantur. — Pro Sext. 63. ^ Unus ille dies mihi quidem instar immortalitatis fuit ^^}um senatiun egressum vidi, populumque Romanum uuiversum, cum mlM ipsa Roma, prope convulsa aedibua suis, ad complectendum cooaervatorcm suum procedere visa est.— In Pison. 22. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. Ill himself, " to reflect that a city so grateful to the de- fender of its liberty had been so miserably enslaved and oppressed'." The capitol was the proper seat or throne, as it were, of the majesty of the empire,* where stood the most magnificent fabric of Rome, the temple of Jupiter, or of that god whom they styled the greatest and the best', to whose shrine all who entered the city in pomp or triumph used always to make their first visit. • Cicero, therefore, before he had saluted his wife and family, was obliged to discharge himself here of his vows and thanks for his safe return ; where, in compliance with the popular superstition, he paid his devotion also to tlAt tutelary Minerva, whom, at his quit- ting Rome, he had placed in the temple of her father. From this office of religion he was con- ducted by the same company, and with the same acclamations, to his brother's house, where this great procession ended ; which, from one end of it to the other, was so splendid and triumphant, that he had reason, he says, to fear, lest people should imagine that he himself had contrived his late flight for the sake of so glorious a restoration*^. SECTION VI. Cicero's return was, what he himself truly calls it, the beginning of a new life to him*, which was to be governed by new maxims and a new kind of policy, yet so as not to forfeit his old character^ He had been made to feel in what hands the weight of power lay, and what little dependence was to be placed on the help and support of his aristocra- tical friends. Pompey had served him on this im- portant Occasion very sincerely, and with the con- currence also of Csesar, so as to make it a point of gratitude as well as prudence to be more ob- servant of them than he had hitherto been. The senate, on the other hand, with the magistrates and the honest of all ranks, were zealous in his cause ; and the consul Lentulus above all seemed to make it the sole end and glory of his adminis- tration''. This uncommon consent of opposite parties in promoting his restoration drew upon him a variety of obligations which must needs often clash and interfere with each other, and which it was his part still to manage so as to make them consistent vrith his honour, his safety, his private 8 Iter a porta, in Capitolium ascensus, domum reditus erat ejusmodi, ut Bumma in Isetitia illud dolerem, civita- tem tarn gratam, tarn miseram atque oppressam fuisse. — Pro Sext. 63. ' Quocirca te, Capitoline, quem propter beneficia, populus Bomanus Optimum, propter vim. Maximum, nominavit. —Pro Domo. 57 8 TJt tua mihi conscelerata ilia vis non modo non ]»n>pulsanda, sed etiam emenda fuisse videatm*. — Pro Domo, 28. * Alterius vita quoddam initium ordimur. [Ad Att. iv. 1.] In anotlier place he calls his restoration to his former dignity, tra^.iyyeveffiav, [Ad Att. vi. 6.] era new birth ; a word borrowed probably from the Pythagorean school, and applied afterwards by the sacred writers to the renovation of our nature by baptism, as well as our restoration to life after death in the general resurrection..— Matt. xix. 29 ; Tit. lit S. b Hoc specimen virtutis, hoc indiciiun animi, hoc lumen consulatus sui fore putavit, si me mihi, si meis, si reipub- licae reddidisset. — Post Ked. in Sen. 4. and his public duty : these were to be the springs and motives of his new Ufe — the hinges on which his future conduct was to turn — and to do justice severally to them all, and assign to each its proper weight and measure of influence, required his utmost skill and address'^. The day after his arrival, on the fifth of Sep- tember, the consuls summoned the senate to give him an opportunity of paying his thanks to them in public for their late services, where, after a general profession of his obligations to them all, he made his particular acknowledgments to each magistrate by name — to the consuls, the tribunes, the prsetors ; he addressed himself to the tribunes before the praetors, not for the dignity of their office, for in that they wer& inferior, but for their greater authority in making laws, and consequently their greater merit in carrying his law into effect. The number of his private friends was too great to make it possible for him to enumerate or thank them all ; so that he confined himself to the magis- trates, with exception only to Pompey'', whom, for the eminence of his character, though at present only a private man, he took care to distinguish by a personal address and compliment. But as Len- tulus was the first in office, and had served him with the greatest affection, so he gives him the first share of his praise, and in the overflowing of his gratitude styles him the parent and the god of his life and fortunes". The next day he paid his thanks likewise to the people in a speech from the rostra, where he dwelt chiefly on the same topics which he had used in the senate, celebrating the particular merits and services of his principal friends, especially of Pompey, whom he declares to be the greatest man for virtue, wisdom, glory, who was then living, or had lived, or ever would live, and that he owed more to him on this occa- sion than it was even lawful almost for one man to owe to another'. Both these speeches are still extant, and a pas- sage or two from each will illustrate the temper and disposition in which he returned. In speaking to the senate, after a particular recital of the services of his friends, he adds — " As I have a pleasure in enumerating these, so I willingly pass over in silence vfhat others wickedly acted against c Sed quia saepe concurrit, propter aliquorum de me meritorum inter ipsos contentiones, ut eodem tempore in omnes verear ne vix possim gratus videri. Sed ego hoc meis ponderibus examinabo, non solum quid cuique de- beam, sed etiam quid cujusque intersit, et quid a me cujusque tempug poseat. — Pro Plancio, 32. d Cum perpaucis nominatim gratias egissem, quod omnes enumerari nullo modo possent, seelus autem esset quen- quani prasteriri. — ^Ibid. 30. Hodiemo autem die nominatim a me magistratibus statul gratias esse agendas, et de privatis uni, qui pro salute mea munioipia, coloniasque adiisset. — Post Red. in Sen. 12. e Princeps P. Lentulus, parens ac deus nostrae vitae, fortunae, &o.— Ibid. 4. It was a kind of maxim among the ancients ; that to dogood to a mortal, was to be a god to a mortal. Xteus estmortalitjuvaremortalem. [Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 7.] Thus Cicero, as he calls Lentulus here his god, so on other occasions gives the same appellation to Plato, Deus ille nosier Plato-iAa.Mt.iY.lS.-] to express the highest sense of the benefits received from them. ' Cn. Pompeius, vir omnium qui sunt, fuerunt, erimt, princeps vktute, sapientia, ao gloria^Huio ego homkii, Quirites, tantimi debeo, quantum hominemhomini dpbero vix fas est.— Post Red. ad Quir. 7. 112 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF me. It is not my present business to remember injuries, which, if it were in my power to revenge, I should choose to forget ; my life shall be applied to other purposes — to repay the good offices of those who have deserved it of me ; to hold fast the friendships which have been tried as it were in the fire ; to wage war with declared enemies ; to pardon my timorous, nor yet expose my treacherous friends ; and to balance the misery of my exile by the dignity of my returns." To the people he observes, " that there were four sorts of enemies who concurred to oppress him — the first, who, out of hatred to the republic, were mortal enemies to him for having saved it ; the second, who, under a false pretence of friendship, in- famously betrayed him ; the third, who, through their inability to obtain what he had acquired, were envious of his dignity ; the fourth, who, though by office they ought to have been the guar- dians of the republic, bartered away his safety, the peace of the city, and the dignity of the empire, which were committed to their trust. I will take my revenge, says he, on each of them, agreeably to the different manner of their provocation, on the bad citizens, by defending the republic strenu- ously ; on my perfidious friends, by never trusting them again ; on the envious, by continuing my steady pursuit of virtue and glory ; on those mer chants of provinces, by calling them home to give an account of tlieir administration : but I am more solicitous how to acquit myself of my obligations to you for your great services, than to resent the injuries and cruelties of my enemies ; for it is much easier to revenge an injury than to repay a kindness, and much less trouble to get the better of bad men than to equal the good''." This affair being happily over, the senate had leisure again to attend to public business ; and there was now a case before them of a very urgent nature, which required a present remedy, — an un- usual scarcity of corn and provisions in the city, which had been greatly increased by the late con- course of people from all parts of Italy on Cicero's account, and was now felt very severely by the poorer citizens. They had borne it with much patience while Cicero's return was in agitation; comforting themselves with a notion, that if he was once restored plenty would be restored with him ; but finding the one at last effected without the other, thby began to grow clamorous, and unable to endure their hunger any longer. Clodius could not let slip so fair an opportunity of exciting some new disturbance, and creating fresh trouble to Cicero, by charging the calamity to his score : for this end he employed a number of young fellows to run all night about the streets making a lamentable outcry for bread, and calling upon Cicero to relieve them from the famine to which he had reduced them ; as if he had got some hidden store or magazine of corn secreted from common use'. He sent his mob also to the theatre in which the prsetor Coecilius, Cicero's particular B Post Red. in gen. 9. t Post Red. ad ftuir. 9. ' Qui facuUate oblata, ad imperitorum animos inoitan- dos, renovaturum te ilia funesta latrooinia ob annonte causam putavisti. — Pro Domo, 5. Quid? puerorum ilia concursatio nocturna? num a to ipso instituta me frumentum flagitabant? Quasi vcro ego aut rei frumentariiE praefuissem, aut compressimi ali- quod frumentum tenerem ^Ibid. 6. friend, was exhibiting the ApoUinarian shows, where they raised such a terror, that they drove tlie whole company out of it : then, in the same tumultuous manner, they marched to the temple of Concord, whither Metellus had summoned the senate ; but happening to meet with Metellus in the way, they presently attacked him with volleys of stones, with some of which they wounded even the consul himself, who, for the greater security, immediately adjourned the senate into the capitol. They were led on by two desperate ruffians, their usual commanders, M. LoUius and M. Sergius; the first of whom had in Clodius's tribunate un- dertaken the task of killing Pompey, the second had been captain of the guard to CatiUne, and was probably of his family'' : but Clodius, encouraged by this hopeful beginning, put himself at their head in person, and pursued the senate into the capitol, in order to disturb their debates, and pre- vent their providing any relief for the present evil, and above all to excite the meaner sort to some violence against Cicero. But he soon found, to his great disappointment, that Cicero was too strong in the affections of the city to be hurt again so soon : for the people themselves saw through his design, and were so provoked at it that they turned universally against him and drove him out of the field with all his mercenaries ; when, per- ceiving that Cicero was not present in the senate, they called out upon him by name with one voice, and would not be quieted till he came in person to undertake their cause, and propose some expedient for their relief. He had kept his house all that day, and resolved to do so till he saw the issue of the tumult ; but when he understood that Clodius was repulsed, and that his presence was universally required by the consuls, the senate, and the whole people, he came to the senate-house in the midst of their debates, and being presently asked his opinion, proposed that Pompey should be entreated to undertake the province of restoring plenty to the city, and, to enable him to execute it with effect, should be invested with an absolute power over all the public stores and corn-rents of the empire through all the provinces. The motion was readily accepted, and a vote immediately passed that a law should be prepared for that purpose and offered to the people'. AH the consular senators were absent, except M essala and Afranius : they pretended to ^ Cum homines ad theatrum prime, deinde ad senatiun concurrissent impulsu Clodii. — Ad Att. iv. 1. Concursus est ad templum Concordiae factus, senatum illuc vocante Metello — Qui sunt homines a Q. Metello, in senatu palam uominati, a quibus ille se lapidibus appeti- tum, etiam percussum esse dixit.— Quis est iste Lollius ? Qui te tribune plebis.' — Cn. Pompeium interficiendum depoposcit,— Quis est Sergius ? armiger Catilina;, stipator tui corporis, signifer seditionis — ^his atque hujusmodi duci- bus, cum tu in annonse caritate in consules, in senatum — repen tines impetus comparares.— Pro Domo, 5. ' Ego vero domi me tenui, quamdiu turbulentum tem- pus fuit — cum servos tuos ad rapinajn, ad bonorura csedem paratos — armatos etiam in Capitolium tecum venisse con- stabat— scio me domi mansisse — posteaquam milii nunci.a- tum est, populum Romaimm in Capitolium — convenissc, mmistros autem seelerum tuorum perterritos, partim amissis gladiis, partim ereptis diflFugisse ; veni non solum sine uUis copiis, ae maun, verum etiam cum paucis amicis.— Ibid. 3. Ego denique, a populo Romano universo, qui turn in Capitolium convenerat, cum illo die mmus valercm, nominatim in sc-natum vocabar. Veni exspcetatus ; multis MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. lis be afraid of the mob ; but the real cause was their unwillingness to concur in granting this commission to Pompey. The consuls carried the decree with them into the rostra, and read it publicly to the people, who, on the mention of Cicero's name, in which it was drawn, gave a universal shout of applause ;' upon which, at the desire of all the ma- gistrates, Cicero made a speech to them, setting forth the reasons and necessity of the decree, and giving them the comfort of a speedy relief from the vigilance and authority of Pompey". The absence, however, of the consular senators gave a handle to reflect upon the act, as not free and valid, but extorted by fear, and without the inter- vention of the principal members ; but the very next day, in a fuller house, when all those senators were present, and a motion was made to revoke the decree, it was unanimously rejected" ; and the consuls were ordered to draw up a law conformable to it, by which the whole administration of the com and provisions of the republic was to be granted to Pompey for five years, with a power of choosing fifteen lieutenants to assist him in it. This furnished Clodius with fresh matter of abuse upon Cicero : he charged him with ingra- titude and the desertion of the senate, which had always been firm to him, in order to pay his court to a man who had betrayed him ; and that he was so silly as not to know his own strength and credit in the city, and how able he was to maintain his authority without the help of Pompey". But Cicero defended himself by saying, " that they must not expect to play the same game upon him now that he was restored, with which they had ruined him before, by raising jealousies between him and Pompey ; that he had smarted for it too severely already, to be caught again in the same trap ; that in decreeing this commission to Pom- pey, he had discharged both his private obligations to a friend and his public duty to the state ; that those who grudged all extraordinary power to Pompey, must grudge the victories, the triumphs, the accession of dominion and revenue, which their former grants of this sort had procured to the empire; that the success of those showed what fruit they were to expect from this'." But what authority soever this law conferred on Pompey, his creatures were not yet satisfied with jam sententii*dicti8, rogatua sum sententiam ; dixi reipub- licfE saluTierrimaui) mihi necessariam. — Pro Domo, 7- Factum est S. C. in meam sententiam, ut cum Pompeio ageretur, ut earn rem susoiperet, lexque ferretur.— Ad Att. IT. 1. ™ Cum aliessent consulares, quod tuto se negarent posse sententiam dicere, prater Messalatu et Afranium — Ibid. Quo S. C. recitato, cum continue more hoc insulso et novo plausum, meo nomine recitando dedisset, babui con- cionem.— Ibid. ^ At enim liberum senatus judicium propter metum non fuit.— Pro Domo, 4. Postridie senatus frequens, et omnes consulares nihil Pompeio postulanti negarunt. — Ad Att. iv. 1. Cum omnes adessent, coeptum est refeiTi de inducendo S. C. ; ab universo senatu reclamatum est. — Pro Domo, 4. o Tune es ille, inquit, quo senatus carere non potuit ?— • quo restituto, senatusauctoritatem restitutam putabamus ? quam primum adveniena prodidiati . — Ibid. 2. Nescit quantum auctoritate valeat, quas res gesserit, qua dignitate sit restitutus. Cur omat eum a quo desertus est?— Ibid. 11. P Desinant homines iisdem machmis sperare me restitu- tnm posse labefactari, quibus antea stantem perculcrunt it ; so that Messius, one of the tribunes, proposed another, to give him the additional power of rais- ing what money, fleets and armies he thought fit, with a greater command through all the provinces than their proper governors had in each. Cicero's law seemed modest in comparison of Messius's. Pompey pretended to be content with the first, whilst all his dependants were pushing for the last ; they expected that Cicero would come over to them, but he continued silent, nor would stir a step farther, — for his affairs were still in such a state as obliged him to act with caution, and to manage both the senate and the men of power : the conclusion was, that Cicero's law was received by all parties, and Pompey named him for his first lieutenant, declaring that he should consider him as a second self, and act nothing without his ad- vice'. Cicero accepted the employment, on con- dition that he might be at liberty to use or resign it at pleasure, as he found it convenient to his affairs'^ : but he soon after quitted it to his brother, and chose to continue in the city, where he had the pleasure to see the end of his law effectually answered ; for the credit of Pompey's name imme- diately reduced the price of victuals in the markets, and his vigour and diligence in prosecuting the affair soon established a general plenty. Cicero was restored to his former dignity, but not to his former fortunes ; nor was any satisfac- tion yet made to him for the ruin of bis houses and estates : a full restitution indeed had been decreed, but was reserved to his return ; which came now before the senate to be considered and settled by public authority, where it met still with great obstruction. The chief difficulty was about his Palatine house, which he valued above all the rest, and which Clodius for that reason had con- trived to ahenate, as he hoped, irretrievably, by demolishing the fabric, and dedicating a temple upon the area to the goddess Liberty ; where, to make his work the more complete, he pulled down also the adjoining portico of Catulus, that he might build it up anew of the same order with his temple, and by blending the public with private property, and consecrating the whole to religion, might make it impossible to separate or restore any part to Cicero, — since a consecration, legally per- formed, made the thing consecrated unapplicable ever after to any private use. This portico was buUt, as has been said, on the spot where Fulvius Placcus formerly lived, whose house was publicly demolished for the treason of — data merces est erroris mei magna, ut me non solum pigeat stultitiee mes?, sed etiam pudeat. — Pro Domo, 11. Cn, Pompeio — ^maxima terra mavique bella extra ordi- nem esse commissa: quarum rerum si quem pceniteat, eum victorias populi Homani necesse est poenitere.-rlbid. 8. <1 Legem consules conscripserunt — alteram Messius, qua omnis pecunia? dat potestatem, et adjungit classem ct exercitum, et majus imperium in provinciis, quam sit eorum, qui eas obtinent. Ilia nostra lex consularis nunc modesta videtur, h«c Messii non ferenda. Pompeius illam velle se dicit; familiares banc. Consulares duco Favonio fremunt, nos tacemus ; et eo magis quod de domo nostra nihil adbuc pontifices responderunt. Ille legates quindecim cum postularet, me principem nominavit, et ad omnia me alterum so fore dixit.— Ad Att. iv. 1. J^ Ego me a Pompeio legari ita sum passus, ut nulla ra impedirer, quod ne, si vellem, mihi esset integrum.— Ibid. 2. I 114 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF its master ; and it was Clodius's design to join Cicero's to it under the same denomination, as the perpetual memorial of a disgrace and punishment inflicted by the people'. When he had finished the portico, therefore, and annexed his temple to it, which took up but a small part, scarce a tenth, of Cicero's house, he left the rest of the area void, in order to plant a grove or walks of pleasure upon it, as had been usual in such cases ; where, as it has been observed, he was prosecuting a particular interest, as well as indulging his malice in obstruct- ing the restitution of it to Cicero. The affair was to he determined by the college of priests, who were the judges in all cases relating to religion ; for the senate could only make a pro- visional decree, that if the priests discharged the ground from the service of religion, then the con- suls should take an estimate of the damage, and make a contract for rebuilding the whole at the public charge, so as to restore it to Cicero in the condition in which he left it'. The priests, there- fore, of all orders, were called together on the last of September to hear this cause, which Cicero pleaded in person before them ; they were men of the first dignity and families in the republic ; and there never was, as Cicero tells us, so full an ap- pearance of them in any cause since the foundation of the city : he reckons up nineteen by name, — a great part of whom were of consular rank.". His first care, before he entered into the merits of the question, was to remove the prejudices which his enemies had been labouring to instil, on the account of his late conduct in favour of Pompey, by ex- plaining the motives and showing the necessity of it ; contriving at the same time to turn the odium on the other side, by running over the history of Clodius's tribunate, and painting all its violences in the most lively colours ; but the question on which the cause singly turned was about the efficacy of the pretended consecration of the house and the dedication of the temple. To show the nullity, therefore, of this act, he endeavours to overthrow the very foundation of it, " and prove Clodius's tribunate to be originally null and void, from the invalidity of his adoption, on which it was entirely grounded:" he shows, "that the sole end of adoption which the laws acknowledged was to sup- ply the want of children, by borrowing them as it were from other families ; that it was an essential condition of it that he who adopted had no children of his own, nor was in condition to have any ; that the parties concerned were obliged to appear before the priests to signify their consent, the cause of the adoption, the circumstances of the families interested in it, and the nature of their religious rites ; that the priests might judge of the whole, and see that there was no fraud or deceit in it, nor any dishonour to any family or person concerned. That nothing of all this had been observed in the case of Clodius. That the adopter was not fuU twenty years old when he adopted a senat or who » Ut domus M. TuUii Cioeronis cum domo Pulvii Flacoi ad memoi-iam poenae puUice constitute oonjunota esse vidcatur.— Pro Domo, 38. ' Qui si sustulerint religionem, aream prseclaram halje- bimus: superficiem consules ex S. O. asstimabunt.— Ad Att. iv. 1. ^ Nego unquam post sacra constituta, quorum eadem est antiquitas, quie ipsius urbie, ulla de re, ne de capite quidem Virginum VestaUum, tarn frequens collegiiuu judicasso.— De Hai-usp. Resp. 6, 7. was old enough to be his father : that he had no occasion to adopt, since he had a wife and children, and would probably have more, which he must necessarily disinherit by this adoption, if it was real : that Clodius had no other view than, by the pretence of an adoption, to make himself a plebeian and tribune, in order to overturn the state : that the act itself which confirmed the adoption was nuU and illegal, being transacted while Bibulus was observing the auspices, which was contrary to express law, and huddled over in three hours by Cffisar, when it ought to have been published for three market days successively, at the interval of nine days eaoh^ : that if the adoption was irregular and illegal, as it certainly was, the tribunate must needs be so too, which was entirely built upon it : but granting the tribunate after all to be valid, be- cause some eminent men would have it so, yet the act made afterwards for his banishment could not possibly be considered as a law, but as a privilege only, made against a particular person, which the sacred laws and the laws of the twelve tables had utterly prohibited : that it was contrary to the very constitution of the republic to punish any citizen, either in body or goods, till he had been accused in proper form, and condemned of some crime by competent judges : that privileges, or laws to inflict penalties on single persons by name, without a legal trial, were cruel and pernicious, and nothing better than proscriptions, and of all things not to be endured in their city?." Then in entering upon the question of his house, he de- clares, " that the whole efiect of his restoration depended upon it ; that if it was not given back to him, but suffered to remain a monument of triumph to his enemy, of grief and calamity to himself, he could not consider it as a restoration, but a per- petual punishment : that his house stood in the view of the whole people ; and if it must con- tinue in its present state, he should be forced to remove to some other place, and could never endure to live in that city in which he must always see trophies erected both against himself and the republic : the house of Sp. Melius, (says he,) who affected a tyranny, was levelled ; and by the name of .iEquimeliiim, given to the place, the people con- firmed the equity of his punishment : the house of Sp. Cassius was overturned also for the same cause, and a temple raised upon it to Tellus : M. Vaccus's house was confiscated and levelled ; and, to per- petuate the memory of his treason, the place is still called Vaccus's meadows : M. Manlius, like- wise, after he had repulsed the Gauls from the capital, not content with the glory of that service, was adjudged to aim at dominion ; so that his house was demolished where you now see the two groves planted. Must I, therefore, suffer that punishment which our ancestors inflicted as the greatest on wicked and traitorous citizens ; that posterity may consider me, not as the oppressor, but the author and captain of the conspiracy' V When he comes to speak to the dedication itself, he observes, " that the goddess Liberty, to which the temple was dedicated, was the known statue of a celebrated strumpet, which Appins brought from * Pro Domo, 13, 14, 15, 16. y Ibid. 17.— In privos homines leges ferri noluerunt ; id est enim privllegium : quo quid est injustius?—De Legib iii. 19. 2 Pro Domo, 37, 38. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 115 Greece for the ornament of his iedileahip ; and upon dropping the thoughts of that magistracy, gave to his brother Clodius to be advanced into a deity' : that the ceremony was performed without any licence or judgment obtained from the college of priests, by the single ministry of a raw young man, the brother-in-law of Clodius, who had been made priest but a few days before, — a mere novice in his business, and forced into the service'' : but if all had been transacted regularly and in due form, that it could not possibly have any force, as being contrary to the standing laws of the republic : for there was an old tribunitian law made by Q. Papirius, which prohibited the consecration of houses, lands, or altars, without the express com- mand of the people ; which was not obtained nor even pretended in the present case" : that great regard had always been paid to this law in several instances of the gravest kind : that Q. Marcius, the censor, erected a statue of Concord in a public part of the city, which C. Cassius afterwards, when censor, removed into the senate-house, and con- sulted the college of priests whether he might not dedicate the statue and the house also itself to Concord ; upon which M. iEmilius, the high- priest, gave answer, in the name of the college, that unless the people had deputed him by name, and he acted in it by their authority, they were of opinion that he could not rightly dedicate them^ : that Licinia also, a vestal virgin, dedicated an altar and little temple under the sacred rook ; upon which S. Julius, the prsetor, by order of the senate, consulted the college of priests ; for whom P. Scsevola, the high-priest, gave, answer, that what Licinia had dedicated in a public place, without any order of the people, could not be considered ag sacred : so that the senate enjoined the praetor to see it desecrated, and to efface whatever had been inscribed upon it. After all this, it was to no purpose, he tells them, to mention what he had proposed to speak to in the last place, that the dedication was not performed with any of the solemn words and rites which such a. function required, but by the ignorant young man before- mentioned, without the help of his colleagues, his books, or any to prompt him ; especially when Clodius, who directed him, that impure enemy of all religion, who often acted the woman among men, as well as the man among women, huddled over the whole ceremony in a blundering precipitate manner, faltering and confounded in mind, voice, and speech, often recalling himself, doubting, fearing, hesitating, and performing everything quite contrary to what the sacred books prescribed : nor is it strange (says he), that in an act so mad and viilanous, his audaciousness could not get the better of his fears ; for what pirate, though ever so barbarous, after he had been plundering temples, when pricked by a dream or scruple of religion, he came to consecrate some altar on a desert shore, was not terrified in his 'mind on being forced to appease that deity by his prayers whom he had provoked by his sacrilege ? In what hor- rors, then, think you, must this man needs be, the plunderer of all temples, houses, and the whole city, when for the expiation of so many impieties ne was wickedly consecrating one single altar" ? " " Pro Domo, 43. = Ibid. 49. " Ibid. 54, 65. b Ibid. 45. " Ut nulla re impedirer, quod ne si vellem, mihi essct integrum, aut si comitia censorum proximi consules babe- rent, petere posso, aut votivam legationem sumsisse prope omnium fanorum, luconim. — Ad Att. iv. 2. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 117 the other hand, was suing for the sedileshipt to secure himself, for one year more at least, from any prosecution : he was sure of being condemned if ever he was brought to trial, so that whatever mischief he did in the mean time was all clear gain, and could not make his cause the worse" : he now therefore gave a free course to his natural fury ; was perpetually scouring the streets with his incendiaries, and threatening fire and sword to the city itself, if an assembly was not called for the election of sediles. In this humour, about a week after his last outrage, on the eleventh of November, happening to meet with Cicero in the sacred street, he presently assaulted him with stones, clubs, and drawn swords : Cicero was not prepared for the encounter, and took refuge in the vestibule of the next house ; where his attendants rallying in his defence, beat off the assailants, and could easily have killed their leader, but that Cicero was willing, he says, to cure by diet, rather than surgery. The day following Clodins attacked Milo's house, with sword in hand and lighted flambeaus, with intent to storm and bum it : but Milo was never unpro- vided for him ; and Q. Flaccus, sallying out with a strong band of stout fellows, killed several of his men, and would have killed Clodius too, if he had not hid himself in the inner apartments of • P. Sylla's house, which he made use of on this occasion as his fortress". The senate met, on the fourteenth, to take these disorders into consideration ; Clodius did not think fit to appear there ; but Sylla came, to clear him- self probably from the suspicion of encouraging him in these violences, on account of the freedom which he had taken with his housed. Many severe speeches were made, and vigorous counsels pro- posed ; Marcellinus's opinion was, that Clodius should be impeached anew for these last outrages ; and that no election of sediles should be suffered till he was brought to a trial : Milo declared, that as long as he continued in office, the consul Metellus should make no election ; for he would take the auspices every day on which an assembly could be held ; but Metellus contrived to waste the day in speaking, so that they were forced to break up without making any decree. Milo was as good as his word, and, having gathered a superior force, took care to obstruct the election ; though the consul Metellus employed all his power and art to elude his vigilance, and procure an assembly by stratagem ; calling it to one place and holding it in another, sometimes in the field of Mars, " Armatis hominibus ante diem in, Non. Novemb. expulsi sunt fabri de area nostra, jisturbata porticus Ca- tuli — Qua ad tectum psne pervenerat. Quinti fratris domus primo fracta conjectu lapidum, ex area nostra, delude jussu Clodii inflammata, inspectante urbe, conjectis ignibUB. ^Videt, si omnes quos vult palam occiderit, nihilo Buam eausam difficUiorem, quam adhuc sit, in judicio futuram.— Ad Att. iv. 3. " Ante diem ^tium Id. Novemb. cum sacra via descen- derem, insecutus est me cum suig. Clamor, lapides, fustes, gladii ; hsBc improvisa omnia. Discessimus in vestibulum Tertil Damionis : qui erant mecum facile operas aditu prohibuerunt. Ipse occidi potuit; eed ego diaeta cm-are incipio, chirurgis taBdet.— Miloni'a domum pridie Id. ex- pugnare et incendere ita conatus est, ut palam hora quinta oum Bcutis homines, eductis gladiis, alios cum accensia (acibiia adduxerit. Ipse domum P. Syllae pro castrls ad earn impugnationem sumpserat, &:c.— Ad Att. iv. 3. ' Sylla Ee in senatu postridie Idus, domi Clodius.— Ibid, sometimes in the forum ; but Milo was ever beforehand with him; and, keeping a constant guard in the field from midnight to noon, was always at hand to inhibit his proceedings, by obnouncing, as it was called, or declaring, that he was taking the auspices on that day ; so that the three brothers were baffled and disappointed, though they were perpetually haranguing and labouring to inflame the people against those who interrupted their assemblies and right of electing ; where Metellus's speeches were turbulent, Appius's rash, Clodius's furious. Cicero, who gives this account to Atticus, was of opinion, that there would be no election ; and that Clodius would be brought to trial, if he was not first killed by Milo ; which was likely to be his fate : " Milo (says he) makes no scruple to own it ; being not deterred by my misfortune, and having no envious or perfidious counsellors about him, nor any lazy nobles to discourage him : it is commonly given out by the other side, that what he does, is all done by my advice ; but they little know how much conduct, as well as courage, there is in this heroi." Young Lentulus, the son of the consul, was, by the interest of his father and the recommendation of his noble birth, chosen into the college of augurs this summer, though not yet seventeen years old ; having but just changed his puerilp for the manly gown ' : Cicero was invited to the inauguration feast, where by eating too freely of some vegetables, which happened to please his palate, he was seized with a violent pain of the bowels, and diarrhoea ; of which he sends the fol- lowing account to his friend Gallus. Cicero to Gallus. " After I had been labouring for ten days, with a cruel disorder in my bowels, yet could not con- vince those who wanted me at the bar that I was ill because I had no fever, I ran away to Tus- culum ; having kept so strict a fast for two days before, that I did not taste so much as water : being worn out therefore with illness and fasting, I wanted rather to see you, than imagined that you expected a visit from me : for my part, I am afraid, I confess, of all distempers ; but especially of those for which the Stoics abuse your Epicurus, when he complains of the strangury and dysentery j 1 EgregiuB Marcellinus, omnes a^res ; Metellus calumtiia dicendi tempus exemit : conciones turbulentas Metelli, temerarix Appii, f urioBissims Clodii ; haec tamen simima, nisi Milo in Gampum obnunciasset, comitia futura. — Comitia fore non arbitror ; rcum Fublium, nisi ante occisus erit, fore a Milone puto. Si se inter viam obtulerit^ occisum iri ab ipso Milone video. Non dubitat facere; pnT se fert ; casum illiun nostrum non extimescit, &c. Meo consilio omnia illi fieri querebantur, ignari quan- tum in iUo heroe esset animi, quantum etiam consilii Ad Att. iv. 3. N.B.— From these facts it appears, that what is said above, of Clodius's repealing the .^lian and Fusian laws, and prohibitmg the magistrates from obstructing the assemblies of the people, is to be understood only in a partial sense, and that his new law extended no farther than to hinder the magistrates from dissolving an assembly after it was actually convened and had entered upon business ; for it was still unlawful, we see, to convene an assembly while the magistrate was in the act of observmg the heavens. ' Cui superior annus idem et virilem patris et prse- textam po^uli judicio togam dederit. — Pro Sext. 69 ; it. Dio, 1. xxiix. p. £)D. 118 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF tne one of which they take to be the effect of glut- tony ; the other of a more scandalous intemper- ance. I was apprehensive indeed of a dysentery ; but seem to have found benefit, either from the change of air, or the relaxation of my mind, or the remission of the disease itself : but that you may not be surprised how this should happen, and what I have been doing to bring it upon me ; the sumptuary law, which seems to introduce a sim- plicity of diet, did me all this mischief. For since our men of taste are grown so fond of covering their tables with the productions of the earth which are excepted by the law, they have found a way of dressing mushrooms and all other vegetables so palatably, that nothing can be more deUcious : I happened to fall upon these at Lentulus's augural supper, and was taken with so violent a flux, that this is the first day on which it has begun to give me any ease. Thus I, who nsed to command myself so easily in oysters and lampreys, ■was caught with beet and mallows ; but I shall be more cautious for the future : you however, who must have heard of my illness from Anicius, for he saw me In a fit of vomiting, had a just reason, not only for sending, but for coming yourself to see me. I think to stay here till I recruit myself ; for I have lost both my strength and my flesh ; but if I once get rid of my distemper, it will be easy, I hope, to recover the rest'." icing Ptolemy left Rome about this time, after he had distributed immense sums among the great, to purchase his restoration by a Roman army. The people of Egypt had sent deputies also after him, to plead their cause before the senate, and to explain the reasons of their expelling him ; but the king contrived to get .them all assassinated on the road, before they reached the city. This piece of villany, and the notion of his having bribed all the magistrates, had raised so general an aversion to him among the people, that he found it advis- able to quit the city and leave the management of his interest to his agents. The consul Lentulus, who had obtained the province of Cilicia and Cyprus, whither he was prepaiing to set forward, was very desirous to be charged with the com- mission of replacing him on his throne j for which he had already procured a vote of the senate : the opportunity of a command, almost in sight of Egypt, made him generally thought to have the best pretensions to that charge ; and he was assured of Cicero's warm assistance in soliciting the con- firmation of it. In this situation of affairs, the new tribunes entered into office ; C. Cato, of the same family with his namesake Marcus, was one of the number ; a bold, turbulent man, of no temper or prudence, yet a tolerable speaker, and generally on the better side in politics. Before he had borne any public » Ep. Fam. vii. 26. N.B. Pliny says, that the colum, by whioh he is sup- posed to mean the colic, was not known at Rome till the reign of Tiberius ; hut the case described in this letter seems to come so very near to it, that he must he under- stood, rather of the name, than of the thing ; as the learned Dr. Le Clerc has observed in hia History of Medicine.—. Pliu, 1. xxvi. 1 : Le Clcrc, Hist. par. ii. 1. 4. sect. ii. c. 4. The mention likewise of the SvffovpiKh. TrtiOlJ, or the strangurp of Epicurus, and the censure which the Stoics passed upon it, would malce one apt to suspect, that some disorders of a venereal kind were not unknown to the ancients. oiEce, he attempted to impeach Gabinius of bnbery and corruption ; but not being able to get an audience of the prffitors, he had the hardiness to mount the rostra, which was never allowed to a private citizen, and, in a speech to the people, declared Pompey dictator : but his presumption had like to have cost him dear ; for it raised such an indignation In the audience, that he had much difficulty to escape with his life'. He opened his present magistracy by declaring loudly against king Ptolemy, and all who favoured him; espe- cially Lentulus ; whom he supposed to be under some private engagement with him, and for that reason was determined to baffle all their schemes. Lupus likewise, one of his colleagues, summoned the senate, and raised an expectation of some nn ■ common proposal from him ; it was indeed of an extraordinary nature j to revise and annul that famed act of Caesar's consulship, for the division of the Campanian lands : he spoke long and well upon it, and was heard with much attention ; A. D. in. Id. dixi pro Bestia de ambitu apud prie- torem Cn. Domitium, in foro medio, maximo conventu. — Ad Quint, ii. 3. Cogor nommnquam homines non optime de me meritos, rogatu eorum qui bene meriti sunt, defendere.^Ep. Pam. vii. 1 ; vid. Philip, si. 5. ; SaUust. Bell. Cat. 17, 43 ; Plutar. in Cie. n Ilium enim arbitrabar etiam sine hoc subsidio pecimiBe retinere exercitum praeda ante parta, et bellum conficere posse : sed deeus illud et omamentum triumphi miuuen- dvim nostra parsimonia non putavi. — Et quas regiones, quasque gentcs nulls nobis antea literie, uuila vox, nulla fama notaa fecerat, has noster imperator, nosterque exercitus, et populi Bomani arma peragrarunt.— De Prov. Consul, xi. 13. to call Casar home from an unfinished war, and stop the progress of his arms in the very height of his success ; yet the real motive of his conduct seems to have flowed, not so much from the merits of the cause, as a regard to the condition of the times, and his own circumstances. For in his private letters he owns, " that the malevolence and envy of the aristocratical chiefs had almost driven him from his old principles ; and though not so far as to make him forget his dignity, yet so as to take a proper care of his safety ; both which might be easily consistent : if there was any faith or gravity ill the consular senators : but they had managed their matters so ill, that those who were superior to them in power, were become superior too in autho- rity ; so as to be able to carry in the senate, what they could not have carried even with the people without violence : that he had learnt from experi- ence, what he could not learn so well from books, that as no regard was to be had to our safety, with- out a regard also to our dignity, so the consideration of dignity ought not to exclude the care of our safety"." In another letter he says, " that the state andform of the government was quite changed; and what he had proposed to himself as the end of all his toils, a dignity and liberty of acting and voting, was quite lost and gone ; that there was nothing left, but either meanly to assent to the few, who governed all ; or weakly to oppose them, with- out doing any good : that he had dropped therefore all thoughts of that old consular gravity and cha- racter of a resolute senator, and resolved to conform himself to Pompey's will ; that his great affection to Pompey made him begin to think all things right which were useful to him ; and he comforted him- self with reflecting, that the greatness of his ohH- gations would make all the world excuse him for defending what Pompey liked, or at least for not opposing it : or else, what of all things he most desu'ed, if his friendship with Pompey would per- mit him, for retiring from public business, and giving himself wholly up to his books p." But he was now engaged in a cause, in which he was warmly and specially interested, the defence of P. Sextius, the late tribune. Clodius, who gave o Quorum malevolentissimis obtrectationibus nos scito de vetere ilia nostra, diutumaque sententia prope jam esse depulsos : non nos quidem ut nostrse dignitatis simus obliti, sed ut babeacm.us rationcm aliquando etiam salutia. Poterat utrumque prseclare, si esset fides, si gravitas in homiuibus consularibus, — Nam qui plus opibus, armis, potentia valent, profecisse tantum mihi videntur stultitia et inconstantia adver- sariorum, ut etiam auctoritate jam plus valerent. — Quod ipse, Uteris omnibus a pueritia deditus, experiundo tamen magis, quam discendo cognovi ; — ^neque salutis nostrffi rationem habendam nobis esse sine dignitate, neque digni- tatis sine salute. — ^Ep. Fam. i. 7. P Tantum enim animi Inductio et niehercule amor erga Pompeium apud me valet, ut, qua illi utilia sunt, et quas llle vult, ea mihi omnia jam et reota et vera videantur— Mb quidem ilia res consolatur,^ quod ego is sum, cui vel maxime' concedant omnes, ut vel ea defendam, quae Pom- peius velit, vel taceam, vel etiam, id quod mibi maxime lubet, ad nostra me studia referam literarum ; quod pro- fecto faciam, si mihi per ejusdem amicitiam licebit. — QusE enim proposita fuerant nobis, ciun et honoribus amplisssimis, et laboribus maximia perfuncti essemus, dignitas in sententiis dicendis, libertas in republica oapessenda; ea sublata tota: sed nee mihi magis, quam omnibus. Nam aut assentiendum est nulla cum gravitate paucis, aut frustra dissentiondum.— Ibid. 8. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 123 Cicero's friends no respite, having himself under- talcen Milo, assigned the prosecution of Sextius to one of his confidants, M. Tullius Albiuovanus, who accused him of public violence or breach of peace in his tribunate'. Sextius had been a true friend to Cicero in his distress ; and borne a great part in his restoration ; but as in cases of eminent service, conferred jointly by many, every one is apt to claim the iirst merit, and expect the first share of praise ; so Sextius, naturally morose, fancying himself neg- lected or not sufficiently requited by Cicero, had behaved very churlishly towards him since his return : but Cicero, who was never forgetful of past kindnesses, instead of resenting his perverse- ness, having heard that Sextius was indisposed, went in person to his house, and cured him of all his jealousies, by freely offering his assistance and ■patronage in pleading his cause'. This was a disappointment to the prosecutors ; who flattered themselves that Cicero was so much disgusted, that he would not be persuaded to plead for him ; but he entered into the cause with a hearty inclination, and made it, as in etfect it really was, his own". In his speech, which is «tiU extant, after laying open the history of his exile, and the motives of his own conduct through the whole pro- gress of it, he shows, "that the only ground of prosecuting Sextius was, his faithful adherence to him, or rather to the republic ; that by condemning Sextius, they would in effect condemn him, whom all the orders of the city had declared to be unjustly expelled, by the very same men who were now attempting to expel Sextius : that it was a banter and ridicule on j nstice itself, to accuse a man of violence, who had been left for dead upon the spot by the violence of those who accused him ; and whose only crime it was, that he would not suffer himself to be quite killed, but presumed to guard his life against their future attempts." In short, he managed the cause so well, that Sextius was acquitted, and in a manner the most honourable, by the unanimous suffrages of all the judges ; and with a universal applause of Cicero's humanity and gratitude'. Pompey attended this trial as a friend to Sextius ; while Caesar's creature, Vatinius, appeared not only as an adversary but a vritness against him : which gave Cicero an opportunity of lashing him, as Sex- tius particularly desired, with all the keenness of his raillery, to the great diversion of the audience ; for instead of interrogating him in the ordinary way about the facts deposed in the trial, he contrived to tease him with a perpetual series of questions, which revived and exposed the iniquifey of his fac- tious tribunate, and the whole course of his profli- gate life, from his first appearance in public ; and, 1 Qui cum omnibus Balutia meas defensorilJus bellum ■Bibl esse gerendum judicaverunt.^Pro Sext. 2. ' Is erat aeger : domum, ut debuimus, ad eum statim venlmuB ; eique nos totoa tradidimus : idque fecimus pra- ter hominum opinionem, qui nos ei jure suceeneere puta- bant, ut humanissinii gratisBimique et ipsi et omnibus videremur : itaque faciemus.' — Ad Quint, ii. 3. ■ P. Sextius est reus non suo sed meo nomine, Ace. — Pro Sext. 13. * Sextius noster absolutus est, a. d. ii. Id. Mart, et quod vehementer interfuit reipublicse, nullam videri in ejus- modi causa dissensionem ease, omnibus sententiis abso- lutus est — Scito noB in eo judicio conseeutos esse, ut om- nium gratissimi judicaremur. Nam in defendendo homine nioroBO oumulatisBime eatisfeeimuB.< — Ad Quint, ii. 4. in spite of all his impudence, quite daunted and confounded him. Vatinius however made some feeble effort to defend himself, and rally Cicero in his turn ; and among other things, reproached him with the baseness of changing sides, and becoming Caesar's fl-iend on account of the fortunate state of his affairs ; to which Cicero briskly replied, though Pompey himself stood by, that he still preferred the condition of Bibulus's consulship, which Vatinius thought abject and miserable, to the victories and triumphs of all men whatsoever. This speech against Vatinius is still remaining, under the title of the Interrogation ; and is nothing else but what Cicero himself calls it, a perpetual invective on the naagistracy of Vatinius, and the conduct of those who supported him". In the beginning of April, the senate granted the sum of three hundred thousand pounds to Pompey, to be laid out in purchasing com for the use of the city ; where there was still a great scarcity, and as great at the same time of money : so that the mov- ing a point so tender could not fail of raising some ill-Tiumour in the assembly ; when Cicero, whose old spirit seems to have revived in him from his late success in Sextius's cause, surprised them by proposing, that in the present inability of the trea- sury to purchase the Campanian lands, which by Csesar's act were to be divided to the people, the act itself should be reconsidered, and a day ap- pointeif for that deliberation : the motion was received with a universal joy, and a kind of tumul- tuary acclamation : the enemies of the triumvirate were extremely pleased with it, in hopes that it would make a breach between Cicero and Pompey ; but it served only for a proof, of what Cicero him- self observes, that it is very hard for a man to depart from his old sentiments in politics when they are right and just ''. Pompey, whose nature was singularly reserved, expressed no uneasiness upon it, nor took anynotice of it to Cicero, though they met and supped to- gether familiarly as they used to do : but he set forward soon after towards Africa, in order to pro- vide corn ; and intending to call at Sardinia, proposed to embark at Pisa or Leghorn, that he might have an interview with Csesar, who was now at Luca, the utmost limit of his Gallic government. He found Ceesar exceedingly out of humour with Cicero ; for Crassus had already been with him at Ravenna, and greatly incensed him by his account of Cicero's late motion ; which he complained of u Vatinium, a quo palam oppugnabatiu", arbitratu nostro concidimuB, diis hominibusque plaudentibuB.^- Quid quaeris ? Homo petulans, et audax Vatinius valde perturbatUB, debilitatusque discessit. — Ad Quint, ii. 4. . Ego Bedente Pompeio, cum ut laudaret P. Sextium in- troiisset in urbem, disissetque testis Vatinius, me fortuna et felicitate C. Cffisaris couimotum, illi amicum esse cte- pisae ; dixi, me eam Bibuli fortunam, quam ille afliictam putaret, omnium triumphis victoriisque auteferre. — Tota vero interrogatio mea nibil habuit, nisi reprehensionem iilius tribunatus : in quo omnia dicta sunt libertate, ani- moque maxitno. — Ep. Fara. i. 9. ^ Pompeio pecunia decreta in rem frumentariam ad H. S, cccc. Bed eodem die vebementer actum dc agro Campano, clamore senatus prope concionali. Acriorem causam inopia pecuniEe faciebat, et annonffi caritas. — Ad Quint, ii. 5. Nonis April, mihi est senatus asaensus-, ut de agro Campano, idibus Maiia, frequent! senatu refei-retut. Num potui magis in arcem ilUua causa: invadere.— Ep. Fam. 1 9. 124 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF so heavily, that Pompey promisea to use all his authority to induce Cicero to drop the pursuit of it ; and for that purpose sent away an express to Rome to entreat him not to proceed any farther in it till his return ; and when he came afterwards to Sardinia, where his lieutenant Q. Cicero then re- sided, he entered immediately into an expostulation with him ahout it, " recounting all his services to his brother, and that everything which he had done for him was done with Csesar's consent ; and re- minding him of a former conversation between themselves concerning Caesar's acts, and what Quintus himself had undertaken for his brother on that head ; and as he then made himself answerable for him, so he was now obliged to call him to the performance of those engagements : in short, he begged of him to press his brother to support and defend Caesar's interests and dignity, or if he could not persuade him to that, to engage him at least not to act against them?." This remonstrance from Pompey, enforced by his brother Quintus, staggered Cicero's resolution, and made him enter into a fresh deliberation with himself about the measures of his conduct ; where, after casting up the sum of all his thoughts, and weighing every circumstance which concerned either his own or the public interest, he determined at last to drop the affair rather than expose himself again, in his present situation,' to the animosity of Pompey and Caesar, for which he makes the fol- lowing apology to his friend Lentulus : — " that those who professed the same principles and were embarked in the same cause with him, were perpe- tually envying and thwarting him, and more dis- gusted by the splendour of his life than pleased with anything which he did for the public service ; that their only pleasure, and what they could not even dissemble while he was acting with them, was to see him disoblige Pompey and make Cassar his enemy, when they at the same time were continually caressing Clodius before his face, on purpose to mortify him : that if the government indeed had fallen into wicked and desperate hands, neither hopes nor fears nor gratitude itself could have prevailed with liira to join with them ; but when Pompey held the chief sway, who had acquired it by the most illustrious merit, whose dignity he had always favoured from his first setting out in the woi-ld, and from whom he had received the greatest obligations, and who at that very time made his enemy the common enemy of them both, he had no reason to apprehend the charge of inconstancy if on some occasions he voted and acted a little differently from what he used to do, in complaisance y Hoe S, C. in sententiam meam facto, Pompeius, cum mihi nihil ostendisset se esse offensum, in Sardinian! et in Africam profeetus est, eoque itinero Lucam ad CEesarem venit. Ibi multa de raea seutentia questus est Casar, quippe qui etiam Ravenna Crassum ante vidisset, ab eoque in me esset incensus. Sane moleste Pompeium id ferre constabat : quod ego, cum audissem ex aliis, maxime ex fratre meo cognovi i quern cum in Sardinia paucis post diebus, quam Luca discesserat, convenisset. Te, inquit, ipsum eupio ; nihil opportunius potuit accidere : nisi cum Marco fratre diligenter egeris, dependendum tibi est, quod mihi pro illo spopondisti ; quid multa ? Questus est gra- viter : sua merita conunemoravit : quid egisset ssepissime de actis CaEsaris cum meo fratre, quidque sibi is de me recepisset, in memoriam redegit: sequequs de mea salute egisset, voluntate Ca?saris egisse, ipsum meum fratrem testatuB est — Ep. Fam. i. 9. to such a friend: that his union with Pompey necessarily included Cassar, with whom both he and his brother had a friendship also of long stand- ing, which they were invited to renew by all manner of civilities and good offices freely offered on Csesar's part : that, after Caesar's great exploits and victories, the republic itself seemed to inter- pose and forbid him to quarrel with such men ; that when he stood in n?ed of their assistance, his brother had engaged his word for him to Pompey, and Pompey to Caesar, and he thought himself obliged to make good those engagements^." This was the general state of his political be- haviour: he had a much larger view and more comprehensive knowledge both of men and things than the other chiefs of the aristocracy, Bibulus, Marcellinus, Cato, Favonius, &c., whose stiffness had ruined their cause, and brought them into their present subjection, by alienating Pompey and the equestrian order from the senate. They con- sidered Cicero's management of the triumvirate as a mean submission to illegal power, which they were always opposing and irritating, though ever so unseasonably ; whereas Cicero thought it time to give over fighting when the forces were so un- equal, and that the more patiently they suffered the dominion of their new masters the more temperately they would use it° ; being persuaded that Pompey at least, who was the head of them, had no designs against the public liberty, unless he were provoked and driven to it by the perverse opposition of his enemies'". These were the grounds of that complaisance which he now generally paid to him, for the sake both of his own and the public quiet ; in consequence of which, when the appointed day came for considering the case of the Campanian lands, the debate dropped of course, when it was understood that Cicero, the mover of it, was absent and had changed his mind; though it was not, as he intimates, without some struggle in his own breast that he submitted to this step, which was likely to draw upon him an imputation of levity'. 2 Qui cum ilia sentirent in republiea qufe ego agebam, semperque sensissent ; me tamen non satisfacere Pompeio, Caesaremque inimicissimum mihi futurum, gaudere se aiebant : hoc mihi dolendum, sed illud multo magis, quod inimieum meum. — Sic amplexabantux — Sic me priesente osculabantur— Ego si ab improbis et perditis civibus rem- publicam teneri videbam — Non modo pramiis — Sed ne periculis quidem uUis compulsus — Ad eorum causam me adjimgerem, ne si summa quidem eorum in me merita constarent. Cum autem in republiea Cn. Pompeius prin- ceps esaet— meumque inimieum unum in civitate haberet inimictmi, non putavi f amam inconstantia^ mihi pertimes- cendam, si quibusdam in sententiis paullum me immu- tassem, meamque volimtatem ad summi viri, de meque optime meriti dignitatem aggregassem, &c. Gravissime autem me in hac mento Impulit, et Pompeii fides, quam de me Caesari dederat, et fratris mei, quam Pompeio. — Ep. Fam. i. 9. * Neque, ut ego arbitror, errarent, si cum pares esse non possent, pugnare desisterent. — Commutata tota ratio est senatus, jndiciomm, rei totius publicffi. Otium nobis exoptandum est: quod ii, qal potiimtur rerimi, prjestituri videutur, si quidam homines patientius eorum potentiam ferre potuerint. Dignitatem quidem illam consularem fortis et constantis senatoris, nihil est, quod cogitemus. Amissa est culpa eorum, qui a senatu et ordinem conjunctissimum, et hominem clarissi- mmn abalienarunt. — Ibid. 8. l" Ep. Fam. i. 9. « ftuod idibns et postridio fuerat dictum, de asro Cam MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 125 His daughter Tullia, having now lived a widow about a year, was married to a second husband, Furius Crassipes, and the wedding feast held at Cicero's house on the sixth of April. We find very little said of the character or condition of this Crassipes ; but by Cicero's care in making the match, the fortune which he paid, and the con- gratulation of his friends upon it, he appears to have been a nobleman of principal rank and dignity''. Atticus also, whc was about a year younger than Cicero, was married this spring to Filia, and invited him to the wedding °. As to his domestic affairs, his chief care at present was about rebuilding thjree of his houses which were de- molished in his exile, and repairing the rest, with that also of his brother, out of which they were driven in the last attack of Clodius : by the hints which he gives of them, they all seem to have been very magnificent, and built under the direction of the best architects. Clodius gave no farther inter- ruption to them, being forced to quit the pursuit of Cicero in order to watch the motions of a more dangerous enemy, Milo. • Cicero, however, was not without a share of uneasiness within his own walls ; his brother's wife and his own neither agreed well with each other nor their own husbands. Quintus's was displeased at her husband's staying so long abroad, and Cicero's not disposed to make hers the happier for staying at home. His nephew also, young Quintas, a perverse youth, spoiled by a mother's indulgence, added somewhat to his trouble ; for he was now charged with the care of his education in the father's absence, and had him taught under his own eye by Tyrannic, a Greek master, who, with several other learned men of that country, was entertained in his house ^. King Ptolemy's affair was no more talked of ; Pompey had otiier business upon his hands, and was so ruffled by the tribune Catp and the consul Marcellinus, that he laid aside all thoughts of it for himself, and wished to serve Lentulus in it. The senate had passed a vote against restoring him at all, but one of the tribunes inhibited them from proceeding to a decree, and a former decree was actually subsisting in favour of Lentulus. Cicero, therefore, after a consultation with Pompey, sent him their joint and last advice : " that by his com- mand of a province so near to Egypt, as he was the best judge of what he was able to do, so if he found himself master of the thing and was assured pano actum Iri, non est actum. In hac causa mihi aqua haret.— Ad Quint, ii. 8. d De nostra Tullia — spero nos cum Crassipede confeciBse. —Ibid. 4. Quod mihi de filia et de Crassipede gratularis — Speroque et opto banc conjunctionem nobis voluptati fore. — Epist. Fam. i 7. Viaticum Crassipes prseripit. — .^d Att. iv. 5. " Flid. Id. hseo scripsi ante lucem. Eo die apudFompo- nlum in ejus nuptiis eram CEenaturus. — ^Ad Quint, ii. 3. ' Domus utriusque nostriun Eedificatur strenue. [Ibid. 4.] Longilium redemptorem cohortatus sum. Fidem mihi faciebat, se velle nobis placere. Domus erlt egregia. —Ibid. 6. Quintus tuus, puer optimus, eruditur egregie. Hoc nunc magis auimadverto, quod Tyrannic docet apud me. —Ibid. 4. A. D. vni. Id. Apr. sponsalia Crassipedi prsebui. Huic convivio puer optimus, Quintus tuus, quod perleviter commotus fuerat, defuit. — ^Multuzn is mecum sennonem habuit et perhumanum de diseordiis mulierum nostra- rum. — Pomponia autem ctiam do te questa est. — Ibid. 6. ot success, he might leave the king at Ptolemais, or some other neighbouring city, and proceed vrithout him to Alexandria, where, if by the influence of his fleet and troops he could appease the public dissentions, and persuade the inhabitants to receive their king peaceably, he might then carry him home, and so restore him according to the first decree ; yet without a multitude, as our re- ligious men (says he) tell us, the sibyl has enjoined ; that it was the opinion, however, of them both, that people would judge of the fact by the event. If he was certain, therefore, of carrying his point, he should not defer it; if doubtful, should not undertake it : for as the world would applaud him if he effected it with ease, so a miscarriage might be fatal on account of the late vote of the senate, and the scruple about religions." But Lentulus, wisely judging the affair too hazardous for one of his dignity and fortunes, left it to a man of more desperate character, Gabinius, who ruined himself soon after by embarking in it. The tribune Cato, who was perpetually inveighing against keeping gladiators, like so many standing armies to the terror of the citizens, had lately bought a band of them, but finding himself unable to maintain them was contriving to part with them again without noise or scandal. Milo got notice of it, and privately employed a person, not one of his own friends, to buy them ; and when they were purchased, Racilius, another tribune, taking the matter upon himself, and pretending that they were bought for him, published a proclamation that Cato's family of gladiators was to be sold by auction, which gave no small diversion to the city'. Milo's trial being put off to the fifth of May, Cicero took the benefit of a short vacation to make an excursion into the country and visit his estates and villas in different parts of Italy. He spent five days at Arpinum, whence he proceeded to his other houses at Pompeii and Cumse ; and stopped a while, on his return, at Antium, where he had lately rebuilt his house, and was now disposing and ordering his library by the direction of Tyrannic, the remains of which, he says, were more consider- able than he expected from the late ruin. Atticus lent him two of his librarians to assist his own in taking catalogues, and placing the books in order ; which he calls the infusion of a soul into the body s Te perspicere posse, qui Ciliciam Cyprumque tcneas, quid efficere et quid consequi possis, et, si res facultatem habitura videatur, ut Alexandriam atque ^gyptum tenere possis, esse et tuje et nostri imperii dignitatis, FtolemaSde, aut aliquo propinquo loco rege colloeato, te cum classe, atque exercitu proficisci Alexandriam : ut cum earn pace, prxsidiisquo firmaris, FtolemEDUs redeat in regnum : iti fore, ut per te restituatur, quemadmodum senatus initio censuit ; et sine multitudine reducatur, quemadmodum homines religiosi sibyUffi placere dixerunt. Sed hasc sen- tentia sic et ilU et nobis probabatur, ut ex eventu homines de tuo consillo existimaturos videremus — Nos quidem hoc sentimus; si exploratum tihi sit, posse te regni illius potiri ; non esse cunctandum : si dubium, non esse conan- diim, &c — Ep. Fam. i. 7. ^ lUe vindex gladiatorum et bestiariorum emorat — bes- tiaries — Hos alere non poterat. Itaque vix tenebat. Scnsit Milo, dedit cuidam non familiari negotimn, qui sine suspi- cione emeret earn familiam a Catone : quae simulatque abducta est, Racilius rem patefecit, eosque homines slbi emptos esse dixit — et tabulam proscripsit, se familiam Catonianam venditurum. In earn tabulam magni risus consequehantur. — Ad Quint, ii. 6. 12G THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of his house'. Daring this tour, his old enemy Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, having gained some advantage in Judea against Aristobulus, who had been dethroned by Pompey, and on that ac- count was raising troubles in the country, sent public letters to the senate to give an account of his victory, and to beg the decree of a thanksgiving for it. His friends took the opportunity of moving the affair in Cicero's absence, from whose authority they apprehended some obstruction; but the senate, in a full house, slighted his letters and rejected his suit : an affront which had never been offered before to any proconsul. Cicero was infinitely de- lighted with it, calls the resolution divine, and was doubly pleased for its being the free and genuine judgment of the senate, without any struggle or influence on his part ; and reproaching Gabinius with it afterwards, says that by this act the senate had declared that they could not believe that he, whom they had always known to be a traitor at home, could ever do anything abroad that was use- ful to the repubUc''. Many prodigies were reported to have happened about this time in the neighbourhood of Rome : horrible noises under ground, with clashing of arms ; and on the Alban hill a little shrine of Juno, which stood on a table facing the east, turned sud- denly of itself towards the north. These terrors alarmed the city, and the senate consulted the haruspices,who were the public diviners or prophets of the state, skilled in all the Tuscan discipline of interpreting portentous events, who gave the fol- lowing answer in writing, — that supplications must be made to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and the other gods ; that the solemn shows and plays had been negligently exhibited and polluted ; sacred and religious places made profane ; ambassadors killed, contrary to right and law ; faith and oaths disregarded; ancient and hidden sacrifices care- lessly performed and profaned ; — that the gods gave this warning, lest, by the discord and dissen- tion of the better sort, dangers and destruction should fall upon the senate and the chiefs of the city, by which means the provinces would fall under the power of a single person, their armies be beaten, great loss ensue, and honours be heaped on the unworthy and disgraced'. One may observe from this answer, that the diviners were under the direction of those who endeavoured to apply the influence of religion to the cure of their civil disorders : each party inter- » Offendes designationem Tyraiimoiiis mirificara in librorum meorum bibUotheca ; quorum reliquiffi multo msliores sunt, quam putaram. Etiam vellem mihi mittas de tuis librariolis duos aliquog, quibus Tyrannio utatur glutinatoribus, et ad castera administria. — Ad Att. iv. 4. Postea vero quam Tyrannio mihi libros dispoauit, mens addita videtur meia asdibus : qua quidem in re, mirifica opera Dionysii et Menophiii tui f uit. — ^Ibid. 8. k Id. Mails senatua f requens divinus fuit in supplicatione Gabinio deneganda. Adjurat Procilius hoc nemini acci- disae. Foris valde plauditur. Mihi cum sua aponte juciuidura, cum jucundius, quod me abaente, est enim elKiKpivks j udieium, sine oppugnatione, sine gratia nostra. ■ — Ad Quint, ii. 8 ; iv. 5. Hoc atatuit aenatus, cum frequens suppiicationem Gabi- nio denegavit. — A proditore, atque eo, quern prjescntem hostom reipublica; cognosset, bene rempublicam geri non potuisse.— De Prov. Consul. 6. ^ Vid. Argum. Mauutii in Orat de Hai'usp. Respons. — Dio, 1. .\xxix. p. 100. preted it according to their own views. Clodius took a handle from it of venting his spleen afresh against Cicero ; and calling the people together for that purpose, attempted to persuade them that this divine admonition was designed particularly against him ; and that the article of the sacred and reli- gious places referred to the case of his house, which, after a solemn consecration to religion, was ren- dered again profane ; charging all the displeasure of the gods to Cicero's account, who affected no- thing less than a tyranny, and the oppression of their liberties". Cicero made a reply to Clodius the next day in the senate, where, after a short and general invec- tive upon his profligate life, " he leaves him, he says, a devoted victim to Milo, who seemed to be given to them by heaven for the extinction of such a plague, as Scipio was for the destruction of Car- thage. He declares the prodigy to be one of the most extraordinary which had ever been reported to the senate ; but laughs at the absurdity of ap- plying any part of it to him, since his house, as he proves at large, was more solemnly cleared from any service or relation to religion than any other house in Rome, by the judgment of the priests, the senate, and all the orders of the city"." Then running through the several articles of the answer, he shows them ** all to tally so exactly with the notorious acts and impieties of Clodius's life, that they could not possibly be applied to any- thing else. That as to the sports, said to be neg- ligently performed and polluted, it clearly denoted the pollution of the Megalensian play, the most venerable and religious of all other shows, which Clodius himself, as sedile, exhibited in honour of the Mother of the gods j where, when the magis- trates and citizens were seated to partake of the diversions, and the usual proclamation was made, to command all slaves to retire, a vast body of them, gathered from all parts of the city by the order of Clodius, forced their way upon the stage, to the great terror of the assembly ; where much mischief and bloodshed would have ensued, if the consul Marcellinus, by his firmness and presence of mind, had not quieted the tumult. And in another representation of the saihe plays, the slaves, encouraged again by Clodius, were so audacious and successful in a second irruption, that they drove the whole company out of the theatre, and possessed it entirely to themselves". That as to the profanation of sacred and religious places, it could not be interpreted of anything so aptly as of what Clodius and his friends had done ; for that, in the house of Q. Seius, which he had bought after murdering the owner, there was a chapel and altars, which he had lately demolished. That L. Piso had destroyed a celebrated chapel of Diana, where all that neighbourhood, and some even of the senate, used annually to perform their family sacrifices. That Serranus also had thrown down, burnt, and profaned several consecrated chapels, and raised other buildings upon them p. That as to ambassadors killed contrary to law and right, though it was commonly interpreted ofthose frOm Alexandria, yet other 'ambassadors had been mur- dered, whose death was no less offensive to the gods : as Theodosius, killed with the privity and permission of Clodius ; . and Plator, by the order of ■" Dio, 1. xxxLx. p. 100 » Ibid. 10. 11, 12, 13. " De Harusp. Respons. 6. P Ibid. 14, 16. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 127 Plso'. As to the violation of faith and oaths, that it related evidently to those judges who had ab- solved C'lodius, as being one of the most memora- ble and flagrant perjuries which Rome had ever known : that the answer itself suggested this interpretation, when it subjoined, that ancient and occult sacrifices were polluted ; which could refer to nothing so properly as to the rites of the Bona Dea, which were the most ancient and the most occult of any in the city ; celebrated with incre- dible secrecy to that goddess, whose name it was not lawful for men to know, and with ceremonies which no man ever pried into but Clodius'. Then; as to the warning given by the gods, of dangers likely to ensue from the dissentions of the princi- pal citizens ; that there was no man so particularly active in promoting those dissentions as Clodius, who was perpetually inflaming one side or the other ; — now pursuing popular, now ari^ocratical measures j at one time a favourite of the triumvi- rate, at auother of the senate ; whose credit was wholly supported by their quarrels and animosities." He exhorts them, therefore, in the coniclusion, " to beware of falling into those miseries of which the gods so evidently forewarned them ; and to take care especially that the form of the republic was not altered, since all civil contests between great and powerful citizens must necessarily end either in a universal destruction, or a tyranny of the con- qneror i that the state was now in so tottering a condition, that nothing could preserve it but their concord : that there was no hope of its being better while Clodius remained unpunished ; and but one degree left of being worse, by being wholly ruined and enslaved : for the prevention of which the gods had given them this remarkable admonition ; for they were not to believe, what was sometimes represented on the stage, that any god ever de- scended from heaven to converse familiarly with men, but that these extraordinary sounds and agi- tations of the world, the air, the elements, were the only voice and speech which heaven made use of: that these admonished them of their danger, and pointed out the remedy ; and that the gods, by intimating so freely the way of their safety, had shown how easy it would be to pacify them by pacifying only their own animosities and discords among themselves." About the middle of the summer^ and before the time of choosing new consuls, which was commonly in August, the senate began to deliberate on the provinces which were to be assigned to them at the expiration of their ofiice. The consular provinces, about which the debate singly turned, were the two Gauls which Csesar now held, Macedonia which Piso, and Syria which Gabinius, possessed. All who spoke before Cicero, excepting Servilius, were for taking one or both the Gauls from Csesar, which was what the senate generally desired ; but when it came to Cicero's turn, he gladly laid hold on the occasion to revenge himself on Piso and Gabinius, and exerted all his authority to get them recalled, with some marks of disgrace, and their governments assigned to the succeeding consuls : but as for Csesar, his opinion was, that his com- mand should be continued to him till he had finished the war which he was carrying on with such success, and settled the conquered countries. 1 De HaniBp. Bespons. 16. ' Ibid. 17, 18. This gave no small offence ; and the consul Phia lippus could not forbear interrupting and remind- ing him, that he had more reason to be angry with Caesar than with Gabinius himself, since Csesar was the author and raiser of all that storm which had oppressed him. But Cicero replied, that, in this vote, he was not pursuing his private resentment, but the public good, which had reconciled him to Csesar ; and that he could not be an enemy to one who was deserving so well of his country ; that a year or two more would complete his conquests; and reduce all Gaul to a state of peaceful subjec- tion : that the cause was widely different between Csesar and the other two ; that Caesar's adminis- tration was beneficial, prosperous, glorious to the republic ; theirs scandalous, ignominious, hurtful to their subjects, and contemptible to their ene- mies. In short, he managed the debate so, that the senate came fully into his sentiments, and de- creed the revocation of Piso and Gabinius". He was now likewise engaged in pleading two considerable causes at the bar ; the one in defence of Cornelius Balbus, the other of M. Cselius. Bal- bus was a native of Gades, in Spain, of a splendid family in that city, who, for his fidelity and ser- vices to the Roman generals in that province, and especially in the Sertorian war, had the freedom of Rome conferred upon him by Pompey, in virtue of a law which authorised him to grant it to as many as he thought proper. But Pompey's act was now called in question as originally null and invalid, on a pretence that the city of Gades was not within the terms of that alliance and relation to Rome which rendered its citizens capable of that pri- vilege. Pompey and Crassus were his advocates; and, at their desire, Cicero also, who had the third place or post of honour assigned to him, to give the finishing hand to the cause'. The prosecution was projected not so much out of enmity to Balbus as to his patrons, Pompey and Csesar, by whose favour he had acquired great wealth and power ; being at this time general of the artillery to Csesar, and the principal manager or steward of all his affairs. The judges gave sentence for him, and confirmed his right to the city ; from which foun- dation he was raised afterwards by Augustus to the consulate itself. His nephew also, young Balbus, who was made free with him at the same time, obtained the honour of a triumph for his victories over the Garamantes ; and, as Pliny tells us, they were the only instances of foreigners and " Itaque ego idem, qui nunc consulibus iis, qui designati erunt, Syriam, Mocedoniamque decerno.— Quod si essent illi optimi viri, tamen ego mea sententia C. Caesari non- dum succedendum pufarem. Qua de re dlcam, Patres Conscript!, quod sentio, atque illam interpellationem familiarissimi mei, qua paullo ante interrupta est oratio mea, non pertimescam. Negat me vir optimus inimicio- rem detiere esse Gabinio, quam Caesari ; omnem enim illam tempestatem, cui cesserim, Csesare impulsore atque adjutore esse excitatam. Cui si primum sic respondeam, mecomniuiiiButilitatishabererationem,nondolorisinei..— Hie me meus in rempublicam animus pristinus ac perennis, cum C. Cssare reducit, reconoiliat, restituit in gratiam. Quod volent denique homines existiment, nemini ego possum esse bene de republica merenti non amicus. — Yid, Orat. De Provin. Cons. 8, 9, to. ' Quo mihi diificilior est hie extremus perorandi locus.— Sed mos est gerendus, non mode Comelio^ cujua ego volun- tati in ejus pericuUs nullo modo deesse possum ; sed etiam Cn, Pompeio. — ^Fro Balbo, 1, 2, Sec- 128 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF adoptea citizens who haa erer advanced them- selves to either of those honours in Rome". Cselius, whom he next defended, was a joung gentleman of equestrian rank, of great parts and accomplishments, trained under the discipline of Cicero himself; to whose care he was committed by his father upon his first introduction into the forum. Before he was of age to hold any magis- tracy, he had distinguished himself by two public impeachments ; the one of C. Antonius, Cicero's colleague in the consulship, for conspiring against the state j the other of L. Atratinus, for bribery and corruption. Atratinus' son was now reveng- ing his father's quarrel, and accused Caelius of public violence, for being concerned in the assas- sination of Dio, the chief of the Alexandrian embassy, and of an attempt to poison Clodia, the sister of Clodius : he had been this lady's gallant, whose resentment for her favours, slighted by him, was the real source of all his trouble. In this speech, Cicero treats the character and gallantries of Clodia, her commerce with Cselius, and the gaieties and licentiousness of youth, with such a vivacity of wit and humour, that makes it one of the most entertaining which he has left to us. Cselius, who was truly a libertine, lived on the Palatine Hill, in a house which he hired of Clo- dius ; and among the other proofs of his extrava- gance, it was objected, that a young man in no public employment should take a separate house from his father, at the yearly rent of two hundred and fifty pounds. To which Cicero replied, that Clodius, he perceived, had a mind to sell his house, by setting the value of it so high ; whereas, in truth, it was but a little paltry dwelling, of small rent, scarce above eighty pounds per annum*. Cselius was acquitted ; and ever after professed the highest regard for Cicero, with whom he held a correspondence of letters, which will give us occasion to speak more of him in the sequel of the history. Cicero seems to have composed a little poem about this time, in compliment to Csesar; and excuses his not sending it to Atticus, "because Csesar pressed to have it, and he had reserved no copy ; though, to confess the truth, (he says,) he found it very difficult to digest the meanness of recanting his old principles. But adieu (says he) to all right, true, honest counsels : it is incredible what perfidy there is in those who want to be leaders, and who really would be so, if there was any faith in them. I felt what they were, to my cost, when I was drawn in, deserted, and betrayed by them : I resolved still to act on with them in all things, but found them the same as before ; till, by your advice, 1 came at last to a better mind. You will tell me, that you advised me indeed to act, but not to write ; 'tis true ; but I was willing to put myself under a necessity of ^ Fuit et Balbus Cornelius major consul — Primus exter- norum, atque etiam in oceano genitorum usus illo honorc. — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 43. Gararaa caput Garamantmn : omnia annis Romanis sQperata, et a Cornelio Balbo triumphata, uno omnium externo ourru et Quiiitium jure donate : quippe Gadibus nato civitas Romana cum Balbo majore patruo data est. —Ibid. v. 6. ^ Sumptus imiua generis objectus est, habitationis : triginta mUlibus dixistis emn habitare. Nunc demum intelligo P. Clodii insulam esse venalem, cujus hie in xdi- culis habitct, decern, ut opiuor, millibus. — Pro CEelio, 7. adhermg to my new alliance, and preclude the pos- sibility of returning to those who, instead of pitying me, as they ought, never cease envying me — But since those who have no power will not love me, my business is to acquire the love of those who have : you will say, I wish that you had done it long ago ; I know you vvished it ; and I was a mere ass for not minding you?." In this year also, Cicero ivrote that celebrated letter to Lucceius, in which he presses him to attempt the history of his transactions. Lucceius was a man of eminent learning and abilities, and had just finished the history of the Italic and Marian civil wars ; with intent to carry it down through his own times, and, in the general rela- tion, to include, as he had promised, a particular account of Cicero's acts : but Cicero, who was pleased with his style and manner of writing, labours to engage him, in this letter, to postpone the design of his continued history, and enter directly on that separate period, " from the begin- ning of his consulship to his restoration ; compre- hending Catiline's conspiracy and his own exUe." He observes, " that this short interval was distin- guished with such a variety of incidents, and unexpected turns of fortune, as furnished the hap- piest materials both to the skill of the writer and the entertainment of the reader : that when an author's attention was confined to a single and select subject, he was more capable of adorning it, and displaying his talents, than in the wide and diffusive field of general history. But if he did not think the facts themselves worth the pains of adorning, that he would yet allow so much to friendship, to affection, and even to that favour which he had so laudably disclaimed in his pre- faces, as not to confiaie himself scrupulously to the strict laws of history and the rules of truth. That, if he would undertake it, he would supply him with some rough memoirs, or commenteries, for the foundation of his work ; if not, that he himself should be forced to do what many had done before him, write his own life — a task liable to many exceptions and difficulties : where a man would necessarily be restrained by modesty on the one hand, or partiality on the other ; either from blam- ing or praising himself so much as he deserved," &C.2 This letter is constantly alleged as a proof of Cicero's vanity, and excessive love of praise : but we must consider it as written, not by a philoso- 7 ITrgebar ab eo, ad quem misi, et non habebam exem- plar. Quid ? etiam, {dudum circumrodo, quod devorandimi est) subturpieula mibi videbatur 'ira\iVQiSLa ; sed valeimt recta, vera, bonesta consilia. Non est credibile, qus sit perfidia in istis principibus, ut volunt esse, et ut essent, si quicquam baberent fidei. Senseram, noram, inductus, relictus, projeetus ab iis : tamen hoc erat in animo, ut cum iis in republiea eonsentii'em. lidem erant, qui fuerajit Vjx aliquando te auetore resipivi. Dices, ea te monuisse, quae facerem, nou etiam ut scriberem. Ego mehercule mihi necessitatem volui imponere bujus novae eonjunc- tionis, ne qua mihi liceret labi ad illos, qui etiam tum cum misereri m^i debent, non desinunt invidere. Sed tamen modici fuimus ^ofleffgi, ut scripsi— Sed quoniam qui nihil possunt, ii me amare nolunt, demus operam, ut ab iis, qui possunt, diligamur. Biees, vellem jampridem. Scio te voluisse, et me asinum gei-manum f ulsse.— Ad Att. iv. 5. Soribis poema ab eo nostrum probari.— A4 Quint, ii. lo. « Ep. Paul. 13. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 129 plier, but a statesman, conscious of the greatest services to his country, for whicli he had been bar- barously treated ; and, on that account, the more eager to have tliem represented in an advantageous light, and impatient to taste some part of that glory when living, which he was sure to reap from them when dead : and as to the passage which gives the olTence, where he presses his friend to exceed even the bounds of truth in his praises, it is urged only, we see, conditionally, and upon an absurd or im- probable supposition, that Lucceius did not think the acts themselves really laudable, or worth praising : but whatever exceptions there may be to the morality, there can be none to the elegance and composition of the letter, which is filled with a variety of beautiful sentiments, illustrated by ex- amples drawn from a perfect knowledge of history ; so that it is justly ranked among the capital pieces of the epistolary kind which remain to us from antiquity. Cicero had employed more than ordi- nary pains upon it, and was pleased with his success ill it : for he mentions it to Atticus with no small satisfaction, and wished him to get a copy of it from their friend Lucceius. The eflect of it was, that Lucceius undertook what Cicero desired, and probably made some progress in it, since Cicero sent him the memoirs which he promised ; and Lucceius lived many years after in an uninter- rupted friendship with him, though neither this nor any other of his writings had the fortune to be preserved to succeeding ages". All people's eyes and inclinations began now to turn towards Caesar, who by the eclat of his victo- ries seemed to rival the fame of Pompey himself, and by his address and generosity gained ground upon him daily in authority and influence in public affairs. He spent the winter at Luca, whither a vast concourse of all ranks resorted to him from Rome. Here Pompey and Crassus were again made friends by him ; and a project formed that they should jointly seize the consulship for the next year, though they had not declared themselves candidates within the usual time. L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a professed enemy, was one of the competitors; who, thinkinghimself sure of success, could not forbear bragging, that he would effect, when consul, what he could not do when praetor, rescind Csesar's acts, and,recal him from his government'' ; which made them resolve at all hazards to defeat him. What greatly favoured their design was the obstinacy of the tribune C. Calo, who, to revenge himself on Marcellinus, for not suffering him to hold any assemblies of the people, for promulgating his laws, would not suffer the consuls to hold any, for the choice of the magistrates''. The triumvirate supported him in this resolution till the year expired, and the govern- * Epistolam, Lucceio quam misi — fac ut ab eo sumas : v.ilde bella est; eumque ut adpyoperet adhorteris, et, quod mihi se ita facturum rcseripsit, agas gratias. — Ad Alt. iv. C. Tu Lucceio librum nostrum dabis. — Ibid. 1 1 . ^ Sed cum L. Domitius coiisulatus candidatus palam minaretm', considem se effecturum, quod praetor nequis- set, ademptnrmnque el exercltus. Ci-assum Pompeiiim- quB in urbem provincia; suec Lucaro cxtractos compulit, ut detrndendi Domitii causa altenun consulatum peterent. ^-Siictnn. J. Cses. 24. •= Consul — dies comitiales exemit omnes — C. C'.ato con- cionatus est, comitia baberi non siturum, si f.ibi cum populo agenOi dies essent excmpti. — Ad Quint, ii. G. CN. POMPEIUS MAGNUS ir. ment fell into an interregnum ; when by faction and violence, and the terror of troops, poured into the city, they extorted the consulship out of the hands of Domitius, and secured it to themselves''. This made Pompey generally odious, who, in all this height of greatness, could not defend himself from the perpetual railleries and insults of his adversaries, which yet he bore with singular temper and patience. Marcellinus was constantly alarming the city with the danger of his power ; and, as he was haranguing one day on that subject, being encouraged by a general acclamation of the people, " Cry out, citizens," says he, " cry out while you may, for it will not be long in your power to do so with safety'." Cn. Piso also, a young nobleman, who had impeached Manilius Crispus, a man of praeto- rian rank and notoriously guilty, being provoked by Pompey's protection of him, turned his attack against Pompey himself, and charged him with many crimes against the state ; being asked, there- fore, by Pompey, why he did not choose to impeach him rather than the criminal, he replied briskly, that if he would give bail to stand a trial, without raising a civil war, he would soon bring him before his judges'. During the continuance of these tumults, occa- sioned by the election of the new consuls, Cicero retired into the country, where he •»■ "RB. 698. staid to the beginning of May, much cic. 52. pyj. gf humour, and disgusted both with the republic and himself. Atti- cus's constant advice to him was, to M. uciNius consult his safety and interest, by cHAssus II. uniting himself with the men of power ; and they, on their part, were as con- stantly inviting him to it, by all possible assurances of their affection : but in his answers to Atticus he observes, " that their two cases were very different; that Atticus, having no peculiar character, suffered no peculiar indignity, nothing but what was com- mon to all the citizens ; whereas his own condition was such, that if he spoke what he ought to do, he should be looked upon as a madman ; if what was useful only to himself, as a slave ; if nothing at all, as quite oppressed and subdued ; that his uneasi- ness was the greater, because he could not show it without being thought ungrateful. — Shall I with- draw myself then (says he) from business, and retire to the port of ease .' That will not be allowed to me. Shall I follow these leaders to the wars, and af'er having refused to command, submit to be commanded ? I will do so, for I see that it is your advice, and wish that I had always followed it : or shall I resume my post, and enter again into affairs .' I cannot persuade myself to that, but begin to think Philoxenus in the right, who chose to be carried back to prison, rather than commend the tyrant's verses. This is what I am now medi- tating, to declare my dislike at least of what they are doing e." Such were the agitations of his mind at this •1 Quid enim hoc miserius, quam eum, qui tot annos, quod habet, designatus consul fuerit, consulem fieri non posse? &c.— Ad Att. iv. 8 ; vide Dio, p. 103. c Acclamate, inquit, Quirites, acclamate, dura licet : jam enim vobis impime facere non licebit.— Val. Max. vi. 2.^ I Da, inquit, pra;des reipublics te, si postulatus fuoiis, civile bellum non exeitaturum ; etiam de tuo prius, quam de Manilii capite, in concilium judices mittam. — Ibid, S Tu nuidem, etsi es natm-.a iroAiTlKifs, tamen nuUam K 130 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF time, as lie frequently signifies in his letters : lie was now at one of his villas on the delightful shore of Baise, the chief place of I'esort and pleasure for the great and rich ; Pon(pey came thither in April, and no sooner arrived than he sent him his com- pliments; and spent his whole time with him : they had much discourse on public affairs, in which Pompey expressed great uneasiness, and owned himself dissatisfied with his own part in them ; but Cicero, in his account of the conversation, inti- mates some suspicion of his sincerity''. In the midst of this company and diversion, Cicero's entertainment was in his studies ; for he never resided anywhere without securing to himself the use of a good library : here he had the command of Faustus's, the son of Sylla, and son-in-law of Pompey, one of the best collections of Italy, gathered from the spoils of Greece, and especially of Athens, from which Sylla brought away many thousand volumes. He had nobody in the house with him but Dionysius, a learned Greek slave, whom Atticus had made free, and who was eft- trusted with the instruction of the two young Ciceros, tlic son and the nephew: with this com- panion he was devouring books, since the wretched state of the public had deprived'him, as he tells us, of all other pleasures. " 1 had much rather," says he to Atticus, " be sitting on your little bench under Aristotle's picture, than in the curule chairs of our great ones ; or taking a turn with you in your walks, .than with him whom it must, I see, be my fate to walk with : as for the success of that walk, let fortune look to it, or some god, if there be any, who takes care of us'." He mentions in the same letter a current report at Puteoli, that king Ptolemy was restored ; and desires to know what account they had of it at Rome : the report was very true, for Gabinius, tempted by Ptolemy's gold, habes propriam aervitutem: commimi frueris nomine. Ego vero, qui, si loquor de repul>lica quod oportet, insanus, Bi quod opus est, servus existimor, si taceo, oppr&ssus et captus ; quo dolore esse debeo ? quo sum scilicet hoc etiam aoriore, quod ne dolere quidem possum, ut non ingratus videai". Quid si cessare libeat et in otii portum confugere? Nequicqunm. Immo etiam in bellum et in costra : ergo erimns dnaSoij qui Tayol esse noluimus ? Sic faciendum est ; tibi enim ipsi, eui utinam semper paruissem, sic video placere. Heliqui est, ^irdprav eAo;^€s, raiTOV K(j{7|tie( ; non mehercule possum : et Philoxeno ignosco, qui reduei iu carcerem maluit. Veruntamen id ipsum mecum in liis locis commentar, ut ista improbem.^ — Ad Att. iv, 6. The story of Dionysius tbe tyrant of Syracuse, and Phi- loxenus tlie poet, is told by Diodorus Siculus, lib. xv. p. 331. ** Pompeius in Cumanum Parilibus venit : misit ad me Btatim qui salutem nuntlaret : ad eum poatridie mane vadebam. — Ad Att. iv. 10. Ko8 hie cum Pompeio fuimus : sane sibi displicena ; ut loquebatur; sic est eniminhoc hominedicendum. — In nos vero Buavissime effusua ; venit etiam ad me in Cumanum a se. — Ibid. 9. 1 Ego hie paacor bibliotheca Fausti. Fortasse tu puta- bas his rebus Puteolanis et Lucrinensibus. Neista quidem desunt. Sed mehercule a oseteria oblectationibus deseroi- et voluptatibus propter rempublicam, sic literis sustentor et recreor ; maloque in ilia tua eedecula, quam habes sub imagine Aristotelis, sedere, quam in istorum sella curuli, tecuraque apud te ambulare, quam cum eo, quocum video esse ambulandum. Sed de ilia ambulatione fors videret, aut si qui est, qui curet deus. — Ibid. If). Nob hie voramus li teras cum homine mirifico, ita meher- cule sentio, Dionysio.— Ibid. 11. and the plunder of Egypt, and encouraged also, as some write, by Pompey himself, undertook to replace him on the throne with his Synan army ; which he executed vrith a high hand, and the destniction of all the king's enemies, in open defiance of the authority of the senate, and the direction of the sibyl : this made a great noise at Rome, and irritated the people to such a degree, that they resolved to make him feel their displeasure for it very severely at his return''. His colleague Piso came home the first from his nearer government of Macedonia, after an in- glorious administration of a province^ whence no consular senator had ever returned but to a triumph. For though, on the account of some trifling advan- tage in the field, he had procured himself to be saluted emperor by his army, yet the occasion was so contemptible, that he durst not send any letters upon it to the senate ; but after oppressmg the subjects, plundering the alUes, and losing the best part of his troops against the neighbouring barba- rians, who invaded and laid waste the country, he ran away in disguise from a mutiny of the soldiers, whom he disbanded at last without their pay'. When he arrived at Rome, he stripped his fasces of their laurel, and entered the city obscurely and ignominiously, without any other attendance than his own retinue"*. On his first appearance in public, trusting to the authority of his son-in-law, Csesar, he had the hardiness to attack Cicero, and complain to the senate of his Injurious treatment of him : but when he began to reproach him with the disgrace of his exile, the whole assembly inter- rupted him by a loud and general clamour". Among other things with which he upbraided Cicero, he told him that it was not any envy for what he had done, but the vanity of what he had said, which had driven him into exile ; and that a single verse of his, Cedant arma togie, concedat laurea lingua, was the cause of all his calamity, by provoking Pompey to make him feel, how much the power of the general was superior to that of the orator : he put him in mind also, that it was mean and unge- nerous to exert his spleen only against such whom he had reason to contemn, without daring to meddle with those who had more power, and where his resentment was more due". Bat it had been « Vid. Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 116, &o. ' Ex qua aliquot praetorio imperio, consulari quidem nemo rediit, qui incolumis fuerit, qui non triumpharit.— In Pison. 16. Ut ex ea provincia, quse fuit ex onmibus una maxime triumph alls, nullas sit ad senatum literas mittere ausus. — Ntuitius ad senatum missus est nuUus. — Ibid. 19. Mitto de amissa maxima parte exercitus. — Ibid. 20. DyiThachium ut venit decedens, obsessus est ab lis ipsis militibus — Quibus cum juratus affirmassit, ae, qua; debe- rentur, postero die persoluturum ; domum se abdidit : inde noctc intempesta orepidatus, veste scrvili navem conseendit. — ^Ibid. 38. " Sic iste — Macedonicus imperator in urbem se intulit, ut nullius negotiatoris obacurissimi redltus unquam fuerit desertior.^Ibid. 23. Cum tu — detractam e cruentis fascibus lauream ad por- tam Esquilinara abjecisti. — ^Ibid, 30. " Tune ausua es meum disoessum ilium — ^maledicti et oontumeliffi loco ponere? Quo quidem tempore cepi, Patres Consoripti. fructum immortalem vestri in me amo- ris— qui non admurmuratione, eed voce et clamore abjecti homiuis— petulantiam fregistis. — Ibid. 14. o Non uUa tibi, inquit, invidia nocuit, sed versus tui.— MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. ISl better for him to have stifled his complaints, and suffered Cicero to he quiet ; who, exasperated by his imprudent attack, made a reply to him upon the spot in an invective speech, the severest perhaps that was ever spolten by any man, on the person, the parts, the Vfhole life and conduct of Piso ; which, as long as the Roman name subsists, must deliver down a most detestable character of him to all posterity. As to the verse with which he was urged, he ridicules the absurdity of Piso's application of it, and tells him, "that he had con- trived a very extraordinary punishment for poor poets, if they were to be banished for every bad line : th^t he was a critic of a new kind, not an Aristarchus, but a grammatical Phalaris ; who, instead of expunging the verse, was for destroying the author : that the verse itself could not imply any affront to any man whatsoever ; that he was an ass, and did not know his letters, to imagine, that by the gown he meant his own gown, or by arms, the arms of any particular general ; and not to see, that he was speaking only in the poetical style ; and as the one was the emblem of peace, the other of war, that he could mean nothing else, than that the tumults and dangers with which the city had been threatened, must now give way to peace and tranquillity : that he might have stuck a little indeed in explaining the latter part of the verse, if Piso himself had not helped him out ; who, by trampling his own laurel under foot at the gates of Rome, had declared how much he thought it inferior to every other kind of honour that as for Pompey, it was sUly to think, that after the volumes which he had written in his praise, one silly verse should make him at last his enemy ; but that, in truth, he never was his enemy ; And if, on a certain occasion, he had shown any coldness towards him, it was aU owing to the perfidy and malice of such as Piso, who were con- tinually infusing jealousies and suspicions into him, till they had removed from his confidence all who loved either him or the republiof." About this time the theatre, which Pompey had built at his own charge for the use and ornament of the city, was solemnly opened and dedicated : it is much celebrated by the ancients for its grandeur and magnificence : the plan was taken from the theatre of Mytilene, but greatly enlarged, so as to receive commodiously forty thousand people. It was surrounded by a portico, to shelter the company in bad weather , and had a curia or senate-house Hkc res tibi fiuctus illos excitavifc— Tuae dicis, inquit, togjE, summum imperatorem esse cessurum.i — PauUo ante dixisti me cum iis confligere, quos despice- .rem ; Men attingere eos, qui plus possent, quibus iratus 6830 deberem.— In Pison. 29, 30, 31. P Quoniam te non Aristarchum, sed gi-ammaticum Pha- larira habemus, qui non notam apponas ad malum versura, sed poetam armis prosequarc — Quid mine te, asine, literas doceam ? Non dixi banc togam, qua sum amictus, nee arma, scutum et gladium unius imperatoris : sed quod pacis est insigne et otii, toga ; contra autem urma, tumultus ac belli, more poetarum locutus, hoc intelllgi volui, bellum ac tumultum paei atque otio concessurum' — in altero — bffirerem, nisi tu expedisscs. Nam cum tu— detraetam e cruentis fascibuslauream ad portam Esquilinam abjeeisti, indieasti, non modo amplissims, sed etiam rainims laudi lauream ccnoessisse — Vis Pompeium isto vcrsu inimicum mibi c6se factum — Primo nonne compensabit cum uno versiculo tot mea volumina laudum suarum? Vestrae iraudes,.— vestrae criminationes Insidiarum mearum — eife- cenint ut ego exoluderer— &c.— Ibid. 30, 31. annexed to it, with a basihca also, or grand hall, proper for the sittings of judges, or any other public business ; which were all finished at Pompey's cost, and adorned with a great number of images, formed by the ablest masters, of men and women, famed for something very remarkable or prodigious in their lives andcMractersi. Atticus undertook the care of placing all these statues, for which Pompey charged Cicero with his thanks to him' : but what made this fabric the more surprising and splendid, was a beautiful temple, erected at one end of it, to Venus the conqueress, and so con- trived that the seats of the theatre might serve as stairs to the temple. This was designed, it is said, to avoid the reproach of making so vast an expense for the mere use of luxury, the temple being so placed that those who came to the shows might seem to come to worship the goddess". At the solemnity of this dedication, Pompey entertained the people with the most magnificent shows which had ever been exhibited in Rome : in the theatre were stage plays, prizes of music, wrestling, and all kinds of bodily exercises : in the circus, horse-races and huntings of wild beasts for five days successively, in which five hundred lions were killed, and, on the last day, twenty elephants, whose lamentable howling, when mortally wounded, raised such a commiseration in the multitude, from a vulgar notion of their great sense and love to man, that it destroyed the whole diversion of the show, and drew curses on Pompey himself for being the author of so much cruelty*. So tme it is, what Cicero observes of this kind of prodigality, that there is no real dignity or lasting honour in it ; that it satiates while it pleases, and is forgotten as soon as it is over". It gives us, however, a genuine idea of the wealth and grandeur of these principal subjects of Rome, who, from their private revenues, could raise such noble buUdings, and provide such shows, from the several quarters of 1 Pompeius Magnus in ornamentis tbeatri mirabiles fama posuit imagines ; ob id diligentius magnorum artifi- cum ingeniis elaboratas : inter quas legitur Eutyche, a viginti liberis rogo illata, enixa triginta partus ; Alcippc, Elephantum — ^Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 3. ^ Tibi etiam gratias agebat, quod signa componenda suscepisses.' — Ad Att. iv. 9. « Quum Pompeius, inquit, sedem ViotorlEe dedicaturus easet, cujus gradus vicem tlieatri esseut, &e. — Aul. Gell. X. ] ; Tertull. Da Spectaculis. Dion Casaius mentions it, as a tradition tbat he had met with, that this theatre was not really built by Pompey, but by his freedman, Demetrius, who had made himself richer than his master, by attending him in his wars ; and to take off the envy of raising so vast an estate, laid out a considerable part of it upon the theatre, and gave the honour of it to Pompey — ^Dio, p. 107 ; Seneca Do Tranq. Anim, c. 8. ' Magnificentissima vero Pompeii nostri munera in se- cundo consulatu. — De Off. ii. 16. Pompeii quoque altero consulatu, dedicatione templi Veneris Victricis, pugnavere in eirco viginti elephantes. Amissa fugs spo misericordiam vulgi inenarrabili habitu querentes supplicavere, quadara sese lamentatione complorantes, tanto populi dolore, ut oblitus imperatoris aliens universuB consurgeret, dirasque Pompeio, quas ille mox luit, pccnas imprecaretur. — Plin. 1. viii. 7 ; l^to, 1. xxxix. p. 107 ; Plutarch, in Pomp. 1 In his inflnitis— sumptibus, nihil nos magnopere mirari : cum nee necessitati subveniatur, nee dignitas 'augeatur : ipsaque ilia deleotatio multitudinis sit ad breve exiguumque tempus — in quo taraen ipso ima cum satiot.ato memoria quoque moriatiu* voluptatis. — Dc Oflf. ii. 16. K 2 332 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the world, which no monarch on earth is now able to exhibit. Cicero, contrary to his custom, was present at these shows, out of compliment to Pompey, and gives a particular account of them to his friend M. Marius, who could not be drawn by them from his books and retreat in the country. "The old actors (says he) who had left the stage came on to it again in honour to Pompey, but, for the sake of their own honour, ought rather to have staid away : pur friend iEsopus appeared to be quite sunk and worn out, so that all people seemed willing to grant him his quietus ; for, in attempting to raise his voice, where he had occasion to swear, his speech faltered and failed him. — —In the other plays, the vast apparatus, and crowded machinery, which raised the admiration of the mob, spoiled the entertainment : six hundred mules, infinite trea- sures of plate, troops of horse and foot fighting on the stage. The huntings, indeed, were magni- ficent ; but what pleasure to a man of taste, to see a poor weak fellow torn to pieces by a fierce beast, or a noble beast struck dead with a spear ? The last day's show of elephants, instead of delight, raised a general compassion, and an opinion of some relation between that animal and man : but lest you should think me wholly happy, in these days of diversion, I have almost burst myself in the defence of your friend Gallus Caninius : if the city would be as kind to me as they are to .Ssopus, I would willingly quit the stage, to live with you, and such as you, in a polite and liberal ease"." The city continued, for a great part of this summer, without its annual magistrates : for the elections, which had been postponed from the last year, were still kept off by the consuls, till they could settle them to their minds, and secure them to their own creatures ; which they effected at last, except in the case of two tribunes, who slipped into the office against their will : but the most remarkable repulse was of M. Cato from the prse- torship, which was given to Vatinius, from the best citizen to the worst. Cato, upon his return from the Cyprian voyage, was complimented by the senate for that service with the offer of the prsetor- ship in an extraordinary manner J". But he declined the compliment, thinking it more agreeable to his character to obtain it in the ordinary way, by the free choice of the people : but when the election came on, in which he was thought sure of success, Pompey broke up the assembly, on pretence of somewhat inauspicious in the heavens, and by intrigue and management got "Vatinius declared prsetor, who had been repulsed the year fcefore with disgrace, from the jedileship" : but this being car- ried by force of money, and likely to produce an impeachment of Vatinius, Afranius moved for a decree, that the prsetors should not be questioned for bribery after their election, which passed against the general humour of the senate, with an exception only of sixty days, in which they were to be con- sidered as private men. The pretence for the 1 Ep. Fam. vii. 1. Y Cujus ministerii gratia senatus relationem interponl jubebat, ut prcetoriis comitiis extra ordinem ratio ejus habere^ur. Sed ipse id iieri passus non est.' — ^Val. Max. iv. 1 ; Plularch. in Caton. z Proximji dementia: sufFragia — quoniam quemhonorem Catoni negaverunt, Vatinio dare coaeti simt. — Yal. Max. vii. 5 ; I'lutarch, in Pomp, decree was, that so much of the year being spent, thfi whole would pass without any praetors at all, if a liberty of impeaching was allowed : from this moment, says Cicero, they have given the exclusion to Cato ; and, being masters of all, resolve that all the world shall know it". Cicero's Palatine house, and the adjoining portico of Catulus, were now finished ; and as he and his brother were the curators likewise of the repairs of the temple of Tellus'', so they seem to have pro- vided some inscriptions forthese buildings in honour and memory of themselves; but since no public inscriptions could be set up unless by public autho- rity, they were apprehensive of an opposition from Clodius. Cicero mentioned the case to Pompey, who promised his assistance, but advised him to talk also with Crassus, which he took occasion to do as he attended him home one day from the senate. Crassus readily undertook the affair, and told him that Clodius had a point to carry for him- self by Pompey's help and his ; and that if Cicero would not oppose Clodius, he was persuaded that Clodius would not disturb him, to which Cicero consented. Clodius's business was to procure one of those free or honorary lieutenancies, that he might go with a public character to Byzantium, and king Brogitarus, to gather the money which they owed him for past services. ".\s it is a mere money matter," says Cicero, " I shall not concern myself about it, whether I gain my own point or not, though Pompey and Crassus have jointly undertaken it." But he seems to have obtained what he desired, since, besides the intended in- scriptions, he mentions a statue also of his brother, which he had actually erected at the temple of Tellus'. Trebonius, one of the tribunes in the interests of the triumvirate, published a law for the assignment of provinces to the consuls for the term of five years — to Pompey Spain and Afric, to Crassus Syria andthe Parthian war, with a power of raising what forces they thought fit; and that Caesar's commission should be renewed also for five years more. The law was opposed by the generality of the senate, and, above jl, by Cato, favonius, and two of the tribunes, C. Ateius Capito,and P. Aqui- lius Gallus. But the superior force of the consuls and the other tribunes prevailed, and cleared the forum by violence of aU their opponents. The law no sooner passed than Crassus began " A. D. in. Id. Mail S. factum est de ambitu in Afranii sententiam. Sed magna cum gemitu senatus. Consules non sunt persecuti eorum sententias : qui Afranio cum essent assensi addiderunt, ut prffitores ita erearentur, ut dies Lx. privati essent. Eo die Catonem plane repudiarunt. Quid multa ? Tenent omnia, idque ita omnes intelligero Tolunt.— Ad Quint, ii. 9. ^ Quod aedes Telluris est curationis mea, — De Harusp. Hespons. 14. *= Multa nocte cum VibuUio veni ad Pompeimn. Cum- que ego egissem de istis operibus et inscriptionibus, per mihi benigne respondit.— Cum Crasso se dixit loqui velle, mihique. ut idem facerem suasit. Crassum consuleni ex senatu domum reduxi : susccpit rem, dixitque esse quod Clodius hoc tempore cuperet se, et per Pompeium consequi. Putare se, si ego eum non impedirem, posse lue adipisci sine contentione quod vellem, ic— Ad Quint, ii. 9. Reddita est mihi pervetus epistola in qua de sede Telluris, et de porticu Catuli me admones. Fit utrumquo diligenter. Ad Telluris etiam tuam statuam locavi.— Ibid. ill. 1. MARCUS TULLIUS ClCERO. 1S3 to prepare for his Eastern expedition, and was in such haste to set forward that he left Rome above two months before the expiration of his consulship. His eagerness to involve the republic in a desperate war, for which the Parthians had given no pretext, was generally detested by the city. The tribune Ateius declared it impious, and prohibited by all the auspices, and denounced direful inlprecations against it ; but finding Crassus determined to march in defiance of all religion, he waited for him at the gates of the city, and, having dressed up a little altar, stood ready with a fire and sacrifice to devote him to destruction''. Ateius was afterwards turned out of the senate by Appius, when he was censor, for falsifying the auspices on this occasion ; but the miserable fate of Crassus supported the credit of them, and confirmed the vulgar opinion of the inevitable force of those ancient rites in drawing down the divine vengeance on all who presumed to contemn them". Appius was one of the augurs, and the only one of the college who maintained the truth of their auguries and the re- ality of divination, for which he was laughed at by the rest, who charged him also with an absurdity in the reason which he subscribed for his censure upon Ateius, viz. that he had falsified the auspices, and brought a great calamity on the Roman people ; for if the auspices, they said, were false, they could not possibly have any effect, or be the cause of that calamity'. But though they were undoubt- edly forged, it is certain however that they had a real influence on the overthrow of ■ Crassus ; for the terror of them had deeply possessed the minds of the soldiers, and made them turn everything which they saw or heard to 'an omen of their ruin ; so that when the enemy appeared in sight they were* struck with such a panic that they had not courage or spirit enough left to make a tolera- ble resistance. Crassus was desirous before he left Rome to be reconciled to Cicero. They had never been real friends,- but generally opposite in party ; and Cicero's early engagements with Pompey kept him of course at a distance from Crassus. Their cold- ness was still increased on account of Catiline's plot, of which Crassus was strongly suspected, and charged Cicero with being the author of that suspicion ; they carried it however on both sides with much decency, out of regard to Crassus's son, Publius, a professed admirer and disciple of Cicero, till an accidental debate in the senate blew up their secret grudge into an open quarrel. The de- bate was upon Gabinius, whom Crassus undertook to defend, with many severe reflections upon Cicero, who replied with no less acrimony, and gave afreevent to that old resentment of Crassus's many injuries which had been gathering, he says, several years, but lain dormant so long that he took it to be e xtinguished, till, from this accident, it burst *• Dio, 1. xxxix. p. 109 ; Plutarch, in Crass. " M. Crasso quid acciderit, videmus, dirarum obnuucia- tione noglecta DoDivin. i. 16. ' Solus enim multorum annorum memoria, non decan- tandi augurii, sed divinandi tenuit disoiplinam : quein irridebantcollcgs tui, eumque turn Pisidam, turn Soranum augnrem esse dicebant. Quibtis nulla videbatur in augu- riis aut auspiciis prxsensio. — Ibid, 47. In quo Appius, bonus augur — non satis scienter — civem egregium, Ateium, censor notavit, quod ementitum auspl- cia subscripserit.— Quse si falsa fuisset nuUam adferre potuisset causam calamitatis.— Ibid. 16. out into a flame. The quarrel gave great joy to the chiefs of the senate, who highly applauded Cicero, in hopes to embroil him with the triumvirate. But Pompey laboured hard to make it up, and Csesar also by letter expressed his uneasiness upon it, and begged it of Cicero as a favour to be reconciled with Crassus ; so that he could not hold out against an intercession so powerful, and so well enforced by his affection to young Crassus. Their reconciliation was confirmed by mutual professions of a sincere friendship for the future ; and Crassus, to give a public testimony of it to the city, invited himself, just before his departure, to sup with Cicero, who entertained him in the gardens of his son-in-law, Crassipes^. These gardens were upon the banks of the Tiber, and seem to have been famous for their beauty and situation'', and are the only proof which we meet with of the splendid fortunes and condition of Crassipes. Cicero spent a great part of the summer in the country, in study and retreat; pleased, he says, that he was out of the way of those squabbles where he must either have defended what he did not approve, or deserted the man whom he ought not to forsake'. In this retirement he put the last hand to his piece on the Complete Orator, which he sent to Atticus, and promises also to send to Lentulus, telling him that he had inter- mitted his old task of orations, and betaken him- self to the milder and gentler studies, in which he had finished to his satisfaction fhree books, by way of dialogue, on the subject of the Orator, in Aris- totle's manner, which would be of use to his son, young Lentulus, being drawn, not in the ordinary way of the schools and the dry method of precepts, but comprehending- all that the ancients, and especially Aristotle and Isocrates, had taught on the institution of an orator''. The three books contain as many dialogues, upon the character and idea of the perfect orator. The principal speakers were P. Crassus and M. Anto- nius, persons of the first dignity in the republic, and the greatest masters of eloquence which Rome had then known ; they were near forty years older than Cicero, and the first Romans who could pretend to dispute the prize of oratory with the B Repentinam ejus Gabinii defensionem— Si sine uUa mea contumelia suscepisset, tulissem : sed cum me dispu- tantem, non lacessentem laesisset, exarsi non solum pra:- Benti, credo, iracundia (nam ca tamvebemonsfortasse non fuisset) sed cum inclusum illud odium multarum ejus in me iiijuriarum, quod ego efFudisse me omne arbitrabar, residuum tamen insciente me fuisset, omne repente appa- ruit — Cumque Pompeius ita contendisset, ut nihil unquam niagis, ut cum Crasso redirem in gratiam ; Ciesarque per literas maxima se molestia ex ilia eontentione affectum ostenderet: habui non temporum solum mcorumrationem, sed etiam nature. Crassusque, ut quasi testata populo Romano esset nostra gratia, psene a meis laribus in provm- ciam est profectus. Nam cum mihi condixisset, ccenavit apud mo in mei generi Crassipedis hortis.— Ep. Fam. i. 9. '' Ad auint. iii. 7 ; Ad Att. iv. 12. ' Ego af uisse me in altercationibus, quas in senatu factas audio, fero non molestc ; nam aut defendissem quod non placeret, aut defuissem cui non oporteret. — Ad Att. iv. 13. l" Scripsi etiam, (nam ab orationibus dijungo me fere, referoque admansuetiores musas,) scripsi igitur Aristoteleo more, quemadmodum quidem voUii, tres libros in dispu- tatione et dialogo de oratore, quos arbitror Lentulo tue non fore inutilcs. Abhorrent enim a communibus prajcep- lis : ao omnem antiquorum, et Aristotoleam et Isocrateanv rationem oratoriam compleotuntur.— Ep. i"am. i. 9. 13i THE HlSTOllV OF THE LIFE OF Greeks, and who carried the Latin tongue to a degree of perfection which left little or no room for any farther improvement '. The disputation ■was undertaken at the desire and for the instruc- tion of two young orators of great hopes, C. Cotta and P. Sulpicius, who were then ■ beginning to flourish at the bar. Cicero himself was not pre- sent at it, but being informed by Cotta of the principal heads and general argument of the whole, supplied the rest from his own invention, agreeably to the different style and manner which those great men were known to pursue ; and with design to do honour to the memory of them both, but especially of Crassus, who had been the direc- tor of his early studies, and to whom he assigns the defence of that notion which he himself always entertained of the character of a consummate Atticuswas exceedingly pleased with this treatise, and commended it to the skies, but objected to the propriety of dismissing Scsevola from the dis- putation after he had once been introduced into the first dialogue. Cicero defends himself by the example of their god Plato, as he calls him, in his book on Government, where the scene, being laid in the house of an old gentleman, Cephalus, the old man, after bearing a part in the first conver- sation, excuses himself that he must go to prayers, and returns no more ; Plato not thinking it suit- able to the character of his age to be detained in the company through so long a discourse ; that, with greater reason, therefore, he had used the same caution in the case of ScEevola, since it was not decent to suppose a person of his dignity, ex- treme age, and infirm health, spending several days successively in another man's house : that the first day's dialogue related to his partictilar profession, but the other two turned chiefly on the rules and precepts of the art, where it was not proper for one of Scsevola's temper and character to assist only as a hearer". This admirable work remains entire, a standing monument of Cicero's parts and abilities, which, while it exhibits to us the idea of a perfect orator, and marks out tile way by which Cicero formed himself to that cha- racter, it explains the reason likewise why nobody 1 Crassus— quatuor et triginta turn haiebat annos, tot- idemijue annis mihi setate prsestabat— Triennio ipso minor quam Antonius, quod idoirco posui, ut dicendi latino prima maturitas qua setate extitisset, posset notari; et intelligeretur, jam ad summum pEene esse perductam, ut eo nihil ferme quisquam addere posset, nisi qui a philo- sophia, a jure civili, ab historia fuisset iustruetior — Brut. 275. Nunc ad Antonium, Crassumque pervenimus. Nam ego sic existimo hos oratores f uisse maximos : et in his primum cum Grfficorum gloria latine dicendi copiam Eequatam — Ibid. 260. m Nos enim, qui ipsi aermoni non interfuisBemua, et quibus C. Cotta tantummodo locos ac sententias hujus disputationis tradidissot, quo in genero orationis utrum- que oratorcm cognoveramus, id ipsum sumus in eormn sermone adumbrare conati.— Do Orat. iii. 4. Ut ei, (Craaso) ot si nequaquam parem iUius ingenio, at pro noatro tamen studio meritam gratiam debitamque referainus. — Ibid. n Quod in lis libds, quos laudas, personam doaideraa ScajTolas. Non earn temero dimovi, sod feci idem, quod in TToMriic^ deus ille noster, Plato. Cum in Pirteeum Socrates venissei ad Cephalum, looupletem et festivum senem, quoad primus ille sermo haberetur adest in dispu- tando senci, &o.— .A.d Att. iv. :6. has since equalled him, or ever will, till there be found again united, what will hardly be found single in any man, the same industry and the same parts- Cicero returned to Rome about the middle of November, to assist at Milo's wedding, who mar- ried Faufeta, a rich and noble lady, the daughter of Sylla the dictator", with whom, as some writers say, he found Sallust the historian in bed not long after, and had him soundly lashed before he dis- missed him. The consuls, Pompey and Crassus, having reaped all the fruit which they had proposed from the consulship, of securing to themselves the provinces which they wanted, were not much concerned about the choice of their successors ;. so that after postponing the election to the end of the year, they gave way at last to their enemy, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, being content to have joined with him their friend Appius Claudius Pulcher. As soon as the new year came on, Crassus's enemies began to attack him in the senate : their design was to revoke his commission, A. TOB. 690. or abridge it at least of the power of cic. 53. making war upon the Parthians ; but coss. Cicero exerted himself so strenuously AHE.vo- ' ™ ^'^ defence that he baffled their BARBus attempts, after a warm contest with A. CLAUDIUS the consuls themselves and several of pcLCHER. the consular senators. He gave Cras- sus an account of the debate by letter, in which he tells him that he had given proof, not only to his friends and family, but to the whole city, of. the sincerity of his reconciliation ; and assures him of his resolution to serve him with all his pains, advice, authority, interest, in everything great or small, which concerned himself, his friends, or clients, and bids him look upon that letter as a league of amity which on his part should be invio- lably observed?. The month of February being generally employed in giving audience to foreign . princes and ambas- sadors, Antiochus, king of Comagene, a territory on the banks of the Euphrates', preferred a peti- tion to the senate for some new honour or privi- lege, which was commonly decreed to princes in alliance with the republic : but Cicero, being in a rallying humour, made the petition so ridiculous that the house rejected it ; and, at his motion, re- served likewise out of his jurisdiction one of his principal towns. Zeugma, in which was the chief bridge and passage over the Euphrates. Csesar, in his consulship, had granted to this king the honour of the prsete-xta,' or the robe of the Roman magistrates, which was always disagreeable to the nobility, who did not care to see these petty princes put upon the same rank with themselves ; so that Cicero, calling out upon the nobles, " Will you," says he, " who refused the praetexta to the king of Bostra, "suffer this Comagenian to strut in purple!" But this disappointment was not more mortifying to the king than it was to the consuls, whose best perquisites were drawn from these com- pliments, which were always repaid by rich pre- sents : so that Appius, who had been lately recon- ciled to Cicero, a nd paid a particular court to him o Ad Att. iv. 13 ; v. 8. P Has literas velim existimes fosderis habituras esse vim, non epistolffi ; meque ea, quae tibi promitto ac recipio, sanctissinie esse observatunira.— Ep. Fam. v. 8. P Ep. Fam. XV. ,1, 3, 4, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 135 at this time, applied to him by Atticus and their common friends to suffer the petitions of this sort to pass quietly, nor destroy the usual harvest of the month, and make it quite barren to him'. Cicero made an excursion this spring to visit his several seats and estates in the country ; and, iu his Cuman villa, began a treatise on politics, or on the best state of a city, and the duties of a citizen: he calls it *'a great and laboriouswork,yet worthy of his pains if he could succeed in it ; if not, 1 shall throw it (says he) into that sea which is now before me, and attempt something else, since it is impossible for me to be idle." It was drawn up in the form of a dialogue, in which the greatest persons of the old republic were intro- duced, debating on the origin and best constitution of government ; Scipio, Laelius, Philus, Manilius, &c. ' The whole was to be distributed into nine books, each of them the subject of one day's dis- putation. When he had finished the two first, they were read in his Tusculan villa to some of his friends ; where Sallust, who was one of the companyj advised him to change his plan, and treat the subject in his own person, as Aristotle had done before him ; alleging, that the intro- duction of those ancients, instead of adding gravity, gave an air of romance to -the argument, which would have the greater weight when delivered from himself, as being the work not of a little sophist, or contemplative theorist, but of a con- sular senator and statesman, conversant in the greatest afTairs, and writing vphat his own practice and the experience of many years had taught him to be true. These reasons seemed very plausible, aud made him think of altering his scheme ; especially since, by throwing the scene so far back, he precluded himself from touching on those important revolutions of the republic which were later than the period to which he confined himself: but after some deliberation, being unwilling to throw away the two books already finished, with which he was much pleased, he resolved to stick to the old plan, and as he had preferred it from the first, for the sake of avoiding offence, so he pursued it without any other alteration than that of reducing the number of books from nine to six, in which form they were afterwards published, and survived him for several ages, though now unfor- tunately lost'. ' T)G Comageno rege, quod rem totam discusseram, mihi et per se et per Pomponium blanditur Appius. Videt en jm, / ai hoc genere dicendi utar in caeteris, Pebruarium sterilem futurum. Eumque luei jocose satis: neque solum illud extorsi oppidulum, quod erat positum in Euphrate, Zeug- ma ; Bed prseterea togam ejus praetextam, quam erat adeptus Cffisare consule, magno hominum risu caviilatus. — Vos autem homines nobiles, qui Bostrenmn prffitex- tatum non f erebatls, Comagenum f eretis ? — Multa dixi in jgnobilem regem, quibus totus est explosus. Quo genere commotus Appius totum me amplexatur. — Ad Quint, ii. 12. ' Scribebam ilia, quje dixeram -jroXtTtKci, spiesum sane opus et operoBum : sed si ex sententia successerit, bene erit opera posita ; sin minus, in illud ipsum mare deji- ciemus, quod scribentes spectamus ; aggrediemur alia, quoniam quicscere non possumus ^Ibid. 14. Hanc ego, quam institui, de republica disputationem in African! personam et Phili, et La;lii et Manilil contuli, &c. — Rem, quod te non fugit, magnam coraplexus sum et gravem,, et plurimi otii, quod ego maxime egeo. — Ad Att. iv. 16. * Sermo autem in novem et dies etjibros distributus de From the fragments of this work, which still remain, it appears to have been a noble perform- ance, and one of his capital pieces, where all the important questions in politics and morality were discussed with the greatest elegance and accuracy — of the origin of society, the nature of law and ■ obligation, the eternal difference of right and wrong, of justice being the only good policy or foundation either of public or private prosperity ; so that he calls his six books so many pledges given to the public for the integrity of his conduct ". The younger Scipio was the principal speaker of the dialogue, whose part it was to assert the ex- cellence of the Roman constitution, preferably to that of all other states"; who, in the sixth book, under the fiction of a dream, which is still preserved to us, takes occasion to inculcate the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and a future state, in a manner so lively and en- tertaining that it has been the standing pattern ever since to the wits of succeeding ages, for attempting the same method of instilling moral lesgons in the form of dreams or visions. He was now drawn at last into a particular in- timacy and correspondence of letters with Caesar, who had long been endeavouring to engage him to his friendship, and with that view had invited his brother, Quintus, to be one of his lieutenants in Gaul, where Quintus, to pay his court the better to his general, joined heartily in pressing his brother to a union with him, instead of adhering so obstinately to Pompey, who, as he tells him, was neither so sincere nor so generous a friend as Cassar?. Cicero did not dislike the advice, and expressed a readiness to comply with it, of which Balbus gave an intimation to Csesar, with a letter also inclosed from Cicero himself; but the packet happening to fall into water, the letters were all destroyed except a scrap or two of Balbus's, to which Csasar returned answer : — " I perceive that you had written somewhat about Cicero, which I tcrald not make out ; but, as far as I can guess, it was something rather to be wished than hoped for '. " Optimo statu civitatis et de optimo cive. — Hi libri, cum in Tusciilano mihi legerentur, audiente Sallustio, admonitus sum ab illo, multo majorc auctoritate illis de rebus dici posse, ai ipse loquerer de republica ; pra»sertim cum esaem, non Heraclides Fonticus, sed consularis, et is, qui in maxi- mis versatus in republica rebus esscm : quse tarn antiquis hominibus attribuerem, ea visum iri ficta esse. — Commovit me, et eo magis, quod maximoa motus nostras civitatia attingere non poteram, quod erant inferiores, quam illorum Betas qui loquebantur. Ego autem id ipsum turn erani aecutus, ne in nostra tempera incurrens offenderem quem- piam — Ad Quint, iii. 5. This will solve that variation -which we find in his own account of this work, in difi^erent parts of his writings : and why Farmius, who in some places is declared to be a speaker in it, [Ad Att. iv. 16 ; Ad Quint, iii. 6,] is denied to be so in others ; being dropped when the number of books was contracted, " Cum sex libris, tanquam pradibus me ipsum obstrinxerim, quoa tibi tain valde probari gaudeo. — Ad Att, vi, 1. * An censes, cum in illis de republica libris persuadere videatur Africanus, omnium rerumpublicaruni nflatranx veterem illam fuisse optimam, — De Leg, ii, 10 ; ibid, i, 6, 9, y De Pompeio assentior tibi, vel tu potius mihi, nam, ut scis, jampridem istum canto Caasarcni, — Ad Quint, ii. 13, 2 Ille scripait ad Balbum, fasciculum ilium opistolarum, in quo f uerat. et mea ct Balbi, totum sibi aqua madidum ea=!; : ut ne illud quidcm sciat, meam fuisse aliquara epia- iia THE HISTORY OF THE LlfE OP But Cioei'o sent another copy of the same letter, which came safe to his hands, written, as he says, in the familiar style, yet without departing from his dignity. Caesar answered him with all imagin- able kindness, and the offer of everything in which his power could serve him, telling him how agreeable his brother's company was to him by the revival of their old affection; and sirice he was now removed to such a distance from him, he would take care that in their mutual want of each other, he should have cause at least to rejoice that his brother was with him, rather than any one else. He thanks him also for sending the lawyer Trebatius to him, and says upon it jocosely, that there was not a man before in his army who knew how to draw a recognizance. Cicero, in his ac- count of this letter to his brother, says—" It is kind in you, and like a brother, to press me to this friendship, though I am running that way apace myself, and shall do, what often happens to travellers, who, rising later than they intended, yet by quickening their speed come sooner to their journey's end than if they had set out earlier ; so I, who have overslept myself in my observance of this man, though you were frequently rousing me, will correct my past laziness by mending my pace for the future." But as to his seeking any advan- tage or personal benefit from this alliance, "believe me," says he, "you who know me, I have from him already what I most value, the assurance of his affection, which I prefer to all the great things that he offers me'." In another letter he says, — " I lay no great stress on his promises, want no further honours, nor desire any new glory, and wish nothing more but the continuance of his esteem — yet live still in such a course of ambition and fatigue as if I were expecting what I do not really desire''." But though he made no use of Caesar's generosity for himself, yet he used it freely for his friends : for besides his brother, who was Caesar's lieutenant, and Trebatius, who was his lawyer ; he procured an eminent post for Orfius, and a regiment for Curtius ; yet Caesar was chiding him all the while for his reservedness in asking =. His recom- tolam. Bed ex Balbi epistola pauca verba intellexerat, ad quffi rescripsit his verbis :■ — De Cicerone video te quid- . dam scripsisse, quod ego non intelloxi ; quantum autem conjectura consequebar, id erat bujuamodi, iit magisoptan- dutn, quam sperandum putarem — Ad Quint, ii. 12. » Cum Csesai-is literis, refertis omni officio, diligentia, suavitate — Quai'um initium est, quam suavis ei tuns iidventus fuerit, et recordatio veteris amoris ; delude se effectuTum, ut ego in medio dolore ac desiderio tul, te, cum a me abesscs, potissimum secum esse Iffitarer. — Trebatium quod ad se miserim, persalse et bumaniter etiam gratlas mihi agit : negat enim in tanta multitudiiie ooruni, qui una essent, quempiam fuisse, qui vadimonium concipere posact. — Quare facis tu quidem fraterne, quod me hortaxis, sed meliereule currentem nunc quidem, ut omnia mea studia in istum immn conferam, fitc. Sed mlhi erode, quern nosti, quod in istis rebus ego plurimi a:stimo, jam babeo : — deinde CsEsaris tantum in me .amorem, quern omnibus his bonoribus, quos me a se expectare vult, antepono.— Ad Quint, ii, 1.5. ^ Pramis.sis iis, qute ostendit, non valde pendeo: nee honorca aitio, nee desidero gloriam : magisque ejus volun- tatis perpetuitatem, quam promissonun exitum expecto. Vivo tamen in ea ambltione et labore, tonquam id, quod non postulo, expectem. — Ibid. iii. 5. e M. Curtio tribunatum ab eo petivl. — Ibid, ii, 15 ; Ep. Fam. vii. 5. ■ De tribimatu— mibi ipse Ctcsar noniinatim Cnitio para- mendatory letter of Trebatius, will show both what a share he possessed at this time of Caesar s rnfidence, and with what an affectionate zeal he used to recommend his friends. " Cicero to Ccesar emperor. " See how I have persuaded myself to consider you as a second self; not only in what affects my own interest, but in what concerns my friends : I had resolved, whithersoever I went abroad, to carry C. Trebatius along with me, that I might bring him home adorned with the fruits of my care and kindness-: but since Pompey's stay in Rome has been longer than I expected, and my own irresolution, to which you are no stranger, will either wholly hinder, or at least retard, my going abroad at all ; see, what I have taken upon myself : 1 began presently to resolve, that Trebatius should expect the same things from you which he had been hoping for from me : nor did I assure him with less frankness of your good will, than I used to do of my own : but a wonderful incident fell out, both as a testimony of my opinion, and a pledge of your humanity ; for while I was talking of this very Trebatius at my house with our friend Balbus, your letter was delivered to me ; in the end of which you said, ' As to M. Orfius, whom you recommended to me, I will make him even king of Gaul, or lieutenant to Lepta; send me another therefore, if you please, whom I may prefer.' We lifted up our hands, both 1 and Balbus ; the occasion was so pat, that it seemed not to he accidental, but divine. I send you therefore Trebatius ; and send him so, as at first indeed I designed, of my own accord, but now also by your invitation : embrace him, my dear Caesar, with all your usual courtesy ; and whatever you could be induced to do for my friends, out of your regard to me, confer it all singly upon him. I will be answerable for the man ; not in my former style, which you justly rallied, when I wrote to you about Mile, but in the true Roman phrase which men of sense use ; that there is not an honester, worthiei-, modester man living : I must add, what makes the principal part of his character, that he has a singular memory and perfect knowledge of the civil law. I ask for him, neither a regiment nor government, nor any certain piece of preferment; I ask your bene- volence and generosity; yet am not against the adorning him, whenever you shall think proper, with those trappings also of glory: in short, I deliver the whole man to you, from my hand, as we say, into yours, illustrious for victory and faith. But I am more importunate than I need to be to you ; yet I know you will excuse it. Take care of your health, and continue to love me, as you now do**." Trebatius was of a lasy, indolent, studious temper ; a lover of books and good company ; eagerly fond of the pleasures of Rome ; and wholly out of his element in a camp : and because Caesar, through the infinite hurry of his affairs, could not presently admit him to his familiarity, and prefer him so soon as he expected, he was tired of the drudgery of attending him, and impatient to be at home again. Under these circumstances, there is a series of letters to him from Cicero, written not only turn esse rcscripait, meamque in rogando vereoundiam objurgavit. — Ad Quint, iii. 1. "i Ep. Fam. vii. 6. MARCU& TULLIUS CICERO. 137 \VitU tlie disinterested affection of a friend, but tlie solicitude even of a parent, employing all the arts of iusinuation, as well of the grave as of the facetious kind, to hinder him from ruining his hopes and fortunes by his own imprudence. He " laughs at his childish hankering after the city ; bids him reflect on the end for which he went abroad, and pursue it with constancy ; observes, from the Medea of Euripides, that many had served themselves and the public well at a distance from their country ; whilst others, by spending their lives at home, had lived and died ingloriously ; of which number," says he, " you would have been one, if we had not thrust you out ; and since I am now acting Medea, take this other lesson from me, that he who is not wise for himself, is wise to no purpose"." He rallies his impatience, or rather " imprudence , as if he had carried a bond, not a letter to Caesar, and thought that he had nothing to do but to take his money and return home ; not recollecting, that even those who followed king Ptolemy with bonds to Alexandria, had not yet brought back a penny of money '. You write me word," says he, " that Caesar now consults you; I had rather hear that he consults your interest^. Let me die, if I do not believe, such is your vanity, that you had rather be consulted than enriched by him''." By these railleries and perpetual admo- nitions he made Trebatlus ashamed of his softness, and content to stay with CiBsar, by v^hose favour and generosity he was cured at last of all his uneasiness ; and having here laid the foundation of his fortunes, flourished afterwards in the court of Augustus, with the character of the most^learned lawyer of that age'. Caesar was now upon his second expedition into Britain ; which raised much talk and expectation at Rome, and gave Cicero no small concern for the safety of his brother, who, as one of Caesar's lieutenants, was to bear a considerable part in it''. But the accounts which lie received from the place soon eased him of his apprehensions, by informing him, that there was nothing either to fear or to hope from the attempt ; no danger from the people, no spoils from the country' . In a letter e Tu modo ineptias istas et desideria urbis et urban! tatia depone : et quo consilio profectus es, id assiduitate et virtute consequere. — Nam multi suam rem bene gesscrc et poplicam, patria procul. Multi, quei domi Ectatem afferent, propterea aimt im- probati. Quo in numero tu certe fuisses, nisi te oxtrusissemus — et quando Xtledeam agere coepi, illud semper memento, qui ipse sibi sapiens prodesse non quit, nequicquam sapit, — l'3p. Fam. vii. 6. f Subimprudens videbare ; tanquam enirti syngrapham ad imperatorem, non cpistolam attulisses, sic, pecunia ablata, domum redirc properabas. Nee tibi in mentem veniebat, eos ipsos, qui cum syngrapliis vcnissent Alex- andi-iam, nummum ndhuc nullum auferre potuisfie. — Ibid. 17. s Consuli quidera te a Ca?sarc scribis ; sed ego tibi ab illo consuli vellem Ibid, 11. 1> Moriar, ni, qua: tua gloria est, puto te malle a Ca^sare consuli, quam inaurari. — Ibid, 13, i nisi quid tu, docte Trebati, Dissentis Hor, Sat. ir. i. 79. ^ Ex Quinti fratris Uteris suspicor jam eum esse in Britannia : suspense animo expecto quid agat. — Ad Att, JV, l.'i. ' jucundas mihi tuits de Britannia literas ! Timcbam to Atticus, " we are in suspense," says he, " about the British war : it is certain, that the access of the island is strongly fortified ; and it is known also already that there is not a grain of silver in it, nor anything else but slaves ; of vAoni you will scarce expect any, I dare say, skilled in music or letters"." In another to Trebatius ; " I hear that there is not either any gold or silver in the island : if so, you have nothing to do but to take one of their chariots, and fly back to us°." From their railleries of this kind on the barbarity and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms : how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance and poverty; enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture : while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters ; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life : yet running perhaps the same course which Rome itself had run before it ; from virtuous industry to wealth ; from wealth to luxury ; from luxury to an impa- tience of discipline and corruption of morals ; till by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it falls a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, losing everytiiing else that is valuable, sinks gradu- ally again into its original barbarism. Cicero taking it for granted that Trebatius followed Caesar into Britain, begins to joke with him upon the wonderful figure that a British lawyer would make at Rome ; and, as it was his profession to guard other people's safety, bids him beware that he himself was not caught by the British charioteers". But Trebatius, it seems, knew how to take care of himself without Cicero's advice ; and when Caesar passed over to Britain, chose to stay behind in Gaul : this gave a fresh handle for raillery ; and Cicero congratulates him " upon being arrived at last into a country where he was thought to know something ; that if he had gone over also to Britain, there would not have been a man in all that great island wiser than himself." — He observes, " that he was much more cautious in military than in civil contests ; and wonders, that being such a lover of swimming, he could not be persuaded to swim in the ocean ; and when he could not be kept away from every show of gladiators at Rome, had not the curiosity to see the British charioteers :" he rejoices however, after all, that he did not go ; " since they should not now ooeanum, timebam littus insula:. Keliqua non equidem conterano,. — Ad Quint, i. 16. De Britannicis rebus cognovi ex tuis Uteris, nihil esse nee quod metuamus, nee quod gaudeamus. — Ibid, iii. 1. ni Britanniei belli exitus expectatur. Constat enim aditus insulffi munitoa esse mirificis molibus. Etiam iUud jam cognitum est, neque argenti scripulum esse ulhim in ilia insula, neque uUam spem prffids, nisi ex maneipiis ; ex quibus nuUos puto te Uteris, aut musicis eruditos ex- pectare. — AdAtt. iv. 16. n In Britannia nihil esse audio neque auri neque argenti. Id si itaest, essedum aliquod suadeo capias, et adnos quam primum reeurras. — Kp. Fam. vii. 7. o Jlira enim persona induci potest Britanniei juris con- sulti.— Ep, Fam, vii, 11. Tu, qui cajtcris ciivere didicisti, in Britannia ne sb esse- dariis dccipiaris caveto. — Ibid 6. ma THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF be troubled with, the impertinence of his British stories P." Quintus Cicero, who had a genius for poetry, was projecting the plan of a poem upon their British expedition, and begged his brother's assist- ance in it : Cicero approved the design, and observed upon it, that the nature and situation of places so strange, the manners of the people, their battles with them, and the general himself Ca3sar, were excellent subjects for poetry ; but as to his assistance, it was sending owls to Athens : that Quintus, who had finished four tragedies in sixteen days, could not want either help or fame in that way, after his Electra and theTroades^. In other letters he answers more seriously ; that it was impossible to conceive how much he wanted leisure for versifying : that to write verses required an ease and cheerfulness of mind which the times had taken from him ; and that his poetical flame was quite extinguished by the sad prospect of things before them"*. He had sent Cassar his Greek poem, in three books, on the history of his consxilship ; and Ccesar's judgment upon it was, that the beginning of it was as good as anything which he had ever seen in that language, but that the following lines, to a certain place, were not equal in accuracy and spirit. Cicero desires therefore to know of his brother, vphat Caesar really thought of the whole ; P Est, quod gaudeas, te in ista loca venisse, ubi aliquid sapere viderere : quod si iu Britanniam quoque profectus esses, profecto nemo in ilia tanta insula te peritior f uisset. — Sed tu in re militari multo es cautior quam in advoca- tionibus : qui neque in oceano no tare voluisti, homo studiosissimus natandi, neque epectare essedarios, quem antea ne andabatam quidem defraudare poteramus. — Ep. Earn, vii, 10. In Britanniam te profectum non esse gaudeo, quod et labore cai-uisti, et ego te de illis rebus non audiam.— rb'd. 17. The little liere given of Trebatius*s love of swimming, adds a new light and beauty to that passage of Horace, ■where the poet introduces him, advising, to swim thrice cross the Tiber, to cure the want of sleep ; the advice, it seems, being peculiarly agreeable to his oivn practice and character. ' ter uneti Transnanto Tiberim, somno quibus est opus alto. Sat. ir. i. 8. 5 Te vero iTrSdeffiv acribendi egregiam habere video. Quos tu situs, quas naturas rerum etlocorum, quos mores, quas gentcB, quas pugnas, quem vero ipsum imperatorem habes ? Ego te libenter, nt rogas, quibus rebus vis, adju- vabo, et tibi versus, quos rogas, yXavKa els 'Ad-fjj/as mittam. — Ad Quint, ii. 16. Quatuor tragoedias, cum svi diebus absolvisse scribas, tu quidquam ab alio mutuaris? et k\4os quaeris, cmn Electram et Troadem scripseris? — ^Ibid. iii. 6. 'N.B.^ThesGjbur tragedies, said to be written in sixteen days, cannot be supposed to have been original produc- tions, but translations from some of the Greek poets of which Quintus was a great master ; finished by him in haste for the entertainment of the camp : for the word Troadem in the text, the name of one of them, should most probably he Troades, the title of one of Euripides's plays ; as the Electra also was. ' Quod me de faciendis versibus rogas, incredibile est mi frater, quantum egeam tempore— Facerem tamen ut possem, sed— opus est ad poema quadam animi alacritate, quam plane mihl tempora eripiuiit. — Ibid. iii. 5, De versibus— deest mihi opera, quaj non modo tempus, sed etiam animum ah omni cura vacuum desiderat : sed abest etiam 4v9ov(riaaiJ.6s &c.— Ibid. 4. whether the matter or the style displeased him ; and begs that he would tell him the truth freely ; since whether Caesar liked it or not,he should not, he says, be a jot the less pleased with himself". He began however another poem, at his brother's earnest request, to be addressed to C^sar, but after some progress was so dissatisfied with it that he tore it* : yet Qumtus still urging, and signi- fying, that he had acquainted Caesar with the design, he was obliged to resume it, and actually finished an epic poem in honour of Caesar ; which he promises to send as soon as he could find a proper conveyance, that it might not be lost, as Quintus's tragedy of Erigoue was in coming from Gaul ; the only thing, says he, which had not found a safe passage since Caesar governed that province^. While Cicero was expressing no small dissatis- faction at the measures which his present situation obliged him to pursue, Caesar was doing everything in his power to make him easy : he treated his brother with as much kindness as if Cicero himself had been his general; gave him the choice of his winter-quarters, and the legion which he best liked* : and Clodius happening to write to him from Jlome, he showed the letter to Quintus, and declared that he would not answer it ; though Quintus civilly pressed him not to pnt such an aff^ront upon Clodius for their sakes?: in the midst of all his hurry in Britain, he sent frequent accounts to Cicero in his own hand of his progress and success, and at the instant of quitting the island wrote to him from the very shore, of the embark- ment of the troops, and his having taken hostages and imposed a tribute : and lest he should be surprised at having no letters at the same time from his brother, he acquaints him, that Quintus was then at a distance from him, and could not take the benefit of that express : Cicero received all these letters at Rome in less than a month after date, and takes notice of one of them, that it arrived on the twentieth day ; a despatch equal t8 that of our present couriers by the post^. 8 Sed heus tu, celari videor a te, quomodonam, mi frater, de nostris versibus Cssar ? Nam primum librum se legisse scripsit ad me ante : et prima sic, ut neget se ne GrEEca quidem meliora legisse ; reliqua ad quendam locum paOvfidiT^pa. Hoc enim utitur verbo. Die mihi verum, num aut res cum aut x°-P^^'^'hp "o^ delectat ? Nihil est quod vereare. Ego enim ne pile quidem minus me amabo. —Ad Quint, ii. 16. * Poema ad Caesarem, quod coraposueram, incidi.— Ibid, iii. 1. s. 4. '^ Quod me institutmnadillimipoemajubesperflcei-ej etsi distentus tum opera, turn anirao sum multo magis, qnoniam ex epistola, quam ad te miseram, cognovit Cffisar me aJiquod esse exorsum ; revertar ad institutum. —Ibid. 8. Quod me hortaris, ut absolvam, habeo absolutum suave, mihi quidem uti videtur, iiros ad CEEsarem. Sed quasfo loeupletem tabellarium, ne accidat quod Erigon» tuse; cui soli, Csesare imperatore, iter ex Gallia tutum non fuit. —Ibid. 9. ^ Quintum meum— Dii boni ! quemadmodum tractate honore, dignitate, gratia? Non secus ac si ego essenl imperator. Hibemam legionem eligendi optio delata eoramodum, ut ad me scribit.— Ad Att. iv. 18. y In qua primum est de Clodii ad Cffisarem literis, in quo Cajsaris consilium probo, quod tibi amantisBime petenti veniam non dedit, ut iiJliim ad illam Furiam ver- bum rcscriberefe.—Ad Quint, iii. 1. s. 4. ^ Ab Quinto fratre et a Caisare accepi a. d. tx. Kal MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 139 As to the news of the city this summer, Cicero tells his brother, " that there were some hopes of an election of magistrates, but those uncertain ; some suspicion of a dictator, yet that not more certain ; a great calm in the forum ; but of a city, seemed to be quieted rather by the eSFects of age than of concord : that his own conduct, as well in public as in priTate, was just what Quintus had advised, softer than the tip of his ear; and his votes in the senate such as pleased others rather than himself. Such ills does wretched war and discord breed, that bribery was never carried so high as at this time, by the consular candidates, Memmius, Do- mitius, Scaurus, Messala : that they were all alike ; no eminence in any ; for money levelled the dignity of them all : that above eighty thousand pounds was promised to the first tribe ; and money grown so scarce by this profusion of it, that interest was risen from four to eight per cent.'" Memmius and Cn. Domitius, who joined their interests, made a strange sort of contract with the consuls, which was drawn up in writing, and attested in proper form by many of their friends on both sides ; by which " the consuls obliged themselves to sei-ve them with all their power in the ensuing election ; and they on their part undertook, when elected, to procure for the consuls what provinces they desired ; and gave a bond of above 3000/. to provide three augurs who should testify, that they were present at making a law for granting them those provinces, when no such law had ever been made ; and two consular senators, who should affirm, that they were present likewise at passing a decree of the senate, for furnishing the same provinces with arms and money, when the senate had never been consulted about it.' " Nov. literas, confecta Britannia, obsidibus aeceptis, nulla prxda, imperata tamen peeunia, datas a littoribus Britan- nije, proximo a. d. vi. Kal. Octob. exercitum Britannia reportabant. — Ad Alt. iv. 17. Ex Britannia Cjesar ad me Kal. Sept. dedit literas ; quas ego accepi a. d. iv. Kal. Octob. satis conunodas de Bri- tannicis rebus : quibus, ne admirer, quod a te nullasaccep- erim, seribit'se sine te fuisse, cum ad mare accesserit. — Ad Quint, iii, 1. s. 7 Cum banc jam epistolam complicarem, tabellariiavobis venerunt a. d. xi. Kal. Sept.vicesiiaodie.^-rbid. iii.l.s.O. a Res Romans sic se babebant. Erat nonnulla spes comitiorum, sed incerta: erat aliqua suspicio dictaturse, ne ea quidem certa : summum otium forense ; sed senes- centis magis civitatis, quam adquiescentis. Sententia autcm nostra in senatu ejusmodi, magis ut alii nobis assen- tiantur, quam nosraet ipsi.— Toiavff 6 r\-fifio)V 'iT6\efios i^epyd^erat. Eunip. Supplices. Ambitus redit immanis, nunquam par fuit.— Ad Quint, u. IS. Sequere me nimc in Campum. Ardet ambitus '• oTJIia Se rot ipeco ; foenu^ ex triente Idib. Quint, factum erat bessibus — ^iflxii in nullo est, pecimia omnium dignitatem exxquat. — Ad Att. iv. 15. ^ Consules flagrant infamia, quod C. Memmius candi- datus pactioncm in senatu recitavit, quam ipse et suua competitor Domitius cum consulibus fecissent, uti ambo H. S. quadragena consulibus dai-ent, si essent ipsi consules facti, nisi tres augures dedissent, qui se adfuisse dicerent, cum lex curiata ferretur, quse lata non esset ; et duo con- sulares, qui se dicerent in omandisprovinciis consularibus scribendo affuisse, cum omnino ne senatus quidem fuisset. Iljec pactio non verbis sednominibus et perscriptionibus ; multorum tabulis cum esse fa«ta diceretnr, pi^olata a Memmius, who was strongly supported by Caesar", finding some reason to dislike his bargain, resolved to break it, and, by Pompey's advice, gave an account of it to the senate. Pompey was pleased with the opportunity of mortifying the consul Domitius ; and willing likewise to take some revenge on Appius, who, though his near relation, did not enter so folly as he expected into his measures'^ : hut Caesar was much out of humour at this step "^ i as it was likely to raise great scandal in the city, and strengthen the interest of those who were endeavouring to restrain that infamous corruption, which was the main instrument of advancing his power. Appius never changed countenance, nor lost any credit by the discovery ; but his colleague Domitius, who affected the cha- racter of a patriot, was extremely discomposed; and Memmius, now grown desperate, resolved to promote the general disorder and the creation of a dictator'. Quintus sent his brother word from Gaul, that it was reported there, that he was present at this contract ; but Cicero assures him tliat it was false, and that the bargain was of such a nature, as Memmius had opened it to the senate, that no honest man could have been present at its'. The senate was highly incensed ; and to check the insolence of the parties concerned, passed a decree, that their conduct should be inquired into by what they called a private, or silent judgment ; where the sentence was not to be declared till after the election, yet so as to make void the election of those who should be found guilty:' this they resolved to execute with rigour, and made an allotment of judges for that purpose : but some of the tribunes were prevailed with to interpose their negative, on pretence of hindering all inquisitions not specially authorised by the people ''. This detestable bargain of forging laws and decrees at pleasure, in which so many of the first rank were concerned, either as principals or wit- nesses, is alleged by an ingenious French writer as a flagrant instance of libertinism which hastened the destruction of Rome'. So far are " private vices" from being " public benefits," that this great republic, of all others the most free and flourishing, owed the loss of its liberty to nothing else but a general defection of its citizens, from the probity Memmio est nominibus inductis, auctore Pompeio.^Ad Att. iv. 18. c Memmium Cajsaris omnes opes eoniirmant. — Ibid. 15. 17. d Dio, xxxix. p. 118. c Ut qui jam intelligebamus enunciationem illam I\lem- mii valde Cajsari displicere. — ^Ad Att. iv. 16. f Hie Appius erat idem ; nihil sane jaeturaj. Corruerat alter, et plane, inquam, jacebat. Memmius autem— plane refrixerat, et eo magis nunc cogitare dictaturam, timi favcre justitio et omnium rerum licentis — Ibid. 18. s Quodscribis te audisse, in candidatorum consularium coitione me interfuisse, id falsum est. Ejusmodi enim pactiones in ista coitione faetae sunt, quas postea Memmius patefecit, ut nemo bonus interesse debuerit.— Ad Quint, iii. 1 . 8. 5. >• At senatus deerevit ut tacitum judicium ante comitia fieret— Magnus timer candidatorum. Sed quidam jiidices— tribunes plebis appellarunt, no injussu populi judioai-ent. Ees cedit, comitia dilata ex scnatusconsulto dum lex de tacito judicio ferretur. Venit legi dies. Terentius inter- cesait.' — ^Ad Att. iv. 16. 1 Considerations sur les Causes de-la Grandeur, &c. dea Komains, chap. x. 140 THE HiSTORV 03? THE LlFJil OF and discipline of their ancestors. Cicero often foretells their approaching ruin from this very cause; and when he bewails the -wretchedness of the times, usually joins the wretchedness of their morals as the genuine source of it^. But lest these corrupt candidates should escape ■without punishment, they were all publicly im- peached by different prosecutors, and the city was now iu a great ferment about them, since, as Cicero says, either the men or the laws must necessarily perish : yet they will all, says he, be acquitted; for trials are now managed so corruptly, that no man will ever be condemned for the future unless for murder'. But Q. Scsevola, one of the tribunes, took a more effectual way to mortify them, by resolving to hinder any election of consuls during his magistracy ; in which he per- severed, and by his authority dissolved all the assemblies, convened for that purpose™. The tribunitian candidates however were remarkably modest this year : for they made an agreement among themselves, which they all confirmed by an oathj " that in prosecuting their several interests, they would submit their conduct to the judgment of Cato, and deposit four thousand pounds apiece in his hands, to be forfeited by those whom he, should condemn of any irregular practice. If the election proves free," says Cicero, " as it is thought it will, Cato alone can do more than all the laws and all the judges"." A great part of this year was taken \vp in public trials : Suffenas and C. Cato, who had been tribunes two years before, were tried in the beginning of July for violence and breach of peace in their magistracy, and both acc|uitted: but Procilius, one of their colleagues, " was condemned for killing a citizen in his own house : whence we are to collect," says Cicero, "that our Areopagites value neither bribery, nor elections, nor interregnums, nor attempts against the state, nor the whole republic, a rush: we must not murder a man indeed in his own house, though that perhaps might be done moderately, since twenty-two acquitted Procilius when twenty-eight condemned him"." Clodius was the accuser in these impeachments : It His prassertim moribus atque temporibus, quibus ita prolapsa respublica est, ut omnium opibus refrcenanda, ac coercenda sit,— De Divin. ii. 2, Qui sit rempublicam aflflictam. et oppressam miseris temporibus, ac perditis moribus, in vctercm dignitatem et libertatem vindicaturus. — Ep. Fam . li. 5. 1 De ambitu postulati sunt omnes, qui consulatum petant— Magno res in motu est. Propterea quod aut liominum aut legum interitus ostenditur.— Ad Quint, iii. 2. Bed omnes absolventur, nee posthac quisqnam damna- bitur, nisi qui hominem occiderit. — Ad Att. iv. 36. m Comitiorum quotidie singuli dies toUuntur obnun- ciationibus, magna voluntate bonorum.— Ad Quint, iii. 3. Obnunciationibus per ScEevolam intei-positis, singulis' diebus. — Ad Att. iv. 16. n Tribunitii candidati jurarunt se arbitrio Catonis peti- turos: apud eum H. S. quingena deposuerunt ; ut qui a Catone damnatus essot, id perderet, et competitoribus tribueretm* — Bi comitia, ut putantur, gratuita fucrint, plus imus Cato potuerit, quam omnes quidem judices.'— Ibid. 15 ; Ad Quint, ii. 15. o III. Non. Quint. SufFenag et Cato absoluti : Procilius condemnatus. Ex quo intellectum est, TpKrapeiOTTayiras, ambitum, comitia, interregnum, majestatem, totam dcui- quB i-empublicam, flocci non facere. Debemus patl-cm familias domi suas occiderc nolle, neque tamcn id Ipsum which made Cato, as soon as he was acquitted, seek a reconciliation with Cicero and MiloP. It was not Cicero's business to reject the friendship of an active and popular senator; and Milo had occasion for his service in his approaching suit for the consulship. But though Cicero had no concern in these trials, be was continually employed in others through the rest of the summer : " I was never," says he, " more busy in trials than now ; in the worst season of the year, and the greatest heats that we have ever known, there scarce passes a day in which I do not defend some^." Besides his clients in the city, he had several towns and colonies under his patronage, which sometimes wanted his help abroad, as the corpora- tion of Reate did now, to plead for them before the consul Appius, and ten commissioners, in a controversy with their neighbours of Interamna, about draining the lake Velinus into the river Nar, to the damage of their grounds. He returned from this cause in the midst of the Apollinarian shows ; and to relieve himself from the fatigue of his journey went directly to the theatre, where he was received by a universal clap : in the account of which to Atticus he adds, *' but this you are not to take notice of, and 1 am a fool indeed myself for mentioning if." He now also defended Messius, one of Ceesar's lieutenants, who came from Gaul on purpose to take his trial : then Drusus, accused of prevari- cating or betraying a cause, which he had under- taken to defend ; of which he was acquitted by a majority of only four voices : after that Vatinius, the last year's praetor, and JEmilius Scaums, one of the consular candidates, accused of plundering the province of Sardinia ^ ; and about the same time likewise his old friend Cn. Plancius, who had en- tertained him so generously in his exile, and being now chosen sedile, was accused by a disappointed competitor, M. Laterensis, of bribery and corrup tion. All these were acquitted, but the orations for them are lost, except that for Plancius ; which remains a perpetual monument of Cicero's grati- tude : for Plancius having obtained the tribunate from the people, as the reward of his fidehty to Cicero, did not behave himself in that post with the same affection to him as before, but seems stu- diously to have slighted him ; while several of his colleagues, and especially Racilius, were exerting all their power in the defence of his person and abunde. Nam absolverunt xxii ; condemnarunt xxviii.— Ad Att. iv. 15. P Is tamen et mecum et cum Milone in gratiam rediit.— Ibid. 16. 1 Bic enim habeto nunquam me a causis et judiciis dis- trictiorem fuisse, atque id anni tempore gravissimo, ct caloribus maxirais.— Ad Quint, li. 16. Diem scJto esse nullum, quo non dico pro reo.— Ibid, iii. 3, ^ Reatini me ad sua Te/iirrj duxerunt, ut agcrem eausam contra Interamnates— Redii Itomam— Vent in spectaculum ; primum magno et lEquabili plausu, (sed hoc ne cm-aris; ego ineptus qui scripserim.)— Ad Att. iv. 15, s Messius defendebatur a nobis, e legatione revocatu&— Deinde me cxpcdio ad Drusum, inde ad Scan rum.— Ibid. Drusus erat de prEvaricatione— absolutus, in sumnia quatuov sententiis— Eodem die post meridiem Vatinium aderam defensurus ; ea res facilis— Scauii judicium statim exereebitur, cui nos non decrimua. — Ad Quint, ii. iG. Scaurum beneficio defensionis valdc obligavl,— Ibid, ill 1. 8, C. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 141 dignity'. Yet Cicero freely undertook his cause, and as if no coldness had intervened, displayed the mei'it of his services in the most pathetic and affecting manner ; and rescued him from the hands of a powerful accuser, and his own particular friend. " Drusus's trial was held in the morning ; from which, after going home to write a few letters, he was obliged to return to Vatinius^s in the afternoon:" which gives us a specimen of the hurry in which he generally lived, and of the little time which he had to spend upon his private affairs, or his studies ; and though he was noT,r carrying on several great works of the learned kind, ** yet he had no other leisure (he tells us) for me- ditating and composing, but when he was taking a few turns in his gardens, for the exercise of his body, and refreshment of his voice"." Vatinius had been one of his fiercest enemies ; was in a perpetual opposition to him in politics ; and, like Bestia mentioned above, a seditious, profligate, abandoned libertine ; so that the defence of him gave a plausible handle for some censure upon Cicero : but his engagements with Pompey, apd especially his new friendship with Csesar, made it necessary to embrace aU Ctesar's friends ; among whom Vatinius was most warmly recommended to him. Gabinius being recalled, as has been said, from his government, returned to Rome about the end of September : he bragged everywhere on his journey, that he was going to the demand of a triumph ; and to carry on that farce, continued a while without the gates ; till perceiving how odious he was to all within, he stole privately into the city by night, to avoid the disgrace of being insulted by the populace*. There were three different impeachments provided against him : the first, for treasonable practices against the state; the second, for the plunder of his province ; the third for bribery and corruption ; and so many persons offered themselves to be prosecutors, that there was a contest among them before the prgetor, how to adjust their several claimsJ". The first indictment fell to L. Lentulus, who accused him the day after he entered the city, " that, in defiance of religion and the decree of the senate, he had restored the king of Egypt with an army, leaving his own province naked, and open to the incursion of enemies, who had made great devastations in it." Cicero, who had received from Gabinius all the provocation which one man could receive from , another, had the pleasure to see his insolent adver- sary at his feet ; and was prepared to give him such a reception as he deserved : but Gabinius durst not venture to show his head for the first ten * Negas tribunatum Plancii quicquam attulisse adju- menti dignitati mex. Atque hoe loco, quod verissime facere potes, L. Racilii divina in me merita commemoraB,- &c. — Pro Plancio, 32. , ^ Ita quicquid conficio aut cogito in ambulationis fere tempiis eonfero.— Ad Quint, iii. 3. ^ Ad urbem acceSRit a. d. xti. Kal. Oct. nihil turpius, nee desertius. — Ad Quint, iii. 1. sec. C*. Cum Gabinius, quacunque veniebat, triumphum se postulare dixisset, subitoque bonus imperator noetu in urbem, hostium plane, inyasisset Ibid. 2. J Gabinium tres adhuc factiones postulant : &c. — Ibid. 1. sec. a. Cum ha:c scribebam ante lucem, apud Catonem erat divinatio in Gabinium futura, inter Memmiura, ct Ti. Nc-ronem, et C. et L. Autonios,— Ibid. 2. daysj till he was obliged to come to the senate, in order to give them an account, according to custom, of the state of his province and the troops which he had left in it: as soon as he had told his story he was going to retire, but the, consuls detained him to answer to a complaint brought against him by the publicans, or farmers of the revenues, who were attending at the door to make it good. This drew on a debate, in which Gabinius was so urged and teased on all sides, but especially by Cicero, that trembling with passion, and unable to contain himself, he called Cicero a banished itian : upon which (says Cicero, in a letter to his brother) ** nothing ever happened more honourable to me ; the whole senate left their seats to a man, and with a general clamour ran up to his very face ; while the publicans also were equally fierce and clamor- ous against him, and the whole company behaved just as you yourself would have done^" Cicero had been deliberating for some time, whether he should not accuse Gabinius himself; but out of regard to Pompey was content to appear only as a witness against him" ; and when thf trial was over, gives the following account of it to his brother. " Gabinius is acquitted : nothing was ever so stupid as his accuser Lentulus ; nothing so sordid as the bench : yet if Pompey had not taken incre- dible pains, and the rumour of a dictatorship had not infused some apprehensions, he could not have held up his head even against Lentulus : since with such an accuser, and such judges, of the seventy-two who sat upon him, thirty-two condemned him. The sentence is so infamous, that he seems likely to fall in the other trials ; especially that of plunder : but there's no republic, no senate, no justice, no dignity in any of us : what can I say more of the juSges ? There were but two of them of prsetorian rank, Domitius Cal- vinus, who acquitted him so forwardly that all the world might see it ; and Cato, who, as soon as the votes were declared, ran officiously from the bench to carry the first news to Pompey. Some say, and particularly Sallust, that I ought to have accused hira : but should I risk my credit with such judges? What a figure should 1 have made, if he had escaped from me ! but there were other things which influenced me : Pompey would have con- sidered it as a struggle, not about Gabinius's safety, but his own dignity : it must have made a breach between us : we should have been matched like a pair of gladiators ; as Pacidianus, with jEserninus the Samnite ; he woiild probably have bit off one of my ears, or been reconciled at least with Clodius — for after all the pains which 1 had taken to serve him ; when 1 owed nothing to him, he every thing to me ; yet he would not bear my differing from him in public affairs, to say no worse 2 Interim ipso decimo die, quo ipsum oportebat hostiiun numerum et militum renunciare, in re h£Esit, summa in frcquentia : cum vellet exire, a consulibus retentus est ; introducti publicani. Homo undique actus, cum a me maxime vuhieraretur, non tulit, et me trementi voce exulem appellavit. Hie, o dii, nihil unquam honorificen- tius nobis accidit. Consurrexic senatus cum clamore ad unum, sic ut ad corpus ejus accederet. Pari clamore atque impetu publieani. Quid quicris ? Omnes, tanquam si tu esses, ita fuerunt. — Ad Quint, iii. '2. a Ego tamen me tenco ab accusando vix mebercule. Sed tamen teneo, vel quod nolo cum Pompeio pugnare ; satis est, quod instat de Milone. — Ibid. iii. 2. U2 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF of it ; and when he was less powerful than he is at present, showed what power he had against me in my flourishing condition ; why should I now, when I have lost even all desire of power ; when the republic certainly has none ; when he alone has all ; choose him of all men to contend with ? for that must have heen the case : I cannot think that you would have advised me to it. Sallust says, that I ought to have done either the one or the other ; and, in compliment to Pompey, have defended him ; who begged it of me indeed very earnestly.— A special friend this Sallust ! to wish me to involve myself either in a dangerous enmity, or perpetual infamy. I am delighted with my middle way ; and when I had given my testimony faithfully and religiously, was pleased to hear Gabinius say, that if it should be permitted to him to continue in the city, he would make it his business to give me satisfaction ; nor did he so much as interrogate me—''." He gives the same account of this trial to his other friends ; " how Lentulus acted his part so ill, that people were persuaded that he prevaricated— and that Gabi- iiius's escape was owing to the indefatigable in- dustry of Pompey, and the corruption of the bench '^." About the time of this trial there happened a terrible inundation of the Tiber, which did much damage at Rome : many houses and shops were carried away by it, and the fine gardens of Cicero's son-in-law, Crassipes, demolished. It was all charged to the absolution of Gabinius, after his daring violation of religion, and contempt of the Sibyl's books : Cicero applies to it the following passage of Homer''. As when in autumn Jove his fury pours. And earth is loaden with incessant showers ; "When guilty mortals break the eternal laws. And judges bribed betray the righteous cause, From their deep beds he bids the rivers rise, And opens all the flood-gates of the skies. Pope, H. xvi. 466. But Gabinius's danger was not yet over : he was to be tried a second time, for the plunder of his province ; where C. Memmius, one of the tri- bunes, was his accuser, and M. Cato his judge, with whom he was not likely to find any favour : Pompey pressed Cicero to defend him, and would not admit of any excuse ; and Gabinius's humble behaviour in the late trial was intended to make way for Pompey's solicitation. Cicero stood firm for a long time : " Pompey (says he) labours hard with me, but has yet made no impression, nor, if I retain a grain of liberty, ever will'' ;" Oh ! ere that dire disgrace shall blast my fame, O'erwhelm me earth n. iv. 218. b Ad Quint, iii. 4. •^ Quomodo ergo absolutus ?— Accusatorum incredibilis infamia, id est L. Lentuli, quem fremunt omnes prffivari- eatum ; deinde Pompeii mira contentio, judicum sordes. —Ad Att. iv. 16. Hoo horret Milo— et si ille dictator factus sit, p«ne diflidit. Intercessorem dictaturaj si juverit mami et prae- sidio suo Pompeium metuit inimicum; si non juverit, timet, ne per vim perferatiu-. — Ibid. 8. 14G THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF sala, should be declared consuls". These were agreeable likewise to Csesar : Cicero bad particu- larly recommended Messala to him ; of whom he says, in a letter to his brother, "As to your reckoning Messala and Calvinus sure consuls, you agree with what we think here ; for I will bo answerable to Caesar for Messala '." But after all this bustle about a dictator, there seems to have been no great reason for being much *. iniB. 70C. afraid of it at this time ; for the cic. 54. ' republic was in so great a disorder COBS. " that nothing less than the dictatorial CN. DOMiTrus power could reduce it to a tolerable cALvim-s, state : some good of that kind might IB. VALERIUS reasonably be expected from Pompey, MESSALA. -without the fear of any great harm, while there was so sure a check upon him as Caisar ; who, upon any exorbitant use of that power, would have had the senate and all the better sort on his side, by the specious pretence of asserting the public liberty. Cicero, therefore, judged rightly in thinking that there were other things which might be apprehended, and seemed likely to happen, that, in their present situation, were of more dangerous consequence than a dicta- torship. There had scarce been so long an interregnum in Rome since the expulsion of their kings ; during which all public business, and especially all judicial proceedings, were wholly interrupted : which ex- plains a jocose passage in one of Cicero's letters to Trebatius : "If you had not already," says he, " been absent from Rome, you would certainly have run away now ; for what business is there for a lawyer in so many interregnums .' I advise all , my clients, if sued in any action, to move every interrex twice for more time : do not you think that I have learned the law of you to good pur- pose?.'" He now began a correspondence of letters with Curio, a young senator of distinguished birth and parts ; who, upon his first entrance into the forum, had been committed to his care, and was at this time quaestor in Asia. He was possessed of a large and splendid fortune by the late death of his father ; so that Cicero, who knew his high spirit and ambi- tion, and that he was formed to do much good or hurt to his country, was desirous to engage him early in the interests of the republic, and, by instil- ling great and generous sentiments, to inflame him with a love of true glory. Curio had sent orders to his agents at Rome to proclaim a show of gladi- ators in honour of his deceased father ; but Cicero stopped the declaration of it for a while, in hopes to dissuade him from so great and fruitless an ex- pensed He foresaw that nothing was more likely to corrupt his virtue than the ruin of his fortunes ; e Vide Dio, xl. p. 141. * Messalam quod certum eousulem cum Domitio nume- ratis, nihil a nostra opinione dissentitis. Ego Messalam CaBsari prsstabo. — Ad Quint, iii. 8. e Nisi ante Roma profectus esses, nunc earn carte relin- qutires. Quis enim tot interregnis jurisconsultum desi- derat ? Ego omnibus, undo petitur, hoc consilii dederim, ut a singulis interregibus binas advocationes postulant. Satisne tibi videor abs te jus civile didioi&se? — Bp. Fam. vii. 11. 1» Rupae studium non defuit declarandorum munerum tuo nomine ; sed nee mihi placuit, nee cuiquam tuorum, quidqUam te absente fieri, quod tibi, cum venisses, non es6«t integrtjm, &e.— Ep. Fam. ii. 3, or to make him a dangerous citizen, than prodi- gality, to which he was naturally inchned, and which Cicero for that reason was the more de- sirous to check at his first settmg out : but all his endeavours were to no purpose : Curio resolved to give the show of gladiators ; and by a contmual profusion of his money, answerable to this begui- ning, after he had acted the patriot for some time with credit and applause, was reduced at last to the necessity of selling himself to Caesar. There is but little of politics in these letters besides some general complaints of the lost and desperate state of the republic : in one of them, after reckoning up the Various subjects of epistolary writing, " Shall I joke with you then," says he, "in my letters ? On my conscience, there is not a citizen, I believe, who can laugh in these times : or shall I write something serious.' But what can Cicero write seriously to Curio, unless it be on the republic ? where my case at present is such, that I have no inclination to write what I do not think'." In another, after putting him in mind of the incre- dible expectation which was entertained of him at Rome, " Not that I am afraid (says he) that your virtue should not come up to the opinion of the public, but rather that you find nothing worth caring for at your return, all things are so ruined and oppressed ; but I question whether it be pru- dent to say so much. — It is your part, however, whether you retain any hopes, or quite despair, to adorn yourself with all those accomplishments which can qualify a citizen, in wretched times and profligate morals, to restore the republic to its ancient dignity '^" The first news from abroad after the inauguration of the consuls, was of the miserable death of Cras- sus and his son Publius, with the total defeat of his army by the Parthians. This was one of the greatest blows that Rome had ever received from a foreign enemy, and for which it was ever after meditating revenge : the Roman writers generally imputed it to Crassus's contempt of the auspices; as some Christians have since charged it to his sacrilegious violation of the temple of Jerusalem, which he is said to have plundered of two millions ; both of them with equal superstition pretending to unfold the counsels of heaven, and to fathom those depths which are declared to be unsearchable*. The chief and immediate concern which the city felt on this occasion, was for the detriment that the republic had suffered, and the danger to which it was exposed, by the loss of so great an army ; yet the principal mischief lay in what they did not at first i-egard, and seemed rather to rejoice at, the loss of Crassus himself. For after the death of 1 Jocerne tecum per literas ? civem mehercule non puto esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit. An gravius aliquid scribam ? Quid est quqd possit graviter a Cicerone scribi ad Curionom, nisi de republica ? Atque in hoe genere hac mea causa est, ut neque ea, qus non sentio, velim scri- bere. — Ibid. 4. ^ Non quo verear no tua virtus opinion! hominum non respondeat ; sed mehercule, ne cum veneris, non habeas jam quod cures : ita sunt omnia debUitata jam prope et exstincta, &o. — Ibid. 5. 1 M. Crasso quid acciderit, videmuo dirarum obnuncia- tione neglecta.— De Dio, i. 16. '* Being for his impious sacrilege at Jerusalem justly destined to destruotion, God did cast infatuations into all his councils, for the leading him thereto," — Prideaux'8 Connect, part ii. p. 362. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 147 Julia, Crassus's authority was the only means left of curbing the power of Pompey and the ambition of Csesar ; being ready always to support the weaker against the encroachments of the stronger, and keep them both within the bounds of a decent respect to the laws ; but this check being now taken away, and the power of the empire thrown, as a kind of prize, between two, it gave a new turn to their several pretensions, and created a fresh com- petition for the larger share, which, as the event afterwards showed, must necessarily end in the subversion of the whole. Publius Crassus, who perished with his father in this fatal expedition, was a youth of an amiable character ; educated with the strictest care, and perfectly instructed in all the liberal studies, he had a ready wit and easy language ; was grave without arrogance, modest without negligence, adorned with all the accomplishments proper to form a principal citizen and leader of the republic : by the force of his own judgment he had devoted himself very early to the observance and imitation of Cicero, whom he perpetually attended and reverenced with a kind of filial piety. Cicero con- ceived a mutual affection for him, and observing his eager thirst of glory, was constantly instilling into him the true notion of it, and exhorting him to pursue that sure path to it which his ancestors had left beaten and traced out to him, through the gradual ascent of oivH honours. But by serving under Csesar in the Gallic wars, he had learnt, as he fancied, a shorter way to fame and power than what dicero had been inculcating ; and having signalised himself in a campaign or two as a soldier, was in too much haste to be a general, when CsBsar sent him at the head of a thousand horse to the assistance of his father in the Parthian war. Here the vigour of his youth and courage carried him on so far in the pursuit of an enemy whose chief art of conquest consisted in flying, that he had no way left to escape but what his high spirit disdained, by the desertion of his troops and a precipitate flight ; so that finding himself op- pressed vrith numbers, cruelly wounded, and in danger of falling alive into the hands of the Par- Ihians, he chose to die by the sword of his armour- bearer. " Thus, while he aspired," as Cicero says, " to the fame of another Cyrus or Alexander, he fell short of that glory which many of his prede- cessors had reaped from a succession of honours conferred by their country as the reward of their services"." By the death of young Crassus, a place became vacant in the college of augurs, for which Cicero declared himself a candidate : nor was any one so hardy as to appear against him, except Hirrus, the tribune, who, trusting to the popularity of his office ° Hoc magis Bum Public deditus, quod me quanquam a pueritia semper, tamen hoc tempore maxime, sicut altermn parentem et observat et diligit ^Ep. Fam. v. 8. P. Crassum ex omni nobilitate adolescentem dilexi plurimum, &c.— Ibid. xiii. 16. Cum P. Craaso, cum initio setatis ad amicitiam se meam contulisset, SEppe egisse me arbitror, cum eum vehementia- sime hortarer, ut earn laudis viam rectissimam esse duceret, quara majores ejus ci tritam reliquissent. Erat enim cum institutus optime, tum plane perfecteque erudltus. In- eratque et ingenium satis acre, et orationis non inelegans copia : prastereaque sine arrogantia gravis esse vldebatur, ct sine segnltie verecundus, &c.— Vide Brut. p. 407 ; it. Plutarch, in Crass, and Pompey's favour, had the vanity to pretend to it ; but a competition so unequal furnished matter of raillery only to Cicero, who was chosen without any difficulty or struggle with the unanimous appro- bation of the whole body". This college, from the last regulation of it by Sylla, consisted of fifteen, who were all persons of the first distinction in Rome. It was a priesthood for life, of a character indelible, which no crime or forfeiture could efface. The priests of all kinds were originally chosen by their colleges, till Domitius, a tribune, about fifty years before, transferred the choice of them to the people, whose authority was held to be supreme in sacred as well as civil affairs". This act was reversed by Sylla, and the ancient right restored to the colleges ; but Labienus, when tribune in Cicero's consulship, recalled the law of Domitius, to facili- tate Caesar's advancement to the high-priesthood. It was necessaiy, however, that every candidate should be nominated to the people by two augurs, who gave a solemn testimony, upon oath, of his dignity and fitness for the office : this was done in Cicero's case by Pompey and Hortensius, the two most eminent members of the college ; and after the election, he was installed with all the usual formalities by Hortensius p. As in the last year, so in this ; the factions of the city prevented the choice of consuls : the can- didates, T. Annius Milo, Q. Metellus Scipio, and P. Plautius Hypsseus, pushed on their several in- terests with such open violence and bribery, as if the consulship was to be carried only by money or armsq. Clodius was putting in at the same time for the prsetorship, and employing all his credit and interest to disappoint Milo, by whose obtain- ing the consulship he was sure to be eclipsed and controlled in the exercise of his subordinate magis- tracy. Pompey was wholly averse to Milo, who did not pay him that court which he expected, but seemed to affect an independency, and to trust to his own strength ; while the other two competitors were wholly at his devotion. Hypsseus had been his quaestor, and always his creature ; and he de- signed to make Scipio his father-in-law, by marry- ing his daughter Cornelia, a lady of celebrated accomplishments, the widow of young Crassus. Cicero, on the other hand, served Milo to the utmost of his power, and ardently wished his suc- cess : this he owed to Mile's constant attachment to him, which, at all hazards, he now resolved to repay. The affair, however, was likely to give him much trouble, as well from the difficulty of the opposition as from Milo's own conduct and un- bounded prodigality, which threatened the ruin of all his fortunes. In a letter to his brother, who was still with Csesar, he says, " Nothing can be more wretched than these men and these times: n Quomodo Hirrum putas auguratus tui competitorem. .— Ep. Fam. viii. 3. o Atque hoc idem de cjeteris sacerdotiis Cn. Domitius tribunus plebis tulit, &c.— De Leg. Ag. ii. 7. p Quo enim tempore me augurem a toto collegio expeti- tmn Cn. Pompeius et Q. Hortensius nominaverunt ; neque enim licebat a plm-ibus nominai'i. — Phil. ii. 2. Cooptatum me ab eo in collegium reoordabar, in quo juratus judicium dignitatis meae fecei-at : et inauguratuni ab eodem, ex quo, augurum institutis in parentis eum loco colere debebam. — ^Brut. init. Nonne H.S. ccnties et octagies— quasi vasarii nomine —ex airario tibi attributum, Roms in quajstu reliquisti ? ~In Pison. 36. <: Totum negotium non est dignum viribus nostris, qui majora onera in republica sustinereet possim et soleam Ep. Fam. ii. 11. O rem rainime aptam mels moribus, &c.— Ad Att. v. 10. Sed est incredibile, quam me negotii ta-dcat, non habet satis magnum oampum ille tibi non ignotus oursus animi mei.— Ibid. 15 done when the necessities of the province, tne character of the man, the intrigues of parties, or the hurry of other business at home, left the senate neither leisure nor inchnation to think of changing the governor ; and this was the more likely to happen at present, through the scarcity of magis- trates who were now left capable by the late law of succeeding him. Before his departure, there- fore, he sohcited all his friends not to suffer such a mortification to fall upon him, and after he was gone, scarce wrote a single letter to Rome without urging the same request in the most pressing terms. In his first to Atticus, within three days from their parting — " Do not imagine," says he, " that I have any other consolation in this great trouble than the hopes that it will not be continued beyond the year. Many who judge of me by others do not take me to be in earnest ; but you, who know me, will use all your diligence, especially when the affair is to come on •'.'' He left the city about the first of May, attended by his brother and their two sons, for Quintus had quitted his commission under Csesar in order to accompany him into CUicia in the same capacity of his lieutenant. Atticus had desired him, before he left Italy, to admonish his brother to show more complaisance and affection to his wife Pom- ponia, who had been complaining to him of her husband's peevishness and churUsh carriage ; and lest Cicero should forget it, he put him in mind again by a letter to biim on the road, that since aU the family were to be together in the country, on this occasion of his going abroad he would persuade Quintus to leave his wife at least in good humour at their parting, in relation to which Cicero sends him the following account of what passed. " When I arrived at Arpinum, and my brother was come to me, our first and chief discourse was on you, which gave me an opportunity of falling upon the affair of your sister, which you and I had talked over together at Tusculum. I never saw anything so mild and moderate as my brother was, without giving the least hint of his ever having had any real cause of offence from her. The next morning we left Arpinum, and that day being a festival, Quintus was obUged to spend it at Arca- num, where I dined with him, but went on after- wards to Aquinum. You know this villa of his : as soon as we came thither, Quintus said to his wife, in the civilest terms. Do you, Pomponia, in- vite the women, and I will send to the men (nothing, as far as I saw, could be said more obligingly, either in his words or manner) ; to which she replied, so as we all might hear it, I am but a stranger here myself ; referring, I guess, to my brother's having sent Statius before us to order the dinner ; upon which, See, says my brother to me, what I am forcfed to bear every day. Tliis, you will say, was no great matter. Yes, truly, great enough to give me much concern ; to see her reply so absurdly and fiercely both in her words and looks ; but I dissembled -my uneasiness. When we sat down to dinner, she would not sit down with us ; and when Quintus sent her several things from the table, she sent them all back : m ^ Noli putare mihi aliam consolationem esse hujus ingentis molestise, nisi quod spero non longiorem annua fore. Hoc mo itavelle multi non credunt ex consuetudine aliorum, Tu, qui scis, omnem diligentiamadhibebis; turn acilicet, cum id agi dcbebit.— Ep. Fam. ii. 2, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 155 short, nothing could be milder than my brother, or ruder than your sister; yet I omit many par- ticulars which gave more trouble to me than to Quintns himself. I went away to Aquinum ; he staid at Arcanum : but when he came to me early the next morning he told me that she refused to lie with him that night, and at their parting con- tinued in the same humour in which I had seen her. In a word, you may let her know from me that, in niy opinion, the fault was all on her side that day. I have been longer, perhaps, than was necessary in my narrative, to let you see that there is occa- sion also on your part for advice and admoni. tion"." One cannot help observing from this little inci- dent what is confirmed by innumerable instances in the Roman story, that the freedom of a divorce, which was indulged without restraint at Rome, to the caprice of either party, gave no advantage of comfort to the matrimonial state, but, on the con- trary, seems to have encouraged rather a mutual perverseness and obstinacy ; since, upon any little disgust or obstruction given to their follies, the expedient of a change was ready always to flatter them with the hopes of better success in another trial ; for there never was an age or country where there was so profligate a contempt and violation of the nuptial bond, or so much lewdness and in- fidelity in the great of both sexes, as at this time in Rome. Cicero spent a few days as he passed forward at his Cuman villa, near Baia;, where there was such a resort of company to him that he had, he says, a kind of little Rome about him. Hortensius came among the rest, though much out of health, to pay his compliments, and wish him a good voy- age, and at taking leave, when he asked what commands he had for him in his absence, Cicero begged of him only to use all his authority to binder his government from being prolonged to him'. In sixteen days from Rome he arrived at Tarentum, where he had promised to make a visit to Pompey, who was taking the benefit of that soft air for the recovery of his health at one of his villas in those parts, and had invited and pressed Cicero to spend some days with him upon his journey. They proposed great satisfaction on both sides from this interview, for the opportunity of conferring together with all freedom on the pre- sent state of the republic, which was to be their subject ; though Cicero expected also to get some lessons of the military kind from this renowned commander. He promised Atticus an account of this conference, but the particulars being too de- licate to be communicated by letter, he acquainted him only in general that he found Pompey an ex- cellent citizen, and provided for all events which could possibly be apprehended k. « Ad Att. V. 1. ' In Cumano cum easem, venit ad me, quod mihi pcr- gratum fuit, noster Ilortensius : cui, deposcenti mea mandata, CKtera universe maudavi ; illud proprie, ne piiteretur, quantum esset in ipso, prorogari nobis proviu- ciam.— Habuimus in Cumano quasi pusillam Romani : tanta erat in hia locis multitude. — Ibid. 2. K Nos Tarenti, quos cum Pompeio 5ia\6yous de repub- lica habnerimus ad te perscribemus. — Ibid. 5. Tarentum veni a. d. xv. Kal. Jun. quod Pontinium Etatueram expectare, commodissimum duxi dies eoe — oum Pompeio consumere : eoque magis, quod ei gratum eese id videbam, qui etiam a mo petlerit, ut sccum et apud so After three days' stay with Pompey he proceeded to Brundisium, where he was detained for twelve days by a slight indisposition, and the expectation of his principal officers, particularly of his lieute- nant Pontinius, an experienced leader, the same who had triumphed over the Allobroges, and on whose skill he chiefly depended in his martial affairs. From Brundisium he sailed to Actium, on the fifteenth of June, whence partly by sea and partly by land he arrived at Athens on the twenty- sixth''. Here he lodged in the house of Aristus, the principal professor of the Academy, and his brother not far from him, with Xeno, another celebrated philosopher of Epicurus' school. They spent their time here very agreeably ; at home, in philosophical disquisitions ; abroad in viewing the buildings and antiquities of the place, with which Cicero was much delighted. There were several other men of learning, both Greeks and Romans^ of the party ; especially Gallus Caninins, and Patro, an eminent Epicurean, and intimate friend of Atticus". There lived at this time in exile at Athens C.Memmius, banished upon a conviction of bribery in his suit for the consulship, who, the day before Cicero's arrival, happened to go away to Mitylene. The figure which he had borne in Rome gave him great authority in Athens, and the council of Areo- pagus had granted him a piece of ground to build upon where Epicurus formerly lived, and where there still remained the old ruins of his walls. But this grant had given great offence to the whole body of the Epicureans, to see the remains of their master in danger of being destroyed. They had written to Cicero at Rome, to beg him to intercede witli Memmius to consent to a revocation of it ; and now at Athens, Xeno and Patro renewed their in- stances, and prevailed with him to write about it in the most effectual manner ; for though Memmius had laid aside his design of building, the Areopa- gites would not recall their decree without his leave'. Cicero's letter is drawn with much art and accuracy ; he laughs at the trifling zeal of these philosophers for the old rubbish and paltry ruins of their founder, yet earnestly presses Memmius to indulge them in a prejudice con- tracted through weakness, not wickedness ; and though he professes an utter dishke of their philo- sophy, yet he recommends them, as honest, agree- able, friendly men, for whom he entertained the highest esteem'. From this letter one may observe. essem quotidie : quod concessi libenter multos, enim ejus praclaros de republica sermones accipiara : iusti-uar etiam consiliis idoneis ad hoc nostrum negotium. — Ad Attic, v. 6. Ego, cum triduum cum Pompeio et apud Pompeium f Liis- sem, proJiciscebar Brundisium.. — Civem ilium egregiuni relinquebam, et ad hsee, quffi timentur, propulsanda par- atissimmn. — Ibid, 7. l Ibid. 8, 9. i Valdeme Athens delectarunt : urbs duntaxat, et urbis ornamentum, et hominum amores in te, et in nos qusdam benevolentia ; sed multum et philosophia — ^si quid est, est in Aristo apud quern eram, nam Xenonem tuum — Quinto concesscram Ibid. 10 ; Ep. Fam. ii. 8. xiii. 1. k Visum est Xenoni, et post, ipsi Patroni, me ad Mem- mium scribere, qui pridie quam ego Athenaa veni, Mityle- nas profectus erat,— -non enim dubitabat Xeno, quin ab Areopagitis invito Memmio impctrari nou poaaet. Moin- mius autem ajdificandi consilium abjecisset, aed erat Patroni iratus, itaque acripai ad eum accurate—Ibid. 11. 1 Ep. Fam, xiii. "i. 1£« THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF that the greatest difference in philosophy made no difference of friendship among the great of these times. There was not a more declared enemy to Epicurus's doctrine than Cicero ; he thought it destructive of morality and pernicious to society, but he charged this consequence to the principles, not the professors of them, with many of whom he held the strictest intimacy, and found them to be worthy, virtuous, generous friends, and lovers of their country. There is a jocose letter to Trebatius, when he was with Csesar in Gaul, upon his turn- ing Epicurean, which will help to confirm this re- flection. Cicero to Trebatius. " 1 was wondering why you had given over writing to me, till Pansa informed me that you were turned Epicurean.' O rare camp! what would you have done if I had sent you to Taren- tum instead of Samarobriva ? I began to think the worse of you ever since you made my friend Seius your pattern. But with what face will you now pretend to practise the law, when you are to do everything for your own interest, and not for your client's ? and what will become of that old form and test of fidelity. As true men ought to act truly, with one another ? What law will you allege for the distribution of common right, when nothing can be common with those who measure all things by their pleasure ? With what face can you swear by Jupiter, when Jupiter, you know, can never be angry with any man ? And what will become of your people of Ulubrse ; since you do not allow a wise man to meddle with polities ? Wherefore if you are really gone off from us, I am sorry for it ; but if it be convenient to pay this compliment to Pansa, I forgive you ; on condition, however, that you write me word what you are doing, and what you ■would have me do for you here™." The change of principles in Trebatius, though equivalent in effect to a change of religion with us, made no alteration in Cicero's affection for him. This was the dictate of reason to the best and wisest of the heathens ; and may serve to expose the rashness of those zealots who, vrith the light of a most divine and benevolent religion, are perpetually insulting and persecuting their fellow Christians for dif- ferences of opinion, which for the most part are merely speculative, and without any influence on life, or the good and happiness of civil society. After ten days spent at Athens, where Pontinius at last joined him, Cicero set sail towards Asia. Upon leaving Italy, he had charged his friend CseUus with the task of sending him the news of Kome, which Cselius performed very punctually, in a series of letters, which make a valuable part in the collection of his familiar epistles : they are polite and entertaining ; full of wit and spirit ; yet not flowing with that easy turn and elegance of expression which we always find in Cicero's, The first of them, with Cicero's answer, will give us a specimen of the rest. M. Ccelius to M. Cicero. ' ' According to my promise at parting to send you an account of all the news of the town, I have provided one to collect it for you so punctually, that I am afraid lest you should think my dili- ■■■ Ep. Fam. vii. 12. gence at last too minute : but I know how curious you are, and how agreeable it is to all who are abroad to be informed of everythmg that passes at home, tbough ever' so trifling. I beg of you, however, not to condemn me of arrogance, for deputmg another to this task : since, as busy as I now am, and as lazy as you know me to be in writing, it would be the greatest pleasure to me to be employed in anything that revives the remem- brance of you : but the pacquet itself which I have sent vrill I imagine readily excuse me : for what leisure would it require, not only to transcribe, but to attend even to the contents of it .' There are all the decrees of the senate, edicts, plays, rumours : if the sample does not please you, pray let me know it, that I may not give you trouble at my cost. If anything important happens in the republic above the reach of these hackney writers, I will send you an account of it myself ; in what manner it was transacted ; what speculations are raised upon it j what effects apprehended : at pre- sent there is no great expectation of anything. As to those rumours which were so warm at Camie, of assembling the colonies beyond the Po, when I came to Rome I beard not a syllable about them. MarceUus too, because he has not yet made any motion for a successor to the two Gauls, but puts it off as he told me himself to the first of June, has revived the same talk concerning him which was stirring when we were at Rome together. If you saw Pompey, as you designed to do, pray send me word in what temper you found him; what conversation he had with you ; what inclination he showed : for he is apt to think one thing and say another, yet has not wit enough to conceal what he really means. As for Csesar, there are many ugly reports about him, but propagated only in whispers : some say, that he has lost all his horse ; which I take indeed to be true : others, that the seventh legion has been beaten ; and that he him- self is besieged by the Bellovaci, and cut off from the rest of his army. There is nothing yet certain; nor are these uncertain stories publicly talked of; but among the few whom you know, told openly, • by way of secrets ; Domitius never mentions them without clapping his hand to his mouth. On the twenty-first of May, the mob under the rostra sent about a report (may it fall on their own heads), which was warmly propagated through the forum and the whole city, that you were killed upon the road by Q. Pompeius : but I, who knew him to be then at Bauli, and in such a starving condition that I could not help pitying him, being forced to turn pilot for his bread, was not concerned about it; and wished only that, if any real dangers threatened you, we might be quit for this he; your friend Plancus Bursa is at Raveima, where he has had a large donative from Caesar; but is not yet easy, nor well provided. Your books on government are applauded by all people"." M. T. Cicero, proconsul, to M. Cmlius. " How ! was it this, think you, that I charged you with ; to send me the matches of gladiators ; the adjournments of causes ; and Chrestus's news- letter ; and what nobody dares mention to me when at Rome ? see how much I ascribe to you in my judgment ; nor indeed without reason, for I " Ep, Fam. viii. 1, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. isy have never yet met with a better head for politics ; I would not have you write what passes every day in public, though ever so important, unless it happen to affect myself : others will write it ; many bring accounts of it j and fame itself convey a great part to me : I expect from you neither the past nor the present ; but as from one who sees a great way before him, the future only ; that when I have before me in your letters the plan of the republic, I may be able to judge what a sort of edifice it will be. Nor have I hitherto indeed any cause to complain of you : for nothing has yet happened which you could foresee better than any of us ; especially myself, who spent several days with Pompey in conversing on nothing else but the republic; which it is neither possible nor proper for me to explain by letter : take this only from me ; that Pompey is an excellent citizen, prepared both with courage and counsel for all events which can be foreseen : wherefore, give yourself up to the man ; believe me, he will embrace you ; for he now holds the same opinion with us of good and bad citizens. After I had been ten days at Athens, where our friend Gallus Caninius was much with me, I left it on the sixth of July, when I sent away this letter : as I earnestly recommend all my affairs to you, so nothing more particularly than that the time of my provincial command be not prolonged j this is everything to me ; which, when and how, and by whom it is to be managed, you will be the best able to contrive. Adieu". He landed at Kphesus on the twenty-second of July, after a slow but safe passage of fifteen days ; the tediousness of which was agreeably relieved by touching on the way at several of the islands of the .^gean sea, of which he sends a kind of journal to Atticusr. Many deputations from the cities of Asia and a great concourse of people came to meet him as far as Samos ; but a much greater still was expecting his landing at Ephesus ; the Greeks flocked eagerly from all parts to see a maa so celebrated through the empire for the fame of his learning and eloquence ; so that all his boastings, as he merrily says, of many years past, were now brought to the test'. After reposing himself for three days at Ephesus, he marched forward to- wards his province ; and on the last of July, arrived at Laodicea, one of the capital cities of his juris- diction. From this moment the date of his government commenced, which he bids Atticus take notice of, that he might know how to compute the precise extent of his annual term''. It was Cicero's resolution, in this provincial command, to practise those admirable rules which he had drawn up formerly for his brother ; and from an employment wholly tedious and disagree- able to hira to derive fresh glory upon his character, by leaving the innocence and integrity of his ad- ministration, as a pattern of governing to all succeeding proconsuls. It had always been the » Ep. Fam. ii. 8. P Ephesum venimus a. d. xi, Kal. Sext.^Ad Att. v. 13 ; it. Ibid. 12. 1 De concursu legationum, privatoriim, etde incredibili raultitudine, qiiffimilii jam Sami, sed mirabilem in modiim Ephesi, prffisto f uit, aut te audisse puto ex quo te intel- ligere eerto scio multonim annoruni ostentationes meaa nuDc in discrimen esse adductas. — Ibid. J3, ■■ Laodiceam veni prid. Kal. Sextiles. Ex hoc die clavnm anni movebia.— Ibid. 15. custom, when any governors went abroad to their provinces, that the countries through which they passed should defray all the charges of their jour- ney ; but Cicero no sooner set his foot on foreign ground than he forbade all expense whatsoever, public or private, to be made either upon himself or any of his company ; which raised a great admiration of him in all the cities of Greece ^. In Asia he did the same, not suffering his officers to accept what was due to them even by law, forage and wood for firing, nor anything else but mere house-room, with four beds ; which he remitted also, as oft as it was practicable, and obliged them to lodge in their tents ; and by his example and constant exhortations brought his lieutenants, tribunes, and priefects, so fully into his measures, that they all concurred with him, he says, wonder- fully, in a jealous concern for his honour'. Being desirous to put himself at the head of his army before the season of action was over, he spent but little time in visiting the cities of his jurisdiction, reserving the winter months for set- tling the civil affairs of the province". He went, therefore, to the camp at Iconium, in Lycaonia, about the twenty-fourth of August ; where he had no sooner reviewed the troops than he received an account from Antiochus, king of Comagene, which was confirmed from the other princes of those parts, that the Parthians had passed the Euphrates with a mighty force, in order to invade the Roman territory under the conduct of Pacorus, the king's son. Upon this news, he marched towards Cilicia, to secure his province from the inroads of the enemy, or any commotions within ; but as all ac- cess to it was difficult except on the side of Cap- padocia, an open country, and not well provided, he took his route through that kingdom, and encamped in that part of it which bordered upon Cilicia, near to the town of Cybistra, at the foot of mount Taurus. His army, as it is said above, consisted of about twelve thousand foot, and two thousand six hundred horse, besides the auxiliary troops of the neighbouring states, and especially of Deiotarus, king of Galatia, the most faithful ally of Rome, and Cicero's particular friend ; whose whole forces he could depend upon at any warn- ing^ s Ego — quotidio meditor, prjeeipio meis ; faciam dcniqne ut summa modestia et summa abstinentia munus hoc extraordinarium traducamus. — Ep. Fam. ii. 9. Adhuc sumptus nee in me aut publice aut privatim, nee iu quemquam eomitum. Nihil aeeipitur lege Julia, nihil ab hospite, persuasum est omnibus meis serviendimi esse fam£ meae. Belle adhuc. Hoc animadversum Graecorum laudn efc multo sennone celebratur. — Ibid. 10. Nos adhuc iter per Graeciam summa cum admiratione fecimuB. — ^Ibid. 11. ' Lcvantur miserse civitates, quod nullus sit sumptus in nos, neque in legates, neque in qusestorem, neque in quem- quam. Seito, non modo nos foenum, aut quod lege Julia dari solet, non accipere, sed ne ligna quidem, nee praeter quatuor lectos, et tectum, quemquam aeeipere quidquaon : multis locis ne tectum quidem, et in tabernaculo manere plorumquc. — Ad Att. v. 16. Ut nullus tcrunciusinsumatur in quemquam ; idfitetiam et legatorum et tribunorum et prasfectorum diligentia. Nam omnes mirifice avfupi\oSo^ovcnif glorise mese.— Ibid. 17. " Erat mihi in animo recta proficisci ad exercitum, a?3tivos menses reliquos rei militari dare, hibemos juris- dictioni.^-Ibid. 14. " In castra veni a. d. vn. Kal. Sep*, a. d, nr. exercitum 108 THE HISTORY OF THE I-IFE OF Wlule he lay in this camp, he had an opportu- nity of executing a special commission with which he was charged by the senate, to take Ariobar- zanes, king of Cappadocia, under his particular protection, and provide for the security of his person and government ; in honour of whom the senate had decreed, what they had never done be- fore to any foreign prince, that his safety was of great concern to the senate and people of Rome. His father had been killed by the treachery of his subjects, and a conspiracy of the same kind was apprehended against the son ; Cicero, therefore, in a council of his officers, gave the king an account of the decree of the senate, and that in conse- quence of it he was then ready to assist him with his troops and authority in any measures that should be concerted for the safety and quiet of his kingdom. The king, after great professions of his thanks and duty to the senate for the honour of their decree, and to Cicero himself for his care in the execution of it, said, that he knew no occasion for giving him any particular trouble at that time ; nor had any suspicion of any design against his life or crown : upon which Cicero, after congratulating him upon the tranquilUty of his affairs, advised him, however, to remember his father's fate, and, from the admonition of the senate, to be particu- larly vigilant in the care of his person, and so they parted. But the next morning the king returned early to the camp, attended by his brother and counsellors, and with many tears implored the pro- tection of Cicero, and the benefit of the senate's decree; declaring, " that he had received undoubted intelligence of a plot, which those who were privy to it durst not venture to discover till Cicero's arrival in the country, but trusting to his authority, had now given full information of it ; and that his brother, who was present and ready to confirm what he said, had been solicited to enter into it by the offer of the crown : he begged, therefore, that some of Cicero's troops might be left with him for his better guard and defence." Cicero told him, "that under the present alarm of the Parthian war, he could not possibly lend him any part of his army ; that since the conspiracy was detected, hifl own forces would be sufficient for preventiag the effects of it ; that he should learn to act the king, by showing a proper concern for his own life, and exert his regal power in punishing the authors of the plot, and pardoning all the rest ; that he need not apprehend any farther danger, when his people were acquainted with the senate's decree, and saw a Roman army so near to them, and ready to put it in execution :" and having thus encouraged and comforted the king, he marched towards Cilicia, and gave an account of this accident, and of the motions of the Parthians, in two public letters to the consuls and the senate : he added a private letter also to Cato, who was a particular favourer and lustravi. Ex his castris cHm graves de Parthis nuncii venirent, perrexiin Ciliciam, per Cappadocisepai-tom earn, qus Ciliciam attingit — Regis Antioolii Comageni legati primi mihi nunciarunt Parthorum magnas copias Euphratem transire ccepisse. — Cum exercitum in Ciliciam ducerem — ^mihi liters redditfe aunt a Tarcomiimoto, qui fidelissimus socius trans Tauruni populi Homani existimatur. Pacorum Orodis regis Partho- rum filium, cum permagno equitatu transisse Euphi-atem, &c. — Ep. Fam. xv. 1. Eodem die ab JamWicho, Phylarcho Arabum — literse de oisdem rebus, &c. patron of Ariobarzanes, in which he informed him, " that he had not only secured the king's person from any attempt, but had taken care that ho should reign for the future with honour and dig- nity, by restoring to his favour and service his old counsellors, whom Cato had recommended, and who had been disgraced by the intrigues of his court ; and by obliging a turbulent young priest of Bellona, who was the head of the malcontents, and the next in power to the king himself, to quit the country y. This king Ariobarzanes seems to have been poor even to a proverb : — Mancipiis loouplea egit asna Cappadocum rex. Hob. Ep. i. 6. for he had been miserably squeezed and drained by the Roman generals and governors, to whom he owed vast sums, either actually borrowed or stipu- lated to be paid for particular services. It was a common practice with the great of Rome to lend money at an exorbitant interest to the princes and cities dependent on the empire, which was thought a useful piece of policy to both sides ; to the princes, for the opportunity of engaging to their interests the most powerfiil men of the republic, by a kind of honourable pension ; to the Romans, for the convenience of placing their money where it was sure to bring the greatest retuim of profit. The ordinary interest of these provincial loans was, one per cent, by the month, with interest upon interest: this was the lowest, but in extraordinary or ha- zardous cases, it was frequently four times as much. Pompey received monthly, from this very king, above six thousand pounds sterling, which yet was short of his full interest. Brutus also had lent him a very large sum, and earnestly desired Cicero to procure the payment of it, with the arrears of interest ; but Pompey'3 agents were so pressing, and the king so needy, that though Cicero solicited Brutus's affair very heartily, he had httle hopes of getting anything for him : when Ariobar- zanes came, therefore, to offer him the same present of money, which he had usually made to every other governor, he generously refused it, and de- sired only, that instead of giving it to him, it might be paid to Brutus : but the poor prince was so dis- tressed that he excused hioiself, by the necessity which he was under, of satisfying some other more pressing demands ; so that Cicero gives a sad ac- count of his negotiation, in a long letter to Atticus, who had warmly recommended Brutus's interests to him. " I come now (says he) to Brutus, whom by your authority I embraced with inclination, and began even to love : but — ^what am I going to say? I recal myself, lest I offend you — do not think that I ever entered into anything more willingly or took more pains than in what he recommended to me. He gave me a memorial of the particulars, which you had talked over with me before : I pursued your instructions exactly. In the first place I pressed Ariobarzanes to give that money to Brutus which he promised to me. As long as the king continued with me, all things looked well ; but he was afterwards teased by six hundred of Pompey s agents, and' Pompey, for other reasons, can do more with him than all the world besides, but especially when it is imagined that he is to be sent 7 Ep. Fam. xv. 2, 3, 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 16D to the PartMan war. They now pay Pompey thirty-three Attic talents per month out of the taxes, though this falls short of a month's interest; bat our friend Cnseiis takes it calmly, and is con- tent to abate somewhat of the interest without pressing for the principal. As for others, he neither does nor can pay any maa ; for he has no treasury, no revenues ; he raises taxes by Appius's method of capitation, but these are scarce sufficient for Pompey's monthly pay. Two or three of the king's friends are very rich, but they hold their own as closely as either you or I. I do not forbear, however, to ask, urge, and chide him by letters. King Deiotarus also told me that he had sent people to him on purpose to solicit for Brutus, but they brought him word back that he had really no money ; which I take indeed to be the case, that nothing is more drained than his kingdom, nothing poorer than the king'." But Brutus had recommended another affair of the same nature to Cicero, which gave him much more trouble. The city of Salamis in Cyprus owed to two of his friends, as he pretended, Scaptius and Matinius, above twenty thousand pounds sterling upon bond at a most extravagant interest ; and he begged of Cicero to take their persons and concerns under his special protection. Appins, who was Brutus's father-in-law, had granted everything which was asked to Scaptius ; a prsefecture in Cyprus, with some troops of horse, with which he miserably harassed the poor Sala- rainians in order to force them to comply with his unreasonable demands ; for he shut up their whole senate in the council-room till five of them were starved to death with hunger". Brutus laboured to place him in the same degree of favour with Cicero ; but Cicero being informed of this violence at Ephesus by a deputation from Salamis, made it the first aet of his government to recal the troops from Cyprus, and put an end to Scaptius's prsefec- ture, having laid it down for a rule to grant no command to any man who was concerned in trade or negotiating money in the province. To give satisfaction, however, to Brutus, he enjoined the Salaminians to pay off Scaptius's bond, which they were ready to do according to the tenor of his edict, by which he had ordered that no bonds in his province should carry above one per cent, by the month. Scaptius refused to take the money on those terms, insisting on four per cent, as the condition of his bond expressed, which by compu- tation almost doubled the principal sum ; while the Salaminians, as they protested to Cicero, could not have paid the original debt if they had not been enabled to do it by his help, and out of his own dues that he had remitted to them, which amounted to somewhat more than Scaptius's legal demand''. This extortion raised Cicero's indignation, — and « Ad Att. vi. 1. * Puerat enim prasfectua Appio, efc quidem habuerat turmas equitum, quibuB inclusum in curia senatum Sa- lamine obsederat, ut fame scnatores quinque morerentur. —Ibid. ^ ItEpque ego, quo die tetigi provinciam, cum mihi Cyprii legati Ephesum obviatn venisaeut, literas nrisi, ut equites ei insula statim docederent..— Ad Att. vi. 1. Confeceram, ut solverent centesimia — at Scaptius qua- ternas poatulabat.— Ibid. Uomines ncu modo non recusare, aed etiara dicere, ae a me solvere, (^iiod enim prsetori dai'e consuesaent, quoniam ^0 noD aoceperain, so a me qucdam modo dare ; atque notwithstanding the repeated instances of Brutus and Atticus, he was determined to overrule it ; though Brutus-, in order to move him the more effectually, thought proper to confess what he had all along dissembled, that the debt was really his own, and Scaptius only his agent in it". This surprised Cicero still more, and though he had a warm inclination to obUge Brutus, yet he could not consent to so flagrant an injustice, but makes fre- quent and heavy complaints of it in his letters to Atticus. "You have now (says he in one of them), the ground of my conduct; if Brutus does not approve it I see no reason why we should love him, but I am sure it will be approved by his uncle Cato ^." In another, " If Brutus thinks that I ought to allow him four per cent, when by edict I have decreed but one through all the province, and that to the satisfaction of the keenest usurers ; if he complains that I denied a prsefecture to one concerned in trade which I denied for that reason to your friend Lenius, and to Sex. Statins, though Torquatus solicited for the one and Pompey himself for the other, yet without disgusting either of them ; if he takes it ill that I recalled the troops of horse out of Cyprus, I shall be sorry indeed that he has any occasion to be angry with me, but much more not to find him the man that I took him to be. I would have you to know, however, that I have not forgot what you intimated to me in several of your letters, that if I brought back nothing else from the province but Brutus's friend- ship, that would be enough : let it be so since you will have it so, — yet it must always be with this exception, as far as it can be done without my committinganywrong'." Inathird, "How,mydear Atticus ! you who applaud my integrity and good conduct, and are vexed sometimes yon say that you are not with me, — how can such a thing, as Ennius says, come out of your mouth to desire me to grant troops to Scaptius for the sake of extort- ing money .' Could you, if you were with me, suffer me to do it if I would ? If I really had done such a thing, with what face could I ever read again or touch those books of mine with which you are so much pleased' ?" He tells him likewise in etiam minus esse aliquanto in Scaptii nomine, quam in vectigali praetorio.i — Ad Att. v. 21. c Atque hoc tempore ipso impingit mihi epiatolam Scap- tius Bruti, rem illam Buo periculo esse : quod neo mihi unqiiam Brutua dixerat nee tibi. — Ibid. Kunquam ex illo audivi illam pecuniam esse suam.^ Ibid. d Kabes meam oausam : quie si Bruto non probatup, nescio cur ilium amemus : sed avunculo ejus certe proba. bitur.— Ibid. v. 21.. <: Si Brutus putabit me quatei'nas ceutesimas oportuisae decemere, qui in tota provincia aingulas observarem, itaque edixissem, idque etiam acerbiflaimia foeneratoribua probaretur ; ai praefecturam negotiatori denegatam quere- tur, quod ego Torquato nostro in tuo Lenio, Pompeio ipsi in S. Statio negavi, et iis probavi ; si equites deductoa molests feret; accipiam equidem dolorem, mihi illiuu irasci, sed multo majorem, non esse eum talem, qualem putassem Sed plane te intelligere volui, mihi non exci- disse illud, quod tu ad me quibusdam Uteris scripsisses, si nihil aliud de hac provincia nisi illius benevolentiam depoi-tassem, mihi id satis eaae. Sit sane, quoniam ita tu vis sed tamen cum eo credo, quod sine peocato meo fiat — Ibid. f Ain' tandem Attioe, laudator integritatis ct elegantias uoatrEc 1 ausus es hoc ex ore tuo, inquit Ennius, ut equites Scaptio ad pecuniam cogendam darem, me rogare? an tUj 160 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF confidence, that all Brutus's leHers to him, even when lie was asking favours, were unmannerly, churlish, and arrogant, without regarding either what or to whom he was writing ; "and if he con- tinued in that humour, you may love him alone, (says he) if you please, you shall have no rival of me; but he will come I believe to a better mind^." But to show after all what a real inclination he had to oblige him, he never left urging king Ario- barzanes till he had squeezed from him a hundred talents in part of Brutus's debt, or about twenty thousand pounds ; the same sum probably which had been destined to Cicero himselfi\ While he lay encamped in Cappadocia expecting what way the Parthians would move, he received an account that they had taken a different route, and were advanced to Antioch in Syria, where they held C. Cassius blocked up, and that a detachment of them had actually penetrated into Cilicia, but were routed and cut off by those troops which were left to guard the country. Upon this he presently decamped, and, by great journeys over Mount Taurus, marched in all haste to possess himself of the passes of Amanus, agreatand strong mountain lying between Syria and Cilicia, and the common boundary of them both. Bj this march, and the approach of his army to the neighbourhood of Syria, the Parthians being discouraged retired from Antiochj which gave Cassius an opportunity of falling upon them in their retreat and gaining a considerable advantage, in which one of their prin- cipal commanders, Osaces, was mortally wounded'. In the suspense of the Parthian war, which the late disgrace of Crassus had made terrible at Rome, Cicero's friends, who had no great opinion of his military talents, were in some pain for his safety and success ; but now that he found himself en- gaged and pushed to the necessity of acting the general, he seems to have wanted neither the courage nor conduct of an experienced leader. In a letter to Atticus, dated from his camp, — " We are in great spirits (says he), and as our councils are good, have no distrust of an engagement ; we are securely encamped, with plenty of provisions, and in sight almost of Cilicia ; with a small army, indeed, but, as I have reason to believe, entirely si mecum esses, qui scribis morderi te interdum quod non simul sis, paterere me id facere, si vellem? ot ego audebo legere unquam, aut attingere eos libros, quos tu dilaudas ? si tale quid f ecero ?— Ad Att. vi. 2. S Ad me etiam, cum rogat aliquid, contumaoiter, arro- ganter, aKOivcov^TCos solet soribcre—lbid. vi. 1. Omnino (soli enim sumus) nuUas unquam ad me litcras misit Bmtus— in quibus non esset arrogans, aKOij/cav^rov aliquid— in quo tamen ille milii risum magis quam stoma- chum niovere snlet. Sed plane parum cogitat, quid scribat, aut ad quem,' — ^Ibid. vi. 3. b Eruti tui causa, ut SKpe ad te scrips!, feci omniar- Ariobarzanes non in Pompeium prolixior per ipsum, quam per me in Brutum pro ratione pecimias liberius est Brutus tractatus, quam Pompeius. Bruto curata hoc anno talenta circiter c. Pompeio in sex menaibus pro- misaa cc. — ^Ibid. > Itaque confestim iter iu Cilioiam feci per Tauri pylas. Tarsum veni ad diem m. Non. Oct. inde ad Amanum con- tendi, qui Syriam a Cilicia in aquarum divortiu dividit rumorc adventus nostri, et Cassio, qui Antiochia teneba- tur, animus accessit, et Pai-tbis timor injectus est. Itaque eos cedentes ab oppido Cassius insecutue rem bene gessit. Qua infuga magna auctoritate Osacos, dux Parthorum, vulnus accepit, eoque interiit paucis post diebus Ad At.t. V. 20_ well affected to me, which I shall double by the accession of Deiotarus, who is upon the road to join me. I have the allies more firmly attached to me than any governor ever had ; they are won- derfully taken with my easiness and abstinence ; we are making new levies of citizens and establish- ing magazines : if there be occasion for fighting, we shall not decline it; if not, shall defend ourselves by the strength of our posts ; wherefore be of good heart, for I see as much as if you were with me, the sympathy of your love for me**." But the danger of the Parthians being over for this season, Cicero resolved that his labour should not be lost and his army dismissed without at- tempting something of moment. The inhabitants of the mountains close to which he now lay were a fierce untamed race of banditti or freebooters, who had never submitted to the Roman power, but lived in perpetual defiance of it, trusting to their forts and castles, which were supposed to he im- pregnable from the strength of their situation. He thought it, therefore, of no small importance to the empire to reduce them to a state of subjection ; and in order to conceal his design and take them unprovided, he drew off his forces on pretence of marching to the distant parts of Cilicia ; but after a day's j ourney stopped short, and having refreshed his army and left his baggage behind, turned back again in the night with the utmost celerity, and reached Amanus before day on the thirteenth of October. He divided his troops among his four lieutenants, and himself, accompanied by his bro- ther, led up one part of them, and so coming upon the natives by surprise, they easily killed or made them all priso;jers. They took six strong forts, and burned many more ; but the capital of the mountain, Erana, made a brave resistance, and held out from break of day to four in the afternoon. Upon this success Cicero was saluted emperor, and sat down again at the foot of the hills, where he spent five days in demohshing the other strongholds and wasting the lands of these mountaineers. In this place his troops were lodged in the same camp which Alexander the Great had formerly used when he beat Darius at Issus, and where tliere remained three altars as the monument of his victory, which bore his name to that day ; a circumstance which furnished matter for some pleasantry in his letters to his friends at Rome '. ^ Ad Att. V. J8. 1 Qui mons erat hostium plenus sempitemorum. Hie a. d. nr. Id. Oct. magnum numenim hostium oecidimus. Castella munitissima, noctumo Pontinii adventu, nnstro matutino cepimus, incendimus. Imperatores appellati sumus. Castra paucos dies habuimua, ea ipsa, quae contra Dariura habiierat apud Issum Alexander, imperator baud pauUo melior, quam aut tu aut ego. Ibi dies quinque morati, direpto et vastato Amauo, inde discessimus.— Ad Att. V. 20. Expsdito exercitu ita noctu iter feci, ut ad lu. Id. Oct. cum lueisceret, in Amanum ascenderem, distributisqiia cohortibus et auxiliis, cum aliis Qulntus frater legatus, mecum simul, aliis C. Pontinius legatue, reliquis M. An- neius, et M. TuUius legati prseessent: plerosque nee opin- antes oppressimus— Eranam autem, quae fuit non viei instar, sed urbis, quod erat Amani caput— acriter et diu rcpugnantibus, Pontinio illam partem Amani tenente, ex antelucano tempore usque ad horam diei deciniam, magna multitudine liostium occisa, cepimus, castellaque sex eapta : complura incendimus. His rebus ita gestis, caelrn in radicibus Amani babuimus apud aras Alexandrl qua triduum : et in reliquiis Amani delendiSj agiisque vastandi' MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 101 From Amanus he led his army to another part of the highlands the most disaffected to the Roman name, possessed by a stout and free people, who had never been subject even to the kings of that country. Their chief town was called Pindenissum, situated on a steep and craggy hill, strongly fortified by nature and art, and provided with everything necessary for defence. It was the constant refuge of all deserters and the harbour of foreign enemies, and at that very time was expecting and prepared to receive the Parthians. Cicero, resolving, there- fore, to chastise their insolence and bring them under the Roman yoke, laid siege to it in form ; and though he pushed it on with all imaginable vigour, and a continual battery of his engines, yet it cost him above six weeks to reduce it to the necessity of surrendering at discretion. The in- habitants were sold for slaves ; and when Cicero was writing the account from his tribunal, he had already raised about a hundred thousand pounds by that sale : all the other plunder, excepting the horses, was given to the soldiers. In his letter upon it to Atticus, " the Pindenissians," says he, "surrendered to me on the Saturnalia,, after a siege of seven and forty days. ' But what the plague,' you will say, ' are these Pindenissians .' I never heard of their name before.' How can I help that ? Could I turn Cilicia into jEtolia or Macedonia ? Take this, however, for certain, that no man could do more than I have done with such an army,"&c." After this action, another neighbouring nation of the same spirit and fierceness, called Tiburani, terrified by the fate of Pindenissum, voluntarily submitted and gave hostages ; so that Cicero sent his army into winter-quarters, under the command of his brother, into those parts of the province which were thought the most turbulent". While he was engaged in this expedition, Papirius Paetus, an eminent wit and Epicurean, with whom he had a particular intimacy and correspondence of facetious letters, sent him some military instructions in the way of raillery, to which Cicero answered in the same jocose manner: — "Your letter," says he, "has made me a complete commander. I was wholly ignorant before of your great skill in the art of war; but perceive that you have read Pyrrhus and Cineas. Wherefore 1 intend to follow your —id tempus omne consumsiniuB.~-Ep. F.im. xv. 4 ; Ibid, ii. 10. ^ Confectis his retus ad oppiduin Eleutherocilicum, Pindenissum, exercitiun adduxi : quod cum esset altissimo et munitisBimo loco, ab iisque incoleretur, qui ne regibus quidem unquam paruissent : cum et fugitives reciperent, et Parthorum adventum acerrime expectareut : ad existi- mationem imperii pertinore arbitratus sum comprimere eorum audaeiam ^vallo et fossa circumdedi, sex cas- tellis, castriaque maximis sepsi, aggere, vineis, turribus oppugnavi, ususque tormentis multia, multls sagittarils, niagno labore me& — septimo quadragesimo die rem confeci. ^Ep. Fam. XV. 4. Qui (malum) istiPindenissae? qui sunt? inquies: nomen audivi nunquam . Quid ego f aciam ? potui Ciliciam, .35to- liam, aut Macedoniam reddere ? hoc jam sic habeto, nee hoc exercitu liic tania negotia geri potuisse, (Sec. — Ad Att. v. 20. Mancipia vanibant Satumalibus tertiis, cum haec scribe- bam in tribunali, res erat ad H. S. cxx.— Ibid. ° His erant finitimi pari scelere et audacia Tiburani : ab his, PindenisBO capto, obsides accepi, exercitum in hibema dimisi. Quintum fratrem negotio prsposui, itt in vicis aut captis aut male pacatis exercitus collocaretur.—Ep. Fam. XV. 4. precepts, and withal, to have some ships in readi- ness on the coast ; for they deny that there can be any better defence against the Parthian horse. But, raillery apart, you little think what a general you have to deal with ; for in this government I have reduced to practice what I had worn out before with reading, the whole Institution of Cyrus," &c. ° These martial exploits spread Cicero' s fame into Syria, where Bibulus was just arrived to take upon him the command, but kept himself close within the gates of Antioch till the country was cleared of all the Parthians. His envy of Cicero's success and title of emperor made him impatient to purchase the same honour by the same service on the Syrian side of the mountain Amanus ; but he had the misfortune to be repulsed in his attempt, with the entire loss of the first cohort and several officers of distinction, which Cicero calls an ugly blow both for the time and the eflect of itP. Though Cicero had obtained what he calls a just victory at Amanus, and in consequence of it the appellation of emperor which he assumed from this time, yet he sent no public account of it to Rome till after the afiair of Pindenissum, an exploit of more eclat and importance, for which he expected the honour of a thanksgiving, and began to enter- tain hopes even of a triumph. His public letter is lost, but that loss is supplied by a particular narrative of the whole action in a private letter to Cato. The design of paying this compliment to Cato, was to engage his vote and concurrence to the decree of the " supplication ;" and by the pains which he takes to obtain it, where he was sure of gaining his point without it, shows the high opinion which he had of Cato's authority, and how desirous he was to , have the testimony of it on his side. But Cato was not to be moved from his purpose by compliments or motives of friendship. He was an enemy by principle to all decrees of this kind, and thought them bestowed too cheaply and pros- tituted to occasions unworthy of them : so that when Cicero's letters came under deliberation, though he spoke with all imaginable honour and respect of Cicero, and highly extolled both his civil and military administration, yet he voted against the supplication, — which was decreed, however, without any other dissenting voice except that of Favonius, who loved always to mimic Cato, and of Hirrus, who had a personal quarrel with Cicero : yet when the vote was over, Cato liimself assisted in drawing up the decree, and had his name inserted in it, which was the usual mark of a particular approbation of the thing and friendship to the person in whose favour it passed'. But Cato's Ep. Fam. ix. 26. P Erat in Syria nostrum nomen in gratia. Venit interim Bibulus. Credo voluit appellatione hac inani nobis esse par. In eodem Amano ccepit laureolam in mustaceo quarere. At ills cohortem primani totam perdidit sane plagam odiosam acceperat turn re turn tempore. — Ad Att. V. 20. 1 Nimc publice literas Romam mittere parabam. Ube- riores erunt, quam si ex Amano misissem..— Ibid. Deinde de triiunpho, quern video, nisi reipublica tem- pora impedient, eirirSptffrop.' — ^Ad Att. vii. I . Ei porro assensus est unus, familiaris meus Favonius ; alter iratus Hirrus. Cato autem et scribendo affuit. — Ibid. Res ipsa declarat, tibi ilium honorem supplicationis lucundum f uisse, quod scribendo affuiati. Hxc enim sena- M 1G2 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF answer to Cicero's letter will show the temper of the man and the grounds on which he acted on this occasion. M. Cato to M. T. Cicero, Emperor. " In compliance with what both the republic and our private friendship require of me, I rejoice that your virtue, innocence, diligence, approved in the greatest affairs, exerts itself everywhere with equal -vigour, — at home in the gown, abroad in arms. I did all, therefore, that I could do, agree- ably to my own judgment, when in my vote and speech I ascribed to your innocence and good conduct the defence of your province, the safety of the kingdom and person of Ariobarzanes, the recovery of the allies to their duty and affection to our empire. I am glad, however, that a supplica- tion is decreed ; if, where chance had no part, but the whole was owing to your consummate prudence and moderation, you are better pleased that we should hold ourselves indebted to the gods than to you. But if you think that a supplication will pave the way to « triumph, and for that reason choose that fortune should have the praise rather than yourself, yet a triumph does not always follow a supplication, and it is much more honourable than any triumph for the senate to decree that a province is preserved to the empire by the mildness and innocence of the general, rather than by the force of arms and the favour of the gods. This was the purpose of my vote ; and I have now em- ployed more words than it is my custom to do, that you might perceive what I chiefly wish to testify, how desirous I am to convince you that in regard to your gloiy I had a mind to do what I took to be the most honourable for you, yet rejoice to see that done which you are the most pleased with. Adieu, and still love me ; and, agreeably to the course which you have begun, continue your integrity and diligence to the allies and the re- public'." Csesar was delighted to hear of Cato's stiffness, in hopes that it would create a coldness between him and Cicero ; and in a congratulatory letter to Cicero, upon the success of his arms, and the sup- plication decreed to him, took care to aggravate the rudeness and ingratitude of Cato^ Cicero himself was highly disgusted at it, especially when Cato soon afterwards voted a supplication to his son-in-law, Bibulus, who had done much less to deserve it. " Cato," says he, " was shamefully mali- cious ; he gave me what I did not ask, a character of integrity, justice, clemency ; but denied me what I did — yet this same man voted a supplica- tion of twenty days to Bibulus ; pardon me, if I cannot bear this usage*." Yet as he had a good opinion of Cato in the main, and a farther suit to make to the senate, in the demand of a triumph, he chose to dissemble his resentment, and returned tus eonsulta non ignoro ab amicissimis ejus, cujus de honore agitur, scribi solere.— Ep. Fam. xv. G. ' Ep. Fam. xv. 5. " Itaque Csesar iis literis, quibus mihi gratulatur, et omnia poUicetur, quo modo exnltat Catonis in me ingra- tissimi injuria. — ^Ad Att. vii. 2. ■ Aveo scire— Cato quid agat : qui quidem in me turpiter fuit malevolus. Dedit intcgritatis, justitise, dementia, fidei testimonium, quod non quKvebam, quod postulabam, negavit — -at liio idem Bibulo dierum viginti. Ignosce mihi, non possum hspc ferre. Ibid. him a civil answer, to signify his satisfaction and thanks for what he had thought fit to do". Cicero's campaign ended just so, as Caelius had wished in one of his letters to him ; with fighting enough to give a claim to the laurel ; yet without the risk of a battle with the Parthians". Durmg these months of action, he sent away the two young Ciceros, the son and nephew, to king Deiotarus's court, under the conduct of the king's son, who came on purpose to invite them : they were kept strictly to their books and exercises, and made great proficiency in both, though the one of them, as Cicero says, wanted the bit, the other the spur : their tutor Dionysius attended them, a man of great learning and probity, but, as his young pupils complained, horribly passionate?. Deiota- rus himself was setting forward to join Cicero with all his forces, upon the first news of the Parthian irruption : he had with him thirty cohorts, of four hundred men each, armed and disciplined after the Roman manner, with two thousand horse : but the Parthian alarm being over, Cicero sent couriers to meet him on the road, in order to prevent his marching to no purpose, so far from his own domi- nion^: the old king, however, seems to have brought the children back again in person, for the opportunity of paying his compliments, and spend- ing some time with his friend ; for by what Cicero intimates, they appear to have had an interview". The remaining part of Cicero's government was employed in the civil affairs of the province : where his whole care was to ease the several cities and districts of that excessive load of debts, in which the avarice and rapaciousness of former governors had involved them. He laid it down for the fixed rule of his administi-ation, not to suffer any money to be expended either upon himself or his officers ; and when one of his lieutenants, L. TuUius, in passing through the country, exacted only the forage and firing, which was due by law, and that but once a day, and not, as aU others had done before, from every town and village throiigh which they passed, he was much out of humour, and could not help complaining of it, as a stain upon his government, since none of his people besides had taken even a single farthing. All the wealthier cities of the province used to pay to all their pro- consuls large contributions for being exempted from furnishing winter- quarters to the army ; Cyprus alone paid yearly on this single account two hun- i Bp. Fam. xv. 6. >^ Ut optasti, ita est; velles enim, ais, tajitummodo ut haberem negotii quod esset ad laureolam saliis. Parthos times, quia diffidis copiis nostris.— Ep. Fam. ii. 10 ; viii. 5. 7 Cicerones nostros Deiotarus filius, qui rex a senatu appellatus est, secmn in regnmn. Dum in Ecstivis nos essemus, ilium pueris locum esse bellissimum duximus,— Ad Att. y. 17. Cicerones pueri amant inter se, discunt, exercentur: sed alter — fra?nis eget, alter calcaribus — Dionysius mihi qui- dem in amoribus est. Pueri autem aiunt euui furenter irasci. Sed homo nee doctior, nee sanctior fieri potest.— Ibid. vi. 1. ^ Mihi tamen cum Deiotaro conveuit, ut ille in meis castvis esset cum omnibus suis copiis, habet autem co- hortes quadringenarias nostra armatura triginta ; equitum duo millia.— Ibid. Deiotarum confestim, jam ad me venientem cum mflgno et firmo equitatu ct peditatu et cum omnibus suis copiis, certiorem feci, non videri esse causam cur abesset a regno- — Ep. Fam. xv. 4. » Deiotnrus mihi narravit, &o.— Ad Att. vi. 1, 5, 21. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 103 dred talents, or about forty thousand pounds ; but Cicero remitted this whole tax to them, which idone made a vast revenue ; and applied all the customary perquisites of his office to the relief of the oppressed province ; yet for all his services and generosity, which amazed the poor people, he would accept no honours, hut what were merely verbal ; prohibiting all expensive monuments, as statues, temples, brazen horses, &c., which, by the flattery of Asia, used to he erected of course to all governors, though ever so corrupt and oppressive. While he was upon his visitation of the Asiatic districts, there happened to be a kind of famine in the coun- try ; yet wherever he came, he not only provided for his family at his own expense, but prevailed with the merchants and dealers, who had any quan- tity of corn in their store-houses, to supply the people with it on easy terms'* ; living himself, all the while, splendidly and hospitably, and keeping an open table, not only for all the Roman officers, but the gentry of the province °. In the following letter to Atticus, he gives him a summary view of his manner of governing : '* I see (says he) that you are much pleased with my moderation and abstinence ; but you would be much more so, if you were with me, especially at Laodicea, where I did wonders at the sessions, which I have just held, for the affairs of the dio- ceses, from the thirteenth of February to the first of May. Many cities are wholly freed from all their debts, many greatly eased ; and all, by being allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, have recovered new life. There are two ways by which I have put them into a capacity of freeing, or of easing themselves, at least of their debts. The one is, by suffering no expense at all to be made on the account of my government. When I say none at all, I speak not hyperbolically ; there is not so much as a farthing ; it is incredible to think, what relief they have found from this single article. The other is this : their own Greek ma- gistrates had strangely abused and plundered them. 1 examined every one of them, who had borne any office for ten years past ; they all plainly confessed, and, without the ignominy of a public conviction, made restitution of the money which they had pil- laged i so that the people, who had paid nothing to our farmers for the present lustrum, have now paid the arrears of the last, even without murmuring. This has placed me in high favour with the publi- '* Cave putes quicquani liomines magis unquam eseo miratos, quam nullum teruncium, me ottinente provin- ciam, aumtUB factum esse, nee in rempublicam nee in quemquam meorum, prajterquani in L. TuUium, legatum. Is cxteroqiii abstinens (sed Julia lege transltans, semel tamen in diem, non ut alii solebant omnibus vicis) facit ut mihi excipiendus sit, cum teruncium ncgo sumtus fac- tum. PrjEter eum accepit nemo. Has aordes a nostro Q. Titinnio accepimus.— Ad Att. v. 21. Civitatea locupletes, ne in liibema militcs reciperent, magnaa pecuniae dabant. Cyprii talenta Attica cc. Qua ex insula (non vlTfp^oKiKus sed verissime loquor) niunmus nullua me obtinente erogabitur. Ob hiec beneiicia, quibus obstupescunt, nuUoB honores mihi, nisi verborum, decei-ni sino. Statuas, fana, r^dpiirira, prohibeo. — Ibid. Fames, quae erat in bac mea Asia, mihi optanda fuerit. Qimcunque iter feci, nulla vi,~auctoritate et cobortatione perfeci, ut et GrfEci ot cives Homani, qui frimientum eompresscrant, magnum numerum populia poUicerentur. -Ibid. •= Ita vivam, ut maxiraos siunptus facio. Wirificc deleetnr Iioc institute.— Ad Att. v. 1.5. cans : a grateful set of men! you'll say; Ihave really found them such — the rest of my jurisdiction shall be managed with the same address, and create the same admiration of my clemency and easiness. There is no difficulty of access to me, as there is to all other provincial governors ; no introduction by my chamberlain ; I am always up before day, and walking in my hall with my doors open, as I used to do when a candidate at Rome : this is great and gracious here, though not at all troublesome to me, from my old habit and discipline," &C.'' This method of governing gave no small um- brage to Appius, who considered it as a reproach upon himself, and sent several querulous letters to Cicero, because he had reversed some of his consti- tutions : " And no wonder," says Cicero, " that he is displeased with my manner, for what can be more unlike, than his administration and mine ? under him the province was drained by expenses and ex- actions ; under me, not a penny levied for public or private use. What shall I say of his preefects, attendants, lieutenants ? of their plunders, rapines, injuries ? whereas now, there is not a single family governed with such order, discipline, and modesty, as my province. This some of Appius's friends interpret ridiculously, as if I was taking pains to exalt my own character, in order to depress his ; and doing all this, not for the sake of my own cre- dit, but of his disgrace'." But the truth was, that from the time of his reconciliation with Ap- pius, he had a sincere desire to live on good terms with him, as well out of regard to the splendour of his birth and fortunes, as to his great alhances, for one of his daughters was married to Pompey's son, and another to Brutus' ; so that, though their prin- ciples and maxims were totally different, yet he took care to do every thing with the greatest pro- fessions of honour and respect towards Appius, even when he found it necessary to rescind his decrees j considering himself only, he says, as a second physician called in to a case of sickness, where he found it necessary to change the method of cure, and when the patient had been brought low by evacuations and blood-letting, to apply all kinds of lenitive and restoring medicines !•'. As soon as the government of Cilicia was allot- ted to him, he acquainted Appius with it by letter, begging of him that, as no man could succeed to it with a more friendly disposition than himself, so Appius would deliver up the province to him, in such a condition as one friend would expect to re- ceive it from another'' ; in answer to which Appius, d Ad Att. vi. 2. c Quid enim potest esse tarn dissimile, quam illo imper- ante, exhaustam ease sumptibus et jacturis provinciam, nobis earn obtinentibus, nummum nullum ease erogatum nee privatim nee publice, &e. — Ibid. vi. 1. ' Ego Appium, ut tecum ssepe locutus sum, valde diligo. Meque ab eo diligi statim cosptum esse, ut simultatcm de- poBuimua, sensi— jam me Pompeii totum esse scis : Brutum a me amari intelligis. Quid est caussD, cur mihi non in optatia est complecti hominem, florentem setate, opibus, honoribua, ingenio, liberis, propinquis, af&nibus, amicis. — Ep. Fam. ii. 13. e Ut si medicus, cum flegrotus alii medico traditus sit, iraaci velit ei medico, qui sibi successerit, si qu(e ipse in curando constituerit mutet iUe. Sic Appius, cum c^ acpaipeffeais provinciam om-arit, sanguinem miserit, &o. —Ad Att. vi. 1. 1' Cum contra voluntatem mcara — nccidissot, ut milii cum imperio in provinciam ire necesso csset — hiec una M 2 164 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF having intimated some desire of an interview, Cicero took occasion to press it witli mucli earnest- ness, as a tiling of great service to tliem botli ; and, tliat it miglit not be defeated, gave liim an ac- count of all Ms stages and motions, and offered to regulate them in such a manner as to make the place of their meeting the most agreeable to Ap- pius's convenience ; but Appius being disgusted by the first edicts which Cicero published, resolved for that reason to disappoint him, and as Cicero advanced into the province, retired still to the remoter parts of it, and contrived to come upon him at last so suddenly, that Cicero had not warn- ing enough given to go out and meet him, which Appius laid hold of as a fresh ground of complaint against Cicero's pride, for refusing that common piece of respect to him '. This provoked Cicero to expostulate with him with great spirit — " I was informed," says he, "by one of my apparitors, that you complained of me for not coming out to meet you ; I despised you, it seems, so as nothing could be prouder. When your servant came to me near midnight and told me that you would be with me at Iconinm before day, but could not say by which road, when there were two, I sent out your friend Varro by the one, and Q. Lepta, the commander of my artillery, by the other, with instructions to each of them to bring me timely notice of your approach, that I might come out in person to meet you. Lepta came running back presently in all haste to ac- quaint me that you had already passed by the camp, upon which I went directly to Iconium, where you know the rest. Did I then refuse to come out to you ? — to Appius Claudius, to an emperor ; then, according to ancient custom, and, above all, to my friend.' 1, who of all men am apt to do more in that way than becomes my dignity — but enough of this. The same man told me likewise, that you said ' What ! Appius went out to meet Lentulus ; Lentulus to Appius, but Cicero would not come out to Appius.' Can you then be guilty of such impertinence ? A man, in my judg- ment of the greatest prudence, learning, expe- rience, and I may add politeness too, which the Stoics rightly judge to be a virtue ? Do you ima- gine, that yc*jir Appiuses andLentuluses are of more weight with me than the ornaments of virtue ? Be- fore I had obtained those honours, which in the opinion of the world are thought to be the greatest, I never fondly admired those names of yours ; I looked indeed upon those who had left them to you, as great men," but after I had acquired and borne the highest commands, so as to have nothing more to desire, either of honour or glory, I never indeed considered myself as your superior, but hoped that I was become your equal ; nor did Pompey, whom I prefer to all men who ever lived, nor Lentulus, whom I prefer to myself, think otherwise. If you howeverare of adifferentopinion, it will do you no harm to read with some attention what Athenodorus says on this subject, that you consolatio occurrebat, qucd neque tibi amicior, qunm ego sum, quisquam posset Buccedere, neque ego ab uUo pro- vinciam accipei-c, qui mallet earn mihi quam maxlme aptam explicatamque tradere, &c. — Ep. Fam. iii. 2. i . me libenter ad earn partem provinciaa primum esse venturum, quo te maxime velle arbitrarer, fec^lbid. 5. Appius noster, cum me adventare videt, profectus est Tarsmn usque Laodicea. — Ad Att. v. 17. may learn wherein true nobility consists. But to return to the point : I desire you to look upon me, not only as your friend, but a most affectionate one ; it shall be my care by all possible services to convince you that I am truly so, but if you have a mind to let people see that you are less concerned for my interests in my absence, than my pains for yours deserved, I free you from that trouble : Por I have friends enough to serve and love Both me and mine, and above all great Jove. n. 1. 174. butif you are natnrally querulous, you shallnot still hinder my good offices and wishes for you ; all that you vrill do, is to make me less solicitous how you take them. I have written this with more than my usual freedom, from the consciousness of my duty and affection, which being contracted by choice and judgment, it will be in your power to preserve as long as you think proper. AdieuK" Cicero's letters to Appius make one book of his Familiar Epistles, the greatest part of which are of the expostulatory kind, on the subject of their mu- tual jealousies and complaints. In this slippery state of their friendship, an accident happened at Kome which had like to have put an end to it. His daughter Tullia, after parting from her second husband Crassipes, as it is probably thought, by divorce S was married in her father's absence to a third, P. Cornelius Dolabella; several parties had been offered to her, and among thefii Ti. Clau- dius Nero, who afterwards married Livia, whom Augustus took away from him ; Nero made his proposals to Cicero in Cilicia, who referred him to the women, to whom he had left the management of that affair ; but before those overtures reached them, they had made up the match with Dolabella, being mightily taken with his complaisant and oh- sequious address ™. He was a nobleman of patri- cian descent, and of great parts and politeness, but of a violent, daring, ambitious temper, warmly attached to Csesar, and by a life of pleasure and expense which the prudence of TuUia, it was hoped, would correct, greatly distressed in his fortunes, which made Cicero very uneasy, when he came afterwards to know it". Dolabella, at the time of this marriage, for which he made way also by the divorce of his first wife °, gave a proof of liis enter- prising genius, by impeaching Appiu s Claudius of ' Ep. Fam. iii. 7. 1 "What confirms this notion is, that Crassipes appears to have been alive at this time, and under Cicero's dis- pleasure : who mentions him as the onlj' senator, besides Hirrus, to whom he did not think iit to write about the affair of his supplication. — ^Ad Att. vii. 1. ™ Ego dum in provincia omnibus rebus Appium orno, subito sum factus accusatoris ejus socer — sed crede mihi nihil minus putaram ego, qui de Ti. Nerone, qui mecum egerat, certos homines ad mulieres miseram, qui Romam veneruut factis sponsalibus. Sed hoc spero melius. Mu- lieres quidem valde intelligo delectari obsequio et comitate adolescentis. — Ad Att. vi. 6. " Gener est suavis — quantumvis vel ingenii, vel huma- nitatis ; satis. Keliqua quffi nostl ferenda. — Ad Att. vii. 3. Dolabellam a te gaudeo primum laudari, deinde etiam amari. Nam ea quae speras TuUiae mea prudentia posse tempernri, scio cui tuje epistolie respondeant. — ^Ep. Fam. ii. 15; viii. 13. Hac oblectabar specula, Dolabellam meura fore ab iis molestiis, quas libertate sua contraserat, liberum.— Ibid, viii. 16. Illud mihi ocourrit, quod inter postulationem, et no- minis delationcm uxor a Dolabella discessit.— Ibid. viii. & MARCUS TULLltS CICERO. le^ practices against the state, in his government of Cilicia, and of bribery and corruption in his suit for the consulship. Tliis put a great difficulty upon Cicero, and made it natural to suspect, that he privately favoured the impeachment, where the accuser was his son-in-law ; but, in clearing him- self of it to Appius, though he dissembled a little, perhaps in disclaiming any part or knowledge of that match, yet he was very sincere in professing himself an utter stranger to the impeachment, and was in truth greatly disturbed at it. But as, from the circumstance of his succeeding to Appius in his government, he was, of all men the most capa- ble of serving or hurting him at the trial ; so Pompey, who took great pains to screen Appius, was extremely desirous to engage him on their side, and had thoughts of sending one of his sons to him for that purpose ; but Cicero saved them that trouble, by declaring early and openly for Appius, and promising everything from the province that could possibly be of service to him, which he thought himself obliged to do the more forwardly, to prevent any suspicion of treachery to his friend on the account of his new allianceP : so that Appius, instead of declining a trial, contrived to bring it on as soon as he could ; and with that view, having dropped his pretensions to a triumph, entered the city, and offered himself to his judges before his accuser was prepared for him, and was acquitted without any difficulty of both the in- dictments. In a little time after his trial he was chosen cen- sor, together with Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, the last who bore that office during the freedom of the republic. Claudius's law, mentioned above, which had greatly restrained the power of these magis- trates, was repealed the last year by Scipio, the consul, and their ancient authority restored to themi, which was now exercised with great rigour by Appius, who, though really a libertine, and re- markable for indulging himself in all the luxury of hfe, yet by an affectation of severity, hoped to retrieve his character, and pass for an admirer of that ancient discipline for which many of his ances- tors had been celebrated. Cselius gives a pleasant acount of him to Cicero. " Do.you know, says he, that the censor Appius is doing wonders amongst us, about statues and pictures, the number of our acres, and the payment of debts ? He takes the censorship for soap or nitre, and thinks to scour himself clean with it; but he is mistaken — for while he is labouring to wash out his stains, he opens his very veins and bowels, and lets us see him the more intimately : run away to us by all the Gods, to laugh at these things. Drusus sits judge upon adultery, by the Scantinian law"^, Ap- P Fompeius dicitur valde pro Appio laborare, ut etlam patent alterutrum de filiis ad te missurum.— Ep. Fam. viii. 6. Post hoc uegotium autcm et tcmeritatem nostri Dola- beUiE deprecatorem me pro illius periculo praeteo. — Ibid, ii. 13, Tamen hac mihi affinitate nimciata, non majore equi- dem studio, sed acriua, apertius, significantius dignitatem tuam defeudissem— nam ut vetus nostra simulta-j antea Btimulabat nie, ut caverem ne oui suspicionem ficte recon- ciliats gi'atiae darem: sic aflfinitas novam curam afifert cavcndi,— Ibid, ili, 12. 1 Dio, p. 147. ' Seis Appium censorem hie ostenta facerc ? de Bignifi et tabulia, de agri mode, et sere alieno acerrime agere ? per- pius on statues and pictures." But this vain and unseasonable attempt at reformation, instead of doing any good, served only to alienate people from Pompey's cause, with whom Appius was strictly alHed ; whilst his colleague Piso, wlio foresaw that effect, chose to sit still and suffer him to disgrace the knights and senators at pleasure, which he did withgreatfreedom, and among others turned Sallust, the historian, out of the senate, and was hardly re- strained from putting the same affront upon Curio, whichadded still more friendsand strength to Cassar'. As to the public news of the year, the grand affair that engaged all people's thoughts, was the expectation of a breach between Caesar and Pompey, which seemed now unavoidable, and in which all men were beginning to take part, and ranging themselves on the one side or the other. On Pompey's there was a great majority of the senate and the magistrates, with the better sort of all ranks : on Caesar's all the criminal and ob- noxious, all who had suffered punishment, or de- served it i the greatest part of the youth and the city mob ; some of the popular tribunes, and all who were oppressed with debts j who had a leader fit for their purpose, daring, and well provided, and wanting nothing but a cause. This is Cicero's account ; and Cselius's is much the same. " I see (says he)- that Pompey will have the senate, and all who judge of things ; Caesar, all who live in fear and uneasiness ; but there is no comparison be- tween their armies *." Caesar had put an end to the Gallic war, and reduced the whole province to the Roman yoke ; but though his commission was near expiring, he seemed to have no thoughts of giving it up, and returning to the condition of a private subject ; he pretended that he could not possibly be safe, if he parted with his army, especially while Pompey held the province of Spain, prolonged to him for five years". The senate, in the meanwhile, in order to make him easy, had consented to let him take the consulship, without coming to sue for it in person; but when that did not satisfy him, the consul M. Marceilus, one of his fiercest ene- mies, moved them to abrogate his command di- rectly, and appoint him a successor ; and since the war was at an end , to oblige him to disband his troops, and to come likewise in person to sue for the consulship, nor to allow the freedom of the city to his colonies beyond the Po : this related particularly to a favourite colony which Caesar, when consul, had settled at Comum, at the foot of Buasum est ci, censuram lomentum ant nitrum esse. Er- rare mihi videtur. Nam sordes eluere vult, venas sibi omnes et viscera aperit. Curre per deos, et quani primum haec risum veni. Legis ScantiniEe judicium apud Drusum fieri, Appium de tabulis et siffnis agere.-'-Ep. Fam. viii. 14. ■ Dio, xl, p, 150. t Hoc video, cum homine audacissimo, paratissimoque negotium esse ; omnes damnatos, omnes ignominiaaffectos, omnes damnatione ignominiaque dignos iliac facere. Om- nem fere juventutem, omnem illam urbanam ac perditam plebem ; tribunes valentes — omnes, qui iere alieno pre- niantur — causam solam ilia causa non habet, ceteris rebus abundat, — Ad Att. vii. 3. In hac diacordia video, Cn. Pompeium senatum, quique res judicant, secum habiturum : ad Cffisarem omnes, qui cum timore ant mala spe vivant ad Caesarera axicessuros. Exereitnm conferendum non esse.— Ept Fam. vii^ l-l. u Caesari autem persuasum est, se salvum esse non posse, si ab exercitu recesserit, Fert iUam tamen conditionem„ ut ambo exereitus tradant.— Ibid. 1C6 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the Alps, with the freedom of the city granted to it by the Vatinian law^ All the other colonies on that side of the Po had before obtained from Pom- pey's father the rights of Latium, that is, the free- dom of Rome to those who had borne an annual magistracy in them : but M. Marcellus, out of a singular enmity to Csesar, would allow no such right to his colony of Comum ; and having caught a certain Comensian magistrate who was acting the citizen at Rome, he ordered him to be seized, and publicly whipped, an indignity from which all citizens were exempted by law ; bidding the man go and show those marks of his citizenship to Caesar^. Cicero condemns this act as violent and unjust : " Marcellus (says he) behaved shamefully in the case of the Comensian ; for if the man had never been a magistrate, he was yet of a colony beyond the Po, so that Pompey will not be less shocked at it than Csesar himself^." The other consul, Serv. Sulpicius, was of a more candid and moderate temper ; and being unwilling to give such a handle for a civil war, opposed and overruled the motions of his colleague by the help of some of the tribunes : nor was Pompey himself disposed to proceed so violently, or to breat with Csesar on that foot, but thought it more plausible to let his term run out, and his command expire of itself, and so throw upon him the odium of turn- ing his arms against his country, if he should re- solve to act against the senate and the laws. This counsel prevailed, after many warm contestations, in which the summer was chieflyspent, and a decree was offered on the last of September, " That the consuls elect, L. PauUus and C. Marcellus, should move the senate on the first of March, to settle the consular provinces ; and if any magistrate should interpose to hinder the effect of their decrees, that he should be deemed an enemy to the republic ; and if any one actually interposed, that this vote and resolution should be entered into the journals, to be considered some other time by the senate, and laid also before the people." But four of the tri- bunes gave their joint negative to this decree, C. Caelius, L. Vinicius, P. Cornelius, and C. Vibius Pansa. In the course of these debates, Pompey, who affected great moderation in whatever he said of Caesar, was teased and urged on all sides to make an explicit declaration of his sentiments. When he called it unjust to determine anything about Caesar's government before the first of March, the term prescribed to it by law, being asked, " What, if any one should then put a nega- tive upon them ? " he said, ' ' there was no difference whether Caesar refused to obey the decrees of the senate, orprovided men to obstruct them." "What, (says another) if he should insist on being consul, and holding his province too ? " "What," replied Pompey, " if my son should take a stick and cudgel me" .'"—intimating the one to be as incredible and as impious also as the other. * Sueton. J. Caes. 28 ; Straho, v. 32a ' " y Appian. ii. 443. 2 Marcellus fcede de Comensi: etsi ille magistj-atum noa gesserit, erat tamen transpadanus. Ita milii videtnr non aninus stomachi nostro, ac Casaari movisse. — Ad Att. v. 11. « Cum interrogaretur, si qui turn iatercederent : di.xit hoc nihil interesae, utrum C. Caesar senatui dicto audiens futurus non esset, an pararet, qui senatum dscernere non pateretur. Quid si, inquit alius, et consul esse et exerci- tum habere volet 1 at ille quam elementer. Quid si Alius meus fustem mihi impingere volet V— Ep. Fam, viii. 8. Cicero's friend Cffilius obtained the sedileship this summer from his competitor Hirrus, the same who had opposed Cicero in the augurate, and whose disappointment gave occasion to many jokes be- tween them in their letters'. In this magistracy it being customary to procure wild beasts of all kinds from different parts of the empire for the entertainment of the city, Caelius begged of Cicero to supply him with panthers from Cilicia, and to employ the Cybarites, a people of his province famed for bunting, to catch them : "for it would be a reflection upon you (says he) when Curio had ten panthers from that country, not to let me have many more." He recommends to him at the same time M. Feridius, a Roman knight, who had an estate in Cilicia, charged vrith some services or quit-rent to the neighbouring cities, which he begs of him to get discharged, so as to make the lands free''. He seems also to have desired Ci- cero's consent to his levying certain contributions upon the cities of his province, towards defray- ing the expense of his shows at Rome ; a pre- rogative which the asdiles always claimed, and sometimes practised ; though it was denied to them by some governors, and particularly by Quintus Cicero in Asia, upon the advice of his brother*; in answer to all which Cicero replied, " that he was sorry to find that his actions were so much in the dark, that it was not yet known at Rome that not a farthing had been exacted in his province, except for the payment of just debts ; that it was neither fit for him to extort money, nor for Caelius to take it, if it were designed for himself; and admonished him, who had undertaken the part of , accusing others, to live himself vrith more caution — and as to panthers, that it was not consistent with his character to impose the charge of hunting them upon the poor people'." But though he would not break his rules for the sake of his friend, yet he took care to provide panthers for him at his own expense ; and says pleasantly upon it, that the beasts made a sad complaint against him, and resolved to quit the country, since no snares were laid in his province for any other crea- ture but themselves'. Curio likewise obtained the tribunate this sum- mer, which he sought vrith no other design, as many imagined, than for the opportunity of mor- tifying Caesar, against whom he had hitherto acted with great fierceness e. But Cicero, who knew from the temper and views of them both, how easy it IJ Ep. Pam. ii. 9, 10 ; it. viii. 2, 3, 9. c Fere literis oronibus tibi de pautheris soripsi, Turpe tibi erit, Patischum Curioni decern pantheras misisse, te non multispartibus plures, &c. — Ep. Fam. viii. 9. M. Feridium— tibi commendo. Agros, quos fructuarios habeut civitates, vult tuo beneficio, quod tibi facile et honestum factu est, immunes esse.--Ibid. ■> Ad Quint, i. 1, s. 9. e Rescripsi, me moleste ferre, si ego in tenebris laterem, noc audii-etiu: Romsc, nullum ,in mea provineia nummum nisi in jes alienura ero^ari ; docuique nee mihi coneiliare pecimiam licere, nee illi caperc ; monuique eum, &c.— .4d Att. vi. 1. ^ De pautheris, per eos, qui venari solent, agitur man- date meo diligenter ; sed mira paucitas est : et eas, qua sunt, valde aiunt quori, quod nihil cuiquam insidiarum in mea provineia nisi sibi fiat.— Ep, Fam. ii. 11. ? Sed ut spero et volo, et ut se fei't ipse Curio, bonos et senatum malet. Totus ut nunc eat, hoc scaturit.— Ibid, viii. 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICEllO. 167 wojild be to make up matters between them, took occasion to write a congratulatory letter to him upon this adrancement, in which he exhorts him, with great gravity, " to consider into what a dan- gerous crisis his tribunate had fallen, not by chance but his own choice ; what violence of the times, what variety of dangers hung over the republic, how uncertain the events of things were, how changeable men's minds, how much treachery and falsehood in human life — he begs of him, therefore, to beware of entering into any new counsels, but to pursue and defend what he himself thought right, and not suffer himself to be drawn away by the advice of others"— referring, without doubt, to M. Antony, the chief companion and corrupter of his youth : in the conclusion, he conjures him to " employ his present power to hinder his pro- vincial trouble from being prolonged by any new act of the senate." "^ — Cicero's suspicions were soon confirmed by letters from Rome, whence Cselius sent him word of Curio's changing sides, and de- claring himself for Caesar ; in answer to which, Cicero says, "the last page of your letter in your own hand really touched me. What do you say .' is Curio turned advocate for Csesar ? who would have thought it besides myself ? for let me die if I did not expect it ! Good gods, how much do I long to.be laughing with you at Rome ? ' " The new consuls being Cicero's particular friends, he wrote congratulatory letters to them both upon Sieir election, in which he begged the i. HUB. 703. concurrence of their authority, to the cic. 5?. decree of his supplication ; and what he , ™f'',„ hadmoreatheart, that they would not pAirLLus, sutler any prolongation or his annual 0. cuAimres term ; in which theyreadily obliged him, MAncELLus. aud received his thanks also by letter for that favour''. It was expected that something decisive would now be done in relation to the two Gauls, and the appointment of a suc- cessor to Csesar, since both the consuls were sup- posed to be his enemies : but all attempts of that kind were still frustrated by the intrigues of Csesar ; for when C. Marcellus began to renew the same motion which his kinsman had made the year be- fore, he was obstructed by his colleague FauUus and the tribune Curio, whom Csesar had privately gained by immense bribes, to suffer nothing preju- dicial to his interest to pass during their magis- tracy'. He is said to have given FauUus about three hundred thousand pounds, and to Curio much more". The first wanted it to defray the charges of those splendid buildings which he had undertaken to raise at his own cost ; the second to clear himself of the load of his debts, which amounted to about half a million" ; for he had wasted his great fortunes so effectually in a few years, that he had no other revenue left, as Pliny says, but in the hopes of a civil war". These facts are mentioned by all the Roman writers ; I" Ep. Fam. ii. 7. ' Extrema pagella pupugit me tuo chirographo. Quid ais? CjEsarem nunc defendit Curio ? quis hoc putaret prae- ter me ? nam ita vivam, putavi.— Ibid. 13. ■■ Ep. Fam. XV. 7, 10, 11, 12, 13. ' Sueton. J. Cks. 29. ■" Appian. ii. p. 443. " Sexeenties aestertium tens alieui. — ^Val. Max. ix. 1. ° Qui nihil in censu Iiabuerit, prajter diacordiam princl- pum.— riin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 15. Momentumque fuit mutatus Curio remm, Gallorum captus spoliis et Casoris auro — LucAN. iv. 819. Caught hy tho spoils of Gaul, and Cassar's gold. Curio turn'd traitor, aud his country sold. and Servius applies that passage of Virgil, Vendidit hie auro patriam, to the case of Curio's selling Rome to Caasar. Cicero in the mean time was expecting with im- patience the expiration of his annual term ; but before he could quit the province he was obliged to see the account of all the money which had passed through his own or his officers' hands, stated and balanced ; and three fair copies pro- , vided, two to be deposited in two of the principal cities of his jurisdiction, and a third in the trea- sury at Rome. That his whole administration, therefore, might be of a piece, he was very exact and punctual in acquitting himself of this duty, and would not indulge his officers in the use of any public money beyond the legal time or above the sum prescribed by law, as appears from his letters to some of them who desired If. Out of the annual revenue which was decreed to him for the use of the province, he remitted to the treasury all that he had not expended, to the amount of above eight hundred thousand pounds. " This," says he, " makes my whole company groan j they imagined that it should have beeen divided among them- selves, as if I ought to have been a better manager for the treasuries of Phrygia and Cilicia than for our own. But they did not move me ; for my own honour weighed with me the most ; yet I have not been wanting to do every thing in my power that is honourable and generous to them alii" His last concern was, to what hand he should commit the government of his province upon his leaving it, since there was no successor apfiointed by the senate on account of the heats among them about the case of Csesar, which disturbed all their debates, and interrupted all other business. He had no opinion of his qusestor, C. Cselius, a young man of noble birth, but of no great virtue or pru- dence, and was afraid, after his glorious adminis- tration, that by placing so great a trust in one of his character, he should expose himself to some censure. But he had nobody about him of superior rank who was willing to accept it, and did not care to force it upon his brother, lest that might give a handle to suspect him of some interest or partiality in the choice''. He dropped the province, therefore, P Laodiceae me praedes accepturum arbitror omnia pub- licae pecuniffi — nihil est, quod in isto genera cuiquam posaim commodare, &c. — Ep. Fam. ii. 17. lUud quidem certe factum est, quod lex jubebat, ut apud duas civitates, Laodicensem, et Apameensem, quae nobis maximae videbantur — rationes confectas et consoli- datas deponeremus, Sec Ibid. v. 20. 1 Cum enim rectum et glorioaum putarem ex annuo sumptu, qui mihi dccretus esset. Me Cielio quffistori relinquere annuum, referra in serarium ad H. S. cio inge- muit nostra cohors, omne illud putans distribui sibi opor- tere : ut ego amicior invenirer Phi-ygum aut Cilicum aera- riia, quam nostro. Sed me non moverunt ; nam mea laua apud me plurimum valuit. Nee taraen quicquam honori- fice in quemquam fieri potuit, quod praetermiserim. — Ad Att. vii. 1. r Ego deprovinciadecedens quaeatorem CiElium prwposui provinciK. Puerum ? inquies. At quaeatorem ; at nobilem adolescentem ; at omnium fere exetnplo. Neque erat superiore honore usus, quem praeficerem. Pontinius multo ante disoesserat. A Qumto fratro impetrari non poterat ; 108 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF after some deliberation, into Cselius's bands, and set forward immediately upon his journey towards Italy. But before he quitted Asia he begged of Atticus by letter to send him a particular detail of all the news of the city. ** There are odious reports," says he, " about Curio and Paullus ; not that I see any danger while Pompey stands, or I may say, indeed, while he sits, if he has but his health ; but in truth I am sorry for my friends Curio and Paul- lus. If you are now, therefore, at Rome, or as soon as you come thither, I would have you send me a plan of the whole republic, which may meet me on I the road, that I may form myself upon it, and re- solve what temper to assume on my coming to the city ; for it is some advantage not to come thither a mere stranger**." We see what a confidence he placed in Pompey, on whom indeed their whole prospect either of peace with Cssar or of success against him depended : as to the intimation about his health, it is expressed more strongly in another letter : "AH our hopes (says he) hang upon the life of one man, who is attacked every year by a dan- gerous fit of sickness'." His constitution seems to have been peculiarly subject to fevers, the frequent returns of which, in the present situation of affairs, gave great apprehension to all his party. In one of those fevers which threatened his life for many days successively, all the towns of Italy put up public prayers for his safety ; an honour which had never before been paid to any man while Rome was free". Upon taking leave of Cilicia, Cicero paid a visit to Rhodes, for the sake (he says) of the children ''. His design was to give them a view of that flou- rishing isle, and a little exercise, perhaps, in that celebrated school of eloquence where he himself had sttdied with so much success under Molo. Here he received the news of Hortensius's deaths, which greatly affected him^ by recalling to his mind the many glorious struggles that they had sustained together at the bar, in their competition for the prize of eloquence. Hortensius reigned absolute in the forum when Cicero first entered it ; and as his superior fame was the chief spur to Cicero's industry, so the shining specimen which Cicero soon gave of himself made Hortensius likewise the brighter for it, by obliging him to exert all the force of his genius to maintain his ground against his young rival. They passed a great part of their lives in a kind of equal contest and emulation of each o ther's merit ; but Hortensius, by the supe- quem tamen si reliquissem, dicerent iniqui, non me plane post annum, ut senatus voluisset, de pi-ovincia decessisse, quoniam alteram mo reliquissem. — Ep. Fam. ii. 15; Ad Att. vi. 6, 6. H Hue odiosa afferebantur de Curione, de Pawllo : nou qdo uUum periculum videam stante Tompeio, vel etiara sedente, valeat mode. Sed mehercule Curionis et PauUi raeorum familiarum vicem doleo. Formam igitiir mihi totius reipublicjE si jam es Romie, aut cum eris, velim mittas, quae mihi obviam veniat. Ex qua me fingere pos- sum, dec. — Ad Att. vi. 3. t In unius hominis, quotannis, perienloae ffigrotantis, anima, positas omues nostras spes habemus.. — Ibid. viii. 2. " Quo quidem tempore xmiversa Italia vota pro salute ejus, primo omnium civium, suscepit— Veil. Pat. il 48 • Bio, p. 156. ' ' ^ Itliodum volo puerorum causa.— Ad Att. vi. 7. y Cum e Cilicia decedens Rhodum vcnissem, et eo mihi de Q. Hortensii morte csset allatum ; opiniono omnium piajorcm animo cepi dolorem. — Brut, inn. riority of his years, having first passed through the usual gradation of public honours, and satisfied his ambition by obtaining the highest, began to relax somewhat of his old contention, and give way to the charms of ease and luxury, to which his nature strongly inclined him^, till he was forced at last by the general voice of the city to yield the post of honour to Cicero, who never lost sight of the true point of glory, nor was ever diverted by any tempta- tion of pleasure from his steady course and labo- rious pursuit of virtue. Hortensius published several orations, which were extant long after his death ; and it were much to be wished that they had remained to this day, to enable us to form a judgment of the different talents of these two great men ; but they are said to have owed a great part of their credit to the advantage of his action, which yet was thought to have more of art than was necessary to an orator, so that his composi- tions were not admired so much by the reader, as they had been by the hearer' ; while Cicero's more valued productions made all others of that kind less sought for, and consequently the less carefully preserved. Hortensius, however, was generally allowed by the ancients, and by Cicero himself, to have possessed every accomplishment which could adorn an orator : elegance of style, art of compo- sition, fertility of invention, sweetness of elocution, gracefulness of action''. These two rivals lived, however, always with great civility and respect towards each other, and were usually in the same way of thinking and acting in the affairs of the republic, till Cicero, in the case of his exile, dis- covered the plain marks of a lurking envy and infi- delity in Hortensius ; yet his resentment carried him no farther than to some free complaints of it to their common friend Atticus, who made it his business to mitigate this disgust, and hinder it from proceeding to an open breach, so that Cicero, being naturally placable, lived again with him, after his return, on the same easy terms as before, and lamented his death at this time with great tenderness, not only as the private loss of a friend, but a public misfortune to his country, in being deprived of the service and authority of so ex- perienced a statesman at so critical a conjunc- ture'. From Rhodes he passed on to Ephesus, whence he set sail on the first of October, and after a tedious passage la nded at Athens, on th e fonr- * Nam is post consulatura — summum illud suum sta- dium remisit, quo a puero fuerat incensus ; atque in omnium rerum abundantia voluit beatius, ut ipse putabat, remissius certe vivcre.— Brut p. 443. * Motus et gestus etiam plus artis habebat, quam erat oratori satis. — Brut. 425. Dieebat melius quam soripsit Hortensius.— Orator, p. 261, Ejus scripta tantum intra famam sunt, quidiu princspB oratorum — existimatns est, novissime quoad visit, secun- dus ; ut appareat placuisse aliquid eo dicente, quod legentes non invenimus. — Ad Quint, xi. 3. 1^ Erat in verborum splendore elegans, compositione aptus, facultate copiosus : — nee pra;termittebat fere quic- quam, quod erat in causa — ^vox canora et suavis. — ^Brut. 425. "^ Nam et amico amisso cum consuetudine jucundn, turn nmltorum ofBciorum conjunctione me privatum vidcbam — augebat etiam molestiam, quod magna sapientium ci- vium bonorumque penuria, vir egregius, conjunctissimua- que juecum consiliorura omnium societate alienisfliuio eipublicSE tempore extinctus.— Brut. inil. MARCUS TULLIUS CICEKO. 1(50 teenth''. Here he lodged again ia his old quarters, at the house of his friend Aristus. His predecessor, Appius, who passed also through Athens on his return, had ordered a new portico or vestibule to he built at his cost to the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres ; which suggested a thought likewise to Cicero of adding some ornament of the same kind to the Academy, as a public monument of his name, as well as of his affection for the place : for he hated, he says, those false inscriptions of other people's statues' with which the Greeks used to flatter their new masters, by effacing the old titles and inscribing them anew to the great men of Rome. He acquainted Atticus with his design, and desired his opinion upon it : but in all proba- bility it was never executed, since his stay at Athens was now very short, and his thoughts wholly bent on Italy ; for as all his letters con- firmed to him the certainty of a war, in which he must necessarily bear a part, so he was impatient to be at home, that he might have the clearer view of the state of affairs, and take his measures with the greater deliberation^ Yet he was not still without hopes of peace, and that he should be able to make up the quarrel between the chiefs : for he was, of all men, the best qualified to effect it, on account not only of his authority, but of his inti- mate friendship with them both, who severally paid great court to him at this time, and reckoned upon him as their own, and wrote to him with a confidence of his being a determined friend?. In his voyage from Athens towards Italy, Tiro, one of his slaves, whom he soon after made free, happened to fall sick, and was left behind at Patrse to the care of friends and a physician. The mention of such an accident will seem trifling to those who are not acquainted with the character and excellent qualities of Tiro, and how much we are indebted to him for preserving and transmitting to posterity the precious collection of Cicero's letters,' of which a great part still remain, and one entire book of them written to Tiro himself, seve- ral of which relate to the subject of this very illness. Tiro was trained up in Cicero's family among the rest of his young slaves, in every kind of useful and polite learning, and being a youth of singular parts and industry, soon became an emi- nent scholar, and extremely serviceable to his master in all his affairs both civil and domestic. " As for Tiro," says he to Atticus, " I see you 1^ Prid. Id. Oct. Atlienas venimus, cum eane advcrsis ventis usi essemus Ep. Fam. xiv. 5. <= Audio Appiiim •irpoir6\atoi', Eleusine facere. Num iuepti fuerimus, si nos quoquo Academise fecerimus? equidem valde ipsas Athenas amo. Volo esse aliquod monumentum. Odi falsas inscriptiones alienarmn atatu- arum. Bed ut tibi placebit.— Ad Att. vi. 1. ' Cognovi ex multorum amicorum Uteris — ad arma rem spectare. Ut mihi cum venero, dissimulare non liceat, quid Bentiam. Bed quum subemida fortuna est, eo citius dabimus operam ut veniamus, quo faciliua de tota re deli- beremus.— Ep. Fam. xiv. 6. Sive enim ad concordiani res adducl potest, sive ad bonorum victoriam, utriusve rei me aut adjutorem esse velim, aut certe non expertera. — Ad Att. vii. 3. g Ipaimi tamen Pompeium separatim ad concordiam hortabor.^Ibid. Me autem utcrque numerat suum. Nisi forte simiilat alter. Nam Pompeius non dubitat (vere enim judicat) ea, qiiJE de republica nunc sentiat, mihi valde probari. TJtri- usque autem accepi literas ejusmodi— ut neuter queraquam omnium pluris facere quam mo Yideretuj.— Ibid. vii. 1. have a concern for him : though he is wonderfully useful to me when he is well, in every kind both of my business and studies, yet I wish his health more for his own humanity and modesty, than for any service which I reap from him''." But his letter to Tiro himself will best show what an affec- tionate master he was : for, from the time of leaving him, he never failed writing to him by every messenger or ship which passed that way, though it were twice or thrice a day, and often sent one of his servants express to bring an account of his health : the first of these letters will give us a notion of the rest. M. T. Cicero to Tiro. " I thought that I should have been able to bear the want of you more easily, but in truth I cannot bear it ; and though it is of great importance to my expected honour to be at Rome as soon as possi- ble, yet I seem to have committed a sin when I left you. But since you were utterly against pro- ceeding in the voyage till your health was con- firmed, I approved your resolution ; nor do I now think otherwise, if you continue in the same mind. But after you have begun to take meat again, if you think that you shall be able to overtake me, that is left to your consideration. I have sent Mario to you with instructions either to come with you to me as soon as you can, or if you should stay longer, to return instantly without you. Assure yourself, how- ever, of this, that, as far as it can be convenient to your health, I wish nothing more than to have you with me ; but if it be necessary for the perfecting your recovery to stay a while longer at Patrse, that I wish nothing more than to have you well. If you sail immediately, you will overtake me at Leucas ; but if you stay to establish your health, take care to have good company, good weather, and a good vessel. Observe this one thing, my Tiro, if you love me, that neither Mario's coming, nor this letter hurry you. By doing what is most condu- cive to your health, you will do what is most agreeable to me : weigh all these things by your own discretion. I want you ; yet so as to love you ; my love makes me wish to see you well ; my want of you to see you as soon as possible : the first is the better ; take care, therefo'.-e, above all things, to get well again : of all your innumerable services to me, that will be the most acceptable. — The third of November'." By the honour that he mentions in the letter, he means the honour of a triumph, which his friends encouraged him to demand for his success at Amanus and Pindenissum : in writing upon it to Atticus, he says, " consider what you would advise me with regard to a triumph to which my friends invite me : for my part, if Bibulus, who, while there was a Parthian in Syria, never set a foot out of the gates of Antioch any more than he did upon a certain occasion out of his own house, had not solicited a triumph, I should have been quiet : but now it is a shame to sit still''." Again, "as to a triumph, I had no thoughts of it before Bibulus's most impudent letters, by which he obtained an li De Tirone video tibi curs esse. Quern quidem ego, et Bimirabiles utilitates mihi pricbot, cum valet, in omni genere vel negotiorum vel studiorum meorum, tamen prop- ter humanitatem et modestiam male salvuiii, quam propter usum meum. — Ad Att. vii. 5. ■ Ep. Fam. xvi. 1. ''Ad Att. vi. 3. 170 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF honouraljle supplication. If he had really done all that he has written, I should rejoice at it and wish ■well to his suit : but for him, who never stirred beyond the walls while there was an enemy on this side the Euphrates, to have such an honour decreed ; and for me, whose army inspired all their hopes and spirits into his, not to obtain the same, will be a disgrace to us ; I say to us, joining you to myself : wherefore I am determined to push at all, and hope to obtain all'." After the contemptible account, which Cicero gives of Bibulus'.s conduct in Syria, it must appear strange to see him honoured with a supplication, and aspiring even to a triumph : but this was not for anything that he himself had done, but for what his lieutenant Cassius had performed in his absence against the Parthians ; the success of the lieutenants being ascribed always to the auspices of the general, who reaped the reward and glory of it : and as the Parthians were the most dangerous enemies of the republic, and the more particularly dreaded at this time for their late defeat of Crassus, so any advantage gained against them was sure to be well received at Rome, and repaid with all the honours that could reasonably be demanded. Whenever any proconsul returned from his pro- vince with pretensions to a triumph, his fasces, or ensigns of magistracy, were wreathed with laurel , with this equipage Cicero landed at Brundisium on the twenty-fifth of November, where his wife, Terentia, arrived at the same moment to meet him, so that their first salutation was in the great square of the city. From Brundisium he marched forward by slow stages towards Rome, making it his business on the road to confer with all his friends of both parties, who came out to salute him, and to learn their sentiments on the present state of affairs ; from which he soon perceived what of all things he most dreaded, a universal dispo- sition to war. But as he foresaw the consequences of it more coolly and clearly than any of them, so his first resolution was to apply all his endeavours and authority to the mediation of a peace. He had' not yet declared for either side, not that he was irresolute which of them to choose, for he was de- termined within himself to follow Pompey ; but the difficulty was, how to act in the mean time to- wards Caesar, so as to avoid taking part in the previous decrees, which were prepared against him for abrogating his command, and obhging him to disband his forces on pain of being declared an enemy : here he wished to stand neuter awhile, that he might act the mediator with the better grace and effect ">. In this disposition he had an interview with ' De triumpho, nulla me cupiditas unquam tenuit ante Bibuli impudentissimas literas, quas amplissima suppllca- tio conseouta est. A quo si ea gesta sunt, quje scripsit, gauderem et honori faverem. Nunc ilium, qui pedem porta, quoad hostis cis Euphratem fuit, non extulerit, honore augeri, me, in cujus exercitu spem illius exercitug hatuit, idem non assequi, dedecus est nostrum ; nostrum, inquam, te conjungens. Itaque omnia experiar, et ut spero, assequar.. — Ad Att. vii. 2. ™ Bnmdisium venimus vii Kal. Dec..— Terentia vero, quje quidem eodem tempore ad portam Brundisinamvenit, quo ego in portum, mihique obvia in foro fuit. — Ibid. MiM (TKatftos unum erit, quod a Pompeio gubernabitur ■—die M. Tulli ] so in this command of Capua he calls him- self the episcopns of the Campanian coast : which shows, tbat these names, which were appropriated afterwards in the Christian church to characters and powers ecclesias- tical, carried with them, in their original use, the notion of a real authority and jurisdiction. ^ Gladiatores Cffisaris, qui Capuae sunt — sane commode Pompeius distribuit, binoa singulis patribus familiarum, Scutorum in ludo c fuerunt eruptionem facturi fuisse diccbantiu*^sane multum in eu reipublicse provisura est. Ad Att. vii. 14. other side, deserted Csesar and came over to them, which added some new life to their cause, and raised an expectation that many more would follow his example. Labienus had eminently distinguished himself in the Gallic war, where, next to Csesar himselfj he had borne the principal part, and by Csesar's favour had raised an immense fortune ; so that he was much caressed, and carried about everywhere by Pompey, who promised himself great service from his fame and experience, and especially from his credit in Csesar's army, and the knowledge of all his councils : but his account of things, like that of all deserters, was accommo- dated rather to please than to serve his new friends ; representing the weakness of Csesar's troops, their aversion to his present designs, the disaffection of the two Gauls, and disposition to revolt, the contrary of all which was found to be true in the experiment ; and ds he came to them single, without bringing with him any of those troops with which he had acquired his reputation, so his desertion had no other effect than to ruin his own fortunes, without doing any service to Pompey ^ But what gave a much better prospect to all honest men was the proposal of an accommodation which came about this time from Csesar, who, while he was pushing on the war with incredible vigour, talked of nothing but peace, and endea- voured particularly to persuade Cicero "that he had no other view than to secure himself from the insults of his enemies, and yield the first rank in the state to Pompey""." The conditions were, " that Pompey should go to his government of Spain, that his new levies should be dismissed, and his garrisons withdrawn, and that Csesar should deliver up his provinces, the farther Gaul to Domitius, the hither to Considius, and sue for the consulship in person, without requiring the privilege of absence," These terms were readily embraced in a grand council of the chiefs at Capua, and young L. Csesar, who brought them, was sent back with letters from Pompey, and the addition only of one preliminary article—" that Csesar, in the mean while, should recall his troops from the towns which he had seized beyond his own juris- diction, so that the senate might return to Rome, and settle the whole affair with honour and free- dom °." Cicero was present at this council, of 1 Maximam autem plagam accepit, quod is, qui sum- mam auctoritatem in illius exercitu habebat, T. Labienus socius Bceleris esse noluit : reliquit ilium, et nobiscum est : multique idem facturi dicuntur.-— Ep. Fam. xvi. 12. AUquantum animi videtur attulisse nobis Labienus. — Ad Att. vii. 13. Labienum eecum habet {Pompeius) non dubitantem de imbecillitate Cffisaris copiaruni : cujus adventu Cnaius noster multo anirai plus habet. — Ibid. vii. 16. Nam in Labieno parum est dignitatis. — Ibid. viii. 2. fortis in armis Caesareis Labienus erat ; nunc transfuga vilis LucAN. V. 345. n' Balbus major ad me scribit, nihil malle Csesarem, quara, principe Pompeio, sine raetu vivere. Tu, puto, hsee credis. — Ad Att. viii. J). n Feruntur omnino conditiones ab illo, ut Pompeius eat in Hispaniam ; dilectus, qui sunt habiti, et praisidia nostra dimittantur: se ulteriorem Galliam Domitio, citerioreni Considio Noniano— traditurum. Ad consulatus petitionem seventurum: — ^neque se jam velle, absente se, rationeni sui haberi.— Ep. Pam. xvi. 12 ; Ad Att. vii. 14. Accepimus conditiones ; sed ita, ut removeat praasidia 174 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF which he gave an account to Atticus : " I came to Capua, (says he,) yesterday, the twenty-sixth of January, where I met the consuls and many of our order : they all wished that Csesar would stand to his conditions, and withdraw his troops. Favonius alone was against all conditions imposed by Caesar, but was httle regarded by the council : for Cato himself would now rather live a slave than fight ; and declares, that if Csesar recall his garrisons he will attend the senate when the conditions come to be settled, and not go to Sicily, where his service is more necessary, which I am afraid wiU be of ill consequence. There is a strange variety in our sentiments ; the greatest part are of opinion, that Cassar will not stand to his terms, and that these offers are made only to hinder our preparations : but I am apt to think that he will withdraw his troops ; for he gets the better of us by being made consul, and with less iniquity than in the way which he is now pursuing, and we cannot possibly come off without some loss ; for we are scan- dalously unprovided both with soldiers and with money, since all that which was either private in the city or public in the treasury is left a prey to him°." During the suspense of this treaty and the ex- pectation of Caesar's answer, Cicero began to con- ceive some hopes that both sides were relenting, and disposed to make up the quarrel — Ceesar, from a reflection on his rashness, and the senate on their want of preparation : but he still suspected Ceesar ; and the sending a message so important by a person so insignificant as young Lucius Csesar, looked, he says, as if he had done it by way of contempt, or with a view to disclaim it, especially when, after offering conditions, which were likely to be accepted, he would not sit still to wait an answer, but continued his march with the same diligence, and in the same hostile manner as be- foreP. His suspicions proved true ; for, by letters, which came soon after from Furnius and Curio, he perceived that they made a mere jest of the embassy'!. It seems very evident that Csesar had no real thoughts of peace, by his paying no regard to Pompey's answer, and the trifling reasons which he gave for slighting it'. But he had a double view in oflering those conditions ; for, by Pom- pey's rejecting them, as there was reason to expect from his known aversion to any treaty, he hoped to load him with the odium of the war ; or by his embracing them, to slacken his preparations, and retard his design of leaving Italy, whilst he himself in the mean time, by following him with a celerity ex lis locis, qua: occupavit, ut sine metu de iis jpsis con- ditionibus RomEe senatus haberi possit. — Ad Att. vii. 14. •> Ad Att. vii. 15. p Spero in prffisentia pacem nos habere. Nam et illuin f uroris, et huno nostrum copiarum suppcenitet.— Ibid. Tamen vereor ut his ipsis (Oiesar) contentus sit. Nam cum ista mandata dedisset L. CiBsari, debuit esse paullo quietior, dum responsa referrentur.' — ^Ibid. vii. 17. Caesarem quidem, L. Cassare cum mandatis de pace miaso, tamen aiuut acerrimo loca occupare. — Ibid, 18. L. Cffisarem vidi — ut id ipsum mihi ille videatur irri- dendi causa fecisse, qui tantis de rebus huic mandata dederit, nisi forte non dedit, et hie sennone aliquo arrepto pro mandatis abusus est Ibid. 13. 1 Acccpi literas tuas, Philotimi, Furnii, Cm'ionis ad Furuium, quibus iiTidct L. C-csaris Icg.ationeui.— Ibid. la. ■■ Ocs. Do Bello Civ. 1. i. that amazed everybody', might chance to come up with him before he could embark, and give a decisive blow to the war, from which he had nothing to apprehend but its being drawn into length. " I now plainly see," says Cicero, "though later indeed than I could have wished, on account of the assurances given me by Balbus, that he aims at nothing else, nor has ever aimed at anything from the beginning, but Pompey's life'." If we consider this famous passage of the Rubicon, abstractedly from the event, it seems to have been so hazardous and desperate that Pompey might reasonably contemn the thought of it, as of an attempt too rash for any prudent man to venture upon. If Csesar's view, iodeed, had been to pos- sess himself only of It^y, there could have been no difiiculty in it. His army was undoubtedly the best which was then in the world ; flushed with victory, animated with zeal for the person of their general, and an overmatch for any which could be brought against it into the field. But this single army was all that he had to trust to ; he had no resource : the loss of one battle was certain ruin to him, and yet he inust necessarily run the risk of many before he could gain his end, for the whole empire was armed against him ; every province offered a fresh enemy, and a fresh field of action, where he was like to be exposed to the same danger as on the plains of Pharsalia. But above all, his enemies were masters of the sea, so that he could not transport his forces abroad, without the hazard of their being destroyed by a superior fleet, or of being starved at land by the difficulty of conveying suppUes and provisions to them. Pom- pey relied chiefly on this single circumstance, and was persuaded, that it must necessarily determine the war in his favour" : so that it seems surprising how such a superiority of advantage, in the hands of so great a commander, could possibly fail of success ; and we must admire rather the fortune than the conduct of Csesar, for carrying him safe through all these diflSculties to the possession of the empire. Cicero seldom speaks of his attempt, but as a kind of madness*, and seemed to retain some hopes to the last that he would not persist in it. The same imagination made Pompey and the senate so resolute to defy, when they were in no condition to oppose him. Csesar on the other hand might probably imagine, that their stiffness proceeded from a vain conceit of their strength, which would induce them to venture a battle with him in Italy, in which case he was sure enough to beat them : so that both sides were drawn farther " celeritatem incredibilem ! — Ad Att. vii. 22. Cicero calls him a monster of vigilance and celerity— [Ibid. viii. 9.] — for from his passage of the Rubicon, though he was forced to take in all the great towns on his road, and spent seven days before Corfinium, yet in less than two months he marched through the whole length of Italy, and came before the gates of Brundisium before Pompey could embark on the 9th of March.^ — Ad Att. ix. * Intelligo serius equidcm quam vellem, propter epist»- las sermonesqxie Balbi, scd video plane nihil aliud agi, nihil actum ah initio, quam ut huuc occideret.— Ad Att. ix. 6, " Existimat, (Pompeius) qui mare teneat, eum necesse rerum potiri — itaque navalis apparatus ei semper antiquis- sima cura fuit. — Ibid, x 8. ^ Cum Caesar amentia quadam raperetur. — Bo. Fiim. xvi. 12. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. irs perhaps than they intended, by mistaking each other's -views. Csesar, I say, might well appre- hend that they designed to try their strength with him in Italy ; for that was the constant persuasion of the whole party, who thought it the best scheme which could be pursued. Pompey humoured them in it, and always talked big to keep up their spirits ; and though he saw from the first the necessity of quitting Italy, yet he kept the secret to himself, and wrote word at the same time to Cicero that he should have a firm army in a few days, with which he would march against CoDsar into Picenum, so as to give them an opportunity of, returning to the cityy. The plan of the war, as it was commonly understood, was to possess them- selves of the principal posts of Italy, and act chiefly on the defensive, in order to distress Csesar by their different armies, cut off his opportunities of forage, hinder his access to Rome, and hold him continually employed till the veteran army from Spain, under Pompey's lieutenants, Afranius, Petreius, and Varro, could come up to finish his overthrow ^ This was the notion which the senate entertained of the war ; they never conceived it possible that Pompey should submit to the dis- grace of flying before Csesar, and giving up Italy a prey to his enemy. In this confidence Domitius, with a very considerable force, and some of the principal senators, threw himself into Corfinium, a strong town at the foot of the Apennine, on the Adriatic side, where he proposed to make a stand against Caesar, and stop the progress of his march ; but he lost all his troops in the attempt, to the number of three legions, for want of knowing Pompey's secret. Pompey indeed, when he saw what Domitius intended, pressed him earnestly, by several letters, to come away and join with him, telling him, " That it was impossible to make any opposition to Csesar till their whole forces were united ; and that as to himself, he had with him only the two legions which were recalled from Csesar, and were not to be trusted against him ; and if Domitius should entangle himself in Cor- finium, so as to be precluded by Csesar from a retreat, that he could not come to his relief with so weak an army, and bade him therefore not to be surprised to hear of his retiring if Csesar should persist to march towards him*. Yet, Domitius, prepossessed with the opinion, that Italy was to 7 Omnes nos a.TpofftixoV'^TOvs, expertes sui tanti et tain inuijitati consilii relinqiiebat.- — Ad Att. viii. 8. Pompeius — ad me scribit, paucis diebus se firmum exer- citum habiturum, spemque affort, si in Picenum agrum ipse venerit, nos Homam redituros esse. — ^Ibid. vii. 16. ^ Suscepto autem bello, aut tenenda sit urbs, aut ca relicta, ille commeatu et reliquis copiis intercludendus Ad Att. vii. 9. Sin autem ille euis conditionibus stare noluerit, beUum paratum est : — tantummodo ut eum intercludamus, ne ad nrbem possit aeeedere : quod sperabamus iieri posse : di- lectus enim magnos habebamus — ex Hispaniaque sex legi- oues et magna auxilia, Afranio et Petreio ducibus, habet a tergo. Videtur, si insaniet, posse opprimi, modo ut urbe salva— Ep. Fam. xvl. 12. Summa autem spes Afranium cum magnis copiis adven- tare.— Ad Att. viii. 3. ^ Nos disjecta manu pares adversariia esse non possu- mus Quaraobrem nolito eommoveri, si audieris me regredi, si forte Caesar ad me veniet,' — etiam atque etiam te liortpr, >it cum Omni copia quam primum ad me venias, — ^Epist. Pomp, ad Domit. ; Ad Att viii. 12. be the seat of the war, and thatPompey would never suffer so good a body of troops, and so many of his best friends to be lost, would not quit the advantangeous post of Corfinium, but depended still on being relieved ; and when he was actually besieged, sent Pompey word, how easily Csesar might be intercepted between their two armies'". Cicero was as much disappointed as any of the rest ; he had never dreamt of their being obliged to quit Italy till, by Pompey's motions, he per- ceived at last his intentions, of which he speaks with great severity in several of his letters, and begs Atticus'-s advice upon that new face of their affairs ; and to enable Atticus to give it the more clearly, he explains to him in short what occurred to his own mind on the one side and the other. " The great obligations," says he, " which I am under to Pompey, and my particular friendship with him, as well as the cause of the republic itself, seem to persuade me, that I ought to join my counsels and fortunes with his. Besides, if I stay behind, and desert that band of the best and most eminent citizens, I must fall under the power of a single person, who gives me many proofs indeed of being my friend, and whom, as you know, I had long ago taken care to make such from a suspicion of this very storm which now hangs over us ; yet it should be well considered, bcith how far I may venture to trust him, and supposing it clear that I may trust him, whether it be con- sistent with the character of a firm and honest citizen to continue in that city, in which he has borne the greatest honours and performed the greatest acts, and where he is now invested with the most honourable priesthood, when it is to be attended with some danger, and perhaps with some disgrace, if Pompey should ever restore the republic. These are the diflSculties on the one side — let us see what there are on the other : nothing has hitherto been done by our Pompey, either with prudence or courage ; I may add also nothing but what was contrary to my advice and authority. I will omit those old stories ; how he first nursed, raised, and armed this man against the republic ; how he supported him in carrying his laws by violence, and without regard to the auspices ; how he added the farther Gaul to his government, made himself his son-in-law, assisted as augur in the adoption of Clodius, was more zealous to restore me than to prevent my being expelled ; enlarged the term of Csesar's command, served him in all his affairs in his absence— nay, in his third consulship, after he began to espouse the interests of the repubhc, how he insisted that the ten tribunes should jointly propose a law to dispense with his absence in suing for the consul- ship, which he confirmed afterwards by a law of his own, and opposed the consul Marcellus when he moved to put an end to his government on the first of March: but to omit, I say, all this, what- can be more dishonourable, or show a greater want of conduct than this retreat, or rather shameful flight from the city ? What conditions were not preferable to the necessity of abandoning our country ? the conditions, I confess, were bad ; yet t Domitius ad Pompeium — mittit, qui petant atque orent, ut sibi subveniat: Caesarem duobus exercitibus, et locorum angustiis intercludi posse, frumentoque prohi- beri, Ace. Cffis. De Bello Civ. 1. i. iro THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF what can be worse than this ? But Pompey, you will say, will recover the republic : when, or what preparation is there for it ? Is not all Picenum lost ? Is not the way left open to the city ? Is not all our treasure, both public and private, given up to the enemy ? In a word, there is no party, no forces, no place of rendezvous, for the friends of the republic to resort to. Apulia is chosen for our retreat, the weakest and remotest part of Italy, which implies nothing but despair, and a design of flying by the opportunity of the sea," &c. ' In another letter, " There is but one thing wanting," says he, " to complete our friend's disgrace ; his falling to succour Domitius : nobody doubts but that he will come to his relief ; yet I am not of that mind. Will he then desert such a citizen, and the rest, whom you know to be with him ? especially when he has thirty cohorts in the town : yes, unless all things deceive me, he will desert him : he is strangely frightened ; means nothing but to fly ; yet you, for I perceive what your opinion is, think that I ought to follow this man. For my part I easily know whom I ought to fly, not whom I ought to follow. As to that saying of mine which you extol, and think worthy to be cele- brated, that I had rather be conquered with Pom- pey, than conquer with Caesar, 'tis true, I still say so ; but, with such a Pompey as he then was, or as I took him to be : but as for this man, who runs away before he knows fi'om whom, or whither ; who has betrayed us and ours, given up his country and is now leaving Italy ; if I had rather be con- quered with him, the thing is over, I am con- quered," &c. '' There was a notion in the meanwhile, that uni- versally prevailed through Italy, of Csesar's cruel and revengeful temper, from which horrible effects were apprehended : Cicero himself was strongly possessed with it, as appears from many of his letters, where he seems to take it for granted, that he would be a second Phalaris, not a Pisistratus ; a bloody, not a gentle tyrant. This he inferred from the violence of his past life ; the nature of his present enterprise ; and, above all, from the character of his friends and followers ; who were, generally speaking, a needy, profligate, audacious crew ; prepared for every thing that was desperate ". It was aiBrmed likewise with great confidence, that he had openly declared, that he was now coming to revenge the deaths of Cn. Carbo, M. Brutus, and all the other Marian chiefs, whom Pompey, when acting under Sylla, had cruelly put to death for their opposition to the Syllan cause'. But there was no real ground for any of these suspicions : for Csesar, who thought Tyranny (as Cicero says) the greatest of goddesses, and whose sole view it had been through life to bring his affairs to this crisis, and to make a bold push for » Ad Att. viii. S. il Ibid. viii. 7. " Istum cujus (|ja\ap(a-^(Jc times, omnia teterrime fac- t'urura puto. — Ad Att. vii. 12. Incertum est Phalarimue an Pisistratum sit iniitaturus. —Ibid. 2(1. Nam csedem 'video si vicerit — et regnum non mode Romano homini sed ne Porsa; quidem tolerabile Ibid. X. 8. Qui hie potest se gerere non perdite ? vita, mores ante facta, ratio suscepti negotii, socii. — Ibid. ix. 2 : it. ix. 19. ^ Atque eum loqui quidain avGiVTtKws narrabant ; Cn. Carbonis, M. Bruti se pocuas persequi, t^c. — Ad Att. ix. 14^ empire, had, from the observation of past timis, and the fate of former tyrants, laid it down for a maxim, that clemency in victory was the best means of securing the stability of its. Upon the sur- render therefore of Corfinium, where he had the first opportunity of giving a public specimen of himself, he showed a noble example of moderation, by the generous dismission of Domitius and all the other senators who fell into his hands; among whom was Lentnlus Spinther, Cicero's particular friend''. This made a great turn in his favour, by easing people of the terrors which they had before con- ceived of him, and seemed to confirm what he affected everywhere to give out, that he sought nothing by the war but the security of his person and dignity. Pompey on the other hand appeared every day more and more despicable, by flying before an enemy, whom his px'ide and perversenesg was said to have driven to the necessity of taking arms. — " Tell me, I beg of you," says Cicero, " what can be more wretched, than for the one to be gathering applause from the worst of causes, the other giving offence in the best ? the one to be reckoned the preserver of his enemies, the other the deserter of his friends ? and in truth, though I have all the affection which I ought to have for our friend Cnaeus, yet I cannot excuse his not coming to the relief of such men : for if he was afraid to do it, what can be more paltry ? or if, as some think, he thought to make his cause the more popular by their destruction, what can be more unjust?" &c." — From this first experiment of Cesar's clemency, Cicero took occasion to send him a letter of compliment, and to thank him par- ticularly for his generous treatment of Lentulus, who, when consul, had been the chief author of his restoration ; to which Csesar returned the following answer. CcBsar Emperor to Cicero Emperor. " You judge rightly of me, for I am thorouglily known to you, that nothing is farther removed from me than cruelty ; and as I have a great plea- sure from the thing itself, so I rejoice and triumph to find my act approved by you : nor does it at all move me, that those who were dismissed by me, are said to be gone away to renew the war against me : for I desire nothing more, than that I may always act like myself; they like themselves. I wish that you would meet me at the city, that I may use your counsel and assistance as I have hitherto done in all things. Nothing, I assure you, f T^v Oeccv fieyi(rTT}V Sitt' exeiv Tvpavvl^a. — ^Ad Att. vii. 11. Tentemus hoc mode, si possumns, omnium voluntates recuperare, et diutuma victoria iiti ; quoniam reliqui credulitate odium efFugere non potuerunt, neque victo- riam dintius tenere, prajter unum L. Syllam, quem imi- taturus non sum. Ilaac nova sit ratio vincendi : ut misericordia et liberalitate nos muniamus.— Ep. Cffisaris ad Opp, Att. ix. 7. '' Ca>s. De Bello Civ. 1. 1. ; Plutaicli. in Ca;s. i Sed obsocro te, quid hoc miserius, quam alterum plausus in fojdissima causa qua^rere ; alterum offensiones in optima ? alterum existimari conservatorem inimicoruin, alterum desertoreni amicorum? et mehercule quamvig amemiis Cnseum nostmm, ut et faciraus et debemus, iBioen hoe, quod talibus viris non subvenit, laudare non possum. Nam sive timuit quid ignavius? sivo, ut quidam putant, meliorem suam cansiun iUorum caede fore putavit, quit! injustiua ?— Ad Att, vii^. 9. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 177 is dearer to me than Dolabella; I will owe this favour therefore to hiin : nor is it possible for him indeed to behave otherwise, such is his humanity, Iiis good sense, and his affection to me. Adieu''." When Pompey, after the unhappy affair of Cor- iinium, found himself obliged to retire to Brundi- slum, and to declare, what he had never before directly owned, his design of quitting Italy and carrying the war abroad' ; he was very desirous to draw Cicero along with liim, and wrote two letters to him at Formiae, to press him to come away di- rectly ; but Cicero, already much out of humour with him, was disgusted still the more by his short and negligent manner of writing, upon an occasion so important"": the second of Pompey's letters, witli Cicero's answer, wiU explain the present state of their affairs, and Cicero's sentiments upon them. Cti. Pompeius Magnus Proconsul to M. Cicero Emperor. " If you are in good health, I rejoice : I read your letter with pleasure: for I perceived in it your ancient virtue by your concern for the common safety. The consuls are come to the army which I had in Apulia : I earnestly exhort you, by your singular and perpetual affection to the republic, to come also to us, that by our joint advice we may give help and relief to the afflicted state. I would have you make the Appian way your road, and come in all haste to Brundisium. Take care of your health." M. Cicero Emperor to Cn. Magnus Proconsul. " When I sent that letter, which was delivered to you atCanusium, Ihadno suspicion of your crossing the sea for the service of the republic, and was in great hopes that we should be able, either to bring about an accommodation, which to me seemed the most useful, or to defend the republic with the great- est dignity in Italy. In the mean time, before my letter reached you, being informed of your reso- lution by the instrnctious which you sent to the consuls, I did not wait till I could have a letter from you, but set out immediately towards you with my brother and our children for Apulia. When we were come to Theanum, your friend C. Messius and many others told us, that Caesar was on the road to Capua, and would lodge that very night at iEsernia : I was much disturbed at it, because if it was true, I not only took my journey to be precluded, but myself also to be certainly a prisoner. I went on therefore to Cales with intent t(J stay there till I could learn from jEsernia the certainty of my intelligence : at Cales there was brought to me a copy of the letter which you wrote to the consul Lentulus, with which you sent the copy also of one that you had received from Domitius, dated the eighteenth of February, and signified, that it was of great importance to the republic that all the troops should be drawn toge- ther as soon as possible to one place ; yet so as to leave a sufficient garrison in Capna. Upon reading k Ad Att. ix. 16. ' (^ui amisso Corfinio denit^ue me certiorem consilii sui fecit — Ibid. ii. 2. ■" Epistolarum Pompeii duarum, quas ad me misit, nepli- gentiam, meamque in scribendo diligentiam volui tibi notam esse : earum exempla ad te misi.-— Ibid. viii. 11 . these letters I was of the same opinion with all the rest, that you Were resolved to march to Corfinium with all your forces, whither, when Csesar lay before the town, I thought it impossible for me to come. While this affair was in the utmost expec- tation, we were informed at one and the same time both of what had happened at Corfinium, and that you were actually marching towards Brundi sium : and when I and my brother resolved without hesitation to follow you thither, we were advertised by many who came from Samnium and Apulia, to take care that we did not fall into Caesar's hands, for that he was upon his march to the same places where our road lay, and would reach them sooner than we could possibly do. This being the case, it did not seem advisable to me or my brother, or any of our friends, to run the risk of hurting, not only ourselves, but the republic, by our rashness : especially when we could not doubt, but that if the journey had been safe to us, we should not then be able to overtake you. In the mean while I received your letter dated from Canusium the twenty-first of February, in which you exhort me to come in all haste to Brundisium : but as I did not receive it till the twenty-ninth, I made no question but that you were already arrived at Brundisium, and all that road seemed wholly shut up to us, and we ourselves as surely intercepted as those who were taken at Corfinium : for we did not reckon them only to be prisoners, who were actually fallen into the enemy's hands, but those too not less so who happen to be inclosed within the quarters and garrisons of their adversaries. Since this is our case, I heartily wish, in the first place, that I had always been with you, as I then told you when I relinquished the command of Capua, which I did not do for.the sake of avoiding trouble, but because I saw that the town could not be held without an army, and was unwilling that the same accident should happen to me which, to my sorrow, has happened to some of our bravest citizens at Corfinium ; but since it has not been my lot to be with you, I wish that I had been made privy to your counsels : for I could not possibly suspect, and should sooner have believed anything than that for the good of the republic, under such a leader as you, we should not be able to stand our ground in Italy : nor do I now blame your conduct, but lament the fate of the republic; and though I cannot comprehend what it is which you have followed, yet I am not the less persuaded that you have done nothing but with the greatest reason. You remember, I believe, what my opinion always was : first, to preserve peace even on bad conditions ; then about leaving the city ; for as to Italy, you never intimated a tittle to me about it : but I do not take upon myself to think that my advice ought to have been fol- lowed : I followed yours ; nor that for the sake of the republic, of which I despaired, and which is now overturned, so as not to be raised up again without a civil and most pernicious war : I sought you ; desired to be with you ; nor will I omit the first opportunity which offers of effecting it. I easily perceived through all this affair, that I did not satisfy those who are fond of fighting : for I made no scruple to own, that I wished for nothing so much as peace ; not but that I had the same apprehensions from it as they ; but I thought them more tolerable than a civil war : then after the war was begun, when I saw that conditions of N J 78 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF peace were offered to you, and a fuU and honour- able answer given to them, I began to weigh and d.eliberate well upon my own conduct, which, considering your kindness to me, I fancied that I shoi^d easily explain to your satisfaction : I re- collected that I was the only man who, for the greatest services to the public, had suffered a most wretched and cruel punishment : that I was the only one who, if I offended him to whom at the very time when we were in arms against him a second consulship and most splendid triumph was offered, should be involved again in all the same struggles; so that my person seemed to stand always exposed as a public mark to the insults of profligate citizens : nor did I suspect any of these things till I was openly threatened vrith them : nor was I so much afraid of them, if they were really to befal me, as I judged it prudent to decline them, if they could honestly be avoided. You see in short the state of my conduct while we had any hopes of peace ; what has since happened deprived me of all power to do anything : but to those whom I do not please I can easily answer, that I never was more a friend to C. Ceesar than they, nor they ever better friends to the republic than myself : the only difference between me and them is, that as they are excellent citizens, and I not far removed from that character, it was my advice to proceed by way of treaty, which I understood to be approved also by you ; theirs by way of arms ; and since this method has prevailed, it shall be my care to behave myself so, that the republic may not want in me the spirit of a true citizen, nor you of a friend. Adieu°." The disgust which Pompey's management had given him, and which he gently intimates in this letter, was the true reason why he did not join him at this time : he had a mind to deliberate u while longer, before he took a step so decisive : this he owns to Atticus, where, after recounting all the particulars of his own conduct which were the most liable to exception, he adds, *' I have neither done nor omitted to do anything, which has not both a probable and prudent excuse — and in truth was willing to consider a little longer what was right and fit for me to do°," The chief ground of his deliberation was, that he still thought a peace possible, in which case Pompey and Cassar would be one again, and he had no mind to give Caesar any cause to be an enemy to him when he was become a friend to Pompey. While things were in this situation, Caesar sent young Balbus after the consul Lentulus, to en- deavour to persuade him to stay in Italy, and return to the city, by the offer of everything that could tempt him : he called upon Cicero on his way, who gives the following account of it to Atticus : " Young Balbus came to me on the twenty-fourth in the evening, running in all haste by private roads after Lentulus with letters and instructions from Csesar,' and the offer of any go- vernment if he will return to Rome : but it will have no effect unless they happen to meet : he told me that Csesar desired nothing so much as to overtake Pompey : which I believe ; and to be friends with him again : which I do not believe ; » Ad Att. viii. II. ° Nihil praetermissum est, quod non habeat sapientem excuaationem' — at plane quid rectum, et quid faciendum !nlhi efiset. diutiuscoffitaremalui.— Ad Att. viii. 12. and begin to fear, that all his clemency means nothing else at last but to give that one cruel blow. The elder Balbus writes me word, that C^sar wishes nothing more than to live in safety, and yield the first rank to Pompey. You take him I suppose to be in eamestP." Cicero seems to think that Lentulus might have been persuaded to stay, if Balbus and he had met together ; for he had no opinion of the firmness of these consuls, but says of them both on another occasion, that they were more easily moved by every wind than a feather or a leaf. He received another letter soon after from Balbus, of which he sent a copy to Atticus, " that he might pity him," he says, " to see what a dupe they thought to make of him 1." Balbus to Cicero Emperor. " I conjure you, Cicero, to think of some me- thod of making Caesar and Pompey friends again, who by the perfidy of certain persons are now divided : it is a work highly worthy of your virtue : take my word for it, Csesar will not only be in your power, but think himself infinitely obliged to you if you would charge yourself with this affair. I should be glad if Pompey would do so too ; but in the present circumstances, it is what I wish rather than hope, that he may be brought to any terras : but whenever he gives over flying and fearing Csesar, 1 shall not despair that your au- thority may have its weight with him. Caesar takes it kindly that you were for Lentulus's staying in Italy, and it was the greatest obligation which you could confer upon me : for I love him as much as I do Csesar himself : if he had suffered me to talk to him as freely as we used to do, and not so often shunned the opportunities which I sought of conferring with him, I should have been less unhappy than I now am ; for assure yourself that no man can be more afflicted than I, to see one who is dearer to me than myself, acting his part so ill in his consulship, that he seems to be anything rather than a consul : but should he be disposed to follow your advice, and take your word for Caesar's good intentions, and pass the rest of his consulship at Rome, I should begin to hope, that by your authority and at his motion, Pompey and Caesar may be made one again with the appro- bation even of the senate. Whenever this can be brought about, I shall think that I have lived long enough : yon will entirely approve, I am sure, what Caesar did at Corfinium : in an affair of that sort, nothing could fall out better, than that it should be transacted without blood. I am ex- tremely glad that my nephew's visit was agreeable to you ; as to what he said on Caesar's part, and what Ctesar himself wrote to you, I know Csesar to be very sincere in it, whatever turn his affairs may take'." Caesar at the same time was extremely solicitous, not so much to gain Cicero, for that was not to be expected, as to prevail with him to stand neuter. He wfote to him several times to that effect, and employed all their common friends to press him p Ad Att. viii. 9. 1 Nee me consules movent, qui ipsi pluma aut folio facilius moventur — ut vicem meam doleres, cum me deri- deri viderea.- — Ibid. viii. 15. «■ Ad Att viii. 15. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 179 witli letters on that head" : who, by his keeping such a distance at this time from Pompey, ima- gining that they had made some impression, began to attempt a second point with him, viz., to per- suade him to come back to Rome and assist in the councils of the senate, which Csesar designed to summon at his return from following Pompey : with this view, in the hurry of his march towards Brundisium, Csesar sent him the following letter : CtBSoer Emperor to Cicero Emperor. " When I had but just time to see our friend Fumius, nor could conveniently speak with or hear him, was in haste and on my march, having sent the legions before me, yet I could not pass by without writing, and sending him to you with my thanks ; though I have often paid this duty before, and seem likely to pay it oftener, you deserve it so well of me. I desire of you in a special manner, that, as I hope to be in the city shortly, I may see you there, and have the benefit of your advice, your interest, your authority, your assistance in all things. But to return to the point : you will pardon the haste and brevity of my letter, and learn the rest from Furnius." To which Cicero answered : Cicero Emperor to CcBsar Emperor. " Upon reading your letter, delivered to me by Fumius, in which you pressed me to come to the city, I did not so much "wonder at what you there intimated, of your desire to use my advice and authority, but was at a loss to find out what you meant by my interest and assistance ; yet I flat- tered myself into a persuasion, that out of your admirable and singular wisdom you were desirous to enter into some measures for establishing the peace and concord of the city ; and in that case I looked upon my temper and character as fit enough to be employed in such a deliberation. If the case be so, and you have any concern for the safety of our friend Pompey, and of reconciling him to your- self, and to the republic, you will certainly find no man more proper for such a^ work than I am, who from the very first have always been the adviser of peace, both to him and the senate ; and since this recourse to arms have not meddled with any part of the war, but thought you to be really in- jured by it, while your enemies and enviers were attempting to deprive you of those honours which the Roman people had granted you. But as at that time I was not only a favourer of your dig- nity, but an encourager also of others to assist you in it ; so now the dignity of Pompey greatly affects me, for many years ago I made choice of you two, with whom to cultivate a particular friendship, and to be, as I now am, most strictly united. Where- fore I desire of you, or rather beg and implore with all my prayers, that in the hurry of your cares you would indulge a moment to this thought, how by yoi^r generosity I may be permitted to show myself an honest, grateful, pious man, in remem- bering an act of the greatest kindness to me. If this related only to myself, I should hope still to obtain it from you ; but it concerns, I think, both your honour and the republic, that by your means " Quod qusaria quid C»sar ad me scripserit. Quod flaepe : gratisaimum eibi esse quod quierim : oratque ut in 00 pereeverem, Bolbus minor haec eadem mandata, — AdAtt. vifl. ]1. I should be allowed to continue in a situation the best adapted to promote the peace of you two, as well as the general concord of all the citizens. Af- ter I had sent my thanks to you before on the account of Lentulus, for giving safety to him who had given it to me ; yet upon reading his letter, in which he expresses the most grateful sense of your liberality, I took myself to have received the same grace from you which he had done, towards whom, if by this you perceive me to be grateful, let it be your care, I beseech you, that I may be so too towards Pompey'." Cicero was censured for some passages of this letter, which Caesar took care to make public, viz., the compliment on Caesar's admirable wisdom ; and above all, the acknowledgment of his being injured by his adversaries in the present war ; in excuse of which, he says, " that he was not sorry for the publication of it, for he himself had given several copies of it, and considering what had since happened, was pleased to have it known to the world how much he had always been inclined to peace, and that, in urging Csesar to save his coun- try, he thought it his business to use such expres- sions as were the most likely to gain authority with him, without fearing to be thought guilty of flat- tery, in urging him to an act for which he would gladly have thrown himself even at his feet"." He received another letter on the same subject, and about the same time, written jointly by Balbus and Oppius, two of Caesar's chief confidants. Balbus and Oppius to M. Cicero. " The advice, not only of little men such as we are, but even of the greatest, is generally weighed, not by the intention of the giver, but the event : yet relying on your humanity, we will give you what we take to be the best in the case about which you wrote to us ; which, though it should not be found prudent, yet certainly flows from the utmost fidelity and affection to you. If we did not know from Csesar himself that, as soon as he comes to Rome, he will do what in our judgment we think he ought to do, treat about a reconciliation between him and Pompey, we should give over exhorting you to come and take part in those delibe- rations, that by your help, who have a strict friend- ship with them both, the whole affair may be set- tled with ease and dignity ; or if, on the contrary, we believed that Csesar would not do it, and knew that he was resolved upon a war with Porapey, we should never try to persuade you to take arms against a man to whom you have the greatest obli- gations, in the same manner as we have always entreated you, not to fight against Csesar. But since at present we can only guess rather than know, what Csesar will do, we have nothing to offer but this, that it does not seein agreeable to your dignity, or your fidelity, so well known to all, when • AdAtt. ix. 6, 11. » Epistolam meam quod pervulgatam aoribis esse non fero moleate. Quin etiam ipse multis dedi deficribendam. Ea enim et acciderunt jam et impendent, ut testatum esse velim do pace quid sensorim. Cum autem eum hortarer, eum praesertim hominem, non videbar ullo modo facilius moturus, quam si id, quod eum hortarer, conveniro ejus sapicntiK dicerem. Bam si admirabilem dixi, cum eum ad salutem patriae hortarer, non ouDi veritus, ne vidcrer aesentiri, cui tali in re lubenter mo ad pedes abjecissciii, &c.— Ibid. Tiil. 9. N2 180 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF yoa are intimate with them both, to take arms against either ; and this we do not doubt but Caesar, according to his humanity, will highly approve ; yet if you judge proper we will write to him, to let us know what he will really do about it ; and if he returns us an answer, wiU presently send you notice what we think of it, and give you our word that we will advise only what we take to be most suitable to your honour, not to Csesar's views ; and are persuaded that Cjesar, out of his indul- gence to his friends, will be pleased with it^." This joint letter was followed by a separate one from Balbus. Balbus to Cicero Emperor, " Immediately after I had sent the common let- ter from Oppius and myself, I received one from Caesar, of which I have sent you a copy, whence you will perceive how desirous he is of peace, and to be reconciled with Pompey, and how far removed from all thoughts of cruelty. It gives me an ex- treme joy, as it certainly ought to do, to see him in these sentiments. As to yourself, your fidelity, and your piety, I am entirely of the same mind, my dear Cicero, with you, that you cannot, con- sistently with your character and duty, bear arms against a man to whom you declare yourself so greatly obhged ; that Caesar will approve this reso- lution I certainly know from his singular huma- nity, and that you will perfectly satisfy him, by taking no part in the war against him, nor joining yourself to his adversaries ; this he will think suf- ficient, not only from you, a person of such dignity and splendour, but has allowed it even to me, not to be found in that camp, which is likely to be formed against Lentnlus and Pompey, from whom I haYe received the greatest obUgations. It was enough, he said, if I performed my part to him in the city and the gown, which I might perform also to them if I thought fit ; wherefore I now manage all Lentulus's affairs at Rome, and discharge my duty, my fidelity, my piety, to them both ; yet in truth I do not take the hopes of an accommoda- tion, though now so low, to be quite desperate, since Caesar is in that mind in which we ought to wish him. One thing would please me, if you thmk it proper, that you would write to him, and desire a guard from him, as you did from Pom- pey, at the time of Milo's trial, with my approba- tion ; I will undertake for him, if I rightly know Caesar, that he will sooner pay a regard to your dignity, than to his own interest. How prudently I write these things I knovf not ; hut this I cer- tainly know, that whatever I write, 1 write out of a singular love and affection to you ; for (let me die so as Ceesar may but live) if I have not so great an esteem for you, that few are equally dear to me. When you have taken any resolution in this affair, I wish that you, would let me know it, for 1 am exceedingly solicitous that you should discharge your duty to them both, which in truth I am confident you will discharge. Take care of your health?." The offer of a guard was artfully insinuated ; for while it carried an appearance of honour and respect to Cicero's person, it must necessarily have made him Caesar's prisoner, and deprived him of the liberty of retiring, when he found it " Ad Att. ix. 8, HM. proper, out of Italy. But he was too wise to be caught by it, or to be moved in any manner by the letters themselves, to entertain the least thought of going to Rome, since to assist in the senate, when Pompey and the consuls were driven out of it, was in reality to take part against them. What gave him a more immediate uneasiness, was the daily expectation of an interview with Caesar himself, who was now returning from Brundisium by the road of Formioe, where he then resided ; for though he would gladly have avoided him, if he could have contrived to do it decently, yet to leave the place just when Caesar was coming to it, could not fail of being interpreted as a particular affront; he resolved therefore to wait for him, and to act on the occasion with a firmness and gravity which became his rank and character. They met as he expected, and he sent Atticus the following account of what passed between them. " My discourse with him (says he) was such as would rather make him think well of me than thank me. I stood firm in refusing to go to Rome, but was deceived in expecting to find him easy, for I never saw any one less so ; he was con- demned, he said, by my judgment, and, if I did not come, others would be the more backward i I told him that their case was very different from mine. After many things said on both sides, he bade me come, however, and try to make peace. Shall 1 do it, says I, in my own way .' Do you imagine, replied he, that I will prescribe to you .■' I will move the senate then, says I, for a decree against your going to Spain, or transporting your troops into Greece, and say a great deal besides in bewailing the case of Pompey. I will not allow, replied he, such things to be said. So I thought, said I, and for that reason will not come ; because I must either say them, and many more which I cannot help saying, if I am there, or not come at all. The result was, that to shift off the discourse he wished me to consider of it, which I could not refuse to do, and so we parted. I am persuaded that he is not pleased with me, but I am pleased with myself, which I have not been before of a long time. As for the rest, good gods, what a crew he has with him ! what a hellish band, as you call them ! — what a deplorable affair ! what desperate troops ! what a lamentable thing to see Servius' son, and Titinius's, with many more of their rank, in that camp, which besieged Pompey ! he has six legions, wakes at all hours, fears nothing ; I see no end of this calamity. His declaration at the last, which I had almost forgot, was odim^ ; that if he was not permitted to use my advice, he would use such as he could get from others, and pursue all measures which were for his service^." From this conference, Cicero went directly to Arpinum, and there invested his son, at the age of sixteen, with the manly gown ; he resolved to carry him along with him to Pompey's camp, and thought it proper to give him an air of manhood before he enlisted him into the war ; and since he could not perform that ceremony at Rome, chose to obUge his countrymen by celebrating this festival in his native city'*. While C iEsar was on the road towards Rome, ^ Ad Att. ix. 13. a Ego meo Ciceroni, quouiam Roma caremiis, Arpini potissimura togam jjurnm dcdi, idque niunicipib'jsnosti'i.t fuit gratum. — Jbid, ix. li^ MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 181 "oung Quintus Cicero, the nephew, a fiery giddy youth, privately wrote to him to offer his service, with a promise of some information concern- ing his uncle ; upon which, being sent for and admitted to an audience, he assured Csesar that his uncle was utterly disaffected to all his measures, and determined to leave Italy and go to Pompey. The boy was tempted to this rashness by the hopes of a considerable present, and gave much uneasi- ness by ic both to the father and the uncle, who had reason to fear some ill consequence from it' ; but Csesar desiring still to divert Cicero from de- claring against him, and to quiet the apprehensions which he might entertain for what was past, took occasion to signify to him, in a kind letter from Rome, that he retained no resentment of his refu- sal to come to the city, though TuUus and Servius complained that he had not shown the same indul- gence to them ; ridiculous men, says Cicero, who after sending their sons to besiege Pompey at Brundisium, pretend to be scrupulous about going to the senate'. Cicero's behaviour, however, and residence in those villas of his which were nearest to the sea, gave rise to a general report, that he was waiting only for a wind to carry him over to Pompey : upon which Csesar sent him another pressing letter to try, if possible, to dissuade him from that step. CcBsar Emperor to Cicero Emperor. " Though I never imagined that you would do anything rashly or imprudently, yet moved by common report I thought proper to write to you, and beg of you by our mutual affection, that you would not run to a declining cause, whither you did not think fit to go while it stood firm. For you will do the greatest injury to our friendship, and consult but ill for yourself, if you do not fol- 'low where fortune calls, for all things seem to have succeeded most prosperously for us — most unfortunately for them ; nor wiU you be thought to have followed the cause (since that was the same when you chose to withdraw yourself from their councils), but to have condemned some act of mine, than which you can do nothing that could affect me more sensibly, and what I beg by the rights of our friendship that you would not do. Lastly, what is more agreeable to the character of an honest, quiet man, and good citizen, than to retire from civil broils ? from which some, who would gladly have done it, have been deterred by an apprehension of danger ; but you, after a full testi- mony of my life, and trial of my friendship, will find nothing more safe or more reputable than to ' Literas ejus ad Cxsarcm missas Ita graviter tulimus, ut te quidem celaremua tantum scito post Hirtiuni conventum, arcessUum ab Casare ; cum eo de meo animo ab Buls consiliis alienissimo, et consilio relinqucndi Italiam. —Ad Att. X. 4, 6, io. Quiutum puerum accepi vehemeuter. Avaritiam video f uissc, et spem magni congiarli. Magnum hoc malimi est. — ^Ibid. X, 7. *= Csesar mihi ignoscit per literas, quod non Romam vonorim, so seque in opfcimam partem id accipere dicit. Facile patior, quod scribit, secum Tullum et S6ryium queetos esse, quia non idem sibi, quod miiii remisisset. Homines ridicules, qui cum filios misissent ad Cn. Pom- peium circumsidendmn, ipsi in senatum venire dubitarent. -Ibid. X. 3. keep yourself clear from all this contention. The 16th of April, on the road''." Antony also, whom CiEsar left to guard Italy in his absence, wrote to him to the same purpose, and on the same day. Antonius Tribune of the people and Proprcetor to Cicero Emperor. " If I had not a great esteem for you, and much greater indeed than you imagine, I should not be concerned at the report which is spread of you, especially when 1 take it to be false. But out of the excess of my affection, I cannot dissemble, that even a report, though false, makes some im- pression on me. I cannot believe that you are preparing to cross the sea, when you have such a value for Dolabella, and your daughter Tullia, that excellent woman, and are so much valued by us all, to whom in truth your dignity and honour are almost dearer than to yourself ; yet 1 did not think it the part of a friend not to be moved by the dis- course even of ill-designing men, and wrote this with the greater inclination, as I take my part to be the more difficult on the account of our late coldness, occasioned rather by my jealousy, than any injury from you. For I desire you to assure yourself, that nobody is dearer to me than you, excepting ray Csesar, and that I know also that Caesar reckons M. Cicero in the first class of his friends. Wherefore I beg of you, my Cicero, that you will keep yourself free and undetermined, and despise the fidelity of that man who first did you an injury, that he might afterwards do you a kindness ; nor fly from him, who, though he should not love you, which is impossible, yet will always desire to see you in safety and splendour. 1 have sent Calpumius to you with this, the most intimate of my friends, that you might perceive the great concern which I have for your life and dignity'." Caslius also wrote to him on the same subject, but finding, by some hints in Cicero's answer, that he was actually preparing to run away to Pompey, he sent him a second letter, in a most pathetic, or, as Cicero calls it, lamentable strain', in hopes to work upon him by alarming all his fears. Calius to Cicero. " Being in a consternation at your letter, by which you show that you are meditating nothing but what is dismal, yet neither tell me directly what it is rior wholly hide it from me, I presently wrote this to you. By all your fortunes, Cicero, by your children, I beg and beseech you not to take any step injurious to your safety ; for I call the gods and men and our friendship to witness, that what I have told and forewarned you of was not any %'ain conceit of my own, but after I had talked with Csesar, and understood from him how he resolved to act after his victory, I informed you of what I had learned. If you imagine that his conduct will always be the same, in dismissing his enemies and offering conditions, you are mistaken. He thinks and even talks of nothing but what is fierce and severe, and is gone away much out of humour with the senate and thoroughly provoked by the opposition which he has met with, nor will ■1 Ad Att. X. 8. ' Ibid. ' M, Cali epistolam aoriptam miserabillter^-Ibid. & 182 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF there be any room for mercy. Wherefore, if you yourself, your only son, your house, your remain- ing hopes, be dear to you ; if I, if the worthy man your son-in-law, have any weight with you, you should not desire to overturn our fortunes and force us to hate or to relinquish that cause in which our safety consists, or to entertain an impious wish against yours. Lastly, reflect on this, that you have already given all the offence which you can give by staying so long behind ; and now to declare against a conqueror whom you would not offend while his cause was doubtful, and to fly after those who run away, with whom you would not join while they were in condition to resist, is the utmost folly. Take care that, while you are ashamed not to approve yourself one of the best citizens, you be not too hasty in determining what is the best. But- if I cannot wholly prevail with you, yet wait at least till you know how we succeed in Spain, which I now tell you will be ours as soon as Caesar comes thither. What hopes they may have when Spain is lost, I know not ; and what your view can be in acceding to a desperate cause, by my faith I cannot find out. As to the thing which you discover to me by your silence about it, Caesar has been in- formed of it, and after the first salutation told me presently what he had heard of you. I denied that I knew anything of the matter, but begged of him to write to you in a manner the most effectual to make you stay. He carries me with him into Spain ; if he did not, I would run away to you wherever you are before I came to Rome, to dis- pute this point with you in person and hold you fast even by force. Consider, Cicero, again and again, that you do not utterly ruin both you and yours ; that you do not knowingly and willingly throw yourself into difficulties whence you see no way to extricate yourself. But if either the re- proaches of the better sort touch you, or you cannot bear the insolence and haughtiness of a certain set of men, I would advise you to choose some place remote from the war till these contests be over, which will soon be decided. If you do this I shall think that you have done wisely, and you will not offend CsesarB." Caelius's advice as well as his practice was grounded upon a maxim, which he had before advanced in a letter to Cicero, that in a public dissention, as long as it was carried on by civil methods one ought to take the honester side, but ■when it came to arms the stronger, and to judge that the best which was the safest"". Cicero was not of his opinion, but governed himself in this, as he generally did in all other cases, by a contrary rule, that where our duty and our safety interfere we should adhere always to what is right, whatever danger we incur by it. Curio paid Cicero a friendly visit of two days about this time, on his way towards Sicily, the command of which Caesar had committed to him. Their conversation turned on the unhappy condition of the times and the impending miseries of the war, in which Curio was open and without any reserve in talking of Caesar's views. "He exhorted Cicero e Bp. Fam. viii. 16. ^ Tllud te non ai'bitror fugere ; quin homines in dissen- Bione doiuQsMca dobeant, quamdiu civlLiter sine armis cemetur, honestlorem sequi partem: ubi ad bellum et castra ventum sit, flrmiorem ; et id melius statuere, quod tutins eit.—Ibid. viii, 14. to choose some neutral place for his retreat, assured him that Caesar would be pleased with it, offered him all kind of accommodation and safe passage through Sicily, made not the least doubt but that Caesar would soon be master of Spain and then follow Pompey with his whole force, and that Pompey's death would be the end of the war ; but confessed withal that he saw no prospect or glim- mering of hope for the republic ; said that Caesar was so provoked by the tribune Metellus at Rome that he had a mind to have killed him, as many of his friends advised ; that if he had done it a great slaughter would have ensued ; that his clemency flowed, not from his natural disposition, but because he thought it popular, and if he once lost the affections of the people he would be cruel ; that he was disturbed to see the people so disgusted by his seizing the public treasure, and though he had resolved to speak to them before he left Rome, yet he durst not venture upon it for fear of some affront, and went away at last much discomposed'." The leaving the public treasure at Rome a prey to Caesar, is censured more than once by Cicero as one of the blunders of his friends'* : but it is a common case in civil dissentions for the honester side, through the fear of discrediting their cause by any irregular act, to ruin it by an unseasonable moderation. The public money was kept in the temple of Saturn, and the consuls contented them- selves with carrying away the keys ; fancying that the sanctity of the place would secure it from violence, especially when the greatest part of it was a fund of a sacred kind, set apart by the laws for occasions only of the last exigency or the terror of a Gallic invasion ^ Pompey was sensible of the mistake when it was too late, and sent instructions to the consuls to go back and fetch away this sacred treasure ; but Caesar was then so far ad- vanced that they durst not venture upon it, — and Lentulus coldly sent him word that he himself should first march against Caesar into Picenum, that they might be able to do it with safety". Caesar had none of these scruples, but as soon as he came to Rome ordered the "doors of the temple to be broken open and the money to be seized for his own use, and had like to have killed the tribune Metellus," who, trusting to the authority of his office, was silly enough to attempt to hinder him. He found there an immense treasure, "both in coin and wedges of solid gold, reserved from the spoils of conquered nations from the time even of the Punic war ; for the republic (as Pliny says) had never been richer than it was at this day"." Cicero was now impatient to be gone, and the more so on account of the inconvenient pomp of his laurel, and lictors, and style of emperor, which in a time of that jealousy and distraction exposed him too much to the eyes of the pubUc as well as to the taunts and raillery of his enemies °. He resolved to cross the sea to Pompey, yet knowing ' Ad Att. xTi. k Ibid. vii. 12, 18. ' Dio, p. 161. '" C. Cassius attulit mandata ad consules, ut Rflmam venii'ent, pecuniam de sanctiore (Erario auferrent — ConfiDl rescripait, ut pi-ius ipse in Pioonum.— Ad Att. vii. 21. " Neo fuit aliis temporibus respublioa locupletior.— Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 3. <* Accedit ctiam molesta hffic pompa lictorum meorum. nomenqtie imperii quo appellor, — sed incurrit base nostra laurua non solum in oculos, sed jam etiam in voculas uiale- volorum — Ep. Fam. ii. 16. MARCUS TULLIUS CICflRO. 18", all his motions to be narrowly watched, took pains to conceal his intention, especially from Antony, who resided at this time in his neighbourhood, and kept a strict eye upon him. He sent him word therefore by letter, that he had "no design against Caesar ; that he remembered his friendship, and his son-in-law Dolabella; that if he had other thoughts, he could easily have been with Pompey ; that his chief reason for retiring was to avoid the uneasiness of appearing in public with the formality of his lictors''." But Antony wrote him a surly answer, which Cicero calls a laconic mandate, and sent a copy of it to Atticus, to let him see, he says, how tyrannically it was drawn. '* How sincere is your way of acting ! for he who has a mind to stand neuter stays at home ; he who goes abroad seems to pass a judgment on the one side or the other. But it does not belong to me to determine whether a man may go abroad or not. Csesar has imposed this task upon me, not to suffer any man to go out of Italy. Wherefore it signifiea nothing for me to approve your resolu- tion if I have no power to indulge you in it. I would have you write to Caesar, and ask that favour of him : I do not doubt but you will obtain it, especially since you promise to retain a regard for our friendship'." After this letter Antony never came to see him, but sent an excuse that he was ashamed to do it because he took him to be angry with him, giving him to understand at the same time by Trebatius, that he had special orders to observe his motions'. These letters give us the most sensible proof of the high esteem and credit in which Cicero flourished at this time in Rome ; when in a contest for empire, which force alone was to decide, we see the chiefs on both sides so solicitous to gain a man to their party who had no peculiar skill in arms or talents for war; but his name and authority was the acquisition which they sought ; since whatever was the fate of their arms, the world, they knew, would judge better of the cause which Cicero espoused. The same letters will confute likewise in a great measure the common opinion of his want of reso- lution in all cases of difficulty, since no man could show a greater than he did on the present occasion, when, against the importunities of his friends and all the invitations of a successful power, he chose to follow that cause which he thought the best, though he knew it to be the weakest. During Csesar's absence in Spain, Antony, who had nobody to control him at home, gave a free course to his natural disposition, and indulged himself vrithout reserve in all the excess of lewdness and luxury. Cicero, describing his usual equipage in travelling about Italy, says, " He carries with him in an open chaise the famed actress Cytheris, his wife follows in a second, with seven other close litters full of his whores and boys. See by what basd hands we fall, and doubt if you can whether ' P Cum ego sffipissime scripsissem, nihil me contra Cxaaria rationes cogitare; meminisse me generi mei, meminisse amicitis, potuisse si aliter sentirem, esse cum Pompeio, me autem, quiacumlictoribusinvituscursarem, abease velle.— Ad Att. x. 10, 1 Ad Att. X. !0. ' Nominatim de me sibi imperatum dicit Autonius, nee me tamen ipse adhuc viderat, sed boe Trebatio narravit. —Ibid. X. la. ADtoniue— ad me misit, se pudore deterritimi ad me non venisse, quod me sibi succensere putaret. — ^Ibid. x. 16. Caesar, let him come vanquished or victorious, will not make cruel work amongst us at his return. For my part, if I cannot get a ship I will take a boat to transport myself out of their reach ; but I shall tell you more after I have had a conference with Antony'." Among Antony's other extrava- gances, he had the insolence to appear sometimes in public with his mistress Cytheris in a chariot drawn by lions. Cicero, alluding to this in a letter to Atticus, tells him jocosely that he need not be afraid of Antony's lions', for though the beasts were so fierce the master himself was very tame. Fliny speaks of this fact as a designed insult on the Roman people, as if, by the emblem of the lions, Antony intended to give them to understand that the fiercest spirits of them would be forced to submit to the yoke". Plutarch also mentions it ; but both of them place it after the battle of Phar- salia, though it is evident from this hint of it given by Cicero that it happened long before. Whilst Cicero continued at Formiae deliberating on the measures of his conduct, he formed several political theses adapted to the circumstances of the times, for the amusement of his solitary hours : " Whether a man ought to stay in his country when it was possessed by a tyrant. Whether one ought not by all means to attempt the dissolution of the tyranny, though his city on that account was exposed to the utmost hazard. Whether there was not cause to be afraid of the man who should dissolve it, lest he should advance himself into the other's place. Whether we should not help our country by the methods of peace rather than war. Whether it be the part of a citizen to sit still in a neutral place while his country is oppressed, or to run all hazards for the sake of the common liberty. Whether one ought to bring a war upon his city, and besiege it, when in the hands of a tyrant. Whether a man, not approving the dissolution of a tyranny by war, ought not to join himself how- ever to the best citizens. Whether one ought to act with his benefactors and friends, though they do not in his opinion take right measures for the public interest. Whether a man who has done great services to his country, and for that reason has been envied and cruelly treated, is still bound to expose himself to fresh dangers for it, or may not be permitted at last to take care of himself and his family and give up all political matters to the men of power ; — by exercising myself (says he) in these questions, and examining them on the one side and the other, I relieve my mind from its present anxiety, and draw out something which may be of use to me*." B Hie tamen Cytheridem secum lectica aperta portat, altera uxorem : septem praaterea conjunctas Iccticse sunt amicarum, an amicorum ? vide quam turpi leto perearaua : et dubita, ai potea, quin ille aeu victus, aeu victor redierit, csedem factums ait. Ego vero vel lintriculo, ai navis non erit, eripiam me ex iatorum parricidio. Sed plura acribam cum ilium convenero. — Ad Att. x. 10. * Tu Antonii leonea pertimeacaa, cave. Nihil est illo homine jucundius. — Ibid. x. 13. n Jugo aubdidit eoa, primusqueRoTOae adcurrum junxit Antonius ; et quidem civili bello cum dimicatum easet in Pharaalicis campis ; non sine oatento quodam temponim, generoaoa apiritus jugum aubire illo prodigio aignificante : nam quod ita vectus eat cum mima Cytlleride, aupra mon- atra etiam illarum calamitatum fuit.— Plin. Hiat. Nat, viii. 16. X In hia ego me coneultationibus excroena. disserens in iS'i THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF From the time of his leaving the city together with Pompey and the senate, there passed not a single day in which he did not write one or more letters toAtticusy, the only friend whom he trusted with the secret of his thoughts. From these letters it appears, that the sum of Atticus's advice to him agreed entirely with his own sentiments, that if Pompey remained in Italy he ought to join with him ; if not, should stay behind and expect what fresh accidents might produce^. This was what Cicero had hitherto followed ; and as to his future conduct, though he seems sometimes to be a little wavering and irresolute, yet the result of his deli- berations constantly turned in favour of Pompey. His personal affection for the man, preference of his cause, the reproaches of the better sort, who began to censure his tardiness, and above all his gratitude for favours received, which had ever the greatest weight with him, made him resolve at all adventures to run after him ; and though he was displeased with his management of the war and without any hopes of his success*, though he knew him before to be no politician, and now perceived him, he says, to be no general, yet with all his faults he could not endure the thought of deserting him, nor hardly forgive himself for staying so long behind him. '* For as in love (says he), anything dirty and indecent in a mistress wiU stifle it for the present, so the deformity of Pompey' s conduct put me out of humour with him, but now that he is gone my love i-evives and I cannot bear his absence," &c.^ What held him still a while longer was the tears of his family and the remonstrances of his daughter Tullia, who entreated him to wait only the issue of the Spanish war, and urged it as the advice of Atticus*^. He was passionately fond of this daugh- ter, and with great reason, for she was a woman of singular accomplishments, with the utmost aflFection and piety to him. Speaking of her to Atticus, ** how admirable (says he) is her virtue ! how does she bear the pubUc calamity ! how her domestic disgusts ! what a greatness of mind did she show at my parting from them ! in spite of the tender- utramque partem, turn gi-jece turn latine, abdueo parum- per animum a molestiia et TOiJ irpo{ipyov tI delibero. — Ad Att. ix. 4. y Hujus autem epistolse non solum ea causa est, ut ne quis a me dies intermlttetur, quin dem ad te literas, sed, &c.— Ibid. viii. 12. Alteram tibi eodem die banc epistolam dietavi, et pridie dederam mea manu longiorem. — ^Ibid. x. 3. 2 Ego quidem tibi non sim auctor, si Pompeius Italiam relinquit, te qiioque profugere, smnmo enim periculo facias, nee reipublicse proderis ; cui quidem posterius pota- ris prodesse, si manseris, — Ibid, is, 10. a Ingrati animi crimen borreo,— Ibid. ix. 2, 5, 7* Nee mehercule hoc facio reipublicse causa, quam fuudi- tus delctam. puto, Bed nequis me piitet ingratum, ia eum, qui me levavit iis incommodis, quibus ipse affecerat, — Ibid. ix. 19. Fortune sunt committenda omnia. Sine spe conamur ulla. Si melius quid acciderit mirabimur. — ^Ibid, x, 2. ^ Sicut iv TOiS ipwTiKots, alienant immundao, insulsa, indecorae : sic me illius fugae, negligentiaeque deformitas avertit ab amore — nimc emergit amor, nimc desideriimi icrre non possum,'— Ibid, ix, 10.. ^ Sed cum ad me mea Tullia scribat, orans, ut quid in Hispania geratur expectem, et semper adscribat idem videri tibi.— Ibid. x. 8, Lacryma; meorum me interdum mtiUiimt, precantium, ut de llispaniis eXpectemus.— Ibid. x. 9. ness of her love she wishes me to do nothing but what is right and for my honour'*." But as to the affair of Spain, he answered, " that whatever was the fate of it, it could not alter the case with regard to himself ; for if Csesar should be driven out of it, his journey to Pompey would be less wel- come and reputable, since Curio himself would run over to him ; or if the war was drawn into length, there would be no end of waiting ; or lastly, if Pompey's army should be beaten, instead of sitting still, as they advised, he thought just the contrary, and should choose the rather to run away from the violence of such a victory. He resolved, therefore," he says, *' to act nothing craftily ; but whatever became of Spain to find out Pompey as soon as he could, in conformity to Solon's law, who made it capital for a citizen not to take part in a civil dis- sention«." Before his going off, Servius Sulpicius sent him word from Rome that he had a great desire to have a conference with him, to consult in common what measures they ought to take. Cicero consented to it, in hopes to find Servius in the same mind with himself, and to have his company to l*ompey's camp : for in answer to his message, he intimated his own intention of leaving Italy, and if Servius was not in the same resolution, advised him to save himself the trouble of the journey ; though, if he had anything of moment to communicate, he would wait for his coming ^ But at their meeting, he found him so timorous and desponding, and so full of scruples upon everything which was proposed, that, instead of pressing him to the same conduct with himself, he found it necessary to conceal his own design from him. " Of all the men," sayshe, "whom I have met with, he is alone a greater coward than C. Marcellus, who laments his hav- ing been consul ; and urges Antony to hinder iny going, that he himself may stay with a better graces." Cato,whom Pompey had sent to possess himself of Sicily, thought fit to quit that post, and yield up - ^ Cujus quidem virtus mirifica. Quomodo ilia fert publicam cladem? quomodo domestioas tricas? quantua autem animus in discessu nostro ? sit CTOpyif, sit summa (TvvTTj^is ; tamen nos recte facere et bene audire vult.— Ad Att. X, n. •^ Si pelletur, quam. gratus aut quam honestus turn erit ad Pompeium noster adventus, cum ipsum Curionem ad ipsum transiturum. puteni? si traliitur belliun, quid expectem, aut quam diu? relinquitiir, ut si vincimur iii Hispania, quiescamus. Id ego contra puto : istum enim victorem reltnqucndum magis puto, quam victum.— Ibid. Astute nihil sum acturus ; fiat in Hispania quidlibet.— Ibid. X. 6. Ego vero Solonis— legem negligam, qui capite sanxit, si qui ia seditione uon alterius utrius partis fuisset— Ibid. X. 1. f Sin autem tibi homini prudentissimo videtm* utile esse, nos coUoqui, quanquam longius etiam cogitabam ab iu*be diacedere, cujus jam etiam nomen invitus audio, tamen propius aceedam.— Ep, Fam. iv. 1. Restat ut discedendum puteni ; in quo reliqua videtiu" esse deliberatio, quod consilium in discessu, quae loca sequamiu:— si babes jam statutum, quid tibi agendum putes, in quo non sit conjunctum consilium tuum cum meo, supersedeas hoc labore itineris.— Ibid. iv. 2, s Servii consilio nihil expeditm-. Omnes captiones in omni sententia occurrunt, Unum C. Marcello cognovi timidiorem, quern consulem fuisae pcenitet— qui etiam Antonium confirmasse dicitur, ut me impediret, quo ipse, credo, honestius,— Ad Att. s, 15, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 18S the island to Curio, who came likewise to seize it on Ceesar's part with a superior force. Cicero was much scandalized at Cato's conduct, being per- suaded that he might have held his possession without difficulty ; and that all honest men would have flocked to him, especially when Pompey's fleet was so near to support him : for if that had but once appeared on the- coast, and begun to act. Curio himself, as he confessed, would have run away the first. " I wish," says Cicero, " that Cotta may hold out Sardinia, as it is said he will ; for if so, how base will Cato's act appear'' ! " In these circumstances, while he was preparing all things for his voyage, and waiting only for a fair wind, he removed from his Cuman to his Pom- peian villa, beyond Naples, which not being so commodious for an embarkmeut, would help to lessen the suspicion of his intended flight'. Here he received a private message from the officers of three cohorts which were in garrison at Pompeii, to beg leave to wait upon him the day following, in order to deliver up their ' troops and the town into his hands; but instead of listening to the overture, he slipped away the next morning before day to avoid seeing them, since such a force or a greater could be of no service there, and he was apprehensive that it was designed only as a trap for him''. Thus pursuing at last the result of all his delibe- rations, and preferring the consideration of duty to that of his safety, he embarked to follow Pompey ; and though, from the nature of the war, he plainly saw and declared, " that it was a contention only for rule ; yet he thought Pompey the modester, honester, and juster king of the two ; and if he did not conquer, that the very name of the Roman people wovdd be extinguished ; or if he did, that it would still be after the manner and pattern of Sylla, with much cruelty and blood'." With these melancholy reflections, he set sail on the eleventh of June"", " rushing (as he tells us) knowingly and ^ Curio mecxuii vixit — Sicilise difEidens, si Pompeius Davigare c(epiBset.~Ad Att. x, 7- ' Curio — Pompeii classem timebat ; quje si esset, se de Sieilia abiturum.— Ibid. x. 4, Cato qui Siciliaia tenere nullo negotio potuit, et Bi tenuisset, omnes boni ad eum se contulissent, Syracusis profectus est a. d. viii. Kal. Maii — utinara, quod aiunt, Cotta Sardinian! teneat. Est enim rumor. O, si id fuerit, turpem Catonem !— Ibid. x. 16. ' Ego ut minuerem suspicionem profectionis,— profectus sum in Pompeianum a, d. iv. Id. Ut ibi essem, dum quse ad navigandum opus essent, pararentur.' — Ibid. * Cum ad villam venissem, ventum est ad me, cen- turiones trium cobortium, quae Pompeiis sunt, me velle poBtridie ; hsec mecum Ninnius noster, velle eos mihi se, et oppidum tradere. At ego tibi postridie a villa ante lucem, ut me omnino illi non viderent. Quid enim erat in tribuB oobortibus ? quid si plures, quo appai'atu ? — et simul iieri poterat, ut tentaremur. Omnem igitiu: suspi- cionem suBtuli.— Ibid. ' Domtnatio qusesita ab ntroque est. — Ibid. viii. 11. Begnandi contentio est ; in qua pulsus est modestior rex et probioret integrior ; et is, qui nisi vincit, nomen populi Romani deleatur necesee est; sin autem vincit, Syllano more, exemploque vincefc ^Ibid. x. 7. •" A. D. ui. Id. Jun. — Bp.Fam. xiv. 7. It is remark- able, tbat among the reasons which detained Cicero in Italy longer than ho intended, he mentions the tempestuous weather of the Equinox, and ike calms that succeeded it ; yet this was about the end of May, [Ad Att. x.l7, 18.] which shows what a strange confusion there was at tbia time in the Roman Kalendar ; and what necessity for that willingly into voluntary destruction, and doing just what cattle do, when driven by any force, running after those of his own kind : for as the ox (says he) follows the herd, so I follow the honest, or those at least who are called so, though it be to certain ruin"." As to his brother Quintus, he was so far from desiring his company in this flight, that he pressed him to stay in Italy on account of his personal obligations to Csesar, and the relation that he had borne to him : yet Quintus would not be left behind ; but declared that he would follow his brother whithersoever he should lead, and think that party right which he should choose for him". What gave Cicero a more particular abhorrence of the war into which he was entering was, to see Pompey on all occasions affecting to imitate Sylla, and to hear him often say, with a supeiior air, " Could .Sylla do such a thing, and cannot I do it ?" as if determined to make Sylla's victory the pattern of his own. He was now in much the same circumstances in which that conqueror had once been ; sustaining the cause of the senate by his arms, and treated as an enemy by those who possessed Italy ; and as he flattered himself with the same good for- tune, so he was meditating the same kind of return, and threatening ruin and proscription to all his enemies. This frequently shocked Cicero, as we find from many of his letters, to consider with what cruelty and effusion of civil blood the suc- cess even of his own friends would certainly be attended I". We have no account of the manner and circum- stances of his voyage, or by what course he steered towards Dyrrhachium ; for after his leaving Italy, all his correspondence with it was in great measure cut off ; so that from June, in which he sailed, we find an intermission of about nine months in the series of his letters, and not more than four of them written to Atticus during the continuance of the wari. He arrived, however, safely in Pompey's camp, with his son, his brother, and nephew, com- mitting the fortunes of the whole family to the issue of that cause : and that he might make some amends for coming so late, and gain the greater authority with his party, he furnished Pompey, reformation of it which Casar soon after effected, in order to reduce the computation of their months to the regular course of the seasons from which they had s« widely varied. Some of the eomnientators, for want of attending to this cause, aj'e strangely puzzled to account for the difficulty ; and one of them ridiculously imagines, that by the Equi- nox, Cicero covertly means Antony, who used to make his days and nights equal, by sleeping as much as he waked .' " Ego pmdens ac sciens ad pestem ante oculos positam turn profectus.— Ep. Fam. vi. 6. Prudens et sciens tanquam ad intcritum ruerem volun- tarinm. [Pro M. Marcel. 5.] quid ergo actm-us es ? idem, quod pecudes, qua dispulsse sui generis sequuntur greges. ITt bos armenta, sic ego bonos viros, ant eos, quicunque dicentur boni, seqnai', etiam si rueut..— Ad Att. vii. 7. o Fratrem — sociiun hujus fortune esse non erat a;qutim : cui magis etiam Cffisar irascetur. Bed impetrare non possum, ut maneat. [Ibid. ix. 1.] fratcr, quicquid mihi placei:et, id rectum so putare aiebat. — Ibid. ix. 6. , p Quam erebro illud, Sylla votuit, ego nonpoterof^ Ita Sytlaturit animus ejus, et proscTipturit &i\x. [j\d Att. ix. 10.] Cna:us noster Syllcmi rsijni simllitudir.em concupivit. et5t6s o^ot Acyw. [Ibid. 7.] ut non nominatim sed generatim proscrlptio esset infonnata.— Ibid, xi, 6. q Ad Att. xi. 1—4. 180 THE HISTORY OF THK LIFE OF wlio was in great want of money, with a large sum out of his own stock for the public service"*. But as he entered into the war with reluctance, so he found nothing in it but what increased his disgust : he disliked everything which they had done, or designed to do ; saw nothing good amongst them but their cause ; and that their own counsels would ruin them. For all the chiefs of the party, trusting to the superior fame and Authority of Pom- pey, and dazzled with the splendour of the troops which the princes of the East had sent to their assistance, assured themselves of victory ; and without reflecting on the different character of the two armies, would hear of nothing but fighting. It was Cicero's business therefore to discourage this wild spirit, and to represent the hazard of the war, the force of Ccesar, and the probability of his beat- ing them, if ever they ventured a battle with him : but all his remonstrances were slighted, and he himself reproached as timorous and cowardly by the other leaders ; though nothing afterwards hap- pened to them but what he had often foretold^. This soon made him repent of embarking in a cause so imprudently conducted ; and it added to his discontent, to find himself even blamed by Cato for coming to them at all, and deserting that neutral post which might have given him the better opportunity of bringing about an accommodation*. In this disagreeable situation, he declined all em- ployment ; and finding his counsels wholly slighted, resumed his usual way of raillery; and what he could not dissuade by his authority, endeavoured to make ridiculous by his jests. This gave occa- sion, afterwards, to Antony, In a speech to the senate, to censure the levity of his behaviour in the calamity of a civil war ; and to reflect not only upon his fears, but the unseasonableness also of his jokes. To which Cicero answered, *' that though their camp indeed was full of care and anxiety, yet in circumstances the most turbulent, there were certain moments of relaxation which all men, who had any humanity in them, were glad to lay hold on : but while Antony reproached him both with dejection and joking at the same time, it was a sure proof that he had observed a proper temper and moderation in them both'^." r Etsi egeo rebus omnibus, quod is quoque in angustiis est, quicum sumue, cui magnam dedimus pecuniam mu- tuam, opinantes nobis, constitutis rebus, earn rem etiam honori fore. [Ibid, jd, 3.] si quas habuimus facultatea, eas Pompeio turn, cum id videbamur sapienter facere, detuli- mus.— Ad Att. 13. " Quippe mihi nee quas accidunt, nee quae aguntur, uUo nv)do probaiitur. [Ibid. xi. 4.] Nihil boni prteter causam. [Ep. Fam. vii. 3.] Itaque ego, quein turn fortes illi viri, Bomitii et Lentuli, timiduzn esse dicebant, &c. [Ibid. vi. 21.] quo quidem in bello, nihil adversi accidit non priedi- oente me. — Ibid. 6. * Cujus me mei facti poenituit, non tarn propter peri- culum meum, quam propter vitia multa, quaa ibi oflfendi, quo veneram. — Ibid. vii. 3 ; Plutarch, in Cic. " Ipse fugi adhuc omne munus, eo magis, quod ita nihil poterat agi, ut mihi et meis rebus aptum esset. [Ad Att. xi. 4.] Quod autem idem moestitiam meam reprehendit» idem jocum ; magno argumento est, me In utroque fuisse moderatum. — Phil ii. 16. Some of Cicero's sayings on this occasion are preserved by different writers. When Pompey put him in mind of his coming so late to them : How cin / come late, said he, ivhen I iind nothing in readi^ness among you ?— and upon Pompey's asking him sarcastically, where his son- in-law Jtolahelta was ; He is with pour /ather-in-laWf Young Brutus was also in Pompey's camp, where he distinguished himself by a peculiar zeal ; which Cicero mentions as the more remarkable, because he had always professed an irreconcilable hatred to Pompey as to the murderer of his father ». But he followed the cause, not the man ; sacrificing all his resentments to the service of his country, and looking now upon Pompey as the general of the republic and the defender of their common liberty. During the course of this war, Cicero never speaks of Pompey's conduct but as a perpetual succession of blunders. His first step, of leaving Italy, was condemned indeed by all, but particu- larly by Atticus ; yet to us, at this distance, it seems not only to have been prudent, but neces- saryy. What shocked people so much at it, was the discovery that it made of his weakness and want of preparation ; and after the security wMch he had all along aflfected, and the defiance so oft declared against his adversary, it made him appear contemptible to run away at last on the first ap- proach of Csesar. " Did you ever see," sa^ Caelius, *' a more silly creature than this Pompey of yours ; who, after raising all this bustle, is found to be such a trifler? or did you ever read or hear of a man more vigorous in action, more temperate in victory, than our Caesar^ ?" Pompey had left Italy about a year before Caesar found it convenient to go after him ; during which time he had gathered a vast fleet from all the ma- ritime states and cities dependent on the empire, without making any use of it to distress an enemy who had no fleet at all : he suffered Sicily and Sar- dinia to fall into Ceesar's hands without a blow j and the important town of Marseilles, after having endured a long siege for its affection to his cause. But his capital error was the giving up Spain, and neglecting to put himself at the head of the best army that he had, in a country devoted to his in- terests, and commodious for the operations of his naval force. When Cicero first heard of this reso- lution, he thought it monstrous^ ; and, in truth, the committing that war to bis lieutenants, against replied he. To a person newly axrived from Italy, Mid informing them of a strong report at Rome, that Pompey was blocked up by Casar ,• And you sailed hither tker^ortt said he, that you might see it with your own eyes. And even after their defeat, when NonniuB was exhorting them to courage, because there were seven eagles still Ic/I in Pompey's camp i Tou encourage well^ said he, if we were to fight with Jackdaws. By the frequency of these sple- netic jokes, he is said to have provoked Pompey so far aa to tell him, / wish that you would go over to the other side, that you map begin to /ear us. — Macrob. Saturn. IL 3; Plutarch, in Cie. ^ Brutus amicna in causa versatur acriter. — Ad Att. xi. 4 ; Plutarch, in Brut, et Pomp. y Quorum dux quam aarpaTi^yTjroSf tu quoque ani- madvertis, cui ne Picena quidem nota simt : quam autem sine consilio, res testis.— Ad Att, vii. 13. Si iste Italiam relinquet, faciet omnino male, et ut ego existimo ahoylfrroos, &c.— Ibid, ix, 10. z Ecquando tu hominem ineptiorem quam tuum Co. Pompeiiun vidisti? qui tantas turbas, qui tarn nugax esset, commorit? ecquem autem Casare nostro acriorem in rebus agendis, eodem in victoria temperatiorem, aut legisti aut audisti?— Ep. Fam. Tiii. 15. a Omnis ha;c classis Alexandria, Colchis, Tyro, Sidone, Cypro, Paraphilia, Lycia, Rhodo, Ac. ad intercludendoa Italiflp eommeatus — comparatur. — Ad Att. ix. 9. Nimoiant .Slgyptum— cogitare ; Hispaniam abiiecisfle. Monstra narrant. — Ad Att. ix. U, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 187 le superior genius and ascendant of Caesar, was 16 ruin of his best troops and hopes at once. Some have been apt to wonder why Caesar, after )roing Pompey out of Italy, instead of crossing the sa after him, wlien he was in no condition to resist, liould leave him for the space of a year to gather rmies and fleets at his leisure, and strengthen him- elf with all the forces of the East. But Csesar had ood reasons for what he did : he knew that all the roops which could be drawn together from those ountries were no match for his ; that if he had ursued him directly to Greece, and driven him out f it, as he had done out of Italy, he should have riven him probably into Spain, where of all places e desired the least to meet him ; and where, in all vents, Pompey had a sure resource as long as it ras possessed by a firm and veteran army ; which t was Cffisar's business therefore to destroy in the irst place, or he could expect no success from the far ; and there was no opportunity of destroying t so favourable as when Pompey himself was at uch a distance from it. This was the reason of lis marching back with so much expedition, " to ind," as he said, " an army without a general, and eturn to a general without an army'." The event howed that he judged right ; for within forty days rom the first sight of his enemy in Spain, he made limself master of the whole province". After the reduction of Spain, he was created dic- ;ator by M. Lepidus, then preetor at Rome ; and by L uBB 705 ^^^ dictatorial power declared himself ore. 69. consul, with P. Servilius Isauricus ; coss. but he was no sooner invested with }. juLiDs this office, than he marched to Brun- ijESAB ir. disium, and embarked, on the fourth '■ SBBvruus of January, in order to find out Pom- rATtA isAu- pgy fjjg carrying about in his person iicDs. jjjg supreme dignity of the empire, idded no small authority to his cause, by making :he cities and states abroad the more cautious of icting against him, or giving them a better pre- sence at least for opening their gates to the consul jf Rome''. Cicero all this while, despairing of any 50od from the war, had been using all his endea- TOurs to dispose his friends to peace, till Pompey Forbade any farther mention of it in council ; de- jlaring, that he valued neither life nor country for ifhich he must be indebted to CsBsar, as the world DQUst take the case to be, should he accept any conditions in his present circumstances'^. He was sensible that he had hitherto been acting a. con- temptible part, and done nothing equal to the great oame which he had acquired in the world ; and was determined, therefore, to retrieve his honour, before he laid down his arms, by the destruction of his adversary, or to perish in the attempt. During the blockade of Dyrrhachium, it was a current notion in Csesar's army that Pompey would '^ Ire se ad exorcitum sine duce, et inde reversuruia ad ducem Edne exercitu. — Sueton, J. Css. 34. ' Cm. De Bello Civ. ii. ^ Illi se daturos negare, Deque portas consuli prxclusu. ros.— Ibid. iii. 590. ^ Desporans victoriam, primum crepi suadere paeem, Bujua fueram semper auctor ; deinde cum ab ea sentcntia Pompeius valde abhorreret. — Ep. Fam. vii. 3. Vibullius de Cajsaria mandatis agere instituit ; eum mgressum in sermonem Pompeius iuterpellavit, et loqui plura proliibuit. Quid mihi, inquit, aut vita aut civitate 3pus est, quam beueficio Csesaris habere videbor? — Cass. De Bello Civ. iii. 596. draw off his troops into his ships, and remove the war to some distant place. Upon this, Dolabella, who was with Csesar, sent a letter to Cicero, into Pompey's camp, exhorting him, " that if Pompey should be driven from these quarters, to seek some other country, he would sit down quietly at Athens, or any city remote from the war : that it was time to think of his own safety, and be a friend to him- self rather than to others : that he had now fully satisfied his duty, his friendship, and his engage- ments to that party which he had espoused in the republic : that there was nothing left but to be where the republic itself now was, rather than, by following that ancient one, to be in none at all ; and that Ciesar would readily approve this con- duct'." But the war took a quite different turn ; and instead of Pompey's running away from Dyr- rhachium, Csesar, by an unexpected defeat before it, was forced to retire the first, and leave to Pompey the credit of pursuing him, as in a kind of flight towards Macedonia. While the two armies were thus employed, Cselius, now prsetor at Rome, trusting to his power and the success of his party, began to publish several vio- lent and odious laws, especially one for the cancel- ling of all debts e. This raised a great flame in the city, till he was overruled and deposed from his magistracy by the consul Servilius and the senate : but being made desperate by this affront, he re- called Milo from his exile at Marseilles, whom Csesar had refused to restore ; and, in concert with him, resolved to raise some public commotion in favour of Pompey. In this disposition, he wrote his last letter to Cicero ; in which, after an account of his conversion, and the service which he was projecting, " You are asleep," says he, " and do not know how open and weak we are here : what are you doing > are you waiting for a battle, which is sure to be against you .' I am not acquainted with your troops ; but ours have been long used to fight hard, and to bear cold and hunger with ease''." But this disturbance, which began to alarm all Italy, was soon ended by the death of the authors of it, Milo and Ceelius, who perished in their rash attempt, being destroyed by the soldiers whom they were endeavouring to debauch. They had both at- tached themselves very early to the interests and the authority of Cicero, and were qualified by their parts and fortunes to have made a principal figure in the republic, if they had continued in those sentiments, and adhered to his advice ; but their passions, pleasures, and ambition, got the ascen- dant, and, through a factious and turbulent life, hurried them on to this wretched fate. All thoughts of peace being now laid aside, Cicero's next advice to Pompey was, to draw the war into length, nor ever to give Csesar the oppor- t Illud autem a te peto, nt, si jam ille evltaverit hoc periculum, et se abdiderit in classem, tu tuis rebus consu- las: et aliquando tibi potius quam cuivis sis amicus. Satis factum est jam a te vel officio, vel familiaritati ; satisfac- tum etiam partibus, et ei reipublicSD quam tu probabas. Reliquum est, ubi nunc est respublica ibi simus potius, quam dum veterem illam sequamur, simus in nulla.— Ep. Fam. ix. 9. I C»9. De Bello Civ. iii. fiOO. b Vos dormitis, nee hsec adbuc mihl videmini intelligere, quam nos pateamua, et quam simus imbecilli — quid istic f acitis ? praelium expectatis, quod fiimiBsimum eat ? veatraa copias non novi. Nostri valde depugnare, et facile alters et esurire consueverint,— Ep. Fam. viii. 17. is;a THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF tunity of a battle. Pompey approved this counsel, and pursued it for some time, till he gained the advantage above-mentioned before Dyrrhachium ; which gave him such a confidence in his own troops, and such a contempt of Csesar's, " that /rom this moment," says Cicero, " this great man ceased to be a general ; opposed a raw, new-raised army to the most robust and veteran legions ; was shamefully beaten, and, with the loss of his camp, forced to fly away alone'." Had Cicero's advice boen followed, Ca;sar must inevitably have been ruined : for Pompey's fleet would have cut oif all suppUes from him by sea, and it was not possible for him to subsist long at land while an enemy, superior in number of troops, was perpetually harassing him and wasting the country : and the report eveiywhere spread of his flying from Dyrrhachium before a victorious army which was pursuing him, made his march every way the more difficult, and the people of the coun- try more shy of assisting him : till the despicable figure that he seemed to make raised such an im- patience for fighting, and assurance of victory in the Pompeian chiefs, as drew them to the fatal resolution of giving him battle at Pharsalia. There was another motive likewise suggested to us by Cicero, which seems to have had no small influ- ence in determining Pompey to this unhappy step ; his superstitious regard to omens, and the admo- nitions of diviners, to which his nature was strongly addicted. The haruspices were all on his side, and flattered him with everything that was pros- perous : and besides those in his own camp, the whole fraternity of them at Rome were sending him perpetual accounts of the fortunate and auspi- cious significations which they had observed in the entrails of their victims'*. But, after all, it must needs be owned, that Pompey had a very difficult part to act, and m'uch less liberty of executing what he himself approved, than in all the other wars in which he had been engaged. In his wars against foreign enemies, his power was absolute, and all his motions depended on his own will ; but in this, besides several kings and princes of the East who attended him in per- son, he had with him in his camp almost all the chief magistrates and senators of Rome ; men of equal dignity with himself, who had commanded armies, and obtained triumphs, and expected a share in all his councils ; and that, in their com- mon danger, no step should be taken but by their common advice : and as they were under no en- gagement to his cause but what was voluntary, so they were necessarily to he humoured, lest through disgust they should desert it. Now these were all uneasy in their pi'esent situation, and longed to be at home in the enjoyment of their estates and honours ; and having a confidence of victory, from the number of their troops and the reputation of > Cum ab ea Bcntenlla Pompeius valde abhorrerct, sua- dere institui, ut helium duceret : hoc interdum probabat et in ea scntentia videbatur fore, et fuisset fortasse, nisi quadam ex pugna ccepisset militibus suis confidere. Ex eo tempore vir iUo smumus nullus imperator fuit : vietus turpissimOj amissis etiam castris, solus fiigit.~Ep Fam. vii. 3. ^ Hoc civili bello, dii immortales ! qua nobis in Gi'fficiam Roma responsa baruspicum missa sunt? quK dicta Pompeio ? etenim ille admodum extis et ostentis movebatur, — ^De Div. ii. 24. their leader, were perpetually teasing Pompey to the resolution of a battle, charging him with a de- sign to protract the war for the sake of perpetuat- ing his authority ; and calUng him another Aga- memnon, who was proud of holding so many kings and generals under his command'; till, being unable to withstand their reproaches any longer, he was driven, by a kind of shame, and against his judg- ment, to the experiment of a decisive action. Ceesar was sensible of Pompey's difficulty, and persuaded that he could not support the indignity of showing himself afraid of fighting ; and from that assurance exposed himself often more rashly than prudence would otherwise justify : for his be- sieging Pompey at Dyrrhachium, who was master of the sea which supplied everything to him that was wanted, while his own army was starving at land ; and the attempt to block up intrenchments so widely extended with much smaller numbers than were employed to defend them, must needs be thought rash and extravagant, were it not for the expectation of drawing Pompey by it to a ge- neral engagement ; for when he could not gain that end, his perseverance in the siege had like to have ruined him, and would inevitably have done so if he had not quitted it, as he himself afterwards owned™. It must be observed likewise, that while Pom- pey had any walls or intrenchments between hira and Csesar, not all Cassar's vigour, nor the courage of his veterans, could gain the least advantage against-him ; but on the contrary, that Csesar was baffled and disappointed in every attempt. Thus at Brandisium he could make no impression upon the town, till Pompey at full leisure had secured his retreat, and embarked his troops : and at Dyr- rhachium, the only considerable action which hap- pened between them, was not only disadvantageous, but almost fatal to him. Thus far Pompey cer- tainly showed himself the greater captain, in not suffering a force, which he could not resist in the field, to do him any hurt, or carry any point against him, since that depended on the skill of the general. By the help of intrenchments he knew how to make his new-raised soldiers a match for Csesar's veterans ; but when he was drawn to encounter him on the open plain, he fought against insuperable odds, by deserting his proper arms, as Cicero says, of caution, counsel, and authority, in which he was superior, and committing his fate to swords and spears, and bodily strength, in which his ene- mies far excelled him". Cicero was not present at the battle of Pharsa- lia, but was left behind at Dyrrhachium much out ' Kal M TipSe auTiK /SiwiXe'a /cal 'hyafiifLVOVo.. Ka\o-uVTb3V, 3ti KaKstvos ^a(Ti\4o}V SicL rhv ir6KefiOV ^pX^v' e^cffTij Tuy oIksIwv Aoyttrjuwc, xai ei'eSwKec auToTs. — App. p. 470. IMilites otium, socii moram, principes ambitum ducifl inorepabimt— Plor. iv. 2 ; Dio, p. 185 ; Plutarch, in Pomp. "1 Caesar pro natura ferox, et conficiendae rei cupidtis, ostontare aciem, provocare, laccssere ; nunc obsidiono cistrorura, quse sedecim millium vallo obduxcnit; {sod quid bis obesset obsidio, qui patente mari omnibus copiis abundarent ?) nunc oxpugnatione Dyrrbachii irrita, i^c. — Flor. iv. 2. 'ni.i.o\6yii T6 iiiTayivdiaKfiV irphs Au3^axV <"'("'" ToreOfciVas, ic. — App. p. 4G3. " Kon lis rebus pugnabamus, qufbus valcre potenmiis, oonsilio, aiictoritate, causa, quae erant in nobis superjoni | MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 189 of humour, as well as out of order : his discontent to see all things going wrong on that side, and contrary to his advice, had brought upon him an ill habit of body and weak state of health, which made him decline all public command ; but he promised Pompey to follow, and continue with him, as soon as his health permitted" ; and as a pledge of his sincerity, sent his son in the mean- while along with him, who, though very young, behaved himself gallantly, and acquired great ap- plause by his dexterity of riding and throwing the javelin, and performing every other part of military discipline at the head of one of the wings of horse, of which Pompey had given him the commandi". Cato staid behind also in the camp at Dyrrhachium, which he commanded with fifteen cohorts, when Labienus brought them the news of Pompey's defeat, upon which Cato offered the command to Cicero, as the superior in dignity ; and upon his refusal of it, as Plutarch tells us, young Pompey was so enraged that he drew his sword, and would have killed him upon the spot, if Cato had not prevented it. This fact is not mentioned by Cicero, yet seems to be referred to in his speech for Marcellus, where he says, that in the very war he had been a perpetual assertor of peace, to the hazard even of his life i. But the wretched news from Pharsalia threw them all into such a conster- nation, that they presently took shipping, and dis- persed themselves severally, as their hopes or inclinations led them, into the different provinces of the empire'. The greatest part, who were deter- mined to renew the war, went directly into Africa, the general rendezvous of their scattered forces ; whilst others, who were disposed to expect the farther issue of things, and take such measures as fortune offered, retired to Achaia : but Cicero was resolved to make this the end of the war to himself, and recommended the same conduct to his friends, declaring, that as they had been no match for CsBsar when entire, they could not hope to beat him when shattered and broken^ : and so, after a miserable campaign of about eighteen months, he committed himself without hesitation to the mercy of the conqueror, and landed again at Brundisium about the end of October. Bed lacertis et viribus, qulbus pares non fuimus. — Ep. l''am. iv. 7. Dolebamqiie pilis et gladiis, non consiKis neqiic auctori- tatibus nostria de jure publico diaceptari,' — Kp. Pam. vi. I. ° Ipse fugi adbuc omne munus, eo magis, quod nihil ita polerat agi, ut mihi et meis rebus aptum esaet — ^me conficit soUicitudo, ex qua etiam summa infirmitas corporis ; qua levata, ero cum eo, qui negotiiun gerit, estque in magna spe— Ad Att. xi. 4. P Quo tamen in bello cum te Pompeius alas alteri prafe- cisset, magnam laudem et a summo viro et ab exercitu consequebare, equitando, jaculando, omni militari labore toleraudo : atque ea quidem tua laus pariter cum repub- lica ceoidit— De Offic. ii. 13. 1 Multa de paee dixi, et in ipso bello, eadem etiam cum capitis mei periculo aensi. — Pro Marcell. 6. ■■ Panels sane post diebus ex Pharsalica fuga venisse Labienum: qui cum intcritnm exei'citus nnnciaviaaet — naves aubito perterriti conacendiatia. — De Divin. i. 32. " Hunc ego belli mihi finem feci ; nee putavi, cum integri parea non fuiasemus, fraCtos superiorea fore. — ^Ep. Pam. vii. 3. SECTION VIII. Cicero no sooner returned to Italy than he began to reflect that he had been too hasty in coming home, before the war was de- " "^rI"^' '®'^™'°®'J' ^""^ without any invitation "ojss ^''°™ *® conqueror ; and in a time of 0. JULIUS *''*'■ S^i^f^l licence, had reason to c^sAH Die- apprehend some insult from the sol- TATou II, diers, if he ventured to appear in pub- M. ANTONios lie with his fasces and laurel ; and Mag, Bquit. yet to drop them would be a dimi- nution of that honour which he had received from the Roman people, and the acknow- ledgment of a power superior to the laws ; he condemned himself therefore for not continuing abroad, in some convenient place of retirement, till he had been sent for, or things were better settled'. What gave him the greater reason to repent of this step was, a message that he received from Antony, who governed all in Csesar's absence, and with the same churlish spirit with which he would have held him before in Italy against his will, seemed now disposed to drive him out of it : for he sent him the copy of a letter from Caesar, in which Csesar signified, " that he had heard that Cato and Metellus were at Rome, and appeared openly there, which might occasion some dis- turbance ; wherefore he strictly enjoined that none should be suffered to come to Italy without a special licence from himself." Antony therefore desired Cicero to excuse him, since he could not help obey- ing Caesar's commands : but Cicero sent L. Lamia to assure him that Csesar had ordered Dolabella to write to him to come to Italy as soon as he pleased, and that he came upon the authority of Dolabella's letter ; so that Antony, in the edict which he published to exclude the Pompeians from Italy, excepted Cicero by name, which added still to his mortification ; since all his desire was to be con- nived at only, or tacitly permitted, without being personally distinguished from the rest of his party". But he had several other grievances of a domestic kind, which concurred also to make him unhappy : his brother Quintus, with his son, after their escape from Pharsalia, followed Cajsar into Asia, to obtain their pardon from him in person. Quintus had particular reason to be afraid of his resentment, on account of the relation which he had borne to him as one of his lieutenants in Gaul, where he had been treated by him with great generosity ; so that Cicero himself would have dissuaded him from going over to Pompey, but could not prevail : yet ' Ego vero et incaute, ut scribis, et celerius quam opor- tuit, feci, &c.~AdAtt. xi. 9. Quare voluntatis me mese nunquam ptEnitebit, conailii poenitet. In oppido aliquo mallem resediase, quoad arces- serer. Minus sermonia aubiissem : minus accepissem doloris : ipsum hoc non me angeret. Brundisii jacere in omnes partes est molestum. Propius accedere, ut suades, quomodo sine lictoribus, quoa populus dedit, possum ? qui mihi incolumi adimi non possunt. — Ad Att. xi. 6. 1 Sed quid ego de lictoribus, qui pa:ne ex Italia decedere Bim jusaua? nam admemisit Antoniusexemplum CKsaris ad se literarum ; in qulbus erat, se audisae, Catonem et L. Metellum in Italiam venisse, Roma; ut esaent palam, &c. Turn ille edixit ita, ut me exciperet et Lailium nominatim. Quod sane noUem, Poterat cnim sine nomine, re ipsa excipi. O multas graves offensionea!— IWd. 7. 100 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OF in this common calamity, Quiatus, in order to make his own peace the more easily, resolved to throw all the blame upon his brother, and for that purpose made it the subject of all his letters and speeches to Caesar's friends, to rail at him in a manner the most inhuman. Cicero was informed of this from all quarters, and that young Quintus, who was sent before towards Ceesar, had read an oration to his friends, which he had prepared to speak to him against his uncle. Nothing (as Cicero says) ever happened more shocking to him ; and though he had no small diflBdence of Caesar's inclination, and many enemies labouring to do him ill offices, yet his greatest concern was, lest his brother and nephew should hurt themselves rather than him, by their perfidy'^ : for under all the sense of this provoca- tion, his behaviour was just the reverse of theirs ; and having been informed that Caesar in a certain conversation had charged his brother with being the author of their going away to Pompey, he took occasion to write to him in the following terms : — " As for my brother, I am not less solicitous for his safety than my own ; but in my present situa- tion dare not venture to recommend him to you : all that I can pretend to is, to beg that you will not believe him to have ever done anything towards obstracting my good offices and affection to you ; but rather, that he was always the adviser of our union, and the companion, not the leader of ray voyage : wherefore, in all other respects I leave it to you to treat him as your own humanity and his friendship with you require ; but I entreat you, in the most pressing manner, that I may not be the cause of hurting him with you on any account whatsoever^." He found himself likewise at this time in some distress for want of money, which in that season of public distraction it was very difficult to procure, either by borrowing or selling : the sum which he advanced to Pompey had drained him ; and his wife, by her indulgence to stewards and fa- vourite servants, had made great waste of what was left at home ; arid instead of saving anything from their rents, had plunged him deeply into debt : so that Atticus's purse was the chief fund which he had to trust to for his present support^. The conduct of Dolabella was a farther mortifi- cation to him, who, by the fiction of an adoption into a plebeian family, had obtained the tribunate this year, and was raising great tumults and dis- orders in Rome, by a law which he published, to expunge all debts. Laws of that kind had been ^ (^uintus luisit filium non solum sui deprccatoiem, scd etiam acciisatorem met — neque vero desistet, ubicunque est omnia in me maledicta conferre. Nihil mihi unquam tam incrcdibile accidit, nihil in his malia tam acerbum . Ad Att. xi. 8. Epistolas mihi legenint plenas omnium in me probro- rum — ipai enim illi putavi perniciosum fore, si ejus hoc tantum scclus percrebuisset..— Ibid. 9. Quintum filium — volumen sibi ostendisse orationis, quam apud Casarem contra mo esset habiturus — multa posteapatris, consimili scelere patrem esse locntum.— Ibid. 10. J Cum mihi liters a Balbo minore missx essent, Cae- sarcm existimare, Quintum fratrem lituum mecs pro- fectionia fuisso, sic enim scripsit' — Ad Att. xi. 12. ^ Velim considcres ut sit, undo nobis suppeditentur snmtus nccessarii. Si quas habuimiis facultates, eas Pompeio, turn, cum id videbamur sapienter facere, dotuli- mus— Ibid. xiii. 2, 22, &c. often attempted by desperate or ambitious magis- trates, but were always detested by the better sort, and particularly by Cicero, who treats them as per- nicious to the peace and prosperity of states, and sapping the very foundations of civil society, by destroying all faith and credit among men*. No wonder, therefore, that we find him taking this affair so much to heart, and complaining so heavily, in many of his letters to Atticus, of the famed acts of his son-in-law, as an additional source of afflic- tion and disgrace to him'. Dolabella was greatly embarrassed in his fortunes, and while he was with Csesar abroad, seems to have left his wife destibate of necessaries at home, and forced to recur to her father for her subsistence. Cicero likewise, either through the difficulty of the times, or for want of a sufficient settlement on Dolabella's part, had not yet paid all her fortune ; which it was usual to do at three different payments, within a time limited by law : he had discharged the two first, and was now preparing to make the third payment, which he frequently and pressingly recommends to the care of Atticus'. But Dolabella's whole life and character were so entirely contrary to the manners and temper both of Cicero and Tullia, that a divorce ensued between them not long after, though the account of it is delivered so darkly, that it is hard to say at what time or from what side it first arose. In these circumstances Tullia paid her father a visit at Brundisium on the thirteenth of June: but his great love for her made their meeting only the more afflicting to him in that abject state of their fortunes ; " I was so 'far," says he, " from taking that 'pleasure which I ought to have done, from the virtue, humanity, and piety of an excel- lent daughter, that I was exceedingly grieved to see so deserving a creature in such an unhappy condition, not by her own, but wholly by my fault ; I saw no reason theretbre for keeping her longer here in this our common affliction, but was will- ing to send her back to her mother as soon as she would consent to if^." At Brundisium he received the news of Pompey's death, which did not surprise him, as we find firom the short reflection that he makes upon it : " As to Pompey's end (says he) I never had any doubt about it : for the lost and desperate state of his affairs had so possessed the minds of all the kings and states abroad, that whithersoever he went 1 took it for granted that this would be his fate : I can- "1 Nee enim ulla res vehementius rempublicam continet, quam fides; quae esse nulla potest, nisi erit necessarift solutiorerum creditai'um, &e. — De Offic. ii. 24. ^ Quod me audis fractiorem esse animo ; quid putas, cum videas accessisse ad superiores jEgritudines prieclaras generi aotionea ? — .Id Att. xi. 12. Etsi omniiun conspectmu horreo, prassertim hoc genera. —Ibid. 14, 15, ic. e De dote, quod scribis, per omnes deos te obtestor, ut totam rem suscipias, et illam miseram mea culpa — tucare raeis opibus, si qum sunt ; tuis, quibus tibi non molestum erit faeultatibus. — Ibid. xi. 2. De pensione altera, oro te, omni cura considera quid faciendum sit.— Ibid. xi. 4. d Tullia mea ad me venit prid. Id. Jim.— Ego autem ex ipsius virtute, liumanitate, pietate non modo cam vo- luptatem non cepi, quam capcre ex singulari filia debui, sed etiam incredibili sum dolore affectus, tale ingenimn in tam mieera fortiina versari.—Ibid. xi. 17; Ep. Fam. xiv. 11. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 191 not however help grieving at it ; for I knew liim to be an honest, grave, and worthy man"." This was the short and true character of the man from one who perfectly knew him, not height- ened, as we sometimes find it, by the shining co- lours of his eloquence, nor depressed by the darker strokes of his resentment. Pompey had early acquired the surname of the Great, by that sort of merit which, from the constitution of the re- public, necessarily made him great ; a fame and success in war superior to what Rome had ever known in the most celebrated of her generals. He had triumphed at three several times over the three different parts of the known world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and by his victories had almost doubled the extent as well as the revenues of the Roman domi- nion ; for as he declared to the people on his re- turn from the Mithridatic war, he had found the Lesser Asia the boundary, but left it the middle of their empire. He was about six years older than Csesar ; and white Csesar, immersed in pleasures, oppressed with debts, and suspected by all honest men, was hardly able to show his head, Pompey was flourishing in the height of power and glory, and by the consent of all parties placed at the head of the repubho. This was the post that his ambi- tion seemed to aim at — to be the first man in Rome —the leader, not the tyrant of his country : for he more than once had it in his power to have made himself the master of it without any risk, if his vii-tue, or his phlegm at least, had not re- strained him ; but he lived in a perpetual expec- tation of receiving from the gift of the people what he did not care to seize by force ; and by foment- ing the disorders of the city, hoped to drive them to the necessity of creating him dictator. It is an observation of all the historians, that while Csesar made no difference of power, whether it was con- ferred or usurped, whether over those who loved or those who feared him, Pompey seemed to value none but what was offered, nor to have any desire to govern but with the good-will of the governed. What leisure he found from his wars he employed in the study of polite letters, and especially of eloquence, in which he would have acquired great fame, if his genius had not drawn him to the more dazzling glory of arms ; yet he pleaded several causes with applause, in the defence of his friends and clients, and some of them in conjunction with Cicero. His language was copious and elevated, his sentiments just, his voice sweet, his action noble, and full of dignity. . But his talents were better formed for arms than the gown ; for though in both he observed the same discipline, a per- petual modesty, temperance, and gravity of outward behaviour, yet in the licence of camps the example was more rare and striking. His person was extremely graceful, and imprinting respect, yet with an air of reserve and haughtiness which be- came the general better than the citizen. His parts were plausible rather than great, specious rather than penetrating, and his view of politics but narrow ; for his chief instrument of governingwas dissimulation ; yet he had not always the art to conceal his real sentiments. As he was a better ^ De Pompeii exitu mihi dubium nunquam fuit: tanta eaim dcsperatio rerum ejus omnium regum et populorum animos oceuparat, ut quocunque venisset, hoc putarem futurum. Non possum ^iis casum non dolere : hominem eDim integrum etcastumetgravemcognovi. — Ad Att xi. 6. soldier than a statesman, so what he gained in the camp he usually lost in the city, and though adored when abroad, was often affronted and mortified at home, till the imprudent opposition of the senate drove him to that alliance with Crassus and Csesar which proved fatal both to himself and the republic. He took in these two, not as the partners, but the ministers rather of his power ; that by giving them some share with him he might make his own authority uncontrollable : he had no reason to apprehend that they could ever prove his rivals, since neither of them had any credit or character of that kind which alone could raise them above the laws — a superior fame and experience in war, with the militia of the empire at their devotion : all this was purely his own, till by cherishing Csesar, and throwing into his hands the only thing which he wanted, arms and military command, he made him at last too strong for himself, and never began to fear him till it was too late. Cicero warmly dissuaded both his union and his breach with Csesar, and after the rupture, as warmly still the thought of giving him battle. If any of these counsels had been followed, Pompey had preserved his life and honour, and the republic its liberty. But he was urged to his fate by a natural supersti- tion, and attention to those vain auguries with which he was ilattered by all the haruspices : he had seen the same temper in Marius and Sylla, and obsei-ved the happy effects of it ; but they assumed it only out of policy, he out of principle. They used it to animate their soldiers, when they had found a probable opportunity of fighting ; but he, against aU. prudence and probability, was encou- raged by it to fight to his own ruin. He saw all his mistakes at last, when it was out of his power to correct them ; and in his wretched flight from Pharsalia, was forced to confess that he had trusted too much to his hopes, and that Cicero had judged better, and seen farther into things than he. The resolution of seeking refuge in Egypt finished the sad catastrophe of this great man. The father of the reigning prince had been highly obliged to him for his protection at Rome and restoration to his kingdom ; and the son had .sent a considerable fleet tQ his assistance in the present war ; but in this ruin of his fortunes, what gratitude was there to be expected from a court governed by eunuchs and mercenary Greeks ? a^ whose politics turned, not on the honour of the king, but the establish- ment of their own power, which was likely to be eclipsed by the admission of Pompey. How happy had it been for him to have died in that sickness, when all Italy was putting up vows and prayers for his safety ! or if he had fallen by the chance of war on the plains of Pharsalia, in the defence of his country's liberty, he had died still glorious, though unfortunate t but as If he had been reserved for an example of the instability of human great- ness, he who a few days before commanded kings and consuls, and all the noblest of Borne, was sentenced to die by a council of slaves ; murdered by a base deserter j cast out naked and headless on the Egyptian strand ; and when ,the whole earth (as Velleius says) had scarce been suflioient for his victories, could not find a spot upon it at last for a grave. His body was burnt on the shore by one of his freedmen, with the planksof an old fishing-boat ; and his ashes being conveyed to Rome, were de- posited privately by his wife Cornelia in a vault of 1S2 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OP his Alban villa. The Egyptians, however, raised a monument to him on the place, and adorned it with figures of biass, which being defaced after- wards by time, and buried almost in sand and rubbish, was sought out and restored by the emperor Hadrian*. On the news of Pompey's death, Csesar was de- clared dictator the second time in his absence, and M. Antony his master of the horse, who by virtue of that post governed all things absolutely in Italy. Cicero continued all the while at Brundi- sium, in a situation wholly disagreeable, and worse to him (he says) than any punishment : for the air of the place began to affect his health, and to the uneasiness of mind added an ill state of bodyS : yet to move nearer towards Rome without leave from his new masters was not thought advisable, nor f Hujus vhi fastigium tantis auctibus foi"tuna extulit, ut primum ex Africa, iterum ex Europa, tertio cs Asia triumpharet : et quot partes terrarum orbis gunt, totidem faceret monumenta victoria;, [Veil. Pat, ii, 40,] Ut ipse in eoncione dixit,— Asiam ultimam provinciarum acee- pisse, mediam patriae reddidisse, ['Plin, Hist, Nat, vii. 26 ; Flor. iii, 5 ] Potentiffi qugs honoris causa ad eum deferre- tur, non ut ab eo occuparetur, eupidissimua, [Veil. Pat, ii. 29 ; Dio, p, 178,] Meus auteiii squalls Cn, Pcmpeius, vir ad omnia sumrna natus, majorem diccndi gloriam habuisset, nisi eum majoris glorise cupiditas ad bellicas laudes abstraxisset. Erat oratione satis amplus : rem pru- denter videbat : actio vero ej us habebat et in voce magnum splendorem, et in motu summam dignitatem. [Brut. 354 ; Pro Balbo. 1, 2.] Forma excellene, non ea, qua flos com- raendatur setatis, sed ex dignitate constanti, [Veil, Pat, ii, 29,] Illudosprobum,ipsujnquehonoremeximieBfrontis. [Plin, Hist, Nat, vii, 12,] Solet enim aliud sentire et loqui, neque tantum valere ingenio, ut non appareat quid cupiat, [Ep, Pam, viii, 1,] Illealuit, auxit, arraavit illeGalllEe ulterioris adjunctor — ^ille provinciie propagator ; illeabsen- tis in omnibus adjutor. [Ad Att, viii. 3.] aluerat Cffisarem, eundem repente timere coeperat, [Ibid. 8.] Egp nihil praitermisi, quantum f acere, nitique potui, quiu Pompeium a Caesaris conjunctione avocarem. — idem ego, cum jam omnesopes et suas et populi Romani Pompeius ad Cfiesarenr detulisset, seroque ea sentire ccepisset, qua; ego antemulto proyideram — pacis, concordiae, compositionis auctor esse non destiti : meaque ilia vox est nota multis, Utinam, I'ompei, cum CKsare societatem aut nunquam coisses, aut nunquam diremisses ! — haee mea, Antoni, et de Pompeio et de republica eonsilia fuerunt : quaesivaluissent, respub- lica staret. [Phil, ii, 10,] Multi testes, me et initio ne conjungeret se cumCassare, monuisse Pompeium, et postea, ne sejungcret, &o, [Ep. Fam. vi. 6.] Quid vero singularis ille virac paene divinus de me senserit, sciunt, qui eum de Pharsalica fuga Papbum prosecuti sunt : nunquam ab eo mentio de me nisi honorifiea^-cum me vidisse plus fatere- tur, se speravisse meliora, [Ibid. 15.] Qui, si mortem tum obisset, in amplissimis fortunis ooeidisset ; is propagatione vitiE quot, quantas, quara incredibiles hausit ealamitates ? [Tuse. Disp. i. 35,] In Pelusiaeo littore, imperio vilissimi regis, consiliis spadonum, et ne quid mails desit, Septimii desertoris sui gladio trucidatm-, [Plor, iv, 2, 52.] ,^gyp- tum petere proposuit, memor beneficiorum quae in patrem ejus Ptolemaei,— qui tum regnabat, eontulerat — Prineepa Romani nominis, imperio, arbitrioque .ffigyptii mancipii jugulatus est^-in tantum in illo viro a se diseordante for- tuna, ut cui modo ad victoriam terra defuerat, deesset ad sepulturam.— Veil. Pat. ii. 54 ; Dio, p. 186 ; Appian, ii, 481 , Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres Optandas. Sed multae urbes, et publica vota Vicerunt, Igitur fortuna ipsius et m-bis Servatum victo caput abstulit,— Juv. x. 283, 8 Quodvis enim supplicium levius est hac permansione —Ad Att, xi, IB, J.im cnim corpore vix austineo gravitatem hujus cosli, qui mihi laborem affert, in dolore.— Ibid. 22. did Antony encourage it, being pleased rather, we may believe, to see him well mortified: so that he had no hopes of any ease or comfort but in the expectation of Cffisar's return, which made his stay in that place the more necessary for the op- portunity of paying his early compliments to him at landing. But what gave him the greatest uneasiness was, to be held still in suspense in what touched him the most nearly, the case of his own safety and of Csesar's disposition towards him : for though all Csesar's friends assured him not only of pardon, but of all kind of favour ; yet he had received no intimation of kindness from Cffisar himself, who was so embarrassed in Egypt that he had no leisure to think of Italy, and did not so much as write a letter thither from December to June ; for as he had rashly, and out of gaiety as it were, involved himself there in a most desperate war to the hazard of all his fortunes, he was ashamed (as Cicero says'") to write anything about it till he had extricated himself out of that difficulty. His enemies in the mean time had greatly strengthened themselves in Africa, where P. Varus, who first seized it on the part of the republic, was supported by all the force of king Juba, Pompey's fast friend, and had reduced the whole province to his obedience ; for Curio, after he had driven Cato out of Sicily, being ambitious to drive Varus also out of Africa, and having transported thither the best part of four legions, which Caesar had com- mitted to him, was, after some little success upon his landing, entirely defeated and destroyed with his whole army in an engagement with Sabura, king Juba's general. Curio was a young noblemen of shining parts ; admirably formed by nature to adorn that character in which his father and grandfather had flourished before him, of one of the principal orators of Rome. Upon his entrance into the forum he was committed to the care of Cicero ; but a natural propension to pleasure, stimulated by the example and counsels of his perpetual companion Antony, hurried him into all the extravagance of expense and debauchery ; for Antony, who always wanted money, with which Curio abounded, was ever ob- sequious to his vrill and ministering to his lusts, for the opportunity of gratifying his own : so that no boy purchased for the use of lewdness was more in a master's power than Antony inCurio's. He was equally prodigal of his money and his modesty, and not only of his own but of other people's ; so that Cicero, alluding to the infamous effeminacy of his life, calls him in one of his letters. Miss Curio. But when the father, by Cicero's advice, had obliged him by his paternal authority to quit the familiarity of Antony, he reformed his conduct, and adhering to the instructions and maxims of Cicero, became the favourite of the city, the leader of the young nobility, and a warm assertor of the authority of the senate against the power of the triumvirate. After his father's death, upon his first taste of public honours and admission into the senate, his ambition and thirst of popularity en- gaged him in so immense a prodigality, that to supply the magnificence of his shows and plays with which he entertained the city, he was soon ^ Illo enim ita videtur Alexandriam tenere, ut eum scribere etiam pudeat de illis rebus.— Ad Att. xi, Ifl, Nee post Id. Deo. ab illo datas ullas literas.— Ibid, l?- MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 1,93 driven to the necessity of selling himself to Cassar : having no revenue left (as Pliny says) but from the discord of his citizens. For this he is considered commonly, by the old writers, as the chief instru- ment and the trumpet, as it were, of the civil war, in which he justly fell the first victim : yet after all his luxury and debauch, fought and died with a courage truly Roman, which would have merited a better fate, if it had been employed in a better cause ; for upon the loss of the battle, and his best troops, being admonished by his friends to save himself by flight, he answered, that after losing an army which had been committed to him by Csesar, he could never show his face to him again ; and so continued fighting till he was killed among the last of his soldiers'. Curio's death happened before the battle of Pharsalia, while Csesar was engaged in Spain'' ; by which means Africa fell entirely into the hands of the Fompeians, and became the general rendezvous of all that party : hither Scipio, Cato, and La- bienus, conveyed the remains of their scattered troops from Greece, as Afranius and Petreius likewise did from Spain, till, on the whole, they had brought together again a more numerous army than Caesar's, and were in such high spirits as to talk of coming over with it into Italy before Csesar could return from Alexandria'. This was confi- dently given out and expected at Rome ; and in that case, Cicero was sure to be treated as a de- serter ; for while Caesar looked upon all men as friends who did not act against him, and pardoned even enemies who submitted to his power ; it was a declared law on the other side to consider all as enemies who were not actually in their camp" ; so that Cicero had nothing now to wish, either for himself or the republic, but in the first place a peace, of which he had still some hopes " ; or else. } Baud alium tanta civem tulit indole Roma. LucAN. iv. 814. Tina familia Curionum, in qua tres continua serie ora- torcs extiterunt — Plin. Hist. Nat. Til. 41. Naturam hal)uit admirabilem ad dicendum — ^Brut. 406. Nemo unquam puer, emptus libidinis causa, tarn fuit in domini potesfeate, quam tu in Curionis. [Pliil. ii. 18.] Duce filiola Curionis.— Ad Att. i. 14. Vir nobilis, eloquens, audax, suae aliensque et fortune et pudicitis prodigus — cujiis animo, voluptatibus vel libi- dinibus, neque opes ullas neque cupiditates sufficere pos- eent.— VeU. Pat. 248. Nisi meis puer olim Adelissimis atque amantissimia consiliis paniisses..— -Ep. Fam. ii. 1. Bello autem civili — ^non alius majorem quam C. Curio subjecit facem.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48. Quid nunc rostra tibi prosunt turbata, forumque Unde tribunitia plebeius signifer arce Arma dabas populis, &c. . Lucan. iv. 800. At Cuiio, nunquam amisso exercitu, quem a Csesare fidei BUS commisBum acceperat, se in ejus conspectum rever- Burum, eonfirmat ; atque ita prslians interficitur. — Caes. De Bello Civ. ii. ^ Ante jaces, quam dira duces Pharsalia confert, Spectandumque tibi bellum civile ncgatum est. LuCAN. iv. 800. ' Ii autem ex Africa jam afifuturi videntur. — Ad Att. xi. 15. ™ Te enim dicere audiebamus, nos omnes adversaries putare, nisi qui nobiscum essent ; te omnes, qui contra te non essent, tuos.— Pro Ligar. 11 ; Ad Att. xi. 6. ° Est autem, unum, quod mihi sit optandum, si quid agi de pace possit : quod nulla equidem habeo in spe : sed quia tu leviter interdum significaa, cogis mc sperave quod optandum vix est.— Ad Att. xi. 19: it. 12< that Csesar might conquer, whose victory was like to prove the more temperate of the two ; which makes him often lament the unhappy situation to which he was reduced, where nothing could be of any service to him, but what he had nlwavs abhorred". Under this anxiety of mind, it was an addition.il vexation to him to hear that his reputation was attacked at Rome for submitting so hastily to the conqueror, or putting himself rather at all into his power. Some condemned him for not following Pompey ; some more severely for not going to Africa, as the greatest part had done ; others for not retiring with many of his party to Achaia, till they could see the farther progress of the war ; as he was always extremely sensible of what was said of him by honest men, so he begs of Atticus to be his advocate ; and gives him some hints which might be urged in his defence. As to the first charge, for not following Pompey, he says, " that Pompey's fate would extenuate the omission of that step : of the second, that though he knew many brave men to be in Africa, yet it was his opinion that the republic neither could nor ought to be defended by the help of so barbarous and trea- cherous a nation : as to the third, he wishes indeed that he had joined hiniself to those in Achaia, and owns them to be in a better condition than himself, because they were many of them together ; and whenever they returned to Italy would be restored to their own at once:" whereas he was confined like a prisoner of war to Brundisium, without the liberty of stirring from it till Csesar arrived'. While he continued in this uneasy state, some of his friends at Rome contrived to send him a letter in Csesar's name, dated the 9th of February, from Alexandria, encouraging him to lay aside all gloomy apprehensions, and expect every thing that was kind and friendly from him : but it was drawn in terms so slight and general, that instead of giving him any satisfaction, it made him only sus- pect what he perceived afterwards to be true, that it was forged by Balbus or Oppius on purpose to raise his spirits, and administer some little comfort to himi. All his accounts, however, confirmed to him the report of Csesar's clemency and modera- tion, and his granting pardon without exception to all who asked it j and with regard to himself, Csesar sent Quintus's virulent letters to Balbus, with orders to show them to him as a proof of his kind- ness and dislike of Quintus's perfidy. But Cicero's present despondency, which interpreted everything ° Mihi cum omnia sunt intolerabilia ad dolorem, turn maxime, quod in earn causam venisse me video, ut ea sola utilia mihi esse videantur, quas semper nolui. — ^Ad Att. xi. 13. V Dicebar debuisse cum Pompeio proficisci, Exitus illius minuit ejus officii praetermiasi reprehensionem. — Sed ex onmibus nihil magis desideratur, quam quod in Africam non ierira. Judicio hoc sum usus, non esse barbaris aux- iliis f allacissimffi gentis rempublicam defendendam — extre- mum est eorum, qui in Achaia sunt. Ii tamen ipsi se hoc melius habent, quam nos, quod et multi sunt uno in loco, et cum in Italiam venerint, domum statim venerint. Hmc tu perge, ut facis, mitigare et probare quam plurimis. — Ad Att xi. 7. 1 Ut me ista epistola nihil consoletur ; nam et exigue scripta est et magnas suspiciones habet, non esse ab illo. — Ad Att. xi. 16. Ex quo intelligis, illud de literis a. d. v. Id. Feb. datis {quod inane esset, etiam si verum esset) non verum esse. ►-Ibid. 17. O 194 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF by liis fears, made liim suspect Csssar the moi'e for refusing grace to none^ as if such a clemency must needs be affected and his revenge deferred only to a season more convenient ; and as to his brdther's letters, he fancied that Caesar did not send them to Italy because he condemned them, but to make his present misery and abject condition the more notorious and despicable to everybody^ But after a long series of perpetual mortifications he was refreshed at last by a very obliging letter from CBEsar, who confirmed to him the full enjoy- ment of his former state and dignity, and bade him resume his fasces and style of emperor as before". Cspsar's mind was too. great to listen to the tales of the brother and nephew, and instead of approv- ing their treachery, seems to have granted them their pardon on Cicero's account rather than their own ; so that Quintus, upon the trial of Csesar's inclination, began presently to change his note, and to congratulate with his brother on Caesar's affec- tion and esteem for him'. Cicero was now preparing to send his son to wait upon Caesar, who was supf)osed to be upon his journey towards home ; hut the uncertain accounts of his coming diverted him awhile from that thought^, till Cgesar liimself prevented it, and re- lieved him very agreeably from his tedious resi- dence at Brundisium, by his sudden and unexpected arrival in Italy ; where he landed at Tarentum in the month of September, and on the first notice of his coming forward towards Rome, Cicero set out on foot to meet him. We may easily imagine, what we find indeed from his letters, that he was. not a little discom- posed at the thoughts, of this interview, and the indignity of offering himself to a conqueror against whom he had been in arms in the midst of a licen- tious and insolent rabble ; for though he had reason to expect a kind reception from Caesar, yet he hardly thought his life (he says) worth begging, since , what was given by a master might always be ta,ken away again at pleasure^. But, at their meeting,, he had no occasion to say or do anything that was below his dignity ; for Caesar no sooner saw him than he alighted and ran to embrace him, and walked with him alone, conversing very fa- miliarly for several furlongs y. ' Omnino dicitur nemininegare: quod ipsum eat siispec- tum, notionem ejus dififerri.^Ad Att. xi, 20. DiUgenter mihi fasciculum reddidit BallDi tabellarius— quod ne Caesar quidem ad istos videtur misisse. quasi quo illius improbitate offenderetnr, sed credo, uti notiora nostra mala essent. — Ibid. 23. ? Redditaa mihi tandem sunt a Cssare literas satis libe- rales.[-r-Bp..Fam. xiv. 23. Qui ad me ex .ffigypto literaa misit, ut essem idem, qui fuissem: qui cum ipse imperator in toto imperio populi Romani unus esaet, esse me alteram passus est : a quo concessoa fasces lanreatos tenui, quoad tenendos putavi. Pro, Ligar. 3. . , t Sed mihi valde Quintus sratulatur— Ad Att. xi. 23. ^ Ego cum Sallustio Ciceronem ad CEEsarem mittere cogitabam — Ibid. 17. De illius Alexandria discesau nihil adhuo rumoris, con- traque opinio — itaque nee mitto» ut constitueram, Cicero- nem.— Ibid. 18. « Sed non adducor, quemquam bonum uUam aalutem mihi tanti fuiase pntare, ut earn peterem ab illo.— Ad Att xi, 16. Sed ab h,oo ipso quae dantur, ut a domino, rursus in ejusdem sunt potestate. — Ibid. 20. 7 Plutarch, in Cic. From this interview Cicero followed Caesar to- wards Rome : he proposed to be at TusCuluni on the seventh or eighth of October, and wrote to his wife to provide for his reception there with a large company of friends, who designed to make some stay with him*. From Tusculum he came after- wards to the city, with a resolution to spend his time in study and retreat/ till the repiiblic should be restored to some tolerable state ; " having made his peace again (as he wMtes to Varro) with his old friends, his books, who had been out of humoilr with hirti for not obeying their precepts, but instead of living (Juietly with them, as Varro had done, committing himself to the turbulent counsels and hazards of war, with faithless companions*." On Cassar's return to Rome, he appointed P. Vatinius and Q. Fufius Calenus, consuls fOr the three last months of the year : this was a very un- popular use of his new power, which he contiflued however to practise through the rest of his reign, creating these first magistrates of the state withoui any regard to the ancient forms, or recourse to the people, and at any time of the year ; which gave a sensible disgust to the city, and an early specimen of the arbitrary manner in which he designed to govern them. ' About the erid of the year, Ceesar embarked for Africa, to pursue the war against Scipio and thfe Other Pompeian generals, who, assisted by king Juba, held the jiossession of that province with a vast army. As he was sacrificing for the success of this voyage, the victim happened to break loose and run away from the altar, which being looked upon as an nnJucky omeli, the haruspex admonished him not to sail before the winter solstice : but he took ship directly in contempit of the admonition, and by that means (as Cicero says) came upda his enemies unprepared, and before they had drawn together all their forces''. Upon his leaving the city, he declared himself consul, together with M. Lepidus, for the year ensuing; and gave the go- vernment of the Hither Gaul to M. Brutus ; of 2 Ep. Fam. xiv. 20. * Scito enim. me posteaquam in urbem venerim, redisse cum veteribus amicia, id est, cum libris nostris in gratiam — ignoscunt mihi, revocant in consuetudinem pristinam, teque, quod in ea permanaeris, sapientiorem, quam me dicunt fuisse, &o.— Ep. Fam. ix. 1. b Quid ? , ipse Cffisar, cum a Bummo haruspice moneretur, ne in Africam ante brumam transmitteret, nonne trans- misit ? quod ni fecisaet, uno In loco omnes adversariorum copite conveniasent. — De Divin. ii. 24. ' Cum immolanti aufugisset hostia profectionem adversus Seipionem et Jubam non distulit.-^ueton. J. Cses. 69. Hirtlus, in his account of this war, says, that Cresar embarked at Lilybaeum for Africa on the Gth of the Kalends of Jan. [De Bello Afrio. init.^ that is, on Vie 27th of our December: whereas Cicero, in the passage just cited, de- clares him to have passed over before the solstice, or the shortest day. But this seeming contradiction is entirely owing to a cause already intimated, the great confusiSn that was introduced at this time into the Roman Kalendar, by which the months were all transposed from their stated seasons, so that the ^th of December, on which, according • to their computation, Caesar embarked, was in reality coincident, or the same with our 8(ft of October, and con- sequently above two months before the solstice, or shortest day. All which is clearly and accurately explained in a learned dissertation, published, by a person of eminent merit in the university of Cambridge, who rhooses to con- ceal his name.— See Bibliothec, Literar. No. VIH. Lond. 1724, 4to. MARCUS TULLIUS ClCERO. 195 Greece, to Servius Sulpicius ; the first of whom had been in arms against him at Pharsalia, and the secoild was a favourer likewise of the Pompeian cause, and a great friend of Cicero, yet seems to have taken no part in the war". The African war now held the whole empire in suspense ; Scipio's name was thought ominous and invincible on that ground j bnt whUe A. uRB. 707. the general attention was employed on cic. 61. t;i,e expectation of some dfecisive blow, °''^' Cicero, despairing of any good from 0. J>"-'"^ either side, chose to live Retired and M^Maiiis °^^ °^ ^'S'^' ' ^""^ whether in the city LEPIDU3. or tl^B country, shut himself up with his books; which (as he often says) had hitherto been the diversion only, but were now become the support of his life''. In this humour of study he entered into a close friendship and correspondence of letters with M. Terentius Varro, a friendship equally valued on both sides, and at Varro's desire immortalised by the mutual dedica- tion of their learned works to each other ; of Cicero's Academic Questions to Varro ; of Varro's treatise on the Latin Tongue, to Cicero. Varro was a senator of the first distinction, both for birth and merit; esteemed the most learned man of Rome, and though now above fourscore yeai's old, yet (A)ntinued slUl writing and publishing books to his eighty-eighth year=. He was Pompey's lieutcr nant in Spaiti in th^ bbginning of the war ; but after the, defeat of Afranius and Petreius, quitted his arms and retired to his studies, so that his prey Sent circumstances were not very different from those of Cicero, who, in all his letters to him, be- wails with great freedoin the utter ruin of the state ; and proposes " that they should live together in a strict communication of studies, and avoid at least the sight if not the torigues of men ; yet so that if their new masters should call for their help to- wards settling the republic, they should run with pleasure and assist not only as architects but even as masons to build it up again ; or if nobody would employ them, should write and read the best forms of government, and, as the learned ancients had done before them, serve their country, if not in the senate and forum, yet by their books and studies, and by composing treatises of morals and. laws'." , In this retreat he wrote his book of OratoriaJ Partitions, or the art of ordering and distributing the parts of an oration so as to adapt them in the best manner to their proper «nd of moving and persuading an audience. It was written for the instruction of his son, now about . eighteen years old, but seems to have been the rude .draught only of iWhat he intended, or not to have been- finished at least to liis satisifaction ; since we find no men- tion, of it ia any of his letters, as of all his other pieces which were prepared for the p ublic. Nomen illud; quod a Caesare, tres habet conditiones ; aut emtionem ab hasta ; (perdere malo :— ) aut deloga- tioneni a manoipe, annua die : (quis erit, cui crcdam ?)— . autvecteni conditionem, semisse, aKe'^ai igitur.— Ad Att.^ xii. 3. O 3 106 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF This made a second marriage necessary, in order to repair the ill state of his affairs, and his friends of botVi sexes were busy in providing a, fit match for him ; several parties were proposed to him, and among others, the daughter of Pompey the Great, for whom he seems to have had an inclina- tion, but a prudential regard to the times, and the envy and ruin under which that family then lay, induced him probably to drop it'. What gave his enemies the greater handle to rally him was, his marrying a handsome young woman, named Pub- lilia, of an age disproportionate to his own, to whom he was guardian, but she was well allied, and rich, circumstances very convenient to him at this time, as he intimates in a letter to a friend, who congratulated with him on his marriage. " As to your giving me joy, says he, for what I have done, I know you wish it ; but I should not have taken any new step in such wretched times, if at my return I had not found my private affairs in no better condition than those of the republic. For when through the wickedness of those, who, for my infinite kindness to them, ought to have had the greatest concern for my welfare, I found no safety or ease from their intrigues and perfidy within my own walls ; I thought it necessary to secure myself by the fidelity of new alliances against the treachery of the old'." Caesar returned victorious from Africa about the end of July, by the way of Sardinia, where he spent some days : upon which Cicero says plea- santly in a letter to Varro, " he had never seen that farm of his before, which, though one of the worst that he has, he does not yet despise '." The uncertain event of the African war had kept the senate under some reserve, but they now began to push their flattery beyond all the bounds of de- cency, and decreed more extravagant honours to Ceesar than were ever given before to man, which Cicero often rallies with great spirit ; and being de- termined tobearno partinthat servileadulation, was treating about the purchase of a house at Naples, for a pretence of retiring still farther, and oftener, from Rome. But his friends, who knew his im- patience under their present subjection, and the free way of speaking which he was apt to in- dulge, were in some pain lest he should forfeit the good graces of Csesar and his favourites, and » De Pompeii Magni filia tibi rescripsi, nihil me hoc tempore cogitare. Alteram vero illam, quam tu scribis, puto noBti. Nihil vidl fcedius. — Ad Att. xii. 11. It Ep. Fam. iv. H, In cases of divorce, where there were children, it was the cuatom for each party to make a settlement by will on their common oflFspring, proportionable to their several estates : which is the meaning of Cicero's pressing Atticus so often in bis letters to put Terentia in mind of making her will, and depositing it in safe hands. — Ad Att. xi. 21, 22, S4 ; xii. 18: Terentia is said to have lived to the age of a hundred and three years : [Val. Max. viii. 13 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 48.] and took, as St. Jerome says, for her second husband, Cioero'B enemy, Sallust ; and Messala for her third, Dio Caasius gives her a fourth, Vibius Rufus, who was consul in tlie reign of Tiberius, and valued himself for the pos- aoseion of two things, which had belonged to the two greatest men of the ago before him, Cicero*s wife, and Citsar's chair, in tvliiclt he was killed. — ^Dio, p. 612 ; Hieron. Op. to. iv. par. 2. p. 190. I Illud enim adhuc prssdium suum non inspexit : nee ulhun habet deterius, sed tamen non contemnit.— Ep, Fam, is. 7. provoke tllem too far by the keenness of his rail lery". They pressed him to accommodate himseu to the times, and to use more caution in hiii discourse ; and to reside more at Rome, especially when Cffisar was there, who would interpret tik distance and retreat which he afiected as a prooi of his aversion to him. But his answers on this occasion will show the real state of his sentiments and conduct to- wards Cffisar, as well as of Caesar's towards him. Writing on this subject to Papirius Paetus, he says, " You are of opinion, I perceive, that it will not be allowed to me, as I thought it might be, to quit these affairs of the city ; you tell me of Catuliis, and those times, but what similitude have they to these ? I myself was unwilUng, at that time, to stir from the guard of the state, for I then sat at the helm, and held the rudder ; but am now scarce thought worthy to work at the pump ; would the senate, think yon, pass fewer decrees, if I should live at Naples ? While I am still at Rome, and attend the forum, their decrees are all drawn at our friend's house ; and whenever it comes into his head, my name is set down, as if present at drawing them, so that I hear from Armenia and Syria of decrees, said to be made at my motion, of which I had never heard a syllable at home. Do not take me to be in jest, for I assure you, that I have received letters from kings from the remotest parts of the earth, to thank me for giving them the title of king ; when, so far from knowing that any such title had been decreed to them, I knew not even that there were any such men in being. What is then to be done ,' Why, as long as our master of manners continues here, I will follow your advice ; but as soon as he is gone, will run away to your mushrooms"," &c. In another letter, " Since you express (says he) such a concern for me in your last, be assured, my dear Paetus, that whatever can be done by art, (for it is not enough to act with prudence, some artifice also must now be employed) yet whatever, I say, can be done by art, towards acquiring their good graces, I have already done it with the great- est care, nor, as Ibelieve, without success; forlam ™ Some of his jests on Cesar's administration are still preserved ; which show, that his friends had reason enough to admonish him to be more upon his guard. Csesar had advanced Laberius, a celebrated mimic actor, to the order of knights : but when he stepped from the stage into the theatre to take his place on the equestrian benches, none of the knights would admit him to a seat among them. As he was marching ofif therefore with disgrace, happening to pass near Cicero, I would make room for you here, says Cicero, on our bench, if we were not already too much crowded ,• alluding to Csesar's filling up the senate also with the scum of his creatures, and even with strangers and barbarians. At another time, being desired by a friend, in a public company, to procure for his son tJie rank of a senator in one of the corporate towns of Italy, He shall have it, says he, ifyau please, at Rome ; but it will be difficult at Pompeii. An acquaint- ance likewise from Laodicea, coming to pay his respects to him, and being asked, what business had brought bun to Rome, said, that he was sent upon an embassy to Caesar, to intercede with him for the liberty ofhii country; upon which Cicero replied. If you succeed, you shall be an ambassador also for «5.— Macrob. Saturn, ii. 3j Sueton, c. 76. » Ep. Fam. ix. 15. — Pi^afectus morum, or Mast^ ofl^^ public manners, was one of the new titles which the senate had decreed to Caesar. MAIICUS 'JTtJLLlUS CtCEtiO. 197 so much courted by all who are in any degree of favour with Csesar, that I begin to fancy that they love me ; and though real love is not easily distinguished from false, except in the caseof danger, bywhich the sincerity of it (uay be tried, as of gold by iire, for all other marks are common to both ; yet T have one argument- to persuade me that they really love me, because both my condition and theirs is such as puts them under no temptation to dissemble ; and as for him who has all power, Isee no reasontofear any thing, unless that all things become of course uncertain, when justice and right are once deserted; nor can we be sure of anything that depends on the will, not to say the passion, of another. Yet I have not in any instance particularly offended him, but behaved myself all along with the great- est moderation ; for as once I took it to be my duty to speak my mind freely in that city, which owed its freedom to me, so now, since that is lost, to speak nothing that may offend him, or his prin- cipal friends ; but if I would avoid all offence, of things said facetiously or by way of raillery, I must give up all reputation of wit, which I would not refuse to do, if I could. But as to Csesar himself, he has a very piercing judgment ; and as your brother Servius, whom I take to have been an excellent critic, would readily say, ' This verse is not Plautus's — that verse is ;' having formed his ears, by great use, to distinguish the peculiar style and manner of different poets ; so Ciesar, I hear, who has already collected some vo- lumes of apophthegms, if any thing be brought to him for mine which is not so, presently rejects it, which he now does the more easily, because his friends live almost continually with me ; and in the variety of discourse, when anything drops from me wnich they take to have some humour or spirit in it, they carry it always to him, with the other news of the town, for such are his orders ; so that if he hears anything besides of mine from other persons, he does not regard it. I have no occasion therefore for your example of CEnomaus, though aptly applied from Accius ; for what is the envy which you speak of, or what is there in me to he envied now ? But suppose there was every- thing, it has been the constant opinion of philo- sophers, the only men in my judgment who have a right notion of virtue, that a wise man has no- thing more to answer for, than to ieep himself free from guilt, of which I take myself to be clear, on a double account; because I both pursued those measures which were the justest, and when I saw that I had not strength enough to carry them, did not think it my business to contend by force with those who were too strong for me. It is certain, therefore, that I cannot be blamed in what concerns the part of a good citizen ; all that is now left, is not to say or do anything foolishly and rashly against the men in power, which I take also to be the part of a wise man. As for the rest, what people may report to be said by me, or how he may take it, or with what sincerity those live with me who now so assi- duously court me, it is not in my power to answer. I comfort myself, therefore, with the conscious- ness of my former conduct, and the moderation of my present, and shall apply your similitude from Accius, not only to the case of envy, but of fortune, which I consider as light and weak, and what ought to be repelled by a firm and great mind, as waves by a rock. For since the Greek history is full of examples, how the wisest men have endured tyrannies at Athens or Syracuse ; and, when their cities were enslaved, have lived themselves in some measure free, why may not I think it possible to maintain my rank, so as neither to offend the mind of any, nor hurt my own dig- nity"?" &c. Psetus, having heard that Csesar was going to divide some lands in his neighbourhood to the soldiers, began to be afraid for his own estate, and writes to Cicero to know how far that distribution would extend. To which Cicero answers : " Are not you a pleasant fellow, who when Balbus has just been with you, ask me what will become of those towns and their lauds ? as if either I knew anything that Balbus does not : or if at any time I chance to know anything, I do not know it from him ; nay, it is your part rather, if you love me, to let me know what will become of me, for you had it in your power to have learnt it from him, either sober, or at least when drunk. But as for me, my dear Psetus, I have done inquiring about those things : first, because we have already lived near four years by clear gain, as it were, if that can be called gain, or this life, to outlive the republic. Secondly, because I myself seem to know what will happen ; for it will be, whatever pleases the strongest, which must always be de- cided by arms ; it is our part, therefore, to be content with what is allowed to us : he who cannot submit to this, ought to have chosen death. . They are now measuring the fields of Veise and Ca- pense : this is not far from Tusculum. Yet I fear nothing, I enjoy it whilst I may ; wish that I always may ; but if it should happen otherwise, yet since, with all my courage and philosophy, I have thought it best to live, I cannot but have an affection for him by whose benefit I hold that life : who, if he has an inclination to restore the republic, as he himself perhaps may desire, and we all ought to wish, yet he has linked himself so with others, that he has not the power to do what he would. But I proceed too far, for I am writing to you ; be assured however of this, that not only I, who have no part in their counsels, but even the chief him- self does not know what will happen. We are slaves to him, he to the times ; so neither can he know what the times will require, nor we what he may intend^," &c. The chiefs of the Csesarian party, who courted Cicero so much at this time, were Balbus, Oppius, Matins, Pansa, Hirtius, Dolabella ; they were all in the first confidence with Caesar, yet pro- fessed the utmost affection for Cicero : were every morning at his levee, and perpetually engaging him to sup with them ; and the last two employed themselves in a daily exercise of declaiming at his house, for the benefit of his instruction, of which he gives the following account in his familiar way to Psetus : " Hirtius and Dolabella are my scholars in speaking — my masters in eating ; for you have heard, I guess, how they declaim with me ; I sup with them." In another letter he tells him, "that as king Dionysius, when driven out of Syracuse, turned schoolmaster at Corinth, so he, having lost his kingdom of the forum, had now opened a school," to which he merrily invites Psetus, with » Bp. Fam. ix. 16. p Ep. Fam. ix. 17. 198- THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the offer of a " seat and cushion next to himself," Si i.is usher i." But to Varro, more seriously, " I acquainted you (says he) before, that I am intimate with them all, and assist at their councils j I see no reason why I should not — for it is not the same thing to bear what must be borne, and to approve wha,t ought not to be approved." And again ; " I do not forbear to sup with those who now rule. What can I do ? we must comply with the times'." The only use which he made of all this favour was, to screen himself from any particular calamity inthegeneral misery of the times, and to serve those unhappy men who were driven from their country and their families, for their adherence to that cause which he himself had espoused. Caesar was desi- rous indeed to engage him in his measures, and attach him insensibly to his interests, but he would; bear no part in an administration established on the ruins of his country, nor ever cared to be ac- quainted with their affairs, or to inquire what they were doing ; so that whenever he entered into their councils, as he signifies above to Varro, it was only when the case of some exiled friend required it, for whose service he scrupled lio pains of soli- citing, and attending even Caesar himself; though he was sometimes shocked, as he complains, by the difficulty of access, and, the indignity of waiting in an antechamber : not indeed through Caesar's fault, who was always ready to give him audience ; but from the multiplicity of his affairs, by whose hands all the favours of the empire were dispensed'. Thus iu a letter to Ampius, whose pardon he had procured, " I have solicited your cause (says he) more eagerly than my present situation would well justify ; for my desire to see you, and my constant love for you, most assiduously cultivated on your part, overruled all regard to the present weak con- dition of my power and interest. Every thing that relates to your return and safety is promised, confirmed, fixed, and ratified ; I saw, knew, was present at every step : for by good luck I have all Caesar's friends engaged to me by an old acquaint- ance and friendship ; so that next to him they pay the first regard to me : Pansa, Hirtius, Balbus, Oppius, Matins, Postumius, take all occasions to give me proof of their singular affection. If this had been Sought and procured by me, I should have no, reason, as things now stand, to repent of my pains, but 1 have done nothing with the view of serving the times ; I had an intimacy of long standing with them all, and never gave over soli- citing them on your behalf, I found Pansa, how- ever, the readiest of them all io serve you, and 1 Hirtium ego et Dolaiellam dicendi discipulos habeo, coenandi magistros: puto enim to audisse— illos apud me declamitare, me apud eos ccenitai-e.— Ep. Fam. ix. 16. Ut Dionysiua tyrannus, cum Syraousia pulsus esset, Corinthi dioitur ludum aperuisse,- sic ego— amisso regno forensi, ludum quasi baliere cceperim— sella tibi erit in ludo, tanquam hypodidasoulo, proxima: earn pulvinus sequetur — ^Ibid. 18. ',Pstentavi tibi, me istis esse familiarem, et consilils eoruminteresse. Quod ego cur nolim nihil video. Non enim est ideip, ferre si quid ferendum est, et probare, si quid probandum non est. — Ibid. 6. Non desino apud istos, qui nunc dominantuv, ccenitare. Quid faciam ? tempori serviendum est.— Ibid. 7. " Quod si tardius fit quam volumus, magnis occupa- tionibuB ejus, a quo omnia petuntur, aditus ad eum diffl- ciliores fuerunt.-^Ep. Fam. vi. 13, oblige me ; who has not only an interest, but authority with Caesar'," &c. But while he was thus caressed by Caesar's friends, he was not less followed, we may imagine, by the friends of the republic. These had always looked upon him as the chief patron of their liberty, whose counsels, if they had been followed, would have preserved it ; and whose authority gave them the only hopes that were left, of reco- vering it : so that his house was as much fre- quented, and his levee as much crowded, as ever ; since " people now flocked (he says) to see a good citizen, as a sort of rarity"." In another letter, giving a short account of his way of life, he says, " Early in the morning, I receive the compliments of many honest men, bnt melancholy ones, as well as of these gay conquerors, who show indeed a very officious and affectionate regard to me. When these visits are over, I shut myself up in my library, either to write or read. Here some also come to hear me, as a man of learning, because I am somewhat more learned than they ; the rest of my time I give to the care of my body, for I have now bewailed my country longer and more heavily than any. mother ever bewailed her only son*." It is certain, that there was not a man in the republic so particularly engaged, both by principle and interest, to wish well to its liberty, or who had so much to lose by the subversion of it, as he ; for as long as it was governed by civil methods, and stood upon the foundation of its laws, he was undoubtedly the first citizen in it ; had the chief influence in the senate, the chief authority with the people ; and as all his hopes and fortunes were grounded on the peace of his country, so all his labours and studies were perpetually applied to the promotion of it ; it is no wonder tierefore, ij the present situation of the city, oppressed by arms and a tyrannical power, to find him so particularly impatient under the common misery, and express- ing so keen a sense of the diminution of his dig- nity, and the disgrace of serving, where he hadheen used to govern. Caesar, on the other hand, though he knew his temper and principles to be irreconcileahle to his usurped dominion, yet, out of friendship to the man, and a reverence for his character, was deter- mined to treat him with the greatest humanity ; and by all the marks of personal favour to make his life not only tolerable, but easy to him : yet all that he could do had no other effect on Cicero than to make him think and speak sometimes favourably of the natural clemency of their master, and to entertain some hopes from it that he would one day be persuaded to restore the public liberty ; but exclusive of that hope, he never mentions his government but as a real tyranny, or his person ' Ep. Fam. vi. 12. " Cum salutationi nos dedimus amicorum ; quae fit hoe etiam frequenting, quam solebat, quod quasi avem albam, videntur bene sentientem civem videre, abdo mo in bibliothecam. — Ibid. vii. 28. * Haec igitur est nunc vita nostra. Mane salutanius domi et bonos viros multos, sed tristes, et bos tetos vic- tores; qui mequidemperofficioseetperamanterobservant. ; ITbi salutatio defluxit. Uteris me involve, aut scribo aut ; lego. Veninnt etiam qui me audiunt, quasi doctmn boml- nem, quia paulla sum, quam ipsi, doctior. Inde corpori omne tempus datur. Patriam eluxi jam graviua et diutius quam uUa jnatei imicum fiUnm.— Ep. Fam, is," 20. MARCUS TULLIUS CICEEO. 109 in any other style than as the oppressor of his country. But he gave a remarkable proof at this time of ' his being no temporiser, by writing a book in praise of Cato, which he published within a few months after Cato's death. He seems to have been left a guardian to Cato's son, as he was also to young Lucullus, Cato's nephew^ ; and this testi- mony of Cato's friendship and judgment of him might induce him the more readily to pay this honour to his memory. It was a matter however of no small deliberation in what manner he ought to treat the subject. His friends advised him not to be too explicit and particular in the detail of Cato's praises, hut to content himself with a general encomium, for fear of irritating Caesar, by pushing the argument too far. In a letter to Atticus, he calls this " an Archimedean problem;" " but I cannot hit upon anything," says he, " that those friends of yours will read with pleasure, or ^en with patience j besides, if I should drop the account of Cato's votes and speeches in the senate, and of his politicaj conduct in the state, and ' give a slight commendation only of his con- stancy and gravity, even this may be more than they will care to hear : but the man cannot be praised as he deserves unless it be particularly ex- plained how he foretold all that has happened to vis i how he toojc arms to prevent its happening, and parted with life rather than see it happen^." These were the topics which he resolved to dis. play with aU Ms force ; and from the accounts given of the work by antiquity, it appears that he had spared no pains to adorn it, but extolled Cato's virtue and character to the skies". The hook was soon spread into all hands ; and Caesar, instead of expressing any' resentment, affected to be much pleased with it, yet declared that he would answer it; and Hirtius, in the meanwhile, drew up a little piece in the form of a letter to Cicero, filled with objections to Cato's character, but with high compliments to Cicero himself, which Cicero took care to make public, and calls if a specimen of what Caesar's work was like to be'. Brutus also composed and published apiece on the same subject, as well as another fiiend of Cicero, Fabius Gallus';' but these were but little considered in comparison of Cicero's : and Brutus had made some mistakes in his account of the transactions in which Cato had 7 Ad Att. xiii. 6.— De Fin. iii. 2. * Sed de Catone irp&^KripLa dp'^lju^Sewc est. Non asse- quor ut scribajn, quod tui conviva non modo libenter, 86d Gtiam xquo animo legere possint. Quin etiam si a sententiis ejus dictis, si ab omni voluntate, coneiliisque qQEE -de republica habuit, recedam ; i|/iAws que velim gvavitatem cctnstantiamque ejus laudare, hoc ipsum QKoucr/ia sit. Sed vere laudari ille vir non potest, nisi haec omata sint, quod ille ea, quee nunc sunt, et f utura viderit, et ne fierent contenderit, et facta ne videret, vitam reli- quei^l;.— Ad Att. xii. 4. " M. Ciceronis libro, quo Catonem coelo aquavit, &c. — Tacit, Ann. iv. 34. ^ Qualis futura sit Csesarjs vituperatio contra laudar tionem meam perspexi ex eo libro, quem Hirtius ad me misit, in quo colligit vitia Catonis, sed cum maximia lE^udibus meig. Itaque misi librum ad Muscam, ut tuis librariis daret. Voio eum divulgari, &c,— Ad Att. xii. 40,41. ■ « Catonem tuum mihl mitte, Cupio enim Icgere.— Bp. Fam. vii. Si. ■ been concerned, especially in the debates on Catiline's plot, in which he had given him the first part and merit, in derogation even of Cicero himself. Caesar's answer was not published till the next year, upon his return from Spain, after the defeat of Pompey's sons. It was a laboured invective, answering Cicero's book paragraph by paragraph, and accusing Cato with all the art and force of his rhetoric, as if in a public trial before judges', yet with expressions of great respect towards Cicero, whom, for his virtues and abilities, he compared to Pericles and Theramenes of Athens'; and in a letter upon it to Balbus, which was shown by his order to Cicero, he said, that by the frequent reading of Cicero's Cato, he was grown more copious, but after he had read Brutns's, thought himself even eloquent?. These two rival pieces were much celebrated in Rome, and had their several admirers, as different parties and interests disposed men tofavour the sub- ject or the author of each ; and it is certain, that they were the principal cause of establishing and pro- pagating that veneration which posterity has since paid to the memory of Cato. For his name being thrown into controversy in that critical period o^ the fate of Rome, by the patron of liberty on the one side, and the oppressor of it on the other, became of course a kind of political teat to all succeciding ages, and a perpetual argument of dis- pute between the friends of liberty and the flat- terers of power. But if we consider his character without prejudice, he was certainly a great and worthy man — a friend to truth, virtue, liberty; yet falsely measuring all duty by the absurd rigour of the stoical rule, he was generally-disappointed of the end which he sought by it— the happiness both of his private and public life. In his private conduct he was severe, morose, inexorable — banish- ing all tlie softer affections as natural enemies to justice, and as suggesting false motives of acting from favour, clemency, and compassion ; in public affairs he was the same — had but one rule of policy — to adhere to what was right, without regard to times or circumstances, or even to a force that could control him ; for instead of managing the power of the great, so as to mitigate the ill, or extract any' good from it, he was urging it always to acts of violence by a perpetual deflance ; so that, with the best intentions in the world, he often did great harm to the republic. This was his general behaviour ; yet, from some particular facts explained above, it appears that 'his strength of mind was not always impregnable, but had its weak places of pride, ambition, and party zeal, d Catonem primumsententiamputatdeanimadversione dixisse, quam onmes ante dixeVant praeterCassarem, &c. —Ad Att. xii. 21. From this and other particulars which are mentioned in the same letter, we may observe, that Sallust had pro- bably talcen his account of the debates upon Catlliriie's "accomplices," from Brutus's Life of Caio, and chosen to copy even his mistaltes, rather than do justice to Cicero on that occasion. « Ciceronis libro— quid aliud dictator Caesar, quam rescripta oratione, velut apud judioes respondit ?— Tacit. Ann. iv. 34 ; Quintil. iii. 7. f Plut. in Cio. B Legi epistolam : multa de meo Catone, quo sKpissiine legendo se dicit copiosiorem factum ;■ Bruti Catone lecto, se sibi visum disertum.— Ad Att. xiii. 46. 200 THJE HISTORY OJ* THE LIFE OF which, when managed and flattered to a certain point, would betray him sometimes into measures contrary to his ordinary rule of right and truth. The last act of his life was agreeable to his nature and philosophy ; when he could no longer be what he had been, or when the ills of life overbalanced the good, which, by the principles of his sect, was a just cause for dying'', he put an end to his life with a spirit and resolution which would make one imag;ine that he was glad to have found an occasion of dying in his proper character. On the whole, his life was rather admirable than amiable — fit to be praised rather than imitated'. As soon as Cicero had published his " Cato," he wrote his piece called "the Orator," at the request of Brutus, containing the plan or delineation of what he himself esteemed the most perfecteloquence or manner of speaking. He calls it the fifth part or book, designed to complete the argument of his "Brutus," and the other three on the same subject. It was received with great approbation ; and in a letter to Lepta, who had complimented hira upon it, he declares, that whatever judgment he had in speaking, he had thrown it all into that work, and was content to risk his reputation on the merit of it''. He now likewise spoke that famous speech of thanks to Ciesar for the pardon of M. Marcellus, which was granted upon the intercession of the senate. Cicero had a particular friendship with all the family of the Marcelli, but especially vyith this Marcus, who, from the defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia, retired to Mitylene in Lesbos, where he lived with so much ease and satisfaction to himself in a philosophical retreat, that Cicero, as it appears from his letters, was forced to use all his art and authority to persuade him to return, and take the benefit of that grace which they had been labour- ing to obtain for him'. But how the affair was transacted we may learn from Cicero's account of it to Serv. Sulpicius, who was then proconsul of Gi'eece. " Your condition," says he, '* is better than ours in this particular, that you dare venture to write your grievances — we cannot even do that with safety ; not through any fault of the conqueror, than whom nothing can be more moderate, but of victory itself, which in civil wars is always insolent. We have had the advantage of you however in one thing — in being acquainted a little sooner than you with the pardon of your coUeagus Marcellus ; or rather, indeed, in seeing ^ In quo enim plura sunt, quae secundum naturam sunt, hujus officium est in vita manere : in quo autcm aut sunt plura contraria, aut fore videntur, hujus officium est e vita excedere.— De Fin. iii. 18. Vetus est enim ; utii non sis, qui f ueris, non esse cur velis viverc. — Ep. Fam. vii. 3. ' Cato sic abiit e vita, ut causam moriundi nactum so esse gauderet.^Cum veto causam justam deus ipse de- derit, ut tunc Socrati, nxmc Catoni, &c.— Tusc. Quaiet. i. 30. Catoni— -moriundum potius, quam tyranui vultus adspi- ciendus fuit. — De Offic. i. 31. Non immatm'us deoessit : vixit enim, quantum debuit vivere. — Senec. Consol. ad Marc. 20. li Ita ti-es erunt, De Oratore : quartus Brutus : quintus. Orator. — De Div. ii. 1. Oratorem meum tantopere a te probari, vehementer gaudeo ; mihi quidem sic persuadeo, me quicquid habu- erim judioii in dicendo, in ilium librum contulisse.— Ep. Fam. vi. ]8. * Ep. Fam. iv. 7, 8, 9. how the whole affair passed ; for I would have yoit believe, that from the beginning of these miseries, or ever since the public right has been decided by arms, there has nothing been done besides this with any dignity. For C^sar himself, after having complained of the moroseness of Marcellus, for so he called it, and praised in the strongest terms the equity and prudence of your conduct, presently declared, beyond all our hopes, that whatever offence he had received from the man, he could refuse nothing to the intercession of the senate. What the senate did was this : upon the mention of Marcellus by Piso, his brother Caius having thrown himself at Caesar's feet, they all rose up and went forward in a supplicating manner towards Caesar : in short, this day's work appeared to me so decent, that I could not help fancying that I saw the image of the old republic reviving : when all, therefore, who were asked their opinions before me, had returned thanks to Csesar, excepting Volcatius (for he declared that he would not have done it, though he had been in Marcellus's place), I, as soon as I was called upon, changed my mind, for I had resolved with myself to observe an eternal silence, not through any laziness, but the loss of my former dignity ; but Caesar's greatness of mind, and the laudable zeal of the senate, got the better of my resolution. I gave thanks there- fore to Ctesar in a long speech, and have deprived myself by it, I fear, on other occasions, of that honest quiet, which was my only comfort in these unhappy times ; but since I have hitherto avoided giving him offence, and if I had always continued silent, be would have interpreted it, perhaps, as a proof of my taking the republic to be rained, I shall speak for the future not often, or rather very seldom, so as to manage at the same time both bis favour and my own leisure for study"." Caesar, though he saw the senate unanimous in their petition for Marcellus, yet took the pains to call for the particular opinion of every senator upon it, a method never practised except in cases of debate, and where the house was divided : but he wanted the usual tribute of flattery upon this act of grace, and had a mind probably to make an experiment of Cicero's temper, and to draw from him especially some incense on the occasion ; nor was he disappointed of his aim, for Cicero, touched by his generosity, and greatly pleased with the act itself, on the account of his friend, returned thanks to him in a speech, which, though made upon the spot, yet for elegance of diction, vivacity of senti- ment, and politeness of compliment, is superior to anything extant of the kind in all antiquity. The many fine things which are said in it of Csesar, have given some handle indeed for a charge of insincerity against Cicero : but it must be remem- bered that he was delivering a speech of thanks not only for himself, but in the name and at the desire of the senate, where his subject naturally required the embellishments of oratory, and that all his compliments are grounded on a supposition that Caesar intended to restore the republic, of which he entertained no small hopes at this time, as he signifies in a letter to one of Csesar's prin- cipal friends". This therefore he recommends, " Ep. Fam. iv. 4. " Sperare tamen videor, Csesari, coUegas nostro, fore ourK et esse, ut habeamus aliquam rempublicam.— Ep, Fam, xiii, 68. MARCUS tULLlUS CICEkO. ^01 enforces, and requires from Mm in his speech, with the spirit of an old Roman ; and no reason- able man will think it strange that so free an address to a conqueror, in the height of all his power, should want to be tempered with some few strokes of flattery. But the following passage from the oration itself «ill justify the truth of what 1 am saying, " If this," says hi, - Caesar, was to be the end of your immortal aotii, that after conquering all your enemies, you ttiould leave the republic in the condition in which it now is ; consider, I beseech you, whether your divine virtue would not excite rather an admiration of you than any real glory ; for glory is the illustrious fame of many and great services either to our friends, our country, or to the whole race of mankind. This part, therefore, still remains j there is one act more to be per- formed by you, to establish the republic again, that you may reap the benefit of it yourself in peace and prosperity. When you have paid this debt to your country, and fulfilled the ends of your nature by a satiety of living, you may then tell us, if you please, that you have lived long enough ; yet what is it after all that we can really call long, of which there is an end ? for when that end is once come, all past pleasure is to be reckoned as nothing, since no more of it is to be expected. Though your mind, I know, was never content with these narrow bounds of life which nature has assigned to us, but inflamed always with an ardent love of immortality : nor is this indeed to be con- sidered as your life, which is comprised in this body and breath ; but that — that I say, is your life which is to flourish in the memory of all ages, which posterity wiU cherish, and eternity itself propagate. It is to this that you must attend, to this that you must form yourself, which has many things already to admire, yet wants something still that it may praise in you. Posterity will be amazed to hear and read of your commands, provinces ; the Rhine, the Ocean, the Nile ; your innumerable battles, incredible victories, infinite monuments, splendid triumphs : but urdess this city he established again by your wisdom and coun- cils, your name indeed will wander far and wide, yet will have no certain seat or place at last where to fix itself. There will be also amongst those who are yet unborn the same controversy that has been amongst us ; when some will extol your actions to the skies, others, perhaps, will find something defective in them ; and that one thing above all, if you should not ejitinguish this flame of civil war, by restoring liberty to your country ; for the one may be looked upon as the eflect of fate, but the other is the certain act of wisdom. Pay a reverence, therefore, to those judges who will pass judgment upon you in ages to come, and with less partiality, perhaps, than we, since they will neither be biassed by afiection or party, nor prejudiced by hatred or envy to you : and though this, as some falsely imagine, should then have no relation to you, yet it concerns you certainly at the present, to act in such a manner that no oblivion may ever obscure the lustre of your praises. Various were the inclinations of the citizens, and their opinions wholly divided ; nor did we differ only in sen- timents and wishes, but in arms also and camps ; the merits of the cause were dubious, and the contention between two celebrated leaders ; many doubted what was the best ; many what was con- venient ; many what was decent ; some also what was lawful," &c.° But though Csesar took no step towards re- storing the republic, he employed himself this summer in another work of general benefit to mankind, the reformation of the calendar, by accommodating the course of the year to the exact course of the sun, from which it had varied so widely as to occasion a strange confusion in all their accounts of time. The Roman year, from the old institution of Numa, was lunar, borrowed from the Greeks, amongst whom it consisted of three hundred and fifty-four' days. Numa added one more to them to make the whole number odd, which was thought the more fortunate ; and to fill up the deficiency of his year to the measure of the solar course, inserted likewise or intercalated, after the maimer of the Greeks, an extraordinary month of twenty- two days, every second year, and twenty-three every fourth, between the twenty-third and twenty- fourth day of February P : he committed the care of intercalating this month and the supernumerary day to the college of priests, who, in progress of time, partly by a negligent, partly a superstitious, but chiefly by an arbitrary abuse of their trust, used either to drop or insert them, as it was found most convenient to themselves or their friends, to make the current year longer or- shorter'. Thus Cicero, when harassed by a perpetual course of pleading, prayed, that there might be no inter- calation to lengthen his fatigue ; and when pro- consul of Cilicia, pressed Atticus to exert all his interest to prevent any intercalation within the year, that it might not protract his government and retard his return to Rome'. Curio, on the contrary, when he could not persuade the priests to prolong the year of his tribunate by an interca- lation, made that a pretence for abandoning the senate, and going over to Csesar". This licence of intercalating introduced the confusion above-mentioned, in the computation of their time : so that the order of all their months was ti'ansposed from their stated seasons ; the winter months carried back into autumn, the autumnal into summer : till Caesar resolved to put an end to this disorder by abolishing the source of it, the use of intercalations ; and instead of the lunar to establish the solar year, adjusted to the exact measure of the sun's revolution in the zodiac, or to that period of time in which it returns to o Pro M. Marcell. 8, 9, 10. P This was usually called intercalariSt though Plutarch gives it the name of mercedoniits, which none of the Koman writers mention, except that Festus speaks of some days under the title of mercedonice, because the merces or "wages of workmen were commonly paid upon them, q Quod institutum perite a Numa posteriormn pontifi- cum negligentia dissolutum est. — De Leg. ii, 12 ; Censorin, De Die Nat, o, 20 ; Maorob. Sat, i, 14, r Nos hie in multitudine et celebritate judiciopum— ita destinemur, ut quotidie voia faciamus ne intercaletiu:, — - Ep, Fam, vii, 2, Per fortunas primum illud prffifulci atque prsemunl qua'so, ut simus annul ; ne intercaletur quidem,— Ad Att, V, 13. 9. 8 Levissime enim, quia de intercalando non obtinuerat, trausfugit ad populum et pro CasBare loqui coepit, — Ep, Fam,viii, 6; Dio, p, 148. 202 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the point from which it set out : and as tliis, ac- cording to the astronomers of that age, was sup- posed to be three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours, so he divided the days into twelve arti- ficial months ; and to supply the deficiency of the six hours, by which they fell short of the sun's complete course, he ordered a day to be inter- calated after every four years, between the twenty- third and twenty-fourth of February'. But to make this new year begin and proceed regularly, he was forced to insert into the current year two extraordinary months between November and December ; the one of thirty-three, the other of thirty-four days ; besides the ordinary inter- calary month of twenty-three 4ays, which fell into it of course ; which were all necessary to fill up the number of days that were lost to the old year, by the omission of intercalations, and to replace the months in their proper seasons". All this was effected by the care and slcill of Sosigenes, a cele- brated astronomer of Alexandria, whom Caesar had brought to Rome for that purpose * : and a new calendar was formed upon it by Flavins a scribe, digested according to the order of the Roman fes- tivals, and the old manner of computing their days by calends, ides, and nones ; which was published and authprised by the dictator's edict, not long after his return from Africa. This year therefore was the longest that Rome had ever known, con- sisting of fifteen months, or four hundred and forty-five days, and is called the last of the con- fusion? ; because it introduced the Julian or solar year, with the commencement of the ensuing January ; which continues in use to this day in all Christian countries, without any other variation thnn that of the old and new style^. Soon after the affair of Marcellus, Cicero had another occasion of trying both his eloquence and interest with Csesar, in the cause of Ligarius ; who was now in exile on the account of his having been in arms against Caesar in the African war, in which he had borne a considerable command. His two brothers however had always been on Caesar's side; and being recommended by Fansa, and warmly * This day was called Bissextus, from its being a repeti- tion or duplicate of the sixth of the kalends of March, which fell always on the 24th ; and hence our intercalary or leap year is stm called Bissextile. " Quo autem magis in posterum ex Kalendis Januariis nobis temporum ratio congrueret, inter Novembrem et Decembrem mensem adjecit duos alios : fuitque is annus -^xT. mensium cum intercalario, qui ex consuetudine eum annum inciderat. — Suet, J. Cas. 40. * Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 25. r Adnitente sibi M. Flavio scriba, qui scriptos dies sin- gulos ita ad dictatorem detulit, ut et ordo eorum inveniri facillime posset, et invento certus status pei-severaret — eaque re factum est, ut annus confusionisultimus in quad- ringentos quadraginta tresdies tenderetur. — ^Hacrob. Sat. i.l4; Dio, 227. Macrobius makes this year to consist of 443 days, but he Bbould have said 445, since, according to all accounts, aiinety days were added to the old year of 355. z This difference of the old and new style was oecafiioned by a regulation made by Pope Gregory, a. d. 1582, for it having been observed, that the computation of the vernal equinox was fallen back ten days from the time of the council of Nice, when it was found to be on the 21st of March ; according to which aUthe festivals of the church were then solemnly settled ; Pope Gregory, by the advice of astronomers, caused ten days to be .entirely sunk and thrown out of the current year, between "the 4th and 16th of October. supported by Cicero, bad almost prevailed for his pardon ; of which Cicero gives the following ac- count in a letter to Ligarius himself. Cicero to Ligarius, " I would have you to be assured that I employ my whole pains, labour, care, study, in procuring your restoration: for as I have ever had the greatest affection for you, so the singular piety and love of your brothers, for whom as well as yourself I have always professed the utmost esteem, never suffer me to neglect any opportunity of my duty and service to you. But what I am now doing,'or have done, I would have you learn from their letters rather than mine ; but as to what I hope and take to be certain in your affair, that I choose to acquaint you with myself: for if any man be timorous in great and dangerbus events, and fearing always the worst rather than hoping the best, I ain he ; and if this be a fault, confess myself not to be free from it ; yet on the twenty- seventh of No- vember, when, at the desire of your brothers I had been early with Caesar,' and gone through the trouble and indignity of getting access add au- dience ; when your brothers and relations had thrown themselves at his feet, and I had said what your cause and circumstances required, t ' came away persuaded that your pardon was cer- tain : which I collected not only from Caasar's discourse, which was mild and generous, but from his eyes and looks, and many other signs, which I could better observe than describe. It is your part, therefore, to behave yourself with firmness and courage ■; and as you have boriie the more turbulent part prudently, to bear this calmer state of things cheerfully : I shall continue still to take the same pains in your affairs as if there was the greatest difficulty in them, and will ' heartily supplicate in your behalf, as I have hitherto done, not only Caesar himself, but all his friends whorri I have ever found most affectionate to me. Adieu'." While Ligarius' s affair was in this hopeful way, Q. Tubero, who had an old quarrel with hiin, being desirous to obstruct his pardon, and knowing Csesar to be particularly exasperated against all those who, through an obstinate aversion to him; had renewed the war in Africa, accused him in the usual forms of an uncommon zeal and violence id prosecuting that war. Caesar privately encouraged the prosecution, and ordered ttie cause to be tried in the forum, where he sat upon it in person, strongly prepossessed against the criminal, and determined to lay hold on any plausible preteiice for condemning him : ' but the force of Cicero's eloquence, exerted with all his skill in a cause which he had much at heart, got the better of all his prejudices, and extorted a pardon from him against his will. ■ • ' The merit of this speech is too well known, to want to be enlarged upon here : those who read it will find no reason to charge Ciceto with flattery : but the free spirit wbich it breathes in the face of that power to which it was suing for mercy, must give a great idea of the art of the speaker who could deliver such bold truths vfithout offence ; as well as of the generosity of the judge, who heard them not only with patience but approbation. " Observe, Caesar," says he, " with what fidelity • Ep. Fam. vl. !*• V MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 203 I plead Ligai'ius's cause, when I betray even my owa by it. O that admirable clemency, worthy to be celebrated by every kind of praise, letters, monu- ments ! M. Cicero defends a criminal before yon, by proving him not to have been in those senti- ments, in which he owns himself to have been : nor does he yet fear your secret thoughts, or while he is pleading for another, what may occur to you about himself. See, I say, how little he is afraid of you. See with what a courage and gaiety of speaking your generosity and wisdom inspire me. I will raise my voice to such a pitch that the whole Roman people may hear me. After the war was not only begun j Ceesar, but in great measure finished, when I was driven by no necessity, I went by choice and judgment to join myself with those who had taken arms against you. Before whom do I say this ? why befpre him who, though he knew it to be true, yet restored me to the republic, before he had even seen me ; who wrote to me from Egypt, that I should be the same man that I tad always been ; and when he was the only em- peror within the dominion of Rome, suffered me to be the other, and to hold my laurelled fasces as long as I thought them worth holding — 'i. Do you then, Tubero, call Ligarius's conduct wicked ? for what reason ? since that cause has never yet been called by that name : some indeed call it mistake, others fear ; those who speak more se- verely, hope, ambition, hatred, obstinacy ; or at the worst, rashness ; but no man besides you has ever called it wickedness. For my part were I to invent a proper arid genuine name for om* calamity, I should take it for a kind of fatality that had possessed the unwary minds of men ; so that none can think it strange that all human counsels were overruled by a divine necessity. Call us then, if you please, unhappy ; though we can never be so under this conqueror : but I speak not of us who survive, ^ut of those who fell ; let them be ambi- j;ious ; let them be angry; let them be obstinate; but let not the guilt of crime, of fury, of parri- cide, ever be charged on Cn. Pompey, and oi\ inany of those who died with Turn. When did we evei- hear any such thing from you, Csesar ? or what other view had you in the war, than to defend yourself from injury ? — ^you considered it, from the pi'st, not as a ^ar, but a secession ; not as a hostile but civil dissention : where both sides wished well to the republic ; yet through a differ- ence, partly of counsels, partly of inclinations, deviated from the common good : the dignity of the leaders was almost equal ; though not perhaps of those who followed them : the cause was thSu dubious, since there was something which one might approve on either side.; but now, that must needs be thought the best which the gods have favoured; and after the experience of your clemency, who can be displeased with that victory in which no man fell who was not actiially in arms"." The speech was soon made public, and greedily bought by all. Atticus was extremely pleased with it, and very industrious in recommending it ; so that Cicero s£(ys merrily to him by letter, — " Yon have sold my Li^arian speech finely : whatever I write-for the future, I will make you the pub- lisher :" and again, ^' your authority, I perceive, has made my little oration famous : for Baibus and t" Pro Ligar.'S, ° Ibid. 6. Pppius write me word that they are wonderfully taken with it, and have sent a copy to Caesar''." The success which it met with made Tubero ashamed of the figure that he made in it, so that he applied to Cicero to have something inserted in his favour, with the mention of his wife, and some of his family, who were Cicero's near relations ; but Cicero excused himself, " because the speech was got abroad : nor had he a mind," he says, " to make any apology for Tubero's conduct'." Ligarius was a, man of distinguished zeal for the liberty of his country, which was the reason both of Cicero's pains to preserve, and of Caesar's averseness to restore him. After his return he lived in great confidence with Brutus, who found iiim a fit person to bear a part in" the conspiracy against Caesar ; but happening to be taken ill near the time of its execution, when Brutus, in a visit to him, began to lament that he was fallen sick in a very unlucky hour; Ligt(rius, raising himself presently upon his elbow, and taking Brutus by the hand, replied ; " Yet still, Brutus, if you mean to do anything worthy of yourself, I am well' ;" nor did he disappoint Brutus's opinion of him', for we find him afterwards in the list of the' conspira' tors. In the end of the year, Caesar was called !\way in great haste into Spain, to oppose the attempts of Pompey's sons, who, by the credit of theirfather's name, were become masters again of all that pro- vince ; and with the remains of the troops which Labienus, Varus, and the other chiefs who escaped, tad gathered up from Africa, were once more in condition to try the fortune of the field with him : where the great danger to which he was exposed fjrom this last effort of a broken party, shows how desperate his case must have 'been, if Pompey himself, with an entire and veteran army, had first made choice of this country for the scene of the war.. Cicero al( this wtile passed Ms time with little satisfaction at home, being disappointed of the ease and copifort 17111011 he expected ■°^' ^T'J"^' from his new marriage: his children, CIC. 62. . . 1 •! iT_ ■ o jcLius *^ '"^ ""^y imagine, while their o-wn cxsAs. mother was living, would not easily DICTATOR III. bear -with a young mother-in-law in ET the house with them. The son- es- coNSULav pecially was pressing to get a par- ticular appointment settled for ' his maintenance, and to have leave also to go to Spain, and make a campaign 'mao'lBauU '""der Caesai', whither his cousin Quin- tus Vas already gone : Cicero did not approve this project, and endeavoured by all nieans to dissuade him from it, representing to him that it would naturally draw a just reproach upon them, for not thinking it enough to quit their former party, unless they fought against it too ; ' knd that he would not be pleased to see his cousin more ^ Ligarianam prseclare vendidisti. Posthac quicquid scripsero, tibi prsbconium deferam. — Ad Att. xiii. 12. Ligarianam, ut video, prsclare auctoritae tua commen- davit. Scripsit enim ad me Balbiis et Oppiiis, mirifice sb probare, ob eamqueeausamadCaesarcin earn ee oratiimcu- 1am mlBisao.^— Ibid. 19. ' A4 Ligarianam de uxore Tuberonts, et privigna, neque possum jam addere, eat enim res pervulgata, ueque Xuber- onem voio defendere. Mirifice eat eniin " Plut. in Cic. in Rome, where Cicero was detained (he SRy?) by the expectation of the birth, and to receive the first payment of her fortune back again from Dolabella, who was then in Spain : she was de- livered, as it was thought, very happily, and sup- posed to be out of danger, when an unexpected turn in her case put an end to her life, to the inexpressible grief of her father". We have no account of the issue of this birth, which writers confound with that which happened three years before, when she was delivered at the end of seven months of a puny male child ; but whether it was from the first, or the second time of her lying-in, it is evident that she left a son by Dolabella, who survived her, and whom Cicero raenuons more than once in his letters to Atticus, by the name of Lentulus ° : desiring hini to visit the child, and see a due care taken of him, and to assign him what number of servants he thought proper'. Tullia was about two-and-thirty years old at the time of her death ; and by the few hints which are left of her character, appears to have been an excellent and admirable woman : she was most affectionately and piously observant of her father ; and to the usual graces of her sex, having added the more solid accomplishments of knowledge and polite lettei's, was qualified to be the companion, as well as the delight of his age, and was justly esteemed, not only as one of the best, but the most learned of the Roman ladies. It is not strange, therefore, that the loss of such a daughter, in the prime of her life, and the most comfortless season of his own, should affect him with all that grief, which the greatest calamity could imprint on a temper naturally timid and desponding. Plutarch tells us that the philosophers came from all parts to comfort him ; but that can hardly be true, except of those who lived in Rome, or in his own family ; for his first care was, to shun all company as much as he could, by removing to Atticus's house, where he lived chiefly In the library, endeavouring to relieve his mind by turn- ing over every book which he could meet with, on the subject of moderating grief'; but finding his residence here too public, and a greater resort to " MeRomae tenuit omnino Tulliae mese partus : sed cum ea, quemadmodum spero, satis firma sit, teneor tamen, dmn a Dolabells procuratoribus exigam primam pan- sionem. — Ep. Fam. vi. 18. The father's names were Publius Cornelius Lentulus DolabeUa ; the two last being surnames acquired perhaps by adoption, and distinguishing the different branches of the Cornelian family. P Velim aliquando, cum erit tuum commodum, Lontu- lum pueiTun visas, eique de mancipiis, quas tibi videbitur, atti-ibuas. — Ad Att. xii. 28. Quod Lentulum invisis, valde gratum Ibid. 30 ; it. 18. N.B. Mr. Bayledeclares himself surprised, to find AscO' nius Pad, so ill-iri/oymed of the history of Tullia, as to tdl us, that after Piso's death, she was married to P. Lentulus, and died in child-bed at Jiis house : in which short account there is contained, he says, two or three lies. But Plutarch confirms the same accoirat ; and the mistake will rest at last, not on Asconius, but on Mr. Bayle himself, who did not reflect, from the authority of those ancients, that Len- tulus was one of Dolabella's names, by which he was called indifferently, as well as by any of the rest.— Bayle Diction, Artie. Tullia, note k. 1 Me'mihi non defuisse tu testis es, nihil enim de mceiore minuendo ab uUo scriptum est, quod ego non domi tnffi legerim.— Ad Att. xii. 14. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. ms him than he could bear, he retired to Astura, one of his seats near Antinm, a little island on the Latian shore, at the mouth of a river of the same name, covered with woods and groves, cut out into shady walks ; a scene of all others the fittest to indulge melancholy, and where he could give a free course to his grief. "Here," says he, " I live without the speech of man : every morning early 1 hide myself in the thickest of the wood, and never come out till the evening : next to yourself, nothing is so dear to me as this solitude : my whole conversation is with books, yet that Is some- times interrupted by my tears, which I resist as well as I can, but am not yet able to do much''." Atticus urged him to quit this retirement, and divert himself with business, and the company of his friends ; and put him gently in mind, that, by afflicting himself so immoderately, he would hurt his character, and give people a handle to censure his weakness ; to which he makes the foUowmg answer ; " As to what you write, that you are afraid lest the excess of my grief should lessen my credit and authority ; I do not know what men would have of me. Is it that I should not grieve ? that is impossible : or that I should not be oppressed with grief .' who was ever less so ? When I took refuge at your house, was any man ever denied access to me .'' or did any one ever come who had reason to complain of me ? I went from you to Astura, where those gay sparks who find fault with me are not able even to read so much as I have written. How well, is nothing to the purpose ; yet it is of a kind which nobody could write, with a disordered mind. I spent a month in my gardens about Rome, where I received all who came with the same easiness as before. At this very moment, while I am employing my whole time in reading and writing, those who are with me are more fatigued with their leisure than I vvith my pains. If any one asks why I am not at Rome ? because it is vacation time : why not in some of my villas more suitable to the season .' because I could not easily bear so much company. I am where he who has the best house at Baise chooses to be in this part of the year. When I come to Rome, nobody shall find anything amiss, either in my looks or discourse. As to that cheerfulness with which we used to season the misery of these times, I have lost it, indeed, for ever, but will never part with' my constancy and firmness, either of mind or. speech'," Sai. All his other friends were very oificiouSj like- wise, in making their compliments of condolence, and administering arguments of comfort to him : among the rest, Ca;sar himself, in the hurry of his affairs in Spain, wrote him a letter on the occasion, dated from Hispalis, the last of April'. Brutus wrote another, so friendly and affectionate, that it greatly moved him". L ucceius, also, one ^ In hac bolitudino caroo omnium coUoquio, cumque mane in sUvam me abstrusi dcnsam et asperam, non exeo inde ante vesperum. Secundum to, nihil mihi amicius solitudinc. In ea mihi omnis scrrao est cum Uteris ; eum tamen interpellat-fletus; cui repugno quoad possum, ued adhuc pares non sumus.— Ad Att. 16. ■ Ad Att. xii. 40. * A Caesai'o literas accepi consolataiias, datas prid, Kal. Mail, Hispali.— Ad Att. xiii. 20. " Bruti literse scripts et prudenter et amice, multas tamen mihi laciymas attulenmt.— Ibid. xii. 13. of the most esteemed writers of that age, sent him two ; the first to condole, the second to expostu- late with him, for persevering to cherish an un- manly and yseless grief » : but the following letter of Ser. Sulpioius is thought to be a masterpiece of the consolatory kind. Ser. Sulpioius to M. T. Cicero. " I was exceedingly concerned, as indeed I ought to be, to hear of the death of your daughter Tullia, which I looked upon as an afliiction common to us both. If I had been with you, I would have made it my business to convince you what a real share I take in your grief. Though that kind of consolation is but wretched and lamentable, as it is to be performed by friends and relations, who are overwhelmed with grief, and cannot enter upon their task without tears, and seem to want comfort rather themselves, than to be in condition to ad- minister it to others. I resolved, therefore, to write you in short, what occurred upon it to my own mind : not that I imagined that the same things would not occur also to you, but that the force of your grief might possibly hinder your attention to them. What reason is there, then, to disturb yourself so immoderately on this melancholy occa- sion ? Consider how fortune has already treated us : how it has deprived us of what ought to be as dear to us as children ; our country, credit, dig- nity, honours. After so miserable a loss as this, what addition can it possibly make to our grief, to suffer one misfortune more .' or how can a mind, after being exercised in such trials, not grow cal- lous, and think everything else of inferior value ? But is it for your daughter's sake that you grieve .' Yet how often must you necessarily reflect, as I myself frequently do, that those cannot be said to be hardly dealt with, whose lot it has been in these times, without suffering any aflftiction, to exchange life for death ! For what is there in our present circumstances that could give her any great invi- tation to live ? What business ? what hopes ? what prospect of comfort before her ? Was it to pass her days in the married state, with some young man of the first quality (for you, I know, on the account of your dignity, might have chosen what son-in-law you pleased out of all our youth, to whose fidelity you might safely have trusted her) .' Was it then for the sake of bearing children, whom she might have had the pleasure to see flourishing afterwards, in the enjoyment of their paternal fortunes, and rising gradually to all the honours of the state, and using the liberty to which they were born, in the protection of their friends and clients ? But what is there of all this which was not taken away before it. was even given to her ? But it is an evil, you'll say, to lose our children. It is so ; yet it is much greater to suffer what we now endure. I cannot help mentioning one thing, which has given me no small comfort, and may help also, perhaps, to mitigate your grief. On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from .iEgina towards Megara, I began to contemplate the prospect of the countries around me. JEgiaa. was behind, Megara before me ; — Pireeeus on the right, Corinth on the left ; all which towns, once famous and flourishing, now lie overturned, and buried in their ruins. tFpon thrs sight, I could not K Efi. Fam, v. 13, 14. 206 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF but think pi'esently within myself, Alas ! how do we poor mortals fret and vex ourselves, if any of our friends happen to die, or to be killed, whose life is yet so short, when the carcasses of so many noble cities lie here exposed before me in one view ? "Why wilt thou not then command thyself, Servius, and remember that thou art born a man ? Believe me, I was not a little confirmed by this contemplation. Try the force of it, therefore, if you please, upon yourself, and imagine the same prospect before your own eyes. But to come nearer home : — When you consider how many of our greatest men have perished lately at once — what destruction has been made in the empire — what havoc in all the provinces — how can you be so much shocked, to be deprived of the fleeting breath of one little woman, who, if she had not died at this time, must necessarily have died a few years after, since that was the condition of her being born ? But recall your mind from reflections of this kind to the consideration of yourself, and think rather on what becomes your character and dignity ; that your daughter lived as long as life was worth enjoying, as long as the republic stood ; had seen her father praetor, consul, augur ; been married to the noblest of our youth ; had tasted every good In life ; and when the republic fell, then quitted it : — what ground is there then, eithei' for you or her, to complain of fortune on this account ? In short, do not forget that you are Cicero, one who has been used always to prescribe and give advice to others ; nor imitate those paltry physicians, who pretend to cure other people's diseases, yet are not able to cure their own ; but suggest rather to yourself the same lesson, which you would give in the same case. There is no gi-ief so great which length of time will not alle- viate ; but it would be shameful in you to wait for that 'time, and not to prevent it by your wisdom ; besides, if there be any sense in the dead, such was her love and piety to you, that she must be con- cerned to see how much you afflict yourself. Give this, therefore, to the dece'ased ; give it to your friends, give it to your country, that it may have the benefit of your assistance and advice, whenever there shall be occasion. Lastly, since fortune has now made it necessary to ns to accommodate our- selves to our present situation, do not give any one a handle to think that you are not so rhuch bewail- ing your daughter as the state of the times, and the victory of certain persons. I am ashamed to write any more, lest I should seem to distrust your prudence, and will add, therefore, but one tiling farther, and conclude. We have sometimes seen ybu bear prosperity nobly, with great honour and applause to yourself ; let us now see that you can bear adversity with the same modei-ation, and without thinking it a gi:eater burthen than you oUght to do, lest, in the number of all your other virtues, this one at last be thought to be wanting. As to mysblf, whfeu I Understand that your mind is grown more calm and composed, I will send you word how all things go on herfe, tod what is the state of the province. Adieu J"." His answer to Sulpicius was the same in effect with what he gave to all his friends ; " that his case was different froto all the examples which he had been collecting for his own imitation of men y Ep, Fam. iv. 6. who had borne the loss cf children with firmness ; since they lived in times when their dignity in the state was able in great measure to compensate their misfortune; but for me," says he, "after I had lost all those ornaments which you enumerate, and which I had acquired with the utmost pains, I have now lost the only comfort that was left to me. In this ruin of the republic, my thoughts were not diverted by serving either my friends or my country : I had no inclination to the forum ; could not bear the sight of the senate ; took myself, as the case in truth was, to have lost all the ftuit of my industry and fortunes : yet when I reflected that all this was common to you and to many others as well as to myself, and was forcing myself therefore to bear it tolerably, I had still in Tcdlia somewhat always to recur to, in which I could acquiescej and in whose sweet conversation I could drop all my cares and troubles : but by this last cruel wound, all the rest which seemed to be healed are broken out again afresh : for as I then could relieve the uneasi- ness which the republic gave me by what I found at home ; so I cannot now, in the affliction which I feel at home, find any remedy abroad, but am diriven as well from my house as the forum, since neither my house can ease my pubUc grief, nor the public my domestic one^" The remonstrances of his friends had but little effect upon him ; all the relief that he found was from reading and writing, in which he continually employed himself, and did what no man had ever done before him, draw up a treatise of consolation for himself, from which he professes to have received his greatest comfort : ' ' Though he wrote it," he owns, " at a time when, in the opinion of the philosophers, he was not so wise as he ought to have been : but t did violence," says he, "to my nature ; to make the greatness of my sorrow give place to the greatness of the medicine, though I acted against the advice of Chrysippus, who dis- suades the application of any remedy to the first assaults of grief." In this work he chiefly imi- tated Grantor, the academic, who had left a cele- brated piece on the same subject ; yet he inserted also whatever pleased him from any other author who had written upon it'' ; illustrating his precepts all the way by examples from their own history, of the' most eminent Romans of both sexes who had borne the same misfortune with a remarkable con- stancy. This book was much read by the primitive fathers, especially Lactantius, to whom we are obliged for the few fragments which remain of it ; for, as the critics have long since observed, that » Bp. Fam. iv. 6 ; Ad Att. xii. 28. ■* Feci, quod ante me nemo, ut ipse me per literas conso- larer affirmo tibi nuTlaia consolationem esse talem.— AdAtt. xil. U;it. 28. , Quid ego de consolatione dicam ? quie mihi quidem ipsi sane aliquantmn medetiir, caeterisitem multumillampro- futuram puto — De Div. ii..l. In consolationis libro, quern in medio, (non enim sapien- tes eramus) miErore et dolore conscripsimus • quod^ue vetat Chrysippus, ad recentes quasi tumores animi reme- dium adhibere, id nos fecimus, naturaeque vim adtulimus, ut magnitudini medicins doloris magnitudo concederet. — Tusc. Disp. iv. 29. ^, Crantorem ssquor.— Plin. Hist. Nat. Prtef. Neque tamen progredior longius, quam mihi doetisami homines concedunt, quorum scripta omnia, qufficunqiie sunt in earn sententiam non legi soliun — Bed iii mea etiarn soripta transtuli.— Ad Att. xii. 21, 22. MARCUS tULLIUS CICERO. 207 piece which we now see in tlie collection of his writings, under the title of Consolation, is un- doifbtedly spurious. But the design of this treatise was not only to relieve his own mind, hut to consecrate the virtues and memory of TuUia to all posterity j nor did his fondness for her stop here, hut suggested the pro- ject of a more effectual consecration hy huilding a temple to her, andereoting he;- into a sort of deity. It was an opinion of the philosophers, which he himself constantly favoured, and in his pt-esent circumstances particularly indulged, " that the souls of men were of heavenly extraction, and that the pure and chaste, at their dissolution from the hody, returned to the fountain fropl which they were derived, to suhsist eternally in the fruition and participation of the divine nature ; whilst the im- pure and corrupt were left to grovel below in the dirt and darkness of these inferior regions." He declares, therefore, " that as the wisdom of the ancients had consecrated and deified many excellent persons of bpth sexes, whose temples were then remaining, the progeny of Cadmus, of Amphitryon, of Tyndarus, so he would perform the same honour to Tulliaj wjio, if any creature had ever deserved it, was of all the most worthy of it. I will do it, therefore (says he) and consecrate thee, thou best and most leai-ned of women, now admitted into the assembly of the gods, to the regard and veneration of ill mortals"^." In his letters to Atticus we find the strongest expressions qf his resolution, and impatience to see this design exectited : " I will have a temple," says he ; " it it is not possible to divert me from it -r-if it be not finished this summer, I shall not think myself clear of guilt — I am more religiously bound to the execution of it than any man ever was to the performance of his vow''." He seems to have designed a fabric of great magnificence, for he had settled the plan with his architect, and con- tracted for pillars of Chian marble with a sculptor of that isle, where both the work and the materials were the most esteemed of any in Greece^. One reason that determined him to a temple rather ^ Non«nim omnibus illi sapientes arbitrati sunt eundem cuTfimn in ccelum patere. Nam vitiia et sceleribus eor^ta- mipatos 4eprimi in teaebra3j atque in coeno jacere docue- runt ; castos autem animos, puros, integros. incorruptos, l^onia atjam studiis atque artibus expolitos leniquodam ac faeili lapsu ad deos, id est, ad naturam sui similem pervo- lara— Fragm. Consolat. ex Lactantio. Cum vei-o et mares et foeminas complures ex hominibus lii deorum numero esse videamus, et eorum in ui'bibus atque agris augustissima temp]a veneremur, assentiamur eorum sapientiffi, .quorum ingeniis et inventia omnem yjtam legibus ot inatitutia.excultam constitutamque babe- inus. Quod si nTlnm imquam animal consecrandum f uit, illu^profecto f uit. Si Cadmi,' aut Ainphitryonis progenies, autTyndari in coelum tollendafama fuit, huic idem honos certe dicandus est. Quod quidem fa^iam ; teque omnium optiQiam doctiaaiinamque, approbantibus diis ipsis, in eorum cretu locatam, ad opinionem omnium mortaJium consecrabo.— Ibid. ; Tuso. Disp. i. 11, 12, 30, 31. '' Panmn fieri volo, neqne mihl erui potest. [ Ad Att. xit 36.] Redeo ad fanum, nisi hac sfeatate absolutum erit — scelere me liberatum non puiabo. [Ibid. 41.] Ego me ma- jore religione, quam qiiisquam fuit ullius voti, obstrictum puto.— Ibid. 43. ^ De fano illo dico^-neque de genere dubito, placet enim mihi Cluatii. [Ibid. 18.] Tu tamen oum'Apella Cbio oonflce de colomnia.— Ibid. 19; Plin. Hist. Nat. xixvi. S, 6. than a sepulchre was, that in the one he was not limited in the expense, whereas in the other he was confined by law to a certain sum, which he could not exceed without the forfeiture of the same sum also to the public : yet this, as he tells us, was not the chief motive, but a resolution that he had taken of making a proper apotheosis'. The only difficulty was, to find a flacfe that suited his pur- pose : his first thought was to ' purchase certain gardens across the /Tyber, which, lying near the city, and in the public view, were the most likely to draw a resort of votaries to his new temple : he presses Atticus, therefore, " to buy them for him at any rate without regard to his circum- stances, since he would sell, or mortgagfe, or be content to live on little, rather than be disap- pointed : groves and remote places (he says) were prbjjer only for deities of an established name and religion ; but for the deification of mortals public and open situations were necessary to strike the eyes and attract the notice of the people." But he found so nianj obstructions in all his attempts of purchasing, that to save trouble and expense, Atticus advised him to build at last in one of his own villas, to which he seeined inclined, lest the summer should pass without doing anything ; yet he was irresolute still which of his vUlas he should choose, and discouraged by reflecting on the change of masters, to which all private estates were ex- posed in a succession of ages, which might defeat the end Of his huilding, and destroy the honour of his temple, by converting it to other uses, or suffering it to fall into ruinsE. ' Nunquam mihi venit in mentem, quo plua insumtum in monumentum esset, quam nesdo quid, quod lege conce- ditur, tantundem populo dandum esse : quod non magno- pere moveret, nisi nescio quoinodo, a\iyus fortasse. Nol- lem illud .ullo nouline niei fani appellari. [Ad Atfc xii. 35.] Sepulcri similltudinem effugere non tarn propter P Sedebat in rostris coUega tuus, amictus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus : adscendis, accedis ad sellam — iliadema ostendis : gemitus toto foro — tu diadema irapone- bas cum plangore populi, ille cum plausu rejiciebat — at enim adscribi jussit in fastis ad Lupercalia, C. Casari, dictatori perpetuo M. Antonium consulem populi jussu regnum detulisee, Cajsarem uti noluisBe. [Phil. ii. 34.] Quod ab eo ita repulsum erat, ut non offensus videretui'. -Veil. Pat. ii. 56. ' Sueton. J. Ca;a. 79 i Die. p. 246 ; App, 1. iL p. 499 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 68. *• Etiamne consules et tribunes plebis in biennitim, quos JUe voluit ?— Ad Att xiv. 6. consuls of the next, and D. Brutus and Cn. Plancus for the following year : but before his departure he resolved to have the regal title conferred upon him by the senate, who were too sensible of his power, and obsequious to bis will, to deny him anything ; and to make it the more palatable at the same time to the people, he caused a report to be indus- triously propagated through the city, of ancient prophecies found in the Sibylline books, that the Parthians could not be conquered but by a king ; on the strength of which Cotta, one of the guar- dians of those books, was to move the senate at their next meeting, to decree the title of king to him''. Cicero, speaking afterwards of this design, says, " It was expected that some forged testi- monies would be produced, to show that he whom we had felt in reality to be a king, should be called also by that name, if we would be safe ; but let us make a bargain with the keepers of those oracles, that they bring anything out of them rat;her than a king, which neither the gods nor men will ever endure again at Rome'." One would naturally have expected, after ail the fatigues and dangers through which Caesar had made his way to empire, that he would have chosen to spend the remainder of a declining life in the quiet enjoyment of all the honom'S and pleasures which absolute power and a command of the woild could bestow ; but in the midst of all this glory he was a stranger still to ease : he saw the people generally disaffected to him, and impatient under his government; and though amused awhile with the splendour of his shows and triumphs, yet regretting severely in cool blood the price that they had paid for them ; the loss of their liberty, with the lives of the best and noblest of their fellow-citizens. This expedition, therefore, against the Parthians, seems to have been a political pretext for remov- ing himself from the murmurs of the city, and leaving to his ministers the exercise of an invidious power, and the task of taming the spirits of the populace ; whilst he, by employing himself in gathering fresh laurels in the East, and extending the bounds and retrieving the honour of the empire against its most dreaded enemy, might gradually reconcile them to a reign that was gentle and clement at home, successful and glorious abroad. But his impatience to be a king defeated all his projects, and accelerated his fate, and pushed on the nobles, who had conspired against his life, to the immediate execution of their plot, that they might save themselves the shame of being forced to concur in an act which they heartily detested? ; and the two Brutuses in-particular, the honour of whose house was founded in the extirpation of kingly government, could not but consider it as a personal infumy, and a disgrace to their very name, to suffer the restoration of it. e Proximo autem senatu, L. Cottam quindecimvirum Bcntentiam dicturum ; ut quoniam libris fatal ibus contine- retur, Parthos non nisi a rege posse vinci, Caesar rex appellaretur. — Sueton. J. Caes. 79 ; Dio, p. 247. f Quorum interpres nuper falsa qusedam hominum fania dicturus in senatu putabatur, eum, quem re vera regcni habebamus, appellandum quoquoesse regem, si salvi esse vellemuB— cum antistibus agamus, ut quidvis potius ex illis libris, quam regem proferant, quem Romffi posthac nee dii nee homines esse patientur — De Divin. ii. 54. s duse causa eonjuratisfuit matuiandi destinata negotia, ne afisentiri necesso esset.— Suetj J. Cas. 80 ; Dio, p. 1^47. 218 THE HISTORY OF THE Lli-E OF There were atove sixty persons said to be en- gaged in this conspiracy"; the greatest part of them of the senatorian rank ; but M. Brutus and C. Cassius were the chief in credit and authority ; the first contrivers and movers of the whole design. M. Junius Brutus was about one-and-forty years old, of the most illustrious family of the repubUc, deriving his name and descent in a direct line from that first consul, L. Brutus, who expelled Tarqum, and gave freedom to the Roman people'. Haymg lost his father when very young, he was tramed with great care by his uncle Cato, in all the studies of polite letters, especially of eloquence and philo- sophy ; and under the discipline of such a tutor, imbibed a warm love for liberty and virtue. He had excellent parts, and equal- industry, and ac- quired an early fame at the bar, where he pleaded several causes of great importance, and was esteemed the most eloquent and learned of all the young nobles of his age. His manner of speaking was correct, elegant, judicious, yet wanting that force and copiousness which is required in a con- summate orator. But philosophy was his favourite study, in which, though he professed himself of the more moderate sect of the old Academy, yet from a certain pride and gravity of temper, he affected the severity of the Stoic, and to imitate his uncle Cato, to which he was wholly unequal ; for he was of a mild, merciful, and compassionate disposition, averse to everything cruel, and was often forced, by the tenderness of his nature, to confute the rigour of his principles. While his mother lived in the greatest familiarity with Caesar, he was constantly attached to the opposite party, and firm to the interests of liberty ; for the sake of which he followed Pompey, whom he hated, and acted on that side with a distinguished zeah At the battle of Pharsalia, Cajsar gave particular orders to find out and preserve Brutus, being desirous to draw him from the pursuit of a cause that was likely to prove fatal to him ; so that when Cato, with the rest of thfe chiefs, went to renew the war in Africa, be was induced by Ceesar's generosity and his mother's prayers, to lay down b Conspiratum est in eum a sexaginta amplius, C. Cas- sio, Mai'coque et Decimo Bruto principibuB couspirationis. —Suet. ftid. 18. i Some of the ancient ^vriters call in question this account of Brutus*s descent ; particularly Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, the most judicious and critical of them, who alleges several arguments against it, which seem to be very plausible. Yet whjle Brutus lived, it was universally allowed to him. Cicfero mentions it in his public speeches, and other writings, as a fact that nobody doubted, and often speaks of the image of old Brutus^ which Marcus. kept in his house among thosi^ of his ancestors : and Atti- cus, who was peculiarly curious in' the antiquities of the Romiui families, drew up Brutus's genealogy or him ; and deduced his succession from that old hero,' in a direct line through all the intermediate ages, from father to son. — Corn. Nep. vit. Att. 18 ; Tusc. Disp. iv. 1. He was born in the consulship of L. Cornelius CinnaHI. and Cn. PapiriusCarbo, A.U. 668, which fully confutes the vulgar story of his being commonly believed to he Ceesar's son ; since he was but fifteen years younger than Cfesar himself: whose familiarity with his mother Servilia can- not he supposed to have commenced till many years after Brutus^ was bom, or not till Caesar had lost hig first wife Comeiia, whom he married, when he was very young, and always tenderly loved; and whose, funeral oration he made when he was qusstor, and consequently thirty years old. — Suctou. J. Cffis. 1. 6. 50 ; it. Brut. p. 343. 447, et Corradi notas. his arms, and return to Italy. Csesar endeavoured to oblige him by all the honours which his power could bestow ; but the indignity of receiving from a master what he ought to have received from a free people, shocked him much more than any honours could oblige ; and the ruin in which he saw his friends involved by Csesar's usurped dominion, gave him a disgust which no favours' could compensate. He observed, therefore, a dis- tance and reserve through Caesar's reign ; aspired to no share of his confidence, or part in his coun- sels, and by the uncourtly vehemence vrith which he defended the rights of King Deiotarns, con- vinced Csesar that he could never he obliged where he did not find himself free. He cultivated all the while the strictest friendship with Cicero, whose principles he knew were utterly averse to the measures of the times, and in whose free conversa- tion he used to mingle his own complaints on the unhappy state of the republic, and the wretched 'hands into which it was fallen, till, animated by these conferences, and confirmed by the general discontent of all the honest, he formed the bold design of freeing his country by the destruction of Csesar. He had publicly defended Milo's act of killing Clodius, by a maxim , which he maintained to be universally true, that those who live ill defiance of the law, and cannot be brought to a trial, odght to be taken off without a trial. The case was applicable to Csesar in a much higher degree than to Clodius ; whose power had placed him above _ the reach of the law, and left no way of punishing him, but by an assassination. This, therefore, was Brutus's motive ; and Antony did him the justice to say, that he was the only one of the conspiracy who entered into it out of principle : that the rest, from private malice, rose up against the man, he alone against the tyrant.'' C. Cassius was descended likewise from a family not less honourable or ancient, nor less zealous for the public liberty, than Brutus's : whose ances- tor, Sp. Cassius, after a triumph and three con- sulships, is said to have been condemned, and put to death by his own father, for aiming at a domi- nion. He showed a remarkable instance, when a boy, of his high spirit and love of liberty ; for he gave Sylla's son, Faustus, a box on the ear, for bragging among his school-fellows of his father's greatness and absolute power ; and when Pompey called the boys before him to give an account of their quarrel, lie declared in his presence, that if Faustus should dare to repeat the words, he would repeat the blow. He was qusestor to Crassus in the Parthian war, where he greatly signaUsed both his courage and skill ; and if Crassus had followed It Natura admirabilis, ct exquisita doctrina, et singularis industria. Cum enim in maximis causis versatus esses — [Brut. 26.] quo magistuum, Brute, judicium pcobo, qui eorum, id est, ex vetere academia, philosophorum scctam secutus es, quorum in doctrina et prseceptis disserendi ratio oonjungitur cum suavitate dicendi et copia. [Brut. 219.] Nam cum inambularem inXysto— M. ad meBrutas, ut consueverat, cum T. Pomponio venerat^Brut. 15.] turn Brutus — itaque doleo et illius consilio et tua voce populmn Itomanum carere tamdiu. Quod cum per se dolendum est, turn multo magis consideranti, ad quosista non trans- lata sint, sed nescio quo pacto devenerint.' — [Brut. 2(J9-] 'AW' "KvTaviov 7e xaX. iroWoii aKomai XiyoU'ros, QJS ft^vov oXoiroBpovTOV ^iriBeffBaiKaUrapi, trpoax^s^? Tfi \afnrp6TrrTi Kal TtfT ^aivofievtp Ka\^ t^s 7r/Kt|c«S' — Plut. in. Brut. p. 997 ; App. p. 4&S. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 219 his advice, would have preserved the whole army ; bat after their miserable defeat, he made good his retreat into Syria with the remains of the broken legions : and when the Parthians, flushed with success, pursued him thither soon after, and blocked him up_ in Antioch, he preserved that city and province from falling into their hands, and, watching his opportunify, gained a considerable victory over them, with the destruction of their general. In the civil war, after the battle of Phar- salia, he sailed with seventy ships to the coast of Asia, to raise fresh forces in that country, and renew the war against Csesar ; but as the historians tell us, happening to meet with Caesar crossing the Hellespont, in a common passage-boat, instead of destroying him, as he might have done, he was so terrified by the sight of the conqueror, that he begged his life in an abject manner, and delivered up his fleet to him j but Cicero gives us a hint of a quite different story, which is much more pro- bable, and worthy of Cassius ; that having got intelligence where -Caesar designed to land, he lay in wait for him in a bay of Cilicia, at the mouth of the river Cydnus, with a resolution to destroy him ; but Csesar happened to land on the opposite shore, before lie was aware ; so that seeing his project blasted, and Cffisar secured in a, country where all people were declaring for him, he thought it best to make his own peace too, by going over to him with his fleet. He married Tertia, the sister of Brutus ; and though differing in temper and phi- losophy, was strictly united with him in friendship and politics, and the constant partner of all his counsels. He was brave, witty, learned, yet pas- sionate, fierce, and cruel ; so that Brutus was the more amiable friend, he the more dangerous enemy ; in his later years he deserted the Stoics, and became a convert to Epicurus, whose doctrine he thought more natural and reasonable ; con- stantly maintaining that the pleasure which their master recommended was to be found only in the habitual practice of justice and virtue. While he professed himself, therefore, an Epicurean, he lived like a Stoic ; was moderate in pleasures, temperate in. diet, and a water-drinker through life. He attached himself very early to the ojjservance of Cicero, as all the young nobles did who had any- thing great or laudable in view. This friendship was confirmed by a conformity of their sentiments in the civil war, and in Caesar's reign ; during which several letters passed between them, written with a freedom and familiarity which is-to be found only in the most intimate correspondence. In these letters, though Cicero rallies his Epicurism, and change of principles, yet he allows him to haveacted always vrith the greatest honour and integrity ; and pleasantly says, that he should begin to think that sect to have more nerves than he imagined, since Cassius had embraced it. The old writers assign seyeral frivolous reasons of disgust as the motives of his killing Csesar ; that Csesar took a number of lions from him, which he had provided for a public show ; that he would not give him the consulship ; that he gave Brutus the more honour- able prsetorship in preference to him. But we need not look farther for the true motive than to his, temper and principles ; for his nature was singularly impetuous and violent ; impatient of contradiction, and much more of subjection, and passionately fond of glory, virtue, liberty. It was from these qualities that Caesar apprehended his danger ; and when admonished to beware of Antony and Dolabella, used to say, that it was not the gay, the curled, and the jovial, whom lie had cause to fear, but the thoughtful, the pale, and the lean; — meaning Brutus and Cassias'. The next in authority to Brutus and Cassius, though very different from them in character, were Decimus Brutus and C. Trebonius : they had both been constantly devoted to Caesar, and were singularly favoured, advanced, and entrusted by him in all his wars ; so that when Caesar marched first into Spain, he left them to command the siege of Marseilles, Brutus by sea, Trebonius by land ; in which they acquitted themselves with the greatest courage and ability, and reduced that strong plaice «> the necessity of surrendering at discretion. Decimus was of the same family with his namesake, Marcus ; and Caesar, as if jealous of a name that inspired an aversion to kings, was particularly solicitous to gain them both to his interest, and seemed to have succeeded to his»wisji in Decimus, who forwardly embraced his friendship, and accepted all his favours, being named by him to the command of Cisalpine Gaul, and to the consulship of the following year, and the second heir even of his estate, in failure of the first. He seems to have had no peculiar character of virtue or patriotism., nor any correspondence with Cicero ,befoi:e the act of killing Caesar, so that people, instead of expecting it from him, were surprised at his doing it ; yet he was brave, gene- rous, magnificent, and lived with great splendour in the enjoyment qf an immense fortune ; for he kept a numerous band of gladiators, at his own expense, for the diversion of the city ; and after Caesar's death, spent about four hundred thousand 1 C. Cassius in ea familia natus, quse non modo domina- tum,, sed no potentiam C[uideni cujiisquam ferre potuit. [Phil. ii. 11.] Queiii ubi prinmm magistratu abiit, dam- natumque constat. Sunt qui patrem actorem ejus suppii- cii ferant. Eum cognita domi causa verberasse ac necasse, peculiumque filii Cereri consecravisse. [Liv. ii. 41.] Cujus filium, Faitstum, C. Cassius condiscipulum suum in schola, proscriptiunem patemam laudantem — colapho percussit. [Val. Max.iii. l.vifi. Plutar. in Brut.] Reliquias legionum C. Cassius — quasstor conservavit, Syriamque adeo in popuii Romani potestate retinuit, ut transgressoB in eum Parthos, felici rerum eventu fugaret ac funderet. [Veil. Pat. ii. 46 ; Phil. xi. 14.] OiiSk epyov erepov riyov- ixai rij(ris ey h.ir6pcp Kaipu y^veadai fjiahXov, ^ Kdcr- ffiov rhv Tro\euili(&TaTov i-nl rpLTtpay e^SofiijKovra airapaaKivtpKaiaapi , avvrvx^i'T^t /■t'h^ f's ;^e7pos ^A- deiv inroffTTJvQn, b S* oStcds kavrbv aicrxpoi>s uirh ^6^ou fiivov TrapaTrKiovTi irapaSohs, liaTepoif eV PdSjU?; Svv - areioyra JfSij KorcKTaviv. [App. ii. 483 ; Dio, xlii. 188 ; Sueton. J. Cks. 63.] C. Cassius— sine his.clarissimis viris hanc rem in Cilicia ad ostiuru fiuminis Cydni confecisaet, si ille ad earn ripam, quam constituerat, non ad contrariam naves appulisset. [Phil. ii. 11.] E quibus Brutum amicum habere malles, inimicum magis timeres Cassium. [Veil. Pat ii. 72.] 'H^ov^v vero et OTapo|£av virtute, justitia. Tip Ka\$ paraii, et verum et probabile est. Ipso enim Epicurus— dicit, ovK iaTlv r)Secos fiveu to3 Ka\as Kctl SiKalus.^rjv. [Bp. Faro. xv. 19.] Cassius tota vita aquam bibit. [Seneo. 647.] ftuanqnam quioum loquor ? cum uno fortissimo viro ; qui postea quam forum attigisti, nihil fecisti nisi plenissimum amplissimse dignitatis. In ista ipsa oipeVel metuo no pjus nervorum sit, quam ego puta- rim, si modo eam tu probas. [Bp. Fam. xv. 16,] Diffteendo oonsulatum Cassium offenderat. [YoU. Pat, ji. SC ; Pint, in BiTit. ; App. 408 220 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF pounds of hfe own money in maintaining an army against Antony™. Trebonius had no family to boast of, but was wholly a new man, and the creature of Cffisar's power, who produced him through ail the honours of the state to his late consulship of three months. Antony calls him the son of a buffoon, but Cicero of a splendid knight : he was a man of parts, prudence, integrity, humanity ; was conversant also in the.politer arts, and had a peculiar turn to wit and humour ; for after Ca;sar's death he published a volume of Cicero's sayings, which he had taken the pains to collect : upon which Cicero compli- ments him, for having explained them with great elegance, and given them afresh force and beauty, by his humorous manner of introducing them. As the historians have not suggested any reason that should move either him or Decimus to the resolu- tion of killing a man to whom they were infinitely obliged ; so we may reasonably impute it, as Cicero does, to a greatness of soul, and superior love of their country, which made them prefer the liberty of Rome to the friendship of any man, and choose rather to be the destroyers than the partners of a tyranny". The rest of the conspirators were partly young men, of noble blood, eager to revenge the ruin of their fortunes and families ; partly men obscure, and unknown to the public "5 yet whose fidelity and courage had been approved by Brutus and Cassius. It was agreed by them all in council to execute their design in the senate, which was sum- moned to meet on the Ides, or fifteenth, of March : they knew that the senate would applaud it when done, and even assist, if there was occasion, in the doing itP ; and there was a circumstance which peculiarly encouraged them, and seemed to be even ominous ; that it happened to be Pompey's senate-house in which their attempt was to be made, and where Caesar would consequently fall at the foot of Pompey's statue, as a just sacrifice to the manes of that great mani. They took it also for granted, that the city would be generally TO Adjectis etiam consiliariis casdis, familiarissimis omnium, et fortuna partium ejus in suimnuni evectis fas- tigium, D. Bruto et C. Trelionio, aliisque clari nominis viria. [Veil. Pat. ii. 56.] Pluresque percussoriun in tutori- bus filii nominavit : Decimum Brutum etiam in secundis heredibus, [Sueton. J. Cses. 83.] Oaes. De Bello Civ. 1. ii ; Plut. in Brut. ; App. p. 497, 511 ; Dio, xliv. 247. &c.] D. Bi'utus — cum Csesaris primus omnium aaniconim fuisset, interfector fuit. — Veil. Pat. ii. 64. n Scurrffi filium appellat Antonius. Quasi vero ignotus nobis fueiit splendidus eques Romanus Trebonii pater. [Phil. xiii. 10.] Trebonii — consilium, ingenium, humani- tatem, inuocentiam, magnitudinem animi in patria libe- randaquisignorat? [PhU. xi, 4.] Liber iste, quem mihi misisti, quantam habet declarationem amoris tui? pri- nium, quod tibi facetum videtur quicquid ego dixi, quod aliis fortasse non item : deinde, quod ilia, sive faceta sunt, sive sic sunt nan-ante te venustissima. Quin etiam ante- quam ad me veniatur, risus omuis p«ne consumitur, &c. [Ep. Pam. XV. 21 ; ib. xii. 16.] Qui libertatcm p'opuli Romani unius amicitiffi pr^posuit, depulsorque doraina- tus, quam particeps esse maluit. — I'hil. ii. 11. » In tot hominibus, partim obsouris, partim adolescenti- bus, &c.— PhU. ii. 11. » 'ns tSv ^ovXevTwy, li Ka\,iiri irpoi/.deoiev, irpodi- fitaSt GTe'tSoievrh eftyuv, o"uy€7riA.rji|rt)/Uei/Q)y..— App. 499. 1 Postquam senatus Idibus Mai-tiis in Pompeii curiam edictus est, facile tempus et locum praatulerunt —Sueton J. C»E. 80. on their side ; yet for their greater security, D. Brutus gave orders to arm his gladiators that morning, as if for some public show, that they might be ready, on the first notice, to secure the avenues of the senate, and defend them from any sudden violence ; and Pompey's theatre, which adjoined to his senate-house, being the properest place for the exercise of the gladiators, would cover all suspicion that might otherwise arise from them. The only deliberation that perplexed them, and on which they were much divided, was, whether they should not kill Antony also, and Lepidus, together with Caesar ; especially Antony, the more ambitious of the two, and the more likely to create fresh danger to the commonwealth. Cassius, with the majority of the company, was warmly for killing him : but the two Brutuses as warmly opposed, and finally overruled it : they alleged, " that to shed more blood than was necessary would disgrace their cause, and draw upon them an imputation of cruelty, and of acting not as patriots, but as the partisans of Pompey ; not so much to free the city as to revenge themselves on their enemies, and get the dominion of it into their hands." But what weighed with them the most, was a vain persuasion that Antony would be tractable, and easily reconciled, as soon as the affair was over ; but this lenity proved their ruin ; and by leaving their work imperfect, defeated all the benefit of it, as we find Cicero afterwards often reproaching them in his letters'. Many prodigies are mentioned by the historians to have given warning of Caesar's death ^; which having been forged by some and credulously re- ceived by otheis, were copied as usual by aU, to strike the imagination of their readers and raise an awful attention to an event in which the gods were supposed to be interested. Cicero has related one of the most remarkable of them, — " that as Cassar was sacrificing a little before his death, with great pomp and splendour, in his triumphal robes and golden chair, the victim, which was a fat ox, was found to be without a heart ; and when Caesar seemed to be shocked at it, Spurinna the haru- spex, admonished him to beware lest through a failure of counsel his life should be cut off, since the heart was the seat and source of them both. The next day he sacrificed again, in hopes to find the entrails more propitious ; but the liver of the bullock appeared to want its head, which was reckoned also among the direful omens'. " These ' Plutar. in CiES. ; App. ii. 499, 502 ; Dio, 247, 248. Quam vellem ad illas pulcherrimas epulas me Idibus Mar- tiis invitasses. Reliquiarum nihil baberemus. — ^Ep. Fam. X. 28 ; xii. 4 ; Ad Brut. ii. 7. s Sed Caesai'i futura cades evidentibus prodigiis denun- oiata est, &c. — Sueton. J. Cass. 81 ; Plut. in Cass. ' De Divin. i. 52 ; ii. 16. These cases of victims found sometimes without a heart or liver, gave rise to a ciu-ious question among those who believed the reality of this kind of divination, as the Stoics generally did, how to account for the cause of so strange a phenomenon. The common solution was, that the gods made such changes instanta- neously, in the moment of sacrificing, by annihilating or altering the condition of the entrails, so as to make them correspond with the circumstances of the sacriiicer, and the admonition which they intended to give. [De Div. ib.] But this was laughed at by the natm-alists, as wholly unphilosophical, who thought it absui-d to imagine that the deity could either annihilate or create, either i-educo anything to nothing, or foi-m anything out of nothing. What seems the most probable, is, that if the facts really MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 221 facts, though ridiculed by Cicero, were publicly ailirmed and believed at the time, and seem to have raised a general rumour through the city of some secret danger that threatened Csesar's life, so that his friends, being alarmed at it, were endeavouring to instil the same apprehension into Csesar himself, and had succeeded so far as to shake his resolution of going that day to the senate, when it was ac- tually assembled by his summons in Pompey's senate-house, — till D. Brutus, by rallying those fears as unmanly and unworthy of him, and al- leging that his absence would be interpreted as an affront to the assembly, drew him out against his will to meet his destined fate". In the morning of the fatal day, M. Brutus and C. Cassius appeared according to custom in the forum, sitting in their prjetoriau tribunals to hear and determine causes, where, though they had daggers under their gowns, they sat with the same calmness as ff they had nothing upon their minds, till the news of CjKsar's coming out to the senate called them away to the performance of their part in the tragical act, which they executed at last with such resolution, that through the eagerness of stabbing Csesar they wounded even one another". Thus fell Caesar on the celebrated Ides of March, after he had advanced himself to a height of power which no conqueror had ever attained before him ; though to raise the mighty fabric he had made more desolation lu the world than any man per- haps who ever lived in it. He used to say that his conquests in Gaul had cost about a million and two hundred thousand lives' ; and if we add the civil wars to the account, they could not cost the republic much less in the more valuable blood of its best citizens ; yet when, through a perpetual course of faction, violence, rapine, slaughter, he had made his way at last to empire, he did not enjoy the quiet possession of it above five months^. He was endowed with every great and noble quality that could exalt human nature and give a man the ascendant in society ; formed to excel in peace as well as war, provident in counsel, fearless in action, and executing what he had resolved with an amazing celerity ; generous beyond measure to his friends, placable to his enemies ; and for parts, learning, eloquence, scarce inferior to any man. His orations were admired for two qualities which are seldom found together, — strength and elegance. Cicero ranks him among the greatest orators that Rome ever bred ; and Quintilian says that he spoke with the same force with which he fought, and if he had devoted himself to the bar would have been the only man capable of rivalling Cicero. Nor was he a master only of the politer arts, but conversant also with the most abstruse and cntical parts of learning; and among other works which he pub- lished, addressed two books to Cicero on the analogy Iiappened, they were contrived by Cjesar's friends, and the heart conveyed away by soma artifice, to give them a better pretence of enforcing then- admonitions, and putting Cffiaar upon his guard against dangers, which they really apprehended, from quite different reasons than the pre- , tended denunciations of the gods. *• Plutarch, in J. Cseg. x Ibid, in Brut ; App. ii. 505. y Undecies centena et nonaginta duo hominum millia occisa praeliis ab eo— quod ita esse confessus est ipse, bel- lonim civilium strageni non prodendo. — Plin. Hist, Nat. vii. 25. ^ Neque illi tanto viro — plusquam quinque mensium principalis quies contigit— Veil. Pat. ii. 56. of language, or the art of speaking and writing correctly". He was a most liberal patron of wit and learning wheresoever they were found, and out of his love of those talents would readily pardon those who had employed them against himself; rightly judging that by making such men his friends he should draw praises from the same fountain from which he had been aspersed. His capital passions were ambition and love of pleasure, which he. indulged in their turns to the greatest excess ; yet the first was always predominant, to which he could easily sacrifice all the charms of the second, and draw pleasure even from toils and dangers when they ministered to his glory. For he thought tyranny (as Cicero says) the greatest of goddesses ; and had frequently" in his mouth a verse of Euripides which expressed the image of his soul, that if right and justice were ever to be violated, they were to be violated for the sake of reigning. This was the chief end and purpose of his life, the scheme that he had formed from his early youth, so that, as Cato truly declared of him, he came with sobriety and meditation to the sub- version of the republic. He used to say, that there were two things necessary to acquire and to support power, — soldiers and money, which yet depended mutually on each other. With money, therefore, he provided soldiers, and with soldiers extorted money ; and was of all men the most rapacious in plundering both friends and foes, — sparing neither prince, nor state, nor temple, nor even private persons who were known to possess any share of treasure. His great abilities would necessarily have made him one of the first citizens of Rome ; but disdaining the condition of a subject, he could never rest till he had made himself a monarch. In acting this last part his usual pru- dence seemed to fail him, as if the height to which he was mounted had turned his head and made him giddy : for by a vain ostentation of his power he destroyed the stability of it; and as men shorten life by Uving too fast, so by an intemperance of reigning he bronght his reign to a violent endi". a It was in the dedication of this piece to Cicero, that Caesar paid him the compliment, which Pliny mentions, of his having acquired a laurel superiw to that of all triumphs, as it was more glorious to extend the hounds of tlie Roman wit, than of their empire. — Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 3a ^ De Caesare et ipse ita judico — ilium omnium fere ora- torum latine loqui elegantissime — et id — ^multis Uteris, et lis quidem reconditis et exquisitis, siimmoque studio ac diligentla est consecutus. [Brut, 370,] C. vero Cssar si foro tantumvacasset, non alius ex nostris contraCiceronem nominaretur, tanta in eo vis est, id acmnen, ea concitatio, ut ilium eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, appareat. [Quintil. X, ].] C, Cajsar, in libris, quos ad M. Ciceronem de Analbgia conscripsit. [Aul. Gell. xix. 8.] Ctuin etiam in maximis occupationibus cum ad te ipsum, inquit, de ratione latine loquendi aecuratissime scripserit — [Brut. 370 ; Sueton. J. Ca2s, 56.] — in Cjesare haec sunt, mitis, cle- mensque natura — accedit, quod mirifice ingeniis excellen- tibus, quale tmim est, delectatur — eodem fonte se haustu- rum intelligit laudes suas, e quo sit leviter aspersus, [Ep- Para, vi. 6.] T-J/y Qeiav ^^■yiaT'qv titrr e^eii' TvpaPViSa, [Ad Att, vii, 11,] ' Ipse autem in ore semper graecos versus de Phcenissis habebat — Nam si violandum est jus, regnandi gratia Violandum est : aliis rebus pietatem colas, De Offic, iii, 21, Cato dixit, C. Caesarem ad evertendam rempublicam, sohrium accessisse. ("Ciuintil. viii, 2.] Abstinentiam n&. 222 THE HISTORY OF TPIE LIFE OF it was a common question after his death, and jiroposed as a problem by Livy, whether it was of service to the republic that he had ever been born '. The question did not turn on the simple merit of his acts, for that would bear no dispute, but on the accidental effects of them,— their producing the settlement under Augustus, and the benefits of that government, which was the consequence of his tyranny. Suetonius, who treats the characters of the Caesars with that freedom .which the happy reigns in which he lived indulged, upon balancing the exact sum of his virtues and vices, declares him on the whole to have been justly killed '' ; which appears to have been the general sense of the best, the wisest, and the most disinterested in Rome, at the time when the fact was committed. The only question which seemed to admit any dispute was, whether it ought to have been com- mitted by those who were the leaders in it=, some of whom owed their lives to Csesar, and others had been loaded by him with honours to a degree that helped to increase the popular odium, particularly D. Brutus, who was the most cherished by him of them all, and left by his will the second heir of his estate'. For of the two Brutuses, it was not Marcus, as it is commonly imagined, but Decimus, who was the favourite, and whose part in the con- spiracy surprised people the mostK. But this circumstance served only for a different handle to the different parties, for aggravating either their crime or their merit. Csesar's friends" charged them with base ingratitude for killing their bene- factor and abusing the power which he had given to the destruction of the giver. The other side gave a contrary turn to it, — extolled the greater virtue of the men for not being diverted by private considerations from doing an act of public benefit. Cicei'o takes it always in this view, andsays,"that the republic was the more indebted to them for preferring the common good to the friendship of any man whatsoever ; that as to the kindness of giving them their lives, it was the kindness only of a robber, who had first done them the greater wrong by usurping the power to take it ; that if there had been any stain of ingratitude in the act they could never have acquired so much glory by it, and though he wondered indeed at some of them for doing it, rather than ever imagined that they would have done it, yet he admired them so much the more for being regardless of favours, that they might show their regard to their country^." Some of Caesar's friends, particularly Pansa and que in imperils neque in magistratibus prsestitit — in Gallia fana, templaque deum donis referta expilavit : urbes di- mit, ssepius ob prsedam quam delictum — evidentissimis rapinis, ae sacrilegiis onera bellorum civilium — sustinuit, — Sueton. J. Cffis. 54 ; Dio, p. 208. = Senec. Natur. Quxst. v. 18. d Prsegravant tamen csetera facta, dictaque ejus, ut et abusus dominatione et jure caesus existimetur. — Sueton. J. Cics. 76. e Disputari de H. Bruto solet, an debuerit accipere a D. Julio vitam, cum occidendum cum judicaret. — Senec. De Benef. ii. 20. f Appian. ii. 518. e Etsi est enim Brutorum commune factum et laudia Eocietaa a»qua, Decimo tamen iratiores erant ii, qui id fac- tum dolebant, quo minus ab eo rem illam dicebant fieri debuisse. — Phil. x. 7. ^ Quod est aliud beneficium — latronum, nisi ut comme- morarc possint, iig se dedisse vitam, quibus non ademerint ? quod si eSBet beneficium, nunquam ii qui ilium interfece- Hirtius, advised him always to keep a standing guard of praetorian troops for the defence of his person, alleging that a power acquired by arms must necessarily be maintained by arms ; but his common answer was, that he had rather die once by treachery than live always in fear of it'. He used to laugh at SyUa for restoring the liberty of the' republic, and to say in contempt of him that he did not know his letters'". But, as a judicious writer has observed, " Sylla had learned a better grammar than he, which taught him to resign his guards and his government together ; whereas Caesar, by dismissing the one yet retaining the other, committed a dangerous solecism in politics"', for he strengthened the popular odium and con- sequently his own danger while he weakened his defence. He made several good laws during his adminis- tration, all tending to enforce the public discipline and extend the penalties of former laws. The most considerable as well as the most useful of them was, that no praetor should hold any province more than one year, nor a consul more than two". This was a regulation that had been often wished for (as Cicero says) in the best of times, and what one of the ablest dictators of the old republic had declared to be its chief security, not to suffer great and arbitrary commands to be of long duration, but to limit them at least in time if it was not con- venient to limit them in power". Caesar knew by experience that the prolongation of these extraor- dinary commands and the habit of ruling kingdoms, was the readiest way not only to inspire a contempt of the laws but to give a man the power to subvert them ; and he hoped, therefore, by this law to prevent any other man from doing what he himself had done, and to secure his own possession from the attempts of all future invaders. runt, a quo erant servati, — ^tantam essent gloriam conse- cuti.— Phil. ii. 3. Quo etiam majorem el respublica gratiam debet, qui libertatem populi Homani unius amicitise prsposuit, depul- sorque dominatus quam particeps esse maluit — admiratus sum Ob cam causam, quod immemor beneficiorum, memor patriEB f uisset.' — Ibid. 1 1 . i Laudandum experientia consilium est Pansae atgne Hirtii : qui semper prsdixerant Csesari, ut principatum amiis quEESitum armis teneret lUe dictitans, mori se quam tiraeri malle. — ^Vell. Pat. ii. 57- Insidias undique imminentes subire semel confessum satius esse, quam cavere semper. — Sueton. J. Cses. 86. It Nee minoris impotentias voces propalam edebat— Syl- lam nescisse literas, qui dictatui'ani deposuerit. — Sueton. J. Ca!s, 77. ' Sir H. Savile's ' ' Dissertatio de Militia Romana," at the end of his translatiou of Tacitus. " Phil. i. 8 ; Sueton. J. Cass. 42, 43. ~ 1 Quas lex melior, utilior, optima ctiam republica, saepius flagitata, quam ne praetorise provincias plus quam annum, neve plus quaui biennium consulares obtinerentur ?— Phil. i. 8. Mamercus .^milius — maximam autem, ait, ejus eusto- diam esse, si magna imperia diutuma non essent, et tem- poria modus imponeretur, quibus juris impont non posset — ^Liv. iv. 24, MARCUS TDLLIUS CICERO. 223 SECTION IX. Cicero was present at the death of Csesar in the senate, where he had the pleasure (he tells us) to seethe tyrant perish as he deserved". A. uBB. 709. By this accident he was freed at once dc. 63. from all subjection to a superior, and "'^^ all the uneasiness and indienity of PCOKNEUUS managing a power which every mo- DDUBELLA. meut could oppress him. He was now without competition the first citi- zen in Rome, the first in that credit and authority, both with tlie senate and people, which illustrious merit and services will necessarily give in a free city. The conspirators considered him as such, and reckoned upon him as their sure friend'; for they had no sooner finished theirwork than Brutus, lifting up his bloody dagger, called out upon him by name, to congratulate mth him on the recovery of their liberty' ; and when they all ran out pre- sently after into the forum with their daggers in their hands, proclaiming liberty to the city, they proclaimed at the same time the name of Cicero, in hopes tb recommend the justice of their act by the credit of his approbation'. ' This gave Antony a pretence to charge him afterwards in public with being privy to the con- spiracy and the principal adviser of if. But it is certain that he was not at all acquainted with it ; for though he had the strictest friendsliip with the chief actors and they the greatest confidence in him, yet his age, character, and dignity, rendered him wholly unfit to bear a part in an attempt of that nature, and to embark himself in an affair so desperate with a number of men who, excepting a few of their leaders, were all either too young to be trusted or too obscure even to be known by him". He could have been of little or no service to them in the execution of the act, yet of much greater in justifying it afterwards to the city, for having had no share in it nor any personal interest to make his authority suspected. ' These were the true reasons without doubt why Brutus and Cassius did not impart the design to him : had it been froln' any other motive, as some writers have suggested, or had it admitted any interpretation injurious to his honour, he must have been often reproached with it by Antony and his other adver- saries of those times, who were so studious to invent and propagate every calumny that could depress his credit. I cannot, however, entirely acquit him of being in some degree accessory to the death of Caesar ; for it is evident from several of his letters that he had an expectation of such an attempt and from what quarter it wOuld come, and not only ° %uid mihi attulerit ista domini mutatio, piicter iKtitiajn, quain oculis cepi, justo interitu tvranni? — Ad Att. xiv.,14. P Caesare interfecto — statim cruentmn altc extollens M. Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatmi exclamavit,' atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus.-^Phil. ii. 12. 1 Dio, p. 249. ' Cssarem meo concUio interfectum. [Phil, ii 11.] Ves- tri enim pulcherrimi facti ille f uriosus me principem dicit fuiase. Utinam qnidem fuissem, molestus nobis non esset. — Ep. Fam. xii. 3 ; it. 2. ' Quam verisimile poiro est, in tot hominibus partim obBcuris, partim adolescentibus, neminem occuitantibus, meuin nomen latere potuisse ? — Phil. ii. 11. expected but wished it. He prophesied very early that Csesai-'s reign could not last six months, but must necessarily fall, either by violence or of itself, and hoped to live to see it'. He knew the dis- afiection of the greatest and best of the city, which they expressed with great freedom in their letters, and with much more, we may imagine, in their private conversation. He knew the fierce and haughty spirit of Brutus and Cassius, and their impatience of a master, and cultivated a strict correspondence with them both at this time, as if for the opportunity of exciting them to some act of vigour. On the news that Atticus sent him of Caesar's image being placed in the temple of Quirinus, adjoining to that of the goddess Salvs, — " I had rather," says he, " have him the comrade of Romulus than of the goddess Safety" " : referring to Romulus's fate of being killed in the senate. In another letter it seems to be intimated that Atticus and he had been contriving, or talking at least together, how Brutus might be spirited up tb some attempt of that kind, by setting before him the fame and glory of his ancestors, " Does Brutus then tell us (says he) that Csesar brings . with him glad tidings to honest men ? where will he find them, unless he hangs himself? But how securely is he now intrenched on all sides ? What use then of your fine invention ; the picture of old Brutus and Ahala with the verses under, which I saw in your gallery? Yet what after all can he do^?" One cannot help observing, likewise, in his pieces addressed about this time to Brutus, how artfully he falls into a lamentation of the times, and of the particular unhappiness of Brutus himself in being deprived by them of all the hopes and use of his great talents, putting him in mind at the same time of his double descent from ances- tors who had acquired immortal glory by delivering Rome from servitude. Thus he concludes his treatise on Famous Orators : — " When I look upon you, Brutus, I am grieved to see your youth, running as it were in full career ' Jam intelliges id regnum vix gemestre esse posse — ^nOB tamen hoc conlirmamus iUo augurio. quo diximus ; neo nos fallit, nee aliter aceidet. Corruat iste necesse est, aut per adversaries, aut ipse per se — id spero vivis nobis fore. —Ad Att. X. 8. n Eum avvvajav Quirino male, quam saluti. — Ad Att. xii. 1."). X Itane nunciat Brutus, illuni ad %onos viros ^vwy^i' Xia ? sed ubi eos ? nisi forte se suspendit ? hie autem ut fultum est ! ubi igitur fptKorexvTJfJLa illud tuum quOd vidi in Parthenone, Ahalam et Bmtum ? sed quid faciat? —Ad Att. xiiL 40. Parthenone is supposed to denote some room or gallery in Brutus's, or more probably in AtticuB's house, adorned ■with the images or portraits of the great men of Rome, under each of \vhich, as Cornelius Nepos tells us, [in Vit. Att. 18,] Atticue had severally described their principal acts and honours, in four or five verses of his OAvn com- posing : where the contemplation of these figures of old Brutus and Ahala, joined together in one picture, with the verses under, had given a handle perhaps to a conver- sation between Cicero and bim, how Brutus might be incited by the example of those great ancestors to dissolve the tyranny of CEesar. It seems also very probable, that this very picture of Atticus's invention, as Cicero calls it, might give- occasion to the thought and coinage of that silver medal or denarius, which is still extant, with the heads and names of those two old patriots ; Brutus on the one side, Ahala on the other.— Vide Thesaur, Morell. in Fam. Junia. Tab. i 1. ' THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF through the midst of glory, stopped short by the wretched fate of your country. This grief_ sits heavy upoa me, and on our common friend Atticus, the partner of my affection and good opinion of you. We heartily wish you well ; wish to see you reap the fruit of your virtue, and to live in a re- public, that may give you the opportunity not only to revive but to increase the honour and memoi7 of the two noble fam'iUes from which you descend : for the forum was wholly yours, — yours all that course of glory. You, of all the young pleaders, brought thither not orJy a tongue ready formed by thexcxercise of speaking, but had enriched your oratory by the furniture also of the severer arts, and by the help of the same arts had joined to a perfection of eloquence the ornament of every virtue. We are doubly sorry therefore on your account that you want the benefit of the republic, the republic of you ; but though this odious ruin of the city extinguishes the use of your abilities, go on still, Brutus, to pursue your usual studies," &o. These passages seem to give a reasonable ground to believe that Cicero, though a stranger to the particular councils of the conspirators, had yet a general notion of their design, as well as some share in promoting it. In his reply to Antony's charge, he does not deny his expectation of it, freely owns his joy for it, and thanks him for giv- ing him an honour, which he had not merited, of bearing a part in it. He calls it " the most glorious act which had ever been done, not only in that but in any other city : in which men were more for- ward to claim a share which they had not, than to dissemble that which they had; that Brutus's rea- son for calling out upon him, was to signify that he was then emulating his praises by an act not unlike to what he had done. That if to wish Caesar's death was a crime, to rejoice at it was the same, — there being no difference between the adviser and the approver ; yet excepting Antony and a few more, who were fond of having a king, that there was not a man in Rome who did not desire to see the fact committed ; that all honest men, as far as it was in their power, concurred in it ; that some indeed wanted the counsel, some the courage, some the opportunity, but none the will to do it," &c.)' The news of this surprising fact raised a general consternation through the city, so that the first care of the conspirators was to quiet the minds of the people by proclaiming peace and liberty to all, and declaring that no farther violence was intended to any. They marched out, therefore, in a body, with a cap, as the ensign of liberty, carried before them on a spear ^ ; and in a calm and orderly y Ecquis est igitur, qui te excepto, et iis, qui ilium regnare gaudetant, qui illud aut fieri noluerit, aut factum improbarit ? omnes cnim in culpa. Etcnim onmes .boni, quantum in ipsis fuit, Ciesarem (tcciderunt. Aliis consi- lium, aliis animus, occasio defuit ; voluntas nemini, &c. Pbil. ii. 12. ^ A cap was always given to slaves, when they were made free; whence it became the emblem of liberty : to expose it therefore on a spear, was a public invitation to the people to embrace the liberty that was offered to them by the destruction of their tyrant There was a medal likewise struck on this occasion, with the same device, which is still extant. The thought however was not new ; for Saturninus, in his sedition, when he had possessed himself of the capitol, exalted a cap also on the top of a spear f as a token of liberty to all the slaves who would manner proceeded tnrough the forum, where, in the first heat of joy for the death of the tyrant, several of the young nobility who had borne no part in the conspiracy joined themselves to the company with swords in their hands, out of an ambition to be thought partners in the act ; but they paid dear afteiTvards for that vanity, and without any share of the glory were involved in the min which it drew upon all the rest. Brutus designed to have spoken to the citizens from the rostra, but per- ceiving them to be in too great an agitation to attend to speeches, and being uncertain what way the popular humour might turn , and knowing that there were great numbers of Caesar's old soldiers in the city, who had been summoned from all parts to attend him to the Parthian war, he thought proper, with his accomplices, under the guard of Decimus's gladiators, to take refuge in the capitol". Being here secured from any immediate violence, he summoned the people thither in the afternoon, and in a speech to them, which he had prepared, justified his act and explained the motives of it, and in a pathetic manner exhorted them to exert themselves in the defence of their country, and maintain the liberty now offered to tliem against all the abettors of the late tyranny. Cicero presently followed them into the capitol with the best and greatest part of the senate, to deliberate on the proper means of improving this hopeful beginning, and establishing their liberty on a solid and lasting foundation, Antony in the meanwhile, shocked by the har- diness of the act, and apprehending some danger to his own life, stripped himself of his consular robes and fled home in disguise, where he began to fortify his house, and kept himself close all that day **, till perceiving the pacific conduct of the con- spirators, he recovered his spirits, and appeared again the next morning in public. While things were in this situation, L. Cornelius Cinna, one of the prsetors, who was nearly allied to Csesar, made a speech to the people in praise of the conspirators ; extolling their act as highly meritorious, and exhorting the multitudb to invite them down from the capitol, and reward them with the honours due to the deliverers of their country ; then throwing off his prsetorian robe, he declared that he would not wear it any longer, as being bestowed upon him by a tyrant, and not by the laws. But the next day, as he was going to the senate, some of Caesar's veteran soldiers having gathered a mob of the same party, attacked him in the streets with volleys of stones and drove him into a house, which they were going presently to set on fire, with design to have burnt him in it, if Lepidus had not come to his rescue with a body of regular troops "^. Lepidus was at this time in the suburbs of Rome, at the head of an army, ready to depart for the join with him : and though Mai'ius, in his sixth consul- ship, destroyed him for that act, by a decree of the senate, yet he himself used the same expedient afterwards to invite the slaves to take arms with him against Sylla, who was marching with his army into the city to attack him.— Val. Max. viii. 6. " App. ii. p. .W3 ; Dio, p. 260 ! Plutarch, in Cues, et Brut. b QuEE tuafuga? qua formido prseclaro illo die? qua propter conscientiani scelerum desperatio vitse ? cum ex iUa fuga — clam te domum recepisti. — Phil. ii. 35 ; Dio, P* 259 ; App. 502, S03. ' Plutarch, in Brut ; App. p. 504. MARCUS TULLTUS CICERO. 225 gOTernment of Spain, which had been assigned to liim by Caesar, witli a part of Gaul. In the night therefore, after Caesar's death, he filled the forum with his troops, and finding himself superior to any man in power, began to think of making himself master of the city, and taking immediate revenge on the conspirators ; but being a weak and vain man, Antony easily diverted him from that design, and managed him to his own views ; " he repre- sented the hazard and difficulty of the attempt, while the senate, the city, and all Italy were against them ; that the only way to effect what they wished was to dissemble their real purpose ; to recommend pacific counsels, and lull their adversaries asleep, till they had provided a strength sufficient to op- press them ; and that, as soon as things were ripe, he would join with him very heartily in avenging Csesar's death." With these remonstrances he pacified him, and to render their union the firmer, and to humour his vanity at the same time, gave his daughter in marriage to Lepidus' son, and assisted him to seize the high-priesthood, vacant by Caesar's death, vrithout any regard to the ordi- nary forms of election**. Having thus gained Lepidus into his measures, he made use of his authority and his forces to harass and terrify the opposite party, till he had driven the conspirators out of the city ; and when he had served his pur- poses with him at home, contrived to send him to liis government, to keep the provinces and the com- manders abroad in proper respect to them ; and that, by sitting down with his army in the nearest part of Gaul, he might be ready for any event which should require his help in Italy. The conspirators in the meanwhile had formed no scheme, beyond the death of Caesar ; but seemed to be as much surprised and amazed at what they had done, as the rest of the city. They trusted entirely to the integrity of their cause, fancying that it would be sufficient of itself to effect all that they expected from it, and draw a universal concurrence to the defence of their com- mon liberty ; and taking it for granted that Caesar's fate, in the height of all his greatness, would deter any of his partisans from aiming at the same power : they placed withal a great confidence in Cicero's authority, of which they assured them- selves as their own, and were not disappointed ; for from this moment he resolvedatall adventures to support the credit of the men, and their act, as the only means left of recovering the republic. He knew that the people were all on their side, and as long as force was removed, that they were masters of the city ; his advice therefore was, to use their present advantage, and in the consternation of Caesar's party, and the zeal and union of their own, tbat Bi-utns and Cassius, as praetors, should call the senate into the capitol, and proceed to some vigorous decrees, for the security of the public tranquillity'. But Brutus was for marching calmly, and with all due respect to the authority of the consul j and having conceived hopes of Antony, proposed the sending a deputation to him, to exhort him to measures of peace ; Cicero "I Dio, p. 249, 250, 257, 269- ^ Meministi me damare, illo ipso primo capitolino die, senatum in capitoliimi a prffitoribua vocari ? Dii immortaleB, qua turn opera effici potuerunt, Imtantibua omnibuB bonis, etiam sat bonis, fractis latronibus !— Ail Alt. xiv. 1(1. remonstrated against it, nor would be prevailed with to bear a part in it : he told them plainly, "that there could be no safe treaty with him; that as long as he was afraid of them, he would promise every thing ; but, when his fears were over, would be like himself, and perform nothing ; so that while the other consular senators were going forwards and backwards in this office of media- tion, he stuck to his point, and staid with the rest in the capitol, and did not see Antony for the two first days'." The event confirmed what Cicero foretold : Antony had no thoughts of peace or of any good to the republic ; his sole view was, to seize the government to himself, as soon as he should be in condition to do it ; and then, on pretence of revenging Caesar's death, to destroy all those who were likely to oppose him : as his business there- fore was to gain time by dissembling and deceiving the republican party into a good opinion of him, so all his answers were mild and moderate, pro- fessing a sincere inclination to peace, and no other desire than to see the republic settled again on its old basis. Two days passed in mutual assurances from both sides, of their disposition to concord and amity ; and Antony summoned the senate on the third to adjust the conditions of it, and confirm them by some solemn act. Here Cicero, as the best foundation of a lasting quiet, moved the assembly in the first place, after the example of Athens, to decree a general amnesty, or act of oblivion, for all that was passed, to which they unanimously agreed. Antony seemed to be all goodness, talked of nothing but healing measures, and, for a proof of his sincerity, moved, that the conspirators should be invited to take part in their deliberations, and sent his son as a hostage for their safety : upon which they all came down from the capitol ; and Brutus supped with Lepidus, Cassius with Antony, and the day ended to the universal joy of the city, who imagined that their liberty was now crowned with certain peaces. There were several things however very artfully proposed and carried by Antony, on the pretence of public concord, of which he afterwards made a most pernicious use, particularly a decree for the confirmation of all' Caesar's acts. This motion was suspected by many, who stuck upon it for some time, and called upon Antony to explain it, and specify how far it was to extend : he assured them, " that no other acts were meant, than what were known to every body, and entered publicly on i Dicebam illis in capitolio liberatoribue nostris, cum mc ad te ire vellent, ut ad defendendam rcmpublicam te adhortarer, quoad metueres, omnia te promissftrum, simul ac timere desiisses, similem te futurum tui.*ltaque cum csteri consulares irent, redirent, in sentcntia mansi ; nC' que te illo die, neque postero vidi. — Phil. ii. 35. s In quo templo, quantum in me fuit, jeci fimdamenta pacia, Atbeniensiumque renovavi vetiis exemplum : Grae- cimi etiam verbum usurpavi, quo turn in sedandis discordiis erat usa civitas ilia, atque omnem memoriam discordiarum oblivione sempitema delendam censui. Prajclara turn oratio M. Antonii, egregia etiam voluntas : pax denique per eum et per llberos ejus cum priestantissimis civibus confirmata est. — Phil. i. 1. QusB fuit oratio do Concordia ?— tuus panfuhis Alius in capitolium a te missus paeis obses fuit. ftuo sonatus die Istior? quo populus Romanus?— turn deniquo liberati per viroa fortissimos videbamur, quia, ut illi voluerant, liber- tatem pax sequcbatur ^Ibid. 13 ; Plutarch, in Brut. Q 22G THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Csesar's register : they asked, if any persons were to be restored from exile, he said one only, and no more ; whether any immunities were granted to cities or countries, he answered none ; and con- sented, that it should pass with a restriction, proposed by Ser. Sulpioius, that no grant, which was to take place after the ides of March, should be ratified ''." .This was generally thought so reasonable, and Antony's seeming candour had made such an impression, that those who saw the mischief of it durst not venture to oppose it, espe- cially as there was a precedent for it in the case of Sylla ; and as it was supposed to relate chiefly to the veteran soldiers, whom it was not possible to oblige, or keep in good humour, without confirming the privileges and possessions which Caesar had granted to them. But Brutus and his friends had private reasons for entertaining a better opinion of Antony, than his outward conduct would justify ; Csesar had used him roughly on several occasions', and they knew his resentment of it ; and that he had been engaged with Trebonius, on Cffisar's last return from Spain, in a design against his life ; and though he did not perform that engagement, yet they thought it an obligation, as well as a proof of his continuing in the same mind, that he had not discovered it, which was the reason of their sparing him when Ceesar was killed, and of Trebo- nius's taking him aside on pretence of business, lest his behaviour on that occasion might provoke them to kill him too''. But, as Cicero often laments, they had already ruined their cause, by giving Antony leisure to recollect himself, and gather troops about him, by which he forced upon them several other decrees against their will. One of them in favour of the veteran soldiers, whom he had drawn up for that purpose in arms about the senate' ; and another still worse, for the allowance of apublic funeral to Caesar, which Atticus had been remonstrating against both to Cicero and Brutus, as pernicious to the peace of the city. But it was too late to prevent it : Antony was resolved upon it, and had provided all things for it, as the best opportunity of inflam- ing the soldiers and the populace, and raising some commotions to the disadvantage of the re- publican cause ; in which he succeeded so well, that Brutus and Cassius had no small difficulty to defend their lives and houses from the violence of his mob "'. In this tumult Helvius Cinna, one of the tribunes, and a particular friend of Cffisar, was torn in pieces by the rabble, being mistaken un- ^ Summa eonstantia ad ea, qua queesita erant, respon- (lebat : nihil turn, nisi quod erat notum omnibus, in C. Cssaris eommentariis reperiebatur : num qui exules resti- tuti ? unum aiebat, praiterea neminem. Num immuni- tates datse ? nulla:, respondebat. Assentiri etiam nos Ser. 8ulpicio voluit, ne qua tabula post Idus Martins ullins decreti Cffisaris aut beneficii figeretiu:.— Phil. i. 1. ' Phil. ii. 2.9. ■* Quanquam si interfiei Caasarem voluisse crimen est, vide quffiso, Antoni, quid tibi fiiturum sit, quern ct Nar- bone hoe consilium cum C. Trebonio cepisse notiasimum est, et ob ejus consilii soeietatem, cum interficeretur Caesar, turn te a Trebonio vidimus sevocari. — Ibid. 14. ' Noniie omni rationo veterani, qui armati aderant, cum prssidii nos nihil haberemus, defendendi fuerunt? — Ad Att. xiv. 14. ■» Meminiatine te clamare, causam periisse, si funere elatus esset? at ille etiam in foro combustus, laudatusque miserabiliter ; servique et egentea in tecta nostra cum faclbns immisBi.— Ad Att. xiv, 10, 14 ; Plutarch, in Brut. luckily for the praetor of that name, who, as it is said above, had extolled the act of killing Caesar in a speech from the rostra. This so alarmed all those who had any similitude of name mth any of the conspirators, that Caius Casca, another se- nator, thought fit by a public advertisement, to sig- nify the distinction of his person and principles from Publius Casca, who gave the first blow to Ciesar". We are not to imagine, however, as it is com- monly believed, that these violences were owing to the general indignation of the citizens, against the murderers of Caesar, excited either by the spec- tacle of his body, or the eloquence of Antony, who made the funeral oration ; for it is certain that Caesar, through his whole reign, could never draw from the people any public signification of their favour ; but on the contrary, was constantly mor- tified by the perpetual demonstrations of their hatred and disaffection to him. The case was the same after his death : the memory of his tyranny was odious, and Brutus and Cassius the real fa. vourites of the city ; as appeared on all occasions wherever their free and genuine sense could be declared, in the public shows and theatres*'; which Cicero frequently appeals to, asa proper encourage- menttoall honest men, to act with spirit and vigour in the defence of their common liberty. What hap- pened therefore at the funeral was the effect of artifice and faction, the work of a mercenary rab- ble, the greatest part slaves and strangers, listed and prepared for violence, against a party unarmed and pursuing pacific counsels, and placing all their trust and security in the justice of their cause. Cicero calls it a conspiracy of Caesar's freedmenP, who were the chief managers of the tumult, in which the Jews seem to have borne a consider- able part, who, out of hatred to Pompey, for his affront to their city and temple, were zealously - attached to Caesar, and above all the other foreign- ers in Rome, distinguished themselves by the expressions of their grief for his death, so as to spend whole nights at his monument, in a kind of religious devotion to his memory i. This first taste of Antony's perfidy was a clear warning to the conspirators what little reason they had to depend upon him, or to expect any safety in the city where he had the sovereign command, without a gnard for their defence; which, though D. Brutus demanded for them, they could not obtain : whilst Antony, to alarm them still the more, took care to let them know that the n C. Helvius Cinmi tribunus plebis ex funere C. Casaria domum suam petens, populi manlbus discerptus est, pro Cornelio China, in quem aievire ae existimabat ; iratua ei, quod cum aifinis esset Csesaris, adversus eum nefarie raptura, impiam pro rostria orationem habuiaaet.— Val. Max. ix. 9 ; Dio, p. 267, 2G8 ; Plutarch, in Coia. et. Brut. Omnes enim jam civea de reipublicse salute una et mente et voce cousentiunt Phil. L 9. Quid enim gladiatoribus clamores innumerabiliani civium? quid populi veraus? quid Pompeii status plausus infinitus ? quid iia tribunis plebis, qui vobia adversantur ? parumne ha?c eignificant, incredibiliter consentientem po- puli Eomani voluntatem ? &o.— Ibid. 15 ; Ad Att. xiv. 2. P Nam lata quidem libertonim Cseaaria conjuratio facile opprimeretur, si recte saperet Antonius. — Ad Att. xiv. 6, 1 In sunimo publico luctu exteramm gentium, multi- tude circulatim, suo quasque more, lamentata eat, prffi- cipueque Judsei, qui etiam noctibus continuia buatuin frequentarunt, — Sueton. in J, Cas. 84. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 227 soldiers and the popnlace were so enraged, that he did not think it possible for any of them to be safe'. They all therefore quitted Rome : Trebo- nins stole away privately for Asia, to take posses- sionof that province, which had before beeuassigned to him, being afraid of being prevented by the intrigues of Antony. D. Brutus, forthe same reason, possessed himself of the Cisalpine or Italic Gaul, which had been conferred upon him likewise by Ceesar, in order to strengthen himself there against all events, and by his neighbourhood to Rome, to encourage and protect all the friends of liberty. M. Brutus, accompanied by Cassius, retired to one of his villas near Lanuvium, to deliberate about their future conduct, and to take such measures as the accidents of the times and the motions of their enemies should make necessary. But as soon as the conspirators were gone, Antony resumed- his mask, and as if the late violences had been accidental only, and the sudden transport of a vile mob, professed the same mode- ration as before, and affected to speak with the greatest respect of Brutus and Cassius ; and by several seasonable acts, proposed by him to the senate, appeared to have nothing so much at heart as the public concord. Among other decrees he offered one, which was prepared and drawn up by himself, to abolish for ever the name and office of dictator. This seemed to be a sure pledge of his good intentions, and gave a universi satisfaction to the senate, who passed it, as it were, by accla- mation, without putting it even to the vote ; and decreed the thanks of the house for it to Antony, who, as Cicero afterwards told him, had fixed an indelible infamy by it on Cfflsar, in declaring to the world, that for the odium of his government, such a decree was become both necessary and popular*. Cicero also left Rome soon after Brutus and Cassius', not a little mortified to see things take so wrong a turn, by the indolence of their friends ; which gave him irefiuent occasion to say, that the ides of March had produced 'nothing which pleased him, but the fact of the day, which was executed indeed with manly vigour, but supported by child- ish counsels". As he passed through the country lie found nothing but mirth and rejoicing in all the great towns,, on the account of Csesar's death : " It is impossible to express (says he) what joy there is everywhere ; how all people flock about ' Heri apud me Hirtius fuit ; qua mente Antonius easet, demonEtrarit, pessima scilicet et infidelissima. Nam se neque mihi provinciam dare posse aiebat, neque arttitrari, tnto in urte esse quemquam nostrum, adeo esse militum ■ concitatos animos et plebis. Quorilm utrumque esse fal- Bum puto voB animadvertere — ^placltum est mihipoBtulare, ut liceret nobis esse Homse publico prsesidio : quod illos nobis concessuros non puto. — lEp. Fajn. xi. ] . ■ Dictaturam, quas vim jam regis poteatatis obsederat, funditus e republica sustulit. De qua ne sententias quidem diximus — eique amplissimis verbis per senatus consultum gratias egimus — ^maximum autem illud, quod dictaturs nomen sustulisti: hsEc inusta est a te — ^mortuo Caesari nota ad ignominiam sempitemam, &c. — Phil. L 1 , 13. * Itaque cum teneri urbem a parricidis viderem, nee te in ea, nee Cassium iruto esse posse, eamque armis oppres- sam ab Antonio, mihi quoque ipsi esse ' excedendum putavi— Ad Brut. IS. ™ Bed tamen adlmc me nihil delectat pTxter Idus Martias. [Ad Att. xiv. 6, 21.] Itaque atulta jam Iduum Martiarum est consolatio.^ Animis enim uai sumus virili- bus ; conslliis, mihi erode, puerilibus.— Ibid. xv. 4. me ; how greedy they are to hear an account of it from me : yet what strange politics do we pursue ? What a solecism do we commit ? To be afraid of those whom we have subdued ; to defend his acts, for whose death we rejoice ; to suffer tyranny to live, when the tyrant is killed ; and the republic to be lost, when our liberty is recovered "." Atticus sent him word of some remarkable applause which was given to the famed come- dian, Publius, for what he had said upon the stage, in favour of the public liberty ; and that L. Cas- sius, the brother of the conspirator, then one of the tribunes, was received with infinite acclama- tions upon his entrance into the theatre^; which convinced him only the more of the mistake of their friends in sitting still, and trusting to the merit of their cause, while their enemies were using all arts to destroy them. This general incli- nation, which declared itself so freely on the side of liberty, obliged Antony to act with caution, and, as far as possible, to persuade the city that he was on the same side too : for which end he did another thing at this time both prudent and popular, in putting to death the impostor Marius, who was now returned to Rome, to revenge, as he gave out, the death of his kinsman Csesar ; where, signalising himself at the head of the mob, he was the chief incendiary at the funeral and the sub- sequent riots, and threatened nothing less than destruction to the whole senate. Bat Antony, having served his main purpose with him, of driving Brutus and the rest out of the city, ordered him to be seized and strangled, and his body to he dragged through the streets': which gave him fresh credit with the republicans ; so that Brutus, together with Cassius and other friends, had a personal conference with him about this time, which passed to mutual satisfaction ". By these arts Antony hoped to amuse the con- spirators, and induce them to lay aside all vigorous counsels, especially what he most apprehended, that of leaving Italy and seizing some provinces abroad, furnished with troops and money, wliich might put them into a condition to act offensively. With the same view he wrote an artful letter to Cicero, to desire his consent to the restoration of S. Clodius, the chief agent of P. Clodius, who had been several years in banishment, for outrages committed in the city, chiefly against Cicero him- self, on whose account he was condemned. Antony, by his marriage with Fulvia, the widow of P. Clodius, became the protector of all that family, and- the tutor of young Publius, her son, which gave him a decent pretence of interesting himself in this affair. He assures Cicero, " that he had procured a pardon for S. Clodius from Ccesar, « Did enim non potest quantopere gaudeant, ut ad me concurrant, ut audire cupiant verba mea ea de re — sic enim TreTroAireifleB-at ut victos metueremus— nihil enim tarn tr6\oiKOj/f quam rvpavvoKTSvovi. in cfipto esse, ty- ranni facta defendi. — Ad Att. xiv. 6. Odiiboni! vivit tyrannis, tyrannus occidit. Ejusinter- fecti morte Istamur, cujus facta defendimus. — Ibid. 9. y Ex priore theatrum, Publiumque cognovi, bona signa consentientis multitudinis. Plausus vero, L. Cassio datus faeetus mihi quidem visus est.— Ad Att. xiv. 2. Inflnlto fratris tui plausu dirumpitur.— Ep. Fam. xiL 2. z Uncus impaotus est fugitive illi, qui €. Marii nomen invaserat PhiL i. 2. ■ Antonii colloquium cum uostris heroibus pro re nata non incommodum.— -Ad. Att. xiv. 6. Q 2 228 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF but did not intend to have made use of it, till he had obtained his consent ; and though he thought himself now obliged to support all Caesar's acts, yet he would not insist on this, against his leave ; that it would be an obligation to young Publius, a youth of the greatest hopes, to let him see that Cicero did not extend his revenge to his father's friends : permit me," says he, "to instil these sen- timents into the boy ; and to persuade his tender mind, that quarrels are not to be perpetuated in families ; and though your condition, I know, is superior to all danger, yet you would choose, I fancy, to enjoy a quiet and honourable, rather than a turbulent old age. Lastly, I have a sort of right to ask this favour of you, since I never refused anything to you ; if I do not however prevail with you, I will not grant it to, Clodius : that you may see how great your authority is with me r show yourself the more placable on that ac- count''." Cicero never hesitated about giving his consent to what Antony could and would have done with- out it : " the thing itself, he knew, was scandalous, and the pardon said to be granted by Caesar a forgery, and that Caesar would never have done it, or suffered it to be done ; and so many forgeries of that kind began to be published every day from Caesar's books, that he was almost tempted, (he says,) to wish for Csesar again'." He answered him, however, with great civility, and in a strain of complaisance which corresponded but little with his real opinion of the man : but Antony's public behaviour had merited some complimeuts ; and under the present state of his power, and the un- certain condition of their own party, Cicero resolved to observe all the forms of an old acquaint- ance with him, till by some overt act against the public interest, he should be forced to consider him as an enemy^. Antony made him but a cold reply, having heard, perhaps, in the mean time, of something which did not please him in his conduct. He told him only that his easiness and clemency were agreeable to him, and might hereafter be a great pleasure to himself. Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, was in Rome when Ciesar was killed ; but being terrified by that accident and the subsequent disorders of the city, she ran away presently with great precipitation. Her authority and credit with Caesar, in whose house she was lodged, made her insolence intoler- able to the Romans, whom she seems to have >> Ad Att. xiv. after letter the 13th. c Antonius ad me scripait dc restitutione S. Clodii: quam honorifice quod ad me attinet, ex ipsius Uteris cog- noBces — quam dissolute, quam turpiter, quamque ita per- niciose, ut nonnunquam etiam Caesar dcsiderandus esse videatur, facile existimabis: quffi enim Caesar nunquam neque fecisset, neque passus esset, ea nunc ex falsis ejus commentariis proferuntur. Ego autem Antonio faoilli- mum me prasbui. Etenim ille, quoniam semel induxit in animiun sibi lioere quod vellet, fecisset nlhilo minus me invito. — ^Ad Att. xiv. 13. d Ego tamen Antonii inveteratam sine ulla offensiono amicitiam retinere sane volo. — ^Ep. Pam. xvi. 23. Cui quidem ego semper amicus fui, antequam ilium intellexi non mode aperte, sed etiam libenter cum repuo- lica belhmi gerere. — Ibid. xi. 5. <■ Anttmius ad me tantum dc Clodio rescripsit, meani ieuitiitem et clementiam et sibi esse gratam, et milii KLignae volupfcati fore.— Ad A tt xiv. 19. treated on the same foot with her own Egyptians, as the subjects of absolute power and the slaves of a masterwhom she commanded. Cicero had a con- ference with her in Caesar's gardens, where the haughtiness of her behaviour gave him no small offence. Knowing his taste and character, she made him the promise of some present very agree- able, but disobliged him the more by not perform- ing it : he does not tell ns what it was, but from the hints which he drops, it seems to have been statues or curiosities from Egypt for the ornament of his library, a sort of furniture which he was peculiarly fond of. But her pride being mortified by Caesar's fate, she was now forced to apply to him by her ministers for his assistance in a parti- cular suit that she was recommending to the senate, in which he refused to be concerned. The affair seems to have related to her infant son, whom she pretended to be Caesar's, and called by his name ; and was labouring to get him acknow- ledged as such at Rome, and declared the heir of her kingdom; as he was the year following, both by Antony and Octavius ; though Caesar's friends were generajly scandalised at it, and Oppius thought it worth while to write a book to prove that the child could not be Csesar's^ Cleopatra had been waiting to accompany Csesar into the East, in order to preserve her influence over him, which was very ' great ; for after his death, Helvlus Cinna, one of the tribunes, owned that he had a law ready pre- pared and delivered to him by Caesar, vrith orders to publish it, as soon as he was gone, for granting to him the liberty of taking what number of wives and of what condition he thought fit, for the sake of propagating children K. This was contrived probably to save Cleopatra's honour, and to legiti- mate his issue by her, since polygamy and the marriage of a stranger were prohibited by the laws of Rome. Cicero touches these particulars in several places, though darkly and abruptly, according to the style of his letters to Atticus. " The flight of the queen," says he, *' gives me no pain. I should be glad to hear what farther news there is of her, and her young Caesar. I hate the queen : her agent, Ammonius, the witness and sponsor of her pro- mises to me, knows that I have reason : they were things only proper for a man of letters, and suitable to my character, so that I should not scruple to proclaim them from the rostra. Her other agent, Sara, is not only a rascal, but has been rude to rae. I never saw him at my house but once ; and when I asked him civilly what commands he had for rae, he said that he came to look for Atticus. As to the pride of the queen when I saw her in the gar- dens, I can never think of it without resentment ; I will have nothing therefore to do with them ; they take me to have neither spirit nor even feel- ing left*-." ' Quorum C. Oppius, quasi plane defensione ac patro- cinio res egeret, librum edidit, non esse Caesaris filium, quem Cleopatra dicat.— Sueton. in J. Cks. 52 ; Dio. pp. 227, 345. b: Helvius Cinna— confessus est, habuisae se scriptam paratamque legem, quam CKsar ferre jussisset cum ipse abesset, ut uxores liberorum quserGndorum causa, quas et quot deoere vellet, lioeret.— Sueton. ib. ; Dio, p. 243. • >■ Reginze fuga mihi non molcsta. [Ad Att. xiv. 3.] W regina velim, atque etiam de Caesare illo. [Ibid. 20.] Reginam odi. Me jure facere scit sponsor promissonuu ejus Ammonius ; quie quidam erant ^l\i\oya, et dign'- MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 229 Antony having put his affairs into the best train that he could, and appointed the first of June for a meeting of the senate in. order to deliberate on the state of the republic, took the opportunity of that interval to ma^e a progress through Italy, for the sake of visiting the quarters of the veteran soldiers, and engaging them to his service by all sorts of bribes and promises. He left the government of the city to Dolabella, whom Caesar, upon his in- tended expedition to Farthia, had designed and nominated to the consulship : and though Antony had protested against that designation, and resolved to obstruct its effect, yet after Caesar's death, when Dolabella, by the advantage of the general confu- sion, seized the ensigns of the office and assumed the habit and character of the consul, Antony quietly received and acknowledged him as such at the next meeting of the senate'. Cicero had always kept up a fair correspondence with his son-in-law, though he had long known him to be void of all virtue and good principles ; but he had now greater reason than ever for insinu- ating himself as far as he was able into his confi- dence, in order to engage him, if possible, to the interests of the republic, and use him as a check upon the designs of his colleague Antony ; in which he had the greater prospect of success on the account of their declared enmity to each other. Dolabella greatly confirmed these hopes ; and as soon as Antony had left the city, made all honest men think themselves sure of him by exerting a most severe, as well as seasonable act of discipline, upon the disturbers of the public tranquillity. For the mob, headed by the impostor Marius, and the freedmen of Csesar, had erected an altar in the forum, on the spot where Csesar's body was burnt, with a pillar of Numidian marble twenty feet high, inscribed to the tatheii of his countky. Here they performed daily sacrifices and divine rites ; and the humour of worshipping at this new altar began to spread itself so fast among the meaner sort and the slaves, as to endanger the peace and safety of the city ; for the multitudes which flocked to the place, fired with a kind of enthusiastic rage, ran furious about the streets committing all sorts of outrage and violence against the supposed friends of Uberty. But Dolabella put an end to the evil at once by demolishing the pillar and the altar, and seizing the authors of the disorders, and causing such of them as were free to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock, and the slaves to be crucified. This gave a universal joy to the city : the whole body , of the people attended the consul to his house, and in the theatres gave him the usual testimony of their thanks by the loudest acclamations''. Cicero was infinitely pleased with this act, and tatis mes, ut vel in concione dicere auderem. Saram autem, praeterquam quod nefarium haminem cognovi, pneterea in me contumacem. Scmel eum onmino domi mes vidi. Gum if}t\o(pp6vus ex eo qusererem, quid opus esset, Atticum se dixit quxrere. Superbiam autem ipsius reginx, cum esset trans Tiberim in bortis, commemorare sine magno dolore non possum. Nihil igitur clun istis : nee tarn animum me, quam vix stomachum habere arbi- trantur.— Ad Att. xv. 16. ' Tuum coUegam, depositis inimicitiis, oblltus auspicia, te ipso augure nunciante, illo primo die collegam tibi esse voluisti.— Phil. i. 13. ■* Plebs— post-a solidam columnam prope viginti pedum lapidis Numiilici in foro statuit, ecripsitque Pabenti PiTRVE, apud eaudem longo tempore sacrificare, vota enjoyed some share of the praise, since it was generally imputed to the influence of his counsels : in a letter upon it to Atticus ; " O my admirable Dolabella! " says he, " I now call him mine, for, believe me, I had some doubt of him before : the fact affords matter of great speculation ; to throw them dovm the rock ; to crucify ; demolish the pillar ; pave the area ; in short, it is heroic. He has extinguished all appearance of that regret for Csesar which was spreading every day so fast, that I began to appre- hend some danger to our tyrant-killers ; but I now agree with you and conceive better hopes," &c.' Again: ''Othe brave act of Dolabella ! whatapro- spect does it give us ? I never cease praising and exhorting him Our Brutus, I dare say, might now walk safely through the forum with a crown of gold upon his head ; for who dares molest him, when the rock or the cross is to be their fate ? and when the very lowest of the people give such proofs of their applause and approbation" ?" He wrote at the same time from Baise the following letter to Dolabella himself. Cicero to Dolabella Consul. "Though I was content, my Dolabella, with your glory, and reaped a sufiiciency of pleasure from it, yet 1 cannot but own that it gives me an inexpressible joy, to find the world ascribing to me also some share in your praises. 1 have met with nobody here, though I see so much company every day (for there are many worthy men now at this place for the sake of their health, and many of my acquaintance from the great towns,) who, after extolling you to the skies, does not give thanks presently to me ; not doubting, as they all say, but it is by my precepts and advice, that you now show yourself to be this admirable citizen and singular consul : and though I could assure them, with great truth, that what you are doing flows wholly from yourself and your own judgment, and that you want not the advice of any one ; yet I neither wholly assent, lest I should derogate from your merit, by making it seem to proceed from my counsel ; nor do I strongly deny it, being myself perhaps more greedy of glory than I ought to be. But that can never be a diminution to you, which was an honour even to Agamemnon, the king of kings, to have a Nestor for his counsellor ; while it will be glorious to me to see a young consul, the scholar, as it were, of my discipline, flourishing in the midst of applause. L. Caesar, when I visited him lately sick at Naples, though oppressed with Buscipere, controversias quasdom, interposito per Cssarcni jurejurando, distrahere perseveravit, — Sueton. J. Cses. 85. Manabat enim iUud malum urbanum, et ita corrobora- batur quotidie, ut ego quidem et urbi et otio diffidei'em urbano. — ^£p. Fam. xii. 1 . Nam cum serperet in urbe infinitum malum — et quoti- die magis magisque perditi homines, cum sui similibus servis, tectis et templis urbis minarentur ; talis animnd- versio fuit Dolabellas, cum in audaces sceleratosque servos, turn in impuros et nefarios cives, talisque eversio illius exeoratjB colunmEe, &c. [Phil. i. 2.] Becordare, quffiso, Dolabella, consensum ilium theatri. — Ibid. 12. ' Ad Att. xiy. \5. " O Dolabellae nostri hpumlav ! quanta est ava^ioi- prffflc ? equidem laudare eum et hortai'i non desisto — mihi quidem videtur Brutus noster jam vel coi-onam auream per forum ferre posse : quis enim audeat violare, proposita cruco aut saxo ? pi-Ksertim tantis plausibus, tanta appro- batione infimorum ?— Ibid. 16. 230 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF pain ia every part of his body, yet before he had even saluted me could not forbear crying out, ' O my Cicero ! I congratulate with you on account of the authority which you have with Dolabella, for if I had the same credit with my sister's son, Antony, we should all now be safe ; but as to your Dolabella, I both congratulate with him and thank him ; since, from the time of your consulship, he is the only one whom we can truly call a consul :' he then enlarged upon your act and the manner of it, and declared that nothing was ever greater, no- thing nobler, nothing more salutary to the state ; and this indeed is the common voice of all. AJlow me, therefore, I beg of you, to take some share, though it be a false one, in the possession of an- other man's glory ; and admit me in some degree into a partnership of your praises. But to be serious, my Dolabella, for hitherto I have been joking, I would sooner transfer aU the credit that I have to you, if I really have any, than rob you of any part of yours : for as I have always had that sincere affection for you, to which you have been no stranger, so now I am so charmed by your late conduct that no love was ever more ardent. For, believe me, there is nothing after all more engag- ing, nothing more beautiful, nothing rnore lovely than virtue. I have ever loved M. Brutus, you know, for his incomparable parts, sweet disposi- tion, singular probity, and firmness of mind ; yet on the ides of March, such an accession was made to my love, that I was surprised to find any room for increase in that which I had long ago taken to be full and perfect. Who could have thought it passible that any addition could be made to my love of you ? Yet so much has been added that I seem but now at last to love, before to have only esteemed you. What is it, therefore, that I must now exhort you to ? Is i' to pursue the path of dignity and glory ? And as those do, who use to exhort, shall I propose to you the examples of eminent men ? I can think of none more eminent than yourself. You must imitate therefore your- self; contend with yourself; for after such great things done, it would be a disgrace to you not to be like yourself. Since this then is the case, there is no occasion to exhort but to congratulate with you ; for that has happened to you which scarce ever happened to any man, that by the utmost severity of punishing, instead of acquiring odium, you are become popular ; and not only with the better sort, but the very meanest of the city. If this was owing to fortune, I should congratulate your felicity ; but it was owing to the greatness of your courage, as well as of your parts and wisdom. For I have read your speech to the people ; nothing was ever more prudent ; yon enter so deliberately and gradually into the reason of your act, and -etire from it so artfully, that the case itself, in the o^piniou of all, appears to be ripe for punishment. You have freed us tlierefore both from our danger and our fears, and have done an act of the greatest service not only to the present times, but for the example of it also to posterity. You are co con- sider that the republic now rests upon your shouU ders, and that it is your part not only to protect but to adorn those men, from whom we have received this beginning of our liberty ; but of this we shall talk more fuUy when we meet again, as I hope we shall shortly : in the mean while, since you are now the common guardian both of the republic and of us all, take care, my dear Dola- bella, that you guard more especially your own safety"." In this retreat from Rome he had a mind to make an excursion to Greece, and pay a visit to his son at Athens, whose conduct did not please him, and seemed to require his presence to reform and set it right". But the news of DolabeUa's beha- viour, and the hopes which it gave of gaining the only thing that was wanted, a head and leader of their cause armed with the authority of the state, made him resolve to stay at least till after the first of June, lest his absence should be interpreted as a kind of desertion ; nor did he ever intend indeed to leave Italy, till he could do it without censure, and to the full satisfaction of Brutus, whom he was determined never to desert on any occasion^. He had frequent meetings and conferences all this while with his old friends of the opposite party, the late ministers of Caesar's power, Pansa, Hirtius, Balbus, Matins, &c. But Caesar's death, on which their sentiments were very different from his, had in great measure broken their former confidence : and though the popularity of the act made them somewhat shy of speaking their minds freely about it, yet he easily perceived that they were utterly displeased with it, and seemed to want an occasion of revenging it. Pansa and Hirtius, as has been said, were nominated by Caesar to the consulship of the next year ; and as Caesar's acts were ratified by the senate, were to succeed to it of course. This made Brutus and Cassius press Cicero ear- nestly to gain them, if possible, to the republican side, but especially Hirtius, whom they most sus- pected. But Cicero seems to have had little hopes of success ; his account of them to Atticus is, " That there was not one of them who did not dread peace more than war ; that they were perpe- tually lamenting the miserable end of so great a man ; and declaring that the republic was ruined by it ; that all his acts would be made void as soon as people's fears were over, and that clemency was his ruin, since, if it had not been for that, he could not have perished in such a manner ; and of Hirtius in particular, he warmly loves him (says he) whom Brutus stabbed ; as to their desiring me to make him better, I am doing my endeavour : he talks very honestly, but hves with Balbus, who talks honestly too ; how far they are to be trusted you must consider'." But of all this set of men , Matin s was the most ■> Ep. Pam. ix. 14. Quod sentio valde esse utile ad confirmatlonem Cioe- ronis, me illuc venire. [Ad Att. xiv. 13.] Magni interest Ciceronis, vel mea potius, vel mehercule utriusque, me iutervenire discenti Ibid. 16. P Nunc autem videmnr habituri ducem, quod unum mimicipia, bonique desiderant — Ibid. 20. Neo vero discedam, nisi cum tu me id honeste putabis facere posse, Bruto cei'te meo nuUo loco deero. — ^Ibid. 15 ; it. xvi. 13. 1 Minime enim obscurum est, quid isti moliantur : meus vero discipulus, qui hodie apud me ccenat, valde amat ilium, quem Brutus noster sauciavit, et si qnaeris, perspexi enim plane, timent otium. vTr60ecTiV autem banc habent, eamquQ prse se ferunt, virum clarissimum interfectum, totam rempublicam lllius interituperturbatam : irrita fore, quffi ille egisset, simul ao desistemus timere. Clementiam illi malo fuisse: qua si usus non esset, nihil illi tale aocidere potuisse.— Ad Att. xiv. 22. Quod Hirtilun per me meliorem fieri volunt, do equidem operam, et ille optime loquitur, sed vivit habitatque cum MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 231 open and explicit in condemning the act of the conspirators, so as to put Cicero out of liumour with him, as a man irreconcileable' to the liberty of the republic. Cicero called upon him on his way from Rome into the country, and found him suUen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Csesar's death. Among other particulars of their conversa- tion, Matins told him something which Ceesar had lately said both of 'him and Brutus ; that he used to say of Brutus, " it was of great consequence which way he stood inclined, since whatever he had a mind to, he pursued with an impetuous eagerness ; that he had remarked this of him more especially in his pleading for Deiotarus at Nicffia ; where he spoke with a surprising vehemence and freedom : and of Cicero, that when he was attending Caesar in the cause of Sestius, Csesar perceiving him sitting in the room, and waiting till be was called, said, ' Can I doubt of my being extremely odious, when Cicero sits waiting and cannot get access to me ?' yet if any man he easy enough to forgive it, it is he, though I do not question but that he really hates me'." There were several reasons, however .which made it necessaiy to these men to court Cicero at this time as much as ever ; for if the republic happened to recover itself, he was of all men the most capable to protect them on that side ; if not, the most able to assist them against Antony, whose designs and success they dreaded still more ; for if they must have a new master, they were disposed, for the sake of Caesar, to prefer his heir and nephew, Octavius. We find Hirtius and Pansa, therefore, very assiduous in their observance of him. They spent a great part of the summer with^ him at different times in his villas, giving him the strongest assurances of their good inten- tions, and disposition to peace, and that he should be the arbiter of their future consulship ; and though he continued still to have some distrust of Hirtius, yet Pansa wholly persuaded him that he was sincere ^ Brutus and Cassius continued still near Lanu- vium, in the neighbourhood of Cicero's villa at Astura, of which, at Cicero's desire, they some- times made use' ; being yet irresolute what mea- sures they should take, they kept themselves quiet and retired, expecting what time and chance would offer, and waiting particularly to see what humour the consuls would be in at the next meeting of the senate, with regard to themselves and the repub- lic ; and since they were driven from the discharge Balbo : qui item bene loquitur. Quid credas videris. — Ad Atl. XX. 21. ' De Bruto nostro — Cafsaxem solitum dicere : — Magni refert hie quid velit : ged quicquid vult, valde vult. Idqne eum animadvertisse cum pro Deiotaro Nioeas dixerit, valdo vehementer eum visum, et libere dicere, Atque etiam proxime cum Sestii rogatu apud eum fuis- sem, expectaremque sedens quoad vocarer, dixisse eum : — Ego dubitem quin sunuuo in odio sim, cum M. Cicero *iedeat, nee suo commodo me convenire possit ? Atqui si quisquam est facilis, hie est : tamen non duibto, quiu me Dme oderit.— Ad Att. xiv. 1. " Cum Pansa vixi in Pompeiano. Is plane mihi pro- babat, se bene sentire et cupere pacem &c.-«Ad Att. xiv. 20; it. XT. 1. ' Velim mehercule Asturse Brutus. [Ad 4.tt. xiv. 11.] Brutura apud me fuiase gaudeo : mode et libenter fuerit etsatdiu.— Ibid.xv. a of their praetorship in the city, they contrived to put the people in mind of them, from time to time, by their edicts, in which they made the strongest professions of their pacific disposition ; and de. clared, " that their conduct should give no handle for a civil war ; and that they would submit to a perpetual exile, if it would contribute in any manner to the public concord, being content with the consciousness of their act, as the greatest honour which they could enjoy"." Their present design was to come to Rome on the first of June, and take their places in the senate, if it should be thought advisable ; or to present themselves at least in the rostra, and try the affections of the people, for whom Brutus was preparing a speech. They sent to know Cicero's opinion of this project, with the copy also of that speech which Brutus made in the capitol on the day of Caesar's death, begging his revisal and correction of it, in order to its being published. Cicero, in his account of it to Atticus, says, " the oration is drawn with the utmost elegance, both of sentiments and style; yet were I to handle the subject, I should work it up with more fire. You know the character of the speaker ; for which reason I could not correct it. For in the style in which our friend would excel, and according to the idea which he has formed of the best mannei of speakir^, he has succeeded so well, that nothing can be better : but whether I am in the right or the wrong, I am of a quite different taste. I wish, however, that you would i-ead it, if you have not already, and let me know what you think of it ; though I am afraid, lest through the prejudice of your name, you should show too much of the Attic in your judgment : yet if you remember the thunder of Demosthenes, you will perceive that the greatest force may consist with the perfection of Attic elegance." Atticus did not like the speech ; he thought the manner too cold and spiritless for so great an occasion ; and begged of Cicero to draw up another to be published in Brutus's name : but Cicero would not consent to it, thinking the thing itself improper, and knowing that Brutus would take it iU?. In one of his letters on the subject, — " Though you think me in the wrong," says he, " to imagine that the republic depends on Brutus, the fact is certainly so : there will either be none at all, or it will be saved by him and his accom- plices. As to your urging me to write a speech for him, take it from me, my Atticus, as a general rule, which by long experience I have found to be true, that there never was a poet or orator who thought any one preferable to himself. This is the case even with bad ones. What shall we think, then, of Brutus, who has both vrit and learning .' especially after the late experiment of him in the case of the edict, I drew up one for him at your desire. I liked mine ; he his. Besides, when at his earnest solicitation J addressed to him my treatise on the best manner of speaking, he wrote word, not only to me, but to you too, that the " Testati edlctis, libenter se vel in perpetuo exilic vic- turos, dum reipnblicae constaret Concordia, neo ullajn belli oivilis praebituros materiam, plurimum sibl bonoris esse in conscientia fact! sui, &c. [Veil, Pat. ii. 1)2,] Edic- tum Bruti et Cassii probo. [Ad Att. xiv. 20.] De quibua tu bonam spem tc habere significas propter edictorum hmnanitatem. — ^Ibid, xv, 1. » Ad Att. XV. 1. ) IMd. 3, 4. 232 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF kind of eloquence which I recommended did not please him. Let every one, therefore, compose for himself — I wish only that it may be in his power to make a speech at all ; for if ever he can appear again with safety at Rome, we have gained the victory'." In this interval a new actor appeared on the stage, who, though hitherto but little considered, soon made the first figure upon it, and drew all people's eyes towards him : the young Octavius, who was left by his uncle Caesar the heir of his name and estate. He had been sent a few months before to ApoUonia, a celebrated academy or school of learning in Macedonia, there to wait for his uncle on his way to the Parthian war, in which he was to attend him ; but the news of Caesar's death soon brought him back to Italy, to try what fortunes he could carve for himself, by the credit of his new name, and the help of his uncle's friends. He arrived at Naples on the eighteenth of April, whither Balbus went the next morning to receive him, and returned the same day to Cicero, near Cumse, having first conducted Octavius to the adjoining villa of his father-in-law Philip. Hirtius and Pansa were with Cicero at the same time, to whom they immediately presented Octavius, with the strongest professions on the part of the young man, that he would be governed entirely by his direction". The sole pretension which he avowed at present was, to assert his right to the succession of his uncle's estate, and to claim the possession of it ; but this was thought an attempt too hardy and dangerous for a mere boy, scarce yet above eighteen years old ; for the republican party had great reason to be jealous of him, lest with the inherit- ance of the estate, he should grasp at the power of his uncle ; and Antony still more, who had destined that succession to himself, and already seized the effects, lest by the advantage of all that wealth, Octavius might be in a condition to make head against him. The mother, therefore, and her husband Philip, out of concern for his safety, pressed him to suspend his claim for awhile, and not assume an invidious name, before he could see what turn the public affairs would take ; but he was of too great a spirit to relish any suggestions of caution, declaring it base and infamous to think himself unworthy of a name, of which Csesar had thought him worthy' : and there were many about him constantly pushing him on to throw himself upon the affections of the city and the army, before his enemies had made themselves too strong for him ; so that he was on fire to be at Rome, and to enter into action, being determined to risk all his hopes on the credit of his name, and the friends and troops of his uncle. Before he left the counti-y, Cicero, speaking of him to Atticus, says, — " Octavius is still with us, and treats me with the greatest respect and friend- ' Ad Att. xiv. 20. » Octavius Neapolim venit a. d. xmi. Kal. ibi eum Balbus mane postridio; eodemque die mecum in Cumano. [Ad Att. xiv. 10.] Hio meoum Balbus, Hirtius, Pansa. Modo venit Octavius, et quidem in proximom villam Philippi, milii totus deditus— Ibid. 11. >> Non placebat Atiie matri, Philippotiue vitrioo, adiri nomen invidiosaE fortune Casaris— sprevit coelestis animus humana consiliii— diotitans netas esse, quo nomine Cicsari dignus esset visus, sibimet ipsum videri indignum.— "Veil. Pat. ii. 60. ■ ship. His domestics give him the name of Caesar; Philip does not ; nor for that reason do I. It is not possible for him, in my opinion, to make a good citizen, there are so many about him who threaten the death of our friends : they declare that what they have done can never be forgiven. What will be the case, think you, when the boy comes to Rome, where our deliverers cannot show their heads ? who yet must ever be famous, nay, happy too, in, the consciousness of their act ; but as for us, unless I am deceived, we shall be undone. I long, . therefore, to go abroad, where I may hear no more of these Pelopidae," &c. ' As soon as Octavius came to Rome, he was produced to the people by one of the tribunes, and made a speech to them from the rostra, which was now generally possessed by the enemies of Brutus, who were perpetually making use of the advantage to inflame the mob against him. " Remember," says Cicero, " what I tell you : this custom of seditious harangues is so much cherished, that those heroes of ours, or rather gods, will live indeed in immortal glory, yet not without envy, and even danger : their great comfort, however, is, the consciousness of a most glorious act; but what comfort for us, who, when our king is killed, are not yet free .' But fortune must look to that, since reason has no sway"*." Octavius seconded his speech by what was like to please the inferior part of the city much better ; the representation of public shows and plays, in honour of his uncle's victories. Caesar had pro- mised and prepared for them in his lifetime ; but those whom he had entrusted with the manage- ment durst not venture to exhibit them after his death, till Octavius, as his heir and representative, undertook the affair, as devolved, of course, upon himself". In these shows Octavius brought out the golden chair which, among the other honours decreed to Caesar when living, was ordered to be placed in the theatres and circus, as to a deity, on all solemn occasions'. But the tribunes ordered the chair to be taken away, upon which the body of the k'nights testified their applause by a general clap. Atticus sent an account of this to Cicero, which was very agreeable to, him S; but he was not at all pleased with Octavius's conduct, since it indicated a spirit determined to revive the memory and to avenge the death of Caesar ; and he was the less pleased to hear, also, that Matins h ad taken <: Nobisctun hio perhonorifice et amice Octavius ; quern quidem sui Ceesarem salutabant, Philippus non ; itaque no nos quidem : quem nego posse bonum civem, ita inulli circmnstant, qui quidem nostris mortem minitantur. Negant hxc ferri posse. Quid censes, ciuu Romam pner venerit, ubi nostri liberatores tuti esse non possunt ? qui quidem semper ermit clari ; conscicntia vero fncti sui ^ctiam beati : sed nos, nisi me fallit, jacebimus, Itaquo aveo exire, ubi nee Pelopidarum, &c Ad Att. xiv. 12. ^ Sed memento, sic alitur oonsuetudo perditarum eon- cionum, ut nostri illi non heroes, sed dii, futuri quidem in gloria sempitema siift, sed non sine invidia, ne sine peri- culo quidem : verum illis magna consolatio, conscientia maximi et clarissimi facti : nobis quse, qui interfccto rege liberi non sumus ? Sed hasc fortuna viderit, quoniam ratio non gubernat. — Ad Att xiv. 11. "^ Ludos autem victoria Cssaris non audentibus facere, quibusobtigerat idmunus, ipseedidit. — Sueton. in Aug. 10; Dio, p. 272. ' Dio, xliv. 243. E De sella Cccsaris, bene ti'ibuuL Praclaroa etiam xiv. ordines.— Ad Att xv. 3. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 233 upon him the care of these shows'", since it con- firmed the suspicion which he had before conceived of Matius, and made him apprehensive that he would be an ill counsellor to young Octavius, in which light he seems to have represented him to Bnitas. Matius was informed of these suspicions, and complained to their common friend Trebatius of Cicero's unkind opinion and unfriendly treat- ment of him, which gave occasion to the following apology from Cicero, and the answer to it from Matius, which is deservedly valued, not only for the beauty of its sentiments and composition, but for preserving to us a name and character, which was almost lost to history, of a most esteemed and amiable person, who Uved in the first degree of confidence with Csesar, and for parts, learning, and virtue, was scarce inferior to any of that age. Cicero takes pains to persuade Matius that he had said nothing of him but what was consistent with the strictest friendship ; and to gain the easier credit with him, prefaces his apology with a detail and acknowledgment of Matius's perpetual civili- ties and observance of him through life, even when in the height of his power and credit with Csesar ; but when he comes to the point of the complaint he touches it very tenderly, and observes only in general, " that as Matius's dignity exposed every- thing which he did to public notice, so the malice of the world interpreted some of his acts more hardly than they deserved ; that it was his care always to give the most favourable turn to them — but you (says he), a man of the greatest learn- ing, are not ignorant, that if Caesar was in fact a king, as I indeed look upon him to have been, there are two ways of considering the case of your duty ; either that, which I commonly take, of extolling your fideUty and humanity, in showing so much affection even to a dead friend ; or the other, which some people use, that the liberty of our country ought to be preferred to the life of any fiiend. I wish that you had heard with what zeal I used to defend you in these conversations ; but there are two things especially that make the prin- cipal part of your praise, which no man speaks of more frequently or more freely than I : that you, of all Caesar's friends, were the most active, both in dissuading the civil war, and in moderating the victory ; in which I have met with nobody who does not agree with me'," &c. Matius to Cicero. " Your letter gave me great pleasure, by letting nie see that you retain still that favourable opinion of me, which I had always hoped and wished ; and though 1 had never, indeed, any doubt of it, yet for the high value that I set upon it, I was very solicitous that it should remain always inviolable ; I was conscious to myself that I had done nothing which could reasonably give offence to any honest man, and did not imagine, therefore, that a person of your great and excellent accomplishments could be induced to take any without reason, especially against one who had always professed, and still continued to profess, a sincere good-will to you. Since all this, then, stands just as I wish it, I will now give an answer to those accusations, from •> Ludonun ejus apparatus, et Matius ac Poetumius pro- euratores non placent— Ad Att. xv. 2. ' Ep. Fam. xi. 27. which you, agreeably to your character, out of your singular goodness and friendship, have so often defended me. I am no stranger to what has been said of me by certain persons, since Caesar's death : they call it a crime in me, that I am con- cerned for the loss of an intimate friend, and sorry that the man whom I loved met with so unhappy a fate : they say that our country ought to be pre- ferred to any friendship, as if they had already made it evident that his death was of service to the republic ; but I will not deal craftily ; I own myself not to be arrived at that degree of wisdom ; nur did I yet follow Caesar in our late dissentions, but my friend, whom, though displeased with the thing, I could not desert ; for I never approved the civil war, or the cause of it, but took all possible pains to stifle it in its birth. Upon the victory, therefore, of a familiar friend, T was not eager either to advance or to enrich myself : an advantage which others, who had less interest with him than I, abused to great excess. Nay, my cir- cumstances were even hurt by Caesar's law, to whose kindness the greatest pai't of those who now rejoice at his death, owed their very continuance in the city. I solicited the pardon of the vanquished with the same zeal as if it had been for myself. Is it possible, therefore, for me, who laboured to pro- cure the safety of all, not to be concerned for the death of him from whom I used to procure it ? especially when the very same men who were the cause of making him odious, were the authors also of destroying him. But I shall have cause, they say, to repent, for daring to condemn their act. Unheard of insolence ! that it should be allowed to some to glory in a wicked action, yet not to others even to grieve at it, without punishment ! But this was always free even to slaves, to fear, rejoice, and grieve by their own will, not that of another ; which yet these men, who call themselves the authors of liberty, are endeavouring to extort from us by the force of terror. But they may spare their threats ; for no danger shall terrify me from performing my duty and the oflSces of humanity, since it was always my opinion, that an honest death was never to be avoided, often even to be sought. But why are they angry with me for wishing only that they may repent of their act .' 1 wish that all the world may regret Caesar's death. But I ought, they say, as a member of civil society, to wish the good and safety of the republic. If my past life and future hopes do not already prove that I wish it, without my saying so, I will not pretend to evince it by argument. — I beg of you, therefore, in the strongest terms, to attend to facts rather than to words ; and if you think it the most useful to one in my cii'cumstances, that what is right should take place, never imagine that I can have any union or commerce with ill-designing men. I acted the same part in my youth, where to mistake would have been pardonable ; shall I then undo it all again, and renounce my principles in my declin- ing age ? No ; it is my resolution to do nothing that can give any offence, except it be when I lament the cruel fate of a dear friend and illustrious man. If I were in different sentiments, I would never disown what I was doing, lest I should be thought not only wicked for pursuing what was wrong, but false and cowardly for dissembling it. But I undertook the care of the shows 'which young Csesar exhibited for the victory of his uncle : this 234 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ■was an affair of private, not of public duty : it was what I ought to have performed to the memory and honour of my dear friend, and what I could not, therefore, deny to a youth of the greatest hopes, and so highly worthy of Caesar. But I go often, also, to the consul Antony's, to pay my compli- ments ; yet you will find those very men go oftener to ask and receive favours, who reflect upon me for it, as disaffected to my country. But what arro- gance is this ? When Caesar never hindered me from visiting whom I would — even those whom he did not care for — that they, who had deprived me of him, should attempt, by their cavils, to debar me from placing my esteem where I think proper. But I am not afraid that either the modesty of my life should not be sufficient to confute all false reports of me for the future, or that they, who do not love me for my constancy to Caesar, would not choose to have their friends resemble me rather than themselves. For my own part, if I could have my wish, I would spend the remainder of my days in quiet at Rhodes ; but if any accident prevent me, will live in such a manner at Rome, as always to desire that what is right may prevail. I am greatly obUged to our friend Trebatius, for giving me this assurance of your sincere and friendly re- gard for me, and for making it my duty to respect and observe a man whom I had esteemed always before with inclination. Take care of your health, and preserve me in your affection — ^." Antony all this while was not idle, but pushed on his designs with great vigour and address : in his progress through Italy, his business was to gather up Caesar's old soldiers from the several colonies and quarters in which they were settled ; and by large bribes, and larger promises, to attach them to his interests, and draw great bodies of them towards Rome, to be ready for any purpose that his affairs should require. In the city like- wise he neglected no means which his consular authority offered, how unjust or violent soever, of strengthening his power ; and let all people now see for what ends he had provided that decree, to which the senate had consented for the sake of peace, of confirming Caesar's acts ; for being the master both of Caesar's papers and of his secretary Faberius, by whose hand they were written', he had an opportunity of forging and inserting at pleasure whatever he found of use to him, which he practised without any reserve or management ; selling publicly for money whatever immunities were desired by counti-ies, cities, princes, or private men, on pretence that they had been granted by It Ep. Fam. xi. 28. This Cn. Matius lived long after- wards in sucli favour and familiarity with Augustus, as to be distinguished Ijy the title of Augustus's friend. Yet he seems to have declined all piiblic honours and business, and to have spent the remainder of his days in an elegant and pleasurable retreat ; employing liis time and studies in the improvements of gardening and planting, as well as in refining the delicacy of a splendid and luxurious life, which was the general taste of that age. For he first taught how to inoculate and propagate some ol their curious and foreign fruits; and introduced the way of cutting trees and groves into regular forms: on which subjects he published several books which are mentioned by the later writers. — Columel. De Re Rust. xiL 44. init. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. xii. 2 ; xv. 14. ' T^ vwo^iffl/jiaTa r&f Se^ovKevfievav 6 ^Avrdvios 'fX""^ K"! Til/ 'ypaiiiiaTea rod Kaiaapos ^afiepiov, is ■irdvTa !>t vetsiufvov ^App. 1, a W. Caesar and entered into his books. This alarmed and shocked all honest men who saw the mischief, but knew no remedy : Antony had the power, and their own decree had justified it. Cicero complains of it heavily in many of his letters, and declares it a thousand times better to die than to suffer it", " Is it so then ? " says he, " is all that our Brutus has done come to tins, that he might live at last at Lauuvium ? That Trebonius might steal away through private roads to his province .' That aU the acts, writings, sayings, promises, thoughts of CiEsar should have greater force now than when he himself was living .' " All which he charges to that mistake of the first day in not summoning the senate into the capitol, where they might have done what they pleased when their own party was uppermost, and these robbers, as he calls them, dispersed and dejected". Among the other auts which Antony confirmed, on the pretence of their being ordered by Caesar, he granted the freedom of the city to all Sicily, and restored to king Deiotarus all his former domi- nions. Cicero speaks of this with great indignation. " O my Atticus," says he, " the ides of March have given us nothing but the joy of revenging ourselves on him whom we had reason to hate it was a brave act, but left imperfect you know what a kindness I have for the Sicilians ; that I esteem it an honour to be their patron : Caesar granted them many privileges which I did not dis- like, though his giving them the rights of Latium was intolerable ; yet that was nothing to what Antony has done, who for a large sum of money has published a law, pretended to be made by the dic- tator, in an assembly of the people, though we never heard a syllable of it in his lifetime, which makes them all citizens of Rome, als not Deiota- rus's case just the same ? He is worthy indeed of any kingdom, but not by the grant of Fulvia ; there are a thousand instances of the same sort"." When this last act was hung np as usual in> the capitol, among the public monuments of the city, the forgery appeared so gross that the people, in the midst of their concern, could not help laughing at it ; knowing that Caesar hated no man so much as Deiotarus. But the bargain was made in Fulvia's apartments for the sum of eighty thousand pounds, by the king's agents at Rome, without consulting Cicero or any other of their master's friends ; yet the old king, it seems, was beforehand with them, and no sooner heard of Caesar's death than he seized upon his dominions again by force. " He knew it," says Cicero, " to be a universal rigHt, that what tyrants had forcibly taken away, the true owners might recover whenever they were able : — he acted like a man, but we contemptibly, who whilst we hate the author, yet maintain his acts P." By these methods Antony presently ■» Bp. Fam. xii. 1 ; Ad Att. xiv. 9. " Itane vero ? hoc meus et tuus Brutus egit, ufr Lanuvii esset ? ut Trebonius itineribus devils profioiseeretur in provinciam? ut omnia facta, scripta, dicta, promissa, cogitata Cffisaris plus valerent, quam si ipse viveret ? &c. —Ad Att. xiv. 10. 1 Ad Att xiv. ^2. P Syngrapha H. S. centies per legatos, — sine nostra, sine reliquorum hospitum regis sententia, facta in gyna!ceo: quo in loco plurimas res venlerunt, et veneunt — ^Rex enim ipse sua sponte, nullis commentariia Ciesaris, simul atque audivit ejus interitum, suo marte res suas recuperavit Sciebat homo sapiens, jus semper hoc fuisse, ut, gate MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 235 amassed infinite sums of money ; for though at the time of Caesar's death he owed, as Cicero told him, above three hundred thousand pounds, yet within less than a fortnight after it he had paid off the whole debt'. There was another instance'of his violence which gave still greater offence to the city ; his seizing the public treasure which Csesar had deposited for the occasions of the government, in the temple of Opis, amounting to above five millions and a half of our money ; besides what Calpurnia, Ctesar's wife, from his private treasure had delivered into his hands, computed at about another milUon. This was no extraordinary sum if we consider the vastness of the mine from which it was drawn, the extent of the Roman empire, and that Caesar was of all men the most rapacious in extorting it : Cicero, alluding to the manner in which it was raised, calls it a bloody and deadly treasure, ga- thered from the spoils and ruin of the subjects s which, if it were not restored, as it ought to be, to the true owners, might have been of great service to the public towards easing them of their taxes'. But Antony, who followed Caesar's maxims, took care to secure it to himself, the use of it was to purchase soldiers, and he was now in condition to outbid any competitor ; but the first purchase that he made with it was of his colleague Dolabella, who had long been oppressed with the load of his debts, and whom, by a part of this money, and the promise of a farther share in the plunder of the empire, he drew entirely from Cicero and the republican party into his own measures. This was an acquisition worth any price to him ; the gene- ral inclination both of the city and the country was clearly against him ; the town of Puteoli, one of the most considerable of Italy, had lately chosen the two Brutuses and Cassius for their patrons ', and there wanted nothing but a leader to arm the whole empire in that cause : Dolabella seemed to be that very person, till bribed, as Cicero says, by force of money, he not only deserted but overturned the republic*. These proceedings, which were preparatory to the appointed meeting of the senate on the first of June, began to jypen Brutus's eyes and convince him of the mistake of his pacific measures and favourable thoughts of Antony ; he now saw that there was no good to be expected from him, or from the senate itself under his influence, and thought it time, therefore, in concei't vrith Cassius, to require an explicit account of his intentions, and to expostulate with him gently in the following letter. tyi-anni eripuissent, ea tyrannis interfectis, ii quibus ereptfl essent, recuperarent — ^lUe vir fuit, nos quidem contemnendi, qui auctorem odimus, acta defendimus.— PhU. iL 37. 1 Tu autem quadringenties H.S. quod Idibus Majtiis debuisti, quonam modo ante Kalendas Aprilis debere desisti ?— Ibid. ' Ubi est septies miUies H.S. quod in tabulis, quae sunt ad Opis patebat ? funestse illius quidem pecuniae, sed t?jnen, si iis, quorum erat, non reddcretur, quse nos a ti'ibutis posset vindicare.— PhiL ii. 37; Phil. i. 7 ; Plutaioh. in Ant * Vexavit Puteolanos, quod Cassium et Brutos patronos adoptassent Phil. iL 41. * Ut ilium oderim, quod cum rempublicam me auctore defendere ccepisset, non modo deaeruerit, empfeus pecunia, Kd etiam quantum in ipso fuit, everterit.— Ad Att. xvi. IS. Brutus and Cassius, Prators, to M. Anlonius, Consul. " If we were not persuaded of your sincerity and good-will to us we should not have written this to you, which, out of the kind disposition that you bear to us, you will take without doubt in good part We are informed that a great multitude of veteran soldiers is already come to Rome, and a much greater expected there on the first of June. If we could harbour any suspicion or fear of you, we should be unlike ourselves ; yet surely, after we had put ourselves into your power, and by your advice dismissed the friends whom we had about us from the great towns, and that not only by public edict but by private letters, we deserve to be made acquainted with your designs, especially in an affair which relates to ourselves. We beg of you, there- fore, to let us know what your intentions are with regard to us. Do you think that we can be safe in such a crowd of veterans ? who have thoughts, we hear, even of rebuilding the altar, which no man can desire or approve who wishes our safety and honour. That we had no other view from the first but peace, nor sought anything else but the public liberty, the event shows. Nobody can deceive us but you, which is not certainly agreeable to your virtue and integrity ; but no man else has it in his power to deceive us. We trusted, and shall trust to you alone. Our friends are under the greatest apprehensions for us ; for though they are persuaded of your integrity, yet they reflect that a multitude of veterans may sooner be pushed on to any violence by others than restrained by you. We desire an explicit answer to all particulars, for it is silly and trifling to tell us that the veterans are called together because you intend to move the senate in their favour in June ; for who do you think vrill hinder it when it is certain that we shall not ? Nobody ought to think us too fond of life, when nothing can happen to us but with the ruin and confusion of all things"." During Cicero's stay in the country, where he had a perpetual resort of his friends to him, and where his thoughts seemed to be always employed on the republic, yet he found leisure to write several of those philosophical pieces which still subsist both to the pleasure and benefit of man- kind. For he now composed his treatise on the Nature of the Gods, in three books, addressed to Brutus, containing the opinions of all the philoso- phers who had ever written anything on that argument ; to which he bespeaks the attention of his readers as to a subject of the last importance, which would inform them what they ought to think of religion, piety, sanctity, ceremonies, faith, oaths, temples, &c., since aU these were included in that single question of the gods*. He drew up likewise his Discourse on Divination, or the foreknowledge and prediction of future events, and the several ways by which it was supposed to be, acquired or communi- cated to man ; where he explains in two books whatever could be said for and against the actual existence of the thing itself. Both these pieces are written in the way of dialogue, of which he gives the following account. " Since Carneades," says he, " has argued both acutely and copiously against divination, in answer to the Stoics, I am now inquiring what j udgment we ought to form con- V Ep. Fam. xi. 2, » De Nat. Deor. i. 6. 236 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF cerning it ; aad for fear of giving my assent rashly to a thing, either false in itself or not sufficiently understood, I think it best to do what I have already done in my three books on the Nature of the Gods, weigh and compare diligently all the arguments with each other : for as rashness of assent and error is in all cases shameful, so most of all in that where we are to judge what stress is to be laid on auspices and things of a divine and religious nature ; for the danger is, lest either by neglecting them we involve ourselves in an impiety, or by embracing them, in an old woman's superstition ?." He now also wrote his piece on the advantages of old age, called " Cato," from the chief speaker in the dialogue : he addressed it to Atticus, as a lecture of common comfort to them both, in that gloomy scene of life on which they were entering ; " having found so much pleasure (he says) in writing it that it not only eased him of all the complaints of age, but made age itself even agreeable and cheerful to him^." He added soon after another present of the same kind to Atticus, a treatise on Friendship : " a subject (he says) both worthy to be known to all, and pecuUarly adapted to the case of their particu- lar intimacy ; for as I have already written of age, an old man to an old man, so now in the person of a sincere friend I write on friendship to my friend." This is written also in dialogue, the chief speaker of which is Lselius ; who, in a conversation with his two sons-in-law Fannius and Scsevola, upon the death of P. Scipio and the memorable friendship that had subsisted between them, took occasion, at their desire, to explain to them the nature and be- nefits of true friendship. Scsevola, who lived to a great age, and loved to retail his old stories to his scholars, used to relate to them with pleasure all the particulars of this dialogue, which Cicero having committed to his memory, dressed up afterwards in his own manner into the present form". Thus this agreeable book, which when considered only as an invention or essay, is one of the most enter- taining pieces in antiquity, must needs affect us more warmly when it is found at last to be a his- tory, or a picture drawn from the life, exhibiting the real characters and sentiments of the best and greatest men of Rome. He now also wrote his discourse on Fate ; which was the subject of a conversation with Hirtius in his villa near Puteoli, where they spent several days together in May ; and he is supposed to have finished about the same time a translation of Plato's famous dialogue called Timasus, on the nature and origin of the universe. But he was employing himself also upon a work of a different sort which had been long upon his hands ; a history of his own times, or rather of his own conduct, full of free and severe reflections on those who had abused their power to the op- pression of the republic, especially Caesar and Crassus. This he calls his Anecdote ; a work not to be p ublished, but to be sho wn only to a few y De Divin. i. 4. ■' Mihi quidem ita jucunda hujus libri confeotio (uit, ut non modo omnes abeterserit senectutis molestias, sed effeeerit moUem etiam et jucundam senectutem. — De Senect. 1. a Digna mihi res turn omnium cognitioue, tirni nostra familiaritate visa est — sed ut turn ad senem senex de senectute, sic hoc libro ad amicum araieissimus de ami- eitia scripsi — et cum Scffivola — exposuit nobis sermonem Leclii de amicltia, habitum ab illo secum, et cum altero geaero C, Fannio, &o.— De Amicit. I. friends, in the manner of Theopompus, an histo- rian famed for his severe and invective style"". Atticus was urging him to put the last hand to it, and to continue it down through Csesar's govern- ment ; but he chose to reserve this last part for a distinct history, in which he designed to vindicate at large the justice of killing a tyrant. We meet with several hints of this design in his letters : in one to Atticus he says, " I have not yet polished my Anecdote to my mind ; as to what you would have me add, it will require a separate volume, but believe me, I could speak more freely and with less danger against that detested party, whilst the tyrant himself was alive than now when he is dead. For he, I know not why, indulged me wonderfully : but now, which way soever we stir, we are called back not only to Csesar's acts but to his very thoughts. Again, I do not well understand what you would have me write ; is it that the tyrant was killed according to the strict laws of justice ? Of that I shall both speak and write my thoughts fully on another occasion"." His other friends also seem to have had some notice of this work, for Trebo- nius, in a letter to him from Athens, after remind- ing him of his promise to give him a place in some of his writings, adds, " I do not doubt but that if you write anything on the death of Caesar, you wUl give me not the least share both of that act and of your affection^." Dion Cassius says, that he deh- vered this book sealed up to his son, with strict orders not to read or publish itftiU after his death ; but from this time he never saw his son, and left the piece probably unfinished ; though some copies of it afterwards got abroad, from which his com- mentator, Asconius, has quoted several particu- lars®. In the end of May he began to move towards Rome, in order to assist at the senate on the first of June, and proposed to be at Tusonlum on the twenty-sixth, of which he gave Atticus notice. There passed all the while a constant commerce of letters between him and Brutus, who desired a personal- conference with him at Lanuvium, in which Cicero resolved to humour him, though he did not think it prudent at that time, when without any particular use it would only give jealousy to Antony. But the nearer he came to the city, the more he was discouraged from the thoughts of en- tering it: he understood that it was filled with soldiers ; that Antony came thither attended by a strong body of them ; that all his views were bent on war ; and that he designed to transfer the pro- vince of Gaul from D. Brutus to himself, by a vote of the people'. Hirtius dissuaded his going, "> Ad Att ii. 6 ; Dion. Hal. prooem. 1. <= Librum meum ilium qv^kSotov nondum, ut volui, pcrpolivi. Istavero, quae tu contexivis, aliudquoddam separatum volumen exspectaut. Ego autem, credas mihi velim, minore periculo existimo contra illas nefarias partes vivo tyranno dici potuisse, quam mortuo. lUe enim nescio quo pacto ferebat me quidem mirabUiter. Nunc quacunque nos commovimus, ad Casaris non modo acta, verum etiam cogitata revocamur. [Ad Att xiv. 170 Sed panim intelligo quid me velis scribere — an sic ut in tyrajmum jure optima csesum? multa dicentur, multa scribentur a nobis, sed alio modo ac tempore. — ^Ibid. xv. >3. '^ Namque illud non dubito, quin, si quid de interitu Cffiaaris scribas, non patiaris me minimam partem et roi et amoris tui ferre.— Ep. Fam. xii. l(i. = Dio, p. 96 ; it. Ascon. in Tog. Candid. f Puto enim nobis Lanuvium eundum, non sine multo MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 237 and resolved to stay away himself ; Varro sent him word that the veterans talked desperately against all those who did not favour them : Grseceius also admonished him, on the part of C. Cassius, to be upon his guard, for that certain armed men were prcMded for some attempt at Tusculum. All these informations determined him at last not to venture to the senate ; but to withdraw himself from that city, where he had not only flourished (he says) with the greatest, but lived even a slave with some dignity^. The major part of the senate followed his example and fled out of the city for fear of some violence, leaving the consuls, with a few of their creatures, to make what decrees they thought fit". This turn of afl'airs made Cicero resolve to prosecute what he had long been projecting, his voyage to Greece, to spend a few mouths with his son at Athens. He despaired of any good from these consuls, and intended to see Rome no more till their successors entered into office, in whose administration he began to place all his hopes. He wrote, therefore, to Dolabella to procure him the grant of an honorary lieutenancy ; and lest Antony, an angry man, as he calls him, should think him- self slighted, he wrote to him too on the same sub- ject. Dolabella immediately named him for one of his own lieutenants, which answered his purpose still better, for without obliging him to any service, or Umiting him to any time, it left him at full liberty to go wherever he pleased ; so that he readily accepted it and prepared for his joiiraey". He heard in the meanwhile from Balbus that the senate would be held again on the flfth, when com- missions would be granted severally to Brutus and Cassius to buy up corn in Asia and Sicily for the use of the republic ; and that it would be decreed also at the same time, that provinces should be assigned to them with the other prsetors at the expiration of the year''. Their case at this time was very remarkable, it being wholly new in Rome to see preetors driven out of the city, where their residence was absolutely Bormone — ^Bruto enim placere, se a me couveniri. O rem odiosam et inoxplicabilem ! puto me ergo iturum— An- tonii consilia narras turbulenta — sed mihi totum ejus con- silium ad liellum epectare videtiir, si" quidem D. Bmto provincia eripitur. — Ad Att. xv. 4. e Hirtius jam in Tusculano est ; mihique, ut absim, vehementer auctor est ; et ille quidem periculi causa — Varro autem noster ad me epistolam misit — in qua scrip- turn erat, veteranos eos, qui rejiciantur — improbissime loqui ; ut magno periculo Romae sint futuri, qui ab eorum partibus dissentiie videantur. — Ibid. 5. Grajceius ad me scripsit, C. Cassium ad se soripsisse, homines compai-ari, qui in Tusculanum armati mitteren- tur.— Id quidem mihi non videbatur ; sed cavendum tamen.— Ibid. xv. & Mihi reru deliberatum est, ut nunc quidem est, abesse ex ea urbe, in qua non mode ilorui cum summa, verum otiam servivi cum aliqua dignitate. — ^Ibid, 5. " Kalendis Juniis cum in senatum, ut crat constitutum, venire rellemus, metu perterriti repente diffugimus. — Phil, ii, 42. - i Etiam scripsi ad Antoniiun de legatione, ne, si ad Oolabellam solum scripsissem, ii-acundus homo commo- veretur. [Ad Att. xv. 8.] Sed heus tu,— Dolabella me sibi legavit, &C.— Ibid. 11. ^ A Balbo reddits mihi liters, fore Nonis senatum, ut Brutus in Asia, Cassius in Bicilia, fnunentum emendum et ad urbem mittendum curarent. O rem miseram I ait, eodem tempore decretum iri, uti is et reliquia praetoriis^ provinciffi decernantur.— Ibid. 9, necessary, and could not legally be dispensed with for above ten days in the year ; but Antony readily procured a decree to absolve them from the laws' ; being glad to see them in a situation so contempti- ble, stripped of their power and suffering a kind of exile, and depending, as it were, upon him for their protection : their friends, therefore, at Rome had been soliciting the senate for some extraordinary employment to be granted to them, to cover the ap- pearance of a flight and the disgrace of living in banishment, when invested with one of the first magistracies of the republic". This was the ground of the commission just mentioned to buy corn, which seemed however to be below their character, and contrived as an affront to them by Antony, who affected still to speak of them always with tlie greatest respect". But their friends thought anything better for them than to sit still in Italy, where their persons were exposed to danger from the veteran soldiers, who were all now in motion ; and that this employment would be a security to them for the present, as well as an opportunity of providing for their future safety, by enabling them to execute what they were now me- ditating, a design of seizing some provinces abroad and arming themselves in defence of the republic, which was what their enemies were most afraid of, and charged them with publicly, in order to make them odious. Cicero in the meantime, at their desire, had again recommended their interests to Hirtius, who gave him the foUpwing answer. " I wish that Brutus and Cassius could be pre- vailed with by you as easily to lay aside all crafty councils, as they can obtain by you from me what- ever they desire. They were leaving Italy, you say; when they wrote to you .' Whither, or where- fore .' do not let them go, I beseech you, my dear Cicero, nor suffer the repxiblio to he wholly lost ; though overwhelmed indeed already by these ra- pines, burnings, murders. Iftheyare afraid of any- thing, let them be upon their guard, but act nothing offensively ; they will not, I am confident, gain a tittle the more by the most vigorous, than the most pacific measures, if they use but caution. The things which are now stirring cannot last long, but if made the subject of war, will acquire present strength to hurt. Let me know your opinion of what may be expected from them." Cicero sent him word, that he would be answer- able for their attempting nothing desperate ; and was informed, at the same time by Balbus, that Servilia, Brutus's mother, had undertaken that hey should not leave Italy". Servilia, though sister to Cato, had been one of Caesar's mistresses, and next to Cleopatra, the msot beloved 'of them all. In the civil war he gave her several rich farms out of his Pompeian confiscations, and is said to have bought a single ' Cur M. Brutus, te referente, legibus est solutus, si ab urbe plusquam decern dies abfuisset ? — Fhil. ii 13. " Kol avrots els einrpeireiav 7] jBovA^ (tItov tppov- Tiffui TTpofffTo^eVf^ya ^^ to if fxetrto StdffTiifia (pevyeiv jfOlxt^olVTO. — Appian. BelL Civ. iv. 622 ; it. iii. 530. n Frumentum imponere — quodmunusinrepublicasordi- dius ? [Ad Att. XV. 10.] Patriae liberatorcs urbe carebant — quoa tamen ipai consules et in concionibus et in omni sermone laudabant — Phil. L 2. o Cui rescripsi nihil illos eallidius cogitare, idque conflr- mavi— Balbus ad me — Serviliam confirmare non discessu- ros,— .Ad Att, XV. 6. 238 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF jewel for her at the price of about SOjOOO/.i- She was a woman of spirit and intrigue, in great credit with the Csesarean party, and at this very time possessed the estate and villa of Pontius Aquila, one of the conspirators, which had been confis- cated and granted to her by Caesar. Cicero reckons it among the solecisms of the times, that the mother of the tyrant-ltiller should hold the estate of one of her son's accomplices ' ; yet she had such a jshare in all the counsels of Brutus, that it made Cicero the less inclined to enter into them, or to be concerned with one whom he could not trust. " When he is influenced so much," says he, " by his mother's advice, or at least her entreaties, why should I interpose myself'?" At their desire, however, he went over to them at Antium, to assist at a select council of friends, called to deliberate on what was proper for them to do with regard to this new commission. There were present among others, Favonius, Servilia, Porcia, Brutus's wife, and his sister Tertulla, the wife of Cassius. Brutus was much pleased at his coming, and after the first compliments, begged him to deliver his opinion to the company on the subject of their meeting. Upon which he pre- sently advised, what he had been considering on the road, " that Brutus should go to Asia, and undertake the affair of the corn : that the only thing to be done at present was, to provide for their safety ; that their safety was a certain benefit to the republic. Here Cassius interrupted him, ' and, with great fierceness in his looks, protested that he would not go to Sicily, nor accept as a favour what was intended as an affront, but would go to Achaia. Brutus said that he would go to Rome, if Cicero thought it proper for him ; but Cicero declared it impassible for him to be safe there. But supposing, says he, that I could be safe .' Why then, says Cicero, I should advise it by all means, as the best thing which you could do, and better than any province. After much discourse and complaining for the loss of their opportunities, for which Cassius laid all the blame on D. Brutus, Cicero said, that though that was true, yet it was in vain to talk of what was past ; and as the case then stood, he saw nothing left but to follow his advice, to which they all at last seemed to agree, especially when Servilia under- took by her mediation, to get the affair of the corn left out of their commission ; and Brutus consented that the plays and shows, with which he was to entertain the city shortly as prsetor, should be given by proxy in his absence. Cicero took his leave, pleased with nothing in the con- ference but the consciousness of having done his duty : for as to the rest, he gave all, he says, for lost ; found the vessel not only broken, but shat- tered to pieces, and neither prudence, reason, or design in what they were doing ; so that if he had any doubt before, he had none now, but longed to get abroad as soon as possible'." p Ante alias dilexit M. Bruti matrem ServUlam,— cui .'oxagies n. B. m^rgaritam meroatus est, &c.— Sueton. in J. Caes. 50. q Quin etiam hoc ipso tempore multa inrov6KoiKa : Pontii Neapolitanum a matre tyrannoctoni poasiderj Ad Jltt. xiv. 21. ' Matris oonsilio cum utatur, vel etiam preoibus, quid mo intsi-ponam ?— Ad Att. xv. 10. > Ad Att. xv. II, 12. Octavius, upon his coming to Rome, was very roughly received by Antony : who, despLsing his age and want of experience, was so far from treat- ing him as Csesar's heir, or giving him possession of his estate, that he openly threatened and thwarted him in all his pretensions; nor weuld suffer him to be chosen tribune, to which he aspired, with the seeming favour of the people, in the room of that Cinna who was killed at Csesar's funeral'. This necessarily drew the regard of the republican party towards him, and Cicero began to take the more notice of him in proportion as Antony grew more and more formidable : at present he gives the following account of him. " Octavianus, I perceive, has parts and spirit, and seems to be affected, as we could wish, towards our heroes : but how far we may trust his age, name, succession, education, is a matter of great deliberation. His father-in-law, who came to see me at Astura, thinks not at all. He must be che- rished however, if for nothing else, yet to keep him at a distance from Antony. Marcellus acts nobly, if he instils into him a good disposition towards our friends. He seemed to be much in- fluenced by him, but to have no confidence in Fausa and Hirtius ; his natural disposition is good, if it does but hold"." In the midst of these affairs with which his mind, as he complains, was much distracted, he pursued his literary studies with his usual ardour ; and to avoid the great resort of company, which interrupted him, at his house near Bais, he re- moved to his Fompeian villa, on the south side of Naples. Here he began his book of Offices, for the use and instruction of his son, designed, he says, to be the fruit of this excursion ; he com- posed also an oration, adapted to the state of the times, and sent it to Atticus, to be suppressed or published at his discretion ; promising him withal to finish and send him in a short time his Secret History or Anecdote, in the manner of HeracUdes, to be kept close in his cabinet^. Before he could leave Italy, he was obliged to return to Tusculum to settle his private affairs, and provide his equipage j and wrote to Dolabella, to give orders for the mules and other necessaries, which the government used to furnish to those who went abroad with a public character?. Here Atticus and he took leave of each other, with all possible marks of the most sincere and tender affection. The unsettled condition of the times, and the uncertainty when, or in what cir- cumstances they should meet again, raised several melancholy reflections in them both, which, as soon as the y parted, drew many tears from Atticus, * In locum tribimi plebis forte demortui candidatum petitorem se ostendit — sed adversante conatibus BuisM. Antonio cqnsule —Sueton. in A'ugust. 10; Dio, p. 272; App. p. 506. « Ad Att. xy. 12. ^ No8 hie (^i\0(ro(^Oi;jU€i/cc(quideniuialiud?) etrei Tfpl Tov KaQiiKOVTOS magnifice expticamus, wpoalffitiora sunt, eo plus stomachi et molestiffi est, populum Romaniim manns suas, non in defendenda republica sed in plaudendo consumere. Mihi quidem videntm-, istorum anlmi incendi etiam ad reprassentandam improbitatem suam, Sed tiimen dmn modo doleant aliquid, doleant quodlibet.— Ad Att. xvi. 2. li Quid ? Apollinarium ludorum plausus, vel testimonia potius, et judicia populi Roman! parum magna videban- tur? O beatos illos, qui cum adesse ipsis propter vim ai-morum non licBbat, adevant tamen, et in medullis populi Romani ao viseeribus haercbant ] nisi forte Accio turn plaudi— et non Bruto pufabatis, &c.— Phil, i, 15. = ftuam ille doluit de Nonis Juliis ! mirifico est contur- batus. Itaque sese scripturum aiebat, ut venationem etiam , qute postridio ludos Apolliuarcs futura est, proscriberent, lil. Id. Quhit.— Ad. Att. xvi. 4. I Ibid. This overture from Pompey was procured chiefly by the management of Lepidus s : who having the province of Spain assigned to him, where Pompey was very strong, had no mind to be engaged in a war at such a distance from Rome, and drawn off from attending to the main point in view, the event of affairs in Italy ; for which purpose, on pretence of the public quiet, he made the offer of a treaty on honourable terms to Pompey, and "that, on condition of laying down his arms, and quitting the province, he should be restored to all his estates and honours, and have the command of the whole naval power of Rome, in the same manner as his father had it before him ; all which was proposed and recommended to the senate by Antony himself"." Where to presei've a due respect to Caesar's acts, by which Pompey's estates had been confiscated, it was decreed that the same sum, for which they had been sold, should be given to him by the public, to enable him to purchase them again. This amounted to above five milhons and a-half of our money, exclusive of his jewels, plate, and furniture ; which being wholly embez- zled, he was content to lose'. On these terms, ratified by the authority of the senate, Pompey actually quitted Spain, and came to Marseilles. The project was wisely concerted by Lepidus and Antony ; for, while it carried a show of modera- tion and disposition to peace, it disarmed a despe- rate enemy, who was in condition to give a great obstruction to their designs, and diversion to theu arms, at a time when the necessity of their inte- rests required their presence and whole attention at home, to lay a firm foundation of their power in the heart and centre of the empire. There happened an incident at this time of a domestic kind, which gave some pleasure both to Cicero and Atticus : the unexpected conversion of their nephew Qnintus. He had long ago deserted his father and uncle, and attached himself wholly to Ceesar, who supplied him liberally with money. On Caesar's death he adhered still to the same cause, and was in the utmost confidence with Antony ; and, as Atticus calls him, his right hand'', or the minister of all his projects in the city ; but upon some late disgust, he began to make overtures to his friends of coming over to Brutus, pretending to have conceived an abhorrence ot Antony's designs, and signifying to his father that Antony would have engaged him to seize some strong post in the city, and declare him dic- tator ; and upon his refusal, was become his enemy'. The father, overjoyed at this change, carried his son to Cicero, to persuade him of his e PhU. V. 13, 14, &o. ; it. Phil. xUi. 4, 5, &c. 1' App. p. 628; Dio, xlv. 27.5. ' Salvis enim actis Cxsaris, quas concordiae cansa defen- dimus, Pompeio sua domus patebit, eamque non minoris, quam Antonius emit, redimei^ decrevistis tantam pecu- niam Pompeio, quantam ex bonis patriis in prsedsE dissi- patione inimicus victor redegisset — ^nam argentum, vestem, supellectilem, vinum amittet %quo animo, quae ille helluo dissipavit — atqne illud septies millies, quod adolescenti, Patres Conscripti, spopoudistis, ita describetur, ut videatur a vobis Cn. Pompeii filius in patrimonio suo coUocatus.— PhU. xiii. «.■ '' Quintus filius, ut scrlbis, Autonii est dextella.— Ad Att. xiv. 20. ' Quintua pater exultat laetitia. Scripsit enim filius, so idcireo profugere ad Brutuni voluisse, quod cum sibi nego- tium darct Antonius, ut cum dictatorem e£Qceret, praesidium MARCUS TULLITJS CICERO. 241 sincerity, and to beg his intercession also with Atticus, to be reconciled to him ; but Cicero, who knew the fickleness and perfidy of the youth, gave Uttle credit to him : taking the whole for a con- trivance only to draw money from them ; yet in compUance with their request, he wrote what they desired to Atticus, bnt sent him another letter at the same time with his real thoughts on the matter. " Our nephew Quintus," says he, " promises to be a very Cato. Both bis father and he have been pressing me, that I would undertake for him to you ; yet so, that you should not believe him, till you yourself had seen the effects of it. I shall give him therefore such a letter to you as he would have J but let it not move you, for I have written this lest yon should imagine that I am moved my- self. The gods grant that he may perform what he promises, for it will be a common joy to us all. I will say nothing more of it at present""," &c. But young Quintus got the better, at last, of all Cicero's suspicions ; and after spending several days with him, convinced him, by his whole beha- viour and conversation, that he was in earnest : so that he not only recommended him very affec- tionately to Atticus, but presented him also to Brutus, to make the offer of his service to him in person. " If he had not whoUy persuaded me," says he, " that what I am saying of him is certainly true, I should not have done what I am going to tell you, for I carried the youth with me to Bru- tus, who was so well satisfied with him, that he gave him full credit, without suffering me to be his sponsor ; in commending him, he mentioned you in the kindest manner, and at parting, embraced and kissed him. Wherefore, though there is reason rather to congratulate, than to entreat you, yet I beg, that whatever he may have done hitherto, through the weakness of age, with more levity than became him, you would believe it all to be now over"," &c. Quintus kept his word with them ; and to give proof of his zeal and sincerity, was so hardy, before the end of the year, as to undertake to accuse Antony to the people, for plundering the temple of Opis". But this accident of changing his party, which gave so much joy at present to the whole family, though owing rather to a giddi- ness of temper than any good principle, proved fatal not long after, both to the young man and his father : as it seems to have been the most probable cause of their being proscribed and murdered the occuparet, idrecusasset; recusasse autem Be, nepatria ani- mum offenderet ; ex eo Bibi ilium hostem. — ^Ad Att. xv. 31. "" CtumtusfiliusmihipoUicetur seCatonem. Egit autem et pater et filius, ut tibi sponderem : sed ita, ut turn ore- deres, cum ipse cognbscea Huic ego literas ipsiua arbitratu dabo. Effi no te moveiint ; has scripsi in earn partem, ne me motum putares. Dii faxint, ut f aciat ea, quas promittit. Commune eniia gaudium. Sed ego nihil dice amplius.' — AdAtt. xvi. 1. ° Quod nisi fidem mihi fecisset, judicasBemque hoc quod dico firmum fore, non fecissem id, qiiod dicturus sum. BuKi enim meemn adolescentem ad Bnitum : sic ei pro- batmn est, quod ad te scribe, ut ipse crediderit, me spon- sorem accipere noluerit. Eumque laudans amicissimetui mentioncm fecerit. Complexus, osculatusque dimiserit. —Ad Att. xvi. 6. ° QuintuB scribit, se ex Nonis iis, quibus nos magna gessimuB, sedem Opia explicaturum, idque ad populum. — Ibid. 14. year following, by Antony's order, together with Cicero himself. Cicero was now ready for his voyage, and had provided three little yachts or galleys to transport himself and his attendants ; but as there was a report of legions arriving daily from abroad, and of pirates also at sea, he thought it would be safer to sail in company with Brutus and Cassius, who had drawn together a fleet of good force, which now lay upon the coast'. He gave several hints of this design to Brutus, who received it more coldly than he expected, and seemed uncertain and irresolute about the time of his own going. He resolved, therefore, to embark without farther de- lay, though in some perplexity to the last, about the expediency of the voyage, and jealous of its being censured, as a desertion of his country. But Atticus kept up his spirits, by assuring him con- stantly in his letters that all people approved it at Rome, provided that he kept his word, of returning by the first of the new yeari. He sailed slowly along the coast towards Rhe- gium, going ashore every night to lodge with some friend or client. He spent one day at Velia, the native place of Trebatius ; whence he wrote a kind letter to him, dated the nineteenth of July, advis- ing him " by no means to sell that family estate," as he then designed, " situated so healthfully and agreeably, and affording a convenient retreat from the confusion of the times, among a people who entirely loved him'." At this place he began his treatise of "Topics," or the art of finding arguments on any question : it was an abstract of Aristotle's piece on the same subject, which Trebatius, hap- pening once to meet with in Cicero's Tusculan library, had begged of him to explain. But Cicero never found leisure for it till this voyage, in which he was reminded of the task by the sight of Velia ; and though he had neither Aristotle nor any other book to help him, he drew it up from his memory, and finished it as he sailed before he came to Rhe- gium ; whence he sent it to Trebatius, with a letter dated the twenty-seventh. He excuses the ob- scurity of it from the nature of the argument, requiring great attention to understand, and great application to reduce it to practice : in which, however, he promises to assist him, if he lived to return, and found the republic subsisting^. In the same voyage, happening to be looking over his treatise on the Academic Philosophy, he P LegioneB enim adventare dicuntur. Usee autem navi- gatio habet quasdam suspiciones periculi, Itaque consti- tuebam uti dfWTr\oia. Paratiorem offendi Brutum, quam audiebam. — Nam Gassii classem, quEe plane bella est, non numero ultra fretum. — ^Ad Att. xvi. 4. 1 Bruto cum saepe Injecissem de (S/tiOirAota, non perinde atque ego putaram, arripere viBus est— [Ibid. 5.] Gonsilium meum quod ais quotidie magis laudari, non moleste fero ; expectabamque, si quid ad me scriberes. Ego enim in varioB sermones incidebam. Quin etiam idcirco trahebam, ut quam diutissime integrum esset. [Ibid. 2 ; Ep. Fam. xi. 29.] Scribis enim in coelum ferri profectionem meam. Bed ita, Bi ante Kal. Jan. redeam. Quod quidem certe enitar. [Ibid. 6.] Ea mente disceBsi, ut adessem Kal. Jan. quod initium cogendi senatus fore videbatuT, — Phil. i. 2. ' Ep. Fam. vii. 20. 8 Itaque ut primum Velia navigare cffipi, institui Topica Aristoteleaconscribere, abipsaurbecommonitus, amantie- sima tui. Enm librum tibi misi Rbegio, scriptum quam pleniseime ilia res scribi potuit, &c. — ^Ep. Fam. vii. 19. R 242 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF observed the preface of the third book to be the same that he had prefixed to his book on Glory, which Jie had lately sent to Atticus. It was Ms custom, it seems, to prepare at leisure a number of diiferent proems adapted to the general view of his studies, and ready to be applied to any of his Tforks which he should afterwards publish ; so that by mistake he had used this preface twice without remembering it : he composed a new one therefore on ship-board for the piece on Glory, and sent it to Afticus, with orders to bind it up with his copy in the place of the former preface'. So wonderful was his industry and love of letters, that neither the inconvenience of sailing, which he always hated, nor the busy thoughts which must needs intrude upon him on leaving Italy in such a conjuncture, could disturb the calm and regular pursuit of his studies. From Rhegium, or rather Leucopetra, a promon- tory close by it, he passed over to Syracuse on the first of August, where he staid but one night, though in a city particularly devoted to him, and under his special protection : but he was unwilling to give um- brage or suspicion to those at Rome of having any views abroad which concerned the public^; he set sail, therefore, again the next morning towards Greece, but was driven back by contrary winds to Leucopetra ; and, after a second attempt with no better success, was forced to repose himself in the villa of }iis friend Valerius, and wait for the oppor- tunity of a fair wind'^. * Nunc negligentiam meam cognosce. De Gloria librum ad te hiiBi, at' in eo procemium id est, quod in Academico tertio. Id evenit ob earn rem, quod habeo volumen pro- rcmionim ; ex eo eligei'e soleo, cum allquod (Tiiyypafj.fia institui. Itaque jam in Tuaculano, qui non meminissem me abueum isto procemio, conjeci id in eum librum, quem tibi misi. Cum autem in navi legerem Academicos, agnovi erratum meum, itaque statim noviun procemium exarayi ; tibi misi Ad Att. xvi. 6. iV.B. A collection of prefaces prepared beforehand, and calculated indifferently for any treatise, will ' be tliougbt perhaps a strange and fantastical way of composing : but though they had no necessary connection with the subject of any particular work, they were yet adapted to the gene- ral view of his writings, and contrived severally to serve the different ends which he proposed by the publication of tjiem. TJiuB, in some he takes occasion ^ celebrate the praises of his principal friends, to whom they were addressed j in others, to enter into a general defence of Philosophy, in answer to those who cUlisureli hiiii for Spending so muCh time upon it: hi some, he represents the miserable state of the tiines, and "subversion of" the republic, in a manner proper to alarm' his citizens, and rouse them to assert their -ancieiit liberty; in others, he contrives to give a beautiful description of some of Ms viUas or gardens, where the scene of the dialogue was laid, all which the reader will find very agreeably executed in the prefaces of his philosophical pieces ; which are yet connected so artfully with the treatises that foltow them, and lead us so naturally into the argument, as if they bad been originally contrived for the sako of introducing it.— Tusc. Disp. init. ; De Div. ii. 1 ; De Pin. i. 1 ; De Legib. ii. 1. « Kal. Sext. veni Byracusas— quse tamen urbs mihi con- junctissima, plus una me nocte cupiens retinere non potuit. "Vcritus sum, ne mens lepentihus ad meos necessaries adventus suspicionis aliquid iifferret, si essem commoratus —Phil. 1. 3. X Cum me ex Sicilia ad Leucopetram, quod est promon- toriura agri Rhegini, venti detiUissent ; ab eo loco con- acendi, ut transmitterem -, neo ita multum provectus, rejectus austro sum in eum.ipsum locum— [Ibid.] ibi cum ventum expectarem : erat enim villa 'Valerii nostri, ut familiariter essem, et libenter. — Ad Att xvi 7. Here the principal inhabitants of the country came to pay him their compliments ; some of them fresh from Rome, who brought great news of an unexpected turn of affairs there towards a general pacification: "That Antony seemed disposed to listen to reason ; to desist from his pretensions to Gaul, submit to the authority of the senate, and make up matters with Brutus and Cassius, who bad written circular letters to all the principal se- nators to beg their attendance in the senate on the first of September ; and that Cicero's absence was particularly regretted, and even blamed at such a crisis^." This agreeable account of things made him presently drop all thoughts of pursuing his voyage ; in which he was confirmed likewise by letters from Atticus, who, contrary ta his former advice, pressed him now, in strong and pathetic terms, to come back again to Rome. He returned therefore by the same course which he had before taken, and came back to Velia on the seventeenth of August : Brutus lay within three miles of it with his fleet, and hearing of his arrival, came Immediately on foot to salute him. " He de- clared himself exceedingly pleased with Cicero's return ; owned that he had never approved, though he had not dissuaded the voyage, thinking it inde- cent to give advice to a man of his experience ; but now told him plainly that he had escaped two great imputations on his character, — the one, of too hasty a despair and desertion of the common cause ; the other, of the vanity of going to see the Olympic games. This last, (as Cicero says,) would have been shameful for him in any state of the repubUc ; but in the present, unpardonable ; and professes himself therefore greatly obliged to the winds for preserving him from such an infamy, and, like good citizens, blowing him back to the service of his country*." Brutus informed him likewise of what had passed in the senate on the first of August, and how Piso had signalised himself by a brave and honest speech, and some vigorous motions in favour of the public liberty, in which nobody had the courage to second him. He produced also Antony's edict, and their answer to it, which pleased Cicero very much : but on the whole, though he was still satisfied with his resolution of returning, yet he found no such rea- son for it as his first intelligence had suggested, nor any hopes' of doing much service at Rome ; where there was not one senator who had the courage to silpport Piso, nor Piso himself the resolution to appear in the senate again the next day*. This was the last conference that he ever had with Brutus ; who, together with Cassius, left Italy soon after it. They were both to succeed of course, T Hhegini quidam, illustres homines eo venerunt, Roma sane recentes — ^hjec afferebant, edictnm Bruti et Cassii ; et fore frequentem senatum KaL a Bruto et Cassio literas missas ad consulares et prstorios; ut adessent. rogare. Sununam spem nunciabant, fore, ut Antonius cederet. ros conveniret, nostri Rom.am redirent. Addebant etiam xno desiderari. snbaccnsari, &c. — Ad Att xvi. 7- 2 Nam xvi, Kal. Sept. cum venissem 'Veliam. Brutus audivit, erat enim cum suis navibus apud Heletem flu- vium citra Veliam millia passuum iii. pedibus ad me statim. Dii immortales, quam valde ille reditu, vol potius reversione mea Isetatus est? Effudit iUa omnia, qu= tacuerat — so autem laetari quod effugissem dues maximas vituperationes, &c.— Ad Att. xvL 7 ; Ep. Fam. xii. 25. it ad Brut 15. » -Id Att ibid. : Phil. i. 4, 5 ; Ep. Fam. xii 2, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 243 ae all prsetors did at the expiration of their office, to the government of some province, which vias assigned to them either by lot, or by an extraordi- nary decree of the senate. Ceesar had intended Macedonia for the one, an4 Syria for the other ; but as these vrere two of the most important com- mands of the empire, and would throw a great power into their hands at a time when their ene- mies were taking measures to destroy them, so Antony contrived to get two other provinces de- creeil tp them of an inferior kind ; Crete to Brutus, and Cyrene to Cassius ; and by a law of the people, procured Macedonia and Syria to be conferred upon mmsetCand his colleagueDolabella. In consequence of which, he sent his brother Caius in all haste to posseVs himself of the first, and Dolabella to secure the second, before their rivals could be in condition to seize them by force, of which they were much afraid'; taking it for granted that ttis was the pro- ject which Brutus and Cassius were now meditating. Cassius had acquired a great reputation in the East, by his conduct in the Parthian war ; and Brutus was highly honoured in Greece for his eminent virtue and love of pjiilbsophy : they resolved therefore to slight the petty provinces which were granted to theai, and to try tjieir fortunes in the more power- ful ones that ^Eesar had promised them ; and with that view had provided the fleets above-mentioned to'traiispprt themselves to those countries which they had destined for the scene of action : Brutus to Macedonia, Cassius to Syria, where we shall soon have occasiori to give a farther account of their siiccess''. Cicero in the mean while pursued his journey towards Rome, where he arrived on the last of the month. On his approach to the city, such multi- tiicies Rocked out to meet him, that the whole day was spent in receiving the compliments and con- gratulations of bis friends as he passed along to his louse*. J'he senate met the next morning, to which he was particularly summoned by Antony, Bui excused liimself by a civil message, as being too much indisposed by the fatigue of his journey. Antony took this as an affront, and in great rage threatened openly in the senate to order his house to be puUed down, if he did not come immediately ; tfll, by the interposition of the assembly, he was dissuaded frbih using any violence^. The business of the day was to decree some new and extraordinary honours to the memory of Caesar, with a religious supplication to him as to a divinity. Cicero was determined not to concur in it, yet Imew that an opposition would not only be fruitless, but 4angerous ; and for that reason staid away. An- tony, on the other hand, was desirous to have him there, fancying that he would either be frightened into a compliance, which would lessen him with his own party, or, by opposing what was intended, make himself odious to the soldiery ; biit as he was ab- sent, the decree passed without any contradietion. Tile senate met again the next day, when Antony thought fit to absent himself, and leave the stage clear to Cicero'; who accordingly appeared, and ^ Plut in Brut. ; App. 527, 533 ; Phil. iL 13, 30. ' Plut. in Cio. ' * Cumque de via languerem, mihique displicirem, misi pro amicitia qui hoc ei diceret, at ille, vobis audientibus, cum fabric sedomummeam venturum esse dixit, &c. — Phil. i. 6. • Veni pOBtridJe, ipse uon venit.— Phil. v. 7. delivered the first of those speeches which, in imi- tation of Demosthenes, were called afterwards his Philippics. He opens it with a particular account of the motives of his late voyage, and sudden re- turn ; of his interview with Brutus, and his regret at leaving him. " At Velia," says he, " I saw Brutus : with what grief 1 saw him, I need not tell you : I could not but think it scandalous for me to return to a city from which he was forced to retire, and to find myself safe in any place where he could not be so ; yet Brutus was not half so much moved with it as I, but, supported^ by the consciousness of his noble act, showed not the least concern for his own case, while he expressed the greatest for yours." He then declares, " that he came to se- cond Piso ; and in case of any accident^, of which many seemed to surround him, to leave that day's speech as a monument of his perpetual fidelity to his country^." Before he enters upon the state of the republic, he takes occasion to complain of " the unprecedented violence of Antony's' treatment of him the day before, who would not have been better pleased with him had he been present ; for he should never have consented to pollute the re- public with so detestable a religion, and blend the honours of the gods with those of a dead man." He " prays the gods to forgive both the senate and the people for their forced consent to it : that he would never have decreed it, though it had been to old Brutus himself, who first delivered Rome from regal tyranny, and, at the distance of five centuries, had propagated a race from the same stock to do their country the same services." He " returns thanks to Piso for what he had said in that place the month before ; wishes that he had been present to second him ; and reproves the other consulars for betraying their dignity by deserting him." As to the public affairs, he dwells chiefly on Antony's abuse of their decree to confirm Csesar's acts : de- clares himself " still for the confirmation of them ; not that he liked them, but for the sake of peace ; yet of the genuine acts only, such as Csesar himself had completed ; not the imperfect notes and me- morandums of his pocket-books ; not every scrap of his writing, or what he had not even written, but spoken only, and that without a voucher." He charges Antony with " a strange inconsistency in pretending sudi a zeal for Caesar's acts, yet vio- lating the most solemn and authentic of them, his laws (of which he gives several examples) : thinks it intolerable to oblige them to the performance of all Caesar's promises, Jet annul so freely what ought to be held the most sacred and inviolable of anything that he had done." He addresses him- self pathetically to both the consuls, though Dola- bella only was present ; tells them, " that they had no reason to resent his speaking so freely on the behalf of the republic : that he made no personal reflections ; had not touched their characters, their lives, and manners: that if he offended in that way, he desired no quarter"" ; but if, according to his custom, he delivered himself with all freedom on public affairs, he begged; in the first place, that they would not be angry ; in the next, that if they were, they would express their anger as became citizens, by civil; not military' ni'ethods : that he had been admonished, indeed, not to expect that the saine liberty wou ld be allowed to him, the f PhiL i. 4. 8 Ibid. S, 6. l Ibid. 7, 11. R i 244 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF enemy of Csesar, which had been indulged to Piso, his father-in-law ; that Antony would resent what- ever was said against his will, though free from ■personal injury ; if so, he must bear it as well as he could." Then, after touching on their plunder- ing the temple of Opis of those sums which might have been of great service to the state, he observes, " that whatever the vulgar might think, money was not the thing which they aimed at ; that their souls were too noble for that, and had greater designs in view' : but they quite mistook the road to glory, if they thought it to consist in a single man's having more power than a whole people. That to be dear to our citizens, to deserve well of our country, to be praised, respected, beloved, was truly glorious ; to be feared and hated, always invidious, detestable, weak, and tottering. That Caesar's fate was a warn- ing to them how much better it was to be loved than to be feared : that no man could live happy who held life on such terms that it might be taken from him not oijly with impunity but with praise'." He puts them io mind of the many public demon- strations of the people's disaffection to them, and their constant applauses and acclamations to those who opposed them; to which he begs them "to attend with more care, in order to learu the way how to be truly great and glorious." He concludes by declaring, " that he had now reaped the full fruit of his return, by giving this public testimony of his constant adherence to the interests of his country : that he would use the same liberty oftener, if he found that he could do it with safety ; if not, would reserve himself as well as he could to better times, not so much out of regard to himself as to the republic." In speaking afterwards of this day's debate, he says, that " whilst the rest of the senate behaved like slaves, he alone showed himself to be free ; and though he spoke indeed with less freedom than it had been his custom to do, yet it was with more than the dangers with which he was threatened seemed to allow^" Antony was greatly enraged at his speech, and summoned another meeting of the senate for the nineteenth, where he again re- quired Cicero's attendance, being resolved to answer him in person, and justify his own conduct : for which end, he employed himself during the interval in preparing the materials of a speech, and declaim- ing against Cicero in his viUa near Tibur. The senate met on the appointed day in the Temple of Concord, whither Antony came with a strong guard, and in great expectation of meeting Cicero, whom he had endeavoured by artifice to draw thither : but though Cicero himself was ready and desirous to go, yet his friends over-ruled and kept him at home, being apprehensive of some design intended against his life"". Antony's speech confirmed their apprehensions, in which he poured out the overflowings of his spleen with such fury against him, that Cicero, alluding to ' Phil. i. 12. t Ibid. 14. 1 Locutus sum de republica minus equidem libere, quani mea conauetudo, liberlus tamen qu-un periculi mina? pos- tulabant.— Phil. v. 7. In summa reliqiiormn servitute liber unus fui ^Ep. Fam. xii. 25. "o Quo die , si per amicos mihi cupienti, in senatum venire licuisset, cxdis initium fecisset a me Phil, v, 7. Mequfi cmn elicere vellet in ca?dis causam, tum tentarct insidiis.— Ep. Fam. xii. 26. what he had done a little before in public, says " that he seemed once more rather to spew than to speak"." He produced Cicero's letterto him about the restoration of S. Clodius, in which Cicero ac- knowledged him not only for his friend, but a good citizen ; as if the letter was a confutation of his speech, and Cicero had other reasons for quarrel- ling with him now than the pretended service of the public". But the chief thing with which he urged him was, his being not only privy to the murder of Csesar, but the contriver of it, as well as the author of every step which the conspirators had since taken : by this he hoped to inflame the soldiers to some violence, whom he had planted for that pur- pose about the avenues of the temple, and within hearing even of their debates. Cicero, in his ac- count of it to Cassius, says, " that he should not scruple to own a share in the act, if he could have a share in the glory : but that if he had really been concerned in it, they should never have left the work half finished p." He had resided all this while in Rome or the neighbourhood ; but as a breach with Antony was now inevitable, he thought it necessary for his security to remove to a greater distance, to some of his villas neao- Naples. Here he composed his second Philippic, by way of reply to Antony ; not delivered in the senate, as the tenor of it seems to imply, but finished in the counti-y, nor intended to be published till things were actually come to extremity, and the occasions of the republic made it necessary to render Antony's character and designs as odious as possible to the people. The oration is a most bitter invective on his whole life, describing it as a perpetual scene of lewdness, faction, violence, rapine, heightened with all the colours of wit and eloquence — it was greatly ad- mired by the ancients, and shows, that in the decline of life Cicero had lost no share of that fire and spirit with which his earlier productions are animated : but he never had a cause more inte- resting or where he had gi'eater reason to exert himself : he Imew that in case of a rupture, for which alone the piece was calculated, either Antony or the republic must perish ; and he was deter- mined to risk his own life upon the quarrel, nor bear the indignity of outliving a second time the liberty of his country. He sent a copy of this speech to Brutus and Cassius, who were infinitely pleased with it : they now at last clearly saw that Antony meditated noUiing but war, and that their affairs were growing daily more and more desperate ; and being re- solved therefore to leave Italy, they took occasion a little before their departure to write the following letter in common to Antony. Srutus and Cassius, Prmtors, to Antony, CwiM. " If you are in good health, it is a pleasure to us. We have read yonr letter, exactly of a piece with your edict, abusive, threatening, wholly un- worthy to be sent from you to us. For our part, " Itaque omnibus est visus, ut ad te antea Bcripsi, vo- mere euo more, non dicere. — Ep. Fam. xii. S. o Atque etiam literas, quas me sibi misisse diceret, recitavit, &c Phil. ii. 4. p NuUam aliam ob causam me auctorem fuisse Gssaria interficiendi criminatur, nisi ut in me veterani incitentur. — Ep. Fam. xii. 2 ; iii. 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 245 Antony, we have never done you any injury ; nor imagined that you -would think it strange, that prEetors and men of our rank should require any- thing 'by edict of a consul : but if you are angry that we have presumed to do it, give us leave to be concerned that you would not indulge that privilege at least to Brutus and Cassius : for as to our raising troops, exacting contributions, soliciting armies, sending expresses beyond sea; since you deny that you ever complained of it, we believe you ; and takeitasa proof of your good intention : we do not indeed own any such practices, yet think it strange, when you objected nothing of that kind, that you could not contain yourself from reproaching us with the death of Csesar. Consider with yourself whether it is to be endured, that for the sake of the public quiet and liberty, praetors cannot depart from their rights by edict, but the consul must presently threaten them with arms. Do not think to frighten us with such threats : it is not agreeable to our character to be moved by any danger : nor must Antony pre- tend to command those by whose means he now lives free. If there were other reasons to dispose us to raise, a civil war, your letter would have no effect to hinder it ; for threats can have no in- fluence on those who are free. But you know very well that it is not possible for us to be driven to anything against our will, and for that reason perhaps you threaten that whatever we do it may seem to be the effect of fear. These then are our sentiments : we wish to see you live with honour and splendour in a free republic : have no desire to quarrel with you : yet value our liberty more than your friendship. It is your business to con- sider again and again what you attempt and what you can maintain ; and to reflect, not how long Ciesar lived, but how short a time he reigned : we pray the gods that your counsels may be salu- tary both to the republic and to yourself ; if not, wish at least that they may hurt you as little as may consist with the safety and dignity of the republic'." Octavius perceived by this time that there was nothing to he done for him in the city against a consul armed with supreme power both civil and miUtary ; and was so far provoked by the ill usage which he had received, that in order to obtain by stratagem what hs could not gain by force, he formed a design against Antony's life, and actually provided certain slaves to assassinate him, who were discovered and seized with their poniards in Antony's house, as they were watching an oppor- tunity to execute their plot. The story was sup- . posed by many to be forged by Antony to justify his treatment of Octavius, and his depriving him of the estate of his uncle : but all men of sense, as Cicero says, both believed and applauded it j and the greatest part of the old writers treat it as an undoubted fact'. They were both of them equally suspected by the 1 Ep. Fam. xi. 3. ' Dc quo multitudini fictmu ab Antonio crimen videtur. It in pecuniam ailolescentis impetum faceret. Prudentes autem et boni viri et credunt factum et probant. [Ep. Fam. xiL 23.] Insidiis fli. Antonii consulie latus petierat. — Senec. De Clem. I 9. Hortantibus itaque uonnullis percussores ei subomavit. Hm frauds deprehensa, &&— Sueton. in August. 10 ; Plu- tarch, iji Autcn. senate ; but Antony more immediately dreaded on the account of his superior power, and supposed credit with the soldiers, whom he had served with through all the late wars and on several occasions commanded. Here his chief strength lay ; and to ingratiate himself the more with them, he began to declare himself more and more openly every day against the conspirators ; threatening them in his edicts, and discovering a resolution to revenge the death of Csesar, to whom he erected a statue in the rostra, and inscribed it ' To the most worthy parent of his country.' Cicero, speaking of this in a letter to Cassius, says, " Your friend Antony grows every day more furious, as you see from the inscription of his statue ; by which he makes you not only murderers but parricides. But why do I say you and not rather us ? for the madman affirms me to be the author of your noble act. I wish that I had been, for if I had he would not have been so troublesome to us at this time'." Octavius was not less active in soliciting his uncle's soldiers, sparing neither pains nor money that could tempt them to his service ; and by out- bidding Antony in all his offers and bribes to them, met with greater success than was expected, so as to draw together in a short time a firm and regular army of veterans, completely furnished with all necessaries for present service. But as he had no public character to justify this conduct, which in regular times would have been deemed treasonable, so he paid the greater court to the republican chiefs, in hopes to get his proceedings authorised by the senate ; and by the influence of his troops procure the command of the war to himself : he now there- fore was continually pressing Cicero by letters and friends to come to Rome, and support him with his authority against their common enemy Antony ; promising to govern himself in every step by his advice. But Cicero could not yet be persuaded to enter into 'his affairs ; he suspected his yonth and want of experience," and that he had not strength enough to deal with Antony ; and above all, that he had no good disposition towards the conspirators : he thought it impossible that he should ever be a friend to them, and was persuaded rather, that if ever he got the upper hand, his uncle's acts would be more violently enforced, and his death more cruelly revenged, than by Antony himself '. These considerations withheld him from a union with him, till the exigences of the republic made it absolutely necessary ; nor did he consent at last without making it an express condition that Octa- vius should employ all his forces in defence of the common liberty, and particularly of Brutus and his accomplices : where his chief care and caution still was, to arm him only with a power sufficient to oppress Antony, yet so checked and limited, that he should not be able to oppress the republic. s Auget tuus amicus furorem indies, primum in statua, quam posuit in rostris, inscripsit. Parent! optime mcrito. trt non modo sicarii, sed jam etiam parricids judicemini. Quid dice judicemini? judicemur potius. ■ Vestri enini pulcherrlmi facti ills furiosuB me principem dicit fuisse. Utinam quidem fuissem, molestuB non esse?- — Ep. Fani. xii. 3. ' Valde tibi assentior, si multum possit Octavianus, mnlto firmius acta tyranni coniprobatmn iri, quam in Telluris, atque id contra Brutum fore— bed in iBto jus vene quanquam animi satis, auctoritatis parum est.— A4 Att, xvi. 14. 246 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF This is evident from many of his epistles to Atticus : " I had a letter," says he, " from Oc- tavianus on the first of November : his designs are great : he has drawn over all the veterans of i;asilinum and Calatia : and no wonder, he gives sixteen pounds a man. He proposes to make the tour of the other colonies : his view plainly is, to have the command of the war against Antony ; so that we shall be in arms in a few days. But which of them shall we follow ?— Consider his naine, his age -he begs to have a private conference with me at Capua or near it : 'tis childish to imagine that it could be private : I gave him to understand that it was neither necessary nor practicable. He sent to me one Cfficina of Volaterrae, who brought word that Antony was coming towards the city with the legion of the Alaudse" : that he raised contribu- tions from all the great towns, and marched with colours displayed : he asked my advice whether he should advance before him to Rome with three thousand veterans, or keep the post of Capua and oppose his progress there, or go to the three Macedonian legions, who were marching along the upper coast, and are, as he hopes, in his interest — they would not take Antony's money, as this Csecina says, but even affronted and left bim while he was speaking to them. In short he offers him- self for our leader, and thinks that we ought to support him. I advised him to march to Rome : for he seems likely to have the meaner people on his side ; and if he makes good what he promises, the better sort too. O Brutus, where art thou ? What an opportunity dost thou lose ? I did not indeed foresee this : yet thought that something like it would happen. Give me your advice : shall I come away to Rome ; stay where I am ; or retire to Arpinum, where I shall he the safest ? Ihad rather be at Rome, lest if anything should be done I should be wanted : resolve therefore for me : I never was in greater perplexity*." Again : " I had two letters the same day from bctavius : he presses me to come immediately to Rome ; is resolved, he says, to do nothing without the senate — I tell him that there can be no senate till the first of January, which I take to be true : he adds also, ' nor without my advice.' In a word, he urges, I hang back : I cannot trust his age : do not know his real intentions ; will do nothing without Pansa ; am afraid that Antony may prove too strong for him ; and unwilling to stir from the sea ; yet would not have anything vigorous done without me. Varro does not like the conduct of the boy, but I do. He has firm troops and may join with D. Brutus : what he does, he does openly; musters his soldiers at Capua; pays them: we shall have a war I see instantly''." ° This legion of the AlaudcE was first raised by J. Gssar, and composed of the natives of Gaul, armed and disciplined after the Koman manner, to which be gave the freedom of Rome. He called it by a Gallic name, Alaud A. d. vir. id. Oct, Brundisium erat profectus, Ap- tonius, obviam legionibus Macedonicip nir. quas sibi con- ciJiare pecunia cogitabat, easquo ad urbem addacera— Ep. Fam. xii. 23. ■ -■ ■ . Uuippe qui in bospitis tectls.Bnmdisii fqrtissimos viM.8, cives optimos, jugulari jusserit : quorum ante pedes ejus morientium sanguine os uxoris respersum esse constabat — Phil. iii. 2. Cum ejus promissis legiones fortlssimae reclamasgent, domum ad se venire jussit centuriones, quos bene ae republica sentire cognoverat, eosque ante pedes ,suos, uxorisque sua, quam secum 'gravis imperator ad exer- citum duxerat, jugulari coegit. — PhiL T. 8,' MARCUS TULLIUS CiCERO. 247 He returned full of rage both against Ootavins and the republicans, and determined to make what use he eould of the remainder of his consulship, in wresting the provinces and iuilitary commands out of the hands of his enemies, and distributing them to his friends. He published at the same time several iierce and threatening edicts, in which " he gave Octavius the name of Spartacus, reproached him with the ignobleness of his birth; charged Cicero with being the a.uthor of all his counsels ; abused young Quintus as a perfidious wretch who had offered to kill both his father and uncle ; forbade three of the tribunes, on pain of death, to appear in the senate, U. Cassius, the brother of the conspirator, Carfulenus, and Canntius'=." In this humour he summoned th6 senate on the twenty-fourth of October, with severe threats to those who should absent themselves ; yet be him- self neglected to come, alid adjourned it by edict to the twenty-eighth : but while all people were in expectation of some extraordinary decrees from iiin, and of one particularly which he had pre- pared to declare young Caesar >• public enemy'' ; he happened to receive the news that two of the legions from Brundisium, the fourth, and that which was called the Martial, had actually declared for Octavius, and posted themselves at Alba, in the neighbourhood of Rome^. This shocked him so much, that instead of prosecuting what he had projected, he only huddled over what nobody op- posed, tlie decree of a supplication to Lepidus ; and tbe same evening, after he had distributed to his friends by a pretended allotment the several provinces of the empire, which few or none of them durst accept from so precarious a title, he changed the habit of the consul for that of the general, and left the city with precipitation, to put himself at the head of his army, and possess himself by force of Cisalpine Gaul, assigned to him by a pretended law of the people against the will of the senate^ On the news of his retreat Cicero presently quitted his books and the country and set out to- wards Rome : he seemed to be called by the voije of the republic to take the reins once more into his hands. The field was now open to him ; there was not a consul and scarce a single praetor in the city, nor any troops from which be could apprehend danger. He arrived on tbe ninth of December, and immediately conferred with Pansa, for Hirtius lay very ill, about the measures proper ■ Primum in C^sajrera ut maledicta eonges8it-r|gno- fcilitatem objicit C. Catsaris filio [Phil. iii. 6.], quern in edictisSpartacumappellat. [Ibid. 8.] Q. Ciceronem, fratris mei filium compcllat edicto — auBus est scribere, hunc de pati'iB et patrui parricidio cogitasse, [Ibid. 7.] quid autem attinuerit, Q. Cassio — mortem denunciare el in senatura vcnisset. D. Carfulenum— e aenatu vi et mortis minis expellere : Tib. Canutium— non templo solum, aed aditu prohiberc capitolii.— Ibid. 9. , ' , ^ Cupi Benatum voca&set, adhibuissetque consularem, qui sua sententia C. CEesaiem hostem judicaret.' — Phil. v. 9 ; App. .556. ^ Postea vero quam legio Martia ducein prsstantis- Bimum vidit, nihil egit aliud, nisi ufc aliquando liberi essemus: quam est imitata quarta legio.— Phil. v. 8. AtquQ ea legio consedit Alba;, &:c.— PhU. iii. 3. . ' Fugere festioans senatusconsultuin de supplicatione per discessionem fecit— praeclara tamen senatusconsulta eo ipso die veapertina, provinciarum religiosa sortitio— L. Lentulus et P. Naso — nullajn se habere provinciam, «ullam Antonii Borti'tionem fuisae judicarunt.— Phil. iii. 9,10. to be taken on their approaching entrance into the consulship. Before his leaving the country Opsins had been with him, to {jress him again to undertake the affairs of Octavius and the protection of his troops : but his answer was, " that he could hot consent to it, unless he were first assured that Octavius would not only be no enemy, but even a friend to Brutus : that he could be of no service to Octavius till the first of January, and tbere would be an opportu- nity before that time of trying Ootavius's dispo- sition in the case of Casca, who had been named by Csesar to the tribunate, and was to enter upon it on the tenth of December : for if Octavius did not oppose or disturb his admission, that would be a proof of bis good intentions?." Oppius under- took for all this on the part of Octavius, and Octavius himself confirmed it, and suffered CasCa, who gave the first blow to Caesar, to enter quietly into his office. The new tribunes, in the mean time, in the absence of the superior magistrates, called a meet- ing of the senate on the nineteenth. Cicero had resolved not to appear there any more, till he shoiild be supported by the new consuls ; but happening to receive the day before the edict .of D. Brutus,, by which he prohibited Antony tlie entrance of his province, and declared that he would defend it ag;ainst him by force, and preserve it in Its duty to the senate, he thought it necessary foi* the public service, and the present encourage- ment of Brutus, to prociii-e, as soon as possible; some public declaration in his ifavoiir : he went, therefore, to the senate very earl^, which being observed by the other senators, presently drew together a full house, in expectation of hearing his sentiments in so nice and critical a situation of the public affairs'." He saw the war actually commenced in the very bowels of Italy, on Ite success of which depended the fate of Rome : that Gaul would cerbainly be lost, and with it probably the republic, if Brutus was not supported against the superior force of Antony : that there was no way of doing it so ready and effectuaji', as by employing Octavius and his troops ; and thoi|gh the entrusting him with that commission would throw a dangerous power into his hands, yet it would be controlled by the equal power and superior authority of the two consuls, who were to be joined with him in the same command. The senate being assembled, t he tribunes ac- e Bed, ut ^cribis, ceriissimum esse video diecrimen Cascse nostri tribunatum : de quo quidem ipsi dixi Oppio, cum me hortaretur, ut adolescentemque totamque causam, manuraque veteranorum oomplecterer, rae nuUo ihodo fa- eere posse, ni mihi exploratum esset, eum non modo non inimicum tyranuoctonia, verum etiam amioum fore ; cum illediceret,itafuturum,. Qu^d igitur fes,tinamus ? inquam. Illi enim, mea opera ante Kal, Jan. nihil opus est.^, Nos autem ante Id. Dec. ejus yojuntatom perapiciemua in Casca. Mihi valde assensus est — Ad Att. xvi. 15. ^ Cum tribuni plebis edixissent, senatus adcsset ad diem xiii. Kal. Jan. habei'entque in animo de prassidio eonsulum designatorum referre, quanquam atatueram in senatum ante Kal. Jan. non venire : tamen cum eo ipso die edictum tuum propositum esset, nefas esse duxi, aiit ita haberi senatum, ut de tuis divinia in rempublicam meritia silere- tur, quod factum esaet, nisi ego veniasem, aut etiam ai quid de te non honorifice diceretiur, me non adease. Itaque in senatum veni mane. Quod cum esset animadverAum, frequentiaaimi senatores convencrunt.— El-'. Fam. xi. 6. 248 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF quainted them that the business of the meeting was to provide a guard for the security of the new consuls, and the protection of the senate in the freedom of their debates; but that they gave a liberty withal of taking the whole state of the re- public into consideration. Upon this Cicero opened the debate, " and represented to them the danger of their present condition, and the necessity of speedy and resolute counsels against an enemy who lost no time in attempting their ruin. That they had been ruined indeed before, had it not been for the courage and virtue of young Csesar, who, contrary to all expectation, and without being even desired to do what no man thought possible for him to do, had, by his private authority and expense, raised a strong army of veterans, and baffled the designs of Antony ; that if Antony had succeeded at Brundisium, and prevailed with the legions to follow him, he would have filled the city at his return with blood and slaughter : that it was their part to authorise and confirm what Caesar had done, and to empower hira to do more, by employing his troops in the farther service of the state, and to make a special provision, also, for the two legions which had declared for him against Antony'. As to D. Brutus, who had promised by edict to preserve Gaul in the obedience of the senate, that he was a citizen, bom for the good of the republic — the imitator of his ancestors ; nay, had even exceeded their merit ; for the first Brutus expelled a proud kiug, he a fellow-subject far more proud and profligate : that Tarqviin, at the time of his expulsion, was actually making war for the people of Rome ; but Antony, on the contrary, had actually begun a war against them. That it was necessary, therefore, to confirm by public autho- rity what Brutus had done by private, in preserv- ing the province of Gaul, the flower of Italy, and the bulwark of the empireK" Then, after largely inveighing against Antony's character, and enume- rating particularly all his cruelties and violences, he exhorts them in a pathetic manner to act with courage in defence of the republic, or die bravely in the attempt : that " now was the time either to recover their liberty or to live for ever slaves : that if the fatal day was come, and Rome was destined to perish, it would be a shame for them, the governors of the world, not to fall with as much courage as gladiators were used to do, and die with dignity, rather than live with .disgrace." He puts them in mind of "the many advantages which they had towards encouraging their hopes and resolu- tion ; the body of the people alert and eager in the cause; yoiing Ceesar in the guard of the city; Brutus, of Gaul ; two consuls of the greatest pru- dence, virtue, concord between themselves ; who had been meditating nothing else, for many months past, but the public tranquillity ;" to all which he promises his own attention and vigUance, both day and night, for their safety'. On the whole, there- fore, he gives his vote and ojiinion, " that the new consuls, C. Pansa and A. Hirtius, should take care that the senate may meet with security on the first of January ; that D. Brutus, emperor, and consul elect, had merited greatly of the republic, by de- fending the authority and liberty of the senate and people of Rome : that his army, the towns and colonies of his province, should be publicly thanked ■ Phil. iii. 1, 2, 3. ^ Ibid. 4, 5. 1 Ibid. 14, &o. and praised for their fidelity to him : that it should be declared to be of the last consequence to the republic that D. Brutus and L. Plancus (who com- manded the farther Gaul) emperor and consul elect, as well as all others who had the command of provinces, should keep them in their duty to the senate, till successors were appointed by the senate ; and since, by the pains, virtue, and con- duct, of young Csesar, and the assistance of the veteran soldiers who followed him, the republic had been delivered, and was still defended, from the greatest dangers ; and since the Martial and fourth legions, under that excellent citizen and quaestor Egnatuleius, had voluntarily declared for the autho- rity of the senate, and the liberty of the people, that the senate should take special care that due honours and thanks be paid to them for their emi- nent services ; and that the new consuls, on their entrance into office, should make it their first business to see all this executed in proper form :" to all which the house unanimously agreed, and ordered a decree to be drawn conformably to his opinion. From the senate he passed directly to the forum, and in a speech to the people, gave an account of what had passed : he begins, by signifying " his joy to see so great a concourse about him, greater than he had ever remembered, a sure omen of their good inclinations, and an encouragement both to his endeavours and his hopes of recovering the repub- lic." Then he repeats with some variation what he had delivered in the senate, of the praises of Caesar and Brutus, and the wicked designs of Antony : that " the race of the Brutuses was given to them by the special providence of the gods, for the perpe- tual defenders and deliverers of the republic"* : that by what the senate had decreed, they had in fact, though not in express words, declared Antony a pub- lic enemy ; that they must consider him therefore as such, and no longer as consul ; that they had to deal with an enemy with whom no terms of peace could be made, who thirsted not so much after their liberty as their blood, to whom no sport was so agreeable as to see citizens butchered before his eyes — That the gods, however, by portents and prodigies, seemed to foretel his speedy downfall, since such a consent and union of all ranks against him could never have been effected but by a divine influence," &c. ° These speeches, which stand the third and fourth in the order of his Philippics, were extremely well received both by the senate and people. Speaking afterwards of the latter of them to the same people, he says : " If that day had put an end to my life, I had reaped sufficient fruit from it, when you all with one mind and voice cried out that I had twice saved the republic"." As he had now broken all measures with Antony beyond the pos- sibility of a reconciliation, so he published pro- bably about this time his second Philippic, which had hitherto been communicated only to a few friends, whose approbation it had received. The short remainder of this turbulent year was spent in preparing arms and troops for the guard of the new consuls, and the defence of the state ; '1 Phil. iv. 3. n Ibid. 4, &o. •^ Quo quidem tempore, etiam si ijle dies vita: finem mihi allatiurus esset. satis magnum ceperam fruetum, cum vos universi una niente ac voce iterum a me coneeT' vatam osse rempublicam conclamastis,— Pbil. vi. I. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 249 and the new levies were carried on with the greater diligence, for the certain news that was brought to Rome, that Antony was actually besieging Mo- dena, into which Brutus, unable to oppose him in the field, had thrown himself with all his, forces, as the strongest town of his province, and the best provided to sustain a siege. Young Caesar, in the meanwhile, without expecting the orders of the senate, but with the advice of Cicero, by which he now governed himself in every step, marched out of Rome at the head of his troops, and followed Antony into the province, in order to observe his motions, and take all occasions of distressing him, as well as to encourage Brutus to defend himself with vigour, till the consuls could bring up the grand army which they were preparing for his relief. SECTION X. On the opening of the year, the city was in great expectation to see what measures their new consuls would pursue : they had been A. uKB. 710. at school, as it were, all the summer cic. 64. jQ Cicero, forming the plan of their "^on™ administration, and taking their les- C VIBIUS n • ~ T , ., PANSA. *'''" "' governing from him, and seem A. HnmuB. '■'' 'i*™ been brought entirely into his general view, of establishing the peace and liberty of the republic on the founda- tion of an amnesty. But their great obligations to Caesar, and long engagements with that party, to which they owed all their fortunes, had left some scruples in them, which gave a check to their zeal, and disposed them to act with more moderation against old friends than the condition of times would allow ; and before the experiment of arms, to try the gentler method of a treaty. With these sentiments, as soon as they were inau- gurated, they entered into a deliberation with the senate on the present state of the republic, in order to perfect what had been resolved upon at their last meeting, and to contrive some farther means for the security of the public tranquillity. They both spoke with great spirit and firmness, offering themselves as leaders in asserting the liberty of their country, and exhorting the assembly to courage and resolution in the defence of so good a cause P ; and when they had done, they called upon Q. Fusius Calenus, to deliver his sentiments the first. He had been consul four years before by Caesar's nomination, and was father-in-law to Pansa, which by custom was a sufficient ground for paying him that compliment. Cicero's opinion was already well known ; he was for the shortest and readiest way of coming at their end, by de- claring Antony a public enemy, and without loss of time acting against him by open force : but this was not relished by' the consuls, who called there- fore upon Calenus to speak first ; that as he was a fast friend to Antony, and sure to be on the mo- derate side, he might instil some sentiments of that sort into the senate, before Cicero had made a contrary impression. Calenus's opinion therefore P tJt oratio consulum animum meum erexit, spemque attulit non modo salutls conservandx, veruta etiam dig- nitatis pristinae recuperands. — Pliil. v, 1. was, that before they proceeded to acts of hostility they should send an embassy to Antony, to ad- monish him to desist from his attempt upon Gaul, and submit to the authority of the senate. Piso and several others were of the same mind, alleging it to be unjust and cruel to condemn a man till they had first heard what he had to say for him- self But Cicero opposed this motion with great warmth, not only as " vain, and foolish, but dan- gerous and pernicious. He declared it dishonour- able to treat with any one who was in -arms against his country, until he laid them down and sued for peace ; in which case no man would be more moderate or equitable than himself : that they had in effect proclaimed him an enemy already, and had nothing left but to confirm it by a decree, when he was besieging one of the great towns of Italy, a colony of Rome, ani in it their consul- elect and general, Brutus :" he observed from what motives those other opinions proceeded ; " from particular friendships, relations, private obligations ; but that a regard to their country was superior to them all : that the real point before them was, whether Antony should be suffered to oppress the republic ; to mark out whom he pleased to destruc- tion ; to plunder the city, and enslave the citizens'." That this was his sole view, he showed from a long detail not only of his acts, but of his express de- clarations ; for " he had said in the temple of Castor, in the hearing of the people, that whenever it came to blows no man should remain ahve who did not conquer ; and in another speech, that when he was out of his consulship, he would keep an army still about the city, and enter it whenever he thought fit : that in a letter (which Cicero himself had seen) to one of his friends, he bade him to mark out for himself what estate he would have, and whatever it was he should certainly have if^ : that to talk of sending ambassadors to such a one, was to betray their ignorance of the constitution of the republic, the majesty of the Roman people, and the discipline of their ancestors ' : that what- ever was the purpose of their message, it would signify nothing : if to beg him to be quiet, he would despise it ; if to command him, he would not obey it : that without any possible good, it would be a certain damage ; would necessarily create delay and obstruction to the operations of the war ; check the zeal of the army ; damp the spirits of the people, whom they now saw so brisk and eager in the cause : that the greatest revolutions' of affairs were effected often by trifling incidents ; and above all in civil wars, which were generally governed by popular rumour : that how vigorous soever their instructions were to the ambassa- dors, that they would be little regarded : the very name of an embassy implied a diffidence and fear which was sufficient to cool the ardour of their friends': they might order him to retire from Modena, to quit the province of Gaul ; but this was not to be obtained, by words, but extorted by arms : that while the ambassadors were going and coming, people would be in doubt and suspense about the success of their negotiation ; and under the expectation of a doubtful war, what progress could they hope to make in their levies .' that his opinion therefore was, to make no farther men- 1 Phil. V. 1, 2, 3. » Ibid. 9. r Ibid. 8, U. t Ibid. 10. 250 THE HISTOR* OF THE LIFE OF tion of an embassy, but to enter instantly into action : that tliere should be a cessation of all civil business ; a public tumult proclaimed ; the shops shut ufi ; and that instead of their usual gown they should all put on the sagum, or habit of war ; and that levies of soldiers should be made in Rome, and through Italy, without any exception of privilege or dismission from service : that the very fame of this vigour would restrain the mad- ness of Antony, and let the world see that the case was not, as he pretended, a struggle only of con- tending parties, but a real war against the com- monwealth: that the whole republic should be committed to the consuls, to take care that it received no detriment ; that pardon should be offered to those of Antony's army who should re- turn to their duty before the first of February ; that if they did not come to this resolution now, they would be forced to do it afterwards, when it would be too late perhaps, or less effectual^." This was the sum of what he advised as to their conduct towards Antony. He next proceeded to the other subject of their debate, the honours which were ordered to be decreed' at their last meeting ; and began with D. Brutus, as consul- elect, in favour of whom, besides many high ex- pressions of praise, he proposed a decree to this effect : " Whereas D. Brutus, emperor and consul- elect, now holds the province of Gaul in the power of tbe senate and people of Rome, and, by the cheerful assistance of the towns and colonic; of his province', has drawn together a great array in a short time ; that he has done all this rightly and regularly, and for the service of the state ; and that it is the sense therefore of the senate and people, that the republic has been relieved in a most difficult conjuncture, by the pains, counsel, virtue of D. Brutus, emperor, consul-elect, and by the incredible zeal and concurrence of the province of Gaul." He moved also for an extraordinary honour to M. Lepidus, who had no pretension to it indeed from past services, but being now at the head of the best army in the empire, was in con- dition to do the most good or ill to them of a,ny man. This was the ground of the compliment ; for his faith being suspected, and his union with Antony dreaded, Cicero hoped, by this testimony of their confidence, to cohfirin him in the interests of the senate; but he seems to be hard put to it for a pretext of merit to ground his decree upon : he takes notice, ^' that Lepidus was always mode- rate in power, and a friend to liberty ; that he gave a signal proof of it when Antony offered the dia- dem to Csesar ; for, by turning away his face, he publicly testified his aversion to slavery, and that his compliance with t|ie times was through neces- sity, not choice ; — that since Caesar's death he had practised the same moderation ; and when a bloody war was revived in S^ain, chose to put an end to it by the methods of prudence and humanity, rather than by arhis arid the sword, and consented to the restoration of S. Pompey*." For which reason he proposed the following decree : " Whereas the republic has often been well and happily adminis- tered by M. Lepidus the chief priest, and tlie people of Rome have always found him to be an enemy to kingly government ; and whereas by his endeavours, virtue, wisdom, and his singular cle- " Phil. V. 10, 12, » Ibid. 14. mency and mildness, a most dreadful civil war is extinguished ; and S. Poii^pey the Great, the eon of Cnseus, out of respect to the authority of the senate, has quitted his arms, and is restored to the city; that the senate and people, out of regard (j> the many and signal services of M. Lepidus, emperor, and chief priest, place great hopes of their peace, concord, liberty, in his virtue, autho- rity, felipity ; and from a grateful sense of his merits, decree that a gilt equestrian statue shall be erected to him by tbeir order in the rostra, or any other part of the forum which he shall choose?." He comes next to young Caesar, and, after enlarg- ing on his praises, proposes, " that they should grant him a proper commission and command over his troops, without which he could be of no use to them ; and that he should have the rank and all the rights of a proprsetor, not only for the sake of his dignity, but the necessary management of their affairs, and the administration of the war." And then offers the form of a decree : " Whereas C. Caesar, the sou of Caius, priest, propraetor, has, in the utmost distress of the republic, excited and enlisted veteran troops to defend the liberty of tbe Roman people ; and whereas the Martial and fourth legions, under the leading and authority of C. Caesar, have defended and now defend the repub- lic, and the liberty of the Roman people ; and whereas C. Csesaris gone at the head of his army to protect the province of Gaul ; has drawn toge: ther a body of horse, archers, elephants, under Ids own and the people's power, and in tbe most dan- gerous crisis of the republic has supported the safety and dignity of the Roman people ; for these reasons the senate decrees that C. Caesar, the son of Caius, priest, proprsetor, be henceforward a senator, and vote in the rank and place of apraetor ; and that in soliciting for any future inagistracy, the same regard be had to him as would have been had by law if he had been quaestor the year before'." As to those who thought these honours too great for so young a man, and apprehended danger from his abuse of them, he declares *' their apprehensions to be the effect of envy rather than fear, since the nature of things was such, that he who had once got a taste of true glory, and found himself univer- sally dear to the senate and people, could never think any other acquisition equal to it :" he wishes that ** J. Caesar had taken the same course when young of endearing himself to the senate and honest men ; but neglecting that, he spent the force of his great genius in acquiring a vain popu- larity, and having no regard to the senate and the better sort, opened himself a way to power which the virtue of a free people could not bear : that there was nothing of this kind to be feared from the son ; nor after the proof of such admirable prudence in a boy, any ground to imagine that his riper age would be less prudent ; for what greater folly could there be, than to prefer a useless power, an invidious. greatness, the lust of reigning, always slippery arid tottering, to true, weighty, solid glory .' If they suspected him as an enemy to some of their best and most -valued citizens, they might lay aside those fears ; he had given up all his resentments to the republic, made her the mo- deratrix of all his acts ; that he knew the most inward sentiments of the youth ; would pawn his credit for 7 Pha V. 15. » Ibid, 17, MARCUS TULLIUS ClCERO. itl him to the senate and people ; would promise, engage, undertake, that he would always be the same that he now was, such as they should wish and desire to see hlm»." He proceeds also to give a public testimonial of praise and thanks to L. Egnatuleius, for his fidelity to the republic, in bringing over the fourth legion from Antony to Ceesar, and moves that it might be granted to him for that piece of service, to sue for and hold any ma- gistracy three years before the legal time''. Lastly, as to the veteran tt;oops which had followed the au- thority of Csesar and the senate, and especially the Martial and fourth legions, he moved " that an exemption from service should be decreed to them and their children, except in the case of a Gallic or domestic tumult ; and that the consuls C. Pansa and A., Hirtius, or one of them, should provide lands in Campania, or elsewhere, to be divided to them ; and that as soon as the present war was over, they should all be discharged, and punctually receive "whatever sums of money C. Csesar had pro- mised to them when they first declared for tim." This was the substance of his speech, in the latter part of which, the proposal of honours, the senate readily agreed with him ; and though those which were decreed to Ootavius seemed so extraor- dinary to Cicero himself that he thought it proper to make an apology for them^ yet there were others of the first rank who thbiight them not great enough, so that Philippus added the honour of a statue ; Ser. Sulpicius and Servilius the privilege of suing for any magistracy still earlier than Cicero had proposed'^. But the assembly was much divided about the main question of sending a depu- tation to Antony : some of the principal senators were warmly for it, and the consul's themselves favoured it and artfully avoided to put it to the vote'', which would otherwise have h'een carried by Cicero, who had a clear mijority on his side. The debate being held on till niglit, was adjourned to the next morning, and kept up with the same warmth for three days successively^ while the senate con- tinued all the time in Cicero's opinion, and would have passed a decree conformable to it, had not Salvius the tribune put his negative upoii them''. This firmness of Antony's friends prevailed at last for an embassy, and three consular senators were presently nominated to it, S. Sulpicius, L. Piso, and L. Philippus : biit their commisipri was strictly limited and drawn up by Cicero hjinself, giving them no power to treat with Antony, biit to carry to him only the peremptory commands of the senate, to ^uit the siege of Modena, and desist fi'om all hostilities in Gaul : they had instructions hkewise after the delivery of their message to speak with D. Brutus in Modena, and signify to him arid his army that the senate and people had a grateful sense of their services, which would one day be a g reat ho nour to them'. •PUl.,v, I's. b Ibid. 19, , ~ ■^ Statuam Philippus deprevit, cpleritatem petitionia primo ServiuB, post majurem etiam Servilius : nihil turn nimiuin vliletetur.— Ad Brut. 15. "^ lias in sententias meas si consiiles discessionem facere voluisseut, omnibus isti^ latronibus auctpfitate ipsa se- natiis jampridem de-manibus ai'ma cecidiesent. — PhiL xiv. 7. ^ Itaqiie hfec sententia per triduum sicvaluit, ut quam- qilarn discegsio facta non est, tamen prseter paucos, omnes mihi assensuri viderentur. — Phil. vi. 1 ; App. p. 559. ' Quainqiiam non est ilia legatio, sed denunpiatio belli, The unusual length of these debates greatly raised the cariosity of the city, and drew the whole body of the peojle into the forum to expect the issue ; where, as they had done also not long be- fore, they could not forbear calling out upon Cicero with one voice to come and give them an account of the deliberations s. He went therefore directly from the senate into the rostra, produced by Appu- leius the tribune, and acquainted them in a speech with the result of their debates: — "that the senate, excepting a few, after they had stood firm for three days to his opinion, had given it up at last with less gravity indeed than became tliem, yet not meanly or shameftilly, haying decreed n9t so much an embassy as a denunciation of war to Antony, if he did not obey it ; which carried indeed an, appearance of severity, and he wished only that it hai} carried no delay :, that Antony, he vpas sure, would never obey it, lior ever submit to their power, who had never been in his own: that 'he would do, therefore, in that place what he had been doing in the senatej testify, warn, and declare to theni beforehand, that Antony would perform no part of what their ambassadors were sent to require of him : that Ke would still waste the country, besiege Modena, and not suffer the atn- bassadors themselves to enter the town or speak with Brutus, — believe me," says he, " I know the violence, the impudence, the audaciousness of the man j let, otir ambassadors then make haste, which I know they are resolved to do ; but do you pre- pare your military habit, for it fS a part also of our decree that if he does not comply we must all put on that garb ; we shaU certaiiily put it on ; he will never qbey, we shall lament the loss of so many days which might have been employed in action''. I am not afraid, when he comes to hear how I have declared this beforehand, that for the sake of confuting me he should change his mind and sub- mit. He will never do it, will not envy me this glory, will choose rather that you should thiiik ihe wise than him modest:" be observes, "that thoiigh it wijuld have been better to send no mes- sE^e, yet, some good ^ould flow from it to the republic ; for when the ambassadors shall make the report, which they surely will make, of Antony's refusal to obey the people and senate, who can be so perverse as to look upon him any longer as a citizen? Wherefore wait," says he, "with pa- tience, citizeiis, the return of the ambassadors, and digest the inconyenience of a few days ; if on their return they bring peace, call me prejudiced ; if war, provident'." Then after assuring them " of his perpetual vigilance for their sfifety, and applauding their wonderful alacrity in the , cause, and declaring that of all the assemblies which he had seen, he had never known so full a one as the present," he thus concludes : " The season of liberty is now cpme, my citizens, much later indeed than became the people of Rome, but so ripe how that it cannot be deferred a moment. What we nisi paruerit— mittuntiir enim qui nuncient, ne oppugnet consuleni designatum, ne Miitinana obsideat. He pro- vinciam depopuletur.— Phil, vi, 2. Dantur mandata legatis, ut D. Brutmn, militesque ejus adeant, &c. — ^Ibid. 3. , . , B Quid ego de universo populo Romajio, dicam? qm plena ao referto ifpri) bis m,e una mente atque voce in con- cionem vocavit^PhiL vit 8. . h Phil. vi. 1, 2, 3. ' IWd. 4, 6, 252 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF have hitherto suffered was owing to a kind of fatality which we have borne as well as we could ; hut if any such case should happen again, it must be owing to ourselves ; it is not possible for the people of Rome to be slaves, whom the gods have destined to the command of all nations : the affair is now reduced to the last extremity ; the struggle is for liberty ; it is your part either to conquer, which will surely be the fruit of your piety and concord, or to suffer anything rather than live slaves ; other nations may endure slavery, but the proper end and business of the Roman people is liberty." The ambassadors prepared themselves imme- diately to execute their commission, and the next morning early set forward towards Antony, though Ser. Sulpicius was in a very decli n i n g state of health. Various were the speculations about the success of this message ; but Antony gained one certain advantage by it, of more time, either to press the siege of Modena or to take such measures as fresh accidents might offer ; nor were his friends without hopes of drawing from It some pretence for opening a treaty with him, so as to give room to the chiefs of the Caesarian faction to unite them- selves against the senate and republican party, which seemed to be inspired by Cicero, vrith a resolution of extinguishingallthe remains of the late tyranny. For this purpose the partisans of that cause were endeavouring to obviate the offence which might be given by Antony's refusal to com- ply with what was enjoined ; contriving specious answers for him, and representing them as a reason- able ground of an accommodation, in hopes to cool the ardour of the city for the prosecution of the war: Calenus wasatthehead of this party, wbo kept a constant correspondence with Antony, and took care to publish such of his letters as were proper to depress the hopes and courage of his adversaries, and keep up the spirits of his friends K Cicero, therefore, at a meeting of the senate called in this interval about certain matters of ordi- nary form, took occasion to rouse the zeal of the assembly by warning them of the mischief of these insinuations. He observed, " that the aflfairs then proposed to their deliberation were of little conse- quence, though necessary in the common course of public business, about the Appian-way, the coin, the Luperci, which would easily be adjusted ; but that his mind was called off from the consideration of them by the more important concerns of the repubUc — that he had always been afraid of sending the embassy — and now everybody saw what a languor the expectation of it had caused in people's minds, and what a handle it had given to the prac- tices of those who grieved to see the senate reco- vering its ancient authority; the people united with them ; all Italy on the same side ; their armies prepared ; their generals ready to take the field — who feign answers for Antony and applaud them as if they had sent ambassadors not to give, but receive conditions from him." Then, after ex- posing the danger and iniquity of such practices, and rallying the principal abettor of them, Calenus, he adds, " that he who all his life had been the author and promoter of civil peace; who owed •i Ille literas ad te mittat de spe sua secuudarum rerum ? eas tu Iffitus pi'oferaa ? — describendas etiam des improbis eivibus ? eorum augeas animos ? bonorum spem, virtu- temque debilites ? — PhiL vii 2. whatever he was, whatever he had to it ; his ho- nours, interest, dignity ; nay, even the talents and abilities which he was master of ; yet I, (says he,) the perpetual adviser of peace, am for no peace with Antony" — ^where, perceiving himself to be heard with great attention, he proceeds to explain at large through the rest of his speech, *' that such a peace would be dishonourable, dan- gerous, and could not possibly subsist ;" he exhorts the senate therefore to be, "attentive, prepared and armed beforehand, so as not to be caught by a smooth or suppliant answer and the false appear- ance of equity : that Antony must do everything which was prescribed to him before he could pre- tend to ask anything ; if not, that it was not the senate which proclaimed war against him, but he against the Roman people. But for you, fathers, I give you warning, (says he,) the question before you concerns the liberty of the people of Rome, which is entrusted to your care ; it concerns the lives and fortunes of every honest man ; it concerns your own authority, which you will for ever lose, if you do not retrieve it now — I admonish you too, Fansa, for though you want no advice irf which you excel, yet the best pilots in great storms are sometimes admonished by passengers : never suffer that noble provision of arms and troops which you have made to come to nothing ; you have such an opportunity before you as no man ever had ; by this firmness of the senate, this alacrity of the equestrian order, this ardour of the people, you have it in your power to free the republic for ever from fear and danger'." The consuls in the mean while were taking care that the expectation of the effect of the embassy should not supersede their preparations for war ; and agreed between themselves that one of them should march immediately to Gaul with the troops which were already provided, and the other stay behind to perfect the new levies which were carried on with great success both in the city and the country; for all the capital towns of Italy were vying with each other in voluntary contributions of money and soldiers, and in decrees of infamy and disgrace to those who refused to list them- selves into the public service '". The first part fell by lot to Hirtius", who, though but lately recovered from a dangerous indisposition, marched avray without loss of time at the head of a brave army ; and particularly of the two legions, the Martial and the fourth, which were esteemed the flower and strength of the whole, and now put them&slves under the command and auspices of the consul. With these, in conjunction with Octavius, he hoped to obstruct all the designs of Antony, and prevent his gaining any advantage against Brutus till Pansa could join them, which would make them superior in force and enable them to give him battle with good assurance of victory. He contented himself in the meanwhile with dispossessing Antony of some of his posts, and distressing him by straitening his quarters and opportunities of forage ; in which he had some success, as he signified in a letter to his 1 Phil. vii. ^ "* An cum municipiis pax erit, quorum tanta studia cognascuntui" in decretis faciendls, militibns dandis, pecuniis poUicendis— hsec jam tota Italia fiunt— Phil. 7, 8, 9. » Consul sortitu ad bellum profeotus A. Hirtiu*— Phit xiv. 2. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 263 colleague Fansa, which was communicated to the senate : " I have possessed myself (says he) of Cla- terna and driven out Antony's garrison ; his horse were routed in the action and some of them slain" :" and in all his letters to Cicero he assured him that he would undertake nothing without the greatest caution ; in answer probably to what Cicero was constantly inculcating, not to expose himself too forwardly till Pansa could come up to himi". The ambassadors returned about the beginning of February, having been retarded somewhat longer than they intended by the death of Ser. Sulpicius, which happening when they were just arrived at Antony's camp, left the embassy maimed and im- perfect, as Cicero says, by the loss of the best and ablest man of the three'. The report which they made to the senate answered exactly in every point to what Cicero had foretold ; that Antony would per- form no part of what was required, nor suffer them even to speak with Brutus, but continued to batter the town with great fury in their presence : he offered, however, some conditions of his own which, contrary to their instructions, they were weak enough to receive from him and lay before the senate : the purport of them was, " that the senate should assign lands and rewards to all his troops, and confirm all the other grants which he and Dolabella had made in their consulship : that all his decrees from Caesar's books and papers should stand firm : that no account should be demanded of the money taken from the temple of Opis ; nor any inquiry made into the conduct of the seven commissioners created to divide the lands to the veteran soldiers ; and that his judiciary law should not be repealed : on these terms, he offered to give up Cisalpine Gaul, provided that he might have the greater Gaul in exchange for five years with an army of six legions, to be completed out of the troops of D. Brutus'." Pansa summoned the senate to consider the report of the ambassadors, which raised a general indignation through the city, and gave all possible advantage to Cicero towards bringing the house into his sentiments ; but contrary to expectation, he found Calenus's party still strong enough to give him much trouble, and even to carry some points against him, all tending to soften the rigour of his motions and give them a turn more favour- able towards Antony. He moved the senate to decree that a war or rebellion was actually com- menced : they carried it for a tumult : he urged them to declare Antony an enemy : they carried it for the softer term of adversary'. He proposed that all persons should be prohibited from going to ° Dejeci prsBidium, Clatema potitua sum, fugati equites, praslium commissum, occisi aliquot. — Phil. viiL 2. P Hirtius nihil nisi considerate, ut mihi crehris Uteris significat, acturus videhatur.^-Ep. Fam. xil 5. ' Cum 6cr. Sulpicius state illos anteiret, sapientia omnea, subito ereptus e causa totam Icgationem orbam el debilitatam reliquit— Phil. ix. ). ' Ante consulig oculosque legatorum tormentis Mutinam verberavit — ^no punctum quidem temporis, cum legatl adessent, oppugnatio respiravit — cum illi contempti Gt rejecti revertissent, dixissentquc Benatui, non modo ilium e Gallia non discessisse, uti censuissemus, sed ne a Mutina quidem recessisse, potestatem sibi D. Bruti couveniendi non fuisse, &o.— PhiL viiL 7, 8, 9. ' Ego princeps Sagorum : ego semper hostem appellavi, com alii adversariimi : semper hoc belliim, c\un alii tmnultum, &c.— Phil. xii. 7. Antony : they excepted Varius Cotyla, one of his lieutenants, who was then in the senate taking notes of everything which passed : in these votes Pansa himself and aU the consular senators con- curred, even L. Caesar, who, though a true friend to liberty, yet being Antony's uncle, thought him- self obliged by decency to vote on the milder side'. But Cicero in his turn easily threw out, what was warmly pressed on the other side, the proposal of a second embassy; and carried likewise the main question, of requiring the citizens to change their ordinary gown for the sagum or habit of war ; by which they decreed the thing while they rejected the name. In all decrees of this kind, the consular senators, on the account of their dignity, were excused from changing their habit ; but Cicero, to inculcate more sensibly the distress of the republic, resolved to waive his privilege and wear the same robe with the rest of the city". In a letter to Cassius, he gives the following short account of the state of things at this time : " We have excellent consuls, but most shameful consulars : a brave senate, but the lower they are in dignity the braver : nothing firmer and better than the people, and all Italy universally : but nothing more detest- able and infamous than our ambassadors, Philip and Piso ; who, when sent only to carry the orders of the senate to Antony, none of which he would comply with, brought back of their own accord intolerable demands from him ; wherefore all the world now flock about me, and I am grown popu- lar in a salutary cause," &c. " The senate met again the next day to draw into form and perfect what had been resolved upon in the preceding debate ; when Cicero in a pathetic speech took occasion to expostulate with them for their imprudent lenity the day before : " He showed the absurdity of their scruples about voting a civil war : that the word tumult, which they had preferred, either carried in it no real difference, or if any, implied a greater perturbation of all things !" ; he proved from every step that Antony had taken, and was taking ; from everything which the senate, the people, the towns of Italy, were doing and de- creeing against him, that they were truly and properly in a state of civil war ; the fifth which had happened in their memory, and the most desperate of them all, being the first which was ever raised, not by a dissention of parties contending for a superiority in the republic, but against a union of all parties, to enslave and oppress the republic ^" He proceeds to expostulate with Calenus for his obstinate adherence to Antony, and exposes the weakness of his pretended plea for it, a love of peace and concern for the lives of the citizens : he t Phil. viii. 1, 10. u Equidem, P. C. quamquam hoc honore usi togati Solent esse, cum est in sagis civitas ; statul tamen a vobis, cEete- risque civibus in tanta atrocitate temporis — ^non differre vestitu. — PhiL viii. 11. ^ Egregios consules habemus, sed turpissimos con- sulares : aenatum fortem, sed infimo quemque honore fortissimum. Populo vero nihil fortius, nihil melius, Italiaque universal Nihil aufcem foedius Philippo et Pisone legatis, nihil ftagitiosius : qui cum essent missi, ut Antonio ex senatus consulto certas res nunciarent : cum ille earum rerum nulli paruisset, ultro ab illo ad nos intolerabilia postulata retulerunt. Itaque ad nos concur- ritur : factique jam in re salutari populares sumus.— Ep. Fam. xii. 4. y Phil. viii. 1. * Ibid, a 2« THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF puts him in mind that *' there was no juster cause of taking arms than to repel slavery ; that several other causes indeed were just, but this necessary; unless he did not take himself to be affected by it, for the hopes of sharing the dominion with Antony : if so, he was doubly mistaken j first, for preferring a private intere^ to the public ; secondly, for thinking anything secure or worth enjoying in a tyranny — that a regard for the safety of citizens was a laudable principle, if he meant the good, the use- ful, the friends to their country ; but if he meant to save those who, though citizens by nature, were enemies by choice, what difference' was there be- tween him and such citizens .'—that their ancestors had quite another notion of the care of citizens ; and when Scipio Nasica slew Tiberius Gracchus, when Opimius slew Cajiis Gracchus, when INIarius killed Saturninus, they were all fojlowed by the greatest and the best both of the senate and the people : — that the difference between Calenus's opinion and his was not trifling, or about a trifling matter ; the wishing well only to this or that man : that he wis|ied well to Brutus ; Calenus to Antony ; he wished to see a colony of Rome preserved ; Calenus to see it stormed ; that Qalenus could not deny this, who was contriving all sorts of delay, which could distress Brutus and strengthen An- tony"," He then addressed himself to the other consulars, and reproached them for their shame- ful behaviour the day before, in voting for a second embassy, and said, that 'J when the ambassadors were sent against his judgment, he comforted him- self with imagining that as soon as they should return, despised anc[ rejected by ^Vntony, and Inform the senate that he would neither retire from Gaul nor (jiiit the siege of Mbdena, nor even suf- fer them to speak with Brutus ; that out of indig- nation they snould all arm themselves immediately in the c^efence of Brutus ; but on the contrary, they were ^rown more dispirited to hear of Antony's audaciousness ; and their ambassadors, instead of courage, which they ought to have brought,' had brought back nothing but fear to them''. Good gods ! " says he, " what is become of the virtue of our ancestors ? When Popilius was sent ambas- sador to Antiochus", and ordered him, iii the name of the senate,, to depart from A-lexandria, which hs was then besieging ; upon the king's deferring to answer and contriving delays, he drew a circle round him with his staff, and bade him give his answer instantly before he stirred out of that place or he would return to the senate without it." jte then recites and ridicules the several demands made by Antony ; their arrogance, stupidity, ab- surdity : and reprovesf Piso and Philip, men of such dignity, for the meanness of bringing back conditions, when they were sent only to cai^ry cbmdands : he comjilains that " they paid more respedt to Antony's "ambassador, Cotyla, thari he to theirs ;' for instfead'of shutting the gated of the city against him, as they ought to have done, they admitted him into that very temple where the senate then sat ; where the day before he was taking notes of what every man said, and was caressed, invited anti entertained by some of the principal Senators, whb had tbo little rega:rd to their dignity, too much to their dan'gSr. Bilt what after all_was the danger ? w hich ' miis t ^nd ieither 'in » Phil. Tiii. 4-^. ■> IbidT?; ' Ibid. 8, 9. liberty or death: the one always desirable, the other unavoidable : while to fly from ' death basely was worse than death itself: — that it used to be the pharacter of consular senators, to he vigilant, attentive, always thinking, doing, or pi^bposing sorhething for the good of the public": that he remembered old Scsevola in the Marsic war, how in the extremity of age oppressed with years and infirmities, he gave free access to every- body ;" was never seen in his bed ; always the first in the senate :' he wished that they all would imi- tate such industry, or at least not envy those who did'' : that since they had now suffered a six years' slavery, a longer term than honest and industrious slaves used to serve; what watchings, what solici- tude, what pains ought they to refdse, for the sake of giving liberty to the Roman people ?" He con- cludes by adding a clause to their last decree : " to grant pardon and impunity to 'all who should desert Antony and return to their duty by the fifteenth of March : or if any who continued with hifn should do any service worthy of reward, that one ortoth the consuls should take the first op- portunity to move the senate in their favour : but if any person from this time should go over to An- tony, except Cotyla, that the senate would consider him as an enemy to his country." The public debates being thus adjusted, Fansa called the senate together again the next day, to deliberate on some proper honours to be decreed to the memory of Ser. Sulpiciiis, who died upon the embassy. He spoke largely in his praise, and advised to pay Mm all the honours which had ever been decreed to any who had lost their Uves in the service of their country : 'a public faneral, sepulchre, aiid statue. Servilius, who spoke next, agreed to a funeral arid monument, but was against a statiie, as due only to those whb had been killed by violence in the discharge of their embassies. Cicero was not content with this, but out of pri- vate friendship to the man, as well as a regard to the public service, resolved to have all the honours paid to him which the occasion' could possibly justify. |n answer therefore to Servilius, he showed with his usual eloquence, that " the case of Siil- picius was the same with the case of those who had been killed on the account of tlieir embassies : that the embassy itself had killed him; that he set out upbii it in so we'ak a condition, that thougi he had some hopes" of coming to Antoriyi he had none of returning ;' and ^he'n he was jiist arrived to the congress, expired in the very act of execut- ing his commission ' : that it was not the manner, but the cause of the deatli, which their ancestors regarded; if it was caused by' the emhassy, they granted a Jiublic monument, to encourage their fellow citizens, in dangerous wars; to undertake that employment with cheerfulness : that Several statues had been erected on that "accbtint,' which none 'had ever inerited betteir tha;n Sulpicius ; that there could be no doul^t "but that the embassy had killec} him, and that he had carried! out 3e'atti along with him, which he might have escapei} by staying at home, under the care of his wife and children '. But when he saw, that' if he did not obey the authority of' the senate, he should be unlike to hhnSelf ; and if hfe did obey, must necessarily lose his life ; he chose, in so critical a state of the ^ PhiL vdli. 10. . '. EUiL ix. 1. I Ibid, a MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 255 lie, rather to die than seem to decline any eervlce which he could possihly do ; that he had many oppdrtiunities of refreshing and reposing himself' in the cities through' wnich he passed, and was pressed to it by his colleagues : biit in spite of his distemper, persevered to death in the resolution of tirging his journey, and hasteniiig to peifqrm 'the commands of' the senate. That, if they recollected tow he endeavoured to excuse hiinself from the' task when it was nrst moved in the senate, they must needs think that this honour 'io him when dead, was but a necessary amends for the injury which they had done to him when living ; for though it was harsh to be said, yet he must say it, that it was they who bad killed 'him, by overruling his excuse, when they saw it grounded, not on a feigned, but a real sickness ; and when, to their remonstrance, the coiisul Fansa joined his exhortation with a gravity and force of, speech which his ears had nbtleamj; toljear :" then, says he, " lie took his soh and me 'aside, and professed that he could liot help preferring your authority to his own life ; we,' tWough admiration of his virtue, durst not venture to oppose his will. His son was tenderly moved, nor' was my concern much less, yet both of us were obliged to give way to the greatness of his mind ; and the force of his reasoning when, to the joy of you all, he promised that he would do whatever you prescribed, nor woiild decline the danger of' that vote of which he himself ha^ been the proposer. Eestore life therefore to him, frdril whom you have taken it, for the life of the dead is in the mebaory of the living : take care that he, whom you unwillingly sent t" his death, receive an ipamortality from yod ; 'for if you decree a statue to him in the i:ostra, the remembrance of his emfiassy will remain to all posterity f." Then after ' illustrating ' the great virtues, talents, and excellent character of Sulpicius, he observes, "that all these would be pel-p'etuated by their own merit and effects, a'lid that: the statue was the mohuttienj; rather of the gratitude Of the senate, than of the fsme of the man ; of a public, rather tbak 'Bf a 'private signification; an eternal testi- mony of Antony's audaciousness, of his waging an impious war against his country : of his re- i'ettin^'the embassy of the senate''." ' For' tfhich reasons hfe proposed a decree, " that a statue of lir'ass shoiild be erected to himiii'the rosti-a by order of the senate, and the cause inscribed on the base : ' that he died in the service of the repub- lic ; With an area of five fe'^t on all sides of it, for his childi'en and posterity to see the shows of gladiatbrs'i thkt'a magnificent funeral should be made foi- hitn at the publi'c''6harge, and the consul Pansa should assign hith' a place of burial in the E^ljuiline field, with an area ' of thirty feet every way; tb 'be granted 'publicly, as a sepulchre for him, his' 'children',' and posterity." The senate agreed to wH'a^' Cicero desired : and 't|ie statue itself, as we atre told by ai ' Writer of the third century, reinaiaed to his tirde in the rostra of Augustus '. 1 r ' • i Sulpicius was of a noble and patrician family, of the same age, ihe same sttfdies, and the same principles'wifh Cicero, mih whom he kept up a peiyetu al friendship. They went through their "" **1s Phil. ix. 4, 6. li Ibid. 6, 6. ' Pomponiufl de Origene Juris. exercises together when young, both at Bome and at Rhodes, in the celebrated school' of Molo, whence he became an eminent pleader of causes, and passed through all tlie great offices of the state, with a singular reputation of wisdom, learn- ing, integHty ; a constant adipirer of the modesty of the ancients, an^ a reprover of the insolence of his own, times.' \^[hen he could not 'arrive at the first degree of fame, as an orator, he resolved to' excel in what was neSt to itj the character of a lawyer ;' choosing rather to ^e the first in the second art, than the second only in the first : leaving therefore to his frien^ Cicero ' the field of eloquence, he contented timself with siich a share of it as was sufScieht to sustain and adorn the profession of the law. In this he succeeded to his wish, and was far superior to all who had ever professed it in Rome : being tlie first who re- duced it to a prqp'er science, or rational system, and added light 'and method to that,' which all others before him hafl taught' darkly and con- fusedly. ' Nor was his kno'wledge confined to the external forms, or the effects, of the municipal laws ; but enlarged by a comprehensive view of universal equity, which he maile the interpreter of i^s sanctio'ns, and the rule of all his decisions ; ye^ he was always hotter pleased to put an amicable end to a controversy, than to' direct a process at law. In his political behaviour he was always a frietid to peace ' and ' liberty ; moderating the vio- lence ' of opjiosite parties, and discouraging every step towards civil dissention ; 'and, in the late war, was so busy in contriving projects of an ac- commodation, that ' he gained the name of the peace-maker. Through a natural timidity of temper, confirmed by a profession and coiirse of life averse from arms, though he preferred Pom- pey's cause as the best, he did not care to fight for it ; but taking Caesar's to be the strongest, suffered his son to follow that camj), while he himself continued quiet and neutei' : f6r this he was honoured by Caesar, yet could never be induced to approve his government From the time of Csesar'i death, he" co^itiuued still to advise and promote all measures which seeitied likely to esta- blish the public concord, and died at kst as he had lived, in the ver^ k'ct ' and office of peace- making'. ^ Non facile queni dixeriiu plus Btudii quam ilium ot ad dicendum,'et "ad omnes bonarum rerum disciplinas adhibui&se : naih et in iisdein' exercitatioilibus iii'eunt© ffita,te f uimus ; et pobtea Rhoduiri una ille'etiam profectus 68tj quoiilelior esset'etdoctior ;et iride'ut rediit, videtur mihi in seeunda arte priinns esse' malUisse, qUam in pririia sec'undus— sed foi^asse malilit, id quod est adeptus, longe bmniumnori ej'dsdelii liiod'o itatis, 'sed eorum etiam'qui f uissent, in jure civili esse priiieet)a — ^juris eivilia magnuni UEum et a^ud Scaevolam et djiud multos fuissei artem in hoc iino— hie enim at^ulit hand artem — quasi lueem acl ed, qua confuse 'ab'dliis aut respohdeb'aiitui' atit dgebantur. — [Brut. 262, ,&c.] Neque ille magis juris consultus, quam jn^titiae fuit:' ita ea qua proficiscebantur a legibus' et a jurfe civili semper ad facilitatem gequitatemque referebat i neque donstitiiere litium 'actionem malebat, quam contro- versias toUere'. [;Phil.'ix. 6.] Servius vera taoiflcator cum sao librariolo' videtur obiisso legatioiiem. [Ad Att. xv. 7-] Cognorani 'enim jam absens, tte hEeo miila niulto aute pro- videntem, defensorem pa<:is et in consulatu tuo et post consulatum fuisse. — Ep. Fam. iv. 1. ' N.B.—The old lawyers tell a remartablo story of the origin of Sulpibius's fame and skill in the law :' that going one day to consult Mucius ScKTOla about some point, he 256 THE HISTORY OF 'THE LIFE OF The senate had heard nothing of Brutus and Cassius from the time of their leaving Italy, till Brutus now sent puhlic letters to the consuls, giving a particular account of "his success against Antony's hrother Caius, in securing Macedonia, Illyricum, and Greece, with all the several armies in those . countries, to the interests of the repuh- lic ; that C. Antony was retired to Apollonia, with seven cohorts, where a good account would soon be given of him ; that a legion under L. Piso had surrendered itself to young Cicero, the commander of his horse ; that DolabeUa's horse, which was marching in two separate bodies towards Syria, the one in Thessaly, the other in Macedonia, had deserted their leaders, and joined themselves to him ; that Vatinius had opened the gates of Dyr- rhachium to him, and given up the town with his troops into his hands. That in all these transac- tions Q. Hortensins, the proconsul of Macedonia, had been particularly serviceable in disposing the provinces and their armies to declare for the cause of liberty 1." Pansa no sooner received the letters, than he summoned the senate to acquaint them with the contents, which raised an incredible joy through the whole city". After the letters were read, Pansa spoke largely in the praises of Brutus, extolled his conduct and services, and moved that public honours and thanks should be decreed to him ; and then, according to his custom, called upon his father-in-law Calenus to declare his sen- timents the first, who, in a premeditated speech delivered from writing, "acknowledged Brutus's letters to be well and properly drawn ; but since, what he had done was done without any commis- sion and public authority, that he should be required to deliver up his forces to the orders of the senate, or the proper governors of the pro- vinces"." Cicero spoke next, " and began with giving the thanks of the house to Pansa, for calUng them together on that day, when they had no expectation of it, and not deferring a moment to give them a share of the joy which Brutus's letters had brought. He observes that Pansa, by speaking so largely in the praise of Brutus, had shown that to be true which he had always taken to be so, that no man ever envied another's virtue who was conscious of his own. That he had prevented him to whom, for his intimacy was so dull in apprehending the meaning of Mucius's answer, that after explaining it to him twice or thrice, Mucius could not forbear saying, It is a shame for a nobleman, and a patrician, and a pleader of causes, to he ignorant of that law which he professes to understand. The reproach stung him to the quick, and made him apply himself to his studies with such industry, that he hecame the ablest lawyer in Rome ; and left behind him near a hundred and eighty books written by himself on nice and difficult questions of law. — Digest. 1. 1, tit. 2. paxag. 43. The Jesuits Catrou and EouUle have put this Sulpicius into the list of the conspirators who killed Caesar : but a moderate acquaintance with the character of the man, or with Cicero's writings, would have shown them their error, and that there was none of consular rank but Trebonius concerned in that affair.— Hist. Rom. vol. 17. p. 343, not. a. ' Phil. X. 4, 5, 6. ™ Dii immortiles ! qui ille nuncius, qu^ illas literffi, quse iKtitia senatus, quie alacritas civitatis erat?— Ad Brut. iL 7. " PhU. X. 1, 2, 3. with Brutus, that task seemed particularly to be- long, from saying so much as he intended on that subject." Then addressing himself to Calenus he asks, " What could be the meaning of that perpe- tual war which he declared against the Brutuses .' Why he alone was always opposing, when every one else was almost adoring them? That to talk of Brutus's letters being rightly drawn, was not to praise Brutus, but his secretary. When did he ever hear of a decree in that sfyle, that letters were properly written ? yet the expression did not fall from him by chance, but was designed, pre- meditated, and brought in writing "." He exhorts him " to consult with his son-in-law Pansa, oftener than with himself, if he would preserve his cha- racter ; professes that he co\dd not help pitying him, to hear it given out among the people that there was not a second vote on the side of hun who gave the first, which would be the case, he believed, in that day's debate. You would take away (says he) the legions from Brutus, even those which he has drawn off from the traitorous designs of C. Antony, and engaged by his own authority in the public service ; you would have him sent once more, as it were, into banishment, naked and forlorn ; but for you, fathers ! if ever you betray or desert Brutus, what citizen will you honour .' Whom will you favour, unless you think those who offer kingly diadems worthy to be preserved ; those who abolish the name of king, to be abandoned." He proceeds to display, with great force the merit and praises of Brutus ; " his moderation, mUdness, patience of injuries : how studiously he had avoided every step which could'give a handle to civil tumults ; quitting the city, living retired in the country, forbidding the resort of friends to him, and leaving Italy itself, lest any cause of war should arise on his account ; that as long as he saw the senate disposed to bear everything, he was resolved to bear too : but when he perceived them inspired with a spirit of Uberty, he then exerted himself to provide them succours to defend it p ; that if he had not defeated the desperate attempts of C. Antony, they had lost Macedonia, lUyiicum, and Greece : the last of which afforded either a commodious retreat to Antony, when driven out of Italy, or the best opportunity of invading it, which now, by Brutus's management, being strongly provided with troops, stretched out its arms as it were, and offered its help to Italy ■>. That Caius's march through the provinces was to plunder the allies, to scatter waste and desolation wherever he passed, to em- ploy the armies of the Roman people against the people themselves ; whereas Brutus made it a law, wheresoever he came, to dispense light, hope, and security to all around him : in short, that the one gathered forces to preserve, the other to overturn the republic. That the soldiers themselves could judge of this as well as the senate, as they had declared by their desertion of C. Antony, who by that time either was, or would soon be, Brutus's prisoner^ ; that there was no apprehension of danger from Brutus's power : that his legions, his mercenaries, his horse, and above all himself, was wholly theirs. Formed for the service of the republic, as well by his own excellent virtue as a kind of fatality derived from his ancestors, both » Phil. X. 2. 1 Ibid. 6. P Ibid. 3, 4. t Ibid. & MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 257 on the father's and the mother's side ; that none could ever blame him for anything, unless for too great a backwardness and aversion to war, and his not humouring the ardour of all Italy in their eager thirst of liberty — that it was a vain fear, which some pretended to entertain, that the vete- rans would be disgusted to see Brutus at the head of an army, as if there were any diflerence between his army and the armies of Hirtius, Pansa, D. Brutus, Octavius ; all which had severally received public honours for their defence of the people of Rome; that M. Brutus could not be more suspected by the veterans than Decimus, for though the act of the Brutuses, and the praise of it, was common to them both, yet those who dis- approved it were more angry with Decimus, as thinVing him, of all others, the last who ought to have done it : yet what were all their armies now doing, but relieving Decimus from the siege ^ ? That if there was any real danger from Brutus, Fansa's sagacity would easily find it out : but as they had just now heard from his own mouth, he was so far from thinking his army to be dangerous, that he looked upon it as the firmest support of the commonwealth ' ; that it was the constant art of the disaffected, to oppose the name of the vete- rans to every good design ; that he was always ready to encourage their valour, but would never endure their arrogance. "Shall we," sayshe, "who are now breaking off the shackles of our servitude, be discouraged if any one tells us, that the veterans will not have it so ? Let that then come out ifom me at last which is true, and becoming my charac- ter to speak : that if the resolutions of this body must he governed by the will of the veterans, if all our words and acta must be regulated by their humour, then it is high time to wish for death, which to Roman citizens was ever preferable to slavery"; that since so many chances of death surrounded them all both day and night, it was not the part of a man, much less of a Roman, to scru- ple the giving up that breath to his country, which he must necessarily give up to nature*. That An- tony was the single and common enemy of them all, though he had indeed his brother Lucius with him, who seemed to be bom on purpose, that Marcus might not be the most infamous of all mortals ; that he had a crew also of desperate vil- lains, gaping after the spoils of the republic : that the army of Brutus was provided against these, whose sole will, thought, and purpose was, to pro- tect the senate and the liberty of the people— who after trying, in vain, what patience would do, found it necessary at last to oppose force to forced. That they ought, therefore, to grant the same pri- vilege to M. Brutus, which they had granted before to Decimus, and to Octavius, and confirm by public authority what he had been doing for them by his private counsel ;" for which purpose he proposed the following decree: " Whereas by the pains, counsel, industry, virtue of Q. Ceepio Brutus'', proconsul, in the utmost distress of the republic, the province of Macedonia, Illyrioum, and Greece, • Phil. X. 7. t Ibid. 8. » Ibid. 9. X Ibid. )0. r Ibid. 11. * M. Brutus, as appears from the style of this decree, had been adopted lately by his mother's brother, Q. Servilius Csepio, whose name, according to custom, he now assumed with the possession of his uncle's estate. _^ with all their legions, armies, horse, are now in the power of the consuls, senate and people of Rome ; that Q. Csepio Brutus, proconsul, h?s acted herein well, and for the good of the republic, agreeably to his character, the dignity of his an- cestors, and to his usual manner of serving the commonwealth, and that his conduct is and ever will be acceptable to the senate and people of Rome. That Q. Caepio Brutus, proconsul, be ordered to protect, guard, and defend the province of Macedonia, Illyricum, and all Greece; and command that army which he himself has raised. That whatever money he wants for military ser- vice, he may use and take it from any part of the public revenues, where it can best be raised, or borrow it where he thinks proper ; and impose contributions of grain and forage, and take care to draw all his troops as near to Italy bs possible : and whereas it appears by the letters of Q. Csepio Brutus, proconsul, that the public service has been greatly advanced by the endeavours and virtue of Q. Hortensius, proconsul ; and that he concerted all his measures with Q. Csepio Brutus, proconsul, to the great benefit of the commonwealth. That Q- Hortensius, proconsul, has acted therein rightly, regularly, and for the public good, and that it is the will of the senate, that Q. Hortensius, procon- sul, with his qusestors, proqusestors, and lieute- nants, hold the province of Macedonia, till a successor be appointed by the senate." Cicero sent this speech to Brutus, with that also which he made on the first of January, of which Brutus says, in answer to him : " I have read your two orations, the one on the first of January, the other on the subject of lay letters against Calenus. You expect now, without doubt, that I should praise them. I am at a loss what to praise the most in them ; your courage or your abilities : I allow you noir in earnest to call them Philippics, as you intimated jocose y in a formf^r letter"*." — Thus the name of Philippics, which seems to have been thrown out at first in gaiety ard. jest only, being taken up and propagated by his friends, became at last the fixed and standing title of these orations, which yet for several ages were called, we find, indifferently either Philippics or Anto- nians*". Brutus declared himself so well pleased with these two which he had seen, that Cicero pro- mised to send him afterwards all the rest^. Brutus, when he first left Italy, sailed directly for Athens, where he spent some time in concert- ing measures how to make himself master of Greece and Macedonia, which was the great design that he had in view. Here he gathered about him all the young nobility and gentry of Rome who, for the opportunity of their education, had been sent to this celebrated seat of learning ; but of them all he took the most notice of young Cicero, and after a little acquaintance grew very fond of him, admiring his parts and virtue, and surprised ^ Legi orationes tuas duas, quarum altera Kal. Jan. usus es ; altera de Uteris meis, quae habita est abs te contra Calenum. Nunc scilicet hoc expectas, dum eas laudem. Nescio animi an ingenii tut major in illis libellis laus contineatur. Jam concedo, ut vel Philippicce voeen- tur, quod tu quadam epistola jocans scripsisti.— Ad Brut, ii. 5. ^ M. Cicero in primo Antonianamm ita scriptum rell- quit. — Aul. Gell. xiii. 1. *: Haec ad te oratio perferetur, quoniam te video de- lectari Philippicia nostris.— Ad Brut. ii. 4. S 258 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF to find iQ one so young sucli a generosity and greatness of mind, witli such an aversion to tyranny''. He made him, therefore. One of his lieu- tenants, though he was but twenty years old ; gave him the command of his horse, and employed him in several commissions of great trust and import- ance, in all which the young man signalised both his courage and conduct, and behaved vrith great credit to himself, great satisfaction to his general, and great benefit to the public service ; as Brutus did him the justice to signify, both in his prilvate and public letters to Rome. In writing to Cicero, "Your son," says he, "recommends himself to me so effectually by his industry, patience, activity, greatness of mind, and in short by every duty, that he seems never to drop the remembrance of whose son he is ; wherefore, since it is not possible for me to make you love him more than you do already, yet allow thus much to my judgment as to persuade yourself that he will have no occasion to borrow any share of your glory in order to obtain his father's honours." = Tliis account, given by one who was no flatterer, maybe considered as the real character of the youth, — which is confirmed like- wise by what Lentulus wrote of him about the same time. " I could not see your son," says he, " when I was last with Brutus, because he was gone with the horse into winter-quarters ; but, by my faith, it gives me great joy for your sake, for his, and especially my own, tiiat he is in such esteem and reputation ; for as he is your son, and worthy of you, I cannot but look upon him as my bro- ther."f Cicero was so full of the greater affairs, which were the subject of his letters to Brutus, that he had scarce leisure to take notice of what was said about his son. He just touches it, however, in one or two letters : " As to my son, if his merit be as great as you write, I rejoice at it as much as I ought to do ; or if you magnify it out of love to him, even that gives me an incredible joy to per- ceive that he is beloved by ydu,'S. Again, I desire you, my dear Brutus, to keep my son with you as much as possible : he will find no better school of virtue than in the contemplation and imitation of you.'"' Though Brutus intimated nothing in his public letters but what was prosperous and encouraging, yet in his private accounts to Cicero he sigiiified a ■1 Plut. in Brut. * Cicero filius tuue sic mihi se prol)p,t, industria, pa- tientia, labors, animi magnitudine, onuii denique officio, ut prorsus nunquam dimittere videtur cogitationem', cujus sit filius, Quare quoniam efficere non possum, ut pluris facias eum, qui tibi est earissimus, illiid tribue judicio meo, ut tibi persuadeas, nciu fore illi abutendum gloria tua, ut adipiscatur honores paternos. KaL Apr.. — Ad Brut. li. 3. f Filiiim tuum, ad Brutiun cum veni, videre non potui, ideo quod jam in hiberna, cum equitibus erat profectus. Sed medius fidius ea esse eum opinione, et tua et ipsius, et in primis mea causa gaudeo. Fi-atris enim loco mibi est, qui ex te natus, toque dignus est. Vale. iiii. Kal. Jun. — £p. Fam. >iii. 14. & De Cicerone meo, et si tantum est ill eo, quantum scribis, tantum scilicet quantum debeo, gaudeo : et si, quod amas eum, eo majora facis ; id ipsum incredibiliter gaudeo, a te eum diligi. — Ad Brut. ii. 6. h Ciceronem meum, mi Brute, vclim quam plurimum tecum habeas. Virtutis disciplinam meliorem reperiet uullam, quam contemptationem atque imitationem tui. xirr. Kal. Maii-^lbid. 7. great want of money and recruits, and begged to be supplied with both from Italy, especially with recruits, either by a vote of the senate, or if that cordd not be had, by some secret management, without the privity of Pansa. To which Cidero answered, " You tell me that you want two ne- cessary things, recruits and money: it is difficult to help you. I know no other way of raising money which can be of use to you but what the senate has decreed, of borrowing it from the cities. As to recruits, I do not see what can be done ; for Pansa is so far from granting any share of his ai-my or recruits to you, that he is even uneasy to see so, many volunteers going over to you. His reason I take it is, that he thinks no forces too great for the demands of our affairs in Italy: for as to what many suspect, that he has no mind to see you too strong! I have no suspicion of it."' Pansa seems to have been much in the right for refusing to part with any troops out of Italy, where the stress of the war now lay, on the success of which the fate of the whole republic depended. But there came news of a different kind about the same time to Rome, of Dolabella's successful exploits in Asia. He left the city, as it is said above, before the expiration of his consulship, to possess himself of Syria, which had been allotted to him by Antony's management, and taking his way through Greece arnd Macedonia, to gather what money and troops he could raise in those eduntries, he passed over into Asia in hopes of inducing that province to abandon Tirebonius and declare for him. Having sent his emissaries therefore before him to prepare for his reception, he arrived before Smyrna, where Trebonius resided, without any show of hostility, or forces sufficient to give any great alarm, pretending to desire nothing more than a free passage through the country to his own province. Trebonius refusfed to admit him into the town, but consented to supply him with re- freshments without the gates : where many civiUties passed between them, with great professions on Dolabella's part of amity and friendship to Tre- bonius, who promised in his turn that if Dolabella would depart quietly from Smyrna, he should be received into Ephesus in order to pass forward towards Syria. To this Dolabella seemingly agreed ; and finding it itnpracticable to take Smyrba by open force, contrived to surprise it by stratagem. Embracing, therefore, Trebonius's offer, he set for- ward towards Ephesus ; but after he had marched several miles, and Trebonius's men, who were sent after to observe him, were retired, he turned back instaiitly in the night, and arrivilig again at Shiyma before day, found it as he expected negli- gently g,uarded ind without any apptehension of an assault, so that his soldiers, by the help of ladders, presently mounting the walls, possessed > Quod egere te duabus iiecessariis rebus scribis, supple- meuto et pecuiiia, difficile consilium est. Non enim mihi occurrunt facultates, quibus uti te posse videam, pr*ter illas, quas sonatus decrevit, ut pecuniae a civitatibus mutuas sumercs. De supplemento autem non video, quid fieri possit. Tantum enini abest ut Pansa de eiercitu sue aul; delectu tibi aliquid tribuat, ut etiam moleste ferat, tarn multoa ad te ire voluntaries : quomodo equidem credo, quod his rebus qua in Italia decernuntur, iiuUas copias nimis magnas arbitretur : quomodo autem multi suspi- cantur, quod ne te quidem nimis flnnmn ease velit ; quod ego non suspicor.— Ad Brut. ii. 6. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 259 themselves of it witbout opposition, and seized Trebonius himself in his bed before he knew any- thing of his danger''. Dolabella treated him with the utmost cruelty ; kept him two days under torture to extort a dis- covery of all the money i^i his custody, then ordered his head to be cut olf and carried about on a spear, and his body to be dragged about the streets and thrown into the sea*. This was the first blood that was spilt on the account of Csesar's death, which was now revenged in kind upon one of the principal conspirators, and the only one who was of consular "mk. It had been projected with- out doubt in concei i with Antony, to make the revenge of Caesar's death the avowed cause of their arms, in order to draw the veterans to their side, or make them unwilling at least to act against them 3 and it gave a clear warning to Brutus and his associates what they were to expect if their enemies prevailed, as well as a sad presage to all honest men of the cruel effects and merciless fury of the impending war. On the news of Trebonius's death the senate was summoned by the consul, where Dolabella was unanimously declared a public enemy, and his estate confiscated. Calenus himself first proposed the vote, and said that if anything more severe could be thought of, he would be for it. The in- dignation of the city was so infiamed that he was forced to comply with the popular humour, and hoped perhaps to put some difficulty upon Cicero, who, for his relation to Dolabella, would as he imagined be for moderating the punishment. But though Calenus was mistaken in this, he was con- cerned in moving another question which greatly perplexed Cicero, about the choice of a general to manage this new war against Dolabella. Two opinions were proposed ; the one that P. Servilias should be sent with an extraordinary commission, the other that the two consuls should jointly pro- secute that war, with the provinces of Syria and Asia allotted to them. This was very agreeable to Pansa; and pushed therefore not only by his friends but by all Antony's party, who fancied that it would take off the attention of the consuls from the war of Italy, give Dolabella time to strengthen himself in Asia, raise a coldness between the con- suls and Cicero if he ventured to oppose it, and above all put a public affront upon Cassius, who by his presence in those parts seemed to have the best pretension to that commission. The debate contiiiued through the first day without coming to any issue, and was adjourned to the next. In the meanwhile Cassius's mother-in-law Servilia, and other friends, were endeavouring to prevail with Cicero to drop the opposition for fear of alienating Pansa, — but in vain ; for he resolved at all hazards to defend the honour of Cassius ; and when the debate was resumed the next morning, exerted all his interest and eloquence to procure a decree in his favour. '' Appiao. iii p. 548. ' ConsecutuB est Dolabella, nulla suspioione l)elli.< — SecutBB ooUocutiones familiares cum Trebonio ; complex- UBque summa: benevolentiae— noctm-nus introitus in Smyr- nam, quasi in hostium urbein : oppressus Trebonius — interficere captmn statim noluit, ne nijnis, credo, in victoria liberalis videretur. Cum verboruin contumeliis optinium vinun incesto ore lacerasset, turn verberibus ac tormentiB qusstionem habuit peeuuia: publicx, idque per He began his speech by observing, " that in their present grief for the lamentable fate o£ Trebonius, the republic however would reap some good from it, since they now saw the barbarous' cruelty of those who had taken arms against their country ; for of the two chiefs of the present war, the one by effecting what he wished had discovered what the other aimed at"". That they both meant nothing less than the death and destruction of all honest men, nor would be satisfied it seemed with simple death, for that was the punishment of nature, but thought the rack and tortures due to their revenge ; that what Dolabella had executed was the picture Of what Antony intended ; that they were a true pair, exactly matched, marching by concert and equal paces in the execution of their wicked purposes." This he illustrates by parallel instances from the conduct of each; and after displaying the inhumanity of Dolabella and the unhappy fate of Trebonius, in a manner proper to excite indignation against the one and compassion for the other, he shows, " that Dolabella was still the more unhappy of the two, and must needs suffer more from the guilt of his mind than Tre- bonius from the tortures of his body. What doubt (says he) can there be which of them is the most miserable ? — he whose death the senate and people are eager to revenge, or he who is adjudged to be a traitor by the unanimous vote of the senate ? For in all other respects it is the greatest injury to Trebonius to compare his life with Dolabella's. As to the one, everybody knows his wisdom, wit, humanity, innocence, greatness of mind in freeing his country ; but as to the other, cruelty was his delight irom a hoy, with a lewdness so shameless and abandoned, that he used to value himself for doing what his very adversaries could not object to him with modesty. Yet this man, good gods ! was once mine ; for I was not very curious to inquire into his vices,— nor should I now perhaps have been his enemy had he not shown himself an enemy to you, to his country, to the domestic gods and altars of us all, — nay, even to nature and humanity itself."" He exhorts them, " from this warning given by Dolabella, to act with the greater vigour against Antony ; for if he, who had about him but a fevr of those capita,! incendiaries, the ringleaders of rapine and rebellion, durst attempt an act so abominable, what barbarity were they not to ex- pect from Antony, who had the whole crew of them in his camp .' ' ' — the principal of whom he describes by name and character ; and adds, " that as he had often dissented unwillingly from Calenus, so now at last he had the pleasure to agree with him, and to let them see that he had no dislike to the man but to the cause ; that in this case he not only concurred with him, but thanked him for pro- pounding a vote so severe and worthy of the republic, in decreeing Dolabella an enemy and his estate to be confiscated. " ° Then as to the second point, which was of greater delicacy, the nomina- tion of a general to be sent against Dolabella, he proceeds to give his reasons for rejecting the two opinions proposed, — the one for sending Servilius, the other for the two consuls. O f the first, he biduum. Post ceriricibus fractis caput abscidit, idque ad- iixiim gestari jussit in pilo ; reliquum corpus tractum ao laniatum abjecit in mare, &o. — Phil. xi. 2, 3. ■« PhiL xi. 1. ' IMd. 4, o Ibid. 5, 6. S 2 260 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF says, " that extraordinary commissions were always odious where they were not necessary ; and where- ever they had been granted, it was in cases very different from this. That if the commission in debate should be decreed to Servilius, it would seem an affront to all the rest of the same rank, that being equal in dignity they should be thought unworthy of the same honour. That he himself indeed had voted an extraordinary commission to young Caesar, but Csesar had first given an extra- ordinary protection and deliverance to them. That they must either have taken his array from him or decreed the command of it to him, which could not therefore be so properly said to be given as not taken away ; but that no such commission had ever been granted to any one who was wholly idle and unemployed^. As to the second opinion, of decreeing that province to the consuls, he shows it to be both against the dignity of the consuls them- selves and against the public service. That when D. Brutus, a consul elect, was actually besieged, on the preservation of whom their common safety depended, and when a dreadful war was on foot, already entrusted to the two consuls, the very mention of Asia and Syria would give a handle to jealousy and envy ; and though the decree was not to take place till D. Brutus should first be relieved, yet a new commission would necessarily take off some part of their thoughts and attention from the old." . Then addressing himself to Pansa, he says, " that though his mind, he knew, was intent on delivering D. Brutus, yet the nature of things would force him to turn it sometimes towards Dolabella, and that if he had more minds than one they should all be directed and wholly fixed on Modenai. That for his own part he had resigned in his consulship a rich and well-furnished province, that nothing might interrupt his endeavours to quench that flam^ which was then raised in his country. He wished that Pansa would imitate him whom he used to commend ; that if the con- suls, however, desired to have provinces, as other great men had usually done, let them first bring D. Brutus safe home to them, — who ought to be guarded with the same care as the image that fell from heaven and was kept in the temple of Vesta, in the safety of which they were all safe. That this decree would create great delay and obstruction to the war against Dolabella, which required a general prepared, equipped, and already invested vvith command, — one who had authority, reputa- tion, an army, and a resolution tried in the service of his country'. That it must, therefore, either be Brutus or Cassius, or both of them. Tnai, Brutus could not be spared from Macedonia, where he was quelling the last efforts of the faction, and oppressing C. Antony, who, with the remains of a broken army, was still in possession of some con- siderable places. That when he had finished that work, if he found it of use to the commonwealth to pursue Dolabella he would do it of himself, as he had hitherto done, without waiting for their orders ; for both he and Cassius had on many oc- casions been a senate to themselves. That in such a season of general confusion, it was necessary to be governed by the times rather than by rules. That Brutus and Cassius ever held the safety and liberty of their country to be the most sacred rule P Phil. xi. 7, 8. q Ibid. 9. ■• Ibid, m of acting'. For by what law (says he) by what right have they hitherto been acting, the one in Greece the other in Syria, but by that which Jupiter himself ordained, that all things beneficial to the community should be esteemed lawful and just ? — for law is nothing else but right reason derived to us from the gods, enjoining what is honest, pro. hibiting the contrary. This was the law which Cassius obeyed when he went into Syria ; another man's province, if we judge by written law, but when these are overturned, his own by the law of nature." But that Cassius's acts might be confirmed also by the authority of the spnEiue, he proposed a decree to this effect, "that whereas the senate has declared P. Dolabella to be an enemy of the Roman people, and ordered him to be pursued by open war, to the intent that he may suffer the punish- ment due to him both from gods and men ; it is t^e will of the senate that C. Cassius, proconsul, shall hold the province of Syria in the same man- ner as if he had obtained it by right of law ; and that he receive the several armies from Q. Marcius Crispus, proconsul, L. Statins Mnrcus, proconsul, A. AUienus, lieutenant, which they are hereby required to deliver to him. That with these and what other forces he can procure' he shall pursue Dolabella both by land and sea. That for the occasions of the war he shall have a power to de- mand ships, seamen, money, and ail things useful to him, from whomsoever he thinks fit, in Syria, Asia, Bithynia, Pontus ; and that whatever pro- vince he comes into in prosecuting the war he shall have an authority superior to that of the proper governor. That if king Deiotarus, the father or the son, shall assist C. Cassius, proconsul, with their troops, as they have oft assisted the Roman people in other wars, their conduct will be accept- able to the senate and people. That if any of the other kings, tetrarchs, and potentates, shall do the like, the senate and people will not be unmindful of their services. That as soon as the public affairs were settled, C. Pansa and A. Hirtius, the consuls, one or both of them, should take the first oppor- tunity of moving the senate about the disposal of the consular and praetorian provinces ; and that iu the meanwhile they should all continue in the hands of those who now held them, till successors were appointed by the senate. ' " From the senate, Cicero went directly into the forum, to give the people an account of the debate, and recommend to them the interests of Cassius : hither Pansa followed him ; and, to weaken the in- fluenoe of his authority, declared to the citizens ;hat what Cicero contended for was against the will and advice of Cassius's nearest friends and rela- tions : of which Cicero gives the following account in a letter to Cassius. M. T. Cicero to C. Cassius. " With what zeal I defended your dignity, both in the senate and with the people, I would have you learn rather from your other friends than from me. My opinion would easily have prevailed in the senate, had not Pansa eagerly opposed it. After I had proposed that vote, I was produced to the people by Servilius, the tribune, and said everything which I could of you with a strength of voice that filled the forum ; and with such a • Phil. xi. 11. ' Ibid. 12, &o. ivIARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 2G1 clamour and approbation of the people, that I had never seen the like before. You will pardon me, I hope, for doing it against thevpill of yonr mother- , in-law. The timorous woman was afraid that Pansa would be disgusted. Pansa indeed declared to the assembly that both your mother and brother were against it ; but that did not move me — I had other considerations more at heart : my regard was to the republic, to which I have always wished vuell, and to your dignity and glory. But there is one thing which I enlarged upon in the senate, and mentioned also to the people, in which I must desire you to make my words good ; for I promised, and in a manner assured them, that you neither had nor would wait for our decrees, but would defend the republic yourself in your own way : and though we had heard nothing, either where you were or what forces yon had, yet I took it for granted that all the forces in those parts were yours ; and was con- fident that you had already recovered the province of Asia to the republic. Let it be your care to outdo yourself, in endeavouring still to advance your own glory. Adieu"." As to the issue of the contest, some writers tell us that it ended as Cicero desired : but it is evi- dent, from the letter just recited, and more clearly still from other letters, that Pausa's authority pre- vailed against him for granting the commission to the consuls*. Cassius, however, as Cicero advised and declared, had little regard to what they were decreeing at Rome ; but undertook the whole affair himself, and soon put an end to Dolabella's tri- umphs, as will be mentioned hereafter in its proper place. The statue of Minerva, which Cicero, upon his going into exile, had dedicated in the capitol by the title of the Guardian of the City, was, about the end of the last year, thrown down and shattered to pieces by a tempest of thunder and lightning. This the later writers take notice of as ominous and portending the fall of Cicero himself : though neither Cicero nor any of that time made any such reflection upon it. The senate, however, out of respect to him, passed a decree, in a full house, on the eighteenth of March, that the statue should be repaired and restored to its place?. So that it was now made by public authority what he himself had designed it to be — a standing monument to pos- terity that the safety of the republic had been the constant object of his counsels. D. Brutus was reduced by this time to such straits in Modena, that his friends began to be greatly alarmed for him ; taking it for granted, that if he fell into Antony's hands, he would be treated no better than Trebonius. The mention therefore of a pacification being revived in the se- nate, and recommended by Pansa himself, upon an intimation given by Antony's friends that he was now in a disposition to submit to reason, Cicero, out of a concern for Bmtus' safety, consented to the decree of a second embassy, to be executed by himself and Servilius, together with three other consular senators t but finding upon recollection " Ep. Fam. xii. 7. ^ (luum consulibus decreta est Asia, et pennifisum est Wb, ut dum ipsi venirent ; darent negotium qui ipsam ob- tineant, &&— Ep. Fam. xii. 14. y Eo die aenatus decrevit, ut Minenra nostra, Custos TJrbiB, quam tuibo degeceiat, rcstitueretur.— Bp. Fam. xiL ?6jDio. xlv. p. 27a that there appeared no symptoms of any change in Antony, and that his friends produced no proofs of it, nor anything new in his conduct, he was con- vinced that he had made a false step, and that nothing more was intended than to gain time ; which was of great use to Antony, as it would retard the attempts of relieving Modena, and give an opportunity to Ventidius to join him, who was marching towards him at that time with three legions. At the next meeting therefore of the se- nate, he retracted his opinion, and declared against the late decree as dangerous and insidious ; and in a warm and pathetic speech pressed them to rescind it. He owns, " that it was indecent for one, whose authority they had so often followed in the most important debates, to declare himself mistaken and deceived ; yet his comfort was, that it was in com- mon with them all, and with a consul of the greatest wisdom : that when Piso and Calenus, who knew Antony's secret — the one of v/hom entertained his wife and children at his house, the other was per- petually sending and receiving letters from him, — began to renew what they had long intermitted, their exhortations to peace ; and when the consul thought fit to exhort the same thing, a man whose prudence could not easily be imposed upon, whose virtue approved no peace but on Antony's submis- sion ; whose greatness of mind preferred death to slavery ; it was natural to imagine that there was some special reason for all ■ this ; some secret wound in Antony's affairs which the public was un- acquainted with: especially when it was reported that Antony's family were under some unusual afSic- tion, and his friends in the senate betrayed a dejec- tion in their looks ; for if there was nothing in it, why should Piso and Calenus above all others — why at that time — ;why so unexpectedly, so sud- denly, move for peace ? Yet now, when they had entangled the senate in a pacific embassy, they both denied that there was anything new or particular which induced them to it' : that there could be no occasion therefore for new measures when there was nothing new in the case itself; that they were drawn in and deceived by Antony's friends, who were serving his private, not the public interest : that he had seen it from the first, though but darkly, his concern for Brutus having dazzled his eyes j for whose liberty, if a substitute could be accepted, he would freely offer himself to be shut up in his place : that if Antony would humble himself, and sue to them for anything, he should perhaps be for hearing him ; but while he stood to his arms, and acted offensively, their business was to resist force by force. But they would tell him, perhaps, that the thing was not in their power, since an embassy was actually decreed : but what is It (says he,) that is not free to the wise, which it is possible to retrieve ? It is the case of every man to err, but the part only of a fool to persevere in error. If we have been drawn away by false and fallacious hopes, let us turn again into the way; for the surest harbour to a penitent is a change of his conduct*." He then shows how " the embassy, so far from being of service, would certainly hurt, nay, had already hurt the republic, by checking the zeal of the towns and colonies of Italy, and the courage of the legions which had de- clared for them, who could never be eager to fight > Fhil. xii. I. ' Ibid. 8 262 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF while the senate was sounding a retreat''. That nothing was more unjust than to determine any- thing ahottt peace without the consent of those who were canning on the war ; and not only with- out, but against their consent: that Hirtius and Cffisar had no thoughts of peace ; from whom he had letters then in his hands, declaring their hopes of victory : for their desire was to conquer, and to acquire peace, not by treaty, but by victory". That there could not possibly be any peace with one to whom nothing could be 'granted: they had voted him to have forged several decrees of the senate ; would they vote them again to be genuine ? They had annulled his laws, as made by violence ; would they now consent to restore them .' They had de- creed him to have embezzled five millions of money : could such a waste be absolved from a charge of fraud.' That immunities, priesthoods, kingdoms, had been sold by him ; conld those bargains be confirmed which their decrees had made void''.' That if they should grant him the farther Gaul and an army, what would it be else but to defer the war, not to make peace ? nay, not only to prolong the war, but to yield him the victory ■=. Was it for this (says he) that we have put on the robe of war, taken arms, sent out all the youth of Italy, that, with a most flourishing and numerous army, we should send an embassy at last for peace ? and must I bear a part in that embassy, or assist in that council, where, if I differ from the rest, the people of Rome can never know it ? so that what- ever concessions are made to Antony, or whatever mischief he may do hereafter, it must be at the hazard of my credit." He then shows, " that it an embassy must needs be sent, he, of all men, was the most improper to be employed in it : that he had ever been against any embassy ; was the mover of their taking the habit of war ; was always for the severest proceedings both against Antony and his associates : that all that party looked upon him as prejudiced ; and Antony would be offended at the sight of him '. That if they did not trouble themselves how Antony might take it, he begged them at least to spare him the pain of seeing Antony, which he should never be able to bear : who, in a speech lately to his parricides, when he was distri- buting rewards to the boldest of them, had promised Cicero's estate to Petissius : that he should never endure the sight of L. Antony, whose cruelty he could not have escaped, but by the defence of his walls and gates, and the zeal of his native town : that though he might be able to command himself, and dissemble his uneasiness at the sight of Antony and his crew, yet some regard should be had to his life, — not that he set any value upon it himself, but it ought not to be thought despicable by the senate and people of Rome : since, if he did not deceive himself, it was he who, by his watchings, cares, and votes, had managed matters so that all the attempts of their enemies had not hitherto been able to do them any harme. That if his life had been oft attempted at home, where the fidelity of his friends and the eyes of all Rome were his guard, what might he not apprehend from so long a journey .' that there were three roads from Rome to Modena, the Fla- minian, along the upper sea; the Aurelian, along th e lower ; the Cassian , in the middle : that they ^> PhiLxii. 3. » Ibid. B, t Xbid. 7 « Ibid. 4. ' Ibid. 6. I Ibid, a were all of them beset by Antony's allies, his ovra utter enemies ; the Cassian, by Lento ; the Flami- nian, by Ventidius ; the Aurelian, by the whole Clodian family'. That he would stay therefore in the city, if the senate would give leave, which was his proper seat, his watch, and station : that others might enjoy camps, kingdoms, military command^ ; he would take care of the city and* the affairs at home, in partnership with them ; that he did not refuse the charge, but it was the people who refused it for him : for no man was less timorous, though none more cautious than he. TJhat a statesman ought to leave behind him a reputation of glory in dying ; not the reproach of error and folly. Who (says he) does not bewail the death of Treboaius ^ yet there are some who say, though itis hard indeed to say it, that he is the less to be pitied for not keeping a better guard against a base and detestable villain : for wise men tell us, that he who professes to guard the lives of others ought, in the £rst place, to keep a guard upon his own'. That if he should bappen to escape all the snares of the road, that Antony's rage was so furious that he would never suffer Mm to return alive from the congress. That when he was a young volunteer in the wars of ^ly, he was present at a conference of Cn. Pompey, .-the consul, and P. Vettius, the general of the Marsi, held between the two camps 4 there was no fear, no suspicion, nor any violent hatred on either side : that there/was an interview likewise between Sylla and Sdpio, in their civil wars, where, though faith was not strictly observed, yet no violence was offered''. But the case was different in treating with Antony, where, if others could be safe, he at least could not: that Antony would never' come into their camp, much Jess they into his : that if they transacted affairs by letter, his opinion would always be one and the same, — to reduce everything to the will of the senate ; that this would be misre- presented to the veterans as severe and perverse, and might excite them perhaps to some violence. Let my life, therefore, (says he,) be reserved to the service of my country as loiig as either dignity or nature will allow : let my death ffell by the necessary course pf fate ; or, if I must meet it sooner, let me meet it with glory. Since the republic then, to speak the most moderately, has no occasion for this embassy, yet, if I can undertake 'it with safety, I will go ; and in this whole affair will govern myself entirely, fathers, not by a regard to my own danger, but to the service of the state ; and, after the most mature deliberation, will resolve to do that which I shall judge to be most useful to the public interest." Though he did not absolutely refuse the employ- ment, yet he dissuaded it so strongly that the thing was wholly dropped ; and Pansa, about the end of the month, marched away towards Gaul, at the bead of his new-raised army, in order to join Hirtius and Octavius, and withouti farther delay to attempt a decisive battle with Antony for the delivery of B> Brutus. Antony, at the same time,, while he was perplex- ing the counsels of the senate by the intrigues of his friends, was endeavouring also by his letters to shake the resolution of Hirtius and Octavius, and draw them off'from the cause which they were now serving ; but their answers seem to have been short and firm, refer ring him constantly to th e authority >> Phil. xii. S). > Ibid. IC. If Ibid. 11. MARCUS TULLIUS CICEEO. 263 of the senate : yet, as things were now drawing towards a crisis, he made one effort more upon them ; and in the following expostulatory letter reproached them with great freedom for deserting their true interest, and suffering themselves to be duped and drawn in by Cicero to revive the Pom- peian cause, and establish a power which in t^e end would destroy them. Anionius to Hirtius and Ctcsar. " Upon the news of Trebonius's death, I was equally affected both with joy and with grief. It was matter of real joy to me to see a villain suffer the vengeance due to the ashes of the most ' illus- trious (S men ; and that vrithin the circle of the cur- rent year the divine providence has displayed itself by the punjshment of parricide, inflicted ateady on some, and ready to fall upon the rest. But on the other hand, it is a subject of just grief to me that Dolabella should be declared an enemy because he has killed a murderer ; and that the son of a buffoon should be dearer to the people of Rome than Caesar, the father of his country : but the cruellest reflec- tion C)f all is, that you, Hirtius, covered with Csesai-'s favours, and left by him in a condition which you yourself wonder at, and you too, young man, who owe everything to his name, are doirig all which is in your power that Dolat)ella may T)e thought justly condemned ; that this wretch be delivered from the siege ; and Cassius and Brutus be invested with all power. You look upon the present state of things as people did upon the past, call Pompey's camp the senate ; have made the vanquished Cicero yoiir captain ; are strengthening Macedoiiia with armies ; have .given Africa to Varus, twice a prisoner ; have sent Cassius into Syria ; suffered Casca to act as tribune ; suppressed the revenues of the Julian Jjuperci ; abolished the colonies of veterans, estab- Ji^hed by law and the decree of the senate; promise to restore to the people of Marseilles what was taken from them by right of war ; forget that a Pompeian was made incapable of any dignity by Hirtins's law ; have supplied Brutus with Appuleius's money ; aipplauded the putting to death Pectus and Mene- demus, Ceesar's friends, whom he made free of the city ; took no notice of Theopompus, when stripped and banished by Trebonius he fled to Alexandria : you see Ser. Galba in your camp, armed with the same poniard with which he stabbed Csesar ; have enlisted my soldiers and other veterans on pretence of destroying those who killed Csesar, and then em- ploy them, before they know what they are doing, against their quaestor, or their general, or their comrades. What have you not done which Pompey himself, were he, alive, or his son, if he could, would not, do.' In short, you deny that any peace can be made, unless I set Brutus at liberty, or supply him with provisions : can this please those veterans who have not yet declared themselves ? for as to your part, you have sold yourselves to the flatteries and poisoned honours of the Senate. But you come, you say, to preserve the troops which are besieged. I am not against their being saved, or going wherever you please, if they will but leave him to perish who has deserved it. You write me word, that the men- tion of cpncord has been revived in the senate, aiid five consular ambassadors appointed : it is hard to beheve that those who have driven me to this extre- mity, when I offered the fairest conditions, and was willing to remit some part of them^ should do anything with moderation or humanity : nor is it probable that the same men, who voted Dolabella an enemy for a most laudable act, can ever forgive me, who am in the same sentiments with hiiH. Wherefore it is your business to reflect which of the two is the more eligible or more useful to our com- mon interest ; to revenge the death of Trebonius, or of Csesar : and which the more equitable j for us to act against each other, that the Pompeian cause, so often defeated, may recover itself ; or to join our forces, lest we become at lait the sport of our ene- mies ; who, which of us soever may happen to fall, are sure to be the gainers. But fortune has hithei-to prevented that spectacle ; unwilling to see two armies, like members of the same body, fighting against each other, and Cicei-o all the while, like a master of gladiators, matching Us, and ordering the combat ; who is so far happy, as to have caught you vrith the same bait with which he brags to have caught Csesar. For my'part, I am resolved to suffer no affront either to myself or my friends ; nor to desert the party which Pompey hated ; nor to see the veterans driven out of their possessions, and dragged one by one to the rack ; nor to break my word with Dolabella ; nor to violate my league with Lepidus, a most religious man ; nortobetrayPlancus, the partner of all my counsels. If the immortal gods support me, as I hope they will, in the pursuit of so good a cause, I shall live vrith pleasurej but if any other fate expects me, I taste a joy however beforehand in the sure foresight of your 'punish- ment : for if the Pompeians are so insolent when conquered, how much more they will be so when conquerors, it will be your lot to feel. In a word, this is the sum of my resolution : I can forgive the injuries of my friends, if'they themselves are dis- posed either to forget them, or prepared in conjunc- tion with me to revenge the death of Csesar. I cannot believe that any ainbassadors will come ; when they do, I shall' know what they have to de- mand'." Hirtius and Csesar, instead of answering this letter, sent it directly to Cicero at Rome, to make what use of it he thought fit with the senate or the people. In tliis interval Lepidus wrote a public letter to the senate, to exhort them to measures of peace and to save the effusion of civil blood, by contriv- ing some way of reconciling Antony and his friends to the service of their couiitry, without giving the least intimation ofhis thanks for the public honours which they had lately decreed to him. This was not at all agreeable to the senate, and confirmed their former jealousy of his disaffection to the republic and good understanding with Antony. They agreed, however, to a vote proposed by Serviliiis, ** that Lepidus should be thanked for his love of peace and care of the citizens, yet should be desired not to trouble himself any further about it, but to leave that affair to them, who thought that there could be no peace unless Antony should lay down his arms and sue for it." This letter gave Antony's friends a fresh handle to renew their instances for a treaty, for the sake of obliging Lepidus, who had it in his power, they said, to force them to it ; which put Cicero once mOre to the trouble of confuting' and exposing all their arguments. He told them, "that he was ever > riiil. liii. II), &c. 264 THE HISTORY OF THB LIFE OF afraid from the first lest an insidious offer of peace should damp the common zeal for the recovery of their liberty. That whoever delighted in discord, and the blood of citizens, ought to be expelled from the society of human-kind ; yet it was to be considered whether there were not some wars wholly inexpiable, where no peace could be made, and where a treaty of peace was but a stipulation of slavery". That the war now on foot was of ■ this sort, undertaken against a set of men who were natural enemies to society, whose only plea- sure it was to oppress, plunder, and murder their fellow-creatures, — and to restore such to the city was to destroy the city itself". That they ought to remember what decrees they had already made against them, such as had never been made against a foreign enemy or any with whom there could be peace. That since wisdom as well as fortitude was expected from men of their rank, though these indeed could hardly be separated, yet he was wil- ling to consider them separately and follow what wisdom the more cautious and guarded of the two prescribed. If wisdom then (says he) should com- mand me to hold nothing so dear as life, to decree nothing at the hazard of my head, to avoid all danger, though slavery was sure to be the conse- quence, 1 would reject that wisdom be it ever so learned ; but if it teaches us to preserve our lives, our fortunes, our families, yet so as to think them inferior to liberty, to wish to enjoy them no longer than we can do it in a free republic, not to part with our liberty for them, but to throw them all away for liberty, as exposing us only to . greater mischief without it, I would then listen to her voice and obey her as a god". That no man had a greater respect for Lepidus than himself; and though there had been an old friendship between them, yet he valued him not so much for that as his services to the public, in prevailing with young Pompey to lay down his arms and free his country from the misery of a cruel war. That the republic had many pledges of fidelity from Lepidus, — his great nobiUty, great honours, high priesthood ; many parts of the city adorned by him and his ancestors j his wife, children, great fortunes, pure from any taint of civil blood j no citizen ever hurt, many preserved by him, — that such a man might err lin judgment, but could never wilfully be an enemy to his country. That his desire of peace was laudable if he could make such a peace for them now as when he restored Pompey to them. That for this they had decreed him greater honours than had been given before to any man, — a statue with a splendid inscription, and a triumph even in absence'. That by good fortune they had managed matters so that Pompey's return might consist with the validity of Caesar's acts, which for the sake of peace they had confirmed ; since they had decreed to Pompey the five millions and half which was raised by the sale of his estates, to enable him to buy them again. He desired that the task of replacing him in the possessions of his ancestors might be committed to him for his old friendship with his father. That it should be his first care to nominate him an augur, and repay the same favour to the son which he himself received from the father<. That those who had seen him lately " Phil. xiii. 1. •> Ibid. 3. H 'Jbid. 6. ■» Ibid. 2. p Ibid. 4. at Marseilles brought word that he was ready to come with his troops to the relief of Modena, but that he was afraid of giving oifence to the veterans; which showed him to be the true son of that father who used to act with as much prudence as courage. That it was Lepidus's business to take care not to be thought to act with more arrogance than became him : that if he meant to frighten them with his army, he should remember that it was the army of the senate and people of Rome, not his own'. That if he interposed bis authority without arms, that was indeed the more laudable, but would hardly be thought necessary. For though his authority was as great with them as that of the noblest citizen ought to be, yet the senate was not unmindful of their own dignity ; and there never was a graver, firmer, stouter senate than the pre- sent. That they were all so incensed against the enemies of their liberty, that no man's authority could repress their ardour or extort their arms from them. That they hoped the best, but would rather suffer the worst than live slaves'. That there was no danger to be apprehended from Le- pidus, since he could not enjoy the splendour of his own fortunes but with the safety of all honest men. That nature first makes men honest, but fortune confirms them ; for though it was the common interest of all to promote the safety of the public, yet it was more particularly of those who were happy in their fortunes. That nobody was more so than Lepidus, and nobody therefore better disposed ; of which the people saw a re- markable instance, in the concern which he ex- pressed when Antony offered a diadem to Caesar, and chose to be his slave rather than his colleague; for which single act, if he had been guilty of nothing else, he had richly deserved the worst punishment."' Then after inveighing, as usual, against Antony through several pages, he declared all thoughts of peace vrith him to be vain, and for a fresh proof of it produced his last letter to Hirtius and Octavius, and read it publicly to the assembly. " Not that he thought it worth reading," he says, " but to let them see his traitorous views openly avowed and confessed by himself." He read it to them paragraph by paragraph, vrith his own comment and remarks upon it ; rallying all along, with great wit and spirit, "the rage, the extravagance, the inconsistency, the folly, and the inaccuracy of each sentence." On the whole, he says, " that if Lepidus had seen it he would nei- ther have advised or thought any peace with him possible. That fire and water would sooner unite than the Antonys be reconciled to the republic That the first and best thing therefore was to con- quer, — the second to decUne no danger for the liberty of their country ; that there was no third thing, — but the last and worst of all, to submit to the utmost baseness through a desire of Uving." For which reasons he declared his concurrence with ServiUus in the vote upon Lepidus's letters, and proposed an additional decree, either to be joined to the other or published separately, "I'hat Pompey the Great, the son of Cnseus, in offering his service and his troops to the senate and people of Rome, had acted agreeably to the courage and zeal of his father and ancestors, and to his own virtue, industry, and good disposition to the Jg; "■ Phil. xiii. 6. ' Ibid, 8. > Ibid. 7, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 265 public ; and that the thing was grateful and acceptable to the senate and people, and would hereafter be an honour to himself." After the debate, which ended as Cicero wished, he sent the following short letter to Lepidus, which, by the coldness and negligence with which it is drawn, seems to he designed - to let Lepidus see that they were perfectly easy and secure at Rome, whatever measures he might think fit to take. Cicero to Lepidus. " While, out of the great respect which I bear to yon, I am making it my particular care to advance your dignity as much as possible, it was a concern to me to see that you did not think it worth while to return yohr thanks to the senate for the extraor- dinary honours which they have lately conferred upon you. I rejoice, however, that you are so desirous of making peace among citizens. If you can separate that peace from slavery, you will con- sult both the good of the republic and your own dignity ; but if the effect of it be to restore a des- perate man to an arbitrary dominion, I would have you to know that all men of sense have taken a resolution to prefer death to servitude. You will act more wisdy, therefore, in my judgment, if you meddle no farther with that affair of peace, • — which is not agreeable either to the senate or the people, or to any honest man : but you will hear enough of this from others or be informed of it by letters, and will be directed by your own prudence what is the best for you to do. " " Flaucus too, who commanded in Gaul, and now resided near Lyons, at the hea4 of a brave army, enforced Lepidus's advice by a letter likewise to the senate on the same subject of peace, — to which Cicero wrote the following answer : — Cicero to Plancus. " The account which our friend Fumius brought of your affection to the republic was highly agree- able both to the senate and people of Rome ; but your letter, when read in the senate, did not seem to agree with Furnius's report : for you advised us to peace, when your colleague, a man of the greatest eminence, was besieged by most infamous plunderers, who ought 'fiither to sue for peace by laying down their arms, or if they demand it with sword in hand, it must be procured by victory, not treaty. But in what manner your letters, as well as Lepidus's also, were received, you will under- stand from that excellent man your brother, and from Fumius," &c.^ C. Antony, whom we mentioned above to have retreated with seven cohorts to Apollonia, not daring to wait for Brutus's arrival, who was now advancing towards him, marched out to Buthrotum to seek his fortune elsewhere, in quarters more secure and remote : but being overtaken and at- tacked on his march by a part of Brutus's army, he lost three of his cohorts in the action, — and in a second engagement with another body of troops, which young Cicero commanded, was entirely routed and taken prisoner ; which made Brutus absolute master of the country without any farther opposition^. This fresh success gave occasion for a sec ond letter from Brutus to the senate, of which » Bp. Fam. x. 27. '^ Ibid. 6. 7 Plut. in Brut Cicero makes the following mention : " Your letter," says he, " which was read in the senate, shows the counsel of the general, the virtue of your soldiers, the industry of your officers, and in par- ticular of my Cicero. If your friends had been willing to move the senate upon it, and if it had not fallen into most turbulent times, since the de- parture of Pansa, some just and proper honour would ha've been decreed for it to the gods. "^ The taking C. Antony prisoner put Brutus under some difficulty in what manner he should treat him. If he set him at liberty, to which he was inclined, he had reason to apprehend fresh trouble from him, both to himself and the republic ; if he kept him prisoner in his camp, he was afraid lest some sedition might be raised, on his account and by his intrigues, in his own army, or if he put liim to death that it would be thought an act of cruelty, which his nature abhorred. He consulted Cicero, therefore, upon it by letter. " C. Antony," say^ he, " is still with me ; but in truth I am moved with the prayers of the man, and afraid lest the madness of some should make him the occasion of mischief to me. I am wholly at a loss what to do with him. If I kney your mind I should be at ease ; for I should think that the best which you advised. " " Cicero's advice was to keep him under a safe guard till they knew the fate of D. Brutus inModena.'' Brutus, however, treated him with great lenity, and seemed much disposed to give him his liberty ; for which purpose he not only wrote to the senate about it himself, but permitted Antony to write too, and with the style of procon- sul, which surprised and shocked all his friends at Rome, and especially Cicero, who expostulates with him for it in the following terms : — " On the thirteenth of April (says he) your messenger Pilus brought us two letters, the one in your name the other in Antony's, and gave them to Servilius the tribune, he to Cornutus the praetor. They were read in the senate. Antony proconsul raised as much wonder as if it had been Dolabella emperor, from whom also there came an express, but nobody, like your Pilus, was so hardy as to produce the letters or deliver them to the magis- trates. Your letter was read ; short indeed, but extremely mild towards Antony : the senate was amazed at it. For my part I did not know how to act. Should 1 affirm it to be forged .' What if you should own it ? Should I admit it to be genuine ? that was not for your honour. I chose therefore to be silent that day. On the next, when the affair had made some noise, and Pilus's carriage had given offence, I began the debate, said much of proconsul Antony ; Sextius performed his part, and observed to me afterwards in private what danger his son and mine would be liable to * TuSE literse, quae in senatu recitata; sunt, et impe- ratoris consiliuta et militum vlrtutem, et industriaju tTiorum, in quibus Ciceronis mei declarant. Quod si tuis placuisset de his Uteris referri, et nisi in tempus tur- bulentissimum post discessuia Panes inoidissent, honos quoque Justus ac debitus diis immortalibus decretus esset. —Ad Brut. ii. 7. a Antonius adhuc est nobisnum : Bed medius iidius et moveor bominis precibua, et timeo ne ilium aliquorum furor excipiat. Plane aestuo. Quod ei soiiem quid tibi plaeeret, pine sollioitudine essem. Id enim optimum esse persuasum esset mihi. — Ad Brut. ii. 5, 1> Quod mo de Antonio consulis ; quoad Bruti exitum cognoFimus, custodiendum puto. — ^Ibid. 4, 266 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF if they had really taken np arms against a proconsul. You know the man ; he did justice to the cause. Others also spoke ; but our friend Labeo took notice that your seal was not put to the letter, nor any date added, nor had you written about it, as usual, to your friends, — ^from which he maintained the letter to be forged ; and, in short, convinced the house of it. Jt is now your part, Brutus, to consider the whole state and nature of the war : you are delighted, I perceive, with lenity, and think it the best way of proceeding. This iudeed is generally right, but the proper place of clemency is in cases and seasons very different from the present : for what are we doing now, Brutus ? we see a needy and desperate crew threatening the very temples of the gods, and that the war must necessarily decide whether we are to live or not. Who is it then whom we are sparing, or what is it that we mean ? Are we consulting the safety of those who, if they get the better, are sure not to leave the least remains of us ■' For what difference is there between Dolabella and any one of the three Antonys ? If we spare any of these, we have been too severe to DolabeUa, It was owing chiefly to my advice and authority that the senate and people are in this way of thinking, though the thing itself indeed also obliged them to it. If you do not approve this policy I shall defend your oginion, but cannot depart from my ovra : the world expects from you nothing either remiss or cruel. It is easy to moderate the matter by se- verity to the leaders, generosity to the soldiers. "' Cicero had now done everything that human prudence could do, towards the recovery of the republic ; for all that vigour with which it was making this last effort for itself was entirely owing to his counsels and authority. As Antony was the most immediate and desperate enemy who threat- ened it, so he had armed against him the whole strength of Italy, and raised up a force sufficient to oppress him. Young Octavius, next to Antony, was the most formidable to the friends of liberty ; but from the contrast of their personal interests, and their jealousy of each other's views, Cicero managed the qpportuuity to employ the one to the ruin of the other ; yet so as to provide at the same time against any present danger from Octavius, by throwing a superiority of power into the hands of the consuls, whom, from being the late ministers of Caesar's tyranny, he had gained over to the interests of liberty. But besides the difficulties which he had to struggle with at home, in bringing matters to this point, he had greater discourage- ments abroad, from the commanders qf the several provinces : they were all promoted to those go- vernments by Caesar, the proper creature^ of his power, and the abettors of his tyranny'', and were now full of hopes, either of advancing themselves to dominion, or to a share of it at least, by espous- ing the cause of some more powerful pretender. Men of this turn, at the head of great and veteran armies, could not easily be persuaded to submit to a senate which they had been taught to despise, or to reduce the military power, which had long governed all, to a dependence on the civil. Yet Cicero omitted no pains of exhorting them by letters, and inviting them "by honours, to prefer <: Ad Brut. ii. 7. ^ Tides tyranni satellites in iraperiis: videa ejusdem cxercitus in latere veteranos. — Ad Att. xiv. 5. the glory of saving their country to all other views whatsoever. Those whom he most distrusted, and for that reason most particularly pressed, were Lepidus, Pollio, and Plancus, who, by the strength of their armies, and their possession of Gaul and Spain, were the best qualified to serve or distress the republican cause. He had little hopes of the two first, yet managed them so well, by represent- ing the strength of the honest party, the unanimity of the senate, of the consuls, and all Italy, that he forced them at least to dissemble their disaffection, and make great professions of their duty; and above all, to stand neuter tiU the affairs of Italy were decided, on which the fate of the republi* seemed chiefly to depend. Nay, he seems to have drawn Plancus entirely into bis measures — as appears from his account of him toBrutus^, and from Plancus's own letters, in which he gives the strongest assurances of his fidelity, and offers to lead his troops to the relief of Modena, and was actually upon his march towards it, when he heard upon the road of Antony's defeat. — Not long before which, Cicero sent him the following letter Cicero lo Plancus. "Though I understood, from the account of our friend Furnius, what your design and resolution was, with regard to the republic, yet, after reading your letters, I was able to form a clearer judgment of your whole purpose. Wherefore, though the fate of the commonwealth depends wholly on one battle, which wiU be decided, I believe, when you are reading this letter, yet you have acquired great applause by the very fame, which was everywhere spread, of your good intentions ; and if there bad been a consul at Rome, the senate, by decreeing some considerable honour to you, would have de- clared how acceptable your endeavours and prepa- rations were. But that time is not only not yet past, but was not in my judgment even ripe ; for after all, that alone passes with me for honour which is conferred on great men, not for the hopes of future, but the experience of past services. If, then, there be any republic ,in which honour can have its proper lustre, take my word for it, you shall have your share of the greatest ; though that which can truly be called honour is not an invita- tion to a temporary, but the reward of an habitual virtue. Wherefore, my dear Plancus, turn your whole thoughts towards glory — help your country — fly to the relief of your colleague — support this wonderful consent and concurrence of all nations : you will ever find me the promoter of your coun- sels, the favourer of your dignity, and on all occa- sions most friendly and faithful to you : for to all the other motives of our union, our mutual affec- tion, good offices, old acquaintance, the love of our country, which is now added, makes me prefer your life to my own Mar. 29th'." Plancus in the mean time sent a second letter to the senate, to assure them of his zeal and resolu- tion to adhere to them, and to acquaint them viith the steps which he had already taken for their service ; upon which they decreed him some extra- ordinary honours, at the motion of Cicero, who sent him the following account of it. « Planci animum in rempublicam egregium, legionefl, auxilia, copias ex literis ejus, quorum exempUim tibi missum arbitror, perspicere potuisti.— Ad Brut. ii. i' ^ Ep. Fam. X. 10. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 267 Cicero to Plancus. "TJiough, out of regard to the republic, my greatest joy ought to be for your bringing such relief and help to it, in a time almost of extremity, yet may I so embrace you after victory and the recovery of our liberty, as it is yolir dignity that gives me the chief part of my pleasure, which aheady is, and ever will be, I perceive, as great as possible. For I would not have you think that any letters were ever read in the senate of greater weight than yours, both for the eminent merit of your services, and the gravity of your words and sentiments, which was not at all new to me, who was so well acquainted with you, and remembered the promises of your letters to me, and understood the whole purpose of your counsels from our Furnius ; but they appeared greater to the senate than was expected ; not that they ever had any doubt of your inclinations, but did not fully understand how much you were able to do, or how far you would expose yourself in the cause. When M. Varisidius, therefore, brought me your letters very early, on the 7th of April, I was transported with joy upon reading them ; and as a great multitude of.excellent citizens were then waiting to attend my going abroad, 1 instantly gave them all a part of my pleasure. In the mean while our friend Munatius, according to custom, came to join me : I presently showed him your letter, of which he knew nothing before ; for Varisidius came first to me, as you, he said, had ordered him : soon after, the same Munatius returned to me with the other two letters ; that which you had sent to him, and that to the senate : we resolved to carry the last -directly to the .praetor, Cornutus,who, by the custom of our ancestors, supplies the place of the consuls in their absence. The senate was immediately called; and, upon the fame and expectation of your letters, made up a full house. After they were read, a scruple of religion was objected to Corautus, from the report of the guardians of the chickens, that he had not ' duly consulted the auspices, which was confirmed likewise by our college; so that the affair was adjourned to the next day. On that day I had a great contest about- your dignity with Servilius, who procured by his interest .to have his opinion declared the first ; but the senate left him, and all went the contrary way : but when they were coming into my opinion, which was delivered the second, the tribune' Titius, at his request, interposed his negative ; and so the debate was put off again to the day following. Servilius came prepared to support his opposition, |i}iough against Jupiter himself, in whose temple ■the thing passed. In what manner I handled him, and what a struggle I ihad to throw off Titius's negative, I would hav£ you learn rather from other people's letters: take this, however, from mine, that the senate could not possibly act vrith more gravity, firmness, aud regard to your honour, than it did on this occasion ; nor is the senate more friendly to you than the whole city ; for the body of the people, and all ranks and orders of men, are wonderfully united in the defence of the repubUc. Go on, therefore, as you have begun, and recommend your name to immortality ; and for all these things, which, from the vain badges of outward splendour, carry a show of glory, despise them; look upon them as trifling, transitory, perishing. Trae honour is placed singly in virtue, which is illustrated with most advantage by great services to our country. You have the best oppor- tunity for this in the world ; which, since you have embraced, persevere, and go through with it, that the republic may not owe less to you than you to the republic. You wiU find me not only the favourer, but the advancer of your dignity : this I take myself to owe, both to the republic, which is dearer to me than iny life, and to our friendship, &c. — April the eleventh^." Plancus answered hita, not long after, to the following effect. Plancus to Cicero. " It is a pleasure to me to reflect that I have never promised anything rashly of myself to you ; nor you, for me to others. In this you have the clearer proof of my love, that I desire to make you acquainted with my designs before any man else. Tou already see, I hope, that my services to the public will grow greater every day : I promise that you shall soon be convinced of it. As for me, my dear Cicero, may the republic be so delivered by my help from its present dangers, as I esteem your honours and rewards equal to an immortality ; yet were I still without them, I would remit nothing of my present zeal and perseverance. If, in the multitude of excellent citizens, I do not distinguisli myself by a singular vigour and industry, I desire no accession to my dignity from your favour ; but, in truth, I desire nothing at all for myself at pre- sent ; nay, am even against it, and willingly make you the arbiter both of the time and the thing itself : a citizen can think nothing late or little, which is given by his country. I passed the Rhone with my army by great journeys, on the 26th of April ; sent a thousand horse before me by a shorter way from Vienna. As for myself, if I am not hindered by Lepidus, none shall complain of my want of expedition. If he opposes me on my road, I shall take my measures from the occasion. The troops, which I bring are, for number, kind, and fidelity, extremely firm. I beg the continuance of your affection, as long as you find yourself assured of mine. Adieu^." Pollio likewise, who now commanded the farther Spain, with three good legions, thougli he was An- tony's particular friend, yet made the strongest pro- fessions to Cicero of his resolution to defend the republic against all invaders. In one of his letters, after excusing himself for not having written earlier and oftener, he says : " Both iny nature and studies draw me to the desire of peace and liberty ; for which reason X always lamented the occasion of the late war : but as it was not possible for me to be of no party, because I had great enemies everywhere, I ran from that camp where I could not be safe from the treachery of an enemy, and being driven whither I least desired, freely exposed myself to dangers, that I might not make a contemptible figure among those of my rank. As for Caesar himself, I loved him with the utmost piety and fidelity, because he treated me on the foot of his oldest friends, though known to him only in the height of his fortunes. When I was at liberty to act after my own mind, I acted so that the best men should most applaud me : what I was cora- s ;Ep. Fam. x. ]2. k Ep. Fam. x. 9 208 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFB OF manded to do, I did so as to show that it was done by command, and not by inclination. The unjust odium which I suffered on that account has suffi- ciently convinced me how sweet a thing liberty is, and how wretched is life under the dominion of another. If the contest then he, to bring us all again under the power of one : whoever that one be, I profess myself his enemy ; nor is there any danger which I would decline, or wish to avoid, for the sake of liberty. But the consuls have not, either by decree or letters, given me any orders what to do. I have had but one letter from Pansa since the ides of March, in which he exhorts me to signify to the senate that I and my army would be in their power ; but when Lepidus was declaring openly to his army, and writing to every- body, that he was in the same sentiments with Antony, that step would have been wholly absurd and improper for me ; for how could I get forage for my troops against his will, in marching through his province .'' or If I had surmounted all other difficulties, could I fly over the Alps, which were possessed by his garrisons ? Nobody will deny that I declared publicly to my soldiers, atCorduba, that I would not deliver the province to any man, unless he were commissioned by the senate. — • Wherefore you are to look upon me as one, who, in the first place, am extremely desirous of peace, 4nd the safety of all the citizens ; in the second, prepared to assert my own and my country's liberty. I am more pleased than you can imagine that ray friend Gallus is so dear to you ; I envy him for walking and joking with you : you will ask, perhaps, at what rate I value that privilege : you shall know by experience, if ever it be in our power to live in quiet ; for I will never stir one step from you. I am surprised that you never signified in your letters how I should be able to do the most service, by staying in the province, or bringing my aimy into Italy. For my part, though to stay be more safe, and less troublesome, yet, since I see, that in such a time as this there is more want of legions than of provinces, which may easily be recovered, I am resolved, as things now stand, to come away with my army. — From Corduba, the filteenth of March'." There are several letters, also still extant, writ- ten at this time from Cicero to Comificius, who governed Africa, exhortuig him in the same man- ner to firmness in the defence of the republic, and to guard his province from all invaders who should attempt to extort it from him ; and this man, after all, was the only commander who kept his word with him, and performed his part to his country, and lost his life at last in maintaining that province in its allegiance to the republic''. P. Servilius, who has often been mentioned in the debates of the senate, was a person of great rank and nobility ; had been consul with J. Csesar, in the beginning of the civil war ; the son of that Servilius, who, by his conquests near mount Taurus, obtained the surname of Isauricus. He affected the character of a patriot ; but having had a par- ticular friendship with Antony, was much courted by that party, who took the advantage of his vanity, to set him up as a rival to Cicero in the management of public affairs, in which he frequently obstructed Cicero's measures, a nd took a pride to ' Ep. Fam. x. 31. _ ii Ep. Fam. xii. 24, &c. ; App. iv. 621 : Dio, xlviii. 30?. thwart and disappoint whatever he proposed : Cicero had long suffered this with patience, out of regard to the public service, till, provoked by his late opposition in the affair of Plancas, he could not forbear treating him with an unusual severity and resentment, of which he gives an account in a letter to Brutus. Cicero to Brutus. " From Plancus's letters, of which a copy, I imagine, has been sent to you, you will perceive his excellent disposition towards the repubHc, with the condition of his legions, auxiliaries, and whole forces. Your own people have informed you, I guess, by this time, of the levity, inconstancy, and perpetual disaffection of your friend Lepidus ; who, next to his own brother, hates you, his near rela- tions, the most. We are anxious with an expec- tation which is now reduced to the last crisis ; all our hopes are fixed on the delivery of D. Brutas ; for whom we have been in great apprehension. For my part, I have business enough on my hands at home with the madman Servilius, whom I have endured longer than became my dignity ; but 1 did it for the sake of the republic, lest I should give the dLsaffected a leader not well affected indeed himself, yet noble to resort to, which nevertheless they still do. But I was not for alienatiag him wholly from the republic ; I have now put an end to my forbearance of him, for he began to be so insolent that he looked upon no man as free. But in Plancus's debate he was strangely mortified ; and after two days' contest was so roughly handled by me, that he will be the modester, I dare say, for the future. In the midst of our contention on the nineteenth of April, I had letters delivered to me in the senate from our friend Lentulus in Asia, with an account of Cassius, the legions, and Syria, which when I read presently in public, Servilias sunk, and many more besides ; for there are some of eminent rank who think most wickedly : but Servilius was most sensibly chagrined, for the senate's agreeing to my motion about Plancus. The part v/hich he acts is monstrous'." The news which is mentioned in this letter to have been sent by Lentulus, of Cassius' success, was soon after confirmed by particular letters to Cicero, from Brutus and Cassius themselves ; sig- nifying, " that Cassius had possessed himself of Syria before DolabeUa had arrived there : that the generals, L. Marcus and Q. Crispus had given up their armies to him ; that a separate legion under CsBcilius Bassus had submitted to him against the will of their leader : that four other legions, sent by Cleopatra from Egypt, to the assistance of Dolabella, under his lieutenant Allienus, had all declared for him:" and lest the first letter should miscarry, as they often did, from such a distance, by passing through the enemy's quarters, Cassius sent him a second, with a more full and distinct account of all particulars. Cassius, Proconsul, to his friend M. Cicero. " If you are in health, it is a pleasure to me ; I am also very well. I have read your letter in which I perceived your wonderful affection for me ; for you not only wish me well, which indeed you ha»e a lways done, both for my own sa ke and the • Ad Brut. ii. 2. MARCUS TIJLLIUS CICERO. 269 republic's, but entertain an uncommon concern and solicitude for me. Wherefore, as I imagined, in the first place, that you would think it impossible for me to sit still and see the republic oppressed ; and in the second, that whenever you supposed me to be in action, you would be solicitous about my safety and success ; so, as soon as I was master of the legions which Allienus brought from Egypt, I immediately wrote to you, and sent several ex- presses to Rome : I wrote letters also to the senate, but forbade the delivery of them till they had been first shown to you. If these letters have not reached you, I make no doubt but that Dolabella, who, by the wicked murder of Trebonius, is mas- ter of Asia, has seized my messengers and inter- cepted them. I have all the armies which were in Syria under my command j and having been forced to sit still awhile, till I had discharged my pro- mises to them, am now ready to take the field. I beg of you to take my honour and interests under your especial care : for you know that I have never refused any danger or labour for the service of my country : that by your advice and authority 1 took arms against these infamous robbers : that I have not only raised armies for the defence of the repub- lic and our liberty, but have snatched them from the bands of the most cruel tyrants ; which if Do- labella liad seized before me, he would have given fresh spirit to .Antony's cause, not only by the approach, but by the very fame and expectation of his troops : for which reasons take my soldiers, I beseech you, under your protection, if you think them to have deserved well of the state ; and let none of them have reason to repent that they have preferred the cause of the republic to the hopes of plunder and rapine. Take care, also, as far as it is in your power, that due honour be paid to the emperors Murcus and Crispus : for Bassus was miserably unwilling to deliver up his legion ; and if his soldiers had not sent a deputation to me in spite of him, would have held out Apamea against me, till it could be taken by force. I beg this of you, not only for the sake of the republic, which of all things was ever the dearest to you, but of our friendship also, which I am confident has a great weight with you. Take my word for it, the army which I have is the senate's, and every honest man's, and above all, yours ; for by hearing perpe- tually of your good disposition, they have conceived a wonderful affection for you ; and when they come X> understand that you make their interests your special care, they will think themselves indebted to you for everything. Since I wrote this, I have heard that Dolabella is come into Cilicia with all his forces : I will follow him thither, and take care that you shall soon be informed of what I have done. I wish only that my success may be answer- able to my good intentions. Continue the care of your health and your love to me"." Brutus, who had sent tbis good news before to Cicero, as well as to his mother and sister 'Tertia, charged the latter not to make it public till they had first consulted Cicero, whether it was proper to do so or not". He was afraid lest the great prosperity of Cassius might give umbrage to the Caesarian party, and raise a jealousy in the leaders "■ Ep. Pam. xu. 12 ; it. ibid. 11. " E(jo scripsi ad Tertiam sororcm et mairem, ne prius ederent hoc, quod optime ao felicissime gessit Cassius, quain tuum consilium cognovissent. — Ad Brut. ii. 5. who were acting against Antony, that the repub- lican interest would grow too strong for them. But Cicero -sent him word, that the news was already known at Rome before his letters arrived ; and though there was some ground for his appre- hensions, yet on the whole they thought it more advisable to publish than to suppress it". Thus Cicero, as he declared to the senate by his letters, expresses, and exhortations, was perpe- tually exciting all who had power or command in any part of the empire, to the common defence of their libertyi' ; and for his pains, had all the rage and malice of the factious to struggle with at home. These were particularly troublesome to him at this time, by spreading false reports every day from Modena, of Antony's success, or what was more to be apprehended, of his union with the consuls against D. Brutus ; which raised such a terror through the city, that all honest men were prepar- ing to run away to Brutus or Cassius'. Cicero however was not disheartened at it, but in the gene- ral consternation appeared cheerful and easy ; and, as he sends word to Brutus, had a perfect confidence in the consuls, while' the majority of his friends distrusted them ; and from the number and firm- ness of their troops, had but little doubt of their victory, it ever they came to a battle with Antony'. But what touched him more sensibly was a story, kept up for some days with great industry, that he had formed a design to make himself master of the city and declare himself dictator ; and would appear publicly with the fasces within a day or two. The report, as groundless as it was, seems to have disturbed him ; but when Appuleius, the tribune, one of his warm friends, was taking pains to confute it, and justify him in a speech to the people, they all cried out with one voice, that Cicero had never done, nor designed to do any- thing, but what was the best and most beneficial to the republic' : this gave him some comfort ; but what brought him much greater was, the certain news of a victory gained over Antony at Modena, which arrived within a few hours after Appuleius's speech'. The siege of Modena, which lasted near four months, was one of the most memorable in all antiquity, for the vigour both of the attack and the defence. Antony had invested it so closely and ■ posted himself so advantageously, that no succours Video te veritum esse, id quod verendum fuit, ne animi partium Csesaris — vehementer commoverentur. Sed antequam tuas literas accepimus, audita res erat et per- vulgata. — Ad Brut. ii. 6. P Meiis Uteris, meis nunciis, meis cohortationitius, omnes, qui ubique essent, ad patriae prsesidium excltatos Phil. xiv. 7- 1 Triduo vero aut quatriduo — timore quodara perculsa civitas tota ad te se cum eonjugibus et liberis effundebat. —Ad Brut. 3 : Ep. Fnm. xii. 8. r Tristes enim de Bruto nostro literae, nunciique affere- bantur, me quidem non maxime conturbabant. His enim exercitibuB, ducibusque quos habemus, nuUo modo pote- ram diffidere, Neque assentiebar majori parti hominum. Fidcm enim consulum non condeninabam, quas ^uspecta vehementer erat. Desiderabam nonnuUis in rebus pru- dentiam et celeritatem — Ad Brut. ii. 1. 8 Itaque P. Appuleius — doloris mei concionem habuit maximam — in qua, cum me — liberare suspicione /ascium vellet ; una voce cuncta concio declaravit, nibil esse a me unquam de republica nisi optime cogitatum. — Phil. .civ. 6. * Post banc concionem duabus tribusve horis optatia- simi nuntii et literse venei-unt. — ^Ibid. 2/0 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF could be thrown into it; and Bnitus, . though reduced to the utmost straits, defended it still with the greatest resolution. The old writers hare recorded some stratagems which are said to have been put in practice on this occasion : " how Hir- tius provided men skilled in diving, with letters written on lead, to pass into the tower under the river which runs through it ; till Antony obstructed that passage by nets and straps placed under water ; which gave occasion to another contrivance, of sending their intelligence backwards and forwards by pigeons"." . Pansa was now upon the point of joining Hirtius with four legions of new levies, which he brought from Rome ; but when he was advanced within a few miles of Hirtius's camp, Antony privately drew out some of his best troops, with design to surprise him on the road before that union, and to draw him, if possible, to an engagement against his will. We have a particular account of the action, in a letter to Cicero from Ser. Galba, one of the conspirators against Caesar, who bore a principal part and command in it. Galba to Cicero. " On the fifteenth of April, the day on which Pansa was to arrive in Hirtius's camp, (in whose company I was, for I vrent a hundred miles to meet him, on purpose to hasten his march) Antony drew out two of his legions, the second and thirty- fifth, and two prsetorian cohorts ; the one his own, the other Silanus's, with part of the Evocati*, and came forward towards us, imagining that we had nothing but four legions of new levies. But in the night, to secure our march to the camp, Hirtius had sent us the Startial legion which I used to command, and two prsetorian cohorts. As soon as Antony's horse appeared in sight, neither the Martial legion nor the prsetorian cohorts could be restrained from attacking them ; so that when we could not hold them in, we were obliged to foUow them against our wills. Antony kept his forces within Castel-Franco? ; arid being unwilling to have it known that he had his legions with him, showed only his horse and light-armed foot. "When Pansa saw the Martial legion running forward against his orders, he commanded two of the new-raised legions to follow him. As soon as we got through the straits of the morass and the woods, we drew up the twelve cohorts in order of battle. The other two legions were not yet come up. Antony immediately brought all his troops out of the village ranged likewise in order of battle, and without delay engaged us. At first they fought so briskly on both sides, that nothing could possibly be fiercer : though the right wing, in which I was, with eight cohorts of the Martial legion, put An- tony's thirty-fifth legion to flight at the first onset, and pursued it above five hundred paces from the place where the action began ; wherefore observing ^ Frontin. De Stratagem, iii. 13 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. x. 37. Dio, p. 315. X The evocali were a choice Tjody of veteran soldiers, who, after their dismission from service, being yet vigorous and fit for war, were invited to it again, as a sort of volun- teers, by the consul or general, and distinguished from the rest by peculiar pHvileges. 7 Ad Forum Gallorum : now called Castel'Franco,s.am&i\ village on the JEmilian-way between Modena and Bologna. — Cluver. It.ll. Ant. 1. i. c. 28. the enemy's horse attempting to surround our wing, I began to retreat, and ordered the light- armed troops to make head against the Moorish horse, and prevent their coming upon us behind. In the meanwhile I perceived myself in the midst of Antony's men, and Antony himself but a little way behind me : upon which, with my shield thrown over my shoulder, I pushed on my horse with all speed towards the new legion that was coming to- wards us from the camp : and whilst Antony's men were pursuing me, and ours by mistake throwing javelins at me, I was preserved, I know not how, by being presently known to our soldiers. Caesar's praetorian cohort sustained the fight a long time on the .Smilian road : but our left wing, which was the weaker, consisting of two cohorts of the Martial legion, and the praetorian of Hirtius, began to give ground, being surrounded by Antony's horse, in which he is very strong. When all our ranks had made good their retreat, I retreated myself the last to our camp. Antony, as the con- queror, fancied that he could take it; but upon trial lost many of his men in the attempt, vrithout being able to do us any hurt. Hirtius in the mean time, hearing of the engagement, marched out with twenty veteran cohorts, and meeting Antoiqr on his return, entirely routed and put to flight his whole army, in the very same place where they had fought before at Castel-Franco. About ten at night Antony regained his camp at Modena, with all his horse. Hirtius retired to that camp which Pansa had quitted in the morning, and where he left the two legions which Antony attacked. Thus Antony has lost the greater part of his veteran troops, yet not without some loss of our prffitorian cohorts and the Martial legion : we took two of Antony's eagles and sixty standards, and have gained a considerable advantaged" Besides this letter from Galba, there came letters also severally, from the two consuls and Octavius, confirming the other account, with the addition of some farther particulars : that Pansa, fightmg bravely at the head of his troops, had received two dangerous wounds, and was carried off the field to Bologna : that Hirtius had scarce lost a single man: and that to animate his soldiers the better, he took up the eagle of the fourth legion and carried it forward himself : that Caesar was left to the guard of their camp ; where he was attacked hkewise by another body of the enemy, whom he repulsed with great loss*. Antony reproached him after- wards with running away from this engagement in such a fright, that he did not appear again till two days after, and without his horse or general's habit : bi^t the account just mentioned was given by Cicero from letters that were read to the senate, in which Hirtius declared him to have acted with the greatest courage''. 2 Ep. Fam. x. 30. a Cum — ipse in primis Pansa pugnaret, doobus pericu- losis vulneribus acceptis, sublatus o praslib. — Phil. xiv. 9. Hirtius ipse, aquilam quartje legionls cum inferret, qua nuUius pulchriorem speciem imperatoris accepimus, cum tribua Antonii legionibus, equitatuqne conflixit — Ibid. 10. Cassar— adolescens maximi animi, ut verissime scriWt Hirtius, castra multarum legionum paueis cohortibua tutatua est, secundumque prajlium fecit — ^Ibid. ; Appiaii. iii. .Wl. !• Priore prselio Antonius eum fugisse scribit, ap sine paludamento equoque post biduum demum apparuisse.— Suet. in. Aug. 10. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. £71 The news reached Rome on the twentieth of April, where it raised an incredible joy ; and the greater, we may imagine, for the late terrors which they had suffered from contrary reports. The whdle body of the people assembled presently abottt Cicero's house, and carried him in a kiiid of triumph to the capitol, whence, on their return, they placed him in the rostra to give them an account of the victory ; and then conducted him home with infinite acclamations : so that in a letter upon it to Brutus, he says, that he reaped on that day the full fruit of all his toils, if there be any fruit in true and solid glory'. The day following the senate ■ was summoned by M. Comuttts, the prsetor, to deliberate on the letters of the consuls and Octavius. Servilius's opinion was, '' that the city should now quit the sagum, and take the common gown again ; and that a public thanksgiving should be decreed jointly to the honour of the consuls and Octavius. Cicero spoke next, and declared strongly against quitting the sagum, till D. Brutus was' first delivered from the siege ; that it would be ridiculous to put it off till they should see him in safety, for whose sake , they had put it on ; that the motion for quitting it flowed from envy to D. Brutus : to deprive him of the glory that it would be to his name, to have it delivered to posterity that the people of Rome had put on the sagum for the danger, and resutaed the gown for the preservation of one citizen. He advised them therefore to coritinue in their former mind, of thinking the wholS danger and stress of the war to depend on D. Brutus, and though there was reason to hope that he was already safe, or would shortly be so, yet they should reserve the fruit of that hope to fact and the event, lest they should be found too hasty in snatching the favour of the gbds, or foolish in contemning the power of fortune''." Then as to the decree of the thanks- giving, he urges Servilius with omitting two things in his vote, which ought necessarily to have accom- panied it ; the giving Antony the title of enemy, and their own generals, of emperors. " The swords of our soldiers are dyed," says he, " or rather moistened only as yet, with blood ; if it was the blood of enemies, it was an act of the utmost piety : if of citizens, the most detestable wickedness ; how long then shall he, who has outdone all enemies in villany, go without the name of enemy .' He is now waging an inexpiable war with four consuls, with the senate and people of Rome ; denounces, plagues, devastation, the rack and tortures to us all : confesses that DolabeUa's horrid act, which no barbarians would own, was done by his advice : declares what he would have dpne to this city, by the calamity of the people of Parma; honest and excellent men, firm to the interests of the senate aad people, whom L. Antony, the portent and dis- grace of his species, put to death by all the methods of cruelty'." That Hannibal was nevei- so barba- rous to any city, as Antony to Parma. He conjures them to remember how much they had all been terrified for two days past by villanous reports <= Cum hestemo die me ovantem ac prope triumphantera iwpulus RomanuB in Capitolium dome tulerit ? domum indo i-edUitrit.— Phil. xiv. 6. Quo ([uidem die magnorum meorum labonim, — fnictum cepi maximum ; si modo est aliquis fructus ex solida veraque gloria, to.— Ad Brut, a ■I Pha xiv. 1, 2. = Ibid. S. spread about the city, and were expecting either a wretched death or lamentable flight, and could they scruple to call those men enemies, from whom they feared such dreadful things ? He then pro- posed to enlarge the number of days of the thanks- giving, since it was not to be decreed to one, but to three generals jointly; to whom, in the. first place, he would give the title of emperors, since there had not been a supplication decreed without it for twenty years past, so that Servilius should not either have decreed it at all, or allowed the usual honour to those, to whom even new and unusual honours were due '. That if, according to the present custom, the title of emperor was commonly given for killing a thousand or two of Spaniards, Gauls, or Thracians, how could they refuse it now when so riiany legions were routed, and such a multitude slain .' for with what honours, (says he) and congratulations, should our deliverers themselves be received into this temple, when yes- terday, on the account of what they have done, the people of Rome carried me into the capitol in a, kind of triumph ? for that, after all, is a just and real triumph, when!, by the general Voice of the city, a public testimony is given to those who have deserved well of the commonwealth. For if, in the common joy of the whole city, they congra- tulated me singly, it is a great declaration of their judgment : if they thanked me, still greater : if both, nothing can be imagined more glorious ; that he was forced to say so much of himself against his will, by the strange envy and injuries which he had lately suffered : that the insolence of the factious, as they all knew, had raised a report and suspicion upon him, of his aiming at a tyranny, though his whole life had been spent in defending the republic from it ; as if he, who had destroyed Catiline for that very crime, vvas of n sudden becomfc a Catiline himself^. That if the report had found credit in the city, their design was, by a sudden assault upon his person, as upon a tyrant, to have taken away his life. That the thing itself was manifest, and the whole affair should be laid open in proper time. That he had said all this not to purge himself to them, to whom he should be sorry to want an apology, but to adroiohish certain persons of jejune and narrow minds, to look upon the virtue of excellent citi- zens as the object of their imitation, not of their eUvy, since the republic was a wide field, where the course of glory was open to many'. That if any man contested with him the first place in the government, he acted foolishly, if he meant to do it by opposing vice to virtue : that as the race was gained by running the fastest, so virtue was only to be conquered by a siiperior virtue ; that they could hever get the better of him by bad votes — by good ones perhaps they might^^and he himself should be glad of it : that the people of Rome were perpetually inquiring, how men of their rank voted and acted .' and formed their judg- ment of them accordingly. . That they all remem- bered, how in December last he was the author of the first step towards recovering their liberty ; how from the 1st of January he bad been conti- nually watching over the safety of the common- wealth : how his house and his ears were open day and night to the advices and informations of ! PhiL xiv. 4. K Ibid. 5. 1> Ibid. 6. 272 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OP all who came to him. How his opinion always was, against an embassy to Antony : how he had always voted him an enemy, and their present state, a war, but as oft as he mentioned an enemy or a war, the consuls had always dropped his motion, from the number of thosg that were proposed', which could not however be done in the present case, because he, who bad already voted a thanks- giving, had unwarily voted Antony an enemy, since a thanksgiving had never been decreed but against enemies, and never asked or granted in what was properly a civil war : that they should either have denied it, or must of course decree those to be enemies, for whose defeat it was granted." Then after flourishing on the particular merit of the three generals, Pansa, Hirttus, Octa- vius ; and showing how well they had each deserved the name of emperor, he decrees a thanksgiving of fifty days in the name of the three jointly ''. In the last place, he proceeds to speak of the rewards due to the soldiers, and especially of the honours to be paid to those who had lost their lives in the defence of their country. For these he proposes " a splendid monument to be erected in common to them all, at the public charge, with their names and services inscribed ;" and in recommending it, breaks out into a kind of funeral eulogiura upon them : — " O happy death," says he, *' which when due to nature, was paid to your country ! for I cannot but look upon you as born for your country, whose name is even derived from Mars : as if the same god who gave birth to this city, for the good of nations, had given birth also to you, for the good of this city. Death in flight is scandalous : in victory, glorious ; wherefore whilst those impious wretches, whom you slew, will suffer the punishment of their par- ricide in the infernal regions ; you, who breathed your last in victory, have obtained the place and seat of the pious. The life given to us by nature is short, but the memory of a life well spent, everlasting. If it were not longer than this life, who would be so mad, at the expense of the greatest pains and dangers, to contend for the prize of glory ? Your lot therefore is happy, O you, while yau lived, the bravest, now the holiest of soldiers ; for the fame of your virtue can never be lost, either by the forgetfulness of those who are now alive, or the silence of those who shall come hereafter ; since the senate and people of Rome have raised to you, as it were with their own hands, an immortal monument. There have been many great and famous armies in the Punic, Gallic, Italic wars ; yet no such honour was ever done to'any of them. I wish that we could still do greater, since you have done the greatest ser- vices to us ; you drove Antony mad with rage, from the city : you repulsed him, when he attempted to return. A fabric therefore shall be erected of magnificent work, and letters engraved upon it, the eternal witnesses of your divine virtue ; nor will those who see or hear of your monument, ever cease talking of you : so that, instead of this frail and mortal condition of life, you have now acquired an immortality'." He then renews their former assurances to the old legions, " of the full and punctual payment of all which had been promised to them, as soon as the > Phil. xiv. 7. i Ibid. 8, 9, 10, ll" 1 Ibid. 12. war should be over;" and for those, in the mean time, who had lost their lives for their country, he proposes that " the same rewards which would have been given to them if they had lived, should be given immediately to their parents, children, wives or brothers." All which he includes, as usual, in the form of a decree, which was ratified by the senate. Antony being cruelly mortified by this defeat, kept himself close within his camp, and resolved to hazard nothing farther, but to act only on the defensive ; except by harassing the enemy with his horse, in which he was far superior. He still hoped to make himself master of Modena, which was reduced to extremity, and, by the strength of his works, to prevent their throwing any relief into it. Hirtius and Octavius, on the other hand, elate with victory, were determined at all hazards to relieve it : and after two or three days spent in finding the most likely place of breaking through the entrench- ments, they made their attack with such vigour, that Antony, rather than suffer the town to be snatched at last out of his hands, chose to draw out his legions, and come to a general battle. The fight was bloody and obstinate, and Antony's men, though obliged to give ground, bravely disputed every inch of it : till D. Brutus, taking the oppor- tunity at the same time to sally out of the town at the head of his garrison, helped greatly to deter- mine and complete the victory. Hirtius pushed his advantage with great spirit, and forced his way into Antony's camp ; but when he had gained the middle of it, was unfortunately killed near the general's tent. Pontius Aquila, one of the conspirators, was killed likewise in the same place : but Octavius, who followed to support them, made good their attempt, and kept pos- session of the camp, with the entire defeat and destruction of Antony's best troops : while Antony himself, with all his horse, fled with great precipi- tation towards the Alps. Some writers give a different relation of this action, but from the facts and circumstances of it delivered by Cicero, this appears to be the genuine account. The consul Pansa died the day following of his wounds at Bologna ". I. URB. 710. cic. 64. SECTION XI. The entire defeat of Antony's army made all people "presently imagine, that the war was at an end, and the liberty of Rome esta- blished, which would probably have been the case, if Antony had cither perished in the action, or the consuls survived it. But the death of the consuls, though not felt so sensibly at first, in the midst of their joy for the victory, gave the fatal blow to all Cicero's schemes, and was the immediate cause of the ruin of the republic". Hirtius was a man of letters and polite- "» Cum alia laudo, et gaudeo accidisse, turn quod Bniti eruptii) non sqlum ipsi salutaris fuit, sed etiam maximo ad victnri.im adjumento. — Ad Brut. 4. Ibi Hirtium quoque periisso et Pentium Aquilam, &&— Ep. Pam. X. 33 ; it. Ep. Fam. xi. 13; Appian. 1. 3. p. 372. « Hirtium quidem et Fansam — In consulatu reipublice salutares, alieno sane tempore amisiraua. — Ep.Fani. xii. 25, Pansa amisso, quantum detrimenti respublica accepent, non te preterit. [Ep. Fam. xi. 9.] Quanto sit in pcricnlo MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 273 ness, intimately entrusted with Csesar's counsels, and employed to write his acts ; but as he was the proper creature of Csesar, and strongly infected with party, so his views were all bent on supporting the power that had raised him, and serving his patron, not the public. In the beginning therefore of the civil war, when he was tribune of the people, he published a law to exclude all who were in arms with Pompey from any employment or office in the state** ; which made him particularly obnoxious to the Pompeians, who considered him as their most inveterate enemy. Pansa, whose father had been proscribed by Sylla"^, was attached with equal zeal to Caesar, as to the head and reviver of the Marian cause, and served him in all his wars with singular affection and fidelity : he was a grave, sincere, and worthy man ; and being naturally more moderate and benevolent than Hirtius, was touched with the ruin of his country, and the miseries of the op- pressed Pompeians ; many of whom he relieved by his humanity, and restored by his interest to the city and their estates ''. This made him very popular, and gained him the esteem of all the honest : so that Cassius, in defending his Epicu- rism to Cicero, alleges Pansa as an example of those genuine Epicureans, who placed their pleasure or chief good in virtuous acts". Be- fore their entrance into the consulship, Quintus Cicero gave a most wretched account of them both; " as of a lewd, luxurious pair, not fit to be trusted with the command of a paltry town, much less of the empire ;" and says, that " if they were not removed from the helm, the republic would certainly be lost ; since Antony would easily draw them into a partnership of his crimes ; for when he served with them in Gaul, he had seen incredible instances of their effeminacy and debauchery, in the face even of the enemy ^" But we must charge a great part of this character to the peevish- nees and envy of Quintus : for whatever they had been before, they were certainly good consuls ; and out of their affection to Cicero, and regard to his authority, governed themselves generally in all great affairs by his maxims. They were persuaded that the design of revenging Caesar's death would throw the republic again into convulsions, and flowed from no other motive than the ambition of possessing Csesar's place, and resolved therefore to quell by open force all attempts against the public peace. From their long adherence to Ctesar, they retained indeed some prejudices in favour of that party, and were loath to proceed to extremities, till pacific measures were found inef- fectual. This gave Cicero some reason to blame, but never to distrust them ; to complain of their respublica quam potero brerissime exponam. Primum omnium, quantam perturbationeni rerum urbanarum afferat obitus consulum, &c.— Ep. Fam. x. ^ Neminem Pompeianum qui vivat tenere lege Hirtia dipiitates.— Phil. xiii. 16. « Die, 1. xlv. 270. •1 PauBa, gravis homo et certus. — ^Ep, Fam. vi. 12. Quod multos miaeriis levavit, et quod Be in his malls hominem prsbuit, mirabilis eum virorum bonorum bene- volentiaprosecutaest.— Ep.Fam. xv. 17. « Itaque et Pansa, qui riSoviiV sequitiu', vu'tutem reti- net, io.— Ibid. 19. ' Quos ego penitus uovi libidinum et languoris effemina- tissimi animi plenos ; qui nisi a gubemaculis recesserint, maximum ab universo naufragio periculum est, &c, — ^Ep. Fam. xvi, 27. phlegm and want of vigour, as detrimental to the common cause : yet while they were generally suspected by others, he always thought them sincere, though they did' not in all cases act up to his wishes. The event confirmed his judgment of them : for they both not only exposed, but lost their lives with the greatest courage in' the defence of the republic ; and showed themselves to be the very men which Cicero had constantly affirmed them to be ; and though he imputes some little blame to Hirtius, yet of Pansa he declares, " that he wanted neither courage from the first, nor fidelity to the lasts." If they had lived to reap the fruits of their vic- tory, their power and authority would have been sufficient to i-estrain Octavius within the bounds of his duty, and sustain the tottering republic till Brutus and Cassius could arrive to their assist- ance ; and Plancus and D. Brutus unite themselves in the same cause, and give it a firm establishment in their consulship of the next year ; all whose armies, together with the African legions, were far superior to any force that could have been brought against them. But the death of the two consuls placed Octavius at once above control, by leaving him the master of both their armies ; especially of all the veterans, who were disaffected to D. Brutus, and could not be induced to follow him ; and it fell out so lucky and apposite to all Octavius's views, as to give birth to a general per- suasion, that they had received foul play, and were both of them kiUed by his contrivance : for he was observed to be the first man who took up Hirtius's body in the camp, where some imagined him to have been killed by his own soldiers ; and Pansa's physician, Glyco, was actually thrown into prison by Torquatus, Pansa's qusestor, upon a suspicion of having poisoned his wounds''. But the chief ground of that notion seems to have lain in the fortunate coincidence of the fact with the interests of Octavius : for M. Brutus thought it incredible, and in the most pressing manner begged of Cicero to procure Glyco's enlargement, and protect him from any harm, as being a worthy, modest man, incapable of such a villany ; and who, of all others, suffered the greatest loss by Pansa's death'. s Quales tibi sscpe scripsl consules, tales extiterimt. [Ad Brut. 3.] £rat in senatu satis vehemens et acer Pansa; cum in Cieteros hujus generis, turn muxime in socerum ; cui consuli non animus ab initio, non iides ad extreraum defuit. ' Bellum ad Mutinam gerebatiu: ; nihil ut in Caesare reprehenderes, nonnuUa in Hirtio.— Ibid. 10. JT.B, Several medals were struclc by the senate on the occasion of this victory; particularly one in honour of Pansa, exhibiting the head of the Goddess Liberty, crowned with laurel, and the inscription, Lieertatis ; and on the reverse, Rome sitting upon the spoils of enemies, holding a spear in her right hand, and a dagger in her left, with her foot upon the globe, and victory ilying' towards her to crown her with laurel ; and the inscription, — C. Pansa. C.P.C.N.— See Morel. Fam. Bom. li Rumor increbuit, ambos opera ejus occisos : ut Anto- nio fugato, republica consulibus orbata, solus victores exercitus occuparet. Pansae quidem adeo suspecta mors f uit, ut Glyco medicus custoditus ait, quasi venenxmi vul- neri indidisset.— Suet, in Aug. 11; Dio, 1. xlvl. 317: Appian. p. 572. » Tibi Glycona medicum Pansse— diligentissime com- mendo ; andimus eumvenisse in suspicionem Torquato d-e morte Pansffi, cnstodirique ut parricidam. Nihil minus credendum, &c.— Rogo te et quidem valde rogo, eripias eum ex custodia. — Ad Brut. 6. T 274 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Cieero was soon aware of the dangerous tuiti which this event was hkely to give to their affairs ; and within a day or two after the news, intimates his apprehension of it to Brutus : " Young Csesar," says he, " has a wonderful disposition to virtue ; I wish that I may govern him as easily, in all this height of honour and power, as I have hitherto done : the thing is now much harder ; yet I do not despair of it : for the youth is persuaded, and chiefly by me, that we owe our present safety to him : and in truth, if he had not at first driven Antony from the city, all had been lost K" But as he found Octavius grow daily more and more untractable, so he began to exhort and implore Brutus, in every letter, to bring his army into Italy, as the only thing which could save them in their present circumstances : and to enforce his own authority, he procured a vote also of the senate, to call him home vrith his legions to the defence of the republic^. At Rome, however, the general rejoicings stifled all present attention to the loss of their consuls ; and Antony's friends were so dejected for some time, that they gave Cicero no more opposition in the senate ; where he poured out all imaginable honours on the deceased, Hirtius, Pansa, and Aquila, decreed an ovation to Csesar, and added a number of days to their thanksgiving in honour of D. Brutus ; whose deliverance happening to fall upon his birth-day, he decreed likewise that his name should be ascribed ever after to that day in the fasti or public calendars, for a perpetual memorial of the victory. Antony's adherents were also declared enemies : in which number Servilius himself in- cluded Ventidius ; and moved, to give Cassius the command of the war against Dolabella ; to whom Cicero joined Brutus, in case that he should find it useful to the republic™. The decree of an ovation to Octavius was blamed by Brutus and his friends"; yet seems to have been wisely and artfully designed : for while it carried an appearance of honour, it would regularly have stripped him of his power if he had made use of it : since his commission was to expire of course, and his army to be dissolved upon his first entrance into the city : but the confusion of the times made laws and customs of little effect with those who had the power to dispense with them. The commanders abroad were so struck with Antony's defeat, that they redoubled their assur- ances to Cicero of their firmness and zeal for the common cause. Lepidus especially, who had ^ CiEsaris vero pueri mirifica indoles virtutis. Utiuam tarn facile eum florentem et honoribus et gratia rcgere ac tenere possimus, ut adhuc teuuiniu8 ! est omnino illud difficilius : sed non diffidimus. Persuasuni est enim ado- leseenti, et maxime per me, ejus opera nos esse salvos : et certe, nisi is Antonium ab urbe avertisset, pcriisscnt omnia. — Ad Brut. 3. 1 Te, cognita senatus auctoritate, in Italiam addueere exercitmn ; quod ut faceres, idque maturares, magiiopere desiderabat respubliea. — ^Ad Brut. 10. ■n A.D. V. Kalend. Maias cum de lis, qui hostes judicati sunt, bello persequendis, sententias dicerentur, dixit Servilius etiam de "Ventidio, et ut Cassius persequeretur Dolabellam. Cui cum essem assensus, decrevi hoo amplius, ut tu, si arbitrarere utile — ^persequerere bello Dolabellam, &o.— Ad Brut. .5 ; it. 15. ° Suspicor iEud minus tibiprobari, quod ab tuis fauiiU- aribus — non probatur, quod ut ovanti inti'oire Caesari liee- ret, decreverim. — Ad Brut. 15. suffered two of his lieutenants, SUanus and Cnlleo, to carry succours to Antony at Modena, labours to excuse it in a civil and humble strain, and to persuade Cicero, " That they had done it against his orders ; and though, for their former relation to him, he was unwilling to punish them with the last severity, yet he had not since employed them, or received them even into his camp. He acquaints him that Antony was arrived in his province with one legion, and a great multitude of men unarmed, but with all his horse, which was very strong ; and that Ventidius had joined him with three legions : that he -was marching out against him with aU his forces ; and that many of Antony's horse and foot daily deserted him : that for himself, he would never be wanting in his duty to the senate and the republic ; thanks him for not giving credit to the false reports which were spread of him : and above all, for the late honours that he had decreed to him ; begs him to expect everything from him which could be expected from an honest man, and to take him under his special protection"*." Pollio still more explicitly, " That there was no time now for loitering, or expecting the orders of the senate ; that all who wished to preserve the empire, and .the very name of the Roman people, ought to lend their present help ; that nothing was more dangerous than to give Antony leisure to recollect himself; that for his part, he would neither desert nor survive the republic ; was grieved only for his being at such a distance that he could not come so soon as he wished to its rehef," &c. Plancus sent word, "That he was taking all possible care to oppress Antony, if he came into that country ; that if he came without any con- siderable body of troops, he should be able to give a good account of him, though he should be re- ceived by Lepidus ; or if he brought any force with him, would undertake that he should do no harm in those parts till they could send him succours sufficient to destroy him ; that he was then in a treaty with Lepidus, about uniting their forces in the same cause, by the mediation of Laterensis and Fui-nius ; nor would be hindered by his private quarrel to the man, from concurring vrith his greatest enemy in the service of the common- wealth'." In another letter he speaks with great contempt of " Antony's shattered forces, though joined with those of Ventidius, the mule-driver (as he calls him) ; and is confident, that if he could have met with them, they would not have stood an hour before him'." The conquerors at Modena were much censured in the mean time for giving Antony leism'e to escape : but Octavius, from the beginning,, had no thoughts of pursuing him ; he had already gained what he aimed at ; had reduced Antony's power so low, and raised his own so high, as to be in con- dition to make his own terms with him in the partition of the empire, of which he seems to have formed the plan from this moment : whereas if Antony had been wholly destroyed, together with the consuls, the republican party would have pro- bably been too strong for him and Lepidus, who, though master of a good army, was certainly a » Kp. Pam. X. 34. P Ibid. 33. 1 Ibid. xi. ' Milii enim si coutigisset, ut prior occurrerem Antonio, non mebercule horam constitisset : tantum ego et mihi confide, et sic perculsas illius copiaa, Yentidiique muUonis castra despicio. — Ibid. 18. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 275 weak general." : when he was pressed therefore to pursue Antony, he contrived still to delay it, till it was too late, taking himself to be more usefully employed in securing to his Interests the troops of the consuls. Cicero was particularly disgusted at Antony's escape; and often expostulates upon it with D. Brutus: he tells him, " That if Antony should ever recover strength again, all his great services to the republic would come to nothing. It was reported (says he) at Rome, and all people believed it, that he was fled with a few unarmed, dispirited men, and himself almost broken-hearted : but if it lie so with him, as I hear it is, that you cannot fight him again without danger ; he does not seem to have fled from Modena, but to have changed only the seat of the war. Wherefore men are now quite different from what they were : some even complain that you did not pursue him, and think that he might have been destroyed if diligence had been used : such is the temper of people, and, above all, of ours, to abuse their liberty ag^nst those by whom they obtained it : it is your part, however, to take care that there be no real ground of complaint. The truth of the case is, he who oppresses Antony, puts an end to the war. What the force of that is it is better for you to consider, than for me to write more explicitly'." D. Brutus in his answer gives him the reasons why he could not follow Antony so soon as he wished: " I had no horse," says he; "no car- riages ; did not know that Hirtius was killed ; had no confidence in Csesar before I met and talked with him ; thus the first day passed. The next morning early I was sent for by Fansa to Bologna, but on the road met with an account of his death ; [ ran back to my little army, for so I may truly call it ; it is extremely reduced, and in sad con- dition for want of all things : so that Antony gained two days of me, and made much greater journeys in flying than I could in pursuing ; for his troops went straggling, mine in order. Wherever he passed, he opened all the prisons, carried away the men, and stopped nowhere till he came to the Fords. This place lies between the Apennine and the Alps, a most difficult country to march through. When I was thirty miles from him, and Ventidius had already joined him, a copy of his speech was brought to me, in which he begs of his soldiers to follow him across the Alps ; and declares that he acted in concert with Lepidus : but the soldiers cried out, especially those of Ventidius, for he has very few of his own, that they would either conquer or perish in Italy ; and began to beg that he would go to Pollentia : when he could not overrule them, he put off his march to the next day. Upon this intelUgence, I presently sent five cohorts before me to Pollentia, and followed them myself with the army : my detachment came to the place an hour before Trebellius, with Antony's horse: this gave me an exceeding joy, for I esteem it equal to a victory,"" &o. In another letter he says, " That if Csesar would have been persuaded by him to cross the Apen- nine, he could have reduced Antony to such straits that he must have been destroyed by want rather t han the sw ord : but that they could neither eom- » Cum et Lepidu omnes imperatores forent meliores, et multis Antonius, dum orat 3obrius.^VeU. Pat. ii, 03. ' Ep. Pam. xi. 12. 1 1bid. 13. mand Csesar, nor Cassar his own troops ; both which circumstances were very bad-^," &c. This authentic account from D. Brutus confutes two facts, which are delivered by an old historian, and generally received by all the modems ; first, that Octavius, sifter the victory, refused to have any conference with D. Brutus ; and that Brutus, for that reason, forbade him to enter his province, or to pursue Antony : secondly, that Pansa, in his last moments, sent for Octavius, and advised him to a union with Antony against the senate^. For it is evident, that on the vei-y day of the victory, there was actually a conference between the two first, which passed in so amicable a manner as to ease Brutus of the jealousy which he had before conceived of Octavius : and Pansa's death hap- pened so early the next morning, that it left no room for the pretended advice and speech which is made for him to Octavius ; especially since it appears on the contrary, that instead of Octavius, Pansa really sent for D. Brutus, when he fouad himself dying, as if disposed rather to communi- cate something for the service of that cause in which he had lost his life. But both the stories were undoubtedly forged afterwards, to save Octavius's honour, and give a better colour to that sudden change of measures which from this hour he was determined to pursue^. C. Antony was still a prisoner with M. Brutus, whose indulgence gave him an opportunity of practising upon the soldiers, and raising a sedition in the camp, which created no small trouble to Brutus. The soldiers, however, soon repented of their rashness, and killed the authors of it ; -and would have killed Antony too, if Brutus would have delivered him into their hands : but he.could not be induced to take his life, though this was the second offence of the same kind ; but pre- tending that he would order him to be thrown into the sea, sent him to be secured on ship-board either fromdoing or suffering anyfarther mischief"; of which he wrote an account to Cicero, who re- turned the following answer. " As to the sedition in the fourth legion about C. Antony, you will take what I say in good part ; I am better pleased with the severity of the soldiers than with yours. I am extremely glad that you have had a trial of the affection of your legions and the horse. As to what you write, that I am pursuing the Antonys much at my ease, and praise me for it — I suppose you really think so : but I do not by any means approve your distinction , ^ Quod si me Caesar audlsset, atqiie Apenniniun transis- Bet, in tantas angustias Antonium cotupulisBem, ut Inopid potius quam ferro conficeretur. Sed neque CsBsari inperari potest, nee Cassar exercitui suo : quod utrumque pesaimum est. — Ep. Fam. x. 7 Appian. 1. iii. 573 ; it. Hist. Rom. par Gatrou et Eouill^, t. xvli. 1. iv. p. 433, &c. ^ There is an original medal still remaining that gives no small confirmation to this notion ; and was struck pro- bably at Rome, eithei' by Pansa himself, upon his march- ing out towards Modena, or by the senate soon after Pansa's death, in testimony of the strict miion that subsisted between him and D. Brutus Albinus. For on the one side there is the head of a Silcnus, as it is called, or rather of Pan, which is frequent on Pansa's coins, with the inscrip- tion also of his name, C. Pansa : and on the other, Ai-bin vs. Brvti, F. with two right hands joined, holding a caduceus. as an emblem of the strictest amity and concord.— See Famil. Vibia. in Vaillant or Mnrel. » Dio, 1. xlvii. p. 340. i,76 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF when you say, that our animosity ought to be exerted rather in preventing civil vfars, than in revenging ourselves on the vanquished. I differ widely from you, Brutus ; not that I yield to you in clemency, but a salutary severity is always pre- ferable to a specious show of mercy. If we are so fond of pardoning, there will be no end of civil wars : but you are to look to that ; for I can say of myself, what Plautus's old man says in the Trinummus, Life is almost over with me ; it is you who are the most interested in it. You will be undone, Brutus, believe me, if you do not take care : for you will not always have the people, nor the senate, nor a leader of the senate, the same as now. Take this, as from the Pythian oracle ; nothing can be more true''." Brutus's wife, Porcia, notwithstanding the tragi- cal story which the old writers have dressed up, of the manner of her killing herself upon the news of her husband's unhappy fateS died most probably ahput this time at Rome, of a lingering illness. Sfe seems to have been in a bad state of health when Brutus left Italy, where she is said to have parted from him with the utmost grief and floods of tears, as if conscious that she was taking her last leave of him : and Plutarch says, " that there was a letter of Brutus extant in his days, if it was genuine, in which he lamented her death, and complained of his friends for neglecting her in her last sickness:" this however is certain, that in a letter to Atticus, he gives a hint of Porcia's indisposition, with a slight compliment to Atticus for his care of her'' : and the following letter of condolence to him from Cicero, can hardly be applied to any other occasion but that of her, death. Cicero to Brutus, " I should perform the same office which you formerly did in my loss, of comforting you by letter, did I not know that you cannot want those remedies in your grief, with which you relieved mine. I wish only that you may now cure yourself more easily than at that time you cured me : for it would be strange in so great a man as you, not to be able to practise what he had prescribed to another. As for me, not only the reasons which you then collected, but your very authority, deterred me from indulging my sorrow to excess. For when you thought me to behave myself with greater softness than became a man, especially one who used to comfort others, you chid me with more severity than it was usual for you to express : so that, out of a reverence to your judgment, I roused myself ; and by the accession of your authority, took everything that I had learned or read, or beard on that subject, to have the greater weight. Yet my part, Brutus, at that time, was only to act agreeably to duty and to nature : but yours, as we say, is to be acted on the stage, and before the people. For when the eyes, not only of your army, but of all the city, nay, of all the world, are upon you, it is wholly indecent for one, by whom we other mortals are made the stouter, to betray ■ any dejection or want of courage. You have suffered indeed a great loss (for you have lost I" Ad Unit. 2. <^ App. 1. iv. 669 ; Bio, 1. xlvii. 356 ; Val. Max. iv. 6. i* Valetudinem Porcitx mex tibi cura; esse, non miror, —Ad Brut. 17. that which has not left its fellow on earth), and must be allowed to grieve under so cruel a blow, lest to want all sense of grief should be thought more wretched than grief itself : but to do it with moderation, is both useful to others and necessary to yourself. I would write more if this was not already too much : we expect you and your army ; without which, though all other things succeed to our wishes, we shall hardly ever be free"." As the time of choosing magistrates now drew on, and particularly of filling up the colleges of priests, in which there were many vacancies, so Brutus was sending home many of his young nobles to appear as candidates at the election ; the two Bibuluses, Domitius, Cato, Lentulus, whom he severally recommends to Cicero's protection. Cicero was desirous that his son also should come with them, to be elected a priest ; and wrote to Brutus to know his mind about it, and, if he thought proper, to send him away immediately ; for though he might be chosen in absence, yet his success would be much easier if he was present ^ He touches this little affair in several of his letters ; but finding the public disorders increase still every day, he procured the election of priests to be thrown off to the , next . year : and Brutus having sent him word in the mean while that his son had actually left him, and was coming towards Rome, he instantly despatched a messenger to meet him on the road, with orders to send him back again, though he found him landed in Italy : " since nothing," he says, " could be more agreeable either to himself, or more honourable to his son, than his continuance with Brutus?." Not long after the battle of Modena, the news of Dolabella's defeat, and death, from Asia, brought a fresh occasion of joy to Cicero, and his friends at Rome., Dolabella, after his success against Trebonius, having pillaged that province of its money, and of all things useful for war, marched forward to execute his grand design upon Syria ; for which he had been making all this preparation : but Cassius was beforehand with him, and having got possession of that country, and of all the armies in it, was much superior to him in force. Dola- bella, however, made his way with some success through Cilicia, and came before Antioch in Syria, but was denied admittance into it ; and after some vain attempts to take it, being repulsed with loss, marched to Laodicea, which had before invited, and now opened its gates to him. Here Cassius came up with him, and presently invested the place, where, after he had destroyed Dolabella's fleet, in two or three naval engagements, he shut him up closely by sea, as well as land ; till Dolabdla, seeing no way to escape, and the town unable to hold out any longer, killed himself, to prevent his falling alive into Cassius's hands, and suffering the same tieatment which he had shown to Trebonius ; but Cassius generously ordered his e Ad Brut. 9. * Sed quamvis liceat absentis rationem liaberi, tameu omnia sunt prxsentibus faciliora. — Ad Brut. 5. g Ego autem, cum ad me de Ciceronis abs te discessu scripsisses, statim extrusi tabeUarios, literasque ad Cice- ronem ; ut etiam si in Italiam venisset, ad te rediret Nihil enim mihi jucundius, illi honestius. Quamquam aliquo- ties ei scripseram, sacerdotum comitia, niea eumma con- tentione in alterum annum case rejecta, &c.— Ad Brut. 14;it. 0, 6, 7. MARCUS TULLIUS CICBRO. 277 body to be buried, with that of his lieutenant Octavius, who killed himself also with him''. D. Brutus was now at last pursuing Antony, or rather observing the motions of his flight : he had with him, besides his own forces, the, new legions of the late consuls, while all the veterans put themselves under the command of Octavius : so that after Antony was joined by Ventidius with three legions, Brutus was hardly strong enough either to fight with him, or, what he rather aimed at, to hinder his crossing the Alps to Lepidus. He desired Cicero, therefore, to write to Lepidus not to recsive him, " though he was sure," he says, " that Lepidus would never do anything that was right ;" and wishes likewise that Cicero would confirm Plancus ; since by some of Antony's papers which fell into his hands he perceived that Antony had not lost all hopes of him, and thought himself sure of Lepidus and PoUio ; of which he gave Plancus immediate notice, and signified, that he was coming forward with all expedition to join with him'. But he complains much in all his letters of his want of money, and the sad condition of his army; which was not contemptible for the number, but the kind of his troops, being for the most part new-raised men, bare and needy of all things''. " I cannot," says he, " maintain my soldiers any longer. When I first undertook to free the republic, I had above three hundred thousand pounds of my own in money ; but am now so far from having anything, that I have involved all my friends in debt for me. I have seven legions to provide for : consider with what difficulty. Had I the treasures of Varro, I could not support the expense'." He desired therefore a present supply of money, and some veteran legions, especially the fourth and Martial, which continued still with Octavius. This was de- creed to him readily by the senate, at the motion of Drusus and Paullus, Lepidus's brother" : but Cicero wrote him word, " that all who knew those legions the best, affirmed, that they would not be induced by any terms to serve under him : that money, however, should certainly be provided for him :" and concludes by observing, " that if Le- pidus should receive Antony, it would throw them again into great difficulties : but that it was Brutus's part to take care that they should have no cause to fear the event ; for as to himself, that he could not possibly do more than he had already done ; but wished to see D.. Brutus the greatest and most illustrious of men"." '' Ep. Fam. 12, 13, 15 ; Appian. 1. iv. 625 ; Dio, 1. xlvii. 344. ' lu primis rogo te, ad hominem ventosissimum Lepidum mittas, ne bellum nobis redintegrare possit, Antonio sibi conjuncto — Mihi persuasissimum est, Lepidum recto fac- turum nunquam — Plancum quoque confirmetis, oro ; quern sjiero, tjiilBo Antonio, reipublicffi non defuturum. — ^Ep. Fam, xi. 9. Antonius ad Lepidum proficiscitur, ne de Flanco quidem spem adliuc abjecit, ut ex libellis suis animadverti, qui in ^einciderunt— Ibid. 11. ^ Cum aim cum tironibus egentiBSimis.— Ibid. 19, ' Alere jam milites non possum. Cum ad rempublicam libcrkndam access!, H.S. mihi fuit pecuniae cccc amplius. Tantum abest ut meae rei familiaris liberum sit quidquam , ut omnes jam meos amicos a^re alieno obstrinxerim. Sep- tenum numerum nunc legidnum alo, qua difficultate, tu arbitrate. Non, si VaiTonis tiiesauros haberem, subsistere sumptui possem.— Ibid. 10. " Ep. Fam. xi. 10. " Legionera Martiam etquartflmncgant,qul illasnormitt Plancus, as it is hinted above, was cai'rying on a negotiation with Lepidus to unite their forces against Antony : it was managed on Plancus' side by Fumius ; on Lepidus's byLaterensis, one of his lieutenants, a true friend to the "republic, and zealous to engage his general to its interests ; and Lepidus himself dissembled so well as to persuade them of his sincerity ; so that Plancus was march- ing forward in great haste to join with him, of which he gave Cicero a particular account. Plancus to Cicero. " After I had written my letters, I thought it of service to the public that you should be informed of what has since happened. My diligence, I hope, has been of use both to myself and to the com- monwealth : for I have been treating with Lepidus by perpetual messages ; that laying aside all former quarrels, he would be reconciled, and succour the republic in common with me, and show more regard to himself, his children, and the city, than to a desperate abandoned robber ; in which case Tie might depend on my service and assistance for all occasions : I transacted the aifair by Laterensis. He pawned his faith, that if he could not keep Antony out of his province, he would pursue him by open war ; begged that T would come and join forces with him, and so much the more, because Antony was said to be strong in horse ; whereas Lepidus's could hardly be called indifferent : for not many days before, even out of his small number, ten, who were reckoned his best, came over to me.* As soon as I was informed of this, I resolved without delay to support Lepidus in the execution of his good intentions : I saw of what benefit my joining him would be, either for pursuing and destroying Antony's horse with mine, or for correcting and restraining, by the presence of my army, the corrupt and disaffected part of Lepidus's. Having made a bridge therefore in one day over the Isere, a very great river in the territory of the AUobroges, I passed with my army on the twelfth of May : but having been informed that L. Antony was sent before with some horse and cohorts to Forum Julii, I had sent my brother the day before with four thousand horse to meet with him, intending to follow myself by great journeys with four legions and the rest of my horse, without the heavy baggage. If we have any tolerable, fortune for the republic, we shall here put an end to the audaciousness of the desperate, and to alt our own trouble : but if the robber, upon hearing of my arrival, should run back again into Italy, it will be Brutus's part to meet with him there : who will not be wanting, I know, either in counsel or courage : but if that should happen, I will send my brother also with the horse, to follow and pre- serve Italy from being ravaged by him. Take care of your health, and love me as I love you"." - But Lepidus was acting all the while a treache- rous part, being determined at all hazards to sup- port Antony ; and though he kept him at a distance for some time, and seemed to be con- strained at last by his own soldiers to receive him , yet that was only to save appearan ces, till he could ulla conditione ad te posse pei-duci. Pecuniie, quam desi- deras, ratio potest haberi, eaque habebitur— ego plus quam feci, faocre non possum. Te tamen, id quod spero, omnium maximum et clarissimum viderc cupio.— ^P' Fam. xi. 14. c Ep,- Fami x. l£r 278 THE HISiORY OF I'lIE LIFE OF do it with advantage and Security to them both : his view in treating with PlancuB was probably to amuse and draw him so near to them, that when he and Antony were actually joined, they might force him into the same tneasures, without his being able to help it, or to retreat from them. When he was upon the point therefore of joining camps with Antony, he sent word to Plancus, who was within forty miles of him, to stay where he then was till he should come up to him : but Plancus, suspecting nothing, thought it better still to march on ; till Laterensis, perceiving how things were turning, wrote him word in all haste that neither Lepidus nor his army were to be trusted, and that he himself was de- serted ; " exhorting Plancus to look to himself, lest he should be drawn into a snare, and to per- form his duty to the repubUe ; for that "he had dis- charged his faith by giving him this warningP," &c. Plancus gave Cicero a particular account of all these transactions : he acquaints him "that Lepidus and Antony joined their camps on the twenty-eighth of May, and the same day marched forward towards him : of all which he knew nothing till they were come within twenty miles of him : that upon the first intelligence of it he retreated in all haste, re- passed the Isere, and broke down the bridges which he had built upon it, that he might have leisure to draw all his forces together, and join them with his colleague D. Brutus, whom he expected in three days : that Laterensis, whose singular fideUty he should ever acknowledge, when he found himself duped by Lepidus^ laid violent hands upon himself; but being interrupted in the act, was thought likely to live. He desires that Octavius might be sent to him with his forces ; or if he could not come in person, that his army however might be sent, since his interest was so much concerned in it : that as the whole body of the rebels was now drawn into one camp, they ought to act against them with the whole force of the republic," &c. i The day after his union with Antony, Lepidus wrote a short letter to the senate, wherein " he calls the gods and men to witness, that he had nothing so much at heart as the public safety and liberty ; of which he should shortly have given them proofs, had not fortune prevented him : for that his soldiers, by a generfd mutiny and sedition, had plainly forced him to take so great a multitude of citizens under his protection." He beseeches them, " that laying aside all their private grudges, they would consult the good of the whole republic ; nor in a time of civil dissention treat his clemency, and that of his army, as criminal and traitorous'." D. Brutus on the other hand joined his army with Plancus, who acted with him for some time with great concord, and the affection of the whole province on their side : which being signified in their common letters to Rome, gave great hopes still and courage to all the honest there. In a letter of Plancus to Cicero, — " You know," says he, " X imagine, the state of our forces : in my camp there are three veteran legions, with one new, but the best of all others of that sort : in Bnitus's one veteran legion, another of two years' P AtXaterensis.'^ir sanctisaimus, suo chii-ographo mittit mlhi literas, in eisque desperans tie se, de exercitu, de Lepidi fide, querenaque se destitutum : in quibua aperte denuntiat, videam ne fallar: suam fidem solutam esse, reipublicse nc degim.— Ep. Fam. x. 21. 9 Ibid. 23. r ibia. 35, standing, eight of new levies : so that our whole army is great in number, little in strength : for what small dependence there is on a fresh soldier we have oft experienced to our cost. If the African troops, which are veteran, or Caesar'.s, should join us, we should willingly put all to the hazard of a battle : as I saw Csesar's to be the nearest, so I have never ceased to press him, nor he to assure me, that he would come instantly, though I perceive that he had no such thought, and is quite gone off into other measures : yet 1 have sent our friend Fumius again to him, with letters and instructions, if he can possibly do any good with him. You know, my dear Cicero, that as to the love of young Ceesar, it belongs to me in common with you : for on the account either of ray intimacy with his uncle when aUve, it was necessary for me to protect and cherish him ; or because he himself, as far as I have been able to observe, is of a most moderate and gentle disposi- tion ; or that after so remarkable a friendship with C. Caesar, it would be a shame for me not to love him, even as my own child, whom he had adopted for his son. But what I now write, I write out of grief, rather than ill-will : that Antony now lives ; that Lepidus is joined with him ; that they have no contemptible army ; that they have hopes, and dare pursue them ; is all entirely owing to Csesar. I will not recall what is long since passed : but if he had come at the time when he himself declared that he would, the war would have been either now ended, or removed, to their great disadvantage, into Spain, a province utterly averse to them. What motive or whose counsels drew him off from a part so glorious, nay, so necessary too, and salutary to himself, and turned him so absurdly to the thoughts of a two months' consulship, to the terror of all people, I cannot possibly comprehend. His friends seem capable of doing much good on this occasion, both to himself and the republic ; and, above all others, you, to whom he has greater obligations than any man living, except myself ; for I shall never forget that I am indebted to you for the greatest. I have given orders to Pnrniiis to treat with him on these affairs ; and if I had as much authority with him as I ought, should do him great service. We in the mean time have a very hard part to sustain in the war : for we neither think it safe to venture a battle,-nor yet, by turning our backs, to give the enemy an opportunity of doing , gi'eater mischief to the republic : but if either Caasar would regard his honour, or the African legions come quickly, we shall make you all easy from this quarter. I beg you to continue your affection to me, and assure yourself that I am strictly yours'." Upon the news of Lepidus's union with Antony, the senate, after some little time spent in con- sidering the effects of it, being encouraged by the concord of D. Brutus and Plancus, and depending on the fidelity of their united forces, voted Lepidus . an enemy, on the thirtieth of June; and de- molished the gilt statue which they had lately erected to him ; reserving still a liberty to him and his adherents of returning to their duty by the first of September'. Lepidus's wife yas " Ep. Fam. x. 24. ' Lepidus tuus affinis, uieus familiaris, prid. Kal. Quint, sententiis omnibus hostis a scnatu judicatus est ; casterique qui una cum illo a republica defecerunt : quibus tamen ad MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 279 M. Brutus' sister, by whom he had sons, whose fortunes were necessarily ruined by this vote, which confiscated the father's estate ; for which reason Servilia, their grandmother, and Cassius's wife, their aunt, solicited Cicero very earnestly either that the decree itself might not pass, or that the children should be excepted out of it : but Cicero cotdd not consent to oblige them : for since the first was thought necessary, the second followed of course. He gave Brutus, however, a particular account of the case by letter. Cicero to Brutus. " Though I was just going to write to you by Messala Corvinus, yet I would not let our friend Vetus come without a letter. The republic, Brutus, is now in the utmost danger : and after we had conquered, we are forced again to fight, by the perfidy and taadness of M. Lepidus. On which occasion, when for the care with which I have charged myself of the republic, I had many things to make me uneasy, yet nothing vexed me more than that I could not yield to the prayers of your mother and sister ; for I imagined that I should easily satisfy you, on which I lay the great- est stress. For Lepidus's case could not by any means be distinguished from Antony's ; nay, in all people's judgment was even worse, since after he had received the highest honours from the senate, and but a few days before had sent an excellent letter to them, on a sudden he not only received the broken remains of our enemies, but now wages a most cruel war against us by land and sea, the event of which is wholly uncertain. When we are desired therefore to extend mercy to his children, not a word is said why, if their father should conquer (which the gods forbid), we are not to expect the last punishment from him. I am not ignorant how hard it is, that children should suifer for the crimes of their parents : but it was wisely contrived by the laws, that the love of their chil- dren should make parents more affectionate to their country. Wherefore it is Lepidus who is cruel to his children, not he who adjudges Lepidus an enemy ; for if, laying down his arms, he were to be condemned only of violence, in which no defence could be made for him, his children would suffer tbe same calamity by the confiscation of his estate. Yet what your mother and sister are now soliciting against, in favour of the children, the very same and much worse Lepidus, Antony, and our other enemies, are at this very moment threatening to us all. Wherefore, our greatest hope is in you and your army. It is of the utmost consequence both to the republic in general, and to your honour and glory in particular, that, as I wrote to you before, you come as soon as possible into Italy ; for the republic ia in great want not only of your forces, but of your counsels. 1 served Vetus with plea- sure as you desired me, for his singular benevolence and duty to you : I found him extremely zealous and affectionate both to you and the republic : I shall see my sou, I hope, very soon, for I depend on his coming with you quickly to Italy"." Brutus, before he had received this letter, having heard from other friends what they were designing at Rome against" Lepidus, wrote about the same time, and o n the same subject, to Cicero, saaitatem redeimdi ante Kal. Sept. poteetas facta est — Ep. Fam. xiL 10. « Ad Brut. 12. Brutus to Cicero. " Other people's fears oblige me to entertain some apprehensions myself on Lepidus's account : if he should withdraw himself from us (which will prove, I hope, a rash and injurious suspicion of him), I beg and beseech you, Cicero, conjuring you by our friendship and your affection to me, to forget that my sister's children are Lepidus' sons, and to consider me in the place of their father. If I obtain this of you, you will not scruple, I am sure, to do whatever you can for them. Other people live differently with their friends, but I can never do enough for my sister's children, to satisfy either my inclination or my duty. But what is there in which honest men can oblige me (if in reality I have deserved to be obliged in anything), or in which I can be of service to my mother, sister, and the boys, if their uncle Brutus has not as much weight with you and the senate to pro- tect, as their father Lepidus to hurt them ? I feel so much uneasiness and indignation, that I neither can. nor ought to write more fully to you ; for if, in a case so important and so necessary, there could be any occasion for words to excite and confirm you, there is no hope that you will do what I wish, and what is proper. Do not expect therefore any long prayers irom me : consider only what I am ; and that I ought to obtain it either from Cicero, a man the most intimately united with me ; or without regard to our private friend- ship, from a consular senator of such eminence. Pray send me word as soon as you can what you resolve to do. July the 1st*." Cicero perceiving from this letter, what he had no notion of before, how great a stress Brutus laid on procuring this favour for his nephews, prevailed with the senate to suspend the execution of their act; as far as it related to them, till the times were more settled''. Lepidus and Antony were no sooner joined, than a correspondence was Set on foot between them and Octavius, who, from the death of the consuls, showed but little regard to the authority of Cifcero or the senate ; and wanted only a pre- tence for breaking with them. He waited however a while to see what became of Antony ; till finding him received and supported by Lepidus, he began to think it his best scheme to enter into the league with them, and to concur in what seemed to be more peculiarly his own part, the design of reveng- ing the death of his uncle. Instead therefore of prosecuting the war any farther, he was persuaded by his friends to make a demand of the consulship, though he was not yet above twenty years old. This step shocked and terrified the city ; not that the consulship could give him any power which his army had not already given, but as it indicated a dangerous and unseasonable ambition, grounded on a contempt of the laws and the senate ; and above all, raised a just apprehension of some attempt against the public liberty : since, instead of leading his army where it was wanted and de- sired, against their enemies abroad, he chose to march with it- towards Rome, as if he intended to subdue the republic itself. ^ Ad Brut. 13. 7 Sororis tua; filiis quam diligenter consulam, apero te ex matrie et ex BOroris litoris cognitiu-um, &c. — Jbjd. 15 : it. 18. 280 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF There was a report spread in tne mean while through the empire, that Cicero was chosen consul. Brutus mentioning it in a letter to him, says, " If I should ever see that day, I shall then begin to figure to myself the true form of a republic subsisting by it« own strength^." It is certain that he might have been declared consul by the unanimous suffrage of the people, if he had desired it ; but in times of such violence, the title of supreme magistrate, with- out a real power to support it, would have exposed him only to more immediate danger and insults from the soldiers ; whose fastidious insolence in their demands was grown, as he complains, insup- portable". Some old writers say, what the moderns take implicitly from them, that he was duped, and drawn in by Octavius to favour his pretensions to the consulship, by the hopes of being made his colleague, and governing him in the office''. But the contrary is evident from several of his letters : and that of all men he was the most averse to Octavius's design, and the most active in dissuad- ing him from pursuing it. Writing upon it to Brutus : " As to Caesar, (says he) who has been governed hitherto by my advice, and is indeed of an excellent disposition and wonderful firmness, some people, by most wicked letters, messages, and fallacious accounts of things, have pushed him to an assured hope of tEe consulship. As soon as I perceived it, I never ceased admonishing him in absence, nor reproaching his friends who are present, and who seem to encourage his ambition ; nor did I scruple to lay open the source of those traitorous counsels in the senate : nor do I ever remember the senate or the magistrates to have behaved better on any occasion ; for it never hap- pened before, in voting an extraordinary honour to a powerful or rather most powerful man (since power is now measured by force and arras), that no tribune, or any other magistrate, nor so much as a private senator, would move for it : yet in the midst of all this firmness and virtue the city is greatly alarmed ; for we are abused^ Brutus, both by the licentiousness of the soldiers, and the inso- lence of the general. Every one demands to have as much power in the state as he has means to extort it : no reason, no moderation, no law, no custom, no duty, is at all regarded ; no judgment or opinion of the citizens, no shame of posterity, =" &c. What Cicero says in this letter is very remai'k- able : that in all this height of young Caesar's A- tiRB. 710. power, there was not a magistrate, cic. 64. nor so much as a single senator, who coss. would move for the decree of his con- c. CJESAB sulship : the demand of it therefore ocTAviANus. was made by a deputation of his offi- Q. pKDius. jerg . and when the senate received it more coldly than they expected, Cornelius, a centurion, throwing back his robe and showing them his sword, boldly declared that if they would not make him consul, that should. But Octavius himself soon put an end to their scniples, by marching with his legions in a hostile manner to the city ■', where he was chosen consul with Q. ^ His Uteris scriptis, te consulem factum audivimus ; turn vcro incipiam prnponere mihi rcmpublicam justam et jam suis nitentem viribus, si isthucvidero Ad BruL 4. '^ Illudimur, Brute, cum militum deliciia, turn impera- toris insolentia. — Ibid. 10. I' Plut. in Cic. c Ad Biut 10. ^ Consula'.ura vigi-dmo clatin amiti i.^vaBit, admotij Pedius, his kinsman and co-heir, in part of his uncle's estate, in the month of Sextilis ; which, on the account of this fortunate beginning of his honours, was called afterwards, from his own surname, Augustus". The first act of his magistracy was to secure all the public money which he found in Rome, and make a dividend of it to his soldiers. He complained loudly of the senate, " that instead of paying his army the rewards which they had decreed to them, they were contriving to harass them with perpetual toils, and to engage them in fresh wars against Lepidus and Antony ; and like- wise, that in the commission granted to ten senators to provide lands for the legions after the war, they had not named him^" But there was no just ground for any such complaints ; for those rewards were not decreed, nor intended to be distributed, till the war was ([uite ended ; and the leaving Csesar out of the commission, was not from any particular slight, but a general exception of all who had the command of armies, as impro- per to be employed in such a charge : though Ci- cero indeed was of a different opinion, and pressed for their being taken in. D. Brutus and Plancns were excluded as well as Caesar, and both of them seem likewise to have been disgusted at it, so that Cicero, who was one of the number, in order to retrieve the imprudence of a step which gave such o-fduce, would not suffer his colleagues to do any- thing of moment, but reserved the whole affair to the arrival of Caesar and the rest e. But Caesar, being now wholly bent on changing sides and measures, was glad to catch at every occasion of quarrelUng with the senate ; he charged them with calling him a boy, and treat- ing him as such'' : and found a pretext also against Cicero himself, whom, after all the services received from him, his present views obliged him to aban- don ; for some busy informers had told him, that Cicero had spoken of him in certain ambiguous terms which carried a double meaning, either of advancing or taking him off, which Octavius was desirous to have reported everywhere, and believed in the worst sense. D. Bmtus gave Cicero the first notice of it in the following letter : D. Brutus, Emperor, Consul elect, to M. T. Cicero. " What I do not feel on my own account, my love and obligations to you make me feel on yours : that is, fear. For after I had been often told what I did not wholly slight, Labeo Segulius, a man always like himself, just now informs me that he has been with C aesar, where there was much dis- hostiliter ad uvbeni legionibus, missisque, qui Bibi exerci- lus nomine deposcereut. Cum quidem cunetante senatu, Cornelius centurio, princeps legationis, rejecto sagulo, ostendens gladii capuluni, non dubitasset in curia dicere; bic faciei, si Vos non feceritis.— Sueton. in Aug. 2C. '^ Sextilam mensem e suo cognomine nominavit, magia quam SeptembrenI, in quo eraD natus, quia hoc sibi et primus consulatus, &c — Sueton. in Aug. 31, f Appian. iii. 681. s Cum ego sensissem, de iis qui exercitus haberent, sen- tentiam ferri oportcre, iidem illi, qui solent, reclamarunt. Itaque excepti etiam estis, me vehcmenter repugnante — i taque cum quidam de coUegis nostris agrai-iam curationem ligurircnt, distiu-bavi rem, totamque integram vobis reser^ vavi. — Ep. Fam. xi. 21 ; it. 20, 23. ^ Dio, 1. xlvi. 3Ja ; Sueton. in Aug. 12. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 281 course on you ; that Caesar himself had no other complaint against you but for a certain saying which he declared to have been spoken by you : ' that the young man was to be praised, adorned, taken off ' ;' but he would not be so silly, he said, as to put it into any man's power to take him off. This, I dare say, was first carried to him, or forged by Segulius himself, and did not come from the young man. Segulius had a mind likewise to per- suade me, that the veterans talk most angrily against you, and tliat you are in danger from them : and that the chief cause of their anger is, because neither Csesar nor I am in the commission of the ten, but all things transacted by your will and pleasure. Upon hearing this, though I was then upon my march, I did not think it proper to pass the Alps, till I could first learn how matters were going amongst you," ^ &c. To this Cicero answered : . " The gods confound that Segulius, the greatest knave that is, or was, or ever will be. What ! do you imagine that he told his story only to you and to Csesar? he told the same to every soul that he could speak with. I love you however, my Brutus, as I ought, for acquainting me with it, how triiling soever it be : 'tis a sure sign of your affection ; for as to what Segulius says of the complaint of the veterans, because you and Ceesar were not in the commission, I wish that I was not in it myself ; for what can be more troublesome? But when I proposed that those who had the command of armies should be included in it, the same men who used to oppose everything remonstrated against it; so that you were excepted, wholly against my vote and opinion V' &e. As for the story of the words, he treats it, we see, as too contemptible to deserve an apology, or the pains of disclaiming it ; and it seems indeed incredible that a man of his prudence could ever say them. If he had harboured such a thought, or had been tempted on any occasion to throw out such a hint, we might have expected to find it in his letters to Brutus ; yet on the contrary, he speaks always of Octavius in terms highly advan- tageous, even where he was likely to give disgust by it. But nothing was more common than to have sayings forged for his, which he had never spoken : and this was one of that sort, contrived to instil a jealousy into Octavius, or to give him a handle at least for breaking with Cicero, which in his present circumstances he was glad to lay hold of: and when the story was once become' public, and supposed to have gained credit with Octavius, it is not strange to find it taken up by the writers of the following ages, Velleius and Suetonius ; though not without an intimation from the latter of its suspected credit "'. While the city was in the utmost consternation on Ceesar's approach with his -army, two veteran legions from Africa happened to arrive in the Tiber, and were received as a succour sent to them from heaven. But this joy lasted not long : for presently after their landing, being corrupted by the other soldiers, they deserted the senate, who ^ Laudandum, adolcscentem, ornandum, toUendum. Which last word signifiee, either to raise to honours, or take awai/ life. ^ Ep. Fam. xi. 20. J Ibid. 21. ; » VeU. VaX. ii. 02 ; Suoton. in Aug. 12. sent for them, and joined themselves to Ctesar. Pollio likewise, about the same time, with two of _ his best legions from Spain, came to the assistance of Antony and Lepidus, so that all the veterans of the western part of the empire were now plainly forming themselves into one body, to revenge the death of their old general. The con- sent of all these armies, and the unexpected turn of Antony's affairs, staggered the fidelity of Plan- cus, and induced him also at last to desert his colleague D. Brutus, with whom he had hitherto -acted with much seeming concord ; Pollio made his peace and good terms for him with Antony and Lepidus, and soon after brought him over to' their camp with aU his troops. D. Brutus, being thus abandoned and left to shift for himself, with a needy, mutinous army, eager to desert, and ready to give him up to his enemies, had no other way to save himself than by flying to his namesake in Macedonia ; but the distance was so great, and the country so guarded, that he was often forced to change his road, for fear of being taken, till having dismissed all his attendants, and wan- dered for some time alone in disguise and distress, he committed himself to the protection of an old acquaintance and host whom he had formerly obliged ; where, either through treachery or acci- dent, he was surprised by Antony's soldiers, who immediately killed him, and returned with his head to their general ". Several of the old writers have reproached his memory with a shameful cowardice in the manner of suffering his death : unworthy of the man who had killed Csesar, and commanded armies. But their accounts are so various, and so inconsistent with the character of his former life, that we may reasonably suspect them to be forged by those who were disposed to throw all kinds of contumely on the murderers of Csesar °. But what gave the greatest shock to the whole republican party, wa^ a law contrived by Caesar, and published by his colleague Pedius, to bring to trial and justice all those who had been concerned either in advising or effecting Caesar's death ; in consequence of which all the conspirators were presently impeached in form by different accusers, and as none of them ventured to appear to their citations, they were all condemned of course ; and by a second law interdicted from fire and water. Porapey also, though he had borne no part in that act, was added to the number, as an irreconcilable enemy to the Caesarian cause : after which Caesar, to make amends for the unpopularity of his law, distributed to the citizens the legacies which his uncle had left them by willP. Cicero foresaw that things might possibly take this turn, and Plancus himself prove treacherous ; and for that reason was constantly pressing Brutus and Cassius to hasten to Italy as the most effectual means to prevent it : every step that Caesar took confirmed his apprehensions, and made him more importunate with them to come, especially after the union of Antony and Lepidus. In his letters to Brutus, " Fly to us," says he, " I beseech you, and exhort Cassius to the same, for there is no hope of liberty but from your troops?. If you " Veil. Pat. ii. 64 ; Appian. 1. iii. 588. » Senec. Ep. 82. 543 ; Dio, I. xlvi. 325 ; Tal. Max. ix. 13. P Appian. 1. iiL 586 ; Dio, xlvi. 322. 1 Quamobrem advola, obsecro— hortare idem per literaa 282 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF have any regru-d for the republic, for which you were born, you must do it instantly ; for the war is renewed by the inconstancy of Lepidus ; and Caesar's army, which was the best, is not only of no service to us, but even obliges us to call for yours : as soon as ever you touch Italy, there is not a man whom we can call a citizen who will not immediately be in your camp. We have D. Brutus indeed happily united with Plancus : but you are not ignorant how changeable men's minds are, and how infected with party, and how uncertain the events of war : nay, should we conquer, as I hope' we shall, there will be a want of your advice and authority to settle all affairs. Help us, therefore, for God's sake, and as soon as possible ; and assure yourself that you did not do a greater service to your country on the ides of March, when you freed it from slavery, than you will do by coming quickly'." After many remonstrances of the same kind, he wrote also the following letter. Cicero to Brutus, " After I had often exhorted you by letters to come as soon as possible to the relief of the repub- lic, and bring your army into Italy, and never imagined that your own people had any scruples about it ; I was desired by that most prudent and diligent woman your mother, all whose thoughts and cai'cs are employed on you, that I would come to her on the twenty-fourth of July ; which I did, as I ought, without delay. When I came, I found Casoa, Labeo, and Scaptius, with her. She pre- sently entered into the affair, and asked my opinion whether we should send for you to Italy ; and whether I thought it best for you to come or to continue abroad. I declared, what I took to bathe most for your honour and reputation, that without loss of time you should bring present help to the tottering and declining state. For what mischief may not one expect from that war, where the con- quering armies refused to pursue a flying enemy ? where a general unhurt, unprovoked, possessed of the highest honours, and the greatest fortunes, with a wife, children, and near relation to you, has declared War against the commonwealth ? I may add, where, in so great a concord of the senate and people, there resides still so much disorder within the walls.' but the greatest grief which I feel, while I am now writing, is to reflect that when the republic had taken my word for a youth, or rather a boy, I shall hardly have it in my power to make good what I promised for him. For it is a tiling of much greater delicacy and moment, to engage oneself for another'.s sentiments and principles, especially in affairs of importance, than for money ; for money may be paid, and the loss itself be tolerable ; but how can you pay what you are engaged for to the republic, unless he for whom you stand engaged will suffer it to be paid ? yet I am still in hopes to hold him, though many are plucking him away from me : for his disposition seems good, though his age be flexible, and many always at hand to corrupt him ; who, b y throwing Cassium. Spes litertatis nusquam nisi in vestrorum cas- trorum prinoipiis est.— Ad Brut. 10. r Subveni igitur, per deos, idque quam primum ; tibique persuade, non te Idllms Mart Us, quibus servitutem a tuis oivibus ropulisti, plus profuisse patriae, quam, si mature veneris, pn)futurum.-i-lbid. 14. in his way the splendour of false honour, think themselves sure of dazzling his good sense and understanding. Wherefore to all my other labours this new one is added, of setting all engines at work to hold fast the young man, lest I incur the imputation of rashness. Though what rashness is it after all J for, in reality, I bound him for whom- I was engaged more strongly than myself; nor has the republic as yet any cause to repent that I was his sponsor, since he has hitherto been the more firm and constant in acting for us, as well from his own temper as for my promise. "The greatest diffi- culty in the republic, if I mistake not, is the want of money ; for honest men grow every day more and more averse to the name of tribute, and what was gathered from the hundredth penny, where the rich are shamefully rated, is all spent in reward- ing the two legions. There is an infinite expense upon us to support the armies which now defend us, and also yours, for our Cassius seems likely to come sufficiently provided. But I long to talk over this, and many other things with you in per- son, and that quickly. As to your sister's children, I did not wait, Brutus, for your vniting to me : the times themselves, since the war will be drawn into length, reserve the whole affair to you ; but from the first, when I could not foresee the continuance of the war, I pleaded the cause of the children in the senate, in a manner which you have been informed of, I guess, by your mother's letters : nor can there ever be any case where I will not both say and do, even at the hazard of my life, whatever I think agreeable either to your inclina' tion or to your interest. The twenty-sixth of July»." In a letter likevrise to Cassius, he says, " We wish to see you in Italy as soon as possible, and shall imagine that we have recovered the repubhc when we have you with us. We had conquered nobly if Lepidus had not received the routed, dis- armed, fugitive, Antony ; wherefore Antony himself was never so odious to the city as Lepidus is now ; for he began a war upon us from a turbulent state of things, this man from peace and victory. We have the consuls-elect to oppose him, in whom indeed we have great hopes, yet not without an anxious care for the uncertain events of battles. Assure yourself, therefore, that all our dependence is on you and your Brutus ; that you are both expected, but Brutus immediately," &o.' But after all these repeated remonstrances of Cicero, neither Brutus nor Cassius seems to have entertained the least thought of coming with their armies to Italy. Cassius, indeed, by being more remote, could not come so readily, and was not so much expected as Brutus ; who, befoi-e the battle of Modena, had drawn down all his legions to the sea- coast, and kept them at Apollonia and Dyrrhachium waiting the event of that action, and ready to embark for Italy, if any accident had made his assistance necessary, for which Cicero highly com- mends him". But upon the news of Antony's defeat, taking all the danger to be over, he marched away directly to the remotest parts of Greece and Macedonia, to oppose the attempts of Dolahella; * Ad Brut. 18. t Ep. Fajn. xii. 10. " Tuum consilium vehementer laudo, quod non priufl exercitum Apollonia Dyrrhachioque movisti, quam do Antonii fiiga audisti, Bruti eruptione, populi Romani vio- toria.— Ad Brut. 2.' MARCUS TULLiUS CICEliO. 283 and from that time seemed deaf to the call of the senate, and to all Cicero's letters, which urged him so strongly to come to their relief. It is difficult at this distance to penetrate the motives of his conduct : he had a better opinion of Lepidus than the rest of his party had ; and being naturally positive, might affect to slight the apprehensions of Lepidus's treachery, which was the chief ground of their calling so earnestly for him. But he had other reasons also which were thought to be good ; since some of his friends at Rome, as we may collect from Cicero's letter, were of a different mind from Cicero, on the subject of his coming. They might suspect the fidelity of his troops ; and that they were not sufficiently confirmed and attached to him to be trusted in the field against the veterans in Italy ; whose example and invita- tion, when they came to face each other, might possibly induce them to desert as the other armies had done, and betray their commanders. But whatever was their real motive, D. Brutus, who ffas the best judge of the state of things at home, was entirely of Cicero's opinion : he saw himself surrounded with veteran armies, disaffected to the cause of Uberty ; knew the perfidy of Lepidus ; the ambition of young Csesar ; and the irresolution of his colleague Plancus ; and admonished Cicero, therefore, in all his letters, to urge his namesake to hasten his march to them". So that, on the whole, it seems reasonable to believe, that if Brutus and Cassius had marched with their armies to- wards Italy at the time when Cicero first pressed it, before the defection of Plancus and the death of Decimus, it must have prevented the immediate ruin of the republic. The want of money of which Cicero complains at this time, as the greatest evil that they had to struggle with, is expressed also very strongly in another letter to Cornificius, the proconsul of Africa, who was urging him to provide a fund for the support of the legions : " As to the expense," says he, " which you have made, and are making in your military preparations, it is not in my power to help you ; because the senate is now without a head, by the death of the consuls, and there is an incredible scarcity of money in the treasury, which we are gathering however from all quarters, to make good our promises to the troops that have deserved it of us, which cannot be done, in my opinion, without a tribute^." This tribute was a sort of capitation-tax, proportioned to each man's substance, but had been wholly disused in Rome from the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus .(Emilius, which furbished money and rents sufficient to eaSe the eity ever after of that burden, till the neces- sity of the present times obliged them to renew It'. But from what Cicero intimates of the gene- ral aversion to the revival of it, one cannot help o bserving the fatal effects of th at indolence and ^ De Bruto autem nihil adhuc certi. Quern ego, quem- -idmodum prscipis, privatis Uteris ad bellum commune vocare non desino.— Ep. Pam. xL 26 ; it. 26. 7 De sumtu, quein te in rem militarem facere et fecisse aicis, nihil sane possum tibi opitulari, propterea quod et orbua senatus, consulibus amissis, et incredibiles angustife Tecwix publico, ic— Bp. Fam. xii. 30. 'At Perse rege devicto PauIIus, cum Macedonicis opi- DTWyeterem atque hereditariani urbis nostra paupertatem w usque satiasset, ut illo tempore primum populus Roma- nus tributi.prKstandi onero se libenu'Ot.— Val. Max. iv. 3; >'• Plin. Hist Nat. xxxiii. 3. luxury which had infected even the honest part of Rome ; who, in this utmost exigency of the republic, were shocked at the very mention of an extraordinary tax, and would not part with the least share of their money for the defence even of their liberty ; the consequence of which was, what it must always be in the like case, that by starving the cause, they found not only their fortunes, but their lives also soon after, at the mercy of their enemies. Cicero has a reflection in one of his speeches that seems applicable also to the present case, and to be verified by the example of these times. "The republic (says he) is attacked always with greater vigour than it is defended ; for the audacious and profligate, prompted by their natural enmity to it, are easily impelled to act upon the least nod of their leaders : whereas the honest, I know not why, are generally slow and unwilling to stir ; and neglecting always the beginnings of things, are never roused to exert themselves but by the last necessity : so that through irresolution and delay, when they would be glad to compound at last for their quiet, at the expense even of their honour, they commonly lose them both*." This observation will serve to vindicate the con- duct of Cassius from that charge of violence and cruelty which he is said to have practised, in exacting money and other necessaries from the cities of Asia. He was engaged in an inexpiable war, where he must either conquer or perish with the republic itself, and where his legions were not only to be supported but rewarded : the revenues of the empire were exhausted ; contributions came in sparingly ; and the states abroad were all desirous to stand neuter ; as doubtful of the issue, and unwilling to offend either side. Under these diffi- culties, where money was necessary, and no way of procuring it but force, extortion became lawful ; the necessity of the end justified the means ; and when the safety of the empire and the liberty of Rome were at stake, it was no time to listen to scruples. This was Cassius's way of reasoning, and the ground of his actiiig ; who applied all his thoughts to support the cause that he had under- taken ; and kept his eyes (as Appian says) wholly fixed upon the war, as a gladiator upon his anta- gonist ••. Brutus, on the other hand, being of a temper more mild and scrupulous, contented himself gene- rally with the regular methods of raising money ; and from his love of philosophy and the politer studies, having contracted an affection for the cities of Greece, instead of levying contributions, used to divert himself, wherever he passed, with seeing their games and exercises, and presiding at their philosophical disputations, as if travelling rather for curiosity than to provide materials for a bloody war ". When he and Cassius, therefore, met, the difference of their circumstances showed the different effects of their conduct. Cassius, without receiving a penny from Rome, came rich and amply famished with all the stores of war ; Brutus, who had received large remittances from « Pro Sextio, 47. ** '0 fjisv KcuTfTios a/iCTaflTpeirrl, KaOdnep ts rhp a.'yaivurr^v ol fiOvo^aj(pvVTiS, 4s ii6ifOV rbv '7r6\efioy atpfdpa. — Appian. 1. iv. 667- *= *0 5e BpoVTOs, oirri yiyvoiro, Kol (pi\oded/.tav ^v mil tpiA'tiKoos, Stc Kol ^i\o FubliuB Valerius Messala Corvinus, of whom Cicero here gives so fine a character, was one of the noblest as well as the most aecomplished persons of his age, who lived long afterwards the general favourite of all parties, and a principal ornament of Augustus's court. Being in arms with Brutus, he was proscribed of course by the triumvi- rate, yet was excepted soon after by a special edict, but refused the benefit of that grace, and adhered to the cause of liberty, till he saw it expire with his friend. After the battle of Philippi, the troops that remained freely offered themselves to his command ; but he chose to accept pea'ce, to which he was invited by the conquerors, and surren- dered himself to AntonyrWith whom he had a particular acquaintance. When Cassar was defeated not long after by S. Pompey, on the coast of Sicily, being in the utmost distress and danger of life, he committed himself with one domestic to the fidelity of Messala ; who, instead of reveng- ing himself on one who had so lately proscribed and set a price upon his head, generously protected and preserved him. He continued still in the friendship of Antony, till the scandal of Antony's life, and slavish obsequiousness to Cleopatra, threw him wholly into the interests of Ccesar, by whom ho was declared consul in Antony's plaee, greatly entrusted in the battle of Actium, and honoured at last ^vith a triumph, for reducing the rebellious Gauls to their obedience. He is celebrated by all writers as one of the first orators of Rome ; and having been the disciple of Cicero, was thought by some to excel even his master in the sweetness and correctness of his style ; preserving always a dignity, and demonstrating his nobility, by the very manner of his speaking. To the perfection of his eloquence he had added all the accomplishments of the other liberal arts ; was a great admirer of Socrates, and the severer studies of philosophy, yet an eminent patron of all the wits and poets of those times. TibuUus was the con- stant companion of all his foreign expeditions, which he celebrates in his Elegies ; and Horace, in one of his odes, calls for his choicest wines, for the entertainment of so noble a guest. Yet this polite and amiable man, impaired by sickness, and worn out at last by age, is said to have outlived his senses and memory, till he had forgotten even his very name.— See Appian. p. 611, 736 ; Tacit. Dial. 18 ; (luintil. X. 1 ; TibuU. Eleg. i. 7 ; Hor. Carm. iii. 21 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii 24. rewards and punishments ; in which, however, as in everything else, a certain medium and tempera- ment is to be observed. But it is not my design at ibis time to discuss so great a subject. I think it proper only to open the reasons of my votes and opinions in the senate from the beginning of- this war. After the death of Csesar, and those your memorable ides of March, you cannot forget, Brutus, what I declared to have been omitted by you, and what a tempest I foresaw hanging over the republic. You had freed us from a great plague, wiped off a great stain from the Roman people, acquired to yourselves divine glory, yet ail the equipage and furniture of kingly power was left still to Lepidus and Antony — the one inconstant, the other vicious ; both of them afraid of peace, and enemies to the public quiet. While these men were eager to raise fresh disturbances in the republic, we had no guard about us to oppose them, though the whole city was eager and unanimous in asserting its liberty : I was then thought too vio- lent, while you, perhaps more wisely, withdrew yourselves from that city which you had delivered, and refused the help of all Italy, which offered to arm itself in your cause. Wherefore, when I saw the city in the hands of traitors, oppressed by the arms of Antony, and that .neither you nor Cassius could be safe in it, I thought it time for me to quit it too : for a city overpowered by traitors, without the means of relieving itself, is a wretched spectacle. Yet my mind, always the same, and ever fixed on the love of my country, could not bear the thought of leaving it in its distress. In the midst, there- fore, of my voyage to Greece, and in the very season of the Etesian winds, when an uncommon south wind , as if displeased with my resolution, had driven me back to Italy, I found you at Velia, and was greatly concerned at it j for you were retreat- ing, Brutus — were retreating, I say, since your Stoics will not allow their wise man to fly. As soon as I came to Rome, I ejiposed myself to the wickedness and rage of Antony ; and when I had exasperated bim against me, began to enter into measures in the very manner of the Brutuses (for such are peculiar to your blood), for delivering the republic. I shall omit the long recital of what followed, since it all relates to myself, and observe only-, that young Caesar, by whom, if we will confess the truth, we subsist at this day, flowed from the source of my counsels. I decreed him no honours, Brutus, but what were due, none but what were necessary ; for as soon as we began to recover any liberty, and before the virtue of D. Brutus had yet shown itself so far that we could know its divine force, and while our whole defence was in the boy, who repelled Antony from our necks, what honour was not really due to him ! though I gave him nothing yet but the praise of words, and that but moderate. I decreed him indeed a legal command, which, though it seemed honourable to one of that age, was yet necessary to one who had an army ; for what is an army without the command of it ? Philip voted him a statue, Servius the privilege of suing for offices before the legal time, which was short- ened still by Servilius ; nothing was then thought too much ; but we are apt, I know not how, to be more liberal in fear than grateful in success. When D. Brutus was delivered from the siege, a day of all others the most joyous to the city, which hap- pened also to be his birth-day, I decreed that his 286 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF name should be ascribed for ever to that day in the public calendars : in which I followed the example of our ancestors, who paid the same honour to a woman, Larentia, at whose altar you priests perform sacred rites in the velabrum. By giving this to D. Brutus, my design was to fix in the calendars a perpetual memorial of a most acceptable victory ; but I perceived on that day that there was more malevolence than gratitude in many of the senate. During these same days I poured out honours (since you will have it so) on the deceased Hirtius, Paasa, and Aquila : and who can fid fault vrith it but those who, when fear is once over, forget their past danger ? But besides the grateful remembrance of services, there was a use in it which reached to posterity ; for I was desirous that there should remain an eternal monument of the public hatred to our most cruel enemies- There is one thing, I doubt, which does not please you — for it does not please your friends here, who, though excellent men, have but little experience in public affairs — that I decreed an ovation to Csesar j but for my part (though I may perhaps be mistaken, for I am not one of those who approve nothing but what is my own), I cannot but think that I have advised nothing more prudent during this war. Why it is so, is not proper to be explained, lest I be thought to have been more provident in it than grateful. But even this is too much. Let us pass, therefore, to other things. I decreed honours to D. Brutus — decreed them to Plancus. They must be men of great souls who are attracted by glory. But the senate also is certainly wise in trying every art that is honest by which it can engage any one to the service of the republic. But I am blamed in the case of Lepidus, to whom, after I had raised a statue in the rostra, I pre- sently threw it down. My view in that honour was, to reclaim him from desperate measures ; but the madness of an inconstant man got the better of my prudence ; nor was there yet so much harm in erecting, as good in demolishing, the statue. But I have said enough concerning honours, and must say a word o'r two about punishments ; for I have often observed, from your letters, that you are fond of acquiring a reputation of clemency, by your treatment of those whom you have con- quered in war. I can imagine nothing to be done by you but what is wisely done : .but to omit the punish- ing of wickedness (which we call pardoning) though it be tolerable in other cases, I hold to be perni- cious in this war. Of all the civil wars that have been in my memory, there was not one in which, what side soever got the better, there would not have remained some form of a commonwealth ; yet in this, what sort of a republic we are like to have, if we conquer, I would not easily affirm"), but if we are conquered, we are sure to have none. My votes therefore were severe against Antony, severe against Lepidus, not from any spirit of revenue but to deter wicked citizens at present from making war against their country, and to leave an example to posterity, that none hereafter should imitate such rashness. Yet this very vote was not more mine than it was everybody's ; in which there seems, I own, to be something cruel, that the punishment should reach to children, who have done nothing to deserve it : but the constitution is both ancient and of all cities ; for even Themis- tocles's children were reduced to want ; and since the same punishment falls upon citizens con- demned of public crimes, how was it possible for us to be more gentle towards enemies .'' But hoi^r can that man complain of me, who, if he had conquered, must needs confess that he would have treated me even with more severity ,'' You have now the motives of my opinions in the case of rewards aUd punishments ; for as to other points, you have heard, I imagine, what my sentiments and votes have been. But to talk of these things now is not necessary : what I am going to say is extremely so, Brutus : — that you come to Italy with your army as soon as possible. We are in the utmost expectation of you : whenever you set foot in Italy, all the world will fiy to you ; for whether it be our lot to conquer (as we had already done, if Lepidus had not been desirous to overturn all, and perish himself with his friends), there will he a great want of your authority, for the settling some state of a city amongst us ; or, if there be any danger and struggle still behind, hasten to us, for God's sake ; for you know how much depends on opportunity, how much on despatch. What diligence I shall use in the care of your sister's children you wUl soon know, I hope, from your mother's and sister's letters, in whose cause I have more regard to your will, which is ever most dear to me, than, as some think, to my own constancy. But it is my desire both to be and to appear con- stant in nothing so much as in loving you''." Brutus to Cicero. " I have read a part of your letter, which you sent to Octavius, transmitted to me by Atticus. Your zeal and cQncern for my safety gave me no new pleasure ; for it is not only common, but our daily news, to hear something, which you have said or done with your usual fidelity, in the support of my honour and dignity. Yet that same part of your letter affected me with the most sensible grief which my mind could possibly receive^ For you compliment him so highly for his services to the republic ; and in a strain so suppliant and abject that — what shall I say .' — I am ashamed of the wretched state to which we are reduced, — yet it must be said, — you recommend my safety to him, to which what death is not preferable .' and plainly show, that our servitude is not yet abohshed, but our master only changed. Recollect your words, and deny them, if you dare, to be the prayers of a slave to his king. There is one thing you say which is required and expected from him, — that he would allow those citizens to live in safety, of whom all honest men and the people of Rome think well. But what if he will not allow it? Shall we be the less safe for that ? It is better not to be safe, than to be saved by him. For my part, I can never think all the gods so averse to the preservation of the Roman people, that Octavius must be entreated for the life of any one citizen, much less for the deliverers of the world. It is a pleasure to me to talk thus magnificently ; and it even becomes me to those, who know not either what to fear for any one, or what to ask of any one. Can you allow Octavius to have this power, and yet be his friend ? or if you have any value for me, would you wish to see me at Rome, when 1 must first be recommended to the boy, k Ad Bruf. 13. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 287 that he would permit me to be there ? -rhat reason can you have to thank him, if you think it necessary to beg of hitn that he would grant and suffer us to live with safety ? or is it to be reckoned a kindness, that he chooses to see himself rather than Antony in the condition to have such petitions addressed to him ; one may supplicate indeed the successor, but never the abolisher of a tyranny, that those who have deserved well of the republic may be safe. It was this weakness and despair, not more blamable indeed in you than in all, which first pushed Csesar to the ambition of reigning, and, after his death, encouraged Antony to think of seizing his place ; and hag now raised this boy so high that you judge it necessary to address your prayers to him for the preservation of men of our rank ; and that we can be saved only by the mercy of one scarce yet a man, and by no other means. But if we had remembered ourselves to be Romans, these infamous men would not be more daring to aim at dominion, than we to repel it : nor woidd Antony be more encouraged by Caesar's reign, than deterred by his fate. How can you, a consular senator, and the avenger of so many treasons (by suppressing which you have but postponed our ruin I fear for a time), reflect' on what you have done, and yet approve these things, or bear them so tamely, as to seem at least to approve them .' for what particular grudge had you to Antony ? no other, but that he assumed all this to himself; that our lives should be begged of him; our safety be precarious, from whom he had received his liberty ; and the repnbhc depend on his will and pleasure. You thought it neces- sary to take arms, to prevent him from tyran- nizing at this rate : but was it your intent, that by preventing him, we might sue to another who would suffer himself to be advanced into his place, or that the republic might be free and mistress of itself ? as if our quarrel was not perhaps to slavery, but to the conditions of it. But we might have had, not only an easy master in Antony, if we would have been content with that, but whatever share with him we pleased of favours and honours. For what could he deny to those whotee patience he saw was the best support of his government? but nothing was of such value to us, that we would sell our faith and our liberty for it. This very boy, whom the name of Csesar seems to incite against the destroyers of Csesar, at what rate would he value it (if there was any room to traffic with him), to be enabled by our help to maintain his present power, since we have a mind to live, and to be rich, and to be called consulars ? but then Csesar must have perished in vain : for what reason had we to rejoice at his death, if after it we were still to continue slaves ? Let other people be as Indolent as they please ; but may the gods and goddesses deprive me sooner of every- thing than the resolution, not to allow to the heir of him whom I killed what I did not allow to the man himself — nor would suffer, even iu my father, were he living — to have more power than the laws and the senate. How can yon imagine, that any one can be free under him, without whose leave there is no place for us in that city ? or how is it possible for you, after all, to obtain what yon ask ? You ask, that he would allow us to be safe. Shall we then receive safety, think you, when we re- ceive life ? Hut how can we receive it, if we first part with our honour and our liberty ? Do you fancy, that to live at Rome is to be safe ? It is the thing, and not the place, which must secure that to me ; for I was never safe while Csesar lived, till I had resolved on that attempt ; nor can I in any place live in exile, as long as I hate slavery and affronts above all other evils. Is not this to fall back again into the same state of darkness ; when he, who has taken upon him the name of the tyrant (though in the cities of Greece, when the tyrants are destroyed, their children also perish with them), must be entreated, that the avengers of tyranny may be safe ? Can I ever wish to see that city, or think it a city, which would not accept liberty wlien offered, and even forced upon it, but has more dread of the name of their late king, in the person of a boy, than confidence in itself; though it has seen that very king taken off in the lieight. of all his power by the virtue of a few ? As for me, do not recommend me any more to your Csesar, nor indeed yourself, if you will hearken to me. You set a very high value on the few years which remain to you at that age, if for the sake of them you can supplicate that boy. But take care after all, lest what you have done and are doing so laudably against Antony, instead of being praised, as the effect of a great mind, be charged to the account of your fear. For if you are so pleased with Octavius as to petition him for our safety, you will be thought not to have disliked a master, but to have wanted a more friendly one. As to your praising him for the things that he has hitherto done, I entirely approve it : for they deserve to be praised, provided that he undertook them to repel other men's power, not to advance his own. Bat when you adjudge him not only to have this power, but that you ought to submit to it so far as to entreat him that he would not destroy us, you pay him too great a recompense : for you ascribe that very thing to him which the X'epublic seemed to enjoy through him : nor does it ever enter into your thoughts, that if Octavius be worthy of any honours, because he wages war with Antony ; that those who extirpated the veiy evil of which these are but the reUcs, can never be sufficiently requited by the Rotnan people ; though they were to heap upon them everything which they could bestow : but see how much stronger people's fears are than their memories, because Antony still lives, and is in arms. As to Csesar, all that could and ought to be done is past, and cannot be recalled : is Octavius then a person of so great importance, that the people of Rome are to expect from him what he will determine upon us ? or are we of so little, that any single man is to be entreated for our safety? As for me, may I never return to y»u if ever I either supplicate any man, or do not restrain those who are disposed to do it, from supplicating for themselves : or I will remove to a distance from all such who can be slaves, and fancy myself at Rome, wherever I can live free ; and shall pity you, whose fond desire of life neither age, nor honours, nor the example of other men's virtue, can moderate. For my part, I shall ever think myself happy as long as I can please myself with the persuasion that my piety has been fully requited. For what can be happier, than for a man, conscious of virtuous acts, and content with liberty, to despise all human affairs } Yet I will never yield to those who are fond of THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF yielding, or be conquered by those who are willing to be conquered themselves, but will first try and attempt everything, nor ever desist from dragging our city out of slavery. If such fortune attends me as I ought to have, we shall all rejoice ; if not, I shall rejoice myself. For how could this life be spent better than in acts and thoughts which tend to make my countrymen free .' I beg and beseech you, Cicero, not to desert the cause through wea- riness or diffidence : in repelling present evils, have your eye always on the future, lest they in- sinuate themselves before you are aware. Con- sider, that the fortitude and courage with which you delivered the republic when consul, and now again when consular, are nothing ' without con- stancy and equability. The case of tried virtue, I own, is harder than of untried : we require services from it, as debts ; and if anything dis- appoints us, we blame with resentment, as if we had been deceived. Wherefore for Cicero to with- stand Antony, though it be a part highly com- mendable, yet because such a consul seemed of course to promise us such a consular, nobody wonders at it : but if the same Cicero, in the case of others,, should waver at last in that resolution, which he exerted with such firmness and great- ness of mind against Antony, he would deprive himself not only of the hopes of fntui'e glory, but forfeit even that which is past : for nothing is great in itself but what flows from the result of our judgment : nor does it become any man more than you to love the republic, and to be the patron of liberty, on the account either of your natural talents or your former acts, or the wishes and expectation of all men. Octavius, therefore, must not be entreated to suffer us to live in safety. Do you rather rouse yourself so far as to think that city, in which you have acted the noblest part, free and flourishing, as long as there are leaders still to the people, to resist the designs of traitors'." 1 Ad Brut. 16. N.B. There is a passage indeed in Brutus's letter to Atti cus, where he intimates a reason of his complaint against Cicero, which was certainly a just one, if the fact of which he complains had been true — that Cicero had reproached Casca with the murder of Casar, and called him an assassin. "I do not know," says be, ** what I can ^vrite to you but this, that the ambition and licentiousness of the boy has been inflamed rather than restrained by Cicero, who carries his indulgence of him to'suchalength, as not to refrain from abuses upon Casca, and such as must ' return doubly upon himself, who has put to death more citizens than one, and must first own himself to be an assassin before he con reproach Casca with what he objects to him." [Ep. ad Brut. 17.] Manutius professes himself unable to conceive how Cicero should ever call Casca a murderer ; yet cannot collect anything less from Brutus's words. But the thmg is impossH)le, and incon- sistent vnth every word that Cicero had been saying, and every act that he had been doing from the time of Csesar's death : and in relation particularly to Casca, we have seen above, how he refused to enter into any measures with Octavius, but upon the express condition of his suffering Casca to take quiet possession of the tribunate : it is certain therefore, that Brutus had either been misinformed, or was charging Cicero with the consequential meaning of some saying which was never intended by him ; in advis- ing Casca perhaps to manage Octavius, in that height of his power, with more temper and moderation, lest he should otherwise be provoked to consider him as an assas- sin, and treat him as such : for an intimation of that kind would have been fiuHicient to the fierce spirit of Brutus, for taking it as a direct condemnation of C.isca*s act of If we compare these two letters, we shall per- ceive in Cicero's an extensive view and true judg- ment of things, tempered with the greatest polite- ness and affection for his friend, and an unwilling- ness to disgust where he thought it necessary even to blame. InBrutus^sachurlish and morose arrogance, claiming infinite honours to himself, yet allowing none to anybody else ; insolently chiding and dictating to one, as much superior to him in wisdom as he was in years ; the whole turning upon that romantic maxim of the Stoics, enforced without any regard to times and circumstances : that a wise man has a sufficiency of all things within himself. There are indeed many noble sentiments in it worthy of old Rome, which Cicero in a proper season would have recommended as warmly as he ; yet they were not principles to act upon in a conjuncture so critical; and the rigid application of them is the less excusable in Brutus, because he himself did not always practise what he professed ; but was too apt to forget both the Stoic and the Ronian. Octavius had no sooner settled the affairs of the city, and subdued the senate to his mind, than he marched back towards Gaul to meet Antony and Lepidus, who had already passed the Alps, and brought their armies into Italy, in order to have a personal interview with him, which had been privately concerted for settling the terms of a triple league, and dividing the power and pro- vinces of the empire among themselves. AR the three were natural enemies to each other ; com- petitors for empire, and aiming severally to possess what could not be obtained but with the ruin of the rest : their meeting therefore was not to establish any real amity or lasting concord, for that was impossible, but to suspend their own quarrels for the present, and with common forces to oppress their common enemies, the friends of liberty and the republic : without which all their several hopes and ambitious views must inevitably be blasted. The place appointed for the interview was a small island, about two miles from Bononia, formed by the river Rhenus, which runs near to that city°: here they met, as men of their character must necessarily meet, not without jealousy and sus- picion of danger from each othei', being all attended by their choicest troops, each with five legions, disposed in separate camps within sight of the island. Lepidus entered it the first, as an equal friend to the other two, to see that the place was clear and free from treachery ; and when he had given the signal agreed upon, Antony and Octavius advanced from the opposite banks of the river, and passed into the island by bridges, which they left guarded on each side by three hundred of their own men. Their first care, instead of embracing, was to search one another, whether they had not brought daggers concealed under their clothes ; and when that ceremony was over, Octavius took his seat betwixt the other two, in the most honourable place, on the account of his being consul. In this situation they spent three days in a close conference, to adjust the plan of their accommo- dation ; the substance of which was , that t he stabbing Casar, to which Cicero had always given the highest applause. " Vide. Cluver. Ital. Antiq. 1. i. c. xxviii. p. 187. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 280 three should be invested jointly with supreme power for the term of five years, with the title of Triumvirs, for settling the state of the republic : that they should act in all cases by common con- sent, nominate the magistrates and governors both at home and abroad, and determine all affairs relating to the public by their sole will and plea- sure : that Octavius should have for his peculiar province, Africa, with Sicily, Sardinia, and the other islands of the Mediterranean ; Lepidus, Spain, with the Narbonese Gaul ; Antony, the other two Gauls on both sides of the Alps : and to put them all upon a level, both in title and authority, that Octavius should resign the consulship to Ventidius for the remainder of the year : that Antony and Octavius should prosecute the war against Brutus and Cassius, each of them at the head of twenty legions ; and Lepidus, with three legions, be left to guard the city : and at the end of the war, that eighteen cities or colonies, the best and richest of Italy, together with their lands and districts, should be taken from their owners, and assigned to the perpetual possession of the soldiers, as the reward of their faithful services. These conditions were published to their several armies, and received by them with acclamations of joy, and mutual gratulations for this happy union of their chiefs ; which, at the desire of the soldiers, was ratified likewise by a marriage, agreed to be consummated between Octavius and Claudia, the daughter of Antony's wife, Fulvia, by her first husband, P. Clodius. The last thing that they adjusted was the list of a proscription, which they were determined to make of their enemies. . This, as the writers tell us. occasioned much difficulty and warm contests amongst them, till each of them in his turn con- sented to sacrifice some of his best friends to the revenge and resentment of his colleagues. The whole list is said to have consisted of three hundred senators and two thousand knights, all doomed to die for a crime the most unpardonable to tyrants, their adherence to the cause of liberty. They reserved the publication of the general list to their arrival at Rome, excepting only a few of the most obnoxious ; the heads of the republican party, about seventeen in all, the chief of whom was Cicero. These they marked out for immediate destruction ; and sent their emissaries away directly to surprise and murder them, before any notice could reach them of their danger : four of this number were presently taken and killed in the company of their friends, and the rest hunted out by the soldiers in private houses and temples, which presently filled the city with a universal terror and consternation, as if it had been taken by an enemy : so that the consul Pedius was forced to run about the streets all the night, to quiet the minds and appease the fears of the people; and, as soon as it was light, published the names of the seventeen who were principally sought for, with an assurance of safety and in- demnity to all others : but he himself was so shocked and fatigued by the horror of this night's work, that he died the day following". We have no hint from any of Cicero's letters (for none remain to us of so low a date), what his sentiments were on this interview of the three " Appian. 1. iv. iflit. ; Dio, p. 320 ; Plut. in Anton, ct Cic. ; fell. Put. ii. 65. chiefs, or what resolution he had taken in con- sequence of it. He could not but foresee that it must needs be fatal to him, if it passed to the satisfaction of Antony and Lepidus; for he had several times declared, that he expected the last severity from them if ever they got the better. But whatever he had cause to apprehend, it is certain that it was still in his power to avoid it, by going over to Brutus in Macedonia : but he seems to have thought that remedy worse than the evil ; and had so great an abhorrence of enter- ing again, in his advanced age, i»to a civil war, and so little value for the few years of life which remained to him, that he declares it a thousand times better to die than to seek his safety from camps P : and he was the more indifferent about what might happen to himself, since his son was removed from all immediate danger by being already with Brutus. The old historians endeavour to persuade us that Csesar did not give him up to the revenge of his col- leagues without the greatest reluctance, and after a struggle of two days to preserve himi : but all that tenderness was artificial, and a part assumed, to give the better colour to his desertion of him. For Cicero's death was the natural effect of their union, and a necessary sacrifice to the common interest of the three : those who met to destroy liberty must come determined to destroy him, since his authority was too great to be suffered in an enemy ; and ex- perience had shown that nothing could make him a friend to the oppressors of his country. Csesar therefore was pleased with it undoubt- edly as much as the rest ; and when his pretended squeamishness was overruled, showed himself more cruel and bloody in urging the proscription than either of the other two'. " Nothing," says Vel- leius, " was so shameful on this occasion as that Cffisar 'Should be forced to proscribe any man, or that Cicero especially should be proscribed by him"." But there was no force in the case : for though, to save Csesar's honour, and to extort as it were Cicero from him, Lepidus gave up his own brother, Faullus, and Antony his uncle, L. Ceesar, who were both actually put into the list, yet neither of them lost their lives, but were protected from any harm by the power of their relations'. If we look back a little, to take a general view of the conduct of these triumvirs, we shall see Antony, roused at once by Csesar's death from the midst of pleasure and debauch, and a most abject obsequi- ousness to Csesar's power, forming the true plan of his interest, and pursuing it with a surprising vigour and address ; till, after many and almost insupera- ble difficulties, he obtained the sovereign dominion which he aimed at. Lepidus was the chief instru- ment that he made use of, whom he employed very successfully at home till he found h imself in condi- P Keipublicffi vicem dolebo, quae immortalia esse debet ; mihi quidem quantulum reliqui est? [Ad. Brut. 10.] tTcov ergo in caslra? millies mori melius, huic praBsertim ictati : [Ad Att. xiv. 22.] sed abesse banc ictatem longo a sepul- chre negant oportere. — ^Ibid. xvi. 7. 1 Plut. in Cic. ; Veil. Pat. ii. 66. ' Restitit allquandiu coUegis, ne qua fieret proscriptio, sed icceptam utroque acerbius^ exereuit, Sec. — Suet, in Aug. 27. 8 Nihil tam hidignum illo tempore f uit, quam quod aut Ciiear aliquem proscribei'e eoactus est, aut ab illo Cicero proscriptus est. — Veil. Pat. ii. 60'. t Appian. 1. iv. 610; Dio, 1. xlvii. 330. i; 29C THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF tionto support his pretensions alone, and then sent to the other side of the Alps, that, in case of any disaster in Italy, he might be provided with a secure resource in his army. By this management, he had ordered his affairs so artfully, that, by con- quering at Modena, he would have made himself probably the sole master of Rome ; while the only difference of bejng conquered was, to admit two partners with him into the empire ; the one of whom at least he was sure always to govern. Octavius's conduct was not less politic or vigor- ous : he had great parts, and an admirable genius, with a dissimulation sufficient to persuade that he had good inclinations too. As his want of years and authority made it impossible for him to succeed immediately to his uncle's power, so his first busi- ness was to keep the place vacant tiU he should be more ripe for it, and to give the exclusion in the mean while to everybody else. With this view, he acted thp republican with great gravity ; put himself under the direction of Cicero ; and was wholly governed by his advice as far as his interest carried him — that is, to depress Antony, and drive him out of Italy ; who was his immediate and most danger- ous rival. Here he stopped short, and paused awhile tp consider what new' measures this new state of things would suggest : when, by the unex- pected death of tlie two consuls, finding himself at oncei the master of everything at home, and Antony, by the help of Lepidus, rising again the stronger from' his fall, he saw presently that his best chance for empire was to content himself with a share of' it till he should be in condition to seize the whole ; and from the same policy with which he joined himself with the republic to destroy Antony, he now joined with Antony to oppress the republic as the best means of securing and advancing his own power. Lepidus was the dupe of them both ; a vain, weak, inconstant man, incapable of empire, yet aspiring to the possession of it, and abusing the most glorious opportunity of serving his country, to the ruin both of his country and himself. His wife was the sister of M. Brutus, and his true interest lay in adhering to that alliance : for if, by the advice of Laterensis, he had joingd with Plancus and D. Brutus to oppress Antony, and give liberty to Rome,, the merit of that service, addfed to the dignity of his family and fortunes, would necessa- rily have jnade him the first cifizen of a free re- public. But his weakness deprived him of that' glory : he flattered himself that the first share of power which he seemed at present to possess would give him likewise the first share of empire, not considering that military power depends on the reputation and abilities of him who possesses it : in which, as his colleagues far excelled him, so they would be sure always to eclipse, and, when- ever they thought it proper, to destroy him. This he found afterwards to be the case ; wlien Csesar forced him to beg his life upon his knees, though at the head of twenty legions, and deposed him from that dignity which he knew not how to sustain". Cicero was at his Tusculan villa, with his brother and nephew, when he first received the news of the proscription, and of their being included in it. It was the design of the triumvirate to keep it a secret if poss ible to the moment of execution, in order to " Spoliata, quam tueri non poterat, dignitas. — Veil, Pat. jj. 8, surprise those whom they had destined to destruc tion before they were aware of the danger, or had time to escape. But some of Cicero's friends found means to give him early notice of it ; upon which he set forward presently with his ' brother and nephew towards Astura, the nearest villa which he . had upon the sea, with intent to ttansport themselves directly out of the reach of their enemies. But Qnintus being wholly unprepared for so sudden a voyage, resolved to turn back with his son to Rome, in confidence of lying concealed there till they could provide money and necessaries for their support abroad. Cicero in the mean while found a vessel Teady for him at Astura, in which he pfesently embarked : but the winds being cross and turbu- lent, and the sea wholly uneasy to him, after he had sailed about two leagues along the coast, he landed at Circ'seum, and spent a night near that place in great anxiety and irresolution : thS ques- tion was, what course he should steer, and whether he should fly to Brutus, or to Cassius, or to S. POm- peiiis ; but after all his deliberations, none of them pleased him so much as the expedient of dying^ : so that, as Plutarch says, he had some thoughts of returning to the city, and killing himself in Ciesar's house, in order to leave the guilt and curse of his blood upon CseSar's perfidy and ingratitude : but the importunity of his servants prevailed with him to sail forwards to Cajeta, where he went again on shore to repose himself in his Formian villa, about a mile from the coast, weary of life and the sea ; and declaring that he would die in that country which he had so often saved y. Here he slept soundly fbr several hours ; though, as some writers tell us, " a great number of crows were fluttering all the while, and making a strange noise about his windows, as if to rous'e and warn him of his ap- proaching fate ; and that one of them made its way into the chamber, and pulled away his very bed-' clothe* ; tin his slaves, admonished by this prodigy, and ashamed to see brute creatures more solicitous for his safety than themselves, forced him into his litter, or portable chair," and carried him away towards the ship, through the private ways and' walks of his woods ; having just heard that soldiers were already come into the country in quest of him, and not far from the villa. As soon as they were gone, the soldiers arrived at the house ; and per- ceiving him to be fled, pursued immediately towards the sea, and overtook him in the wood. Their leader was one Popilius Lsenas, a tribune, or colonel of the army, whom Cicero had formerly defended and preserved in a capital cause. As soon as the soldiers appeared, the servants prepared themselves t6 fight, being resolved to defend their master's life at the hazard of their own ; but Cicero commanded them to set him down, and to make no resistance^ : then looking upon his executioners -with a presence and firmness which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck as forwardly as he could out of * Cremutius Cordus ait, Ciceroni, cum cogitasset, unumne Brutum, an Cassium, an S. Pompeium peteret, omnia displieuisse praster mortem. — Senec. Suasor. 6. y Taedium tandem earn et fugac et vitffi cepit: resressus- que ad superiorem villam, quae paullq^plus mille passibus a mari abest, moria}' inquit in patria, sape servata*^ Liv. Fragm. apud Senec. Suasor. 1 ; it. Plut. in Cic. * Satis Constat servus fortitor fideliterque paratos fuiase ad dimicandum : ipsmn depooi Icctieam, et quietos patio quod sors iniqua cogeret, jussiase. — ^Liv. Fragm. ibid. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 291 the litter, he bade them do their work, and take what they wanted. Upon which they presently cut off his head and both his hands, and returned with them in all haste and great joy towards Rome, as the most agreeable present which they could possi- bly carry to Antony. Popilius charged himself with the conveyance, without reflecting on this infamy of carrying that head which had saved his own". He found Antony in the forum, surrounded with guards and crowds of people ; but upon showing from a distance the spoils which he brought, he was rewarded upon the spot with the honour of a crown and about eight thousand pounds sterling. Antony ordered the head to be fixed upon the rostra, between the two hands : a sad spectacle to the city, and what drew tears from every eye ; to see those mangled members, which used to exert themselves so gloriously from that place in defence of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of the Koman people, so lamentably exposed to the scorn of sycophants and traitors. " The deaths of the rest," says an historian of that age, " caused only a private and particular sorrow ; but Cicero's, a universal oney." It was a triumph over the repub- lic itself; and seemed to confirm and establish the perpetual slavery of Rome. Antony considered it as such ; and, satiated with Cicero's blood, de- clared the proscription at an end. He was killed on the seventh of December, about ten days from the' settlement of the triumvirate ; after he had lived sixty-three years, eleven months, and five days ^. SECTION XII. The story of Cicei^o's death continued fresh on the minds of the Romans for many ages after it ; and was delivered down to posterity, vrith all its circumstances, as one of the most affecting and memorable events of their history : so that the spot on which it happened seems to have been visited by travellers with a kind of religious rever- ence ". The odium of it fell chiefly on Antony ; yet it left a stain of perfidy and ingratitude also' on Augustus : which explains the reason of that silence which is observed about him by the writers of that age ; and why his name is not so much as men- tioned either by Horace or Virgil. For though his character would have furnished a glorious subject for many noble lines, yet it was no subject for court poets ; since the very mention of him must have been a satire on the prince, especially while Antony lived, among the sycophants of whose court it was fas hionable to insult his memory by all the ^ Ea earcina, tanquam opimis epoliis, alacer in urlieni reversus est. Neque ei scelestmn portanti onus Buceurrit, illud so caput ferre, quod pro capite ejus quondam perora- verat.— Val. Max. v. 3. y Cifiterorumque cedes privatosluctus excitaTeniut ; ilia una communem. — fCremutius Cordus, apud Senec.^ Civi- tas lacrymas tenerc non potuit, quum recisum Ciceronis caput in illis suis roBtris videretur. — Plor. iv. 6. » Phrl. in Cic ; Veil. Pat. ii. 64 ; Liv. Fragm. apud Seneo. ; Appian. 1. iv. 601 ; Die, 1. xlvii. p. 330 ; Pighii AnnaL ad A.U. 710. * Stepe Clodio Ciceronem oxpellentl et Antonio occidenti, vidcmur irasci, — Sen. De Ira. ii. 2. KtK4pti)v — ipeiyav els "lSlov xwptflv, t Kaff icTTopiay ToCSe ToD iriSovt elSoc— App. p. COO. " methods of calumny that wit and malice could in- vent : nay Virgil, on an occasion that could hardly fail of bringing him to his mind, instead of doing justice to his merit, chose to do an injustice rather to Rome itself, by yielding the superiority of eloi quence to the Greeks, which they themselves had been forced to yield to Cicero''. Livy however, whose candour made Augustas call him a Pompeian '^, while, out of complaisance to the times, he seems to extenuate the crime of Cicero's murder, yet, after a high encomium of his virtues, declares, " that to praise him as he de- served, required the eloquence of Cicero himself." Augustus too, as Plutarch teUs us, happening one day to catch his grandson reading one of Cicero's books, which, for fear of the emperor's displeasure, the boy endeavom'ed to hide under his gown, took the book into his hands, and turning over a great part of it gave it back again, and said, " This was a learned man, my child, and a lover of his country"^." In the succeeding generation, as the particular envy to Cicero subsided by the death of those whom private interests and personal quarrels had engaged to hate him when living, and defame him when dead, so his name and memory began to shine out in its proper lustre : and in the reign even of Tiberius, when an eminent senator and historian, Cremutius Cordus, was condemned to die for praising Brutus, yet Paterculus could not forbear breaking out into tbe follovving warm ex- postulation with Antony on the subject of Cicero's death : " Thou hast done nothing, Antony ; hast done nothing, I say, by setting a price on that divine and illustrious head, and, by a detestable reward, procuring the death of so great a consul and preserver of the republic. Thou hast snatched from Cicero a troublesome being ; a declining age ; a Ufe more miserable under thy dominion than death itself ; but so far from diminishing the glory of his deeds and sayings, thou hast increased it. He lives, and will live, in the memory of all ages ; and as long as this system of nature, whether by chance or providence, or what way soever formed, which he alone of all the Romans comprehended in his mind and illustrated by his eloquence, shall remain entire, it will draw the praises of Cicero along with it ; and all posterity will admire his writings against thee, curse thy act against him'." From this period all the Roman writers, whether poets or historians, seem to vie with each other in celebrating the praises of Cicero as the most 1» — Orabunt causas melius, &o.— -^n. vi. 849. c — T. Livius Cn. — ^Pompeium tantis, laudibus tulit, ut Pompeianum eum Augustus appcllaret — Tae. Ann. iv. 34. ^ Si quis tamen virtutibus vitia pcnsarit, vir magnus, acer, memorabilis fuit, et in cujus laudes sequendas Cice- rone laudatore opus fuerit. — Liv. Fragm. apud Senec. Suasor. 6. = Plut. in Cic— There is another story of the same kind recorded by Macrobius, to show Augustus's moderation with regard also to Cato : that Augustus being one day in the house which had belonged to Cato, where the master of it, out of compliment to his great guest, took occasion to reflect on Cato's perversoness, he stopped him short by saying, that he who would svffer no change in the constitu- tion (if his dtp, was a good citizen, and honest man -• but by this character of Cato's honesty, ho gave a severe wound to his own, who not only changed but usurped the govern- ment of his country. — Maerob. Saturn, ii. 4. ' Veil. Pat. ii. 66. i U 2 292 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF illustrious of all their patriots, and the parent of the Roman wit and eloquence ; who had done more honour to his country by his writings than all their conquerors by their arms ; and extended the bounds of their learning beyond those of their empires. So that their very emperors, near three centuries after his death, began to reverence him in the class of their inferior deities'" : a rank which he would have preserved to this day, if he had happened to live in papal Rome, where he could not have failed, as Erasmus says, from " the innocence of his life, of obtaining the honour and title of a saint'." As to his person, he was tall and slender, with a neck particularly long ; yet his features were regu- lar and manly, preserving a comeliness and dignity to the last, with a certain air of cheerfulness and serenity that imprinted both affection and respect i". His constitution was naturally weak, yet was so confirmed by his management of it as to enable him to support all the fatigues of the most active as well as the most studious life with perpetual health and vigour. The care that he employed upon his body consisted chiefly in bathing and rub- bing, with a few turns every day in his gardens for the refreshment of his voice from the labour of the bar' : yet, in the summer, he generally gave him- self the exercise of a journey, to visit his several estates and villas in different parts of Italy. But his principal instrument of health was diet and temperance : by these he preserved himself from all violent distempers ; and when he happened to be attacked by any slight indisposition, used to enforce the severity of his abstinence, and starve it presently by fasting"". In his clothes and dress, which the wise have usually considered as an index of the mind, he ob- served what he prescribes in his book of " Offices," a modesty and decency adapted to his rank and character^ a perpetual cleanliness, without the appearance of pains ; free from the affectation of singularity ; and avoiding the extremes of a rustic negligence and foppish delicacy" : both of which are equally contrary to true dignity — the one im- plying an ignorance, or illiberal contempt of it — the other, a childish pride and ostentation of pro- claiming onr pretensions to it. In his domestic and social life, his behaviour was very amiable : he was a most indulgent parent, a sincere and zealous friend, a kind and generous master. His letters are full of the tenderest ex- S Facundiae, latiarumque literai'um parens — atque — omnium triumphoruni lauream adepte majoreni, quanto plus est ingcnii Romani terminos in tantum promovisse, quam imperii.— Plln. Hist. Nat. vii. 30. Qui eCfecit, ne quorum araia viceramus, corum ingenio vinceremur.' — VelL Pat. ii. 34. *" Lampiid. vit. Alex, Sever, c. xxxi. ' Quern arbitror, si Cliristianam philosophiam didicisset, in eorum numero censendum fuisse, qui nunc ob vitam innocenter piequo transactam, pro Divis honorantur.' — Erasm. Ciceronian. vers.Jincm, ^ Ei quidem facies decora ad senectutem, prosperaque- permansit valetudo — Asin. Poll, apud Senec. Suasor. fi. 1 Cum recreandffivoeulje causa, mihi necesse esset ambu- lave.— Ad Att. ii. 23 ; Plut in Cic. "> Oum quidem bidaum ita jejunus fuissem, ut ne aquam qtiidem gustaram. — Ep. Fam. vii. 2C : Plut. in Cic. n Adhibenda mundltia uon odios.a, neque exquisita nimit ; tantum qua fugiat agrestem et Inlmmauam negli- Rcntiiim. Eadem ratio est habenda vestitus : in quo, sicut in plcrisqiie rebus, mediociitas optima est— l)e Offic. i. .10. pressions of his love for his children ; in whose endearing conversation, as he often tells us, he used to drop all his cares, and relieve himself from all his struggles in the senate and the forum". The same affection, in an inferior degree, was extended also to his slaves, when by their fidelity and services they had recommended themselves to his favour. We have seen a remarkable instance of it in Tiro, whose ease was no otherwise different from the rest than as it was distinguished by the superiority of his merit. In one of his letters to Atticus, " I have nothing more (says he,) to write ; and my mind, indeed, is somewhat rufHed at pre- sent, for Sositheus my reader is dead — a hopeful youth, — which has afflicted me more than one would imagine the death of a slave ought to do p." He entertained very high notions of friendship, and of its excellent use and benefit to human life, which he has beautifully illustrated in his entertain- ing treatise on that subject ; where he lays down no other rules than what he exemplified by his prac- tice. For in all the variety of friendships in which his eminent rank engaged him, he was never charged with deceiving, deserting, or even slighting any one whom he had once called his friend, or esteemed an honest man. It was his delight to advance their prosperity, to relieve their adversity ; the same friend to both fortunes ; but more zealous only in the bad, where his help was the most wanted, and his services the most disinterested ; looking upon it not as a friendship, but a sordid traffic and mer- chandise of benefits, where good offices are to be weighed by a nice estimate of gain and loss'. He calls gratitude the mother of virtues ; reckons it the most capital of all duties ; and uses the words grateful and good as terms synonymous, and inse- parably united in the same character. His writings abound with sentiments of this sort, as his life did with the examples of them'; so that one of his friends, in apologising for the importunity of a request, observes to him with great truth, that *' the tenor of his life would be a sufficient excuse for it, since he had established such a custom of doing everything for his friends, that they no longer requested, but claimed a right to command him'." Yet he was not more generous to his friends than placable to his enemies, — readily pardoning the greatest injuries upon the slightest submission; and though no man ever had greater abilities or opportunities of revenging himself, yet when it was in his power to hurt he sought out reasons to ° Ut tantum requietis habeam, quantum cum uxore, et fiUola, et mellito Cicerone consumitur. — Ad Att i. 18. V Nam puer festivus, anagnostes noster, Sositheus dccesserat, meque plus quam servi mors debere videbatur, commoverat — Ad Att i. 12. q Ubi ilia saucta amicitia ? si non ipse amicus per so amatur toto pectore. [De Leg. i. 18.] quam si ad frnctum nostrum referemus, non ad illius commoda, quem diligi- mus, non erit ista amicitia, sed mercatm-a quEedam utili' tatum suarum. — De Nat. Deor. i. 44. f Cum omnibus virtutibus me afTectum esse eupiam, tamen nihil est quod mallm, quam me et gratum esse et videri. Est enim hsee una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum omnium — quse potest esse jueundi- tas vitae sublatis amicitiis ? quae porro amicitia potest esse inter ingratos?— Pro Plane. 33 ; DeFiu. ii. 22. s Nam quod ita consueris pro amicis labornre, non jam sic speraut abs te, sed etiam sic imperant tibi famiUares. — Ep. Fam. vl. 7. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 293 forgive, and whenever he was invited to it never declined a reconciliation with his most inveterate enemies, of which there are numerous instances in his history. He declared nothing to be more laudable and worthy of a great man than placa- bility ; and laid it down for a natural duty to moderate our revenge and observe a temper in punishing, and held repentance to be a sufficient ground for remitting it : and it was one of his sayings, delivered to a public assembly, that his enmities were mortal, his friendships immortal'. His manner of living was agreeable to the dignity of his character, — splendid and noble ; his house was open to all the learned strangers and philoso- phers of Greece and Asia, several of whom were constantly entertained in it as part of his family, and spent their whole lives with him''. His levee was perpetually crowded with multitudes of all ranks ; even Pompey himself not disdaining to frequent it. The greatest part came, not only to pay their compliments, but to attend him on days of business to the senate or the fornm, where upon anydebate or transaction of moment they constantly waited to conduct him home again ; but on ordinary days when these morning visits were over, as they usually were before ten, he retired to his books and shut himself up in his library, without seeking any other diversion but what his children afforded to the short intervals of his leisure". His supper was his greatest meal, and the usual season with all the great of enjoying their friends at table, which was frequently prolonged to a late hour of the night; yet he was out of his bed every morning before it was light, and never used to sleep again at noon as all others generally did, and as it is commonly practised in Rome to this day?. But though he was so temperate and studious, yet when he was engaged to sup with others, either at home or abroad, he laid aside his rules and forgot the invaUd, and was gay and sprightly, and the very soul of the company. When friends were met together, to heighten the comforts of social life, he thought it inhospitable not to contribute his share to their common mirth, or to damp it by a churlish reservedness. But he was really a lover * Est enim ulciscendi et puniendi modus. Atque hand scio, an satis sit, eum, qui laeessierit, injuriai suae poeni-* tcre. [De Offio. i. 11.] nihil enim laudabilius, niliil magno vjro dignius, placabilitate et dementia — ^Ibid. 2-5. Cum parcerevel Iffidere potuissem, ignoscendi qusercbam causas, non puniendi occasiones. — Fragm. Cic. ex Marcel- lino. Neque vero me poenitet mortales inimicitias, eempiter- nas amicitias habere.— Pro C. Ilabir. Post. 12. ^ Doctissimorum hominum familiaritates, quibus sem- per domus nostra floruit., et principes iUi, Diodotus, Philo, Antiochus, Posidoniua, a quibus iustituti sumus.— De Nat. Deor. i. 3. Eram eimi Diodoto Stoico ; qui cum habitavisset apud me, mecumque vixisset, nuper est domi meae mortuus. — Brat. 433. * Cum bene completa domus est tempore matutino, cum ad forum stipati greglbus, amicorum dcscendimus. — Ad Att. 1 18. Mane salutamus domi bonos vii'os multos — ubi salutatio defluxit Uteris me involvo. [Ep. fam. ix. 20.] Cum salu- tationi nos dedimus amicorum — abdo me in bibliothecam. — Ep. Fam. vii. 28. Post boram quartam molesti caeteri non sunt.— Ad Att. ii. 14. y Nunc quidem propter intennisaionem forensis operffi, et lucubrationes detraxi et meridiationes addidi, quibus uti antea non solebam. — De Div. ii. 58. of cheerful entertainments, being of a nature remarkably facetious, and singularly turned to raillery', a talent which was of great service to him at the bar, to correct the petulance of an adversary, relieve the satiety of a tedious cause, divert the minds of the judges, and mitigate the rigour of a sentence, by making both the bench and audience merry at the expense of the accuser ^ This use of it was always thought fair, and greatly applauded in public trials ; but in private conversations he was charged sometimes with pushing his raillery too far, and, through a con- sciousness of his superior wit, exerting it often intemperately, without reflecting what cruel wounds his lashes inflicted''. Yet of all his sarcastical jokes, which are transmitted to us by antiquity, we shall not observe any but what were pointed against characters either ridiculous or profligate, such as he despised for their follies or hated for their vices ; and though he might provoke the spleen and quicken the malice 'Of enemies more than was con- sistent with a regard to his own ease, yet he never appears to have hurt or lost a friend, or any one whom he valued, by the levity of jesting. It is certain that the fame of his wit was as celebrated as that of his eloquence, and that several spurious collections of his sayings were handed about in Rome in his lifetime'^; till his friend Trebonius, after he had been consul, thought it worth while to pubUsh an authentic edition of them in a 'volume which he addressed to Cicero himself''. Csesar likewise, in the height of his power, having taken a fancy to collect the apophthegms or memorable sayings of eminent men, gave strict orders to all his friends who used to frequent Cicero, to bring him everything of that sort which happened to drop from him in their company*. But Tiro, Cicero's freedman, who served him chiefly in his studies and literary affairs, published after his death the most perfect collection of his sayings, in three books ; where Quintilian however wishes that he had been more sparing in the number and judicious in the choice of them^. 2 Epo autem, existimes quod lubet, mirifice capior facetiis, maxime nostratibus. [Ep. Fam. ix. 16.] Nee id ad voluptatem refero, sed ad communitatem vitae atque victus, remissionemque animorum, qua; maxime sermono efficitur familiari, qui est in eonviviis dulcissimus [Ibid. 24.] convivio delector. Ibi loquor quod in solum, ut dicitur, et gemitum etiam in risus maximoa transfero.' — ^Ibid. 26. » — SUavia eat et vehementer saipe utilis jocus et facetiae — ^nmltum in causia peraaepe lepore et facetiis profici vidi. — De Orat. ii. 54. Quas risum judicis movendo et iilos tristes solvit affectus, et animum ab intentione rerum frequenter avertit, et aliquando etiam reficit, et a satietate vel a fatigationo renovat. — Quint, vi. 3. 1» Noster vero non solum extra judicia, sed in ipaia etiam orationibua habitus est nimius risus affectator. — ^Ibid. ; Pint, in Cic. c Ais enim, ut ego discesaerim, omnia omnium dicta— in me conferri. — Ep. Fam. vii. 32 ; it. ix. 16, ^ Liber iate, quem mihi misiati, quantum habet decla- rationem amoria tui ? piimum, quod tibi facetum videtur quicquid ego dixi, quod aliis fortasse non item : deinde, quod ilia, sive faceta sunt, aive sic fiunt, narrante te, venuatlssima.— Ep. Fam. xv. 21. ^ Audio CKsorem, cum volumina jam confecerit OTro- iiSiyilArav, si quod afferatur pro meo, quod meum non sit, rejlcere solere— haeo ad iUum cam rcliquis actis per- feruntur ; ita enim ipse mandavit.— Ep. Fam. ix. 16. f Utinam libertus ejus Tiro, aut alius quisqms fmt, o^m 294 I'HE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF None of these books are now remaining, nor any other specimen of the jests but what are incidentally scattered in different parts of his own and other people's writings, which, as the same judicious critic observes, through the change of taste in different ages, and the want of that action or gesture v.fhich gave the chief spirit to many of them, could never be explained to advantage, though several had attempted it. How much more cold then and insipid must they needs appear to us, who are unacquainted with the particular characters and stories to which they relate, as well as the peculiar fashions, humour, and taste of wit in that age ? Yet even in these, as Quintilian also tells us, as well as in his other compositions, people would sooner find what they might reject than what they could add to themS. He had a great number of fine houses in different parts of Italy ; some writers reckon up eighteen, — which, excepting the family-seat at Arpinum, seem to have been all purchased or built by himself. They were situated generally near to the sea, and placed at proper distances along the lower coast between Rome and Pompeii, which was about four leagues beyond Naples ; and for the elegance of structure and the delights of their situation, are .called by him the eyes, or the beauties, of Italy'. Those in which he took the most pleasure and usually spent some part of every year, were his TuscuJum, Antium, Astura, Arpinum ; his Formian, Cuman, Puteolan, and Pompeian villas, all of them large enough for the reception not only of his own family but of his friends and numerous guests, many of whom of the first quality used to pass several days with him in their excursions from Rome. But besides these that may properly be reckoned seats, with large plantations and gardens around them, he had several little inns, as he calls them, or baiting-places on the road, built for his accommodation in passing from one house to an- other . His Tusculan house had been Sylla's the dictator, and in one of its apartments had a painting of his memorable victory near Nola, in the Marsic war, in which Cicero had served under him as a volunteer"^. It was about four leagues from Rome, on the top of a beautiful hill, covered with the villas of the nobility, and affording an agreeable prospect of the city and the countiy around it; with plenty of water flowing through his grounds in a large stream or canal, for which he paid a rent to the corporation of Tusculum'. Its neighbour- hood to Rome gave him the opportunity of a retreat at any hour from the fatigues of the bar or the senate, to breathe a little fresh air and divert him- tres hac de re libros edidit, parcius dictorum numero indulsisset^-et plus judicii in eligendia, quam in conge- rendis studii adhibuisset.' — Quint, vi. 3. e Qui tamen nunc quoque, ut in omni ejus ingenio, facilius quid rejici, quam quid adjici possit, invement. — Ibid. ; vide etiam Macrob. Sat. ii. 1. ' Quodque temporis in prjediolis nostris, et belle sdifi- catis, et- satis amcenis consumi potuit, in peregrinatlone coDsumunus [Ad Att. xvi. 3.] cm* ocellos Italiae, villulas meas non video ? — Ibid. 6. » Ego aecepi in diversoriolo Binuessano, tuas literas. Ad Att. xiv. 8. ^ Id'que etiam in villa sua Tusculana, quae postea fuit CiCERONrs, Sylla pinxit, — Plin. Hist. Nat. xxii. 6. • Ego Tusculanis pi-o Aqva Crahra vectigal pendam, quia a nnmicipio fimdum accepi. — Con. Hull. iii. 2, self with his friends or family ; so that this was the place in which he took the most delight and spent the greatest share of his leisure, and for that reason improved and adorned it beyond all his other houses'". When a greater satiety of the city or a longer vacation in the forum disposed him to seek a calmer scene and more undisturbed retirement, he used to remove to Antium or Astm'a. At Antium he placed his best collection of books, and as it was not above thirty miles from Rome, he could have daily intelligence there of everything that passed in the city. Astura was a little island at the mouth of a river of the same name about two leagues farther towards the south, between the promontories of Antium and Circseum, and in the view of them both ; a place peculiarly adapted to the purposes of solitude and a severe retreat, covered with a thick wood cut out into shady walks, in which he used to spend the gloomy and splenetic moments of his life. In the height of summer the mansion-house at Arpinum and the little island adjoining, by the advantage of its groves and cascades, afforded the best defence against the inconvenience of the heats; where, in the greatest that he bad ever remembered, we find him refreshing himself, as he writes to his brother, with the utmost pleasure, in the cool stream of his Fibrenus". His other villas were situated in the more public parts of Italy, where all the best company of Rome had their houses of pleasure. He had two at Formise, a lower and upper villa, the one near to the port of Cajeta, the other upon the mountains adjoining ; he had a third on the shore of Baiee, between the lake Avemus andPuteoli, which he calls his Puteolan ; a fourth on the hills of old Cumse, called his Cuman villa ; and a fifth at Pompeii, four leagues beyond Naples, in a country famed for the purity of its air, fertiUty of its soil, and delicacy of its fruits. His Puteolan house was built after the plan of the Academy at Athens, and called by that name, being adoraed with a portico and a grove, for the same use of philosophical conferences. Some time after his death it fell into the hands of Antistius Vetus, who repaired and improved it, when a spring of warm water, which happened to burst out in one part of it, gave occa- sion to the following epigram, made by Laurea TuUius, one of Cicero's freed men. Quo tua Romanas vindex clarissime linguae Sylva loco melius surgerejussaviret, ™ Quae mihi antea signa misisti,' — ea onmia in Tuscn- laUuni deportabo. [Ad Att. i. 4,] Nos ex omnibus labo- ribus et molestiis uno illo in loco conquiescimus. [Ibid. 5.] Nos Tusculano ita delectamiu-, ut nobismet ipsis turn denique, cum illo veninius, placeamus. — Ibid. 6. The situation of this Tusculan house, which had been built perhaps by Sylla, confirms what Seneca has observed of the villas of all the other great captains of Rome, Marius, Pompey, Ciesar ; that they were placed always on hills, or the highest gi-ound that they could find ; it being thought more military to command the view of the country beneath them, and that houses so situated had the appearance of a camp i*ather than a villa. [Seneo Epist. 51 .] But this delightful spot is now possessed by a convent of monks, called Grotta Ferrata, where they still show the remains of Cicero's columns and fine buildings, and the ducts of ^vate^ that flowed through his gardens. '^ Ego ex magnis caloribus, non emm meminimus ma- jores, in Ajpinati, summa cum amoenitate fiuminis, me refeci ludorum diebua.^Ad Quint Frat. iL 1. MARCUS TULLIOS CICERO 295 Atque Academix celebratara nomine villam Nupc reparat cultu sub potiore VetuB, Hie etiam apparent lymphas non ante reperta?, Languida qvite infuao linnina rore levant. Nimirimi locus ipse sul Ciceronis honori Hoc declit, hao fontes cmn patefecit ope. Ut quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem, Sint plures, oculis quae medeantur, aquae o. Wliere groves, once thine, nowwitli fresh verdure bloom, Great parent of the eloquence of Rome, And where thy Academy, favourite seat, Now to Antistius yields its sweet retreat, A gushing stream bursts out, of wondrous power. To heal the eyes, and weakeA'd sight restore^ The, place, which all its pride from Cicero drew, ,Kepay8 this honour to his memory due. That since his works throughout the world ,are spread. And with sucli eagerness by all are read. New springs of healing quality should rise. To ease the increase of labour to the eyes. The furniture of;Jiis houses was suitable to the elegance of his taste pad the magnificence pf his buildings ; his galleries were pdorned with statues and paintings of the best Grecian masters, and his vessels and moveables vfe^e of the best work and choicest materials. TJjerewas a cedar table of his remaining in Pliny's time, said to be the first which was, ever seen in .Rome, and to have cost him eighty poundsP. He thoujght it the part of an eminent citizen to preserve a uniformity nf cliajracter in every article pf his conduct, aiid to illustrate his dignity by the splendour of, his life. This was the reason of the great .variety of his bouses, and of their situation in the most conspicuous parts of Italy, along the course of the Appian road, that tb^y might occur at every stage to the observation of travellers, and lie commodious for the reception and entertainment of his friends. T|ie reader, perhaps, when he reflects on what the qld.writers have said of the mediocrity of his paternal estate, will be at aloss to conceive whence all his revenues .flowed that enabled him to sustain the ifast expense pf building and maintaining such a nuipber of noble houses; but the solution will be easy when we recollect the great oppqrtunities that he had qf improving his original fortunes. The two principal funds of wealth to the leading men qf Rome were, first, the public magistracies and » ,Plin. Hist. If at. xxxL 2. This villa was afterwards an imperial palace, possessed by the emperor Hadrian, who died and was buried in it ; where he is supposed to have breathed out that.last and celebrated adieu to his lilile pallida frigHtened, fluttering soul ' ; wliieh would have left liim with less regret, if, from Cicero's habitation on cartli, it liad known the way ■to those regions above, where Cicero probably still lives in tile fruition of endless happiness 2. P Extat libdie M. Ciceronis, in ilia paupertate, et quod magis mirum est, illo aevo empta H..S. x- [Plin. Hist. Nat. xiii. 15.] nuUius ante Giceronianam vetustior memoria est. —Ibid. 16. * Animula vagula, blandula, Hospes, eomesque corporis. Quae nunc ahibis in loca, Pallidula, rigida, nudula. Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos. . 3 JElii Spartian. Vita ,Hadr. 25. ^ TJbi nunc agat anima Ciceronis, fortaase non est human! judicii pronunciare: me certe non admodnm adversum habituri sint in ferendis ealculis, qui sperant, illmn apud supcros quietam vitam agere. — Erasm. Procem, in Tusc. Qu-Tst. ad Joh. Ulattcn. provincial commands ; secondly, the presents of kings, princes, and foreign states, whom they had obliged by their services and protection : and though no man was more moderate in the use of these advantages than Cicero, yet to one of his prudence, economy, and contempt of vicious pleasures, these were abundantly sufficient to answer all his ex- penses'!. For in his province ofiCilicia, after all the memorable instances of his generosity, by which he saved to the public afull million sterling, which all other governors had applied to their private use, yet at the expiration of his year he left in the hands of the publicans in Asia near twenty thousand pounds, reserved from the strict dues of his govern- ment, and remitted to him afterwards at Rome'. But there was another way of acquiring money esteemed the most reputable of any, which, brought .large and frequent suppHes to him, the legacies of deceased friends.. It was the peculiar custom of Rome for the clients and dependants of families to bequeath at their death to their patrons some con- siderable part of their estates, as the most. effectual testimony of their respect and gratitude ; and the more a man received in this way the more ,it re- dounded to his credit. Thus Cicero mentions it to the honour of LucuUus, that while he governed Asia as proconsul many great estates were left to him by will" ; and Nepos tells us, in praise of Atticus, that he succeeded to many inheritances of the same kind, bequeathed to him on no other account than of his friendly and amiable temper'. Cicero had his full share of these testamentary .donations, as we see from the many. instances of them mentioned in his letters" ; and whenhe was falsely reproached by Antony with being neglected on these occasions, he declared in his reply, *'that he had gained from this single article about two hundred thousand pounds, by the free and .volun- tary gifts of dying friends,— not the forgeil wills of persons unknovm to him, with which he charged Antony."'' His moral character was never blemished by the stain of any habitual vice ; hut was a shining pattern of virtue to an age of all others the most licentious and profligate''. HiSfmind was superior to all the sordid passions which engross little souls ; avarice, envy, malice, lust. If we sift his familiar letters we caimot discover iu them the least hint of anything base, immodest, spiteful, or perfidious ; but a uniform principle of benevolence, justice, love of his friends and country, flowing through the whole, and inspiring all his thoughts and actions. Though no man ever felt the effects of 1 Parva sunt. qua> desunt nostris quidem raoribus, et ea .sunt ad explicandum expeditissima, mode valeamus. — Ad, Quint. (Frat, ii. 15. r Ego in cistophoro in Asia habeo ad H. S, bis et vicies, hujus pecuniffl permutatione fidem nostram facile tuebere. —Ad Att. xi. 1. s Maximas audio tibi, L. LucuUe, pro tua eximia libe- ralltate, maximisque beneficiis in tuos, venlsse here4itate8. —Pro Placco, 34. t Multas enim hereditates nulla alia,re. quam bqnitate est consecutus. — Corn. Nep. in vit. Attic. 21. " Ad Att. iL 20 ; xi. 2. Pro Milone, 18. * Hereditates raihi negasti venire — ego enim amplius H. S. ducenties acceptum hereditatibus retuli-^me nemo, nisi amicus, fecit Iieredem — te is, quern tu vidisti nun- quam.' — Phi!, ii. 16. J Cum vita fuerit Integra, nee integra solum sod etiam casta. — Erasm. Epist. ad Joh. Ulattcn. •J96 TtlE HlSTOIty OF THE LIFE OF otl.er people's envy more severely than he, yet no man was ever more free from it. This is allowed to him by all the old writers, and is evident indeed from his works, where we find him perpetually praising and recommending whatever was laudable, even in a rival or an adversary ; celebrating merit wherever it was found, — whether in the ancients or his contemporaries, whether in Greeks or Romans, — and verifying a maxim which he had declared in a speech to the senate, that no man could be envious of another's virtue, who was conscious of his own*. His sprightly wit would naturally have recom- mended him to the favour of the ladies, whose company he used to frequent when young, and with many of whom of the first quality he was oft engaged in his riper years, to confer about the interests of their husbands, brothers, or relations, who were absent from Rome : yet we meet with no trace of any criminal gallantry, or intrigue with any of them. In a letter to Paetus, towards the end of his life, he gives a jocose account of his supping with their friend Volumnius, an Epicurean wit of the first class, when the famed courtesan, Cytheris, who had been Volumnius' slave, and was then his mistress, made one of the company at table : where, after several jokes on that incident, he says, that he never suspected that she would have been of the party ; and though he was always a lover of cheerful entertainments, yet nothing of that sort had ever pleased him when young, much less now, when he was old". There was one lady, however, called Cserellia, with whom he kept up a particular familiarity and correspondence of letters ; on which Dio, as it has been already hinted, absurdly grounds some little scandal, though he owns her to have been seventy years old. She is frequently men- tioned in Cicero's letters as a lover of books and philosophy ; and on that account, as fond of his company and writings : but while, out of com- plai.sance to her sex and a regard to her uncommon talents, he treated her always with respect ; yet by the hints which he drops of her to Atticus, it appears that she had no share of his affections, or any real authority with him''. His faiUngs were as few as were ever found in any eminent genius ; such as flowed from his con- stitution, not his .will ; and were chargeable rather to the condition of his humanity than to the fault of the man. Ke was thought to be too sanguine in prosperity, too desponding in adversity ; and apt to persuade himself, in each fortune, that it would never have an end''. This is Pollio's account of him, which seems in general to be true : Brutus touches the first part of it in one of his letters to him, and when things were going prosperously against Antony, puts him gently in mind that he * Declarafiti verum esse id, quod ego semper sensi, neminem alterius, qui sua conjideret, virtuti invidcre. PhU. X. 1 ; Plut. in Cic. o Mevero nihil istorumne juvenem quidem movitun- quam, ne nunc senem Ep. Fam. ix. 26. t Miriflcc Cserellia, studio videlicet philosophic flagrans, describit a tuis : istos ipsos de finibua habet. [Ad Att. xiii. 21.] CsereUise facile satisfeei ; nee valde laborarevisa est: et ai ilia, ego certe non laborarem. — Ibid. xv. 1 ; it. xii. 51. 14. 19 ; Ep. Pam. xiii. 72 ; Quint, vi. 3; Dio, 303. c tJtinam moderatius secundas res, et fortius adversas ferre potuisset ! namque utrseque cum venerant ei, mutavi eas non posse rebatur.— Asiii. Poll, apud Sen. Suasor. 6. seemed to trust too much to his hopes" : and he himself allows the second, and says, that if any one was timorous in great and dangerous events, apprehending always the worst, rather than hoping the best, he was the man ; and if that was a fault, confesses himself not to be free from it" : yet in explaining afterwards the nature of this timidity, it was such (he tells us) as showed itself rather in foreseeing dangers than in encountering them ; an explication which the latter part of his life fully confirmed, and above all his death, which no man could sustain with greater courage and resolution'. But the most conspicuous and glaring passion of his soul was, the love of glory and thirst of praise : a passion that he not only avowed, but freely indulged ; and sometimes, as he himself confesses, to a degree even of vanitys. This often gave his enemies a plausible handle of ridiculing his pride and arrogance'^ ; while the forwardness that he showed to celebrate his own merits in all his public speeches, seemed to justify their cen- sures : and since this is generally considered as the grand foible of his life, and has been handed down implicitly from age to age, without ever being fairly examined, or rightly understood, it will be proper to lay open the source from which the passion itself flowed, and explain the nature of that glory, of which he professes himself so fond. True glory, then, according to his own definition of it, is a wide and illustrious fame of many and great benefits conferred upon our frends, our country, or the whole race of mankind'. '* It is not (he says) the empty blast of popular favour, or the applause of a giddy multitude, which all wise men had ever despised, and none more than himself, but the consenting praise of all honest men, and the incorrupt testimony of those who can judge of excellent merit, which resounds always to virtue as the echo to the voice ; and since it is the general companion of good actions, ought not to be rejected by good men. That those who aspired to this glory were not to expect ease or pleasure, or tranquillity of life for their pains, but must give up their own peace to secure the peace of others ; must expose themselves to storms and dangers for the public good, sustain many battles with the audacious and the wicked, and some even with the powerful : in short, must behave themselves so as to give their citizens cause to rejoice that they had ever been bom''." This is th e notion which he inculcates " Qua in re, Cicero, vir optime ac fortissime, mihiquo merito et meo nomine et reipublicee carissime, nimis ci-e- dere videris spei tuee Brut, ad Cic. 4. •= Nam si quisquam est timidus in magnis perieulo- sisque rebus, seraperque magis adversos rerum exitus metuens, quam speraiis secundos, is ego sum : et si hoc vitium est, eo me non carere confiteor. — Ep.^am. vi. 14. ' Parum fortis videbatur quibusdam ; quibus optime respondit ipse, non se timiduni in suscipiendis, sed in provideudis periculis : quod probavit morte quoque ips.i, quam prasstantissimo suscepit animo.— Quint, xii. 1. e Nunc quoniam laudis aridissimi semper fuimus. [Ad Att. i. 15.] Quin etiam quod est subinane in nobis, ct non atpt\6do^ov, belhim est enim sua vitia nosse. [Ibid. ii. 17-] Sum etiam avidior etiam, quam satis est, gloria. — Ep. Fam. ix. 14. '' Et quoniam hoc reprehendis, quod solere me dicafl de me ipso gloriosus prffidicar& — Pro Domo, 35. > Si quidem gloria est illustris ac pervagata multorum et magnorum vel in sues, vel in patriam, vel in onme genus hominum fama meritorum. — Pro Marcello, 8. ^ Si quisquam fuit Lmquam remotus et natura, et magifl MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 297 everywhere of true glory, wliich is surely one of the noblest principles that can inspire a human breast ; implanted by God in our nature to dignify and exalt it, and always found the strongest in the best and most elevated minds ; and to which we owe everything great and laudable that history has to offer to us, through all the ages of the heathen world. " There is not an instance (says Cicero) of a man's exerting himself ever with praise and virtue in the dangers of his country, who was not drawn to it by the hopes of glory, and a regard to posterity'." " Give me a boy (says Quintilian) whom praise excites, whom glory warms ;" for such a scholar was sure to answer all his hopes, and do credit to his discipline". " Whether posterity will have any respect for me (says Pliny), I know not ; but am sure that I have deserved some from it : I will not say by my wit, for that would be arrogant ; but by the zeal, by the pains, by the reverence, which I have always paid to if." ■It will not seem strange to observe the wisest of the ancients pushing this principle to so great a length, and considering glory as the amplest re- ward of a well-spent life"; when we reflect that the greatest part of them had no notion of any other reward or futurity j and even those who believed a state of happiness to the good, yet entertained it with so much diffidence, that they indulged it rather as a wish, than a well-grounded hope, and were glad, therefore, to lay hold on that which seemed to be within their reach, a futurity of their own creating ; an immortality of fame and glory from the applause of posterity. This, by a pleasing fiction, they looked upon as a propagation of life, and an eternity of existence ; and had no small comfort in imagining, that though the sense of it should not reach to themselves, it would extend at least to others ; and that they should be doing good still when dead, by leaving the example of their virtues to the imitation of mankind. Thus etiam, ut mihi quidem sentire videor, ratione atqiie doo trina, ah inani laude et sermonibus vulgi, ego profecto is sum Ep. Fam. xv. 4. Est enim glooia — consentiens laus bonorum ; inoorrupta voi bene judicantium de excellente virtute : ea virluti resonat tanquam imago : quse quia recte factorum ple- riunque comes est, non est bonis vii'isrepudianda. — Tusc. Qusest. iii. 2. Qui autem bonam famam bonorum, quaa sola vera gloria nominari potest, expetunt, aliis otiimi qusrere debent et voluptates, non sibi. Sudandum est tiis pro commimibus commodis, adeundx inimicitis, subeundae sxpe pro republica tempestates. Cum raultis audacibus, ilnprobis, nomiimquam etiam potentibus, dimicandum. — Pro Sext 66. Carum esse civem, bene de republica mereri, laudari, coU, diligi, gloriosmn est — quare ita gubema rempublieam ut Datum esse te eives tui gaudeant : sine quo nee beatus, nee clarus quisquam esse potest. — Phil. i. ]4. ' Neque quisquam nostrum in reipublicje periculis, cum laude ac virtute versatur, quin spe posteritatis, fructuque ducatur.— Pro C. Rabir. 10. . "" Mihi detm' ille puer, quern laus excitet, quern gloria juvet. Hie erit alendus ambitu— in hoc desidiam nimquam verebor. — Quint, i. 3. ° — Posteris an aliqua cura nostril nescio. Nos certe meremur, ut sit aliqua : non dice, ingenio ; id enim super- bum ; sed studio, sed labore, sed reverentia posterum. — Plin. Ep. ° Sed tamen ex omnibus prjemils virtutis, si esset haiieada ratio prBemiorum, amplissimum esse praemium gloriam. Esse banc unam, quae brevitatem vitse posteri- tatis raemoria consolaretur. — Pro Milone, 35. Cicero, as he often declares, never looked upon that to be his life which was confined to this nar- row circle on earth, but considered his acts as seeds sown in the immense field of the universe, to raise up the fruit of glory and immortality to him through a succession of infinite ages : nor has he been frustrated of his hope, or disappointed of his end ; but as long as the name of Rome subsists, or as long as learning, virtue, and liberty preserve any credit in the world, he will be great and glorious in the memory of all posterity. As to the other part of the charge, or the proof of his vanity, drawn from his boasting so frequently of himself in his speeches both to the senate and the people, though it may appear to a common reader to be abundantly confirmed by his writings, yet if we attend to the circumstances of the times, and the part which he acted in them, we shall find it not only excusable, but in some degree even necessary. The fate of Rome was now brought to a crisis, and the contending parties were making their last efibrts either to oppress or preserve it. Cicero was the head of those who stood up for its liberty, which entirely depended on the influence of his counsels : he had many years, therefore, been the common mark of the rage and malice of all who were aiming at illegal powers, or a tyranny in the state ; and while these were generally sup. ported by the military power of the empire, he had no other arms or means of defeating them but his authority vrith the senate and people, grounded on the experience of his services and the persuasion of his integrity, so that, to obviate the perpetual calumnies of the factious, he was obliged to incul- cate the merit and good effects of his counsels, in order to confirm people in their union and ad- herence to them, against the intrigues of those who were employing all arts to subvert them. *' The frequent commemoration of his acts," says Quintilian, " was not made so much for gloiy as for defence ; to repel calumny, and vindicate his measures when they were attacked'." And this is what Cicero himself declared in all his speeches : "that no man ever heard him speak of himself but when he was forced to it : that when he was urged with fictitious crimes, it was his custom to answer them with his real services : and if ever he said anything glorious of himself, it was not through a fondness of praise, but to repel an accusationi : that no man who had been conversant in great affairs, and treated with particular envy, could refute the contumely of an enemy, without touching upon his own praises ; and after all his labours for the common safety, if a just indignation had drawn from him at anytimewhat might seem to be vain glorious, it might reasonably be forgiven to him ■■ : that when others were silent about him, if he could not p VigesimuB annus est, cum omnes scelerati me unum petunt.— Phil. xii. 10 ; vi. 6. At plerumque illud quoque non sine aliqua ratione fecit. — Ut illorum, quas egerat in consulatu frequens comme- moratio, posslt videri non gloriae magis qiiam defensioni data — plerumque contra inimicos atque obtrectatores plus vendicat sibi ; erant enim tuenda, cum objicerentur. — Quint, xi. 1. " q Quis unquam audivit, cum ego de me nisi coactus ac necessario dicerem? — dicdndum igitur est id, quod nort dlcerem nisi coactus: nihil enim unquam de me dixi sublatius ascisceUdsD laudis causa potius, quam crimmis depellondi— Pro Domo, 35, 36. ' Potest quisquam vii' in rebus magnis cum inridia 2Qd THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF then forbear to speak of himself, that indeed would be shameful ; but when he was injured, accused, exposed to popular odium, he must certainly be allowed to assert his liberty, if they would not suffer him to retain his dignity^/' This, then, was the true state of the case, as it is evident from the facts of his history : he had an ardent love of glory, and an eager thirst of praise : was pleased, when living, to hear his acts applauded ; yet more still with imagining that they would ever be celebrated when he was dead : a passion which, for the reasons already hinted, had always the greatest force on the greatest souls : but it must needs raise our con- tempt and indignation to see every conceited pedant and trifling complainer, who know little of Cicero's real character, and less still of their own, presuming to call him the vainest of mortals. But there is no point of light in which we can view him with more advantage or satisfaction to ourselves, than in the contemplation of his learn- ing, and the surprising extent of his knowledge. This shines so conspicuous in all the monuments which remain of him, that it even lessens the dig- nity of his general character, while the idea of the scholar absorbs that of the senator, and by con- sidering him as the greatest writer, we are apt to forget that he was the greatest magistrate also of Rome. We learn our Latin from him at school ; our style and sentiments at the college : here the generality take their leave of him, and sel- dom think of him more, but as of an orator, a moralist, or philosopher of antiquity- But it is with characters as with pictures ; we cannot judge well of a single part, without surveying the whole, since the perfection of each depends on its pro- portion aod relation to the rest ; while in viewing them altogether, they mutually reflect an additional grace upon each other. His learning, considered separately, wiU appear admirable, yet much more so, when it is found in the possession of the first statesman of a mighty empire : his abilities as a statesman are glorious ; yet surpjcise us still more, when they are observed in the ablest scholar and philosopher of his age : but a union of both these characters exhibits that sublime specimen of per- fection, to which the best parts with the best culture can exalt human nature*. No man, whose life had been wholly spent in study, ever left more numerous or more valuable fruits of his learning, in every branch of science and the politer arts ; in oratory, poetry, philosophy, law, history, criticism, politics, ethics ; in each of which he equalled the greatest masters of his time ; in some of them, excelled all men of all times™. His remaining works, as voluminous as versatuB, satis graviter contra inimicl coiitumeliam, sine sua laude respondere ? — Quanquam si me tantis laboribus pro eommuni salute tierfmictum efiferret aliquando ad gloriam in refutandis maledictis improborum hominum animi quidam dolor, quis non ignosceret ?— De Hams. Resp. 8. 9 Si, cum cffiteri de nobis sUent, non etiam nosraet ipsi tacomus, grave. Sed si lasdimur, si accusamur, si in invidiam vocamur, profecto concedetis, ut nobis libertatem retinere liceat, si minus liceat dignitatem.— Pro Syll. 29. t Cum ad natm-am eximiam atque iUustrem acoesserit ratio quaedam, conformatioque doctrinae, turn illud nescio quid prKclarum ac singulare solere existere.— Pro Arch. 7. " M. Cicero in libro, qui inscriptus est de jure civili in artem redigendo, verba hrecposuit^Aul. Gell. i. 22.j M. TulUus non modo inter agendum nunquam est destitutus they appear, are but a small part of what he really published ; and though many of these are come down to us maimed by time and the barbarity of the intermediate ages, yet they are justly esteemed the most precious remains of all antiquity; and like the Sibylline books, if more of them had perished, would have been equal still to any price. His industry was incrediblcj beyond the example or even conception of our days : this was the secret by which he performed such wonders, and recon- ciled perpetual study with perpetual affairs. He suffered no part of his leisure to be idle, or the least interval of it to be lost ; but what other people gave to the public shows, to pleasures, to feasts, nay, even to sleep, and thp ordinary refresh- ments of nature, he generally gave to his books, and the enlargement of his knowledge*. On days of business, when he had anything particular to compose, he had no other time for meditating, but when he was taking a few turns in his walks, where he used to dictate his thoughts to his scribes, who attended him y. We find many of his letters dated before day-light ; some from the senate, others from his meals, and the crowd of his morning levee ^. No compositions afford more pleasure than the epistles of great men : they touch the heart of the reader, by laying open that of the writer. The letters of eminent wits, eminent scholars, eminent statesmen, are all esteemed in their several kinds ; but there never was a collection that excelled so much in every kind as Cicero's, for the purity of style, the importance of the matter, or the dignity of the persons concerned in them. We have about a thousand still remaining, all written after he was forty years old ; which are but a small part, not only of what he wrote, but of" what were actually published after his death by his servant Tiro. For we see many volumes of them quoted by the ancients, which are utterly lost ; as the first book of his letters to Licinius Calvus ; the first, also, to Q. Axius ; a second book to his son ; a second, also, to Corn. Nepos ; n third book to J. Caesar; a third to Octavius ; and a third, also, to Pansa ; an eighth book t o M. Brutus ; and a niath to scientia juris, sed etiam componere aliqua de eo cceperat. [Q,uint. xii. 3.] At M. Tullium, non ilium habemus Euphranorem, circa plurium artium species praestantem* sed in omnibus, qua; in quoque laudantur, eminentissi- mum. — Ibid. 10. X Quantum ceteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad festos dies ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad a^^s volup- tates, et ipsam requiem animi et coi-poria conceditur tem- porum : quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis : quantum denique aleae, quantum pilae, tantuip, mlhi ego- met ad base studia repolenda sumsero.^Pro Arch. 6. Cui fuerit ne otimn quidem unquam otiosum. Nam quas tu eommemoras legere te solere orationes, cum oti- osus sis, has ego scripsi ludis et feriis, ne onmino unquam essem otiosu^.— Pro Plancio, 2?. y Ita quicquid conficio aut cogito, in ambulationis fere tempus confero. [Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 3.] Nam cum vacui temporis nihil haberem, et cum recreandae voculie causa mihi necesse esset ai^bulare. hae dictavi ambulans.— Ad- Att. ii. 23. * Cum hffic seribebam ante lucem. [Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 2. 7.] Ante lucem cum scriberem contra Bpicureos, de epdem. nleo et opera exaravi neseio quid ad te, et ante lucem dedi. Beinde cum, somno repetito, simul cum sole experrectus essem. [Ad Att. xiii. 38.] Haec ad te scripsi apposita secunda mensa. [Ibid. 14. fi. 21. 15. 13.] Hoc paullulum exaravi ipsa in turba matutina; salutationis,— Ad Brut. ii, 4. MARCUS TUJLLiUS CICEKO. 299 A.Hirtius. Of all which, excepting a few to J.Caesar siiid Brutus, we have nothiDg more left than some scattered phrases and sentences, gathered from the citations of the old critics and grammarians ^ What makes these letters still more estimable is, that he had never designed them for the public, nor kept any copies of them ; for the year before his death, when Atticus was making some inquiry about them, he sent him word that he had made no collection, and that Tiro had preserved only a,bout seventy''. Here, then, we may expect to see the genuine man, without disguise or affectation ; especially in his letters to Atticus, to whom he talked with the same frankness as to himself; opened the rise and progress of each thought ; and never entered into any affair without his particular advice : so that these may be considered as the memoirs of his times ; containing the most authen- tic materials for the history of that age, and laying open the grounds and motives of all the great events that happened in it= : and it is the want of attention to them that makes the generality of writers on these times so superficial, as well as erroneous, while they choose to transcribe the dry and imperfect relations of the later Greek his- torians, rather than take the pains to extract the original account of facts from one who was a principal actor in them. In his familiar letters he affected no particular elegance or choice of words, but took the first that occurred from common use and the language of conversation''. Whenever he was disposed to joke, his wit was easy and natural, flowing always from the subject, and' throwing out what came upper- most ; nor disdaining even a pun, when it served to make his friends laugh". In letters of compli- ment, some of which were addressed to the greatest men who ever lived, his inclination to please is expressed in a manner agreeable to nature and reason, with the utmost delicacy, both of sentiment and diction, yet vrithout any of those pompous titles and lofty fepithets which modern custom has introduced into our commerce with the great, and falsely stamped with the name of politeness, though they are the real offspring of barbarism, and the effect of our degeneracy both in taste and manners. In his political letters, all his maxims are drawn from an intimate knowledge of men and things ; he always touches the point on which the affair turns ; foresees the danger, and foretells the mischief; — which never failed to follow upon the neglect of his counsels ; of which there were so many instances, that, as an eminent writer of his own time observed of him, "his pmdence seemed to be a kind of divination, which foretold everything that after- * See the fragments of his letters in the editions of his works. '• Mearum epiatolarum nulla est ffvvaywyf]. Sed hahet Tiro instar septuaginta. — Ad Att, xvi. 5. •^ QuBB qui legat non multuin degideret historiam cop- teitam eoruia temponuu ; sic enim <^iDnia de studiis prineipum, viUis duoum, ac mutationilius reipublicas per- Bcripta sunt, ut niliil in his non appareat. — Corn. Nep. in vil. Attic. 16. ^ Epistolaa vero quotidianis verbis texere solemus. — ^Ep. Pam. ix. 21. " Quicquid in huccam venej-it. [Ad Att. vii. 10 ; xiv. 7.] In reproaching Antony for publishing one of his letters to him, " How many jests {says he) are often foimd in private letters, which, if made public, might be thought foolish and impertinent ! "—Phil. ii. 4, wards happened, with the veracity of a prophet^." But none of his letters do him more credit than those of the recommendatory kind : the others show his wit and his parts, these his benevolence and his probity : he solicits the interests of his friends with all the warmth and force of words of which he was master, and alleges generally some personal reason for his peculiar zeal in the cause, and that his own honour was concerned in the success of itK. But his letters are not more valuable on any account than for their being the only monuments of that sort which remain to us from free Rome. They breathe the last words of expiring liberty ; a great part of them having been written in the very crisis of its ruin, to rouse up all the virtue that was left in the honest and the brave, to the defence of their country. The advantage which they derive from this circumstance will easily be observed, by comparing them with the epistles of the best and greatest who flourished afterwards in imperial Rome. Pliny's letters are justly admired by men of taste : they show the scholar, the wit, the fine gentleman : yet we cannot but observe a poverty and barrenness through the whole, that betrays the awe of a master. All his stories and reflections terminate in private life ; there is nothing import- ant in politics ; no great affairs explained ; no account of the mojfcives of public counsels : he had borne all the same oflices with Cicero, whom in all points he affected to emulate'' ; yet his honours were in effect but nominal, conferred by a superior power, and administered by a superior will ; and with the old titles of consul and proconsul, we want still the statesman, the politician, and the magistrate. In his provincial command, where I Ut facjle existimari possit prudentiam quodammodo esse divinationem. Non enim Cicero ea solum, qua; vivo ee acciderunt, futxu*a prasdixit, sed etiam, quffi nunc usu veniunt, cecinit, ut vates — Com. Nep. in Vit. Attic. 16. e An objection may possibly be made to my character of these letters, from a certain passage in one of them, addressed to a proconsul of Africa, wherein he intimates, that there was a private mark agreed upon between them, which, when aifixed to his letters, would signify, what real stress he himself laid upon them, and what degree of influence he desired them to have with his friend. [Ep. Fam. xiii. 6.] But that seems to relate only to the parti- cular case of one man, who having great affairs in Africa, was likely to he particularly troublesome both to Cicero and the proconsul, whose general concerns, however, he recommends in that letter with the utmost warmth and affection. Butv if he had used the same method with all the other proconsuls and foreign commanders, it seems not only reasonable, but necessary, that a man of his cha- racter and authority, whose favour was perpetually soli- cited by persons of all ranks, should make some distinction between his real friends, whom he recommended for their own sake, and those, whose recommendations were extorted from him by the importunity of others : which was frequently the case, as he himself declares in these very letters. *' Your regard for me," says he, " is so publicly known, that I am impof tuned by many for recom- mendations to you. But though I give them sometimes to men of no consequence, yet for the most part, it is to my real friends." Again, " Our friendship, and your affection to me, is so illustrious, that I am under a necessity 'of recommending many people to you : but though it' is my duty to wish well to all whom I recom- mend ; yet I do not live upon the same foot of friendship with them all," &o.— Bp. Fam. xiii. 70, 71. ■> La;taTis, quod honoribus ejus insistam, quem Emulari in studiis cupio.— Plin. Ep. iv. 8. fiOO THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF Cicero governed all things with a supreme autho- rity, and had kings attendant on his orders ; Pliny durst not venture to repair a bath, or punish a fugitive slave, or incorporate a company of masons, till he had first consulted and obtained the leave of Trajan". His historical works are all lost : the comment- aries of his consulship in Greek ; the history of his own affairs, to his return from exile, in Latin verse ; and his Anecdotes ; as well as the pieces that he published on natural history, of which Pliny quotes one, upon the wonders of nature, and another on perfumes'*. He was meditating, like- wise, a general history of Rome, to which he was frequently urged by his friends, as the only man capable of adding that glory also to his country, of excelling the Greeks in a species of writing which of all others was at that time the least cultivated by the Romans'. But he never found leisure to execute so great a task ; yet has sketched out a plan of it, which, short as it is, seems to be the best that can be formed for the design of a perfect history. He declares it to be " the first and fundamental law of history, that it should neither dare to say anything that was false, or fear to say anything that was true, nor give any just suspicion either of favour or disaffection : that in the relation of things the writer should observe the order of time, and add also the description of places : that in all great and memorable transactions, he should first explain the counsels, then the acts, lastly the events : that in the counsels he should interpose his own judg- ment on the merit of them : in the acts, should relate not only what was done, but how it was done; in the events, should show what share chance, or rashness, or prudence, had in them : that in regard to persons, he should describe, not only their particular actions, but the lives and characters of all those who bear an eminent part in the story : that he should illustrate the whole in a clear, easy, natural style ; flovring with a per- petual smoothness and equability ; free from the affectation of points and sentences, or the rough- ness of judicial pleadings"." We have no remains, likewise, of his poetry, except some fragments occasionally interspersed through his other writings ; yet these, as I have before observed, are sufficient to convince us that his poetical genius, if it had been cultivated with the same care, would not have been inferior to his oratorial. The two arts are so nearly allied, that an excellency in the one seems to imply a capacity for the other-; the same qualities being essential » Prusenses, Domiue, balneum habent et sordidum et vetus, id itaque indulgentia tua restituere desiderant.' — Plin. Ep. X. 34. Quorum ego supplicium distuli, ut te conditorem dis- ciplinae militaris, firmatoremque, consulerem de mode poena2. — Ibid. 38. Tu, Domine, despice an instituendum putes eoUegium Fabrorum, duntaxat hominum CL.— Ibid. 42. 1^ Cicero in " Admirandis" posuit, &e. [Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxi. 2.] Quod " Admirandis'* suis inseruit M. Cicero. [Ibid. 4.] In momimentia M.Ciceronis invenitur; Un- guenta gratiora esse, qua; ternun, quam quK crocum sapiant.' — ^Ibid. xiii. 3 ; xvii. 5. ' Postulatur a te jamdiu, vel flagitatur potius historia : sic enim putant, te illam traotante, effici posse, ut in hoc etiam genere GrseciK nihil cedamus— abest enim historia Uteris nostris. — De Leg. i. 2, 3. « >" De Oratore, ii. 15. to them both ; a sprightly fancy, fertile invention, flowing and numerous diction. It was in Cicero's time that the old rusticity of the Latin muse first began to be polished by the ornaments of dress and the harmony of numbers ; but the height of perfection to which it was carried after his death by the succeeding generation, as it left no room foi- a mediocrity in poetry, so it quite eclipsed the fame of Cicero. For the world always judges of things by comparison ; and because he was not so great a poet as Virgil and Horace, he was decried as none at all ; especially in the courts of Antony and Augustus, where it was a compliment to the sove- reign, and a fashion consequently among their flatterers °, to make his character ridiculous, wherever it lay open to them : hence flowed that perpetual raillery, which subsists to this day, on his famous verses ; Cedant anna togse, concedat laurea lingua. O fortunatam natam me console Romam. And two bad lines, picked out by the malice of enemies and transmitted to posterity, as a speci- men of the rest, have served to damn many thou- sands of good ones : for Plutarch reckons" him among the most eminent of the Roman poets ; and Pliny the younger was proud of emulating him in his poetic character" ; and Quintilian seems to charge the cavils of his censurers to a principle of malignityi". But his own verses carry the surest proof of their merit : being written in the best manner of that age in which he lived, and in the style of Lucretius, whose poem he is said to have revised and corrected for its pub- lication, after Lucretius's death q. This however is certain, that he was the' constant friend and generous patron of all the celebrated poets of his time ' : of Accius, Archias, Chilius, Lucretius, Catullus : who pays his thanks to him in the fol- lowing lines, for some favour that he had received from him : TuUy, most eloquent by far Of all, who have been or who are. Or who in ages still to come Shall rise of all the sons of Rome, To thee Catullus grateful sends His warmest thanks, and recommends His hiunble muse, as much below All other poets he, as thou All other patrons dost excel. In power of words and spealung well '. " Postea vero quam triumyirali proscriptione con- sumptUB est, passim qui oderant, qui invidebant, qui aimulabantur, adulatores etiam prssentis potentiK, non responsurum invaserunt. — Quint, xii. 10. Sed ego verear, ne me non satis deceat, quod dccuit M. TuUium.— Plin. Ep. v. 3. P In carminibus utinam pepercisset, qufe non desierunt carpere maligni. — Quint, xi. I. 1 Euseb. Chronic. >• Adjicis M. Tulliummira benignitate poetarum ingenia foTisse. [Plin. Ep. iii. 15.] Ut ex familiar! ejus L. Acoio poeta audire sum solitus. [Brut. 197.] Lueretii poemata, ut scribis, lita sunt multis luminibus ingenii, multie tamen aitis.— Ad Quint. Prat. li. 11 ; Ad Att. i. 9.16. B Disertissime Romuli nepotum, Quot sunt, quotque fuere, Marce TuUi, Quotque post aliis erunt in annis ; Gratias tibi maximas Catullus Agit, pessimus omnium poeta, Tanto pessimus omnium poeta Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus. CATrlu 47. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 301 But poetry was the amusement only, and relief of his other studies. Eloquence was his distin- guishing talent — his sovereign attribute. To this be devoted all the faculties of his soul, and attained to a degree of perfection in it, that no mortal ever surpassed : so that, as a polite historian observes, " Rome had but few orators before him whom it could praise : none whom it could admire'." De- mosthenes was the pattern, by which he formed himself : whom he emulated with such success as to merit, what St. Jerome calls that beautiful eloge : " Demosthenes has snatched from thee the glory of being the first : thou from Demosthenes that of being the only orator"." The genius, the capacity, the style and manner of them both, were much the same ; their eloquence of that great, sublime and comprehensive kind, which dignified every subject, and gave it all the force and beauty of which it was capable ; it was that roundness of speaking, as the ancients call it, where there was nothing either redundant or deficient : nothing either to be added or retrenched ; their perfections were in all points so transcendent, and yet so simi- lar, that the critics are not agreed on which side to give the preference. Quintilian indeed, the most judicious of them, has given it on the whole to Cicero ; but if, as others have thought, Cicero had not all the nerves, the energy, or, as he him- self calls it, the thunder of Demosthenes, he excelled him in the copiousness and elegance of his diction, the variety of his sentiments, and above all, in the vivacity of his wit, and smartness of his raillery. Demosthenes had nothing jocose or facetious in him, yet by attempting sometimes to jest, showed that the thing itself did not dis- please, but did not belong to him : for (as Longinus says) whenever he affected to be pleasant, he made himself ridiculous ; and if he happened to raise a laugh, it was chiefly upon himself. Whereas Cicero, from a perpetual fund of wit and ridicule, had the power always to please, when he found himself unable to convince : and could put his judges into good humour when he had cause to be afraid of their severity ; so that, by the opportu- nity of a well-timed joke, he is said to have preserved many of his clients from manifest ruin"^. Yet in all tins height and fame of his eloquence, there was another set of orators at the same time in Rome : men of parts and learning, and of the first quality ; who, while they acknowledged the superiority of his genius, yet censured his diction as not truly Attic or classical ; some calling it * At oratio — Ita universa sub principe operifi sui erupit TuUio ; ut delectari ante eum paucissimis, miiari vero ne- miuem possis. — Veil. Pat. i. 17. 1 Demostbenem igitur imitemur. O dii boni ! quid quasi nos aliud aglmus, aut quid aliud optamus.' — ^Binit. 417. M. TulliuB, in quem pulcherrimum illud elogium est ; Demosthenes tibi prasripuit, ne esses primus orator ; tii illi, ne solus. — Ad Nepotian. de Vita Clericor. torn. iv. Bdit. Bened. * Huic diversa virtus, quae risuxn judicis movendo — plorique Demostheni facultatem hujua rei def uisse credunt, Ciceroni modum — ^nec videri potest noluisse Demosthenes, cujus pauca admodum dicta — ostendunt non displicuisse illi jocos, sed non contigisse — raihi vero — mira qusdam videtur in Cicerone fuisse urbanita&— [Quintil. vi. 3 ; Ibid. X. 1 ; Longin. de Sublim. c. 34.] Ut pro L. Flacco, quem repetundai-um reum joci opportunitate de monifestissimis criminibus exemit, Sue. — Macrob. Sat. ii. 1. loose and languid : others tumid and exuberant r. These men affected a minute and fastidious correct- ness, pointed sentences, short and concise periods without a syllable to spare in them, as if the per- fection of oratory consisted in a frugality of words, and in crowding our sentiments into the narrowest compass ' ! The chief patrons of this taste were M. Brutus, Licinius Calvus, Asinius PoUio, and Sallust, whom Seneca seems to treat as the author of the obscure, abrupt, and sententious style". Cicero often ridicules these pretenders to Attic elegance, as judging of eloquence, not by the force of the art, but their own weakness ; and resolving to decry what they could not attain, and to admire nothing but what they could imitate '' ; and though their way of speaking, he says, might please the ear of a critic or a scholar, yet it was not of that sublime and sonorous kind whose end was not only to instruct but to move an audience ; an elo- quence born for the multitude, whose merit was always shown by its effects of exciting admiration, and extorting shouts of applause, and on which there never was any difference of judgment between the learned and the populace '. This was the genuine eloquence that prevailed in Rome as long as Cicero lived. His were the only speeches that were relished or admired by the city j while those Attic orators, as they called them- selves, were generally despised and frequently deserted by the audience in the midst of their harangues''. But after Cicero's death and the ruin of the republic, the Roman oratory sunk of course with its liberty, and a false species univer- sally prevailed : when instead of that elate, copious, and flowing eloquence which launched out freely into every subject, there succeeded a guarded, dry, sententious kind, full of laboured turns and stu- died points, and proper only- for the occasion on which it was employed : the making panegyrics, and servile compliments to their tyrants. This change of style may be observed in all their writers from Cicero's time to the younger Pliny, who car- ried it to its utmost perfection in his celebrated panegyric on the emperor Trajan, which as it is justly admired for the. elegance of diction, the 7 Constat nee Ciceroni quidem obtrectatores defuisse, quibus inflatus et tumens, nee satis pressus, supra inodum exultans, et superfluens, et parum Atticus videretur, &c. — Tacit. Dialog. 18; Quintil. xii. 1. 2 Mihi f alii multum videntur, qui solos esse Atticos cre- dunt, tenues et lucidos et signiiicantes, sed quadam elo- quentiffi frugalitate contentos, ac manum semper intra pallium continentes Quintil. xii. 10. <* Sic SaUustio vigente, amputate sententijB, et verba ante Sxpectatum cadentia, et obscura brevitas, fuere pro cultu, — L. Sen Epist. 114. 1> Itaque nobis monendi sunt ii, — qui aut dici se deside- rant Atticos, aut ipsi Attice volunt dicere, ut mirentiur Demosthenem maxime — eloquentiamque ipsius viribus, non imbecilitate sua, metiantur. Nunc enim tantum quisque laudat, quantum se posse sperat imitari.' — Orator, 248 ; Tuse. Qusest. ii. 1. « Sed ad Calvum revertamur ; qui — metuens ne vitiosum colligeret, etiam verum sanguinem'deperdebat. Itaque ejus oratio nimia religione attenuata, doctis et attente audientibuB erat illustris ; a multitudine autem et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. — ^Brut. 418. Itaque nunquam de bono oratore et non bono doetia liominibus cum populo dissensio fuit, &c. — Ibid. 297. i At cum isti Attioi dicant, non modo a corona, quod est ipsum miserabile, sed etiam ab advoeatis relinquuntur —Ibid. 417. 302 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF beauty of sentiments, and the delicacy of its cddi- pliments, so is become in a manner the standard of fine speaking to modem times : where it is common to hear the pretenders to criticism des- canting on the tedious length and spiritless exuber- ance of the Ciceronian periods. But the superiority of Cicero's eloquence, as it was acknowledged by the politest age of free Rome, so it has received the most authentic confirmation that the nature of things can admit, from the concurrent sense of nations; which, neglecting the productions of his rivals and contemporaries, have preserved to us his inestimable remains, as a specimen of the most perfect manner of speaking, to which the language of mortals can be exalted ; so that, as Quintilian declared of him even in that early age, he has acquired such fame with posterity, that Cicero is not reckoned so much the name of a man as of eloquence itself*. But we have hitherto been considering chiefly the exterior part of Cicero's character, and shall now attempt to penetrate the recesses of his mind, and discover the real source and principle of his actions, from a view of that philosophy which he professed to follow, as the general rule of his life. This, as he often declares, was drawn from the Academic sect, which derived its origin from So- crates, and its name from a celebrated gymnasium or place of exercise, in the suburbs of Athens, called the Academy, where the professors of that school used to hold their lectures and philoso- phical disputations ^. Socrates was the first who banished physics out of philosophy, which till his time had been the sole object of it, and drew it off from the obscure and intricate inquiries into nature and the constitution of the heavenly bodies, to questions of morality, of more immediate use and importance to the happiness of man, concerning the true notions of virtue and vice, and the natural difference of good and illS; and as he found the world generally prepossessed with false notions on those subjects, so his method was, not to assert any opinion of his own, but to refute the opinions of others and attack the errors in vogue, as the first step towards preparing men for the reception of truth or what came the nearest to it, proba- e Apud posteros vero id conseeutus, ut Cicero jam non hominis, sed eloquentiie nomen habeatui". — Quintil, s. ]. f lUi autem, qui Platonis institute in Academia, quod est alterum gymnasium, ccetus erant et sennones habere Boliti, e loci vocabulo nomen habuermit. — Aoadem. i. 4. N.B. This celebrated place, -which Serv. Sulpicius calls the noblest gymnasium of the world, took its name from one Ecademus, an ancient hero, who possessed it in the lime of the Tyndaridffi. But famous as it was, it was purchased afterwards for about one hundred pounds, and dedicated to the public, for the convenience of walks and exercises for the citizens of Athens ; and was gradually improved and adorned by the rich, who had received benefit or pleasure from it, with plautations of groves, ytately porticos, and commodious apartments, for the par- ticular use of the professors or masters of the Academic School, where several of them are said to have spent their lives, and to have resided so strictly, as scarce ever to have come within the city.— Ep. Pam. iv. 12; Plutarch, in Thes. 15 ; Diog. Laert. in Plato. §. 7 ; Plutarch. De Exil 603. s Socrates id quod constat inter omnes, primus a rebus occultis, et ab ipsa natura involutis— avocavisse philosophiam et ad vitam communem adduxisse, ut de virtutibus et vitiis, omninoque de bonis rebus et malis quffireret, &c.~Ibid. ; it. Tuso. Qusst. v. 4. bility •*. While he himself therefore professed to know nothing, he used to sift out the several doc- trines of all the pretenders to science, and then teaze them with a series of questions so contrived as to reduce them, by the course of their answers, to an evident absurdity and the impossibility of defending what they had at first afl5rmed*. But Plato did not strictly adhere to the method of his master Socrates, and his followers wholly deserted it : for instead of the Socratic modesty of aSrming nothing, and examining every thing, they turned philosophy as it were into an art, and formed a system of opinions, which they delivered to their disciples as the peculiar tenets of their sect*'. Plato's nephew, Speusippus, who was left the heir of his school, continued his lectures as his successors also did in the Academy, and preserved the name of Academics ; whilst Aristotle, the most eminent of Plato's scholars, retired to an- other gymnasium called the Lyceum, where from a custom which he and his followers observed, of teaching and disputing as they walked in the por- ticos of the place, they obtained the name of Peripatetics, or the walking philosophers. These two sects, though differing in name, agreed gene- rally in things, or in all the principal points of their philosophy : they placed the chief happiness of man in virtue, with a competency of external goods ; taught the existence of a God, a Provi- dence, the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments ^ This was the state of the Academic school under five successive masters, who governed it after Plato : Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, Crates, Grantor ; till Arcesilas the Sixth discarded at once all the systems of his predecessors, and revived the Socratic way of affirming nothing, doubting of all things, and exposing the vanity of the reigning opinions™. He alleged the necessity of making this reformation, from that obscurity of things which had reduced Socrates and all the adcients before him, to a confession of their ignorance ; he observed, as they had all likewise done, that the sen- ses were narrow, reason infirm, life short, truth immersed in the deep, opinion and custom every- where predominant, and all things iiivolved in darkness". He taught therefore, " that there ^ E quibus nos id potissimum consecuti sumus, quo So- cratem usum ai'bitrabamur ; ut nostram ipsi sententiam tegeremus, errore alios levaremus ; et in omni disputatione, quid esset simillumum veri quaercremus.— Tusc. Qujest. v. 4 1 it. i. 4. i Socrates enim percunetando atque interrogando elicere solebat opiniones eorum, quibuscum. disserebat. — De Fin. a, 1. ^ lUam autem Socraticam dubitationem de omnibus rebus, et nulla adfirmatione adhibita consuetudinem disser- endi reliquerunt. Ita facta est, quod minime Socrates probabat, ars quaedam. philosophix, et reioim ordo et de- scriptio disciplinae. — ^Academ. i. 4 * Sed idem fons erat utrisque, et eadem rerum espeten- darum, fugiendarumque pai-titio. [Academ. L 4, 6, 8.] Peripateticos et Aeademicos, nominibus difi'erentes, re congruentes.— Ibid. ii. 5. ™ Arcesilas primum, ex variis Platonis libris, sermoni- busque Socraticis hoc maxime arripuit, nihil csso certi, quod aut sensibus aut animo percipi possit — ^De Orat. iii. 18. " Non pertinacia sed earum renun obscuritate, quas ad confessionem ignorantiae adduxerant Socratem, et— omnes paene veteres ; qui nihil cognosci, nihil perCipi, nihil sciri posse dixerunt ; angustos sensus ; imbecillos animos ; bre- MARCXJS TULLIUS CICERO. 303 ifas no certain knowledge or perception of any- thing in nature, nor any infallible criterion of bruth and falsehood; that nothing was so detest- able as rashness : nothing so scandalous to a philosopher as to profess what was either false or unknown to him ; that we ought to assert nothing dogmatica;lly, but in all cases to suspend our assent, and instead of pretending to certainty, content ourselves with opinion grounded on proba- bility, which was all that a rational mind had to acquiesce in." This was called the new Academy, in distinction from the Platonic, or the old, which maintained its credit down to Cicero's time, by » succession of able masters, the chief of whom was Carneades, the fourth from Arcesilas, who carried it to its utmost height of glory, and is greatly celebrated by antiquity for the vivacity of his wit and force of his eloquence •>. We must not however imagine, that these Acade- mics continued doubting a'nd fluctuating all their lives in scepticism and irresolution, without any precise opinions, or settled principle of judging and actingt ; no, their rule was as certain and consistent as that of any other sect, as it is fre- quently explained by Cicero in many parts of his works. " We are not of that sort (says he) whose mind is perpetually wandering in error, without any particular end or object of its pursuit: for what would such a mifid or such a life indeed be worth which had no determinate rule or method of thinking and acting ? But the difference between us and the rest is, that whereas they call some things certain, and others uncertain ; we call the one probable, the other improbable. For what reason then should not I pursue the probable, reject the contrary, and declining the arrogance of affirming, avoid the imputation of rashness, which of all things is the farthest removed from wis- dom'?" Again: " we do not pretend to say, that there is no such thing as truth, but that all truths have some falsehoods annexed to them, of so near a resemblance and similitude, as to afford no certain note of distinction whereby to determine our judgment and assent : whence it follows also of coarse, that there are many things probable, which though not perfectly comprehended, yet on account of fiieir attractive and specious appear- ance, are sufficient to govern the life of a *ise man'." In another place, " there is no difference" (says he) " between us and those who pretend to know things, but that they, never doubt of the truth of what they maintain; whereas we have many probabilities which we readily embrace, but dare not affirm. By this we preserve our judgment free and unprejudiced, and are under no necessity yi& curricula vitffi ; in profundo veritatem demeream ; opmionibus et institatis omnia teneri ; nihil voritati relin- Qtii : deincepa omnia tenebris circumfusa esse dixerunt.— Acadom. i. la " HaBC Academiam novam appellant ; — que usque ad Caiheadem perducta, qui quartus ab Arcesila fuit, in eadem Arcogilae ratione pennansit. [Academ. i. 13.] Ut hajc in phflosophia ratio contra omnia disserendi, nullamque rem aperte judicandi, profecta a Socrate, ropetita ab Arcesila> coufirmata a Cameade, usque ad nostram viguit setatem. tDe Nat. Deor. i. 3.] Hinc haec recentior Academia emana- vit, in qua exfititit divina quadam celeritate ingenii, dicen- liiquo copia Carneades.— De Orat. iii. 18. P Neque enim Academic!, cum in utramque disserunt partem, non secundum alteram vivunt. — Quintil. xii. 1. S Do Offic. ii. 2. ' De Nat. Deor. j. 5, of defending what is prescribed and enjdined to us : whereas in the other sects men are tied down to certain doctrines, before they are capable of judging what is the best ; and in the most infirm part of life, drawn either by the authority of a friend, or charmed with the first master whom they happen to hear, they form a judgment of things unknown to them : and to whatever school they chance to be driven by the tide, cleave to it as fast as the oyster to the rock'." Thus the Academy held the proper medium between the rigour of the Stoic and the indifference of the sceptic. The Stoics embraced all their doc- trines as so many fixed and immutable truths, from which it was infamous to depart, and by making this their point of honour, held all their disciples in an inviolable attachment to them. The sceptics on the other hand observed a perfect neutrality towards all opinions, maintaining aU of them to be equally uncertain : and that we could not affirm of anything that it was this or that, since there was as much reason to take it for the one as for the other, or for neither of them, and wholly indifferent which of them we thought it to be ; thus they lived without ever engaging themselves on any side of a question, directing their lives in the mean time by natural affections and the laws and customs of their country '. But the Acade- mics, by adopting the probable instead of the certain, kept the balance in an equal poise between the two extremes, making it their general principle to observe a moderation in all their opinions ; and as Plutarch, who was one of them, tells us, paying a great regard always to that old maxim : MtjS^i' S'ya:' ; ne quid nimisii. As this school then was in no particular opposi- tion to any, but an equal adversary to all, or rather , iy 'AKaSrjfiit} yev6^ievo5, ^irov — In lib. de EI apud Delph. 387 ; it. lib. de Primo Frigido./i». 304 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OP to dogmatical philosophy in general, so every other sect next to itself readily gave it the preference to the rest, which universal coucession of the second place is commonly thought to infer a right to the first « ; and if we reflect on the state of the heathen world, and what they themselves so often complain of, the darkness that surrounded them, and the infinite dissentions of the hest and wisest on the fundamental questions of religion and morality y ; we must necessarily allow, that the Academic man- ner of philosophising was of all others the most rational and modest, and the hest adapted to the discovery of truth, whose peculiar character it was to encourage inquiry, to sift every question to the bottom, to try the force of every argument till it had found its real moment, or the precise quantity of its weight ^- This it was that induced Cicero in his advanced life and ripened judgment to desert the old Academy, and declare for the new : when from a long experience of the vanity of those sects who called themselves the proprietors of truth and the sole guides of life, and through a despair of finding anything certain, he was glad, after all his pains, to take up with the probable ". Bat the genius and general character of both the Academies was in some measure still the same : for the old, though it professed to teach a peculiar system of doctrines, yet was ever diffident and cautious of affirming, and the new only the more scrupulous and sceptical of the two ; this appears from the writings of Plato, the first master of the old, in which, as Cicero observes, " nothing is absolutely affirmed, nothing delivered for certain, but all things freely inquired into, and both sides of the question impartially discussed*'." Yet there was another reason that recommended this philosophy in a peculiar manner to Cicero : its being of all others the best suited to the profession of an orator, since by its practice of disputing for and against every opinion of the other sects, it gave him the best opportunity of perfecting his orato- rial faculty, and acquiring a habit of speaking readily upon all subjects. He calls it therefore the parent of elegance and copiousness, and declares that he owed all the fame of his eloquence not to the mechanic rules of the rhetoricians, but to the enlarged and generous principles of the Academy '. X Academico sapienti ab omnibus CEeterarum sectarum ^-secundae partes dantur — ex quo potest probabiliter con- fici, eum recte primum esse sue judicio, qui omnium cjeterorum judicio sit secundus. — ^Fragment. Academ. ex Augiistin. y De Nat. Deor. i. ] , 3 ; Academ. ii. 3 ; i. 13. 2 Neque nostrae disputationes quicquara aliud agunt, nisi ut, in utramque partem disaerendo, eliciant et tan- quam exprimant aliquid, quod aut verum sit, aut ad id quam proximo accedat. — Academ. ii. 3. a Relictam a te, inquit, veterem jam, tractai-i autem novam. [Ibid. 4.] TTlti-a enim quo progrediar, quam ut verisimilia videam, non habeo : certa dicent hi, qui et percipi ea posse dicmit, et se sapientes profitentur. [Tusc. Qujest. i. 9.] Bed ne in maximis quidem rebus, quidquara adhuc inveni firmius, quod tenerem, aut quo judicium meum dirigerem, quam id, quodoumque mihi similiimum veri videretur, cum ipsum illud verum in oeculto lateret. —Orator.^n. I* Cujus in libris nihil affirmatur, et in utramque pai-tem multa disseruntur, de omnibus quaeritur, niliil certi dici- tur. — Academ. i. 13. c Itaque mihi semper Academise consuetudo, de omnibus berus in contrarias partes disserendi, non ob earn causam solum placuit, quod alitor non posset quid in quaque re This school however was almost deserted in Greece and had but few disciples at Rome, when Cicero undertook its patronage, and endeavoured to revive its drooping credit. The reason is obvious : it imposed a hard task upon its scholars of disputing against every sect and on every ques- tion in philosophy ; and " if it was difficult," (as Cicero says) " to be master of any one, how much more of them all .P" which was incumbent on those who professed themselves Academics ''. No wonder then that it lost ground everywhere, in propor- tion as ease and luxury prevailed, which naturally disposed people to the doctrine of Epicurus, in relation to which there is a smart saying recorded of Arcesilas : who being asked why so many of all sects went over to the Epicureans, but none ever came back from them, replied, " that men might be made eunuchs, but eunuchs could never become men again ^." This general view of Cicero's philosophy, will help us to account in some measure for that difficulty which people frequently complain of, in discovering his real sentiments, as well as for the mistakes which they are apt to fall into in that search ; since it was the distinguishing principle of the Academy to refute the opinions of others, rather than declare any of their own. Yet the chief difficulty does not lie here, for Cicero was not scru- pulous on that head, nor affected any obscurity in the delivery of his thoughts, when it was his busi- ness to explain them ; but it is the variety and different character of his several writings that per- plexes the generality of his readers, for wherever they dip into his works, they are apt to fancy themselves possessed of his sentiments, and to quote them indifferently as such : whether from his orations, his dialogues, or his letters, without attending to the peculiar nature of the work, or the different person that he assumes in it. His orations are generally of the judicial kind ; or the pleadings of an advocate whose business it was to make the best of his cause ; and to deliver, verisimile sit inveniri, sed etiam quod esse* ea maxima dicendi exercitatio [Tusc. Quasi ii. 3; Quintil. xii. 2.] Ego autem fateor ; me oratorem, si modo sim, aut etiam quicumque sim, non ex rhetorum officinis, sed ex Acado- miie spatiis extitisse. [Orator, sub init.'] Nos ea philoso- phia plus utimur, quae peperit dicendi copiam. — ^Proasm. Paradox.' ■* Quam nunc propemodum orbam esse in Griecia intel- ligo— -nam si singulas disciplinas percipere magnum eat, quanto majus omnes ? quod faccre iis necesse est, quibtis propositum est, veri reperiendi causa, et contra omnes philosophos, et pro omnibus dieere.^-De Nat. Deor. L 5. = Diog. Laert. de Arcesila Diogenes Laertius, and some later writers, speak of a third or Middle Academy between the Old and the Keio, in which they are commonly followed by the modems, who make Plato the founder of the Old ; Areesilat of the Mid- dle : Carneades of the New. [See Stanley's Lives of Phi- losoph. in Carneades.] But there was no real ground for such a distinction : since Cicero never mentions any other but the Old and the New : and expressly declares the last to have subsisted under that denomination, dovin to his own days, as well under Carneades, as Arcesilas : and so far from splitting them into three Aoademies, Cicero's master, Philo, maintained constantly in his books, that there never was in reality any more than one ; grounding hifl argument on what I have observed above ; the similar nature and genius of the two. [Academ. i. 4.] Perturbatri- cem autem harum omnium rerum Academiam, hanc ab Arcesila et Carneaderecentem, oxoremus ut sileat— Pe Leg. i. 13. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 305 not BO much what was true as what was useful to his client ; the patronage of truth belonging in such cases to the judge and not to the pleader'. It would be absurd therefore to require a scrupulous veracity or strict declaration of his sentiments in them : the thing does not admit of it ; and he him- self forbids us to expect it ; and in one of those orations frankly declares the true nature of them all — " That man," says he, " is much mistaken who thinks, that in these judicial pleadings he has an authentic specimen of our opinions : they are the speeches of the causes and th& times ; not of the men or the advocates : if the causes could speak for themselves, nobody would employ an orator ; but we are employed to speak, not what we would undertake to affirm upon our authority, but what is suggested by the cause and the thing itself*." Agreeably to this notion, Quintilian tells us, "that those who are truly wise and have spent their time in public affairs, and not in idle disputes, though they have resolved with themselves to be strictly honest in all their actions, yet will not scruple to use every argument that can be of service to the cause which they have undertaken to defend'." In his orations therefore, where we often meet with the sentences and maxims of philosophy, we cannot always take them for his own, but as topics applied to move his audience, or to add an air of gravity and probability to his speech'. His letters indeed to familiar friends, and espe- cially those to Atticus, place the real man before us, and lay open his very heart : yet in these some distinction must necessarily be observed ; for in letters of compliment, condolence, or recommen- dation, or where he is soliciting any point of importance, he adapts his arguments to the occa- sion, and uses such as would induce his friend the most readily to grant what he desired. But as his letters in general seldom touch upon any questions of philosophy, except slightly and incidentally, so they will afford very little help to us in the dis- covery of his philosophical opinions, which are the subject of the present inquiry, and for which we must wholly recur to his philosophical works. Now the general purpose of these works was, to give a history rather of the ancient philosophy than any account of his own ; and to explain to his feilow-citizens in their own language, whatever the philosophers of all sects, and in all ages, had taught on every important question, in order to enlarge their minds and reform their morals ; and to employ himself the most usefully to bis country at a time when arms and a superior force had deprived him of the power of serving it in any ' Judicis est Bempcr in causis verum sequi ; patroni, nonnunquam verisimile, etiam si minus sit verum, de- fendere: quod scribere, prssertim cum de philosophia scriberem, non auderem, nisi idem placeret gravissimo Stoicorum Pana;tio.— De Ofiic. ii. 14. i Sed errat vehementer, si quis in orationibus nostris, quae in judiciis habuimus, auctoritates nostras consignatas Be habere, arbitratur. — Pro A. Cluent. 50. ^ duint. xi. 1. ' Though his orations are not alwayG the proper vouch- ers of his opinions, yet they are the best testimonies that can be alleged for the truth of facts: especially those which were spoken to the senate or the people ; where he refers to the acts and characters of persons then living, before an audience that was generally as well acquainted with them as himself ; and it is in such cases chiefly that 1 lay any great stress upon them. otner way"". This he declares in his treatise called De Finibus, or on the chief good or ill of man ; in that upon the Nature of the Gods ; in his Tusculan Disputations j and in his book on the Academic Philosophy : in all which he sometimes takes upon himself the part of a Stoic ; sometimes of an Epi- curean ; sometimes of the Peripatetic ; for the sake of explaining with more authority the different doctrines of each sect : and as he assumes the person of the one to confute the other, so in his proper character of an Academic, he sometimes disputes against them all : while the unwary reader, not reflecting on the nature of dialogues, takes Cicero still for the perpetual speaker ; and under that mistake, often quotes a sentiment for his that was delivered by him only in order to be confuted. But in these dialogues as in all his other works, wherever he treats any subject professedly, or gives a judgment upon it deliberately, either in his own person or that of an Academic, there he delivers his ovm opinions : and where he himself does not appear in the scene, he takes care usually to inform us to which of the characters he has assigned the patronage of his own sentiments ; who was gene- rally the principal speaker of the dialogue ; as Crassus in his treatise on the Orator ; Scipio, in that on the Republic ; Cato in his piece on old age. This key will let us into his real thoughts, and enable us to trace his genuine notions through every part of his writings ; from which I shall now proceed to give a short abstract of them. As to physios or natural philosophy, he seems to' have had the same notion with Socrates, that a minute and particular attention to it, and the making it the sole end and object of our inquiries, was a study rather curious than profitable, and contributing but little to the improvement of human life'. For though he was perfectly acquainted with the various systems of all the philosophers of any name from the earliest antiquity, and has explained them all in his works ; yet he did not think it worth while, either to form any distinct opinions of his own, or at least to declare them. From his account however of those systems we may observe, that several of the fundamental prin- ciples of the modern philosophy which pass for the original discoveries of these later times, are the revival rather of ancient notions maintained by some of the first philosophers of whom we have any notice in history : as the motion of the earth ; the antipodes ; a vacuum ; and a universal gravi- tation, or attractive quality of matter f which holds the world in its present form and order". But in all the great points of religion and mo- rality which are of more iminaediate relation to the happiness of man, the being of a God ; a Pro- vidence ; .the immortality of the soul ; a future state of rewards and punishments ; and the eternal difference of good and ill; he has largely and k Nam cum otio langueremus, et is esset reipublicffi status, ut earn unius consilio atque cura gubernari necesse esset, primum ipsius reipublicBC causa philosophiam nos- tris hominibus explicandam putavi ; magni existimans interesse ad decus et ad laudem civitatis, res tam graves, tamque praeclaras latinis etiam Uteris contineri. — ^De Nat. Deor. i. 4; it. Academ. i. 5 ; Tusc. Quast. i. I ; De Finib. i. 3, 4. 1 Ut enim modo dixi, omnibus fere in rebus, et maximo in physiois, quid non sit, citius, quam quid sit, dixerim. — De Nat. Deor. i. 21 ; Academ. ii. 3!(. m De Nat. Deor. ii. 46 ; Aoadom. ii. 38, 39. X 306 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF clearly declared his mind in many parts of his ■writings. He maintained, that there was one God or supreme Being ; incorporeal, eternal, self- existent ; who created the world by his power, and sustained it by his providence. This he inferred from the consent of all nations; the order and beauty of the heavenly bodies ; the evident marks of counsel, wisdom, and a fitness to certain ends, observable in the whole and in every part of the visible world ; and declares that person unworthy of the name of man who can beUeve all this to have been made by chance, when with the utmost stretch of human wisdom we cannot penetrate the depth of that wisdom which contrived it°. He believed also a divine Providence constantly presiding over the whole system, and extendiiig its care to all the principal members ' of it, with a peculiar attention to the conduct and actions of men, but leaving the minute and inferior parts to the course of his general laws. This he collected from the nature and attiributes of the Deity; his omniscience, omnipresence, and infinite goodness; that could never desert or neglect what he had once produced into being : and declares, that without this belief there could be no such thing as piety or religion in the world °. He held likewise the immortality of the soul, and its separate existence after death in a state of happiness or misery. This he inferred from that ardent thirst of immortality which was always the most conspicuous in the best and most exalted _ ininds, from which the truest specimen of their nature must needs be drawn: from its unmixed and indivisible essence, which had nothing sepa- rable or perishable in it : from its wonderful powers and faculties ; its principle of self-motion ; its memory, invention, wit, comprehension ; which were all incompatible with sluggish matter p. n Nee Deua ipse — alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens Boluta qusedam et libera, segregata ab omni concretione morj^ali, omnia eentiens et movens, ipsaque prsBdita motu sempiterno. [Tusc. (iua>st. i. 27.] Sed omnes gentes, una lex et sempitema et immortalis continebit, unusque erit quasi magister, et imperator omnium Deus.— Fragm. lib. iii. de Repub. — Ut porro iinnissimum hoc adferri videtur, cur decs esse credamus, quod nulla gens tarn fera,i — cujua mentem nou imbuerit deorum opinio — omni autem in re consensio omniiun gentiuII^ lex naturae putanda est.— [Tusc. Quaest. 1 14,] Hffic igitur et talia innumerabilia cum cera^mus ; possumusne dubitare, quin his praesit aliquis vel effector, (si hfiee nata su«t, ut Platoni videtur,) vel, (si semper fue- runt, ut Aristoteli placet) moderator tanti operis et muneris. [Ibiti. 28.] Id est primum, quod inter omncs, nisi admodum impios, convenit, mihi quidem ex animo exm*i non potest', esse decs. [Nat. Deor. iii. 3.] Esse pra2staiitem aliquam. , astemamque naturam, et earn suspiciendam, admirandamque hominum generi, pulchritudo mundi, ordoque rerum coelestium cogit confiteri. [De Divin. ii. 72.] (^uiE quanto coneilio gerantur, nullo consilio assequi pos- sumua^— De Nat. Deor. ii. 38. o De maxima autem re, eodem mode ; divina mente atque natura mundum univei-sum atque maximas ejus partes administrari— [De Fin. iv. 6.] Quam vim animum esse dieunt mmidi, eandemque esse mentem sapientiam- queperfectam ; quem Deum appellant, omniumquerenmi, quffi sunt ei subjeotaj, quasi prudentiam quandam, procu- rantem ccelestia maixime, deinde in terris ea, qua: pertinent ad homines. — Academ. i. 0; Nat.,Deor. i.2,44 ; ii. 66; iii. 3ti. P Quod quidem ni ita se haberet, ut animi inimortaleB essent, haud optimi cujusque animus maxime ad immor- talitatem niteretur. [Cato. 23.] Num dubitas, quin speci- men naturae capi debeat ex optima quaque natm'a?— The Stoics fancied that the soul was a subtilised fiery substance, which survived the body after death and subsisted a long time, yet not eternally; but was to perish at last in the general confla- gration. In which they allowed, as Cicero says, the only thing that was hard to conceive, its separate existence from the body ; yet denied what was not only easy to imagine, but a consequence of the other, its eternal duration'. Aristotle taught, that besides the four elements of the material world, ^vhence all other things were supposed to draw their being, there was a fifth essence or nature, peculiar to God and the soul, which had nothing in it that was common to any of the rest^. This opinion Cicero followed and illustrated with his usual perspicuity in the following passage. " The origin of the human soul," says he, "ia not to be found anywhere on earth ; there is nothing mixed, concrete, or earthly ; nothing of water, air, or fire in it. For these natures are not sus- ceptible of memory, intelligence, or thought ; have nothing that can retain the past, foresee the future, lay hold on the present ; which faculties are purely divine, and could not possibly be derived to man except from God. The nature of the soul therefore is of a singular kind ; distinct from these known and obvious natures : and whatever it be that feels and tastes, that lives and moves in us, it must he heavenly and divine, and for that reason eternal. Nor is God indeed himself, whose existence we clearly discover, to be comprehended by us in any other manner, but as a free and pure mind, clear from all mortal concretion ; observing and moving all things ; and indued with an eternal principle of self-motion : of this kind, and of the same nature, is the human soul'." As to a future state of rewards and punishments, he considered it as a consequence of the soul's im- mortality ; deducible from the attributes of God, and the condition of man's life on earth; and thought it so highly probable, "that we could hsirdly doubt of it," he says, "unless it should happen to our minds, when they look into them- selves, as it does to our eyes, when they look too intensely at the sun, that finding their sight dazzled they give over looking at all'. In this opinion he followed Socrates and Plato, for whose judgment he professes so great a reverence, that if they had given no reasons, where yet they had given many, he should have been persuaded (he says) by their sole authority". Socratps therefore (as he tells us) [Tusc. Qu£est. i. 14.] Sic mihi persuasi, sie sentio, cum tanta celeritas animorum sit, tanta memoria pr^terito- rmn, futurorumque prudentia, tot artes, tot scientiffi, tot inventa, non posse earn naturam, quae res eas contineat, esse mortalem : cumque semper agitetur animus, 4c.— Cato. 21. Tase. QuKst. i. 23, 25, 26, &e.— De Amicit. 4. 1 Zenoni Stoico auimus ignis videtur. [Tusa Quaest. i. 9.] Stoici autem usuram nobis largiuntur, tanquam comi- cibus ; diu mausuros aiunt animos, semper negant — qui, quod in tota hac causa diflScillimum est, susclpiunt, posse animum manere corpore vacantem : illud autem, quod non modo facile aA credendum est, sed, eo concesso quod Tolunt, consequens idcirco, non dant, ut eum diu pennan- serit ne intereat. — Ibid. i. 31 , 32. f Ibid. 10. s Ibid. 27. * Nee vero de hoc quisc[uam dubitare posset, nisi idem nobis accideret diligenter de animo cogitantibus, quod his 6^pe usu venit, qui acriter oculis defioientem solem intue- rentur, ut aspectum omnino amittei'ent, &c. — Tusc. Quasst. L30 " Ibid. 21 ; De Amicit. 4. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 807 declared in his dying speech, " that there were two ways appointed to human souls at theix departure from the body : that those who had been immersed in sensual pleasures and lusts, and had polluted themselves with private vices or public crimes against their country, took an obscure and devious road, remote from the seat and assembly of the gods ; whilst thpse who had preserved their integrity and received little or no contagion from the body, from which, they had constantly abstracted them- selves, and in the bodies of men imitated the life of the gods, had an easy ascent Wng open before them to those gods from whom tney derived their being"." Prom what has already been said, the reader will easily imagine what Cipero's opinion must have been concerning the religion of his country : for a mind enlightened by the noble principles just stated, could not possibly harbour a thought of the truth or divinity of so absurd a worship : and the liberty, which not only he, but all the old writers take, in ridiculing the characters of their gods, and the fictions of their infernal tormentay, shows that there was not a man of liberal education, who did not consider it as an engine of state or poUtical system, contrived for the uses of govern- ment, and to keep the people in order : in this light Cicero always commends it as a wise insti- tution, singularly adapted to the genius of Rome ; and constantly inculcates an adherence to its rites as the duty of all good citizens^. , Their religion consisted of t-wo principal branches ; the observation of the auspices, and the worship of the gods : the first was instituted by Romulus, the second by his successor Numa : who drew up a ritual or order of ceremonies to be observed in the different sacrifices of their several deities : to these a third part was, afterwards added ; relating to divine admonitions from portents, monstrous births, the entrails of beasts in sacrifice, and the pro- X Do Amicit. 30. y Die, quaeso, num te ilia terrent? triceps apud inferos Cerberus? Cocyti fremitus? transvectio Acherontis? — adeone me delirare censes ut ista credam ?~-[Ibid. L 5, 6, 21.] Quffi anus tam excors inveniri potest, quaa ilia, quae qvpndam credebantur, apud inferos portenta extimescat ? -De Nat. Deor. ii. 2. * Ordiar ab baruspicina, quam ego reipublicac causa, communi^que reUgionis, colendam censeo., [De Divin. ii, I2.3 Nam et majorum iustituta tueri sacris cffirempniisque retinendis sapientis est.— Ibid. 72 ; DeLeg, ii.,12, 13. Sf.B. There is a reflection, in Polybius, exactly conform- able to Cicero's sentiments on thjis sulyect. « The greatest advantage," Bays he, "which the Roman government seems to have over other states, is in the opinion publicly entertained by them about the gods; and that very thin^, which is 60 generally decried by other mortals, sustaine,d the republiq ,of Rome ; I mean, superstition. For this was carried by them to such a height, and introduced so ^ffqc- tually both into the private lives of the citizens, and the public affairs of the city, that one cannot help being sur- prised at it But I take it all to ,have been oontriy^d, for the sake of the populace. For if a society coiild be formed of wise men only, such a scheme would not be necessary ; but since the multitude is always giddy, apd agitated by illicit desires, wild resentments, violent passions, there was no way, left of restraining them but by the help of such secret terrors and tragical flcticrna. It was npt therefore without great pi-udence and foresight that the ancients took care to instil into them these notions of the gods and infernal punishments, which the modems, on the other nand, are now rashly and absurdly endeavouring to extirpate."— Polyb. vi. p. 497. phecies of the Sibyls". The college of augurs presided over the auspices, as the supreme inter- prefers of the will of Jove, and determined what signs were propitious and what not : the other priests were the judges of all the other cases relating to religion ; as well of what concerned the public worship as that of private families ''. Now the priests of all denominations were of the first nobility of Rome ; and the augurs especially were commonly senators of consular rank who had passed through all the dignities of the republic, and by their power over thp auspices, could put an immediate stop to all proceedings, and dissolve at once all the assemblies of the people convened for public business. The interpretation of the Sibyls' prophecies was vested in the depemviri, or guardians of the Sibylline books; ten persons of distinguished rank, chosen usually from the priests : and the province of interpreting prodigies and inspecting the entrails, belonged to the haruspices, who were the servants of the public, hired to attend the magistrates in all their sacrifices, and who never failed to acpommodate their answers to the views of those who employed them, and to whose pro- tection they owed their credit and their livelihood. This constitution of a religion among a people naturally superstitious, necessarily threw the chief infiuence in affairs into the hands of the senate, and the better sort ; who by this advantage fre- quently checked the violences of the populace, and tne factious attempts of the tribunes " ; so that it is perpetually applauded by Cicero as the main bulwark of the republic, though considered all the while by men of sense as merely political, and of human invention. The only part that admitted any dispute concerning its origin was augury, or their method of divining by auspices. The Stoics held that God, out of his goodness to man, had imprinted on the nature of things certain marks or notices of futme events ; as on the entrails of beasts, the flight of birds, thunder, and other celes- tial signs, which, by long observation, and the experience of ages, were reduced tOi an art, by which the meaning of each sign might be deter- mined, and applied to the event that was signified by it. This they called artificial divination, in distinction from the natural, which they supposed to flow from an instinct or native power implanted in the soul, which, it exerted always with the greatest efficacy wjieu it was the most free and disengaged from the body, as in dreams and mad- ness''. But this nption was generally ridiculed by the other philosophers ; and of all the college of ^ Gum omnia populi Romani religio in sacra et in auspi- cia divisa sit, tertitmi adjunctum sit, si quid praedictionia causa ex.portentis et monstris SibylliE interpretes, haru- spicesve monuerunt. — ^De Nat. Deor. iii. 2. ' I* — Cur sacris pontifices, cur auspiciia augures prassunt ? [Ibid. i. 44.] Est autem honi auguris, meminisse maximis reipublicae temporibus prf^to esse debere,. Jovique optlmo maximo se consiliariiun atque administnun datum. — De Leg. iii. 19. ,c, Omnibus magistratibus auspicia— dantur, ut multos im^tiles comitiatus, probabiles impedirent morae : saepe eni;n populi impetum injustum auspiciis dii immortales represserunt. — ^De Leg. iii. 12. . . tl Duo sunt enim divinandi genera, quorum alterum artis est, alterum naturae — est enim via etnatura quaedam, quae cum obseivatis longo tempore sigaificationibuB, turn aliquo instinctu, inflatuque divino futura pracnunciat. — De Div. i. 6 ; it. ib. 18. X 3 308 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF augurs, there was but one at this time who main- tained it, Appius Claudius ; who was laughed at for his pains by the rest, and called the Pisidian= : it occasioned however a smart controversy between him and his colleague Marcellus, who severally published books on each side of the question; wherein Marcellus asserted the whole affair to be the contrivance of statesmen; Appius, on the contrary, that there was a real art and power in divining, subsisting in the augural discipline, and taught by the augural books'. Appius dedicated this treatise to Cicero e ; who, though he preferred MarceUas's notion, yet did not wholly agree with either, but believed that augury might probably be instituted at first upon a persuasion of its divinity ; and when, by the improvement of arts and learning, that opinion was exploded in suc- ceeding ages, yet the thing itself was wisely retained for the° sake of its use to the republic I', t But whatever was the origin of the religion of Rome, Cicero's religion was undoubtedly of hea- venly extraction, built, as we have seen, on the foundation of a God, a Providence, an immortality. He considered this short period of our life on earth as a state of trial, or a kind of school ; in which we were to improve and prepare ourselves for that eternity of existence which was provided for us hereafter : that we were placed therefore here by the Creator, not so much to inhabit the earth as to contemplate tlie heavens ; on which were imprinted in legible characters all the duties of that nature which was given to us. He observed, that this spectacle belonged to no other animal but man, to whom God, for that reason, had given an erect and upright form, with eyes not prone or fixed upon the ground, like those of other animals, but placed on high and sublime, in a situation the most proper for this celestial contemplation ; to remind him perpetually of his task, and to acquaint him with the place from which he sprung, and for which he was finally designed'. He took the system of the world, or the visible works of God, to be the pro- mulgation of God's law, or the declaration of his will to mankind ; whence, as we might collect his being, nature, and attributes, so we could trace = Quem irridebant collegce tui, eumqiie turn Flsidam, turn Soranum augurum esse dicebant. — ^Ibid. 47. The Pisidians were a barbarcms people of the lesser Asia ; famous for their superstitious observation of the auspices, or their divination by the flight of birds — De Di- vin. i. 41, 42. f Sed est in coUegio vestro inter Marcellum et Appium, optimos augures, magna dissensio : — cum alteri placeat, auspicia ista ad utilitatem reipublics composita ; alteri disciplina vestra quasi divinare prorsus posse videatur. — DeLeg. ii. 13. g lUo libro augurali, queni ad me amantissime scrip- turn, suavissimuni misisti Ep. Fam. iii. 4. h Non enim sumus ii nos augures, qui avium, reliquo- rumque signorum observatione futura dicamus ; et tamen credo Homulum, qui urbem auspicate condidit, habuisse cpinionem, esse in providendis rebus augurandisclentiam. Errabat multis in rebus antiquitas, &c. — De Divin. ii. 33. ' Sed credo deos sparsisse animos in corpora humana, ut eesent qui terras tuerentur. quique coslestium ordinem contemplantes, imitarentur eum vitse mode et constantia, &c. [Cato. 21.] Nam cum cseteras animantes abjeeisset ad pastum, solum hominem erexit, ad ccelique quasi cog- nationis, domiciliique pristini conspectum excitavit. [De Ley. i. 9.] Ipse autemhomo-ortus est admuudum contem- plandum et imitaudum, nuUo niodo perfectus, sed est quie- dam particula perfect!. — Nat. Deor. ii, 14, 56. the reasons also and motives of his acting ; till by observing what he had done, we might learn what we ought to do, and, by the operations of the divine reason, be instructed how to perfect our own, since the perfection of man consisted in the imitation of God. From this source he deduced the origin of all duty or moral obligation ; from the will of God, manifested in his works ; or from that eternal rea- son, fitness, and relation of things, which is dis- played in every part of the creation. This he calls the original, immutable law ; the criterion of good and ill ; of just' and unjust ; imprinted on the nature of things, as the rule by which all human laws are to be formed; which, whenever they deviate from this pattern, ought (he says) to be called anything rather than laws ; and are in effect nothing but acts of force, violence, and tyranny : that to imagine the distinction of good and ill not to be founded in nature but in custom, opinion, or human institution, is mere folly and madness; which would overthrow all society, and confound all right and justice amongst men'' : that this was the constant opinion of the wisest of all ages ; who held that the mind of God, governing all things by eternal reason, was the principal and sovereign law ; whose substitute on earth was the reason or mind of the wise : to which purpose there are many strong and beautiful passages scattered occasionally through every part of Ms works'. " The true law," says he, "is right reason, con- formable to the nature of things ; constant, eternal, diffused through aU ; which calls us to duty by commanding, deters us from sin by forbidding ; which never loses its influence with the good ; nor ever preserves it with the wicked. This cannot possibly be overruled by any other law, nor abro- gated in the whole or in part ; nor can we he absolved from it either by the senate or the people: nor are we to seek any other comment or inter- preter of it but itself; nor can there be one law at Rome, another at Athens ; one now, another here- after ; but the same eternal, immutable law, com- prehends all nations at all times under one common Master and Governor of all, God. He is the inventor, propounder, enactor of this law ; and ^ Sed etiam modestiam quandam cognitio rerum coelea- tium adfert iis, qui videant, quanta sit etiam apud deos moderatio, quantus ordo ; et magnitudinem animi, deo- rum opera et facta cementibus ; justitiam etiam, cum cognitum habeas, quid sit summi rectoris et domim numen, quod consilium, quae volxmtas ; cujus ad naturam apta ratio vera ilia et summa lex a philosophis dicitur.— De Fin. iv. 5. Nos legem bonam a mala, nulla alia nisi nature nonna dividere possiunus. Neo solum jus et injuria natura diju- dicantur, sed onmiuo omnia honesta ac turpia; nam et communis inteUlgentia nobis notas res efflcit, easqne in animia nostris inchoat, ut honesta in virtute ponantur, in vitiis turpia. Ea autem in opinione existimare, non in natura posita, dementis est. [Do Leg. i. 16.] Erat enim ratio profeota a rerum natma ; et ad recte faciendum im- pellens, et a delicto avocaus ; quse non tum demum incipit lex esse, cum scripta est, sed tum, cum orta est : orta autem simul est cum mente divina ; quamobrem lex vera, atque princeps, apta ad jubendum et ad vetandum, recta est ratio summi Jovis, &c. — De Leg. ii. 4, 5, &c. ' Hanc igitur video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam, legem neque hominum ingeniis exeogitatam, nee scitum aliquod esse populorum, sed letemum quiddam, quod um- versum mundum regeret, imperandi, prohibe^dique sapi- entia, &c.— Ibid. &c. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 309 whosoever will not oDey it, must first renounce himself and throw off the nature of man ; by doing which, he will suffer the greatest punishment', though he should escape all the other torments which are commonly believed to be prepared for the wicked"." In another place he tells us, that the study of this law was the only thing which could teadh us that most important of all lessons, said to be pre- scribed by the Pythian oracle, to know ourselves ; that is, to know our true nature and rank in the universal system ; the relation that we bear to all other beings ; and the purposes fo/ which we were sent into the world. "Whenaman," sayshe, "has attentively surveyed the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all things in them ; observed whence they sprung, .and whither they all tend ; when and how they are to end ; what part is mortal and perish- able, ^hat divine and eternal ; when he has almost reached and touched, as it were, the governor, and ruler of them all, and discovered himself not to be confined to the walls of any certain place, but a citizen of the world, as of one common city; in this magnificent view of things, in this enlarged prospect and knowledge of nature, good gods! how will he learn to know himself ! How will he contemn, despise, and set at nought all those things which the vulgar esteem the most splendid and glorious" ! " These were the principles on which Cicero built his religion and morality, which shine indeed through all his writings, but were largely and explicitly illustrated by him in his treatises oa Government, and on Laws ; to which he added after- wards his book of OSSces, to make the scheme complete : volumes, which, as the elder Pliny Bays to the emperor Titus, ought not only to be read, but to be got by heart". The first and greatest of these works is lost, excepting a few fragments, in which he had delivered his real thoughts so professedly, that in a letter to Atticus, he calls those six books on the Republic so many pledges given to his country for the integrity of his life, from which, if ever he swerved, he could never have the face to look into them again i". In his book of Laws, he pursued the same argument, and deduced the origin of law from the will of the supreme God. These two pieces therefore contain his beUef, and the book of Offices his practice : where he has traced out all the duties of man, or a rule of life conformable to the divine principles, which he had established in the other two ; to which he often refers, as to the foundation of his whole system'. This work was one of the last ' that he finished for the use of his son, to whom he addressed it ; being desirous, in the decline of a glorious life, to explain to him the maxims by which he had governed it ; and teach him the way of passing through the world with innocence, virtue, and true glory, to an immortality of happi- ness : where the strictness of his morals, adapted to all the various cases and circumstances of liuman ■" Fragm. lib. iii. De Repub. ex Lactantio. " De Leg. i. 23. " QuES volumina ejus ediscenda non modo in manlbus babenda quotidie, nosti."-Plin. Hist. Nat. pre^. P Praesertim ciun sex libris, tauquam prsedibus, meip- suin obstrinxerim ; quos tibi tam valde probari gaudeo. [Ad Att. vi. 1.] Ego audebo legere unquam, aut attingere eoslibros, quos tu dilaudas, si tale quid fecero ?— Ibid. 2. , 1 De Offio. iii, 6, 6, 17. life, will serve, if not to instruct, yet to reproach the practice of most Christians. This was that law, which is mentioned by St. Paul to be taught by nature, and written on the hearts of the Gen- tiles, to guide them through that state of ignorance and darkness of which they themselves complained, till they should be blessed with- a more perfect revelation of the divine will ; and this scheme of it professed by Cicero was certainly the most complete that the Gentile world had ever been acquainted with j the utmost effort that human nature could make towards attaining its proper end ; or that supreme good for which the Creator had designed it: upon the contemplation of which sublime truths, as deUvered by a heathen, Erasmus could not help persuading himself that the breast from which they flowed must needs have been inspired by the Deity'. But after all these glorious sentiments that we have been ascribing to Cicero, and collecting from his writings, some have been apt to consider them as the flourishes rather of his eloquence than the conclusions of his reason ; since in other parts of his works he seems to intimate not only a diffi- dence, but a disbelief of the immortaUty of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punish- ments ; and especially in his letters, where he is supposed to declare his mind with the greatest frankness^. But in all the passages brought to support this objection, where he is imagined to speak of death as the end of all things to man, as they are addressed to friends in distress by way of consolation, so some commentators take them to mean nothing more than that death is the end of all things here below, and without any farther sense of what is done upon earth ; yet should they be understood to relate, as perhaps they may, to an utter extinction of our being ; it must be observed, ' Quid aliis accidat nescio ; me legentem sic aiiicere solct M. TuUius, preesertim ubi de bene viveudo disserit, ut dubitare non possim, quin illud pectus, undo ista pro- dierunt, aliqua divinitas occuparit. — Erasm. Ep. ad Job. Ulattenum. " SEepissime et legi et audivi, nihil mail esse in morte ; in qua si reeideat sensus, immortalitas ilia potius, quam mors ducenda est : sin sit amissus, nulla videri miseria debeat, quee non sentiatur. [Ep. Fam. v. i6.] Ut boc saltem in maximis mails boni consequamur, ut mortem, quam etiam beati contemnere debeamus, propterea quod nullum sensum esset babitura, nunc sic affecti, non modo contemnere debeamus, sed etiam optare. [Ibid. 31.] Scd hsec consolatio levis ; ilia gravior, qua te uti spero, ego certe utor : nee enim dum ero, augar ulla re, cum omni vacem culpa ; et si non ero, sensu omnino carebo. [Ibid, vi. 3.] Deinde — si jam vocem ad exitum vita*, non ab ea republica avellar, qua carendum esse doleam, praesertim cum id sine ullo sensu futurum sit. [Ibid. 4.] Una ratio videtur, quicquid evencrit, ferre moderate, prasertim cum omnium rerum mors sit extremum. [Ibid. 21.] Sed de ilia— fors viderit, aut si quis est, qui cuiet deus.— Ad Att. iv. 10. N.B. By this illustration of Cicero's moral principles we leai-n the force of that rule, which he frequently prescribes, of /allowing nature, as the sure and unerring guide of life: [De Leg. i. (5; De Senect. 2; De Amic. 5:] by which he means that law or will of God displayed in the nature of things ; not, as some are apt to interpret him, the dictates of our unruly passions, which are falsely called natural, being the motions only of vitiated appetites, and the crea- tures of habit not of nature ; the giatificatiCn of which, as he tells us, is more contrary to nature, and consequently more to be avoided, than poverty, pain, or even death itself.— De Offlo. iii. S, 6, 310 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF that he was writing in all probability to Epicureans ', and accommodating his arguments to the men, by offering such topics of comfort to them from their own philosophy as they themselves held to be the most efifectual. But if this also shonld seem pre- carious, we must remember always that Cicero was an Academic ; and though he believed a future state, was fond of the opinion, and declares himself resolved never to part with it ; yet he believed it as probable only, not as certain " : and as proba- biUty implies some mixture of doubt, and admits the degrees of more and less, so it admits also some variety in the stability of our persuasion : thus in a melancholy hour, when his spirits were depressed, the same argument would not appear to him with the same force, but doubts and difSculties get the ascendant, and what humoured his present chagrin, find the readiest admission. The passages alleged were all of this kind, written in the season of Ms dejection, when aU things were going wrong with him, in the height of Ciesar's power; and though we allow them to have all the force that they can possibly bear, and to express what Cicero really meant at that time, yet they prove at last nothing more than that, agreeably to the character and principles of the Academy, he sometimes doubted of what he generally believed. But after all, whatever be the sense of them, it cannot surely be thought reasonable to oppose a few scattered hints, accidentally thrown out, when he was not considering the subject, to the volumes that he had deliberately written on the other side of the ques- tion*. As to his political conduct, no man was ever a more determined patriot, or a wai'mer lover of his country than he : his whole chara cter, natural ' Thia will appear to be a very probable supposition, when we recollect that the generality of the Roman nobi- lity and of Cicero'-8 frienda were of the Epicurean sect ; and particularly the family of Torquatus, to whom two of these very lettera are addressed. — Accurate quondam a L. Torquato, homine omni doctrina erudito, defenaa est Epieuri sententia de voluptate, a meque ei responsum. De Fin. i. 5. " Quod si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum imniortales esse credam, lubenter erro. Nee mihi hunc errorem, quo deleotor, dum vivo, extorqueri volo. [Cato. 23.] Geram tibi morem, et ea, qute vis, ut potero, explieabo : nee tamen quaai Pythius ApoUo, certa ut sint et flxa quK dixero : sed ut homunculus unus e multis, probabilia eonjectura se- quens.— Tusc. Quasst. i. 9. X From this general view of Cicero's religion, one cannot help observing, that the most exalted atate of human rea- son is so far from superseding the use, that it demonstrates the benefit of a more explicit revelation ; for though the natural law, in the perfection to which it was carried by Cicero, might serve for a sufficient guide to the few, such as himself, of enlarged minds and happy dispositions, yet It had been so long depraved and adulterated by the pre- vailing errors and vices of mankind, that it was not disco- verable even to those few, without gi-eat pains and study ; and could not produce in them at last anything more than a hope, never a full persuasion ; whilst the greatest part of mankind, even of the virtuoua and inquisitive, lived with- . out the knowledge of a God, or the expectation of a futu- rity ; and the multitude in every country was left to the gross idolatry of the popular wbrs'fiip. "When" we reflect on all this, we must needs see abundant reason to be thank- ful to God for the divine light of his Gospel, which has revealed at last to babes what was hidden from the wise • and without the paina of searching, or danger of mistaking, has given ua not only the hope, but the assurance of hap- piness ; and made us not only the believers, but the heirs of immortality. temper, choice of life and principles, made its true jnterest inseparable from his own. His general view, therefore, was always' one and the same ; to support the peace and liberty of the republic In that form and constitution of it which their knees- tors had delivered down to them?. He looked upon that as the only foundation on which it could be supported, and used to quote a verse of old Ennius, as the dictate of an oracle.'whicU derived all the glory of Rome from an adherence to its ancient manners and discipline. MoribuB antiquia Stat res Romana virisque^. It is one of his "maxims which he inculcates in his writings, that as the end of a pilot is a prosperous voyage ; of a physician, the health of his patient; of a general, victory j so that of a statesngan is, to make his citizens happy ; to make them firm in power, rich in wealth, splendid in glory, eminent in virtue ; which he declares to be the greatest and best of all works among men" : and as this cannot be effected but by the concord and harmony of the constituent members of a city' ; so it was his constant aim to unite the different orders of the state into one common interest, and to inspire them with a mutual confidence in each other ; so as to balance the supremacy of the people by the authority of the senate : that the one should enact, but the other advise ; the one have the last resort, the other the chief influence". This was the old constitution of Kome, by which it had raised itself to all its grandeur ; whilst all its misfortunes were owing to the contrary principle, of distrust and dissention between these two rival powers : it was the great object therefore of his policy to throw the ascendant in all affairs into the hands of the senate and the magistrates, as far as it was consist- ent vrith the rights and liberties of the people : which will always be the general view of the wise and honest in all popular governments. This was the principle which he espoused from the beginning, and pursued to the end of his life : and though in some passages of his history, he may be thought perhaps to have deviated from it, yet upon an impartial review of the case, we shall find that his end was always the same, though he had changed his measures of pursuing it ; when com- pelled .to it by the violence of the times, and an overruling force, and a necessary regard to his own safety ; so that he might say with great truth, what an Athenian orator once said, in excuse of his inconstancy, that he had acted indeed on some occasions contrary to himself, but never to the republic '', : and here also his Academic philosopny seems to have showed its superior use in practical, y Sic tibi, mi Psete, persuade, me dies et noctes nihil aliud agere, nihil curare, nisi ut mei civea salvi liberique sint.'— Bp. Fam. i. 24. z Quem quidem iUe versum vel brevitate vol veritate, tanquam ' ex oraculo mihi quodajn effatus videtur, &o.— Fragm. de Repub. v. "» Crt gubematori ciu-sus secundua — sic huic moderator! reipubUcae beata civium vita proposita eat, &c — Ibid. b Quffi harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia, arctissimum atque optimum omni in republica vinculum incolmnitatis, &c.— Ibid. ii. c Nam — ai senatus dominus sit publici consilii— possit, ex temperatione juris, cum potestes in' populo, auctoritas in senatu sit, teneri ille moderatua et concors civitatis sta- tus.— De Leg. iii. 12 ; it. Ibid. 17. ■i Plutarch, de Demade. in Vit. Demostb. p. 861. Edit, Par. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 3li as well as in speculative life ; by indulging that liberty of acting which nature and reason require ; and when the times and things themselves are changed, allowing a change of conduct, and a recourse to new means, for the attainment of the same end. The three sects which at this time chiefly en- grossed the philosophical part of Rome were, the Stoic, the Epicurean, and the Academic ; and the chief ornaments of each were, Cato, Atticus, and Cicero, who lived together in strict friendship, and a mutual esteem of each other's virtue ; but the different behaviour of these three will show, by fact and example, the different merit of their several principles, and which of them was the best adapted to promote the good of society. The Stoics were the bigots or enthusiasts in philosophy, who held none to be truly wise or good but themselves ; placed perfect happiness in virtue, though stripped of every other good ; affirmed all sins to be equal ; all deviations from right equally vdcked ; to kill a dunghill-cock without reason, the game crime as to kill a parent ; that a wise man conld never forgive ; never be moved by anger, favour, or pity ; never be deceived ; never repent ; never change his mind®. With these principles Cato entered into public life ; and acted in it (as Cicero says) as if he had lived in the polity of Plato, not in the djegs of Roriiulus ^ He made no distinc- tion of times or things ; no allowance for the weakness of the republic, and the power of those who oppressed it ; it was his maxim to combat all power not built upon the laws, or to defy it at least, if he could not control it : he knew no way to his end but the direct, and whatever obstruc- tions he met with, resolved still to rush on, and either to surmount them or perish in the attempt : taking it for a baseness and confession of being conqnered, to decline ^ tittle from the true road. In an age, therefore, of the utmost libertinism, when the public discipline was lost, and the govern- ment itself tottering, he struggled with the same zeal against all corruption, and waged a perpetual war with a superior force ; whilst the rigour of his principles tended rather to alienate friends than reconcile enemies ; and by provoking the power that he could not subdue, helped to hasten that ruin which he was striving to averts : so that after a perpetual course of disappointments and repulses, finding himself unable to pursue his old way any farther, instead of taking a new one, he was driven by his philosophy to put an end to his life. But as the Stoics exalted human nature too high, so the Epicureans depressed it too low ; as those raised it to the heroic, these debased it to the brutal state : they held pleasure to be the chjef good of man, death the extinction of his being ; and placed their happiness consequently in the '.fepientem gratis, nunquam moyeri, nunquam cujuE- quam delicto ignoscere : neminem misericordem esse, nisi fitultum ; viri non ease, neque exorari, neque placarl ; om- Qia peccata esee paxian^nec minus delinquere eum, qui gallum gaUinaceum, cum opus non fuerit, quam eum, qui patren? suffocarerit : sapientem nihil opinari, nuUius rei poenitere, nulla in re fall!, sententiam mutare nunquam. ^-ProMuren. 29. f Dicit enim tanquam in Flatonis TroXiTcta, non tan- quam in Romuli faeee, sententiam. — ^Ad Att. ii. 1, p. 178. i Pompeium et Csesarem, quorum nemo alteram oifen- dere audebat, nisi ut altenuu demeretm-, [Cato] simul pro- Yocavlt.— Sen. Ep. 104. secure enjoyment of a pleasurable life ; esteeming virtue on no other account than as it was a hand- maid to pleasure, apd helped to ensure the posses- sion of it, by preserving health and conciliating friends. Their wise man therefore had no other duty but to provide for his own ease ; to decline all struggles ; to retire from public affairs ; and to imitate the life of their gods ; by passing his days in a calm, contemplative, undistui'bed repose ; in the midst of rural shades and pleasant gardens. This was the scheme that Atticus followed : he had all the talents that could qualify a man to be useful to society ; great parts, learning, judgment, can- dour, benevolence, generosity ; the same love of his country, and the same sentiments in politics with Cicero''; whom he wa« always advising and urging to act, yet determined never to act himself, or never at least so far as to disturb his ease, or endanger his safety. For though he was so strictly united with Cicero, and valued him above all men, yet he managed an interest all the while with the opposite faction, and a friendship even with his mortal enemies, Clodius and Antony, that he might secure agmnst all events the grand point which he had in view, the peace and tranquillity of his life. Thus two excellent men, by their mistaken notions of virtue, drawn from the principles of their philo- sophy, were made useless in a manner to their country ; each in a different extreme of life ; the one always acting and exposing himself to dangers, with- out the prospect of doing good ; the other, without attempting to do any, resolving never to act at aU. Cicero chose the middle way between the obstiiiacy of Cato and the indolence of Atticus : he preferred always the readiest road to what was right, if it lay open to him ; if not, took the next, that seemed likely to bring him to the same end ; and in politics, as in morality, when he could not arrive at the true, contented himself with the probable. He oft compares the statesman to the pilot, whose art consists in managing every turn of the winds, and applying even the most pdrverse to the progress of his voyage ; so as by changing his course, and enlarging his circuit of sailing, to arrive with safety, though later, at his destined port'. He mentions likewise an observation, which • long experience had confirmed to him, that none of the popular and ambitious, who aspired to extraordinary commands, and to be leader's in the republic, ever chose to obtain their ends froin the people till they had first been repulsed by the senate J. This was verified by all th?ir' civU dissentions, from the Gracchi doxvn tp Csesar : so tliat when he saw men of this spirit at the head of the government, who, by the splendour of their lives and actions, had acquired an ascendant over 1» In repuJblica ita est versatus, ut semper optimarum partiura et esset, et existimaretur ; neque tamen se ciyili- bus fluctibus committeret.— Corn. Nep. in Vit. Att. 6. ' Kunquam enim prasstantibus in republica gubernanda viris laudata est in una sententiaperpetuapermansio : sed ut in navlgando tempestati obsequi artis est, et jamsi por- tum tenere non queas : cum vero id ppssis mutata velifica- tione assequi, stultum est eum tenere cursum cum periculo quern ceperis, potius quam, eo commutato, quo v^lis tan- dem pervenire, &g. — Bp. Fara. i. 9 i Neminem unquam est hie ordo amplexus honoribus et benefloiis "siiis, qui uUam dignitatem prKstabiliorem ea, quam per vos esset adeptus, putarit. Nemo unquam hio potuit esse princeps, qui maluerit esse popularis. — ^De Pro- vin. Consular. 16 ; it. Phil. v. 18. 312 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF the populace, it was bis constant advice to the senate to gain them by gentle compliances, and to gratify their thirst of power by voluntary grants of it, as the best way to moderate their ambition, and reclaim them from desperate counsels. He declared contention to be no longer prudent than while it either did service, or, at least, no hurt ; but when faction was grown too strong to be withstood, that it was time to give over fighting ; and nothing left but to extract some good out of the ill, by mitigating that power by patience which they could not reduce by force, and conciliating it, if possible, to the interests of the stat^ ''. This was what he advised, and what he practised ; and it will account in a great measure for those parts of his conduct which are the most liable to exception, on the account of that complaisance which he is supposed to have paid at different times to the several usurpers of illegal power. He made a just distinction between bearing what we cannot help, and approving what we ought to condemn'; and submitted therefore, yet never consented, to those usurpations ; and when he was forced to comply with them, did it always with a reluctance that he expresses very keenly in his letters to his friends. But whenever that force was removed, and he was at liberty to pursue his principles, and act without control, as in his consulship, in his province, and after Csesar's death, (the only periods of his life in which he was truly master of himself,) there we see him shining Out in his genuine character of an excellent citizen, a great magistrate, a glorious patriot : there we see the man who could declare of himself with truth, in an appeal \o Atticus, as to the best witness of his conscience, that " he had always done the greatest services to* his country when it was in his power j or when it was not, had never harboured a thought of it but what was divine""." If we must needs compare him, there- fore, with Cato, as some writers affect to do, it is certain, that if Cato's virtues seem more splendid in theory, Cicero's will be found superior in prac- tice : the one was romantic, the other rational ; the one drawn from the refinements of the schools, . the other from nature and social life ; the one always unsuccessful, often hurtful ; the other always beneficial, often salutary, to the republic. To conclude : Cicero's death, though violent, cannot be called untimely, but was the proper end of such a life, which must have been rendered less glorious, if it had owed its preservation to Antony. It was therefore what he not only expected, but in the circumstances to which he was reduced, what he seems even to have wished". For he who before ^ Sed contentio tamdiu sapiens est, quamdiu aut proficit aliquid, aut si non proficit, non obest civitati : voluimus quaadam, contendimus, expert! sumus, non obtenta sunt. —Pro Com, Balbo, 2?. Sic ab hominibus doctis accepimus, non solum ex malis tiligere minima oportere ; sed etiam excerpere ex his ipsis td quid inesset boni. — ^De Offic. i. ] . ' Non enim est idem, ferre si quid ferendum est, et pro- bare si quid probandum non est. — Ep. Fam. ix. 6. ™ PraEclara igitur conscientia sustentor, cum cogito me de republica aut meruisse optime cum potuerim ; aut certe nunquam nisi divine cogitasse..— Ad Att. x. 4. ° Nullum locum prsetermitto monendi, agendi, provi- dendi ; hoc denique animo sum, ut si in hac cm'a atque administrationCj vita mibi ponenda sit, prGeclai'c actum mecuni putem.— Ep. Fam. ix. 24. had been timid in dangers and desponding in dis- tress, yet, from the time of Cesar's death, roused by the desperate state of the republic ", assumed the fortitude of a hero, discarded all fear, despised all danger ; and when he could not free his country from a tyranny, provoked the tyrants to take that life which he no longer cared to preserve. Thus, like a great actor on the stage, he reserved himself as it were for the last act, and, after he had played his part with dignity, resolved to finish it with glory. The character of his son Marcus has been de- livered down to us in a very disadvantageous light : for he is represented generally, both by the ancients and moderns, as stupid and vicious, and a proverb even of degeneracy p : yet, when we come to Inquire into the real state of the fact, we shall find but little ground for so scandalous a tradition. In his early youth, while he continued under the eye and discipline of his father, he gave all imagin- able proofs both of an excellent temper and genius ; was modest, tractable, dutiful ; diligent in his studies, and expert in his exercises ; so that in the Pharsalic war, at the age of seventeen, he acquired a great reputation in Pompey's camp, by his dex- terity of riding, throwing the javelin, and all the other accomplishments of a young soldier'. Not long after Pompey's death, he was sent to Athens, to spend a few years in the study of philosophy and polite letters, under Cratippus, the most cele- brated philosopher of that time, for whom Cicero afterwards procured the freedom of Rome'. Here, indeed, upon his first sally into the world, he was guilty of some irregularity of conduct, and extrava- gance of expense, that made his father uneasy; into which hewas supposed to have been drawn by Gorgias, his master of rhetoric, a lover of wine and pleasure, whom Cicero for that reason expostulated with severely by letter, and discharged from his attend- ance upon him. But the young man was soon made sensible of his folly, and recalled to his duty by the remonstrances of his friends, and particu- larly of Atticus, so that his father readily paid his d^bts and enlarged his allowance, which seems to have been about seven hundred pounds per annum". From this time, all the accounts of him from the principal men of the place, as well as his Roman friends who had occasion to visit Athens, are constant and uniform in their praises of him, and in terms so particular and explicit, that they could not proceed from mere compliment, or a desire of flattering Cicero, as he often signifies with pleasure to Atticus'. Thus Trebonius, as he was o Sed plane animus, qui dubiis rebus forsitan fuerit infirmior, desperatis, confirmalus est mtiltum.— Ep. Fam. V. 21. P Cicei'onem filium que res consulem fecit, nisi pater? [Senec. De Benef. iv. 30.] Nam virtutes omnes aberant j stupor et vitia aderant..— Lipsii Not. ad locum, q Quo in bello cum te, Pompeius alse alter! prsfecisset, magnam laudem et a smmno viro, et ab exercitu conaeque- bare, equitando, jaculando, omni militarilabore tolerando. — De Offic. ii. 13. >■ Plutarch, in Vit. Cic. a — Ad Ciceronem ita scripsisti, uUi ut neque severius, neque temperatius scribi potuerit, nee magis quam quein^ admodum ego maximo vellem.--Ad Att, xiii. 1 ; it. Ibid, xvi. 1, 15 ; Plutarch, in Vit. CiC; ' Castcri prseclara scribunt. Leonidas tamcn rctinet MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 318 passing into Asia, writes to him from Athens : " I came hither on the twenty-first of May, where I saw your son, and saw him, to my great joy, pursuing ererything that was good, and in the highest credit for the modesty of his behaviour. — Do not imagine, my Cicero, that I say this to flatter you ; for nothing can be more beloved than your young man is by all who are at Athens ; nor more studious of all those arts which you yourself delight in, that is, the best. I congratulate with you, therefore, very heartily, which I can do with great truth, and not less also with myself; that he whom we were obliged to love, of what temper soever he had hap- pened to be, proves to be such a one as we should choose to love"." But tne son s own letters gave tne most solid comfort to his father, as they were written not only with great duty and affection, but with such elegance also and propriety, " that they were fit," he says, " to be read to a learned audience ; and though in other points he might possibly be de- ceived, yet, in these he saw a real improvement both of his taste and learning^." None of these letters are now extant, nor any other monument of young Cicero's talents, but two letters to Tiro, one of which I have chosen to transcribe, as the surest specimen both of his parts and temper, written, as we may imagine, to one of Tiro's rank, without any particular care, and in the utmost familiarity, from his residence at Athens, when he was about nineteen years old. Cicero the son to Tiro. " While I was expecting every day with im- patienpe your messengers from Rome, they came at last on the forty-sixth day after they left you. Their arrival was extremely agreeable to me ; for ' my father's most indulgent and affectionate letter gave me an exceeding joy, which was still highly increased by the receipt also of yours ; so that, instead of being sorry for my late omission of writing, I was rather pleased that my silence had afforded me so particular a proof of your humanity. It is a great pleasure, therefore, to me, that you accepted my excuse so readily. I do not doubt, my dearest Tiro, but that the reports which are nowbrought of me give you a real satisfaction. It shall he my care and endeavour that this growing fame of me shall every day come more and more confirmed to you : and since you promise to be the trumpeter of my praises, you may venture to do it with assurance ; for the past errors of my youth have mortified me so sensibly, that my mind does not only abhor the facts themselves, but my ears can- not even endure the mention of them. I am perfectly assured, that in all this regret and solici- tude you have borne no small share with me : nor is it to be wondered at ; for though you wish me all success for my sake, you are engaged also to do illud suum adhuc, summis vero laudibus Herodes. [Ad Att. XV. 16.J Gratissimum, quod polliceria Ciceroni nihil defatunim ; de quo mirabilia Me&sala.— Ibid. 17. "Ep. Fam. xii. 16;it. 14. ' A Cicerone mihi liters sane TreirivufUval^et bene longae. Cffitera autem vel fingi possunt : Trivos literarum Bignificat doctiorem. [Ad Att. xiv. 7.] Mehercule ipsius liter® sic et ^iKoaTiftytiiS, et evirtvas ecriptcB, ut eas vel in acroasi audeam legere : quo magis illi indulgendum puto.— Ibid. XV. 17 ; Ibid. 16. it for your own : since it was always my resolution to make you the partner of every good that may befal me. As I have before, therefore, been the occasion of sorrow to you, so it shall now he my business to double your joy on my account. You must know that I live in the utmost intimacy with Cratippus, and like a son rather than a scholar ; for I not only hear his lectures with pleasure, but am infinitely delighted with his conversation. I spend whole days with him, and frequently also a part of the night ; for I prevail with him as often as I can to sup with me ; and in our familiar chat, as we sit at table, the night steals upon us without thinking of it, whilst he lays aside the severity of his philosophy, and jokes amongst us with all the good humour imaginable. Contrive, therefore, to come to us as soon as possible, and see this agree- able and excellent man. For what need I tell you of Bruttius ? whom I never part with out of my sight. His life is regular and exemplary, and his company the most entertaining : he has the art of introducing questions of literature into conversa- tion, and seasoning philosophy with mirth. I have hired a lodging for him in the next house to me, and support his poverty as well as I am able, out of my narrow income. I have begun also to declaim in Greek under Cassius, but choose to exercise myself in Latin with Bruttius. I live, likewise, in great familiarity, and the perpetual company of those whom Cratippus brought with him from Mitylene, who are men of learning, and highly esteemed by him. Epicrates also, the lead- ing man at Athens, and Leonidas, spend much of their time with me, and many others of the same rank. This is the manner of my life at present. As to what you write about Gorgias, he was useful to me indeed in my daily exercise of declaiming ; but I gave up all considerations for the sake of obeying my father, who wrote peremptorily that I should dismiss him instantly. I comphed, there- fore, without hesitation, lest by showing any reluc- tance, I might raise in him some suspicion of me. Besides, I reflected that it would seem indecent in me to deliberate upon the judgment of a father. Your zeal, however, and advice upon it, are very agreeable to me. I admit your excuse of want of leisure, for I know how much your time is com- monly taken up. I am mightily pleased with your purchase of a farm, and heartily wish you joy of it. Do not wonder at my congratulating you in this part of my letter; for it was the same part of yours in which you informed me of the purchase. You have now a place where you may drop all the forms of the city, and are become a Roman of the old rustic stamp. I please myselfwith placing your figure before my eyes, and imagining that I see you bartering for your country wares, or consulting with your bailiff, or carrying oft from your table, in a corner of your vest, the seeds of your fruits and melons for your garden. But to be serious : I am as much conserned as you are that I happened to be out of the way, and could not assist you on that occasion : but depend upon it, my Tiro, I will make you easy one time or other, if fortune does not disappoint me : especially since I know that you have bought this farm for the common use of us both. I am obliged to you for your care in executing my orders ; but beg of you that a libra- rian may be sent to me in all haste, and especially a Greek one ; for I waste much of my time iu 314 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE OF transcribing the lectures and books that are of nse to me. Above all things, take care of your health, that we may live to hold many learned conferences together. I recommend Antherus to you. Adieu y." This was the situation of young Cicero when Brutus arrived at Athens, who, as it has been already said, was exceedingly taken with his virtue and good principles, of which he sent a high enco- mium to his father, and entrusted him, though but twenty years old, with a principal command in his army ; in which he acquitted himself with a singu- lar reputation, both of courage and conduct ; and in several expeditions and encounters with the enemy, where he commanded in chief, always came off victorious. After the battle of Philippi, and the death of Brutus, he escaped to Pompey, who had taken possession of Sicily with a great army, and fleet 'superior to any in the empire. This was the last refuge of the poor republicans : where young Cicero was received again with particular honours, and continued fighting still in the defence of his country's liberty, till Pompey, by a treaty of peace with the triumvirate, obtained, as one of the conditions of it, the pardon and restoration of all the proscribed and exiled Romans who were then in arms with him^. Cicero therefore took his leave of Pompey, and returned to Rome with the rest of his party, where he lived for some time in the condition of a private nobleman, remote from affairs and the court of the emperor ; partly through the envy of the times, averse to his name and principles ; partly through choice, and his old zeal for the republican cause, which he retained still to the last. In this uneasy state, where he had nothing to rouse his virtue or excite his ambition, it is not strange that he sunk into a life of indolence and pleasure, and the intemperate love of wine, which began to be the fashionable vice of this age, from the example of Antony, who had lately published a volume on the triumphs of his drinking. Young Cicero is said to have practised it likewise to great excess, and to have been famous for the quantity that he used to swallow at a draught, " as if he had resolved," says Pliny, " to deprive Antony, the murderer of his father, of the glory of being the first drunkard of the empire"." Augustus, however, paid him the compliment in the meanwhile to make him a priest or augur'', as well as one of those magistrates who presided over the coinage of the public money; in regard to which there is a medal still extant, with the name of Cicero on the one side, and Appius Claudius on the other, who was one of his colleagues in this office'. But upon the last breach with Antony, 7 Ep. Fam, xvi, 21. = Appian. p. 619, 713. « Nimirum hano gloriam anferre Cicero voluit interfeo- torl patris sui, Antonio. Is enan ante emu avidissime apprehenderat banc palmam ; edito etiam volumine de sua ebrietate. — Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv.'22. >> Appian. p. 619. = And. Morell. Theaaur. Numism. inter Numm. ConsuL Goltzii. Tab. xxxiii. 4. / These superintendanta of "the public coinage were called Treviri, or Triumviri Monetales; and in medals and old ijscriptions are desoi-ibed thus : in, VIR. A.A.A.F.P., that is, Auro, Art/ento, JEre Flando, Feriundo. Their number had always been three, till J. Cffisar, hb it appears from several medals, enlarged it to four ; whence in the coin of Cicero, ju«t mentioned, we find Mm called Ilfl. VlR. Augustus no sooner became the sole master of Rome, than he took him for his partner in the consulship ; so that his letters which brought the news of the victory at Actium, and conquest of Egypt, were addressed to Cicero the consul, who had the pleasure of publishing them to the senate and people, as well as of making and executing that decree, which ordered all the statues and monuments of Antony to be demolished, and that no person of his family should ever after bear the name of Marcus. By paying this honour to the son, Augustus made some atonement for his trea- chery to the father ; and by giving the family this opportunity of revenging his death upon Antony, fixed the blame of it also there ; while the people looked upon it as divine and providential, that the final overthrow of Antony's name and fortunes should, by a strange revolution of affairs, be reserved for the triumph of young Cicero**. Some honours are mentioned likewise to have been decreed by Cicero, in this consulship, to his partner Augustus ; particularly an obsidional crown, which though made only of the common grass that happened to be found upon the scene of action, yet in the times of ancient discipline, was esteemed the noblest reward of military glory, and never bestowed but for the deliverance of an army, when reduced to the last distress'. This crown, therefore, had not been given above eight times from the foundation of Rome ; but with the oppression of its liberty, aE its honours were servilely prostituted at the will of the reigning monarch. Soon after Cicero's consulship, he was made proconsul of Asia, or as Appian says, of Syria, one of the most considerable provinces of the empire, from which time we find no farther men- tion of him in history. He died probably soon after, before a maturity of age and experience had given him the opportunity of retrieving the reproach of his intemperance, and distinguishing himself in the counsels of the state ; but from the honours already mentioned, it is evident that his life, though blemishei by some scandal, yet was not void of dignity ; and amidst all the vices with which he is charged, he is allowed to have retained his father's wit and politeness '. There are two stories related of him, which show that' his natural courage and high spirit were far from being subdued by the ruin of his party and fortunes : for being in company with some friends where he had drunk very hard, in the heat of wine There was another magistrate also of lower rank at Rome, called Treviri Capitales, who tried and judged all capitai crimes among foreigners and slaves, or even citizens of in- ferior "condition ; in allusion to which Cicero has a pleasant joke, in one of his letters to Trehatius, when he was attend- ing Caesar in his wars against the Treviri, one of the most tierce and warlike nations of Gaul: "I admonish you," says he, "to keep out of the way of those Treviri : they are of the capital kind, I hear : I wish rather that they were the coiners of gold and silver."— Ep. Fam. vii. 13. ^ Plutarch, in Cic. ; Dio, p. 456 ; Appian. p. 619, 672. * Corona quidem nulla f uit graminea nobilior — nunquam nisi in desperatione suprema cpntigit ulli ; nisi ab aniverao exercitu servato deereta— eadem vocatur obsidionalis — da- batur ha:c viridi e gramine, decerpto inde ubi obscs^s servasset aliquis— Ipsum Augustum cum M. Cicerone con- sulem, idibus Sepf^mbribus senatus obsidionali donavit, &e.— Plin. Hist. Nat. xxii. 3, 4, 6, 6. f Qui nihil ex paterno ingenio habuit, prseter urbanitar tem.— M. Senec. Suasor. 6. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. S15 and passion he threw a cup at the head of Agrippa who next to Augustus bore the chief sway in Rome e. He was provoked to it probably by some dispute in politics, or insult on the late champions and van- quished cause of the republic. At another time, during his government of Asia, one Cestius, who was afterwards praetor, a flatterer of the times and a revUer of his father, having the assurance to come one day to his table, Cicero, after he had inquired his name, and understood that it was the man who used to insult the memory of his father, and declare that he knew nothing of polite letters, ordered him to be taken away and publicly whipped **. His nature seems to have been gay, frank, arid generous : peculiarly turned to arms and martial glory ; to which, by the unhappy fate of his coun- try, he had been trained very young ; and at an age, that is commonly dedicated to the arts of peace and studies of learning, had served, vrith much honour to himself, in three successive wars, the most considerable in all history ; of Pharsalia, Philippi, and Sicily. If his life, therefore, did not correspond with the splendour of his father's, it seems chargeable to his misfortune rather than his fault; and to the miserable state of the times, which allowed no room for the attainment of his father's honours, or the imitation of his virtues : but if he had lived in better times and a free re- public, though he would not have been so eminent a scholar, or orator, or statesman as his father, yet he would have excelled ^him probably in that cha- racter which conferred a more substantial power and dazzling glory, the fame of a brave and accom- plished general. The characters of Q. Cicero, the brother, of his son Quintas, and of Atticus, have been so fre- quently touched in the course of this history, that tiiere is but little occasion to add anything more about them. The two first, as we have already said, upon the news of their being proscribed, took their leave of Cicero in his flight towards the sea, and returned to Rome ; in order to furnish them- selves with money and other necessaries for a voy- age to Macedonia. They hoped to have executed this before the proscription could take effect, or to lie concealed, at least, for a short time in the city, without the danger of a discovery : but the diligence of Antony's emissaries, and the particular instruc- tions that they had received to make sure of the Ciceros, eluded all their caution and hopes of con- cealment. The son was found out the first ; who is said to have been more solicitous for the preserv- ation of his father than to provide for his own safety : upon his refusal to discover where his father lay hid, he was put to the rack by the soldiers ; till the father, to rescue his son from torture, came out from his hiding-place, and voluntarily surren- dered himself; making no other request to his aecutioners, than that they would despatch him the first of the two. The son urged the same peti- tion, to spare him the misery of being the spectator of his father's murder ; so that the assassins, to satisfy them both, taking each of them apart, killed them by agreement at the same time'. As to Atticus, the difficulty of the times in which t ATarcoque Agripps a temulento acyphmn impactum. -Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 22. ^ M. Senec. Suasor. 6. ' Sio, p. 333 ; Appian. 601 ; Plutarch, in Cio. he lived, and the perpetual quiet that he enjoyed in them, confirmed what has already been observed of him, that he was a perfect master of the prin- ciples of his sect, and knew how to secure that chief good of an Epicurean life, his private ease and safety. One would naturally Imagine that his union vrith Cicero and Brutus, added to the fame of his wealth, would have involved him of coutse in the ruin of the proscription : he himself was afraid of it, and kept himself concealed for some time ; but without any great reason ; for, as if he. had foreseen such an event and turn of things, he had always paid a particular court to Antony ; and, in the time even of his disgrace, when he was driven out of Italy, and his affairs thought desperate, did many eminent services to his friends at Rome ; and, above all, to his wife and children, whom he assisted, not only with his advice, but with his money also, on all occasions of their distress ; so that, when Antony came to Rome, in the midst of the massacre, he made it his first care to find out Atticus ; and no sooner learned where he was, than he wrote him word with his own hand, to lay aside all fears, and come to him immediately ; and assigned him a guard, to protect him from any insult or violence of the soldiers'. It must be imputed likewise to the same prin- ciple of Atlicus's caution, and a regard to his safety, that, after so long and intimate a corre- spondence of letters with Cicero, on the most im- portant transactions of that age, of which there are •sixteen books of Cicero's still remaining, yet not a single letter of Atticus' s was ever published : which can hardly be charged to any other cause but his having withdrawn them from Tiro, after Cicero's death, and suppressed them with a singular care ; lest, in that revolution of affairs and extinction of the public liberty, they should ever be produced to his hurt, or the diminution of his credit with their new masters. But his interest with the reigning powers was soon established on a more solid foundation than that of his personal merit, by the marriage of his only daughter with M. Agrippa ; which was first proposed and brought about by Antony. This introduced him into the friendship and familiarity of Augustus, whose minister and favourite Agrippa was ; and to whom he himself became afterwards nearly allied, by the marriage of his grand-daiighter with his successor Tiberius'. Thus he added dig- nity to his quiet ; and lived to a good old age, in the very manner in which he wished ; happy and honourable ; and remote from all trouble, or the apprehension of danger. But that he still lives, in the fame and memory of ages, is entirely owing ' Atticus, cum Ciceronis intima familiaritate uteretur, amicissixnus esse Bruto ; non mode nihil iis indulsit ad Antonium violaudum, sed e contrario familiares ejus eK urlje profugientes, quantum potuit, texit — ipsi autem Fulviffi, cum litibua distineretur — sponsor omnium remm fuerit— itaque ad adventum imperatorum de foro decesae- rat, timens proscriptionem — ^Antonius autem — ei, cum requisisset, ubinam esset, sua manu scripsit, ne timeret, statimque ad se veniret — ac ne quid periculum incideret — i prssidium ei misit Com. Nep. in Vit. Attici, lu. ' Atque harum nuptiarum, non enim est, celandum, conciliator fuit Antonius. [Ibid. 12.] Nata est autem Attico neptis ex Agrippa. Hanc Cassar vix amiiculam, Tibero Claudio Neroni, Drusilla nato, privigno suo despon dit. Quae coDJunotio neeessitudinem eorum sanxit.— i Ibid, 19. 316 HISTORY OF THE HFB OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. to the circumstance of his having been Cicero's friend : for this, after all, was the chief honour of his life : and, as Seneca truly observed, " it vras the epistles of Cicero which preserved him from oblivion ; and neither his son Agrippa, nor grand- son Tiberius, nor great-grandson Drusus, would have been of any service to him, if Cicero's name. by dravring Atticus's along with it, had not given him an immortality". n Nomen Attiei perire Ciceronis epistolse non sinunt. Nihil illi profuisset gener Agrippa, et Tiberius progener, et Drusus prouepos : inter tarn magna nomina taceretui, nisi Cicero ilium applicuisset.— Senec. Ep. 21. END OF THE LIFE OP CICEEO. INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. A. Academy, a Echool of philosophy at Athens : an account of its name, origin, and situation, n. ^, p. 302 ; its doctrines, ib. ; New Academy, its distinction from t!ie old, 303; its principles and method of pliilosopliising, ib. ; kept the proper medium between the Stoic and the Sceptic, ib. ; the most rational of all sects, 304 ; best adapted to the profession of an orator, ib. ; almost deserted in Cicero's time ; — why ; tb. ; the notion of a third or Middle Academy groundless, TO, *, ib. ; the Academic principles the best calculated for practical life ; compared with those of the Stoics and tbe Epicureans, 311 Aculeo, C, married Cicero's aunt, 1 ; his two sons hred up with Cicero, 3 Adoption, the conditions and eifects of it, 80 ^diles, the nature and duties of their office, 32 ; often ruined themselves by the expense' of their shows, ib. ^dileship or tribunate, a necessary step to the superior dignities, 21 iBschylus of Cnidos, an eminent rhetorician, attended Cicero in his travels, 13 ^sopus, the tragedian, applies several passages of his parts, in acting, to the case of Cicero, 108 A.franius, L. cons, his character, 75 Agrarian laws, some account of them, 43 Agriculture, the most liberal employment in old Rome, 2 Ahenobarbua, L. Domitius, repulsed from the consul- ship by the triumvirate, 129 A-laudffi, the name of a legion raised by Cassar ; an ac- count of it, n. ™5 246 Albinovanus, M. TuUius, a friend of Clodius, accuses P. Sextius of public violence, 1 23 AUobroges, their ambassadors solicited to enter into Catiline's plot, 55 ; are examined in the senate, ib. AmanuB, a mountainous part of Cilicia, subdued by Cicero, 160 Antiochus, a philosopher of the Old Academy, with whom Cicero lodged at Athens, 12 Antiochus, king of Comagene, .his petition to the senate rejected by Cicero* s influence, 134; seuds notice to Cicero that the Fartbians had passed the Euphrates, 157 Antonius, C, candidate for the consulship ; guilty of open bribery — supported by Crassus and Caesar, 40 ; chosen consul with Cicero, and wholly managed by him, 42 ; sent out with an army against Catiline, 52 ; is unwilling to fight, 61 ; condemned to exile for his oppressions in Macedonia, 79 ; defeated and taken prisoner by young Cicero, 265 ; raises a sedi- tion in Brutus's camp, confined by him on ship- board, 275 Antonius, M,, grandfather of the triumvir, his head fixed upon the rostra by 0, Marius, 7 Antonius, M,, father of the triumvir, invades Crete, but is defeated, and dies with disgrace, 19 Antonius, M., tribune,^ makes an invective oration against Pompey, 171 ; opposes all decrees against Caesar, ib, ; flies to Caesar's camp, ib, ; his character, ib. ; his flight the pretext of the war, 172 ; excludes all the Pompeians from Italy, except Cicero, 189 ; declared master of the horse to Caesar, 192 ; his luxurious manner of living ; — compelled by Cassar to pay for his purchase of Pompey's houses, 213 ; made consul with Casar; quarrels with Dolabella, 216 ; ofl'ers a regal diadem to Casar, 217 ; preserved by the two Brutuses, when Caesar was killed, 220 ; dissembles his real views, manages Lepidus to his interests, deludes the conspirators, 225 ; contrives the tumult at Caesar's funeral, 226 ; makes a pro- gress through Italy, to solicit the veternn soldiers, 229 ; his pernicious use of the decree for confirming Caesar's acts, 234 ; seizes the public treasure. 235 ; bribes Dolabella to his interests, treats Octavius with contempt, 238 ; recommends an accommodation with S. Pompey to the senate, 240 ; endeavours to extort the provinces of Macedonia and Syria from Brutus and Cassius, 243 ; threatens Cicero, ib. ; answers his first Philippic, 244 ; erects a. statue to Csesar, 245 ; puts three hundred centurions to death, 246 ; is enraged against Octavius, and Q. Cicero the son, 247 ; resolves to possess himself of Cisalpine Gaul, and make war against D. Brutus, ib. ; besieges De- cimus in Modcna, 249 ; receives an embassy from the senate, 251 ; refuses to comply with their de- mands, 253 ; reduces Modena to great straits, 261 ; tries to bring over Hirtius and Octavius to his mea- sures, 262 ; gains an advantage against Pansa, but is defeated by Hirtius, 270 ; entirely routed in a second battle by Octavius and Hirtius, flies to the Alps, 272 ; is received by Lepidus, 278 ; forms the league of the second triumvirate with Caesar and Lepidus; proscribes his uncle, 289; asummaryview of his conduct from Cassar's death, ib. ; gives 8,000/. for Cicero's head, and orders it to be fixed upon the rostra, 291 Appian, a copier of Plutarch, y re/, xiii. Appius, Cicero's predecessor in his government, dis- pleased with Cicero's proceedings in it, 163; im- peached by Dolabella and acquitted, 164 ; exercises the censorship with rigour, 165 ; asserted the reality of divination as an augur, and was laughed at for it, 308 Apuleius, tribune, makes a speech in defence of Cicero's measures, 369 Aquilius, M., delivered up to Mithridates by the city of Mitylene, 14 Aratus's Phaenomena, translated by Cicero, 5 ; and also his Prognostics, 76 Arcesilas, the sixth successor of Plato in the Academic school, founded the New Academy, 302 318 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. Archias, an eminent poet, the master of Cicero, lived with Luculliis, 4 ; defended by Cicero, 71 Aiiobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, recommencled to Cicero ; begs his assistance upon the discovery of a plot, 158; drained of his money by the Roman governors, ib. Aristotle, his works first brought into Italy by Sylla, 9 ; the scholar of Plato, and founder of the Peripa- tetic sect, 302 ; held the nature of God, and the soul to he a fifth essence, 306 Arpinum, the native city of Cicero and C. Marius, admitted to the freedom of Rome ; its territory rude and mountainous, 2 Ateius, tribune, declares the expedition of Crassus prohibited by the auspices, 133 ; turned out of the senate for it by Appius, ib. Atticus, a surname given to T. Pomponius, of- the Epicurean sect, 12 ; purchases for Cicero at Athens several statues and curiosities of Grecian sculpture, 38 ; employs his slaves in copying all the best Greek writers, 39 ; refuses to follow Cicero in his exile, 97 ; chides him for his dejection, 99 ; supplies him with money, is thought too cold by him, 102; visits himat Dyrrhachium, 104 ; marries Pilia, 125; complains to Cicero of Quintus's usage of his sister Pomponiaj 154 ; labours to reconcile Cicero to Caesar's administration, 212 ; his tenderness at part- ing from Cicero, 238 ; his good nature sometimes got the better of bis philosophy, 239 ; his political conduct and principles compared with Cicero's and Cato's, 311 ; his life a true pattern of the Epicurean, scheme, 315; why none of bis letters to Cicero were ever published, ib. ; his daughter married to Agrippa, his grand -daughter to Tiberius ; but his chief glory was Cicero's friendship, ib. Augurs, their college, an account of it, 147 ; presided over the auspices, as the interpreters of the will of Jove, 307 ; their dignity and powers, ib. Auspices, often forged by Marius and Sylla to animate their soldiers, 14 Autronius, P. Poetus, convicted of bribery, forfeits the consulship, 37 ; banished for conspiring with Cati- line, 67 B. Balbus, Corn., defended by Cicero, his character, 127 ; begs of Cicero to act the mediator between Cffisar and Pompey, 178 ; and to stand neuter, 180 Bayle, Mr., a mistake»of his corrected ; n. P, 204 Bestia, L., his character ; defended by Cicero, 122 Bibulus, chosen consul with Cassar, 78 ; opposes Clodius's adoption, 80 ; injuriously treated by Csesar, ib. ; shuts himself up in bis house, 81 ; pro- vokes the triumvirate by his edicts, 84 ; attacks Amanus, and is repulsed with loss, 161 ; obtains the decree of a supplication, 162 ; aspires to a, triumph, 169 Bona Dea, her mysteries polluted by P. Clodius, 68 Brutus, D., one of the conspirators against Caasar, his character, 219; seizes the province of Cisalpine Gaul, 227 ; forbids Antony the entrance of it, 247 • defends Modena against him with great vigour, 270 • assists iu the defeat of Antony, 272 ; pursues him 277 ; joins his array with Plancus, 278 ; is deserted by Plancus, 281 ; and killed by Antony's soldiers, ib, Brutus, M,, father of him who stabbed Caesar, surren- ders himself to Pompey, and is killed by his order, 15 Brutus, M., one of the conspirators against CssBar, lends money to king Ariobarzanes, and to the Sala- minians, at an exorbitant interest; presses Cicero to solicit the payment of it, 158 ; joins with Pompey against Cassar, and acts with a particular zeal, 186 ; writes the life of Cato, 1 99 ; puts away his wife Claudia and marries Porcia, Cato's daughter, 208 ; makes an oration to Cjesar in favour of king Deio- tarus, 215 ; chief of .the conspiracy against Cassar, his character, 218; his descent from old L. Brutus asserted, and the story of his being Caesar's son con- futed, ib. n. * ; speaks to the people in the capitol after Csesar's death, 224 ; driven out of the city by Antony's management, retires with.Cassius toLanu- vium, 227 ; expostulates with Antony by letter, 235 ; invites Cicero to a conference, 238 ; his shows and plays received with applause by the city, 239 ; prepares to seize Macedonia by force, 243 ; fiiends an account of his success in that expedition, 256; takes C. Antony prisoner, 265; treats him with lenity, ib. ; displeased with the ovation decreed to Octavius, 274 ; secures C. Antony on shipboard, 275 ; cannot be persuaded to come to Italy, 282 ; his behaviour in Greece, 283 ; displeafied with Cicero's measures, 284 ; his conduct compared with Cicero*S5 inconsistent with itself, ib. Brutus, L,, a medal, with his head on one side and Ahala on the other, a conjecture on the reason of it, n. % 223 Bursa, T. Munatius Plancus, accused by Cicero, and condemned to banishment. 152 C. C^Lius, M., his character ; defended by Cicero, 128 ; sends the news of Rome to Cicero, 156; chosen sedile, and desires Cicero to supply him with wild beasts for his shows, 166 ; pre&ses Cicero to remain neuter in the civil war, 181 ; his death and cha- racter, 187 Caerelliaj a learned lady, and correspondent of Cicero, 296 Caesar, J., nearly allied to C. Marius ; marries Cor- nelia, Cinna's daughter, refuses to put her away, is deprived of her fortune and the priesthood by Sylla, 9 ; retires into the country ; is discovered by Sylla's soldiers, obtains his life with difBciilty, Sylla's prediction of him, ib. ; gains a civic crown at the siege of Mitylene, 1 4 ; zealous to restore the power of the tribunes, 31 ; made use of them to overturn the republic, ib, ; excelled all men in the magnificence of his shows, 32 ; a zealous promoter of the Manilian law, 36 ; suspected of a conspiracy against the state, 37 ; revives the Marian cause ; prosecutes the agents of Sylla's cruelty, but spares Catiline, 41 ; suborns T. Labienus to accuse C. Rabirius, 46 ; whom he condemns, ib. ; elected high priest, 47 ; votes for saving the lives of Cati- line's accomplices, 58 ; in danger of being killed for it, 62 ; supports Metellus against Cicero ; his attempts against Catulus, 64 ; suspended from his office, ib. ; his suspension reversed, ib. ; impeached by L. Vettius and Q. Curius of Catiline's plot, 66; takes his revenge on them both, 67 ; puts away his "wife, 69 ; his behaviour iu the trial of Clodius, 70 ; invites Pompey to make himself master of the re- public, 71; supports Clodius against Cicero, 76; returns with glory from Spain, 78 ; chosen consul with Bibulus, ib. ; forms a triple league between Pompey, Crassus, and himself, ib. ; procures Olo- INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 319 diuB^s adoption, 80 ; carries an agrarian law by vio- lence, 81 ; gains the favour of the Icnights ; sends Cato to prison, ib. ; ratifies Pompey's acts in A^ia, and humbles Lucullus, ib. ; feigns a quarrel yfiih Clodius, ib. ; provoked by the edicts of Bibulus, 84 ; suborns Vettius to swear a plot upon young Curio, and the nobles of the opposite pai'ty, 85 ; strangles Vettius in prison, ib. ; endeavours to force Cicero to a dependence upon him ; offers to make him his lieutenant in Gaul, 86 ; provoked by Cicero's re- fusal, assists Clodius, and throws the blame on Cicero, ib. ; reconciles Piso to Clodius, 88; con- demns the proceedings, of Cicero against Lentulus, and. the rest, 90 ; the legality of his acts questioned in the senate, 92 ; goes to his province of Gaul, ib.; congratulates Clodius upon liis management of Cato, 96; consents to Cicero's ^esto^:^tion5 103 ; bas his province prolonged to him by Cicero's assistance, 122 ; has an interview with Pompey at Luca, 123 ; reconciles Pompey and Crassus, 129; his second expedition into Britain, 137; extremely kind to Q. Cicero, 138 ; presses Cicero to defend Vatiuius, 140 ; and also Gabinius, 141 ; bears the loss of his daughter Julia with firmness, and prepares himself for a breach with Pompey, 144 ; alarms the city with the prospect of a civil war, 153 ; pleased with the coldness between Cicero and Cato ; labours to increase it, 162; puts an end to the Gallic war, 165 ; bribes Paullus and Curio to his interests, 167 ; ordered by the senate to dismiss his army, 171 ; passes the Rubicon, 172; offers terms of peace, 173; is not sincere in it, 174 ; the nature of his attempt considered, ib. ; takes Corfinium, and treats his prisoners with generosity, 176 ; presses Cicero to stand neuter, 178, 181; seizes upon the public treasure, 182 ; marches into Spain, and defeats Pompey's lieutenants, 187 ; created dictator, makes himself consul, goes after Pompey, ib. ; besieges him at Dyrrhachium vrithout success, quits the siege, ib. ; gains a complete victory at Pharsalia, 188 ; his conduct and Pompey's compared, 191 ; declared dictator a second time, 192 ; writes kiodly to Ciqero, 194 ; has an interview with him, ib. ; disgusts the city by his manner of creating consuls, lb. i embarks for Africa, ib. ; the time of his embarkment cleared from a seeming contradiction between Cicero and HirtiuSjib., n. •*; he returns victorious, is extravagantly flattered by the senate, 196 ; his regard for Cicero, 198 ; answers Cicero's Cato, 199 ; pardons M. Marcellus, 200 ; reforms tlie calendar, 201 ; pardons Ligarius, 202 ; goes into Spain against Pompey*8 sons, 203 ; sends Cicero an account of his success, 212 ; publishes his Anti- Cato, 213 ; triumphs, ib, ; inclined to ruin king Deiotarus, whom Cicero and Brutus defend, 214 ; sliocked liy Brutus's freedom in -that, cause, 215 ; shortens the term of the consulship to oblige the more friends with it, 216; open to all kinds of flattery, and desirous of the title of king, ib. ; his death and character, 221 ; worshipped as a deity by the meaner sort, 229 Calenus, the head of Antony's- party, 252 ; carries ' several points against Cicero, 253 CaJ)itol, burnt down in Sylla's time, and rebuilt by Q. Lutatius Catulus, 32 Carbo, Cn. Papirius, driven out of Italy by Sylla, killed by Pompey, 9 Carneades, a professor of the New Academy, which he carried to its highest glory, 303 CaBsiuB, C, blocked up in Antioch by the Parthians, gains an advantage over them, 160; conspires against Cffisar's life, his character, 218; retires with M, Brutus to Lanuvium, 227 ; chosen patron of Pute- oli with the two Brutuses, 235 ; expostulates by letter with Antony, ib. ; prepares for an attempt upon Syria, 243 ; his success in Syria, 276 ; defeats Dolabella, ib. ; his preparations for the war, and conduct vindicated, 283; compared with Brutus's, ib. Cassius, Q,, the tribune, opposes all motions against Cfflsar, 171 ; flies to Caesar's canip, ib. Catiline, disappointed of the consulship, enters into a conspiracy against the state, 37; accused for his oppressions in Africa ; solicits Cicero to undertake his cause, 39 ; bribes his accuser, P. Clodius, to betray it, ib. ; bribes openly for the consulship, supported by Crassus and Casar, 40 ; cuts off the head of C. Marius Gratidianus, and presents it to Sylla ; accused by L. Paullus of murdering citizens in Sylla's proscription ;> suspected of an incestuous commerce with Fabia, the vestal, -41 ; sues for the consulship a second time, 47 ; forms a design against Cicero's life, ib. ; his character, ib. ; the plan of his conspiracy, 48 ; fails in a design against Prseneste, 49 ; leaves the city, 51 ; is declared a public enemy, 52 ; blocked up by Q. Metellus and C. Antonius, 61 ; defeated and killed, ib. Cato, C. Trib., his character, 118; declares himself against the restoration of king Ptolemy, ib. ; treats Pompey roughly, 121 ; makes himself ridiculous by the sale of his gladiators, 125 ; hinders th^ consuls from choosing magistrates, 129 Cato, M. Porcius, his speech for putting Catiline's accomplices to death, 60 ; obtains a decree for that purpose in his own words, ib. ; declares Cicero the Father of his Country, 62 ; accepts the commission granted by Clodius's law to depose Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, 95 ; maintains the legality of Clodius's tribunate,- 96 ; repulsed from the prsetorship, 132; Augustus's moderation with regard to his character, 71. 2f91 ; his political principles and conduct com- pared with Cicero's, 311, 312 Censors, an account of them, 31 ; their office restored after an intermission of seventeen years, and exer- cised with severity, ib. Centuries, the division of the people into, 35 Cethegus, one of Catiline's conspirators ; his character, 48 ; put to death, 61 Characters of persons, in what manner to be drawn, Pre/. X Character of Mithridates, 6 ; of C. Marina, 7 ; of Sylla, 14; of Roseius, the comedian, 16; of Ser- torius, 20 ; ofM. Crassus, 21 ; of Catiline, 47 ; of Lentulus, 48 ; of Cethegus, ib. ; of Lucullus, 63 ; of P. Clodius, 68 ; of M. Pup. Piso, 71 ; of L. Calp. Piso, 88 ; of A. Gabinius, ib. ; of Piso, Cicero's son, 110 ; of Treba,tius, 136 ; of P. Crassus, 147 ; of Q. Hortensius, 168 ; of M. Antony, 171 ; of Pompey, 191 ; of Curio, 192 ; of Cato, 311, 312 ; of Liga- rius, 203 ; of TuUia,- 204 ; of M. Marcellus, 209 ; of Mamurra, m. ^, 215; of M. Brutus, 218; of C. Cassius, ib. ; of D. Brutus, 219 ; of trcbonius, 220; of J. Cffisar, 221 ; of Matins, 233, n, \ 234; of Scrvilia, 237 ; of Sulpicius, 255, n.^; of Hir- tius, 272; of Pansa, 273 ; of Messala, n. ', 285 ; of Octavius, 290 ; of Lepidus, ib. ; of Atticus, 239, 311,315 Cicero, M. the grandfather, some account of him ; had two sons, Marcus and Lucius, 2 Oicero, M. the father, a man of letters and politeness, educates his children with great care under the 320 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. direction of L. Crassus, 3 ; had a house iil Rome, on Mount Palatine, ib, ; saw his son consul, 41 Cicero, L. the cousin of Cicero, an account of- him, 33 Cicero, Q. the brother, obtains the government of Asia and quarrels with Atticus for refusing to be his lieu- tenant, 73 ; proposes to visit his brother at Thessa- lonica in bis return from Asia, but is disappointed, 98 ; arrives at Rome, 100 ; saves his life in a tumult by biding himself under the bodies of the dead, 106 ; driven from bis house by Clodius, 116 ; made one of CsBsar's lieutenants in Gaul and Britain, 135, 137 ; projects a poem on Caesar's British expedition, 138 Cicero, M. T. when born, 1 ; an account of his family, ib. ; calleda JVeztf man, and why; his family seat, 2; now possessed by Dominican friars, ib. ; received the name of his father and grandfather, Marcus, the name of Cicero, whence derived, ib, ; educated with his cousins, the young Aculeo's, under the direction of L. Crassus, 3 ; placed in a public school under a Greek master, ib* ; committed to the poet Archias, much addicted to poetry, publishes a poem while a boy, takes the manly gown, 4 ; put under the care of Q. Muc. Scsevola the augur, afterwards of Scas- vola the high-priest, acquires a complete knowledge of the laws, 4 ; his manner of improving himself, 5 ; be translates Aratus's Phsenomena into Latin verse, publishes a poem in honour of C. Marius, another called Limon, his poetical genius scarce inferior to bis oratorical, ib. ; studies philosophy, is fond of' Phffidrus the Epicurean, deserts the principles of that sect, ib. ; makes a campaign with the consul Cn. Pompeius Strabo in the Marsic war, was pre- sent at a conference between the consul and the general of the Marsi, 6 ; serves as a volunteer under Sylla, relates «. remarkable action at which he was present, ib. ; saw the entry of C. Marius into Rome, 7 ; writes bis rhetorical pieces, 8 ; scholar to Philo, the Academic ; resumes his oratorical studies under Molo, the Rbodian, ib. ; studies logic with Diodo- tus the Stoic, declaims in Latin and Greek with M. Piso and Q. Pompeius, ib. ; puts himself a second time under Molo, 10 : improves his language by the conversation of the ladies, ib. ; offers himself to the bar, ib. ; undertakes the cause of P. Quinctius, ib. ; defends S. Roscius of Ameria, 1 1 ; is applauded for it by the whole city, ib. ; defends the rights of cer- tain towns of Italy to the freedom of Rome, which Sylla had taken from them, 12 ; travels into Greece and Asia, ib. ; lodges at Athens with Antiochus, ib. ; meets there with Atticus, is initiated into the Eleu- sinian mysteries, pursues his rhetorical studies under Demetrius the Syrian, ib. ; goes over into Asia, where he is attended by the principal orators of that country, 13 ; visits Rhodes on his return, where he studies philosophy with Posidonius, and declaims in Greek with Molo, ib. ; comes back to Rome after an excursion of two years, ib. ; bis travels the only scheme of travelling with credit, ib. ; the story of his journey to the Delphic Oracle suspected,l5 ; he marries Terentia, 17 ; is made quaestor, pleads the cause of Roscius the comedian, 16 ; enters upon the qusestorship of Sicily, 18 ; greatly horu)urcd by the Sicilians, pleads for some young officers of quality, ib. ; finds out the tomb of Archimedes, unknown to the Syraeusians, ib. ; his return to Italy, 19 ; resolves to reside constantly in Rome, ib. ; strictly observes the Cincian law, 21 ; takes all the usual ways of recommending himself to the people, 22 ; is elected curule eedile, undertakes the prosecution of Verres, 23 ; goes to Sicily in search of facts and evidence against bim, his reception at Syracuse, 24 ; and at Messana, ib. ; defeats all the projects of Verres by a new way of proceeding, and forces him into exile, 25 ; offends the nobility by it, ib. ; se- cures the affection of the citizens, is supplied with provisions during his sedileship by the Sicilians, 32 ; defends Csecina and Fonteius, 33 ; declared praetor in three different assemblies, 35 ; condemns Licinius Macer, ib. ; ascends the rostra the first time, in defence of the Manilian law, 36 ; defends A. Cluentius, ib. ; frequents the school of Gnipho, 37 ; defends Manilius, ib. ; refuses to accept any province, ib. ; takes great pains in suing for the consulship, 38 ; employs Atticus to purchase statues and other curiosities for him at Athens, ib. ; defends C. Cornelius, 39 ; inclined to defend Catiline, ib. ; changes his mind, ib. ; appears a candidate for the consulship, 40 ; delivers his speech called In Toga Candida, defends Q. Gallius, ib. ; proclaimed consul by the acclamation of the whole people, 41 ; has a son born to him, 42 ; draws his colleague, C. An- tonius, from his old engagements to the interest of the republic, ib. ; unites the equestrian order with the senate, 43 ; opposes RuUus's agrarian law, ib. ; appeases the people in a tumult against Otho, 45; persuades the sons of the proscribed to bear their condition with patience, ib. ; defends C. Rabirius, ib, ; ' publishes a new law against bribery, 47 j charges Catiline with traitorous designs, ib. j is or- dered to take care that the republic receive no harm, ib. ; is informed by Curius of all Catiline's measures, 49 ; summons the senate to the temple of Jupiter, decrees a reward to the first discoverer of the plot, ib. ; drives Catiline out of the city by a resolute speech, ib. ; his second speech against Catiline, 52; defends L. Murena, 53 ; and C. Piso, 54 ; instructs the ambassadors of the AUobroges how to convict the conspirators, 55 ; has public thanks and a sup- plication decreed to him for preserving the city, 56 ; bis third speech against Catiline, ib. ; publishes copies of the trial and confession of the conspirators, 57 ; his fourth speech against Catiline, 58 ; stifles the information against Caesar, 62 ; declared the Father of his Country, receives honours from all the towns of Italy, ib. ; makes a law to limit the legatio liberat ib. ; helps to procure a triumph for L. Lu- cullus, 63 ; decrees a thanksgiving of ten days to Pompey, ib. ; not suffered by the tribune Metellus to speak to the people at the expiration of liis con- sulship, ib. ; publishes an oration against Metellus, wiites to Q. Metellus about his brother's treatment of him, 65 ; his letter to Pompey, 66 ; pves evi- dence j^ainst Autronius, 67 ; defends P. Sylla," ib.; buys a house on the Palatine hill with borrowed money, 68 ; gives testimony against Clodius, 70 ; defends the poet Archias, 71 ; his judgment of Cato, 74 ; moderates Pompey's agrarian law to the satisfaction of both parties, 75 ; not permitted to leave Rome when chosen by lot an ambassador to the Gallic cities, ib. j publishes the memoirs of his consulship in Greek, ib. ; writes a Latin poem on his own history, 76 ; publishes his consular orations, and Aratus's Prognostics translated by him into Latin verse, ib. ; unites himself with Pompey, jus- tifies this step, 77 ; his conduct with regard to Caesar and the triumvirate, 78 ; defends C. Antonius, his colleague, 79 ; employs himself in pleading ca\ises, 82 ; defends L. Valerius 'Flaccus, ib. ; advisei Pompey to a breach with Ccesar, 85 j ib alarmed by INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 321 Clodius's tribunate, presses AtticUs to return to Kome, 86 ; refuses the honours offered hy Cicsar, ib. ; depends on Pompey, but finds reason to distrust him, 87 ; expresses an inclination to the augurate, but drops it, ib.; is vindicated from an unjust cen- sure on that account, n. ib. ; conceives hopes of Fiso and Gabinius, but is soon convinced of his xnjstake, 88 ; provides L. Ninnius, tribune, to op- pose Clodius^s laws, but consents to let 'them pass, 89 ; is reduced to the condition of a criminal, and changes his habit upon it, ib. ; is defended by the knights and young nobility, who perpetually attend him, ib. ; is deserted by Pompey, 91 ; submits to a voluntary exile, and consecrates a statue of Minerva in the temple of Jupiter, 92 ; repents his quitting the city, charges the advisers of it with perfidy, 94 ; explains the motives of his retreat, 96 ; spends several days at Vibo, not suffered to enter into Sicily by C. Virplius the praetor, 96 ; honourably received by all the towns through which he passed, ib. ; presses Atticus to come to him, 97 ; lodges with M. Lenius near Brundisium, ib.; his dream, ib. ; arrives at Dyrrhachium, is conducted to Thes- salonica by Cn. Plancius, 98 ; declines an interview with his brother, ib. ; his dejection in his exile, ib. ; uneasy for the publication of one of his invective orations, 101 ; returns to Dyrrhachium, 103 ; dis- pleased with the management of his friends at Rome, ib. ; his restoration decreed in Marius*s mnn^ument, 107 ; and confirmed by all the centuries, 110 ; his progress from Brundisium to Eome, ib. &c. ; returns thanks to the senate and people. 111 ; proposes a law for granting to Pompey the administration of all the corn and provisions of the republic, 112 ; pleads for the restitution of his palatine house, 113 ; re- builds his Tnsculan villa, 116 ; takes down the acts of his banishment fi:am the capital, ib. ; is assaulted in the streets by Clodius, 117 ; labours to get the commission of restoring king Ptolemy granted to Lentulus, 119 ; unites himself with Pompey, 121 ; defends L. Bestia, 122 ; promotes a decree for pro- longing Csesar's command, ib. ; defends P. Sextius, ib. ; moves for reconsidering Caesar's act, for the division of the Campanian lands, but drops that motion, 123 ; the grounds of his conduct towards the triumvirate, &c. 124 ; rebuilds his houses, 125 ; made uneasy in his domestic affairs, ib. ; applies the answer of the haruspices to the violences of Clo- dius, 1 26 ; persuades the senate to recal Fiso and Gabinius from their provinces, 1 27 ; defends Com. Balbus and M. Caelius, ib. ; writes a poem in com- pliment to Caesar, 128 ; engages Lucceius to write the history of his acts, ib. ; speaks his invective ora- tion against Fiso, 131 ; is present at Pompey's shows, and defends Gallus Caninius, 132 ; finishes his Pala. line house, and prepares an inscription for it, and for the temple of Tellus, ib. ; his quarrel and reconci- liatiou with Crassus, 133 ; finishes his piece on the Complete Orator, ib. ; composes a treatise on Politics, 135 ; enters into an intimacy with Caesar, ib. ; writes a series of letters to Trebatius in Gaul, 136 ; sends a Greek poem on his consulship to Caesar, and writes an epic poem in honour of him, 138 ; defends Plan- cius, 140 ; and Vatinius, ib. ; gives evidence against Gabinius, 141 ; defends him in a second trial, 142; apologises for that conduct, ib. ; defends C. Rabirius, 143; accepts Pompey's lieutenancy in Spain, but resigns it, 144 ; begins a correspondence of letters with Cnrio, 146 ; elected into the college of augurs, 147 ; uses his utmost endeavours in promoting Milo to the consulship, 147 ; not deterred from undertak- ing Mile's defence, 149 ; accuses the tribune Bursa, 152 ; writes his treatise on Laws, ib. ; decides a dis- pute about the inscription prepai'ed by Pompey for his new temple, 153 ; succeeds to the government of Cilicia against his will, ib. ; not pleased with his provin- cial government, 164 ; sets forward towards it, ib.; sends an account to Atticus of Pomponia's behaviour to his brother, ib. ; has an interview vrith Pompey at Tarentum, 155 ; arrives at Athens, and lodges with Aristus, ib. ; writes to C. Memmius, in favour of the Epicureans, ib. ; rallies Trebatius on his turning Epicurean, 156 ; sets forward towards Asia, ib., lands at Ephesus, 157; arrives at Laodicea, and enters upon his command, ib. ; forbids all expense to be made upon himself or company, by the cities through "which he passed, ib. ; secures his province from the inroads of the Farthians, ib. ; takes king Ariobarzanes under his protection, 158 ; refuses to accept any present from him, ib. ; solicits him to pay his debt to Brutus with the money offered to himself, ib, ; frees the Salaminiaus from the oppres- sions of Scaptius, Brutus's agent, 159 ; complains of Brutus to Atticus, ib. ; saluted emperor by his army, 160; takes Pindenissum, 161; receives hostages from the Tiburani, ib. ; entertains thoughts of a triumph, sends an account of his expedition to Gate, ib. ; has a public thanksgiving decreed to him, ib. ; is displeased with Cato, for refusing his vote to it, 162 ; sends his son and nephew to king Deiotarus's court, ib. ; governs his province with singular mode- ration and probity, ib. ; disgusts his predecessor Appius by it, 163 ; resolves to assist Appius when impeached by his sOn-in-law Dolabella, 165 ; begs of the consuls by letter not to prolong his govern- ment, 167 ; commits his province to his quaestor, ib. ; calls at Rhodes on his return, 168 ; is much affected with the news of Hortensius's death, ib. ; arrives at Athens, ib. ; resolves to sue for a triumph, 169 ; has an interview with Pompey, 170 ; solicits an accommodation between him and Caesar, 171 ; arrives at Rome, ib. ; has the command of Capua committed to him, but resigns it, 173 ; has an inter- view with Caesar, 180 ; pressed by Caeaar, Antony, &c., not to follow Pompey, 181 ; resolves to go after him, 182 ; has a conference with Servius Sulpiclus, 184; goes to Pompey, 185; his behaviour in that camp, and sentiments of the War, 186 ; some of his jokes upon the management of it, n. ^, ib. ; he refuses the command of it after the battle of Phar- salia, 189; had like to have been killed for it by y9ung Pompey, ib. ; returns to Italy, ib. ; finds his domestic affairs in great disorder, ib. ; uneasy in his residence at Brundisium, 192 ; received kindly by Caesar, returns to Rome, 194 ; resumes his studies, and enters into a strict friendship with Varro, 195 ; puts away his wife Terentia, ib. ; maiTies Publilia, 196 ; his railleries on Caesar's administration, -ii, ™, ib. ; caressed by Casarand his friends, 197 ; writes a book in praise of Cato, 199 ; publishes his Orator, 200 ; returns thanks to Caesar for the pardon of M. Marcellus, ib. ; defends Ligarius, 202 ; sends his son to Athens, 204 ; exceedingly afiiicted by the death of his daughter, ib. ; resolves to build a temple to her, 207 ; his reasons for it, n. ', ib. ; applies himself closely to the study of philosophy, 210 ; pubUshes a piece called Hcfftensius, another on the Philosophy of the Academy, ib. ; his treatise De Finibm, 211; his Tusculan Disputations, ib. ; writes a funeral encomium on Porcia, Cato's siator, V 322 INDKX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 21 1 ; is pressed to write something to Castlr, but discouraged bytlie difficulty of it, 212 ; defends king DeiotaruB, 214 ; entertains Csasar at his house, 215; how far accessory to CaBsar's death, 223 ; urges the conspirators to support that act by vigorous measures, 225 ; leaves Rome, dissatisfied with the indolence of his friends, 227 ; disgusted with Cleopatra, in an interview with her, 228 ; endeavours to draw Hirtius and Pansa to tho interests of the republic, 230 ; writes his treatise on the Nature of the Gods, on Divination, 235 ; on the advantages of Old Age, on Friendship, 236 ; on Fate, his Anecdote, 236 ; approaches towards Rome, but is dissuaded from entering it, ib. ; obtains an honorary lieutenancy, and resolves to visit his son at Athqns, 237 ; kbours to reconcile Hirtius to the conspirators, ib, ; assists at a conference with Brutus and his friends, 238 ; begins to cherish Octavius as a check to Antony, ib.; begins his Book of Offices, ib. ; and an oration adapted to the times, ib. ; takes'his leave of Atticus with great tenderness, ib. ; sends him his piece on Glory, 239 ; some account of that piece, n- ^, ib. ; sets forward towards Athens, 241 ; writes his Treatise of Topics at sea, ib. ; his manner of writing prefaces, n. *, 242 s encouraged by good news from Rome, he drops the pursuit of his Yoyage, ib, ; has an inter- view with Brutus, ib. ; and arrives at Rome, ib. ; delivers the first of his Philippics, 243 ; retires to Naples, composes his second Philippic, 244 ; consents to support Octavius, on certain conditions, 245 ; finishes his Book of Offices, 246 ; writes his Stoical Paradoxes, ib. ; comes back to Rome upon Antony's leaving it, 247 ; speaks his third Philippic, 248 ; his fourth, ib.; publishes his second Philippic, ib. ; speaks his fifth, 249 ; called for by the people to give them an account of the deliberations of the senate, 251 ; speaks his sixth Philippic, ib. ; his seventh, 252 ; opposed by Oalenus in all his motions against Antony, procures a decree to put on the sagum, or habit of war, 253 ; speaks his eighth Philippic, ib, ; his ninth, 254 ; his tenth, 256 ; his eleventh, 259 ; his statue of Minerva dedicated in the capitol, struck by lightning, and repaired by the senate, 261 ; speaks his twelfth Philippic, ib. ; his thirteenth, 263 ; his noble struggle in defence of the republic's liberty, 266 ; his pains to engage Lepidus, PoUio, and Plan- cus, in the same cause, ib. ; mortifies Servilius in the senate, 268 ; disturbed by a report of hie design- ing to make himself master of the city, 269 ; carried in triumph to the capitol, on the news of Antony's defeat, 271 ; speaks his fourteenth Philippic, ib. ; presses Brutus to come into Italy, 274 ; decrees an ovation to Octavius, with pubjic honours to Hirtius, Pansa, Aquila, &c.,ib. ; expostulates \vith D. Brutus, on Antony's escape, 275 ; blames M. Brutus's cle- mency to C. Antony, ib. ; utterly averse to the consulship of Octavius, 280 ; presses Brutus and Cassius to hasten to Italy, 231; his conduct from the time of Caesar's death vindicated, and com- pared with Brutus's, 283, 288 ; his own account of it in a letter to Brutus, 284 ; cleared from a calumny, intimated in a letter of Brutus, n. *, 288 ; proscribed by the triumvirate, 289 ; might have escaped into Macedonia, ib. ; had early notice of his danger, embarks at Asturia, 290; preferred death to the fatigues of cam])S and the sea, forced by his slaves to attempt a flight, overtaken by hie pursuers, ib. ; orders his slaves not to resist, ib. ; meets his death with the greatest firmness; his he»d and hands cut oflr and placed upon the rostra, 291 ; thia Spot where he fell visited by tra- vellers, ib, ; why Virgil and Horace make no men- tion of him, ib. ; Livy's character of him, and Augustus's, ib. ; Paterculus'e encomium of him, ib.; all the succeeding writers vie with each other in praising him, ib. ; of his person, and care of his health, 292 ; his clothes and dress, ib. ; hia domestic - *and social character, ib. ; his high notions of friend- ship; of gratitude, 288 ; of placability to enemies, ib. ; his splendid manner of living, 293; hia gay and sprightly temper, ib, ; thought to affect raillery too much, ib. ; as famous for wit aa for eloquence, ib. ; a collection of his sayings published by Trebo- niua, ib. ; a more copious one by Tiro after bis deathf ib. ; an account of the number, situation, and condition of his several villas, 294 ; an epigram on his acAd»my or Puteolan Villa, ib, j his furniture rich and elegant ; a cedar table of his remaining in Pliny's time, 295 ; the source of his great wealth, ib. ; his moral character unblemished ; he had no intrigues with the ladies, 295, 296 ; was thought too sanguine in prosperity, desponding in adversity, 296 ; the love of glory his chief passion, ib. ; the nature of that passion explained and vindicated, ib.; iiis great learaing in every branch of science, 298 ; his works the most precious remains of antiquity, ib, ; hia industry incredible, ib, ; a, character of Ids let- ters, familiar, jocose, political, recommendatory, ib, ; preferable to the letters of all who livjed after him ; compared particularly with Pliny's, 299 ; his histo- rical works lost, 300 ; his plan for a general history, ib. ; no remains of his poetry but some scattered fragments, ib. ; these show a genius, ib. ; a character of his eloquence, 301 ; compared with that of De- mosthenes, ib. : and that of his contemporaries who pretended to an Attic taste, ib. ; his philosophy drawn from the Academy, 302 ; an account of it as explained by himself, 303 ; a judgment on a va- rious reading in his treatise on the Nature of the Gods, n. ", 303 ; he became a convert to the New Academy, 304 ; the difficulty of discovering hia real sentiments stated, ib. ; why thej are not to be sought in his orations, ib. ; which yet are good testimonies of facts, n. ', 305 ; his letters lay open his heart, but with some exceptions, ib, ; his philosophical works give a history of the ancient philosophy, ib. ; tbo key to his proper sentiments, ib. ; he has declared no precise opinions in natural philosophy, ib. ; yet was acquainted with some of the fundamental prin- ciples of it, which pass for the discoveries of modfem ages, 305 ; he believed a God, a providence, the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments, 305, 306 ; bis opinion of the reli- gion of Rome considered, 307 ; an observation of Polybius upon it, n. *, ib. ; his own religion divine, 308 ; he deduced the origin of duty, moral obliga- tion, and the eternal difference of good and ill, from the will of God, ib. &c. ; his system of religion and morality, contained in his books on Government, on Laws, and on Offices, 309 ; the noblest system ever published to the heathen world, ib. ; an objection to his belief of it stated and answered, ib., &c. ; his rule of following nature explained, ?». ^, ib, ; his political principles and conduct illustrated, 310, &r-.; compared with Gate's, 311, 312; with Atticus's, 311 ; his rule of managing the men of power, ib., &c, ; his true principles always displayed themselves when he was at liberty to exert them, 312 ; his death violent but not untimely, ib. ; what he seemed tb have wished, ib. ; the last act of his life gloriouB, ib. INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 323 Cicero, the son, invested ^th the "manly gown" at Arpinum, 180 ; carried by his father to Pompey*s camp, 185 ; commands a wing of Pompey's horse, 189 ; sent to Athens to study under Cratippus, 204 ; much commended and heloved by Brutus, 257 ; en- trusted with the command of his hoi^e in Macedonia, 258 ; defeats C. Antony and takes him prisoner, 265 ; his character injuriously treated by posterity, ib. ; a true account of it, and a summary view of his life, 312, &c. Cicero, Q., attends his brother into Cilicia, as one of his lieutenants, 154 ; resolves to follow him into Fompey's camp, 1 85 ; obtains pardon from Csesar, 189 ; reviles his brother in his letters and speeches to Oesar's fnends, 190 ; gives u disadvantageous character of the consuls, Pansa and Hictins, 273 ; is proscribed by the triumvirate, 290 ; conceals himself in Rome, but is discovered and killed, toge- ther with his son, 315 Cicero, Q., the son, gives information to Caesar of his uncle's disaffection to him, 181 ; makes an oration against his uncle, 190; abuses both the uncle and his &tber to please Csesar's friends, 212 ; deserts Antony and is reconciled to his father and uncle, 240; is presented to Brutus, 241 ; undertakes to jiccuse Antony to the people, ib. ; is abused by Antony in his edicts, 247 ; is progcribed, taken in Rome, and killed with his father, 315 Cincius, M. Trib,, his law prohibiting patrons to take money or presents from their clients, 16 Cinna, the consul, driven out of Rome and deposed by his colleague Octavius, recalls Marius, enters Rome with a superior force and puts all his enemies to the sword, 7 ; killed in a mutiny of his soldiers, 9 Cinna, L. Cornelius, prjaetor, applauds the act of Idlling Caesar in a speech to the people, 224 ; in danger of his life fi'om Casar's veteran soldiers, ib. Cinna, Helvius, tribune, mistaken for L. Cornelius Cinna, and torn to pieces by the rabble, 226 Cispius, tribune, beaten by Clodius, 106 Civic crown, what, &c,, 14 Classical writers, why so called, 35 n. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, flies from Rome upon the death of Caesar, 228 ; her conference there with Cicero, ib. Clodius, P., his character, 63 ; profanes the mysteries of the Bona Dea, ib, ; his trial for it, 69 ; becomes a declared enemy to Cicero, 71 ; his project to get himself chosen tribune by the means of an adoption, 76 ; the law of his adoption carried by the assistance of Casar and Pompey, 80 ; his pretended quarrel mth Caesar, 81 ; is elected a tribune, and threatens Cicero, 86 ; promises Pompey to be at his devotion, ib. ; does not suffer Bibulus to speak to the people on laying down his consulship, 87 ; bargains with Piso and Gabinius to oppress Cicero, 88 ; endeavours to ^lin tho people by popular laws, 89 ; insults Cicero, ib. ; produces the consuls to give their opi- nion on Cicero^s consulship, 90 ; repeals the ^iian and Fusiaa laws, 91 ; publishes a law for Cicero's Danishment, 93 ; demolishes Cicero's hoqses, ib. ; persecutes his wife and children, 94 ; poisons Q. Seius Posthumus for refusing to sell his house to him, ib. ; procures a law to depose Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, charges Cato with the execution of it, 95 ; is con- gratulated upon it by Caesar, 96 ; affronts Pompey by seizing Tigranes his prisoner, 100 ; forms a plot against Pompey's life, ib. ; attacks the triumvirate and Gabinius, 104 ; drives Fabricius and Cispius the tribunes out of the forum with great slaughter, 106 ; impeached by Milo, screened by JVIetellug, 107 ; endeavours to raise fresh tumults against Cicero, 112 ; opposes the restitution of his Palatine house, 115 ; commits great outrages against Cicero and Milo, 116 ; chosen aedile, 120 ; impeaches Milo, ib. ; applies the answer of the haruspices to the case of Cicero, 126; impeaches the tribunes Suffe- nas, C. Cato, and Procilius, 140 ; killed by Milo, 148 Clodius, Sext., tried and banished for bis violences at Clodius's funeral, 151 Consuls, the method of choosing them, 41 Cornelius, C, tribune, raises great disorders in tho city by the publication of new law9,-35 ; accused for practices against the state, defended by Cicero, 39 Comificius, proconsul of Africa, continued firm to the cause of liberty, 268 Corradus, Seb., his Life of Cicero, what, pref. siv Cotta, an orator of the first character, 16 ; his way of speaking, ib. ; obtains the consulship, 1 7 ; moves the senate to recall Cicero, 105 Crassus, L. the first orator of his time, directed the method of Cicero's education, 3 Crassus, M. obtains the decree of an ovation and laurel crown for putting an end to the Servile war, 20 ; his riches and manner of raising them, 21 ; chpsen con- sul with Pompey, ib. ; supposed to be in a conspiracy with Catiline, Oiesar, &c. , supports Piso against Pompey, 37 ; accused of a correspondence with Catiline, .62 ; corrupts the judges in Clodius's trial, 70 ; discomposes Pompey by praising Cicero's acts, 72 ; prepares for his Eastern expedition in defiance of the auspices, 133 ; reconciled lo Cicero, ib.; his death, 146 Crassus, P., the son, his death and character, 147 Cratippus, the Peripatetic, prasceptor to young Cicero at Athens, 204, 312, 313 Gremutius, Cordus, put to death by Tiberius for prais- ing Brutus, 291 Crete, subjected to the Romans, 20 Crown, laurel, the ornament of a triumph, 20 Crown, myrtle, of au ovation, 20 Curio,- C. Scribonius, consul, an orator of a neculiar action and manner of speaking, 17 Curio, the son, the most active opposer of the trium- virate, 84 ; clears himself from the charge of a plot, 85 ; enters into a correspondence of letters with Cicero; his character, 146. Curio obtains the tribunate, changes his party and de- clares for Caesar, 167; flics to Cassar's camp, 171 ; drives Cato out -of Sicily ; is destroyed ^ritb his whole army in Africa, 192 ; his character, ib. Curius, one of Catiline's conspirators, discovers their counsels to Cicero by Fulvia his mistress, 49 ; ac- cuses Caesar, and claims the reward decreed to the first discoverer of the -plot, 06 D. Damasippus, praetor of the city, kills the principal se- nators by order of young Marius, 9 Decemviri, the guardians of the Sibylline books, who, 307 Deiotarus, king of Galatia ; a faithful ally of Rome : prepares to join with Cicero against the Parthians, 157; deprived of part of his dominions by Ca;sar, 214 ; accused of a design against Caisar's life, ib- ; defended by Brutus and by Cicero, 215 ; purchased his dominions again of Antony, 234 Y 2 324 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. Demetrius, master of rnetoric to Cicero at Athens, 12 Dictatorship, some account of that office, 10 Dion Cassius ; the grounds of his malignity to Cicero, pref. xiii Diodotus, a Stoic, lived with Cicero, 8 Dionysiua, of Magnesia, a famed rhetorician, attended Cieero in his travels, 13 Dionysius, tutor to the two young Ciceros, 162 Divination, artificial and natural ; what, 307 Divination, a speech of Cicero so called ; why, 23j Divorce, a custom mentioned on that occasion, 196, Dolahella, P. Cornelius, bis character; marries Cicero's daughter, 164 ; impeaches Appius, ib. ; solicits Cicero to desert Pompey, 189; raises great tumults in Rome, 190 ; is divorced from TuUia, ib. ; makes a speech in the senate against Antony, 216; assumes the consulship upon CiEsar's death, 229; demolishes the altar erected to Caesar, and acts -vigorously on the side of liberty, ib. ; bribed by Antony to sub- vert the republic, 235 ; leaves the city to get pos- session of Syria against Cassius, 258 ; surprises Smyrna by stratagem, and puts Trebonius to death, ib. ; is declared a public enemy, 259 ; pursued and defeated by Cassius ; kills himself, 276 Domitius, taken and dismissed by Ciesar at Corfinium, 175 Drusus, the tribune, assassinated, 5 E. ELeusiNuH Mysteries, 12 ; some account of them, n. ', ib. Emperor, the signification of that title, n. ', 66 Epicureans, their reverence for the ruins of Epicurus's walls, 155 ; many of them highly esteemed by Cicero, 156 ; the greatest part of the nobility and of Cicero's friends of that sect, «. ', 310 Episcopus, a remark on the use of that name, n. \ 173 Equestrian dignity, or the order of knights, what it was, y*. \ 1 ; the judgment of causes taken from them and restored to the senate, 10 ; recover their right of judicature, 31 ; obtain distinct seats in the" theatres by Otho's law, 34 Erana, the capital of Amanus, makes a stout defence against Cicero, 160 Evocati, what they were, n. ", 270 P. Fabu, sister to Cicero's wife Tereutia, one of the vestal virgins, tried for incest with Catiline and acquitted, 41 Fabius, Q., chosen consul by Caisar, 214 ; triumphs, ib. ; his death, 216 Fabricius, Franc, his Life of Cicero what, pref. xiv Fabricius, the tribune, driven out of the forum by Clodius, 106 Fathers, Latin, made great use of Cicero's writings, ™. ',210 Favonius; the mimic of Cato, 161 Fever, pleuritic, the common distemper of ancient and modem Rome, n. fir, 7 Fibrenus, a little river running throngh Cicero's estate, 2 Flaccus, L, Valerius, accused of mal-administration, defended by Cicero, 82 Flaccus, M. Leuius, entertains Cicero in his exile, 97 Flavins, the tribune, commits the consul Mctellus to prison, 75 Forum, the gi'eat square of Rome, 4 G. GiEiNius, A., tribune, proposes a law to grant an ex- traordinary commission to Pompey, 33 ; is chosen consul, 88 ; combines with Clodius to oppress Cicero, ib. ; his character, ib. ; rejects the petition of the knights in favour of Cieero, banishes L. Lamia for his zeal in Cicero's service, 89 ; brags of having been the favourite of Catiline, 93 ; fights for Pom- pey against Clodius, 100 ; goes to his province of Syria, 105 ; sends an account of his victory over Aristobulus, but is refused the honour of a thanks- giving, 126 ; recalled from his province by the senate, 127 ; restores king Ptolemy, ] 30 ; returns to Rome, is impeached of treason, &c., 141 ; is de- fended by Cicero, ] 42 Gallius, Q., defended by Cicero, 40 Gaul, Narbonese, the general character of its people by Cicero, 33 Gellius, L. and Cn. Lentulus, exercise the office of censors with rigour, 31 Gnipho, a celebrated rhetorician, kept a school in Rome, 37 Gracchi, said to derive their eloquence from their mother Cornelia, 3 Greeks, the best masters of eloquence, 3 Greek learning, in great vogue at Rome, 10 Greek writers, to be read with caution on Roman affairs, pref. xii H. Hadrian died in Cicero's Puteolan villa, n. 295 Haruspices, their answer concerning certain prodigies, 126 ; their office and character, 307 Helvia, Cicero's mother, rich and well descended, never once mentioned by Cicero, a story told of her by Quintus, 1 Hermatbenae and Hermeraclee, what sort of figures, 38 Herophilus, an impostor, pretending to be the grandson of C. Marius, banished by Csesar, 210 ; put to death by Antony, 227 Hirtius writes against Cicero's Cato, 199 ; sends Cicero an account of Caesar's success in Spain, 212; defends Cieero against his nephew Quintus, ib. ; marches with his army against Antony, 252 ; gains a considerable victory over him, 270 ; totally routs him in a second engagement, in which he himself was killed, 272 ; his character, 273 History of the lives of great men, the most entertain- ing, pref. X. ; a plan for a general history drawn by Cicero, pref. xi. ; the author's method of com- piling the present history, pref. xii. ; a general rule of writing it, ib. xiii Horace, a passage in him illustrated, n. r, 138 Hortensius, the reigning orator at the bar, a volunteer in the Marsic war, commands a regiment, 6 ; raises Cicero's emulation, 8 ; his way of speaking, 16 ; called the Player for his theatrical action, 22 ; the king of the forum, 23 ; opposes the Galiinian law, 34 ; suspected by Cicero of treachery towards him, 94 ; his death and character, 168 Hypsffius, impeached of bribery and treated with in- humanity by Pompey, 152 indp:x to the life of cicero. 326 Idolatky, one of its sources intimsited, n. ', 207 ; Jerusalem besieged and taken by Pompey, 72 Jews, tlieir number and credit at Rome, 83 ; zealously attached to Caesar, liated Pompey for bis affront to their temple, 226 Interred, what sort of magistrate, 145 Interregnum, the longest ever known in Eomo, 146 Juba, king, supports the Pompeians in Africa, 192 Julia, Cajsar's daughter and Pompey's wife, dies in childbed ; the unhappy consequences of her death, 144 K. Ealendak, Roman, reformed by Caesar, n, '", 1 85 LABnuNus, T., tribune, suborned by Cis'sar to accuse C. RabiriuB, 46 ; opens Caesar's way to the high priesthood, 47 ; one of Caesar's lieutenants, revolts to Pompey, 173 Lrolia, the wife of Scaevola the augur, eminent fo/ her elegance of speaking, 10 Latcrensis, lieutenant to Lepidus, informs Plancus of his treachery, 278 ; lays violent hands upon him- self, ib. Law, raised its professors to the highest honours, 4 ; Cincian, 16 ; Gabiuian, 33 ; of L. Otho, 34 ; Cal- purnian, 35 ; Manilian, ib. ; Papian, 39 ; ^lian andFusian, 91 Laws, some new ones occasion disturbances in the city, 33 ; two proposed by Cicero, 62 Legacies usually bequeathed by clients to their patrons, 295 Legatio libera, what, 62 Lcntulus, one of Catiline's conspirators, 48; his cha- racter, ib, ; strangled in prison, 61 Ijentulus, P. Cornelius, consul, moves the senate for the restoration of Cicero, 101 ; the chief promoter of Cicero's return, 111; ambitious of the commission of replacing king Ptolemy, 118 ; leaves his affairs to Cicero and sets out for Cilicia, 119; lays aside the thoughts of restoring Ptolemy, ib. ; taken at Corfinium and dismissed by Ciesar, 176 Lepidus, M., enters into a civil war against his col- league Q. Catulus, 15; managed by Antony; seizes the bigh-priesthood after Cfeear's death, 225 ; offers honourable terms to S. Pompey, ib. ; writes to the senate to exhort them to a peace with Antony, 263 ; suspected of a secret understanding with him, ib. ; excuses his sending succours to him, 274 ; acts a treacherous part with Plancus, and joins camps with Antony, 277 ; declared a public enemy, 278 ; forms the league of the second triumvirate with Cffisar and Antony, 288; proscribes his own brother in ex- change for Cicero, 289 ; a weak man, the dupe of his two colleagues, deserted his true interest, stripped of his dignity by Octavius, 290 Letters of Cicero to Atticus, 33, 38, 39, 73, 1 04, 154, 158, 159,160,161,162,163, 167,168,169,170, 171, 172,173,175, 176,178,179, 180, 183, 184, 190, 193, 195, 199,204,205,207,212,213,214, 215, 223, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 236, 238, 239, 241, 242, 246, 247 ; to Q. Metellus Celer, 65 ; to Pompey, 66 ; to Terentia, 102 ; to Gallus, 117; to Lentulus, 124, 142; toLucceius, 128; to M. Marius, 132; to J. Caesar, 136 ; to Q. Cicero, 141 ; to Curio, 146, 148 ; to Marius, 152 ; to Memmius, 155 ; to Trebatius, 156 ; to M. Caelius, 156, 166; to Cato, 158; to Papirius Patus, 161, 196, 197, 198; to Appius, 164; to Curio, 167; to Tiro, 169; to Pompey, 177; to Ctesar, 179 '; 190; toVarro, 194, 195,198; to Plancus, 196; to Ampins, 198 ; to Serv. Sulpicius, 200, 206 ; to Ligarius, 202 ; to Cassius, 213, 244, 253, 260, 282; to Curius, 216; to Dolabella, 229; to Matins, 233 ; to Lepidus, 265 ; to Plancus, ib. 266, 267; to M. Brutus, 258, 265, 268, 274, 275, 276, 279, 281, 284; to D. Brutus, 275,277, 280 ; to Cornificius, 283; of M. Cailius to Cicero, 156, 165, 181, 187; of Cato to Cicero, 162; of Pompey to Domitius, 175; to Cicero, 177; of Cffisar to Cicero, 176, 179, 181 ; of Balbus to Cicero, 178, 180 ; of Balbus and Oppius to Cicero, 179 ; of Antony to Cicero, 181, 183, 227 ; to Hir- tius and Octavius, 263 ; of Dolabella to Cicero, 187 ; of Serv. Sulpicius to Cicero, 205, 208 ; of Cassius to Cicero, 212, 268 ; of Matins to CScero, 233 ; of Brutus and Cassius to M. Antony, 235, 244 ; of Hirtius to Cicero, 237 ; of M. Brutus to the consuls, 256; to Cicero, 257, 279, 286; of Plancus to Cicero, 267, 274, 277, 278 ; of Pollio to Cicero, 267, 274 ; of Galba to Cicero, 270 ; of Lepidus to Cicero, 274 ; and to the senate, 278 ; of D. Brutus to Cicero, 275, 277, 280 ; of Tre- bonius to Cicero, 236, 313 ; of Cicero, the son, to Tiro, 313 Letters of Cicero to Atticus, the memoirs of those times, pref, xv Ligarius, pardoned by Cassar, 202 ; his character, 203 Livy, called a Pompeian by Augustus, 291 Lollius, M., one of the chiefs in Clodius's mob, 112 Lucceius, Cicero's friend, a celebrated writer, 128 ; undertakes the life of Cicero, ib. LucuUus, L., defeats the violences of the tribune L. Quinctius, 19 ; obtains the command of the Mithri- datic war, 20 ; drives Mithridates out of the king- dom of Pontus, and gains many glorious victories, 36 ; his soldiers mutiny against him, ib. ; he tri- umphs, retires fi:om public affairs, his character, 63 Luperci, instituted in liononr of Caesar, 217 Lupus, tribune, proposes the annulling of Caesar's act for the division of the Campanian lands, 118 Lustrieal day, what it was, 2 Lyceum, a gymnasium at Athens, where Aristotle opened his school, 302 M. Macer, L., accused of oppression, and condemned by ' Cicero, the story of his death, 35 ^amurra, commander of Csesar's artilleiy, his cha- racter, «. ', 215 Manilius, tribune, r,xises disturbances in the city by a new law, publishes a law to transfer the command of the Mithridatic war from Lucullus to Pompey, 35 ; accused of corruption, and defended by Cicero, 37 Manlius, raises an army for the service of Catiline, 48 ; declared a public enemy, 52 Manly gown, at what age given, &c. 4 Marcellinus, consul, a firm opposer of the triumvirate, treats Pompey rouglily, 121 ; endeavours to alarm the city with the danger of his power, 129 326 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. Marcellus, M., consul, Caesar's great enemy, moves the senate for several decrees against him, 165 ; pardoned by Cajsar after the tattle of Pharsailia, 200 ; stabhed by his friend and client Magiiis, 208 ; his characterj 209 Marcellus, C, consul^ moves for a successor to Caesar, opposed, by PauUuSj his colleague, and Cmio, the tribune, 167 Marius, his behaviour in the Marsic war, 6 ; endea- vours to get the command of the Mithridatic -war transferred from Sylla to himself, forced to fly, plunges himself into the marshes, where he is dis- covejJed and preserved by the people of Mintumum , transports himself to Africa, 7 5 the story of the Gallic soldier sent to kill him thought fabulous, n. lb. ; is recalled and enters Kome, exercises great . cruelties, ib. ; his death and character, ib. ; his remains thrown into the river Anio by Sylla, 15 Marius, the son, besieged in Praeneste, puts an end to his own life, 9 Marsic war, called the Italic and Social, some account of it, 5 MaruUus and Caeaetius, deposed the tribunate by Cffisar, 217 Matins, an intimate friend of Ceesar, laments his death, 230 ; undertakes the management of Octavius' shows in honour of Csesar, 232 ; vindicates his con- duct in a letter to Cicero, 233 ; his character, n. ^, 234 Memmius, C, informs the senate of a strange contract among the consular candidates, 139 Menippus, of Stratonica, an Asiatic orator, accompanies Cicero in his travels, 13 Merula, of Anagnia, erects a statue to CloJius, 96 Messala, P. Valerius, his character, n, ^, 285 Metellus, subdues Crete, 20 ; baffled by Sertorius, ib. ; hinders the people from passing judgment on Rabi- rius, 46 Metellus, Q. Nepos, tribune, will not suffer Cicero to speak to the people on laying down the consulship, 63 ; supported by Caesar against Cicero, 64 ; sus- pended from his office, ib. ; flies to Pompey, ib. ; elected consul, promises to promote Cicero's resto- ration, 101 ; acts a double part, 108; consents at last to Cicero's return, ib. ; attacked by Clodiua's mob, 112 ; endeavours to screen Clodius from a trial, 117; makes bis peace with Cicero, and sets out for Spain, 119; endeavours to hinder Caesar from seizing the public treasure, 182 Metellus, Q. Csecilius, consul, his character, 75 ; com- mitted to prison by Flavius the tribune, ib. ; declares his abhorrence of Clodius's adoption, 77 ; dies sud- denly, supposed to be poisoned, 87 Milo, tribune, impeaches Clodius, 107 ; buys gladiators to defend himself against him, ib. ; endeavours to bring him to a trial, 117; is impeached by hi-m, 120 ; marries Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, 134 ; kills Clodius, 148; is defended by Cicero, 150; banished, 151 ; his death and character, 187 Mithridates, king of Pontus, his character, makes war upon the Komans, 6 ; conquers Athens, 8 ; treats M. Aquilius with cruelty, 14; renews the war against Rome, 20 ; driven out of his kingdom of Pontus, 36 ; bis death, 63 Mityleiie, a city of Lesbos, destroyed by Q. Thurmus, restored by Pompey, 14 Modeua, sustained a memorable siege against Antony, 272 Molo, the Bhodian, a celebrated teacher of eloquence, gives lectures to Cicero, 8; the first who was ever permitted to speak to the Roman senate in Greek, 10 Mongault, Mr., his translation of the letters to Atti- cus commended, pref. xv Muciaj the wife of L. Crassus, famous for a delicacy in the Latin tongue, 10 Murcna, L., consul elect, accused of bribery, defended by Cicero, 53 N. Names of Roman families, au account of their origin, 2 Ninuius, L., tribune, moves the senate to change their habit on Cicero's account, 89 ; makes a motion to recal him, 100 Nomenclators, their office, 22 O, Obsidional crown, what, 314 Octavius, called afterwards Augustus, born in Cicero's consulship, 63 ; presented to Cicero by Uirtius and Pansa, 232 ; resolves to assert his rights against the advice of his mother, ib. ; makes a speech to the people from the rostra, ib. ; exhibits public shows in honour of his uncle, ib. ; thwarted in his preten- sions by Antony, 238 ; forms a design against Antony's life, 245 ; raises forces, and promises to be governed by Cicero, ib. ; espoused by the senate upon the recommendation of Cicero, 251 ; marches out at the head of liis army against Antony, 252 { gains a complete victory over him, 272; suspected of the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa, 273 ; has an ovation decreed to him, 274 ; forms the design of seizing the empire, ib. ; demands the consulship, 280 ; chosen consul with Q. Pedius, ib. ; seeks occasions of quarrelling with the senate and Cicero, ib. ; provides a law to bring to justice all the con- spirators against Caesar, 281 ; forms the league of the second triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, 289 ; his reluctance to sacrifice Cicero feigned and artificial, ib.'; more cruel than his colleagues,a sum- mary view of his conduct from the time of CjEsar's death, 290 Octavius, Cn., deposes Cinna, and is killed, 7 Orator, his profession what, 5 ; not mercenary, paid with the public honours and preferments, 16 Oratory of Rome sank with its liberty, 301 ; a false Species of it supported by the authority of Pliny, ib. Oratory and poetry nearly allied, 300 Orestmus, L. Mucins, the tribune, hinders the pro- mulgation of a law against bribeiy, 40 ; joins with the enemies of Cicero after having been defended by him, ib. Osaces, the Parthian leader, mortally wounded, 160 Otho, L., publishes a law for assigning separate seats in the theatres to the knightSj 34 ; his appearance in tlie theatre occasions a riot, 45 Paksa, consul, brought entirely into Cicero's views, 249 ; lays Brutus's letters before the senate, 256 ; opposes Cicero's motion in favour of C. Cassius, 260 ; recommends pacific measures, and a second embassy to Antony, 261 ; marches with his army against Antony, 262 ; engages with him, 270 ; his death and character, 273 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 827 PajririuB Pffitu8,fln eminent wit, and correspondent of Cicero, 161 FapiuSf 0., publishes a law to oblige all strangers to quit the city, 39 Farthians pass the Euphrates, 157;'hlock up C. Cassius in Antioch,but are routed by him in their retreat, 160 Patricians, the proper notions of them, n. ^, 40 PauUus L. ^milius, consul, bribed by Caesar, 167 Pediusj Q., consul, shocked by the terrors of the pro- scription, dies suddenly, 289 Peripatetics, "why so called; their doctrines the same with those of the Old Academy, 302 Perperna, Lieutenant to Sertorius, whom he kills by , treachery, and usurps his place, is taken prisoner, and put to death by Pompey, 20 Petreaus urges Antony to tight with Catiline, destroys Catiline and his whole army, 61 Pbffidrus, the Epicurean, one of Cicero's first masters in pliilosophy, 5 Philippus, sent ambassador to Antony, 251 ; returns with Antony's answer, 253 Philo, an eminent Academic^ master to Cicero, 8, Pindeniasum, besieged and taken by Cicero, 16 1 Pisidians, famous for divining by auspices, n. ', 30S Piso, Cn., obtains the government of Spain, enters into an engagement against the state with Caesar, is killed, 37 Piao, C., defended by Cicero, and acquitted, 54 Piso, M. Pupius, consul, a favourer of P. Clodius, his character, 71 Piso, L. Calpurnius, elected consul, father-in-law to Caesar, gives Cicero marks of his confidence, 88 ; joins with Clodius against him, his character, ib. ; is solicited by Cicero to espouse his cause, but excuses himself, 89 ; declares his resolution to sup- , port Clodius, 91 ; boasts that he was cousin to Cethegus, 94 ; fights for Clodius against Pompey, 101 ; obtains the province of Macedonia, l05; re- called from it by the senate, 127 ; returns to Rome, 130 ; roi^hly treated by Cicero in an invective speech, 131 ; chosen censor with Appius, 165 ; sent ambassador to Antony, 251 ; returns, 253 Piso, Cicero's son-in-law, zealously devoted to him, 102 ; his death and character, 110 .Piso, Cn., a young nobleman, charges Pompey with many crimes against the state, 129 Plancius, On., quecstor of Macedonia, receives Cicero at Dyrrhachium, and cofiducts him to Theasalonica, 98 ; is defended by him. 140 Plancus, proconsul of Gaul, recommends a peace with A ntony, 265 ; makes strong professions of his fidelity to the republic, 266 ; passes the Rhone with his army, 267 ; sends repeated assurances to Cicero of his resolution to oppress Antony, 274 ; receives intel- ligence of Lepidus's treachery, 278 ; joins with D. Bmtus, ib. ; deserts him, and goes over to Lepidus and Antony, 281 Plato, the first master of the Acadeimy, did not adhere to the Socratic method. Which his followers deserted, 302 Pliny,his letters compared with Cicero's, 299 ; his pane- gyric falsely reckoned the standard of eloquence, 301 Plotius, first opened a Latin school at Rome, 3 Plutarch mentions some prodigies at Cicero's birth, 1 ; loves to introduce them into history, ib. ; a charac- ter of him as a writer on Roman affairs, pr^f. :xii PolUo promises Cicero to defend the liberty of the republic, 267 ; repeats the same promises, 274 ; joins with Antony and Lepidus, 28 1 :PompeiuB, Cn. Strabo, consul, father of Pompey the Great, 6 Pompeius, Cn., joins Sylla With three lepon8,9 ; sends Carbo's head to Sylla, ib. ; returns victorious from Africa, saluted by Sylla with the title of Magnus, demands a triumph against Sylla's will, triumphs to the joy of the people, the first of the equestrian order who had received that honour, his triumphal car drawn by elephants, 14 ; joins with Q. Catulus in the war against M. Lepidus, orders M. Brutus to be killed, 15 ; joined with Q. Metellus in the war against Sertorius, 20 ; orders Perperna to be killed, and his papers to be burnt, triumphs a second time, though still a private citizen, is elected consul in his absence, and before the consular age, 21 ; restores the tribunitian power, 31 ; a great dissem- bler, 34 ; finishes the war against the pnates in four months, ib. ; obtains the command of -the Mithri- datic war by the Manilian law, 36 ; finishes the piratic and Mithridatic wars, and obtains a thanks- giving of ten days, 63 ; returns to- Borne, slights the opportunity of making himself master of the republic, 71 ; an account of his conquests and honours, ib. ; his cautious behaviour, 72 ; called in raillery Cnaeus Cicero, makes L. Afranius consul against the inclination of the city, ib. ;'his triumph, 73 ; solicits the ratification of his acts and an agra- rian law, 75 ; secretly assiints Clodius against Cicero, 76; enters into a league with Ccesar and Crassus, 78 ; presides at the ratification of Olodius's adop- tion, 80 ; loses the affections of the public, 84 ; his mistaken policy in entering into the triumvirate, 85 ; gives Cicero the strongest assurances of his protec- tion, 87 ; is admonished to guard against Cicero, retires to his Alban villa, 91 ; receives Cicero's friends coldly, who came to implore bis protection, ib. ; refuses his assistance to Cicero himself, ib, ; is insulted by Clodius, thinks of recalling Cicero, 1 00 ; shuts himself up in his house, ib. ; is besieged by Damio, one of Olodius's freedmen,ib. ; proposes to recal Cicero by a law of the people, 106 ; renews the same motion in the senate, 108 ; recommends it to the people, 109 ; has the administration of the corn and provisions of the empire granted to him at Cicero's motion, 112; is desirous to obtain the commission for restoring king Ptolemy, 119 ; speaks in defence of Milo, 121 ; is roughly handled by Bibulus, Curio, Favonius, and C. Cato, joins with Cicero against them, ib. ; reconciled to Crassus by Cffisar, and extorts the consulship from L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, 129 ; opens his new theatre, 131 ; and exhibits most magnificent shows in it, ib. ; urges Cicero to defend Gabinius, 142 ; concerned for the death of his wife Julia, 144 ; declared the single consul, and publishes several new laws, 149 ; ruins Milo, 150; marries Cornelia, preserves Scipio from an impeachment, treats Hypsaeus with inhumanity, 152 ; defends Bursa, ib. ; prepares an inscription for his temple of Venus, 163 ; ready to break with Cssar, ib. ; extorts large sums from king Ario- barzanes, 159; his constitution peculiarly subject f to fevers, 168 ; was publicly prayed for by all the towns of Italy, ib. ; confers with Cicero, 3 J^O ; averse , to an accommodation with Ciesar, ib, ; secures , Cseaar's gladiators at Capua, 173; dissembles his , design of quitting Italy, 175 ; his mistake in leaving ^' the public treasure at Rome a prey to Cffisai", 182 ; his management censured by Cicero, J 85, 186 ; the difficult part which he had *to act, 79 ; his conduct .' ' compared with Caesar's, 188 ; is defeated at Pharsalia, ' 189 ; his death and character, 190 Pompey the son' -"tempts to kill Cicero. 189 ; Sextus 328 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. and Cnffiusput to fligTit by Gesar, 212 ; Sextus sends proposals of an accommodation to the consuls, 240 Pontinius, C, triumplis over the AUobroges, 144 Popilius, Lsenas, preserved by Cicero in a capital cause, is sent by Antony to kill him, 290 ; he cuts off his head and hands, carries them to Antony, and is re- warded for it, 291 Porcia, Cato's daughter, Bibulus's widow, mai-ried to Brutus, 208 ; dies before him of a lingering illness, 276 Posidonius, a learjied Stoic, master and friend of Cicero, J3 ; a reflection on the story of his stoical fortitude, n. *, ib. Prajtorship, some account of it, 35 Priests, called together to determine the afluir of Cicero's house, 114; the judges in all cases relating to religion, of the first nobility, 307 Procilius, tribune, condemned for killing a citizen, 140 Prodigies, that preceded Catiline's conspiracy, 40 ; a statue of Romulus and Remus struck with lightning, Cicero's and Virgil's description of it, «. ib. ; the story of a prodigy contrived by Cicero and Tereutia, 57 ; prodigies preceding the death of Caesar, 220 Proscription of citizens, first invented by Sylla, 9 Provinces, the government of them^agerly desired by the nobility, 1 53 ; their oppressive manner of govern- ing them, ib. Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, deposed by Clodius's law, puts an end to his life, 95 Ptolemy, king of Egypt, solicits to be restored to his kingdom by a Roman army, 119 Puteoli, the most celebrated port of Italy, 19 Q. Qu^STORs, the nature of the office, the first step to tbe public honours, gives an admission into the senate, 17, 22 Quinctius, L. a turbulent tribune, endeavours to get tho acts of Sylla reversed, 19 Quinctius, P., defended by Cicero, H B. Rabirius, C. accused by T. Labienus, 45 ; defended by Cicero, 46 Rabirius, Posthumus, defended by Cicero, 143 Raciliu6,tribune,move6fortheimpeachmentof Clodius, 118 Rebilus, C. Caninius, named consul by Csesar for a few hours, 216 Religion of old Rome, an engine of state, a summary account of it, 307 ; its constitution contrived to sup- port the intei'ests of the senate, ib. Religion, natural, the most perfect scheme of it does not supersede, but demonstrate the benefit of a divine revelation, 310, n. * Romans, exact in the education of their children, 3 ; a summary account of their constitution and govern- ment, pref. xvi, ; free from bribery, till after the times of the Gracchij pref. xviii. ; their corruption in the government of provinces, 23; "used to give answers to foreigners in Latin, ?£. ',24; seldom used capital punishments, 58 Roscius, a famed comedian, 11 ; his cause defended by Cicero, 1 6 ; a character of him by Cicero, his daily pay for acting, ib. Roscius, S, of Ameria, accused of the murder of hifl father, defended by Cicero, and acquitted, 11 Rufus, Q. Pompeius, banished for the disorders of his tribunate, 152 Rullus, P. Servilius, tribune, publishes an agrarian law, 43 ; opposed by Cicero, ib.. RutiUus, consul, killed in the Marsic war, 6 Sallust, the historian, turned out of the senate by Appius the censor, 165 ; his account of Catiline's conspiracy taken from Brutus's Life of Cato, /*. ^, 199 Sanga, Q. Fabius, informs Cicero of the practices of Catiline's confederates with the Allobroges,55 Sauffeius, M., oneof Milo's confidants, twice defended by Cicero, and acquitted, 151 Scaptius, Brutus^s agent in Cyprus ; treated the Sala. minians with great cruelty, 159 ; deprived of his command there by Cicero, ib. Scasvola, Q. Mucius, augur, the best lawyer and states- man of his time, takes Cicero under his protection, 4 ; his house the oracle of the city, 5 ; wrote an epigram in praise of Cicero^s poem on C. Marius, ib. Scaevola, the high-priest, his singular probity, and skill in the law, 4 ; kUled by Damasippus, 9 Scipio, accused of bribery, but preserved from a trial by Pompey, 152 ; procures a decree for the diamis* sion of Csesar^s army, 171 Senators not held complete till enrolled in the list of the censors, 17 ; the vacancies supplied yearly by the quaestors, ib. Sergius, M., a leader of the mob under Clodius, 112 Serranus, tribune, hinders tho decree for Cicero*s restoration, opposes the decree for restoring Cicero*s house, 116 Sertorius maintains a war of eight years ag^nst the whole force of Rome, 20 ; his cbai^cter and death, Servilia, Brutus's mother, her character, 237 Seivilius prevails with, Metellus to drop his opposition to Cicero's return, 108 Servilius, P. an affected rival of Cicero, his character, 268 Sextius, P., quaestor, joins "Math Petreius in urging C* Antony to a battle with Catiline, 61 ; when tribune, procures Caesar's consent to Cicero's restorrftion, 103 ; left for dead in the forum by Clodius, 106 ; accused by M. Tullius Albinovanus, and defended by Cicero, 123 Shows and public games, magnificent and expensive, 32 Sica entertains Cicero in his exile, 96 Sicilians made citizens of Rome by Antony, 234 Sipily, the first province of Rome, 18 ; the granary of the republic, ib. ; famous for its school of eloquence, ib. Sicinius, a &ctious tribune, his jest upon the consuls Cn. Octaviusand 0. Scribonius Curio, raises a sedi- tion, is slain by the contrivance of Curio, 17 SilanuB, consul elect, gives the first vote for putting Catiline's accomplices to death, 58 Socrates, banished physics out of philosophy, and applied it to morality, his method of inculcating his notions, 302 Sosigenes, an astronomer, employed by Csesar to reform the calendar, 202 Spartacus, general of the gladiatorsin the Servile War, killed at the head of his troops, 20 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. 320 Speech of J. Cassar on Cutilino's accomplices, S8 ; of M. Cato, 60 Speeches of Cicero : forRosciusAmerinus,! 1 ; for Ros- cius thecomediao, 16; against Caecilius and Verres, 23 ; for Ponteius, 33 ; for the Manilian law, 36 ; for Cluentius, 37 ; for Gallius, 40 ; against the Agi'arian law, 43 ; on the tumult about Otho, 45 ; to the sons of the proscribed, ib. ; for Rabirius, 46 j against Catiline, first, 49 ; second, 50; third, 56 ; fourth, 58 ; for Murena, 63 ; for Sylla, 67 ; for Fkccus, 82 ; to the senate upon his restoration, 111; to the people, ib, ; for the restitution of his house, 1 14 ; for Sextius, 123 ; for Balbus, 127 ; for Calius, 128 ; against Piso, 131 ; for Plancius, liO ; for Rabirius Fosthnmus, 143 ; forMilo, 151 ;forMar- cellus, 201 ; for Ligarius, 202 ; for king Deiotarus, 215 ; his first Philippic, 243 ; the second, 244 ; the third, 248; the fourth, ib. ; the fifth, 249 ; the sixth, 251 ; the seventh, 252 ; the eighth, ib. ; the ninth, 254 ; the tenth, 256 ; the eleventh, 259; the twelfth, 261 s the thirteenth, 264 ; the fourteenth, 271 Speusippus, Plato's nephew and successor in the Aca- demy, 302 Stoics, held the soul to be a subtle fiery substance, subsisting after the body, but not eternally, 306 ; believed the reality of divination, 307 Sulpicius, Servius, desires *i conference with Cicero, 184 ; sent ambassador to Antony, 251 ; dies on his journey, 253 ; has a statue, &c* decreed to him by Cicero, 255 ; lus character, ib. ; a story of his skill in the law, erroneously reckoned among Cassar*s conspirators by Catrou and Rouille, n. ^, 255 Supper, the great meal of the Romans, 293 Sylla, P. Corn., convicted of bribery, and forfeits the consulship ; accused of conspiring with Catiline, de- fended by Cicero, and acquitted, 67 Sylla, L. Cornelius, his behaviour in the Marsie war, 6 ; obtains the consulship, the province of Asia, the command of the Mithridatic war, 7 ; drives C. ffla- rius out of Rome, ib- ; recovers Greece and Asia from Mithridates, declared a public enemy, makes peace with Mithridates, 8 ; brings the works of Aris- totle into Italy, lands at Brundisium, is joined by young Pompey, defeats Norbanus, draws Scipio's army from him, 9 ; gives Scipio his life, ib. ; the inventor of a proscription, deprives J. Caesar of the priesthood, ib. ; unwillingly grants him his life, his prediction concerning him, declared dictator, 10; makes great alterations in the state, distributes the confiscated lands among his soldiers, ib. ; gives Pom- pey the title of Magnus, is disgusted at Pompey's demand of a triumph, 14 ; his death and charac- ter, ib. Syracuse and Messana refuse to join with the other cities of Sicily in the impeachment of Verres, 23 Senate, had the sole prerogative of distributing the provinces, tillCiesar obtained them by a grant of the people, 86 T. TiRQminas, his evidence against Crassus, voted to be false, 62 Terentia, wife of Cicero, rich and noble, 18 ; jealous of Clodios' sister, urges Cicero to give evidence ag.ainst him, 70 ; dragged from the temple of Vesta by Clodius's order, 94 ; bears the misfortunes of her family with great spirit, 101 ; offers her estate to sale to supply their necessities, 102 ; meets Cicero at Brundisium, 170 ; divorced from him, 195 ; her character, 195 ; lived to a remarkable ago, n, K 196 Theophrastus, his works brought into Italy by Sylla, 9 Thermus, Q., demolishes Mitylene, 14 Tiburani, gives hostages to Cicero, 161 Tiro, Cicero's favourite slave, some account of him, 169 Torquatus accuses P. Corn. Sylla of conspiring with Catiline, 67 Translations of the classic writers, how to be per- formed, pre/, xii Travels of Cicero, the pattern of beneficial travel- ling, 13 Trebatius recommended to Cassar by Cicero, 136; his character, ib. ; rallied by Cicero for turiring Epicurean, 156 Trebonius, tribune, publishes a law for the assign- ment of provinces for five years to the consuls, 132 ; one of the conspirators against Cicsar, his chiirac- ter, 220 ; goes to his government of Asia, 227 ; is taken by surprise, and cruelly murdered by Dola- bella, 259 Tribunes, their power carried to the greatest excess by the Gracchi, pre/, xviii. ; abridged by Sylla, 10 ; restored by Pompey, 31 ; the common tools of the ambitious, ib. Triumphs, the nature and conditions of them, n, '^, 154 Triumvirate, the first, by whom formed, and with what views, 78 ; second, the place and manner, in which the three chiefs met, 288 ; the conditions of their union, they proscribe Cicero, with sixteen more, and afterwards three hundred senators, and two thousand knights, 289 Triumviri, or Treviri Monetales, what they were, n. ', 314 Tubero, Q., persecutes Ligarius, 202 Tullia, Cicero's daughter, when bom, 18 ; meets her father at Brundisium, 110; marries Crassipes, 125; separated from him by divorce, and marries Dola- hella, 164; divorced from Dolabella, 1 90 : her death and character, 204 ; a story of her body being found on the Appian-way, n. I", 208 TuUius, the name of Cicero's family, its derivation, 2 Tusculan villa, preferred by Cicero to the lost of Lis villas, 38 Tyrannio. a learned Greek entertained by Cicero, 125 Vabho, M. Terentlus, enters into a strict union with Cicero, his character, 195 Varrus, P., seizes Africa on the part of the republic, 192 Vatinius, the tribune, Caesar's creature, 79 ; heads Cassar's mob against BibuluB, 80 ; attacks the houso of Bibulus, 84 ; appears a witness against P. Sextius, and is severely lashed by Cicero, 123; made pra)tor, to the exclusion of M. Cato, 132; defended by Cicero, 141 ; his character, ib. Verres, C., prsetor of Sicily, accused by Cicero of great oppression and cruelty, 23 ; is convicted and banished, 25 ; a specimen of his crimes, ib. ; his death, 31 Vettius, the general of the Marsi, holds a conference with the Roman consul, Cn. Pompeius, 6 Vettius, L., accuses Cajsar of Catiline's plot, 66 ; is imprisoned and miserably used by him, 67 ; cm- ployed by him to charge Curio, &c., with a design 330 INDEX TO THE LIFE OF CICERO. against Pompey's life, S5 ; strangled by bim in prison, ib. Victims in sacrificiog found sometimes without a heart or liver, how accounted for, n. ^ 220 Villas of the Boman generals used to be on hills, n. 294 Virgilius, C, refuses to admit Cicero into Sicily, 96 Vomiting, imniediately before and after dinueri a cus- tom among the Bomans, n, ", 215 Vulturcius, one of Cataline'a conspirators, 55 ; gives evidence to the senate .against his accomplices, ib. W. "War, Marsic, otherwise called Italic, Social, 5 ; part of the education of the Dobility, a fame in it the surest way to the highest honours, 6 ; the first civil waramoug the Romans properly so called, 7 ; Octa- vian, ib. ; Servile, 20 ; Sertorian, ib. ; JVIithridatic, 36 ; Gallic, 75 WitneBses in trials, a character of the Gallic, 33 ; and of the Grecian and Boman, n. 82 Xenocles of Adramyttue, a rhetorician of Asia, attended Cicero in bis travels, 13 Year, Boman, an account of it, 201 END OV THB hlFiL OF CICKUO. THE LETTERS MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS- WITH REMAllKS BY WILLIAM MELMOTH. ■ Quo fit ut omnis Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella Vita senis.— Hon, ADVEETISEMENT. The principal design of the foUowiDg attempt, 18 to trace the conduct and inquire into the character of Cicero, For this purpose the present Letters were preferred to those which are written to Atticus^aB they show the author of theiu iu a greater variety of connexions, and afford an opportunity of considering him in almost every possible point of view. This correspondence includes a period of about twenty years ; commencing immediately after Cicero's consulate, and ending a few months before his death. THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. BOOK I. LETTER I." ' To Pompei/ the Great, Imperator^ . Your letter to the senate afforded inexpressible satisfaction, not only to myself, but to the public A. tr. 691 ^° general 5 as the hopes it brought us. of a peace are agreeable to those expecta- tions which, in full confidence of your superior abilities, I had always encouraged the world to entertain '. I must acquaint you, however, that it entirely sunk the spirits of that party, who, from > These letters are placed according to their supposed dates. The reader will find at the end an index, referring to the order in which they stand in the common editions. ^ The title of iTntperator, diu'ing the times of the Tepuh- lic, did not bear the least relation to that idea which is affixed to it in modem language ; hut was merely honorary and occasional. It waa conferred on the noman generals by the acclamations of their army in the field, after some signal advantage gained by their courage and conduct ; and it was immediately dropped again as soon as they entered into Rome. c Pompey was at this time carrying on the war in Asia against Mithridates, king of Fontus; and the letter to which Cicero alludes, probably brought an account of the progress of the campaign. Mithridates was a cruel but brave prince, who had given employment to the Koman arms for more than forty years- Pompey, hoAvever, had the good fortune to complete what Sylla and LucuUus, his predecessors in this command, were obliged to leave unfi- nished : and he not only defeated Mithridates, but annexed to the Boman dominions all that part of Asia which is between the Red, the Caspian, and the Arabian seas,>— Flor. iii. 5, being formerly your declared enemies, have lately become your pretended friends ; as it utterly disappointed their most sanguine hopes'". Notwithstanding the letter which you wrote to me by the same express discovered but very slight marks of your affection, yet I read it with pleasure. The truth is, I am always abundantly satisfied with the consciousness of having exerted my best offices towards my friends ; and if they do not think proper to make me an equal return, I am well contented that the superiority should remain on my side. But if my utm6st zeal for your interests has not been sufficient to unite you to mine, I doubt not that our co-operating together upon the same patriot-principles, will be a means of cementing us more strongly hereafter. In the mean time, it would neither be agreeable to the openness of my temper, nor to the freedom of that mutual friendship we profess, to conceal what I thought wanting in your letter. I will acknow- d It is doubtful to whom Cicero here alludes. Some of the commentators suppose that he points at LucuUus, who, as he had been recalled from the command in which Pom- pey was now employed, would not , it may well be imagined, be greatly pleased with the success of his rival. — Others think that he had Cjesar in view : and what renders this conjecture extremely probable is, that Csesarand Pompey, who had been long opposite in politics, were now, appa- rentli/t reconciled ; the former (for purposes which shall hereafter be explained) falling in ivith that party who were for conferring the highest and most unconstitutional honours on the latter. 334 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIQS CICERO ledge, then, that the public services I performed during my late consulship, gave me reason to expect, from your attachment both to myself and to the commonwealth, that you vrould have sent me your congratulations ; and I am persuaded you ■would not have omitted them but from a tender- ness to certain persons^. Let me assure you, however, that what I have performed for the pre- servation of my country, has received the concurrent applauses of the whole world. You will find when you return hither, I conducted that important scene with so much spirit and policy, that you, like another Scipio, though far superior, indeed, to that hero in glory, will not refuse to admit me, like a second Lselius^, and not much behind him, I trust, in wisdom, as the friend and associate of your private and public transactions. Farewell. LETTER n. QuintUD Metellus Celeo'^, Proconsul^ to Cicero. As I persuaded myself that our reconciliation and friendship was mutually sincere, I never ima- A u 691 S^°6^ I should have had occasion to com- plain of being marked out in my absence as the object of your ridicule ''. For the same reason I was equally far from supposing that you would have acted with so much bitterness against e Cicero was advanced to the consular office the year before the date of this letter ; that is, An. Urb. 690. He particularly alludes to the part he acted during his admi- nistration, with regard to the suppressing of Catiline's conspiracy. [See rem. p. p. 336, and rem. ^. p. 338.] And he had undoubtedly cause to complain of Pompey's unex- pected coolness in the present instance: the occasion -of which sceras to have been this. A very powerful party was now forming against Cicero by Cassar and Metellus the tribune ; and Pompey was considered as a proper per- son to support their designs of destroying the great autho- rity which Cicero had lately acquired. It is highly probable, therefore, from Pompey's reserve to our author, that he had received some overtures of this sort : and as he was jealous of every power that might obstruct his own, he was by no means disposed, it should seem, to advance Cicero's credit by gratifying him with those applauses which his conduct deserved.— PI ut. ia Vit. Cicer. ^ Scipio Africanus the younger, to whom Cicero here alludes, was consul in the year of Rome 605 ; asLsEliuswas in the year 612. The strict intimacy which subsisted between these distinguished Romans, is celebrated by seve- ral of the classic writers : hut Cicero has paid it the highest honours in his Dialogue upon Friendship, Scipio and liffilius used to retire together from the business of the state, to a villa situated on the sea-shore, near Laurentum ; where these illustrious friends did not think it beneath their characters to descend to the humblest recreations. The virtus SdpiadcB et mitis sapientia LcbU, the heroism of Scipio and the wisdom of Laelius could unbend in gather- ing shells and pebbles on the coast ; and perhaps it is some evidence of their merit, that they were caj)able of being thus easily diverted. Less virtuous minds generally have recourse to more agitated relaxations, and are seldom entertained without carrying then- passions into theii' amusements.— Orat. pro Muraen. 36 ; Hor. Sat. iLl.ver. 72 ; Cic. De Orat. ii. 6. 8 Quintus Metellus Celer exercised the office of prKto'r, the same year that Cicero was consul. Two years after the date of this letter, he was himself elected to that supreme dignity: and Cicero speaks of his administration with applause. He was at this time governor of Gisolpine Gaul. ^Ad Att. ii. 1. *> The reader will find this explained by Cicero's answer in the following letter. my relation Metellus^, as to persecute him even to the loss of his fortunes and his dignities, merely for a single word. If the regard which is due to his own character could not protect him from the unjust resentment of the senate, at least the zeal I have ever shown for the interests of that illustrious order, the services I have rendered the common- wealth, and the consideration which is owing to our birth J, should have powerfully pleaded in his favour. But it has been his fate to be oppressed, as well as mine to be deserted, by those who ought to have treated us in a very different manner ; and the honour of that important command with which I am invested, cannot secure me, it seems, from having cause to lament the indignities which are offered both to myself and to my family. Sine? the senate have shown themselves to be so little influenced by the dictates of equity, or those principles of moderation which distinguished our ancestors, it will be no wonder if they should find reason to repent of their conduct. But as to your- self, I repeat it again, I never had the least suspi- cion that you were capable of acting with so much inconstancy to me and mine. However, neither this dishonour which has been cast upon my family, nor any injuries which can be done to me in my own person, shall ever alienate my affections from the republic. Farewell. LETTER m. To Quinius Metellus Celer, Proconsul. I HAVE received your letter, wherein you tell me that, " you had persuaded yourself, you should A. V G91 ^6ver have had occasion to complain of being marked out as the subject of my railleries." I must assure you, in return, that I do not well understand to what you allude, I suspect, however, you may have been informed of a speech I lately made in the senate, wherein I took notice there was a considerable party amongst > The person here alluded to, is Quintus Metellus Casci- lius Nepos, at this time a tribune of the people. He had lately attempted to procure a law for recalling Pompey out of Asia ; pretending that his pT-esence was necessary in order to quiet the commotions in the republic. But hia real view was to destroy the great credit and authority which Cicero now possessed, by throwing the whole power into Pompey's hands. Cato, who was likewise tribune at the same time, most strenuously opposed this design of his colleague ; and the contests that arose between them, upon this occasion, were attended with great and dangerous disturbances. Metellus, however, being at length obliged to desist, retired in disgust with his complaints to Pompey.' After he had thus withdrawn himself, it was proposed, that the censure of the senate should he passed upon his turbulent conduct, as also that he should be deposed from his office ; and it was these proceedings, together with the part that Metellus Celer supposed Cicero to have borne in them, which occasioned the warm remonstrances of the letter before us. Plutarch asserts it was owing to the pru- dence and moderation of Cato, that the motion against Metellus Nepos was not carried. Suetonius, on the other hand, expressly says that he was actually suspended ; and indeed the following answer of Cicero renders it extreme^ probable that some decree of that kind had been voted.and afterwards repealed.— Pint, in Vit. Caton. ; Suet in Vit. Jul. Cacs. 16. i Within the space of twelve years, there had been no less than twelve of this family who were either consuls, censors, or distinguished with the honom*s of a triumph.— VeU. Pat. ii.U. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 33fi us, who regretted that the commonwealth should have owed its preservation to my hands. I added, I confess, that, in compliance with the request " of some ot your relations, whose desires you could by no means refuse, you suppressed the applause with which you intended to have honoured rae in that illustrious assembly." 1 mentioned, at the same time, that " we had shared between us the glpry of having saved the republic : and that whilst I was protecting Rome from the wicked designs of her intestine enemies, you were defending Italy from the open attacks and secret conspiracies of those who bad meditated our general ruin. But that some of your family, nevertheless, had endea- voi)red to weaken this our illustrious association, and were unwilling you should make any return on jour part, for those high honours with which you had been distinguished on mine." As this was an open confession how much I was mortified in not receiving the applause I expected, it raised a general smile in the house : not indeed at you, but at-myself, for ingenuously acknowledging my disap- pointment. And surely what I thus said cannot but be considered as highly to your credit ; since it was an evidence that, amidst the highest honours, 1 still thought my glory incomplete, without the concurrence of your approbation. As to what you mention concerning a mutual affection, I know not what you may esteem as a mark of that disposition. But, according to my apprehension, it consists in an equal return of those good offices which one friend receives from another. If, as a proof of this gratitude on my part, I were to tell you that I gave up my pretensions to your present government, you might well suspect my veracity. The truth is, I renounced it as being inconsistent v^ith that plan of conduct I had laid down to myself' : and I find every day more and more reason to be satisfied with having taken this resolution./ But this, with strict sincerity, I can ^ a@rm, tha!t I no sooner relinquished my claim to your province than I considered how to throw it into your hands. I need not mention the manage- ment which was employed in order to secure the lot in your favour ; but this much I will say, that I hope you do not imagine the part my colleague acted in that affair was, in any of its circumstances, without my privity and consent. Let me desire you to recollect with what expedition I assembled the senate immediately after the balloting was over, and how fully I spoke upon that occasion in your applause. Accordingly you then told me that ., I had not only paid a high compliment to yourself, f but at the same time cast a very severe reproach f ■ ^ Cicero here alludes to the resolution he took of not accepting any government at the expiration of his consu- lar office ; a resolution, it must be o^vned, worthy of a generous and disinterested patriot. Accordingly, in a speech which ho made in the senate on the day of his inauguration, he declared he would receive no honours at ,^ the close of his ministry which it was in the power of the I tribunes to obstruct ; and indeed it was in their power p to obstruct every honoiu: the senate could decree. As the authority of these popular magistrates could thus disap- point the ambition of the consuls, it had often influenced ' them in the exercise of their functions. But by this self- ^ denying renunciation which Cicero made, he had nothing to hope from their favour, or to fear from their resentment : and consequently divested himself of every motive that could check a vigorous opposition to their factious mea- sures.— Orat. cent. RuU. i. 8. upon your colleagues. I will add, that so long as the decree shall subsist, which the senate passed at that juncture, there will not be wanting a public and conspicuous monument of my good offices towards you. Remember likewise the zeal with which I supported your interest in the senate ; the encomiums with which I mentioned you in the assemblies of the people; and the afiectionate letters I wrote to you after your departure. And when you have laid these several circumstances together, I may safely leave it to your own determination, whether your behaviour to me, upon your last return to Rome, was suitable to these instances of my friendship. However, I know not what you mean by our " reconcilement : " an expression, it should seem, which cannot, with any propriety, be applied where there never was any formal rupture. With respect to your relation, whom I ought not, you tell me, to have persecuted so severely in resentment of a single expression, I have this to say : In the first place, I most highly applaud the affectionate disposition you discover towards him : and, in the next, I hope you would pardon me, if that duty which I owe my country, and to which no man is more strongly devoted, had, at any time, obliged me to oppose his measures. But if I have only defended myself against his most cruel attacks, have you not reason to be satisfied that I never once troubled you with my complaints ? On the contrary, when I perceived he was collecting the whole force of his tribunitial power in order to oppress me, I contented myself with endeavouring to divert him from his unjust purpose, by applying to your wife' and sister" j as the latter had often indeed, in consideration of my connexions with Pompey, exerted "her good offices in my behalf. Nevertheless (and I am sure you are no stranger to the truth of what I am going to say) upoii laying down my consular office, he prevented me from making the usual speech to the people : and thus, what had never been denied to the lowest and most worthless of our magistrates, he most injuria ously refused to a consul who had preserved the liberties of his country. This insult, however, proved greatly to my honour ; for, as he would only suffer me to take the oath", I pronounced the sincerest and most glorious of asseverations with an uncommon exertion of voice ; and the whole assembly of the people as loudly called the gods to witness, that what I had sworn was most religi- ously true". But though I received this signal affront from your cousin, yet I had the very same day sent an amicable message to him by our com- 1 Sister to Clodius : a woman of most abandoned lewd- ness, and suspected of having poisoned Metellus, who died in 694, a few years after this letter was written. — Cicero, who attended him in his last moments, represents them as truly heroic. Metellus saw the approaches of death with- out the least concern upon his own account, and only lamented that he should lose his life at a time when his friend and his country would have most occasion for his services.' — ^Pro Ccelio, 24. ■» Muoia : she was married to Pompey, but aftewards divorcedf rom him on occasion of her gallantries with Cassai-. —Ad Att. i. 12 ; Plut. in Vit. Pomp. " The consuls, at the expiration of their office, took an oath that they had faithfully and zealously discharged their trust — Manutius. o Cicero did not confine himself to the usual terms of the oath j but swore that he had preserved Borne and the republic from destruction.— Plut. in Vit. Cicer. 336 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO mon friends, with the hopes of persuading him JQto a better temper. The answer he returned was, that all applications of this kind were now too late. He had, indeed, asserted, some days Tjefore, in a speech which he made in a general assembly of the people, *' that the man who had punished others without suffering them to be heardP, ought to be denied the privilege of being heard in his turn." Excellent and judicious patriot indeed ! to main- ,' tain that the same punishment which had been decreed, and with the approbation too of every honest man in Rome, to those-rebels and incen- diaries who had attempted to involve their country in the most dreadful calamities, was due to him who had preserved the senate, the city, and all Italy in general from destruction. These were the provocations that induced me to oppose your cousin openly and before his face : and accordingly in a debate on the first of January concerning the state of the republic, I thought proper to let him see that he had declared war against a man who did not want resolution to return his attack. In a speech which he made a few days afterwards, he was pleased to throw out several menacing expres- sions against me ; and it was evidently his deter- mined purpose to effect my ruin, not by bringing my actions to a fair and impartial trial, but by the most illegal methods of violence. Had I not acted then with spirit in opposition to his iU-considered measures, would not the world liave thought (and thought too with reason) that the courage I exerted in my consulate was merely accidental, and not the result of a steady and rational fortitude ? If you are ignorant of these instances of your cousin's deportment, he has concealed a very material article of his conduct. On the other hand, if he apprised you of them, yon have reason to look upon me as having acted with great temper and forbearance in never interrupting you with my expostulations. In a word, you will find my com- plaint against him was not founded on a single expression, as you call it, but on a .continued series of malevolence. Let me now, therefore, show you that my conduct in return was influenced by prin- ciples of the greatest good-nature : if good-nature it may be deemed, not to exert a proper resent- ment against injuries of so atrocious a kind. The truth is, I never once made a motion in the senate to his prejudice j on the contrary, as often as any question arose in which he was concerned, I always voted on the most favourable side. I will add P The principal conspirators concerned witli Catiline being taken into custody, Cicero convened the senate ; when it was debated in what manner to proceed against the pri- soners, Silanus, the consul-elect, advised that they should all be put to death. But this was against an express law, which prohibited the taiing away the life of any citizen without a formal process. The proposal of SUanus was opposed by Csesar, as bein^ a stretch of the senate's power whicli might be productive of very dangerous consequences in a free state. It was his opinion, therefore, that the estates of the conspirators should be confiscated, and their persons closeiy imprisoned. Cicero, as Dr. Middleton observes, delivered his sentiments with all the skill both of the orator and the statesman ; and while he seemed to show a perfect neutrality, and to give equal commendation to both the opinions, was artfully labouring to tiu:n the scale in favour of Silanus's, which he considered as a ne- cessary example of severity in the present circumstances of the republic. A vote accordingly passed that the con- spirators should suffer death ; which Cicero immediately put in execution. — ^Life of Cic. p. 5J>— €1 ; see retn. », p. 338. (though it is a circumstance, indeed, in which I ought not to have concerned myself) that I was so far from being displeased with the decree which passed in his favour, that, in consideration of hi.^ being related to you, I actually promoted it to the iitmost of my power. Thus you see that, far from being the aggressor, I have only acted a defensive part. Nor have I, as you accuse me, betrayed a capricious disposition with regard to yourself : on the contrary, notwith- standing your failure in some amicable offices on your side, I have still preserved the same unvaria- ble sentiment' of friendship on mine. Even at this very instant when I have before me, I had almost called it your threatening letter, yet I will tell you that I not only excuse, but highly applaud the | generous warnriii you express in your cousin's ' behalf; %s I know, by what passes in my own breast, the wonderftil force of family affection. I hope then you will jadge of my resentment with the same candour, and acknowledge that if, with- out the least provocation on my part, I have beenf"'' most cruelly and outrageously treated, by any of your relations, 1 had a right, I wiU not only say to defend myself, but to be supported in that defence if it were necessary, e\ an by your whole army. Believe me, I have ever b«^«desirous of making you my friend ; as I have eirafetvoured to convin(i^ , you, upon all occasioi^, that I was entirely yours^ sentiments which I still retain, and shall continij^ to retain just as long as yon desire.^ To say all i one word, I am much more dispo9||L to sacrifij my resentment against yom; cousin|JKmy friend-, ship towards yourself, thanl^ su|^K^e former, | in any degree, to impair our jflll^pt affection. Farewell. /^ /V" LETTER IV. '«1k^ To Caius Antonius, Imperator I HAD determined not to trouble you with j letters, unless of the recommendatory kind : Sot; A V 691 ^^^^ ^ ^^^ reason to expect my solicita-'i;'4 tions would have much weight with you ;t ^ but as being unwilling it should appear to those who might apply for them, that any cooliiess had arisen between ns. However, as our common friend Atticns, who has been a particular witness of the warmth with which I have ever promoted your interest, is coming into your provincejf can- not forbear conveying a letter to you by his hand; especially as he very strongly importuned me for that purpose. Were I to claim even your highest services, the demand could by no means be thought unreason- able, after having contributed everything on my part for the advancement of your ease, your inte- rest, and your honours'. But I may satfely appeal to your own conscience, whether you have ever made me the least return : so far from it, indeed, that I have hea rd (for I dare not say I have been 1 The person to whom this letter is adfl^eci, was uncle to the celebrated Mark Antony. He had been consul the year before with Cicero, and was now governor of Macedonia. "■ The consuls, at the expiration of their ofBoe, used lo draw lots to which of the provinces they should respect- ively succeed asgovemors. This which Antonius possesae^i one of the most desirable in all the Roman empire, haTinS fallen to Cicero, he resigned it to his colleague. 33S! THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO "> LETTER VI. ^ ^ deeplj- involved in debt as to be full ripe, you must Icnow, for a plot, if any malcontent will be so cha- ritable as to admit me into one. But the misfor- tune is, this sort of patriots are all disposed to exclude me from their society : and whilst I am the aversion Of some of them, as the avowed avenger of conspiracies ; others suspect that I only plead poverty with a view of gaining their confidence, in order to betray them. They think it incredible, indeed, that the man who rescued the bags of all the usurers in Rome from a general attack, should , ; ever be in distress for money y^ The trtt^|p"the Rfoieed aFsix per ^t^c||j,^vy the services il mn. considered by ifl[ man. -V i intion that I have lately r iiouse and buildings, and am much pleased with the improvements you are making. Notwithstanding all the world is sensible that Antonius has, by no means, acted towards me with the gratitude be ought, yfet it did not prevent me from being his advocate lately in the senate : when, by the influence of my authority, and the force of what I said, I greatly disposed the house in his favour*. I will only add ray wishes that you would write to me oftener. Farewell. had written an invective against some person whose inter- est he had occasion to make use of in the affair of his lestoration. This piece of satire had stolen into the world, it seems, ^vithout his knowledge ; but as he never had any formal quarrel with the man against whom it was levelled, and as it was drawn up in a style by no means equal to the usual correctness of his pejiformances, it might easily, he tells A.tticus, ba^rcw^l^ot V have come from his hand: puto PB^^^b^ |»0n es^e metitn. The truth of it is, sin- "i fo have been the virtue upon which ,_ awas vray SDlfcitous of establishing his character. .0t]^^pint:ifch assures us, that our author having made a speech in public, full of the highest encomiums on Cras- 8US, he did not scruple a few days afterwards to reverse the panegyric, and represent him before the same audience in all the darkest colours of his invective. Cicero being reminded, upon t^is occasion; of his former harangue, very gravely replied, ** it was only by way of an oratorical exercise, and in order to try the force df his eloquence upon so bad a subject.'* — Aul. Gell. xii. 12; Life of Cicero, y. 68; Ad Att ili. 12 ; Plut. in Tit. Cicer. ^The chief of those who engaged in Catiline's rebellion, 3 men of the same desperate fortunes as himself : Qui- mue bona pafria itt&ffi^^tat, says the historian of this gflfeWtgtjI^B^^wt (Bs grande coj^iaverat, '[ Catiline in this infamous was, as usual, the pretence, riTOtfWwTTncir taking up arms was, in order to iSAk& war upon their creditors.— SaUust. Bell. Cat, 14. ^ Tlie question in this debate probably turned on the recal of Antonius — a question which seems either to have been carried in his favour, or to have been dropped during a considerable time For it appears, by a letter to Atticus, written two years after the date of tlic present, that Anto- nius was still in his government : and Dion Cassius assures us, that he was not brought upon hiS trial till the consu- late of Cffisar ; that is, not till the Year of Rome 694. Ho was theu an-aigned for his ill-conduct in Macedonia, and as being concerned likewise in Catiline's conspiracy. This last article of the impeachment could not be proved, but the truth of it, nevertheless, was generally believed ; how- ever, he was convicted of the former, and condemned to perpetual banishment. Cicero appeared as his advocate ^pon this occasion ; and it was an occasion which contri- buted moro, perhaps, than any other, to his future misfor- tunes. For, in the warmth of liis speech, he imdiscrectly V some reflections upon Caesar, which, although To TerenHa, to my dearest Ttdlia, and to my Son\ If you do not hear from me so frequently as you might, it is because I can neither write to you, nor A u ffl)5 ^^^^ your letters, without falling into a greater passion of tears than I am able to support r^foT though I am at all times, indeedT""^ completely miserable, yet I feel my misfortunes "fehtu* p_articular geosibility upon those tender Ohl thAt I had been more indifferent to life ! Our- days would then have been, if not wholly unacquainted with sorrow, yet by no means thus wretched. However, if Aiy hopes are still reserved to us of recovering some part, at least, of what we have lost, I shall not think that I have made alto- gether so imprudent a choice. But, if our present fate is unalterably fixed — ah ! my deatest Terentia, if we are utterly and for ever abandoned by those gods whom you have so religiously adored, and by those men whom I have so faithfully served ; let me see you as soon as possible, that I may have the satisfaction of breathing out my last departing sigh in your arms. I have spent a.bout a fortnight at this place'', with my friend Marcus Flaccus. This worthy man did not scruple to exercise the rites of friendship and hospitality towards me, notwithstanding the severe penalties of that iniquitous law against those who should venture to g^ve me reception*^. May that great master of his passions did not think proper at that time openly to resent, it is probable he never forgave. Dion Cassius, at least, informs us, that it was upon this account he secretly instigated Clodius to those violent measures which soon afterwards terminated in Cicero's exile.— Ad Att, ii. 2 ; Dio, xxxvii. See rem. " on the pre- ceding letter. a There is an interval of two years between the date of this and the foregoing letter ; the correspondence which Cicero carried on during the intermediate period being entirely lost, except that which he held with Atticus. The following letters to Terentia, were written in our author's exile, and will prove, either that Cicero was a philosdpher only in speculation, or that philosophy itself pretends to more than it has power to perform. Perhaps, they will prove both ; for, as on the one hand they discover the most unmanly d^ection of spirit ; so it is certain, on the other, that much weaker minds have been able, With the assist- ance of better principles, to support with fortitude far severer trials. Those in which Cicero was at present exer- cised, were occasioned by Clodius, who procured himself to be elected tribune with the single view of destroying this his avowed adversary. It has already been observed in rem. P, on the third letter of this book, that Cicero, in his consulate, had put to death some of the con- spirators concerned ^vith Catiline, without any formal trial, and upon no other authority than a decree of the senate. And it was upon this charge that Clodius founded ifis impeachment. Cicero's conduct upon this occasion, has also been arraigned by a late very accurate and judicious historian ; and it must be acknowledged that, as far as we can be competent judges of it at this distance from the time and scene of action, it seems to have been attended with some circumstances not easily reconcilable to the principles either of justice or good policy .—Hooke's Roman History, vol. iii. p. 316. b Bnmdisium : a maritime town in the kingdoni of Naples, now called Brindisi. Cicero, wiien he first with- drew from Rome, intended to have retired mto Sicily, but being denied entrance by the governor of that island, he changed his direction, and came to Brundisium, in his way to 'Greece. — Pro Plane. 40, 41. c As soon BS Cicero had withdrawn from Rome, Clodius TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 337 informed', as it is an expression, it seems, which yoa frequently, though, I am sure, injuriously, object to me,) I have heard then that you have intimated something as if— but I leave it to Atticus to tell you the rest: as the report' has given him no less concern than it gave myself. In the mean time, 1 will only say, that the senate and the whole ^loraan people have been witnesses of that uncom- mon zeal with which I have entered into your interest. What sentiments of gratitude this has impressed upon your mind, you yourself are the best judge ; how much you owe me in consequence ^^ of it, let others determine. It was friendship that first engaged ray good offices in your favour ; and I afterwards was inducec^ to continue them merely from a principle of constancy. But, believe me, your present" affairs require a much larger propor- tion of my zeal and pains : the utmost exertion of which shall not be wanting, provided I may have reason to think that they are not entirely thrown away. For I shall never be so absurdly officious, as to employ them where they are not acceptable. Atcijus will inform you in what particular instances you may, probably, have occasion for ray good offices : in the meanwhile, I very warmly recom- « This alludes to an expression which Cicero had often occasion to employ in the affair of Catiline's conspiracy. As his principal intelligence arose from some of the con- spirators themselves, who communicated to him, from time to time, the designs of their associates, he was ohliged to conceal the authors of these discoveries : and, therefore, in laying his allegations before the senate or the people, he was under the necessity of speaking only in general terms, and of assuring them that he had been informed of tb& particular articles he mentioned. But though the event proved that his informations were true : yet, in general, this method of accusation was extremely odious, and of dangerous example. Cicero's enemies, therefore, did not fail to take advantage of this popular objection, and were perpetually repeating the phrase, I am informed, when- ever they were disposed to reproach his conduct in this transaction.— See Mongault, rem. 19, on the 19th letter of the first book to Atticus; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Sallust; Declam. in Cicer. 2. t This report was of a very unfavourable kind indeed, j for it charged Cicero with having a share in the money which Antouiua raised by his exactions on the imhappy people of his province. The very judicious French trans- lator of the epistles to Atticus, seems to imagine there was Home foundation for this report ; as he thinlcs it probable that Antonius had agreed to pay Cicero a certain sum in consideration of his having relinquished to him the govern- ment of Macedonia : but this is a conjecture altogether unsupported by any evidence. Thus much, however, is certain ; in the first place, that Cicero had some demands upon Antonius, of a nature which he did not choose should be known; as, whenever he hints at them to Atticus, it is always in a very dark and enigmatical manner ; and, in the next place, that he sacrificed his own judgment and the good opinion of the world, in order to support Anto- nius in his present government. Prom which facts the reader is left to draw the conclusion that he shall judge reasonable.— Ad Att. xii. 13, 14. See the following remark. » Pompey had declared his intentions of very strenu- ously insisting that Antonius should be recalled from his government, in order to give an account of his administra- tion : which, it seems, had been extremely oppressive. It was upon this occasion that Cicero promised him his ser- vice : and it seems, by the following letter, that ho kept his word. But if he had not, his honoiu-, perhaps, would not have been the more questionable : for it appears, from a letter to Atticus, that Cicero could not imdertake the defence of Antonius without suffering in the opinion, not only of the populace, but of every worthy man in Rome.— Ad Att. i. 12. See rem. » on the following letter. mend him to yours. I am well persuaded, indeed, that his own interest with you is his best advocate ; however, if you have any remaining affection for me, let rae entreat you to show it (and it is the most obliging manner in which you can show it) by your services to my friend. Farewell. A. u. 692. LETTER V. ^ ^; To Publius Sestius, Qu£B8ior\ I COULD scarce credit your freedman Deems, as highly as I think^f his fidelity and attachment to yuur iriH^st, when he request^ me> in your name, to use my endeavours that you may noP at present be #scaU,ed. RemenJberiBg, indeed, the very, different strain i^ ^j2tdr'^4lic letters I had before received from yftu were written, I could not easily be induced to thi^ that you bad so greatly altered your muid,^ But after Comelia'sA visit to my wife, and the discowae w h j c -^ hadlhy- self with Cornelius, I could no loiiBB^Bbtaf tliis change in your inclinations : an^lccoi^||^ I never failed to attend in your behalf, at evefJ^Bub- sequent meeting of the senate. Th^question, however, did not come on till Januav^:ft8t. when we carried it without much opposlficp^ though I found some difficulty in persimding Quintus Fusius^, and the rest of your frienas, to whomfou had written upon this subject, to bdieve me r£Kier than your own letters, ^ * I had not agreed with Crassuslror his house, when you wished me joy of the jjprchase; but I was so much encouraged by your congratulsi^s, that I soon afterwards bought it atliliirty-fivfij dred thousand sesterces". I am nopr, therefof ▼ Every proconsul, or governor of a province, hA quxstor under him, who acted as a sort of pa>-iiiaHt!W% | general to the provincial forces, and as sup^-inteudanr ' likewise of the public revenues. Sestius was at this tim^ : exercising that office under Antonius, in Maceflj^iiai Bom^;;| further account will be occasionally given of him in t^ progress of these remarks. ? f w One of the tribunes of the people. \ ■ ^•.m:, > About S8,0O0Z. Cicero, it is said, borro^Nld gttttp derable part of this sunifroni aman whose'(9Ufett|^|iii' undertaken to defend. But eloquence was nctf as y^^Rk fessedly venal in Borne ; and it was looked upon as ^i^^' dishonourable for an advocate, not only to ^receive ™*'** reward, but even a loan of liis client. Cic(^, there^^ ' ^ being publicly reproached witL this transaction, most': -^^''M fidently denied the charge; declaring at t^sagi^, ^ ' that he had not the least intention of making However, he soon afterwards completed his \ being taxed in the senate with this unworth| endeavoured to laugh it off, by telling his censurers th " they must know very little of the world indeed, if i\\ ^ imagined anyprudent man would raise the|BJceof a coi i- modity, by publicly avowing his intentions irfbcconiing ■ purchaser." It is Aulus Gellius who givesjflwiis storv which Dr. Middleton supposes he might li|^m>'<^^^ "1 from some spurious collection of Cicero's jokg|f: and nianj such, it is certain, were handed about, e^BII in Cicero's life-time. As every reader of taste and-learfljtei^iust « is^^ well to the moral character of so invalualAMS.^ii^ " Cicero, one cannot but regret that neither \ regard to truth, nor the plea of his ingel seem sufficient to discredit this piece or That Cicero was capable of denying facts, where it was not i for his advantage they should be discovered, will appear, perhaps, beyond controversy in the progress of these re- marks. In the meantime a very strong instance of this may be produced from one of his letters to •^tticiUk,9i^>^|||| TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 33» I one day have it in my power to make tiim a return to those generons services, which I shall ever most gratefully remember. I am just going to embark, and. purpose to pass through-Macedonia, in my way to Cyzicum''. And now, my Terentia, thus wretched and ruined as I am, can I entreat you, under all that Weight of pain and sorrow with which, I too well know, you are oppressed, can I entreat you to be the partner and companion of my exile .' Btlt must I then live without you .' , I khow not how to reconcile myself to that hard condition ( unless your presence at Rome may be a mean. of forwarding my returns if any hopes of that kind should indeed subsist^ But should there, as I sadly suspect, be absolutely none, come to me, I conjure you, if it be possible : for never can I think myself completely ruined, whilst I shall enjoy my Terentia's company. But how will my dearest daughter dispose of herself? A question which you yourselves must consider : for, as to my own part, I am utterly at a loss what to advise. At all events, however, that dear un- happy girl must not take any measures that may injure her conjugal repose', or affect her in the good opinion of the world. As for my son — ^let me not, at least, be deprived of the consolation of holding him for ever in my arms. But I must lay down my pen a few moments : my tears flow too fast to suffer me to proceed. I am under the utmost solicitude, as I know not whether you have been able to preserve any part of your estate, or (what I sadly fear) are pruelly robbed of your whole fortune. I hope Piso' will always continue, what you represent him to be, entirely ours. As to the manumission of the slaves, I think you have no occasion to be uneasy. For, with re- gard to your own, you only promised them their liberty as they should deserve it :. but, excepting Orpheus, there are none of them that have any great claim to this favour. As to mine, I told them, if my estate should be forfeited, I would give r them their freedom, provided I could obtain the confirmation of that grant : but, if I preserved my estate, that they should aU of them, excepting only a few whom I particularly named, remain in their present condign. But this is a matter of little . .cojisequence^^ With regard to the advice you give me of keep- ing up my spirits, in the belief that I shaU again be restored to my country, I only wish that I , may have reason to encourage so desirable an ex- pectation. In the mean time, I am greatly miser- able, in the uncertainty when I shall hear from you, or what hand you will find to convey your letters. I would have waited for them at this place, but the master of the ship on which I am going to embark, could not be prevailed upon to lose the present opportunity of sailing. For the rest, let me conjure you, in my turn, to hear up under the pressure of our .^iffliotions with procured a law, which, among other artiales, enacted, that " no person should presume to harhour or receive him on pain of death."— Lifo of Cicero, p. 93. *• A considerable to^vn in an island of the Propontis, which lay so close to the continent of Asia, as to be joined with it by a bridge. ' Tulliawaa at this time married to Cains Piso Frugi ; a young nobleman of one of the best families in Borne. See rem. » on letter 9 of this book. ' Oiooro'a son-in-law, mentioned in the last note. as much resolution as possible. Remember that my days have all been honourable ; and that I now suffer not for my crimes, but my virtues. No, my Terentia, nothing can justly be imputed to me, but that I survived the loss of my dignities: However, if it was more agreeable to our children that I should thus live, let that reflection teach us to submit to our misfortunes with cheerfulness ; insupportable as upon all other considerations they would undoubtedly be. But, alas ! whilst I am endeavouring to keep up your spirits, I am utterly unable to preserve my own ! I have sent back the faithful Philetserus, as the weakness of his eyes made him incapable of render- ing me any service. Nothing can equal the good offices I receive from Sallustius. Pescennius, like- wise, has given me strong marks of his affection : and I hope he will not fail in his respect also to you. Sica promised to attend me in my exile, but he changed his mind, and has left me at this place. I entreat you to take all possible care of your health, and be assured, your misfortunes more sensibly aflfect me than my own. Adieu, my Te- rentia, thou most faithful and best of wives ! adieu. And thou, my dearest daughter, together with that other consolation of my life, my dear son, I bid you both most tenderly farewell. Brundisium, April the 30th. LETTER VII. To Terentia, to my dearest TulHa, amd to mg Son. Imagine not, my Terentia, that I write longer letters to others than to yourself : he assured, at u 696 1^^'' ^^ ^^^'^ ^ ^''' ^' '^ merely because those I receive from t^em require a more particjil^r answer. The truth of it is, I am always at a loss what to write ; and, as the^e is nothing in the present dejection Of my mind that I perform with , greater reluctance in general," so I never attempt it with regard to yoii and my dearest daughter, that it does not cost me a flood of tears. For how can I think of you without being pierced with grief, in the reflection, that I have made those completely miserable whom I ought, and wished, to have rendered perfectly happy ? And I should have rendered them so, if I had acted with less . timidity. Piso's behaviour towards us in this season of our afflictions, has greatly enSoAred him to my heart ; and I have, as well as I was able in the present discomposure of my mind, both acknowledged his good offices and exhorted him to continue them. I perceive you depend much upon the new tribunes ; and if Pompey perseveres in his present disposition, I am inclined to think that your hopes will not be disappointed ; though I must confess I have some fears with respect to Crassus. 1 n the meanwhile I have the satisfaction to find, what indeed I had reason to expect, that you act with great spirit and tenderness in all my concerns. But I lament it should be my cruel fate to expose you to so many calamities, whilst yon are thus generously endeavouring to ease the weight of mine. Be assured it was with the utmost grief I read the account which Publius sent me, of the opprobrious manner in which you were dragged from the temple of Vesta to the offi ce o f Valerius e . ff Terentia had taken sanctuary in the temple of Ve^ta, Z t 'MO THK LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Sad reserve indeed 1 that thou, the dearest object of my fondest desires, that my Terentia, to whom such numbers were wont to look up for relief, should be herself a spectacle of the most affecting distress ! and that I, who have saved so many others from ruin, should haye ruined bo^h myself and my family by my own indiscretion ! As to what you mention with regard to the area belonging to my house, 1 shall never look upon myself as restored to my country, till that spot of ground is again in my possession'*. But this is a point that does not depend upon ourselves. Let me rather express my concern for what does, and lament that, distressed as your circumstances already are, you should engage yourself in a share of those expenses which are incurred upon my account. Be assured if ever I should return to Rome, I shall easily recover my estate : but shoiild fortune continue to persecute me, will you, thou dear unhappy woman, will you fondly throw away, in gainuig friends to a desperate cause, the last scanty remains of your broken fortunes ! I conjure you then, my dearest Terentia, not to involve yourself in any charges of that kind : let them be borne by those who are able, if they ure willing, to support the weight. In a word, if you have any affection for me, let not your anxiety upon my account injure your health : which, alas! is already but too much impaired. Believe me you are the perpetual subject of my waking and sleeping thoughts : and as I know the assiduity you exert in my behalf, I have a thousand fears lest your strength should not be eq.ual to so continued a fatigue. I am sensible at the same time that my affairs depend entirely upon your assistance : and therefore that they may be attended with the success you hope and so zealously endeavour to obtain, let me earnestly entreat you to take care of your health. I know not whom to write to unless to those who first write to me, or whom you particularly mention in your letters. As you and Tullia are of opinion that I should not retreat farther from Italy, I have laid aside that design. Let me hear from you both as often as possible, particularly if there should be any fairer prospect of my return. Farewell, ye dearest objects of my most tender affection, Farewell! ThessalonioaS Oct. the 5th. LETTER Vin. To Terentia, to my dearest Tullia^ and to my Son. I LEARN, by the letters of several of my friends as well as from general report, that you discover A u G95 ^^^ greatest fortitude of mind, and that **' you solicit my affairs with unwearied ap- plication. Oh, my Terentia, how truly wretched am I to be the occasion of such severe misfortunes to so faithful, so generous, and so excellent a hut was forcibly dragged out from thence by the directions of Clodius, in order to be examined at a public ofBco. con- cerning her husband'a effects. — Ross. h After Clodius had procured the law against Cicero already taken notice of, he consecrated the area where his hDuse in Borne stood, to the perpetual service of religion, and erected a temple upon it to the goddess Liberty.— Life of Cicero, p. 93. » A city in Macedonia, now called Saionichi, woman ! And my dearest Tullia too !— That she who was once so happy in her father, should now derive from him such bitter sorrows ! But how shall I express the anguish 1 feel for my little boy ! who became acquainted with grief as soon as he was capable of any reflection^. Had these afflictions happened, as you tenderly represent them, by an unavoidable fate, they would have sat less heavy on my heart. But they are altogether owing to my own folly in imagitilng I was loved where I was secretly envied'', and in not joining with those who were sincerely desirous of my friendship'. Had I been governed indeed by my own sentiments, without relying so much on those of my weak or wicked advisers, we might still, my Terentia, have been happy "*. However, since my friends encourage J Cicero's son was at this time about eight years of ^e. — Manutius. k The persons to whom he alludes are, Hortensius, Arrius, and others of that partj'j who {if we may believe Cicero's complaints to Attieus) took advantage of his feara, and advised him to withdraw from Rome on purpose to ruin him. But persons under misfortunes are apt to be suspicious, and are frequently therefore unjust : as Cicero seems to have been with respect to Hortensius at least, who does not appear to have merited his reproaches.— Ad Att. iii. 9, 14; Ad Quint. Frat. i. 3. See Mongault, remarks, vol. ii. p. 44. 1 Caesar and Crassus frequently solicited Cicero to unite himself to their party, promising to protect him from the outrages of Clodius, provided he would fall in with their measures.— Life of Cicero, p. 79, 86. ™ Cicero is perpetually reproaching himself in these letters to Terentia, and in those which he wrote at the same time to Attieus, for not having taken up arms and resolutely withstood the violences of Clodius. He after- wards, however, in several of his speeches, made a merit of what he here so strongly condemns, and particularly in that for Sextius, he appeals to Heaven, in the most solenui manner, that he submitted to a voluntary exile in order to spare the blood of his fellow-citizens, and preserve the public tranquillity. " Te, te, patria, testor, {says he) et vos penates patriique Dii, me vestrarum, sedum templo- rumque causa, me propter salutem meorum civium, quae mihi semper fuit mea carioi vita, dimicationem cxdemque fugisse," But Cicero's veracity, in this solemn asseve- ration, seems liable to be justly questioned. It is certain that he once entertained a design of taking up arms in his own defence : and the single motive that appears to have determined him in the change of this resolution was, his finding himself most perfidiously deserted by Pompey :— '* Si — quisquam fuisset {says he, in a letter to Atticusl qui me Pompeii minus liberali responso perterritum, a tui-pissimo consilio revocaret ; — aut occubuissem honeste, aut victores hodie viveremus." — [Ad Att. iii. IS.] Dion Cassius asserts, that Cicero, notwithstanding this unex- pected desertion of Pompey, was preparing to put liimself in a posture of defence; but that Cato and Hortensius would not sufi'er him to execute his purpose : ^irex^fp'?''"* fxkv 87r\ft apao-dat, KaKvdeis S^ hir6 re tov Kdrovos Kal rod *OpT7](riov, &c. 1. xxxviii. Perhaps this author may be mistaken as to his having actually made any formal preparations of this kind : but that ho had it in his intentions seems clear beyond all reasonable conti-adiction. The French historian of oxu: author's banishment has relied, therefore, too much upon Cicero's pompous profes- sions after his return, .when he maintains that nothing could be farther from his thoughts than a serious oppo- sition. [Hist, do I'Exil de Cic^r. p. 148.] The contrary appears most evidently to have been the case; and that the patriot-motive wliich he so often assigns in his-sub- soquent orations for leaving his coimtry, was merely an after-thought, and the plausible- colouring of artful elo- quence. Wliy else, it may be asked, is there not the least hint of any such generous principle of his conduct^fn all TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 341 me to hope, I will cmleavour to restrain my grief, lest the effect it may have upon my health should disappoint your tender efforts for my restoration. I am sensible, at the same time, of the many diffi- culties that must be conquered ere that point can be effected ; and that it would have been much easier to have maintained my })0st than it is to recover it. Nevertheless, if all the tribunes are in my interest ; if Lentulus is really as zealous in my cause as he appears ; and if Pompey and Cajsar likewise concur with him in the same views, I ought not, most certainly, to despair. With regard to our slaves, I am willing to act as our friends, you tell me, advise. As to your concern in respect to the plague which broke out here, it is entirely ceased : and I had the good fortune to escape all infection. However, it was my desire to have changed my present situation for some more retired place in Epirus, where I might be secure from Piso and his soldiers". But the obliging Plaacius was unwilling to part with me ; and still indeed detains me here in the hope that we may return together to Rome". If ever I should live to see that happy day ; if ever I should be restored to my Terentia, to my children, and to myself, I shall think all the tender solicitudes we have suffered, during this sad separation, abun- dantly repaid. Nothing can exceed the affection and humanity of Piso'sf behaviour towards every one of us : and I wish he may receive from it as much satisfaction, as I am persuaded he will honour. — 1 was far from intending to blame you with respect to my brother : but it is much my desire, especially as there are so few of you, that you should live together in the most perfect harmony. — I have made my acknowledg- the letters he wrote during this period ? ^Vhy else is he perpetually reproaching bis friends for having suffered him to take that measure ? And why, in a word, does he call it, as in the passage ahove-oited, turpissimum con- HUuin, the effect of a most ignominious resolution ? But were it to he admitted that a regard to his coimtry deter- mined him to withdraw from it; stUl, however,' he could not, with any degree of truth, boast of his patriotism upon that occasion ; for the most partial of his advocates must acknowledge, that he no sooner executed this resolution, than he heartily repented of it. The truth is, how umvil- ling soever he might he to hazard the peace of his coimtry in maintaining his post, he was ready to renounce all ten- derness of that kind in recovering it ; and he expressly desires Atticus tt> raise the mob in his favour, if there were any hopes of making a successful push for his restoration ; — "Oro te ut, si qua spes erit posse studiis honorum, auctoritate, multitudine comparata, rem confici, des ope- rnm ut uno impetu perfringatur,'* — Ad Att. iii. ?3. "^ Lucius Calphumius Piso, who was consul this year with Gabinius: They were both the professed enemies of Cicero, and supported Clodius in his violent measures. Tlie province of Macedonia had fallen to the former, and he was now preparing to set out for his government, where his troops were daily arriving. Cicero has delineated the characters at large of these consuls in several of his ora- tions; but he has, in two words, given the most odious picture of them that exasperated elociuence, perhaps, ever drew, where he calls them duo reipublicce portcnia at; liffne funera ; an expression for which modern language can furnish no equivalent. De Prov. Consul. — See rem. 1 on letter 17, book ii, and rem. ' on letter 3, bonk vii. " Plancius was, at this time, quaestor in Macedojiia, and distinguished himself by many generous offices to Cicero in his exile. — Pro Plane, passim. See rem. v on letters, hook viii. P Cicero's son-in-law. ments where you desired, and acquainted the persons you mention that you had informed me of their services. As to the estate you propose to sell ; alas ! my dear Terentia, think well of the consequence : think what would become of our unhappy boy, should fortune still continue to persecute us. But my eyes stream too fast to suffer me to add more : nor would I draw the same tender flood from yours. I will only say, that if my friends should not desert me, I shall be in no distress for money: and if they should, the money you can raise by the sale of this estate will little avail. I conjure you then, by all our misfortunes, let us not absolutely ruin our poor boy, who is well nigh totally nndone already. If we can but raise him above indigence, a moderate share of good-fortune and merit will be sufScient to open his way to whatever else we can wish him to obtain. Take care of your health, and let me know by an express how your nego- ciations proceed, and how affairs in general stand. — My fate must now be soon determined. I ten- derly salute my son and daughter, and bid you all farewell. Dyrrachiumfl, November 26. P.S. — I came hither, not only as it is a free city' and much in my interest, but as it is situated likewise near Italy'. But if I should find any inconvenience from its being a town of such great resort, I shall remove elsewhere, and give you due notice. LETTER IX. To Terentia. I RECEIVED three letters from you by the hands of Aristocrltus, and have wept over them till they are almost defaced with my tears. Ah ! •"■ "• '"'^' my Terentia, I am worn out with grief : nor do my own personal misfortunes more severely torture my mind, than those with which you and my children are oppressed. Unhappy indeed as you are, I am still infinitely more so ; as our common afflictions are attended with this aggra- vating circumstance to myself, that they are justly to be imputed to my imprudence alone. I ought most undoubtedly either to have avoided the danger by accepting the' commission' which was offered me ; or to have repelled force by force ; or bravely to have perished in the attempt. Whereas nothing ti A city in Macedonia, now called Durazzo, in the Turkish dominions. This letter, though dated from Dyrrachium, appears to have been wholly written, except the postscript, at Thessalonica. >■ That is, a city which had the privilege, though in tiiu dommions of the Roman republic, to be governed l-y il^ own law.-^. » Besides the reasons here jnentioncil, there was anoLIi''i' and mucii stronger-, which induced Cicero to leave Thes- salonica: for be hart received intelligence that Piso'stroii;.a were approaehiog'towards that city — Ad Att. iii. 22.^ • As it answered Caisar's purposes either to gain Ciccio, or to ruin him, he artfully laid his measm-es for both. And accordingly, after having mstigated Clodius to pursue Ciceio, he offered to take him into Gaul in the quality of bi> lieutenant, as a means of protecting him from that vengeance he had secretly inflamed. But Cicero, bemg more disposed to try his strength with his adversary, im- prudently declined the proposal.— Dio, xxxrn.; Art Att. ii. Ill, 19." 342 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO could have been more unworthy ot my character, or more pregnant with misery, than the scheme 1 have pursued". I am overwhelmed, therefore, not only with sorrow but with shame : yes, my Terentia, I blush to reflect that I did not exert that spirit I ought for the sake of so excellent a wife and such amiable children. The distress in which you are all equally involved, and your own ill state of health in particular, are ever in my thoughts; as I have the mortification, at the same time, to observe, that there appear but slender hopes of mybeing recalled. My enemies are many; while those who are jealous of me are almost innu- merable : and though they found great difficulty in driving me from my country, it will be extremely easy for them to prevent my return. However, as long as you have any hopes that my restoration may be effected, I will not cease to co-operate vrith your endeavours for that purpose ; lest my weakness should seem, upon all occasions, to frustrate every measure in my favour. In the meanwhile, my person (for which you are so ten- derly concerned) is secure from all danger : as, in truth, I am so completely wretched, that even my enemies themselves must wish in mere malice to preserve my life. Nevertheless I shall not fail to observe the caution yon kindly give me. I have sent my acknowledgments by Dexippns to the persons you desired me, and mentioned, at the same time, that you had informed me of their good offices. I am perfectly sensible of those which Piso exerts towards us with so uncommon a zeal : and indeed it is, a circumstance which all the world speaks of to his honour. Heaven grant I may live to enjoy, with you and our children, the common happiness of so valuable a relation' I The only hope I have now left arises from the new tribunes ; and that too depends upon the steps they .shall take in the commencement of their office : for If they should postpone my affair, I shall give up all expectations of its ever being effected. Accordingly I have despatched Aristocritus, that you may send me immediate notice of the first measures they shall pursue, together with the general plan upon which they propose to conduct themselves. I have likewise ordered Dexippus to return to me vrith all expedition, and have written to my brother to request he would give me frequent information in what manner affairs proceed. It is with a view of receiving the earliest intelligence from Rome, that I continue at Dyrrachium : a place where I can remain in pbrfect security, as I have, upon all occasions, distinguished this city by my particular patronage. However, as soon as I shaU receive intimation that my enemies" are approaching, it is my resolution to retire into Epirus. " See rem. ^ on the preceding letter. V He had tlxe great misfortune to be disappointed of this wish': for Fiso died soon after this letter was written. Cicero mentions him in several parts of his writings, mth the highest gratitude and esteem. He represents him as a young nobleman of the greatest talents and applieation, who devoted his whole time to the improvement of his mind, and the exercise of eloquence : as one whose moral qualifications were no less extraordinary than his intel- lectual, and, in short, as possessed of every accomplish- ment and every virtue that could endear him to his friends, to his family, and to the public. — Pi"o Seit. 31 ; De Clar. Orator. 271 ; Ad ftuirites, i. ■" The troops of Piso. See nm. " on the former letter. In answer to your tender proposal of accompa- nying me in my exile, I rather choose you should continue in Rome ; as I am sensible it is upon you that the principal blirthen of my affairs must rest. If your generous negociations should succeed, my return will prevent the necessity of that journey : if otherwise — But I need not add the rest. The next letter I shall receive from you, or at most the subsequent one, will determine me in what manner to act. In the meantime I desire you would give me a full and faithful information how things go on : though indeed I have now more reason to expect the final result of this affair than an account of its progress. Take care of your health I conjure you ; assuring yourself that you are, as you ever have been, the object of my fondest vrishes. Farewell, my dear Terentia ! I see you so strongly before me whilst I am writing, that I am utterly spent with the tears I have shed. Once more, farewell*. Dyrrachium, Nov. the 30th. LETTER X. To Quintus Metellus Nepos, the Consul^. The letters I received both from my brother and my friend Atticus, strongly encouraged me to hope that you were not less disposed than your A. D. 696. (,o^ggg^g ^Q favour my recall. In conse- quence of this persuasion, I immediately wrote to you in terms suitable to my present unfortunate circumstances ; acknowledging my grateful sense of your generous intentions, and enfxeating your future assistance. But I afterwards learned, not indeed so much by any hint of this kind from my friends, as from the report of those who passed this way, that you, did not continue in the same favourable sentiments' : for which reason I would * " This great man, who 'had been the savicur of his country, who had feared, in the support of that cause, neither the insults of a desperate party, nor tho daggers of assassins ; when he camo to suffer for the same cause, sunic under the weight. He dishonoured tliat banishment which indulgent Providence meant to be the means of rendering his glory oomplete. Uncertain where he should go, or what he should do, fearful as a woman, and froward as a child, he lamented the loss of his rank, of his riches, and of his splendid popularity. His eloquence served only to paint his misery in stronger colours. He wept over the ruins of his fine house, which Clodius had demolished ; and his separation from Terentia, whom he repudiated not long afterwards, was, perhaps, an afiiiction to him at this time. Everything becomes intolerable to the man who is once subdued by grief. He regrets what he took no pleasure in enjoying, and, overloaded already, he shrinks at the weight of a feather. Cicero's behaviour, in short, was such, that his friends, as well as his enemies, believed him to have lost his senses. ' Caesar beheld, mth a secret satisfaction, the man, who liad refused to be his lieutenant, weeping under the rod of Clodius. Pompey hoped to find some excuse for his own ingratitude in the contempt wliich the friend, whom he had abandoned, exposed himself to. Nay, Atticus judged him too nearly attached to his former fortune, and reproached him for it. Atticus, even Atticus blushed for TuUy, and the most plausible man alive assumed the style of Cato."— Bolingbroke, Reflections on Exile, p. 253. y This is the same person, who, when he was tribune, gave occasion, by his ill-treatment of Cicero, bn the second and third letters of this book. He was now consul with Publius Cornelius Lentulus. * "Whilst the friends of Cicero were exerting thpir endea- TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. S43 not venture to importune you any farther. My brother, however, having transmitted me a copy of the speech you lately made in the/senate, I found it animated with such a spirit of candour and mo- deration, that I was induced to write to you once more. Let me earnestly request you then to con- sider rather the interests than the passions of your family', lest, by falling in with their unjust and cruel opposition to me, you should open a way by which they themselves may be oppressed in their turn. Is it possible, indeed, that you, who gained such a glorious conquest over yourself, as to sacri- fice your own private enmities' to the welfare of the republic, should be prevailed upon to add strength to a resentment in others, which evidently tends to its destruction ? If you think proper then to afford me your assistance in this conjuncture, you may, upon all occasions, depend on my utmost services in return. On the other hand, should that lawless violence, which has wounded the common- wealth through my side, be suffered still to prevail, it imports you to reflect, whether, if you should hereafter b^ inclined to recal the opportunity of preserving our general liberties, you will not have the misfortune of finding it much too late". Fare- well. LETTER XI. To Fabius Gallus*. - I HAVE been attacked with a disorder in my bowels, which continued with great violence during ten days ; but as it was not attended with "' "' a fever, I could not persuade those who had occasion for my services, that I was really indisposed. In order, therefore, to avoid their vours to procure his restoration, Clodius was opposing their "designs by every method of artifice and violence : in which he was protected by Metellus, notwithstanding he had given intimations of a disposition to favour Cicero's inte- rest.— Life of Cicero, p. 108. '^ Clodius was cousin to Metellus. — Post Red. in Sen. 10. b The first step that Lentulus took when he entered upon the administration of his ofSce, was to move the senate that Cicero might be recalled. Upon which occa- sion, his colleague Metellus made the concession to which Cicero seems here to allude, declaring that he was willing to sacrifice his private resentment against Cicero to the general inclinations of the senate and the people. Never- theless, he still continued to support Clodius, as has been already observed in the note above. — ^Pro Sext. 32 ; Post Red. in Sen. 4. See rem. v on letter 17, book ii. c Notwithstanding that Pompey, Ciesai', and indeed all the principal persons of the republic now concurred in favom'ing Cicero's return, yet the practices of Clodius pre- vented a decree for that purpose, till the first of June. Nor was it till the 4th of August following, that this decree passed into a general law : in consequence of which, Cicero soon afterwards made his triumphant entry into Rome. Metellus joined in procuring this decree ; a changp of sen- timents which Cicero imputed to a most pathetic speech which Servilius Isauricus delivered in the senate upon this occasion, aad which so softened Metellus, it seems, that he melted into tears. But the true cause is more probably to be ascribed to the influence of CiEsar and Pompey : who, in order to mortify Clodius, whose power now began to be troublesome to them, thought it convenient, for their pur- poses, that Cicero should be restored. — Pro Sext. 31. 62. ; Ad (iuirites, 7. ** GaliuB is only loiown by three or four letters which Cicero has addressed to him : from which, however, nothing particular can be collected concerning his histoiy or cha- racter. importunities, I retired to Tusoulauum ; having observed so' strict an abstinence for two days before, as not to have tasted even a drop of water. Reduced then, as I am, by my illness and my fasting, I had more reason to hope for a visit from you, than to imagine you expected one from me. Distempers of every kind I greatly dread, but particularly of that sort for which the Stoics have censured your favourite Epicurus, where he com- plains' of being violen^lyaiflicted with the dysentery and' the strangury ; as the former, they assert, is the consequence of table indulgences, and the latter of a more shameful intemperance. I had, indeed, great reason to apprehend a dy sentery ; but whether it be from change of air, or a relaxation from business, or that the distemper had almost spent itself, I know not, but I am somewhat better since I came hither. You will wonder, perhaps, what excesses I have been guilty of, to bring upon myself this disorder. I must inform you then, that I owe it to the frugal regulations of the sumptuary law^ The products of the earth being excepted out of the restrictions of that act ; our elegant eaters, in order to bring vegetables into fashion, have found out a method of dressing them in so high a taste, that nothing can be more palatable. It was immediately after having eaten very freely of a dish of this sort, at the inauguration feast of Lentulus s, that I was seized with a diarrhoea, which has never ceased till this day. Thus you see, that I, who have withstood all the temptations that the noblest lampreys and oysters could throw in my way, have at last been overpowered by paltry beets and mallows ; but it has taught me, however, to be more cautious for the future. As Anicius found me in one of my sick fits, you must undoubtedly have heard of my illness ; I was in hopes, therefore, you would not have contented yourself with inquir- ing after ray welfare, but would have given me the satisfaction of a visit. I purpose to continue here till I shall have re-established my health, for I am extremely weakened and emaciated. But if I can once get the better of my disorder, I hope I shall find no difficulty in recovering alTthe rest. Farewell. '^ LETTER XII. To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul'^. I FIND it much easier to satisfy the world than myself, in those sacred offices of friendship I exert in your behalf. Numberless, indeed, are the A. u. 697. obiigatjonj yo^ jiave conferred upon me, and as you persevered with unwearied zeal till you « Xn a letter whiph he wrote during his last sickness ; a translation pf which is given us by Cicero, in bis treatise De Finibus, ii. 31. f Manutius conjectures, that the law alluded to is one which is ascribed \>y Aulus Gellius to Marcus Lioinius Crassus, and which p,assed in the year of Rome 643. By this law the expenses of the table were regulated both in regard to ordinary and extraordinary occasions, with the express exception mentioned by Cicero in the next sen- tence, concerning the article of vegetables. — Aul. Gell. ii. 24. E He was son of Publius Cornelius Lentulus, one of the consuls of the present year, to whom the next letter and several of the following ones in this and the subsequent, book are written. He gave this entertainment on occa- sion of his being chosen a member of the college of augurs. — Manutius. >> Publius Lentulus was consul together with Quintus 344 THE LETl-ERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICKRO had effected ray recal from exile, I esteem it the greatest mortification of my life, that I cannot act in your affairs with the same success. The truth is, Ammonius, who resides here as ambassador from Ptolemy', defeats all my schemes by the most shameless and avowed bribeiy, and he is supplied with money for this purpose, from the same quarter as when you were in Rome, The party in the king's interest (though their number, it must be owned, is inconsiderable) are all desirous that Jletellus Nepos, A. TJ. 596, the year before this letter was written. During his administration of that office, he dis- tinguished himself by his zeal in promoting Cicero's recal from banishment ; which, after many diiEculties thrown in the way by Clodius, he at length effected. At the expi- ration of his consulate, he succeeded to the government of Cilicia, one of the most considerable provinces in Asia Minor, now called Carmania ; and the following correspon- dence was carried omvith him whilst he continued in that- province. Caisar had, upon many impoi'tant occasions, given him very signal instances of his friendship, particu- larly in gaining him an entrance into the pontifical col- lege : in procuring him the province of Lower Spain, after lie had passed through the oflS.ce of prector ; and by assist- ing him in obtaining the consulship. Yet these obligations were not so powerful in the sentiments of Lentulus, as to Eupersede those more important oneswliicli he owed to his country. Accordingly he opposed the illegal and dangerous demands of Caesar, with great warmth and indignation, in the senate ; and, upon the breaking out of the civil war, joined himself with Pompey. He steadily persevered in following the cause and the fortune of that unhappy chief, notwithstanding Cffisar generously gave him his life and his liberty, when he fell into his hands upon the surrendci' of Corfinium. For it appears, by a letter in this collection, that he was after^vards at the battle of Pharsalia, from whence he fled with Pompey to Rhodes, and this is the farthest we can trace him. He is mentioned by Cicero among the celebrated orators of his age ; though his merit of this kind was, it seems, more owing to his acquu'ed than his natural talents. — Cjeb. De Bell. Civ. i. ; Plut. in Vit. Jul. Cas. ; Cic. Ep. Fam. xii. 14 ; Cic. De Opt. Gen. Die. ' King of Egypt, and father of the celebrated Cleopatra.. He was surnamed Auletes, in allusion to his skill in play- ing upon a certain musical instrument called by the Greeks Aulos. The title of this prince to his throne being preca- rious, he found means, by the interest cf Caesar and Pom- pey, to be declared an ally of the Roman republic, about two years before the date of this letter, for which piece of service they were to receive no less a reward than one mil- lion one hundred sixty-two thousand five bundred pounds. The heavy taxes Ptolemy was obliged to impose in order to raise this immense tribute, together with other acts of tyranny and oppression, occasioned such a general discon- tent among his people, that they took up arms and drove him out of Egypt. In this exigency he had recourse to the republic, in virtue of the alliance just mentioned. His subjects likewise sent an embassy to Rome, composed of an hundred of their principal citizens, to plead their cause before the senate ; but Ptolemy having notice of this depu- tation, procured part of them to he assassinated on their way thither ; others as soon as they arrived ; and the rest he silenced by proper applications to their fears and their avarice. This, together with his immense and open pro- fusions among the venal part of the republic, rendered him ifeneraJly detested at Romo ; insomuch, that notwithstand- ing he ^vas zealously supported by Pompey, who actually obtained a decree in his favour, yet the opposition was so strong, that the senate, after various debates, thought pro- per to let the affair wholly drop. His last resource, there- fore, was to apply himself to Gabinius, proconsul of Syi-ia. Accordingly, Gabinius, upon the promise of 10,000 talents, iinil at the recommendation of Pompey, boldly undertook, ami effected his restoration, without being authorised by any legal commission for that purpose. — ^Dio, xxxix, ; Liv. Epit. IV5; Cic. Oiat. in Pihon. See mm. ^^^j. 353. Pompey may be employed to reinstate him in his dominions. The senate, on the other hand, fall in with the pretended oracleJ, not, indeed, as givipg any credit to its predictions, but as being in general ill-inclined to this prince, and detesting his most corrupt practices. ~In the meanwhile, I omit no opportunity of admonishing Pompey with great freedom, and conjuring him not to act such a part in this affair, as would cast the deepest stain upon his character. I must do him the justice, at the same time, to acknowledge, that so far as his own conduct is concerned, there does not appear the least foundation for any remonstrances of this sort. On the contrary, he is perpetually expressing the highest zeal for your interest : and he lately sup- ported it in the senate, with the utmost force of eloquence, and the strongest professions of friend- ship. MarceUinus"*, I need not tell you, is a good deal displeased at your soliciting this commission ; in all other respects, I dare venture to say he will very strenuously promote your interest. We must be content to take him in his own way, for I per ceive it is impossible to dissuade him from proposing that the injunctions of the oracle shall be complied with. And, in fact, he has already made severa'. motions to that purpose. I wrote this early on the 13th, and I will now give you an account of what has hitherto passed in the senate. Both Hoitensius and Lucullus agreed with me in moving, that the prohibition of the oracle should be obeyed ; and, indeed, it does not seem possible to bring this matter to bear upon any other terms. But we proposed, at the same time, that in pursuance of the decree^ which was J Caius Cato, a relation of the celebrated M. Porcius Cato, who killed himself at Utica, was in the number of those who most strenuously opposed the restoration of Ptolemy. He was a young man of a turbulent and enterprising dis- position , which he supported with some degree of eloquence This, at least, is the character which Fenestclla gives of him, as that annalist is cited by Nonius; but if be was never engaged in an opposition less reasonable than the present, history has not done him justice. Among other expedients which he employed to obstruct the designs of those who favoured Ptolemy, he had recourse to a prophecy which he pretended to have found in the Sibylline books, and which contained a severe denunciation against the state, if the Romans assisted a king of Egypt with their troops in recovering his throne. This had, in some mca- siue, its desired effect ; for the senate (which in general was in the same sentiments, as to this point, with Cato) voted it dangerous to the interests of the republic, to employ any force in favour of Ptolemy. The Sibyls were certain supposed prophetesses, concern ing whom there is a great variety of opinions, historians being by no means agreed as to their number, their country, or the age in which they lived. Those who are inclined to read a very ridiculous story, may find an account in Aulus Gellius, of the manner by which the Romans are said tti have possessed themselves of these oracular writings. Tliese prophecies were carefully deposited, in the capitol, and consulted upon certain extraordinary occasions. There are some ancient writings still extant which pass under the name of the Sibylline oracles; but these oracles " seem to have been all, from first to last, and without any excep- tion, mere impostures."— Ad Quint. Frat. ii. 2; Aul, Gell. i. 19; Jortin, Remarks on Eccles. Hist. p. 284. '' One of the present consuls. * Before Lentulus set out for his government, the senate had come to a resolution of assisting Ptolemy with a body of troops; and (as has already been observod) a decree had actually passed for that purpose. It was voted at the sjuno time that the consul, whose lot it should prove to adminis- ter the province of Cilicia, should be charged with this TO SEVERAL OP HIS FHIENDS. 346 made on your own motion, yon should be appointed to re-establish Ptolemy in his kingdom ; the situa- tion of your province lying so conveniently for that pui-pose. In a word, we consented that the army should be given up, in deference to the oracle ; but insisted, nevertheless, that you should be employed in effecting this restoration. Crassus, on the other side^ was for having this commission executed by three persons, to be chosen from among our gene- rals, and consequently he did not mean to exclude Pompey. Marcus Bibulus joined with him as to the number, but thought that the persons to be nominated should not bear any military command. All the rest of the consulars were in the same sentiments, except Servilius, Afranius, and Yolca- tius. The first absolutely opposed our engaging in Ptolemy's restoration upon any terms whatsoever : but the two last were of opinion, that agreeably to the motion of Lupus, this commission should be given to Pompey. This circumstance has increased the suspicion concerning the real inclinations of the latter, as his most particular friends were observed to concur with Volcatius. They are labouring this point with great assiduity, and I fear it will be carried against us. Libo and Hypsieus are openly soliciting for Pompey ; and, in truth, the conduct of all his firiends at this juncture makes it generally believed that he is desirous of the office. Yet the misfortune is, that those who are unwilling it should fall into his hands, are not the more inclined to place it in yours, as they are much displeased at your having contributed to the late advancement of his power"'. For myself, I find I have the less influence in your cause, as it is supposed that I am solely governed by a principle of gratitude ; at the commission ; and accordingly fortune decided it in favour of lentulus. But tho artifices of Cuius Cato, taken notice of in the note above, prevented this decree from being car- ried into execution. — Orat. pro Rabir. ■n Lentulus, during his consulate, proposed and cai'ried a law in favour of Pompey, which, in effect, invested him with the whole power of the Roman empire. For, under a pretended scarcity of com (as some of the historians seem to represent it, though Dion Cassius, indeed, speaks of it as real) he was commissioned to provide the republic with that commodity, by which means all those who were concerned in the naval, the commercial, and landed inte- rest, either in Italy or the provinces, became his tributaries and dependants. \ By another law, Pompey was authorised, during the space of five years, to exercise proconsular power throughout all the Roman dominions ; and it is to these extravagant gi'ants that Cicero seems to allude. The former, indeed, of these two laws, Cicero himself very zealously promoted, in return to the services he had lately received from Pompey in the affair of his restoration. And though the latter invested that aspiring chief mth a power much too exorbitant (as is intimated in a letter to Atticus) to be endured in a free state, yet Cicero suffered it to pass without the least opposition. We learn, fi'om his own confession, the mean motive of this unworthy hilence. As the pontifical college, it seems, had not yet made then' report concerning the validity of Clodius's consecration of his area, (see rem. \ p. 340,) he thought it unsafe to withstand any of Pompey's demands, lest he might influence their >lecision to his prejudice : — '* Nos tacemns, et eo magis, quod de domo nostra nihil adhuc pontiflces responderunt." Lentulus, on the other hand, was suspected of procuring these laws in view of his own designs, and in order to divert Pompey from the thoughts of being employed in re-establishing Ptolemy on his th rone. Thus were the liberties of Rome sacrificed to the private purposes of her pretended patriots ! — ^Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; IHo, xxxix. ; Ad Att. Iv. I. same time, the notion which prevails that this affair affords an opportunity of obliging Pompey, renders my apphcations likewise not altogether so effectual as they might otherwise prove. It is thus I am labouring in this perplexed business, which the king himself, long before you left Rome, as well as the friends and dependants of Pompey, had artfully embarrassed. To this I must add the avowed opposition I meet with from the consulars, wlio represent our assisting Ptolemy with an army, as a measure that would highly reflect upon the dignity of the senate. Be assured, however, I shall employ every means in my power of testifying both to the world in general, and to your friends in particular, the sincerity of that affection I bear you. And, were there any honour in those who ought to have shown themselves influenced by its highest and most refined principles, I should not have so many difficulties to encounter. Farewell. LETTER XIH. To Quinius Valerius Orca", YoD remember, Idoubt not,thatwhen I attended you on your way towards your province, I took occasion, in the presence of Publius Cus- "" "' plus, to desire you would consider every friend of his whom I should recommend to you, as in the number of my own ; and that I afterwards rejifeated this request in the strongest manner. You then assured me, with great generosity and polite- ness, and agreeably to that affectionate I'egard with which you have ever distinguished me, that you would comply with my request. I am to inform you, then, that Cuspius, having been twice in Africa during the time that he had the direction of the affairs of the company which farms the revenues of that province, contracted some acquaintance in that part of the world whom he greatly loves : and, as no man is more zealous to serve his friends, he very warmly espouses their interest. I am always ready to assist him for that purpose, to the utmost of my credit and influence : which I taiention as a reason for my recommending his African friends in general to your protection. For the future, there- fore, I shall only acquaint you that the person in whose behalf I may happen to write, is a friend of Cuspius ; and then add the distinguishing mark we agreed upon". But my present recommendation is of the strangest kind : as it is in compliance with the most earnest desire of Cuspius, that I entreat your good offices to Lucius JuUus. If I were to request them in the terms that are usually employed in the sincerest solicitations of this nature, I should scarce satisfy, I believe, the zeal of my friend. He requires something more new and singular in the manner of my present address, and imagines I am master of a certain art that renders me extremely well qualified for the task. I promised, therefore. n He had been praetor the year before, and very inbtru- mental in procuring Cicero's recal from exile. At tho expiration of his prstorship, he obtained the government of Africa ; and this letter seems to have been written to him soon after his arrival in that province. — Pigh. Annal. ii. sai. o To distinguish those recommendations which were written merely in compliance with solicitations he could not refuse, from others that were the sincere dictates of his heart. 046 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO to recommend his friends to you, by all the most skilful and insinuating methods of persuasion. But as I find myself incapable of executing this promise, I can only entreat you to give him reason to imagine, that there was something wonderfully efficacious in this letter. Now this he will cer- tainly suppose if you exercise towards Julius every generous act that your politeness and your station enable you to confer ; not only by distant services, jat by your personal notice and distinction ; for you cannot imagine, as you have not been long enough in your post to know it by your own obser- vation, how great an advantage it is to a man to have the countenance of the governor of his pro- vince. I am persuaded that Julius well deserves every mark of your friendship upon his own account ; not only because Cuspius has as.sured me that he does, (which of itself, indeed, would be a very sufficient reason for my thinking so) but because I know tlie great judgment of the latter in the choice of his friends. Time will soon discover the eifects which this letter shall produce ; and they wiU. be such, I con- fidently trust, as to demand my acknowledgments. In the mean while, you may depend upon my best services here, in every instance wherein I shall imagine you would desire them. Farewell. P.S. — Publius Cornelius, the bearer of this letter, is one whom 1 likewise recommend to you at the request of Cuspius ; and how much I am bound, both by inclination and gratitude to do everything for his sake that is in my power, is a circumstance of which I have already sufficiently informed you. Let me entreat you, therefore, that he may very soon and very irequently have the strongest reasons to thank me for this my recommendation of his friend. Farewell. I LETTER XIV. To Publius Lentulvs, Proconsul. The senate met on the 13th of January, but cajne to no resolution ; the greatest part of that A u. 697. ^^^ having been spent in some warm con- tests which arose between Marceliinusi', the consul, and Caninius, one of the tribunes of the people. I had myself also a very considerable share in the debates ; and I represented the zeal you have always shown towards the senate in terms that influenced them, I am persuaded, much to your ad- vantage. The next day, therefore, we thought it sufficient briefly to deliver our opinions ; as I per- ceived, not only by the favourable manner in which I was heard the day before, but also by inquiring into the sentiments of each particular member, that the majority was clearly on our side. The business of the day opened with reporting to the house the several opinions of Bibulus, Hortensius, and Vol- eatius. The respective questions therefore- were, in the first place, whether three commissioners should be nominated for restoring the king, agreeably to the sentiments of Bibulus ; in the next, whether, according to those of Hortensius, the office should be conferred upon you, but without employing any forces ; or, lastly, whether, in conformity to the ad- vice of Volcatius, this, honour should he assigned p Cueiua Lentulus MarcellinuB, who was consul this year with L. Marcius Philippus. to Pompey. The points being thus stated, it was moved that the opinion of Bibulus might be refer- red to the deliberation of the house in two separate questions 1. Accordingly, as it was now in vain to oppose his motion, so far as it related to paying obedience to the declaration of the oracle, the senate in general came into his sentiments : but as to his proposal of deputing three commissioners, it was rejected by a very considerable majority. The opinion next in order was that of Hortensius : but when we were going to divide upon it. Lupus, a tribune of the people, insisted that, in virtue of his office, he had the privilege of dividing the house prior to the consuls, and therefore demanded that the voices should be first taken upon the motion he had made in favour of Pompey. This claim was generally and strongly opposed ; as, indeed, it was both unprecedented and unreasonable. The consuls themselves, however, did not greatly contest that point, nor did they absolutely give it up : their view was to protract the debates, and they suc- ceeded accordingly. They perceived, indeed, that notwithstanding the majority affected to appear on the side of Volcatius, yet, upon a, division, they would certainly vote witli Hortensius. Neverthe- less, several of the members were called upon to de- liver their opinions, though, in truth, much against the inclinations of the consuls, who were desirous that the sentiments of Bibulua should prevail These debates continuing till night, the senate broke up without coming to any resolution. I happened to pass the same evening with Pompey ; and as I had that day supported your cause in the senate with more than ordinary success, I thought it afl'ordcd me the most favourable opportunity of speaking to him in your behalf. . And what I said seemed to make so strong an impression, that I am persuaded I have brought him wholly over to your interest. To say the truth, whenever I hear him mention this affair himself, I entirely acquit him of being secretly desirous of this commission. On the other hand, when I observe the conduct of his friends of every rank, I am well convinced (and indeed it is now evident likewise to the whole world) that they have been gained by the corrupt measures which a cer- tain party, with the consent of Ptolemy and his advisers, have employed. I write this before sun- rise on the 16tli of January, and the senate is to meet again on this very day. I hope to preserve my authority in that assembly, as far at least as is possible amidst such general treachery and corrup- tion which has discovered itself upon this occasion. As to what concerns the bringing this matter before the people, I think we have taken such precautions as will render it impracticable, unless by actual vio- lence, or in direct and open contempt both of our civil and religious institutions. For this purpose, a vei-y severe o rder of the senate' (which I imagine q " When an opinion was proposed to the senate which was thought too general, and to include several distinct articles, it waa usual to require that each part might be propounded and voted separately. Thus Bibulus moved, that they might submit to the Sibylline oracle, and appoint three private senators to restore the king. But the house required that they might vote separately upon these two questions : and the event was, they unanimously agreed to the former, but rejected the latter." — Boss, Itemarks on Cic. Famil, Epiet. vol. i. p. 348. ' When an act passed the senate in a full house, held according to the-prescrihed forms, and without any oppo. sition from the tribunes, (who had the privilege of putting TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 347 was immediately transmitted to you) was entered yesterday in our journals, notwithstanding the tri- bunes, Cato" and Caninius, interposed their nega- tives. You may depend upon my sending you a faithful account of every other occurrence which may arise in this affair: and be assured I shall exert the utmost of my vigilance and my credit to conduct it in the most advantageous manner for your interest. Farewell. LETTER XV. To the same. AuLU s Trebonius , who is an old and intimate friend of mine, has some important affairs in your province jjgy which require immediate despatch, His own illustrious character, together with the recommendations of myself and others, have, upon former occasions of this liind, obtained for him the indulgence of your predecessors. He is strongly persuaded, therefore, from that affection and those mutual good offices which subsist between you and me, that this letter will not prove a less effectual solicitor in his behalf : and let me earnestly entreat you not to disappoint him in this his expectation. Accordingly I recommend his servants, his freed- men, his agents, and in short his concerns of every kind, to your patronage : but particularly I beg you would confirm the decree which Titus Ampins' passed in his favour. In one word, I hope you will talte all opportunities of convincing him that you do not consider this recommendation as a matter of common and unmeaning form. Farewell, LETTER XVI. To the same. When the senate met on the 1 6th of this month ", your affair stood in a very advantageous posture. We A u 697 ^^^ succeeded the day before against the motion of Bibulus for appointing tliree commissioners, and had now only to contend with Volcatius ; when our adversaries prevented the ques- tion from being put, by artfully protracting the de- bates. For they saw we had, in a very full house, and amidst great contrariety of opinions, carried our point, to the considerable mortification of those who were for taking the king's affairs out of your direc- tion, and transferring them to another hand. Curio opposed us upon this occasion with extreme warmth, while Bibulus spoke with more temper, and indeed seemed almost inclined to favour our cause. But Cato and Caninius absolutely refused to suffer any decree to pass till a general assembly of the people should be convened. By the Fupian law, as you well know, there can- not be another meeting of the senate till the first of February ; nor, indeed, throughout tliat whole a negative upon all proceedings in the senate,) it was called a tcnatus consultum, a decree of the senate. But if any of these essentials were wanting, or a tribune interposed, it was then only styled a senatus auctoritaSf an order of the senate, and considered as of less authority. — Manutius. » See rem. J, p. 344. * The predecessor of Lentulus in thisgoveiiiment.- — Piffh. Anna!. U. C. (196. " January. month, unless all the foreign ambassadors should have received, or be refused, audience. In the mean while, a notion prevails among the people, that your adversaries have insisted upon this pre- tended oracle, not so much with an intent of obstructing your particular views, as in order to disappoint the hopes of those who may be desirous of this expedition to Alexandria merely from the ambition of commanding an army. The whole world is sensible, indeed, of the regard which the senate has shown to your character : and it is notoriously owing to the artifices of your enemies, that the house did not divide upon the question proposed in your favour. But should the same persons, under a pretended zeal for the public, (though, in fact, from the most infamous motives,) attempt to bring this affair before a general assem- bly of the people, we have concerted our measures so well, that they cannot possibly effect their de- signs without having recourse to violence, or at least without setting the ordinances of our country, both civil and religious, at avowed defiance'. — But I will neither ostentatiously display my own endea- vours to assist you in this conjuncture, nor dwell upon the unworthy treatment you' have received from others. What merit, indeed, can I thence claim to myself, who could not acquit half the obligations I owe you, were I even to sacrifice my life to your service? On the other hand, whaf; avails it to disquiet my mind with complaining of those injuries which I cannot reflect upon without the deepest concern .^ I will therefore only add, if methods of violence should be employed, I can- not pretend, in this general contempt of all legal authority, to answer for the event. In every other respect, I will venture to assure you that both the senate and the people will pay the highest attention to your dignity and character. Farewell. LETTER XVII. To the same. Theke is nothing I more ardently wish than to convince both yourself and the world with how -„- much gratijtude I retain tlie remembrance 'of your services. I cannot, however, but extremely regret that your affairs should have taken such a turn since your absence, as to give you occa- sion of trying the affection and fidelity of your friends. You are sensible, as I perceive by your last letter, that you have been treated with the same insincerity by those who ought to have con- curred in supporting your dignities, as I formerly ' It was no very diflicult matter for the contending par- ties in the republic, when they were disposed to obstruct the designs pf an opposite faction, to find an expedient for that purpose. One cannot but wonder, indeed, that any public business could be carried on, when nothing more was necessary to embarrass the proceedings, than to pro- cure some trilwme to interpose his negative, or any magis- trate to observe the heavens. This latter was a species of divination practised among theRomans, in order to deter- mine whether any scheme under deliberation wo\ild be prejudicial or advantageous to the state. It consisted in remarking certain appearances in the heavens, or par- ticular modes in the voice or flight of birdSj which were supposed intimations of good or ill success. While this ceremony was performing, no assembly of the people could bo legally held, nor any act pass into a law. To both these methods, it is probable, Cicero here alludes. 8i8 THK LETTERS OF MARCUS TL'LLIUS CICERO experienced from some of my pretended friends in the affair of my banisiiinent. Thus, whilst I was exerting the utmost efforts of my vigilance, my policy, and my interest, in order to serve you in the article relating to Ptolemy, I was unexpectedly alarmed in a point of much more important con- cern, by the infamous law which Cato has lately proposed to your prejudice'". Where affairs are thus embroiled, everything is undoubtedly to be feared : yet my principal apprehension, I confess, arises from the treachery of your false friends. But however that may be, I am earnestly endeavouring to counteract the malevolent designs of Cato. As to the Alexandrian commission, both your- self and your friends will, I trust, have abundant reason to be satisfied with my conduct. But at the game time I must say, I greatly fear it will either be taken out of your hands, or entirely dropped ; and I know not which of these alternatives 1 should least choose. However, we have another expedient in reserve, which (should we be driven to it) neither Selicius nor myself disapprove. By this scheme we shall, on the one hand, prevent the senate from refusing to assist Ptolemy, and, on the other, remove all appearance of our being disappointed, if that person should be employed, who, it is more than probable, will now obtain this commission. To be short, I shall take such prec'autions that, should our designs fail, you may not seem to have suffered the disgrace of a repulse : yet, at the same time, I shall remit nothing of my best efforts to support your claim so long as there shall be the least pro- spect of success. But which ever way this point may finally be determined, it will be agreeable to those wise and elevated sentiments you possess, to consider the true glory of your character as result- ing entirely from the dignity of your actions and the virtues of your heart. And should the perfidi- ousness of a certain party deprive you of some of those honours which fortune has conferred upon you, be assured it will cast a much darker shade on their characters than on yours. In the mean- while, your affairs are the constant subject of my thoughts ; and I neglect no opportunity of acting in them for your best ack^antage. I concert all my measures for this purpose with Selicius ; as indeed I know not any one of your friends who has a greater share of good sense, or a more affectionate zeal for your service. Farewell. LETTER XVm. , To tile same^. Yon are informed, I imagine, by many hands, of what passes here : I will leave it therefore to your A. V. 697 ""^^"^ friends to supply you with an ac- count of our transactions, and content myself with only sending you my conjectures. To this end I must previously acquaint you, that, on 'the 6th of February, Pompey made a speecli in a general assembly of the people in favour of Milo, w Caius Cato, in order to cut off all hopes at once from Lentiilua of being employed in this contested commission, proposed a law to the people for recalling him from his govermnent.~Ad Quint. Frat. i. .3. * This and the foregoing letter are blended together in the common edition;;, but they are here separated upon the authority of Manutius and Gronovius. durmg which he was insulted with much clamoui and abuse. Cato afterwards inveighed in the senate against Pompey with great acrimony, and was heard with the most profound silence and attention : both which circumstances seem to have affected him very sensibly. Now from hence I surmise, that hg, has entirely laid aside all thoughts of being employed in the Alexandrian expedition. That affair remains as yet entirely open to us ; for the senate has hitherto determined nothing to your prejudice but what they are obliged, in deference to the oracle, to refuse to every other candidate for this office. It is my present hope, therefore, as well as endea- vour, that the king may throw himself into your hands, when he shall find that he cannot, as he expected, be restored by Pompey ; and that unless he is replaced upon his throne by your assistance, his affair will be entirely dropped. And this step he will undoubtedly take, if Pompey should give the least intimation of its being agreeable to him. But I need not tell you of the difficulty of discover- ing the sentiments of a man of his reserve. How- ever, I shall omit no method in my power to effect this scheme, as I shall easily, I trust, be able to prevent the injurious designs of Cato. I do not find that any of the consulars are in your interest, except Hortensius and LucuUus : all the rest of that rank either openly, or in a more concealed manner, oppose your views. Neverthe- less, my friend, be not discouraged ; on the con- trary, let it be still your hope, notwithstanding the attempts of the worthless Cato, that you will again shine out in all your former lustre^. Fare- well. LETTER XIX. '•. To the same. You win receive a full account from Pollio of all that has been transacted in your affair ; as he A V 697 ^''^ '"''' ""^y present, but a principal • " ' ' manager. Believe me, I am much con- cerned at the unfavourable aspect of this business. Howev|r, it affords me a very sensible consolation that there is strong reason to hope the prudence of your friends will be able to elude the force of those iniquitous schemes which have, been pro- jected to your prejudice. Even time itself will, probably, contribute to this end ; as it often wears out the malevolence of tho^ who, either profess- edly, or in a disguised manner, mean one ill. I am yet farther confirmed in these pleasing hopes, whenever I reflect upon the faction that was for- merly raised against myself ; of which I see a very lively image in the present opposition to you. In the latter instance, indeed, the attack is by no means so extensive, or so dangerous, 'a^^ that which was made upon me ; nevertheless, tliere is, in general, a strong similitude between the two cases: and you must pardon me, if I cannot fear, upon your account, what you never thought reasonable to be apprehensive of on mine. But whatever may be the event, convince, the world that you are influenced by those principles for which I have admired you from your earliest youth : and believe me, my friend, the malice of your enemies will only serve to render your character so much the y See rem, "', on the pi'cceding letter. TO SEVERAI, OF HIS FRIENDS. 349 more illustrious. In the mean time, dk me the justice to hope, from my affection, whatever the warmest friendship can effect; and be assured, I shall not disappoint your expectations. Farewell. LETTER XX. « ' To Lucius Lucceius': ' I HAVE frequently had it in my intentions, to talk with you upon the subject of this letter ; but „_ a certain awkward modesty has always A. U. OU/' i • J r • • restrained me from proposing m person, what I can, with less scruple, request at this dis- tance ; for a letter, you know, spares the confusion of a blush. I will^own, then, that I have a very strong, and, I trust, a Very pardonable passion of being celebrated in your writirigs ; and though you have more than once given me assurance of your intending me that honour, yeit, I hope you will excuse my impatience of seeing your design exe- <;v. ed. I had always. Indeed, conceived a high f.. .pectation of your performances in this kind ; but the specimen I have lately seen of them, is so far superior to all I had figured in my imagination, that it has fired me with the most ardent desire of being immediately distinguished in your glorious annals. It is my ambition, I confess, .not only to live for ever in the praises of future ages, but to have the present satisfaction, likewise, of seeing myself stand approved in the authoritative records of my ingenious , friend. I am sensible, at the same time, that yoitr thoughts are already deeply engaged in the prosecution of your original desigil. But, as I perceive you have almost completed your account of the Italic and Marian civil wars", z It is very little that is knoWn of Lucceius, more than what the following letter informs us. Cicero, in one of his orations, speaks of his moral character with the highest applause, representing him as a man of the greatest huma- nity, and of the most unhlemished honour. All that has been transmitted down to us of his public transactions is, that he was joint candidate with Cfesar in soliciting the consulship, in opposition to Bibulus : in which,- however, he did not succeed. In the civil war which afterwards broke out, he took part with Pompey, if not actively, at least by his good wishes and advice : for it appears, by a passage in Cesar's Commentaries, that the former was wholly guided by his counsels. It is unnecessary to men- tion the high reputation he had gained by his literary abi- lities, as this part gf his character will be sufficiently laid open to the reader in the present letter. — Orat. pl'o Ccelio ; Suet, in Vit. .Tul. Cas. 19 ; Cses. De Bell. Civ. iii. * The Italic war, which broke out An. Urb, C63, owed its rise to a rejected claim of the Italian provinces to he admit- ted into the freedom of the city. It employed the arms of the republic for more than two years, and occasioned greater bloodshed and devastation than those wars in which sho had been engaged with Hannibal and Pyrrhus. Towards the close of it, Cicero, who was at that time about eighteen years of age, served as a volunteer under the father of I'ompey the Great. [Plor. iii. 18 ; Philip, xii.] The Ma- rian civil war immediately succeeded the Italic, and was occasioned by the insatiable ambition of Marius. This haughty Roman, envying Sylla the honour of leading the army of the republic against Mithridates, to which he had been appointed by the senate, procured a law for divesting him of that command, and transferring it into his own hands. This war was carried on between the two contend- ing chiefs and their adherents, with various success, and the most unparalleled cruelty on both sides, till it termi- nated in the perpetual dictatorship of Sylla.— Flor. iii. ?! ; Plut in Vit. War. et Syll. and remember you proposed to carry on the re- mainder of our history in a regular seri^, I cannot forbear recommending it to your consideration, whether it would be best to weave the relation of Catiline's conspiracy into the general texture of your performance, or cast it into a distinct work. It is certain, several of the Greek historians will justify you in this latter method. Thus Calli- sthenes wrote a narrative of the siege of Troy, as both Timseus and Polybius did of the Pyrrhic and NuBtiantine wars, in so manydetached pieces from their larger histories''. As to the honour that will arise to me, it will be mu«h the same, I must own, upon whichever scheme you may deteflnine to proceed : but I shall receive so much the earlier gratification of my wishes, if, instead of waiting till you regularly advance to that period of our annals, you should enter upon it by this method of antici- pation. Besides, by Weeping your mind attentive to one principal scene and character, you will treat your subject, I am persuaded, so much the more in detail, as well as embellish it with higher graces. I must acknowledge, it is not extremely modest thus to impose a task upon you which your occu- pations may well justify you in refusing ; and then to add a further request that you would honour my actions with your applause : an honour, after all, which y.'ju may not think perhaps they greatly deserve. "THowev^, when a man has once trans- gressed (he bounds of decency, it is in vain to recede ; and his wisest way is to push on boldly ia the same confident course, to the end of his pur- pose. ■ I will venture, then, earnestly to entreat you not to confine yourself to the strict laws of history, but to give" a greater latitude to your encomiums than, possibly, you may think my actions can claim. I remember, Indeed, you de- clare, in one of your very elegant prefaces, that you are as inflexible to all the pleas of affection as Xenophon represents Hercules to have been to thrfse of pleasure ". Let me hope, nevertheless, if friendship should too strongly recommend my b Callisthenes lived in the tunes of Alexander the Great, and attended that illustrious commander in his expedition into Persia. Timaeus was, by birth, a Sicilian, and flou- rished about the year of Rome 471 : he appears, by the character which Cicero gives of him in another part of his writings, to have been a very learned and elegant historian : and he was an author in great esteem with Atticus. Plu- tarch, however, speaks of him with much contempt, for having affected to rival Thucydides; and he is noted by Longinus as a writer that abounded with cold and puerile conceits. He acknowledges, nevertheless, that Timsus had a flowing imagination, and, upon some occasions, rose up to the true sublime. Polybius, who died about seven- teen years before Cicero came into the world, wrote a general history in forty books : Only five of which have reached these times. But he is not more distinguished by his composition, than by the friendship he enjoyed with Scipio and Lffilius.— De Orat. ii, 5, 8; Ad Att. vi. I ; Plut. in Vit. Niciae ; Longin, sect. 4 ; Voss. do Hist. Gra3C. L 9, 12, 19. c The story to which Cicero here alludes is this ; Her- cules, when he was yet a youth, as Prodicus relates the fable, retired into a place of undisturbed solitude, in order to determine, with himself, what course of life he should pursue. Whilst he was in the midst of his contemplations. Pleasure and Virtue appeared to him xmder the figures of two beautiful women, and each accosted him in her turn. He heard their respective pleas with great attention ; but Virtue g.iined her cause, and entirely won the hearf of the future hero. If the English reader is disposed to know this story in all its circumstances, he will iind it wrought up 350 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO actions to your approbation, you will not reject her generous partiality ; but give somewhat more to affection than rigorous truth perhaps can justly demand. If I should prevail upon you to fall in with my /^proposal, you will find the subject. I persuade myself, not unworthy of your genius and your eloquence. (The entire period from the rise of Catiline's conspiracy to my return from banish- ment, will furnish, I should imagine, a moderate volume. It will supply you likewise with a noble occasion of displaying your judgment in politicSf by laying open the source of those civil disorders, and pointing out their proper' remedies, as well as by giving your reasons for approving or condemn- ing the several transactions which you relate. And should you be disposed to indulge your usuEd spirit of freedom, you will have an opportunity of pointing out, at the same time, with all the severity of your indignation, the treachery and perfidious- ness of those who laid their ungenerous snares for ray destruction. I will add, too, that this period of my life will furnish you with numberless inci- dents which cannot but draw the reader's attention in a very agreeable manner : as nothing is more amusing to the mind than to- .contemplate the various vicissitudes of fortune. . And though they were far, it is true, from being acceptable in expe- rience, they cannot fail of giving me much enter- tainment in description : as there is an inexpressible satisfaction in reflecting, at on^'s ease, on distresses we have formerly suffered-^There is something likewise in that compassion, which arises from reading an account of the misfortunes which have attended others, that casts a most agreeable melan- choly upon the mind. Who can peruse the relation of the last raomeijts of Epaminondas at the battle of Mantinea, witllout finding himself touched with a pleasing commiseration ? That glorious chief, you may remember, would not suffer the dart to be drawn out of his side till he was informed that his shield was safe from the hands of his enemies : and all his concern amidst the anguish of his wound was, to die with glory**. What can be more inter- esting, also, than the account of the flight and death of Themistocles« ! The truth of it is, a mere narrative of general facts aff'ords little more enter- tainment to the reader than he might find in into a very beautiful poem by the Rev. Mr. Lowth, and inserted in Polymetis, p. 135. (1 Epaminondas headed the forces of the Thebans in a battle which they fough t with the Lacedemonians at Man- tinea, a town in Arcadia. The Thebans gained the victory, hut lost their invaluable commander : whose death was attended with the circumstances which Cicero here men- tions. — Justin, vi. 7, 8. eTheraistocles,afterhaving distinguished himself among his countrymen, the Athenians, by his military virtues, particularly in the wars in which they were engaged with Xerxes, had rendered himself so popular, that it was thought necessary to remove him : and accordingly he was obliged to witlidraw from Athens. As the historians men- tion nothing of his return, Manutius proposes an emenda- tion, suggested to him by one of his friends, who imagined, that instead of reditu it should be read intej-itu. This would agree very well with the account which is giren of his death : for having been received in his exile by Arta- xerxes, he was appointed to command a body of forces in an expedition which that prince was preparing against the Grecians. But Themistocles, rather than tni-n his arms against his country, chose to put an end to bis life by a draught of poison.^Plut. in Vit. Themist, perusing one of our public registers'. Whereas, in the history of any extraordinary person, our fear and hope, our joy and sorrow, our astonishment and expectation, are each of them engaged by turns. And if the final result of all should be concluded with some remarkable catastrophe, the mind of the reader is filled with the highest possible gratifica- tion. For these reasons I am the more desirous of persuading you to separate my story from the general thread of your narration, and work it up into a detached performance ; as, indeed, it will exhibit a great variety of the most interesting and affecting scenes. When I tell you it is my ambition to be cele- brated by your pen, I am by no means apprehensive you will suspect me of flattery. The consciousness of your merit must always incline you to believe, it is envy alone that can be silent in your praise : as, on the other side, you cannot imagine me so weak as to desire to be transmitted to posterity by any hand, which could not secure to itself the same glory it bestowed. ' When Alexander chose to have his picture drawn by Apelles^, and his statue formed by Lysippus**, it was not in order to ingra- tiate himself with those distinguished artists ; it was from a firm persuasion that the works of these admired geniuses would do equal credit both to his reputation and their own. s The utmost, however, that their art could perform, was to perpetuate the persons only of their celebrated contempora- ries : but merit needs not any such visible exhibi- ', ^tions to immortalise its fame.' Accordingly, the Spartan Agesilaus, who would never suffer any picture or statue of him to be taken', is not less universally known than those who have been most fond of having their persons copied out for pos- terity. The single treatise which Xenophon has written in praise of that renowned general, is more to his glory than all the pictures and statues of all the artists in the universe. It would be a much higher satisfaction to me, therefore, as it would be a far greater honour, to be recorded by your hand than that of any other ; not only because your f These originally werfe books preserved in the pontifical college, wherein the several divisions of the Roman year were marked out as they were regulated by Numa, and the particular festivals noted upon which it was imlawful to transact any public affairs. These registers, in the later ages of the republic, were much enlarged, and contained a sort of journal of the most memorable events, both civil and r^gious, that happened in every year. — ^Liv. i. 19, 20; Dissert, sur les Pastes pax Coulure, dans les M6m. de Lit. de I'Acad^m. de Bel. Let. i. 6?. s See an account of this celebrated Grecian painter, in rem. 7, on letter 17, book ii. ^ A famous statuary, of whom Demetrius, as cited by^ Quintilian, remarks, that be was more celebrated for taking a strong than an agreeable likeness.— Q,uint. Inst. Orat. xii. 10. 1 Agesilaus, king of Sparta, was one of the most consider- able persons of his age, both for civil and military virtues ; insom.uch that he justly acquired the appellation of Agesi- laus the great. But though nature had been uncommonly liberal to him in the nobler endowments of the mind, she had treated him very unfavourably in those of tlie body. Ho was remarkably low of stature, had one leg shorter than the other, and so very despicable a countenance, that he never failed of raising contempt in those who were unacquainted with his moral and intellectual cjccellencea. It is no wonder, therefore, that he was unwilling to bo delivered do\vu to posterity, under the disadvantages of bo unproiiising a figure.— Plut in Vit. Agesil. ; Com. Nep. in Vit, Agesil. 8. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 3&1 genius would rise and adorn my actions with the same advantage as TimEeusJ has displayed those of Timoleon*', or Herodotus^ those of Themistocles" ; but because of the additional credit I shall receive from the applause of so illustrious, so experienced, aud so approved a patriot. By this means I shall enjoy, not only the same glorious privilege which, as Alexander observed when he was at Sigeum, Achilles received from Horner"^ but what is still more important, the powerful testimony of a man who is himself distinguished by the noblest and most uncommon virtues. Accordingly, I have been always wonderfully pleased with the sentiment which Nsevius" puts into the mouth of Hector, where that hero, speaking of the approbatioh he had received from his illustrious father, adds, that it gave him so much^the more satisfaction, as coming from one who Was, himself, the great object of universal applause| But should want of leisure, (for it would be any^hjustice to our friendship to suppose it can be want of inclination,)- should your occupations then prevent your compliance with this my request; I may, perhaps, bo obliged to take a method, which, though often condemned, is supported, nevertheless, by several considerable examples : I ^lean, to be the historian of my own transactions. pBut you are sensible there are two inconveniences which attend this scheme ; for a man must necessarily be more reserved in setting forth those parts of his conduct which merit approbation, as he will be inclined entirely to pass over others which may deserve reproach. I must add, likewise, that what a writer says to his own advantage always carries with it a less degree of force and authority than when it comes from any other pen. In a word, the world in general is J The works of Timsus are lost. ^ Timoleon is one of the noblest characters In all anti- quity, and distinguished not only by his private virtues, but by approving himself, upon every occasion, the great asserter of public liberty. He was employed by the Corin- thians as general of those forces wh.icli they sent to tho relief of the Syracusans, against the execrable tyrajmy of Dionysius. He executed this coramission with great honour and success ; for having driven Dionysius out of ■Sicily, and restored the inhabitants to their rights and privileges, be resigned the supreme command. He con- tinued, however, to live among theSyracusans as a private man, enjoying, as Plutarch observes, the glorious satisfac- tion of seeing so many cities owe their ease and happiness to his generous and heroic labours. — Plut. in Vit. Timol. ^ Herodotus flourished about 440 years before the birth of Christ, imder the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. " See above, rem. «, p. 330. ■* Alexander being elected commander- inH3hief of the confederate troops which the Grecians sent against Xerxes, crossed the Hellespont with his army, and landed at Sigeum, a promontory near Troy, where he visited the tomb of Achilles. Upon this occasion, he is said to have broken out into the following exclamation: "O happy youth I hi having foimd a Homer to celebrate tky vir- tues.'*— Plut. in Vit. Alex. ; Cic. pro Arch. Poet. ° A dramatic poet who died at Rome An. Urb. 550, about 203 years before the Christian era ; some fragments of his works still remain. The sentiment here quoted from him is truly noble ; as there is not, perhaps, a more certain indication of a low and little mind, than to be elevated by imdistinguishing applause, or depressed by vulgar censure. Trophies of honour, or monuments of disgrace, are not the works of every hand. Some men are incapable of bla-sting a reputation, but by approving it ; and are never satiriste, but when they mean to be panegyrists. little disposed to approve any attempt of this kind. On the contrary, one often hears the more modest method of the poets at the Olympic games recom- mended upon such occasions, who, after they have crowned the several victors, and publicly called over their names, always employ some other per- son to perform the same office to themselves, that they may not be the heralds of their own applause. This imputation, therefore, I would wilUngly avoid ; as I certainly shall, if you should comply with my rfcquest, and take this employment out of my hands. You will be surprised, perhaps, that I spend so much time and pains In soliciting you for this purpose, after having so often heard you declare your intentions of giving the world a very accurate history of my adminfetratlon. But you must remember the natural warmth of my temper, and that I am fired, as I told you in the beginning of my letter, with an impatient desire of seeing this your design carried into execution. To own the whole truth, I am ambitious of being known to the present generation by your writings, and to enjoy, in my lifetime, a fore-taste of that -little share of glory which I may expect from future ages. If it be not too much trouble, therefore, I should be glad you would immediately let me know your ^ resolution. And should it prove agreeable to my request, I will draw up some general memoirs of my transactions for your use : if otherwise, I will take an opportunity of discoursing further with you upon this affair in person. In the mean time, continue to polish the work you have begun, and to love me as usual?. Farewell. P Pliny has made a request to Tacitus, of the same natui'e with that which is the subject of the letter before us ; and though it is by no means enlivened with so much spirit, it is dictated however, by a far less extravagant passion. He confesses himself fond, indeed, of being transmitted to posterity, by the pencil of that celebrated historian : but adds, at the same time, that he is far from desiring him to paint his actions in colours more strong than fact will jus- tify. [Plin. Let. vol. ii. p. 432, rem. c] This express restriction seems to glance at that most extraordinary pas- sage in the present epistle, where Cicero entreats his friend ** not to confine himself to the strict laws of history, but to give a greater latitude to his encomiums than Lucceius might possibly think his actions could claim." And never did vanity, it must he acknowledged, utter or conceive a more ridiculous and contemptible wish ! The voice of praise can alone he justly pleasing, when it harmonises with conscious merit : and the applause that does not accord with truth, must, of all dissonances, surely prove the most offensive to a well-formed ear. But it. is extremely observable how much Cicero's judgment was at variance with his practice : for he has himself shown, m ■very strong tenns, the absurdity of claiming more reputation than a man has merit to support. It is solid worth alone, he justly remarks, that can seciure a lasting fame ; for nothing can be durable that is fictitious. The former, says he, strikes its root deep, and spreads far ; while the latter soon withers and dies away, like the beauties of a transient flower. •* Vera gloria radices agit, et propagatur : ficta omnia celeriter, tanquam flosculi, decidant ; nee simula- tum potest esse quidquam diutumum."— Do Ofiia ii. 12. 362 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XXL Quintus Metellus Nepos'i to Cicero, Those calumnies with which the most virulent, surely, of the human race"" is perpetually loading A u 697 ™® "' ^^^ public harangues, are well com- pensated by the satisfaction I receive from your obliging offices. When I consider, indeed, the worthless hand from whence these ar- *l It is impossible to determine exactly when this letter was written, as it carries no internal marks sufficient to point out its date with precieion. Ragazonius, who has taken the pains to settle the order of these epistles, places it under the present year, and supposes it to have been written by Metellus, when he was governor in Spain : to which province he went as proconsul after the expiration of his consulship. f The commentators suppose that the person here alluded to is Clodius, who was now iedile, and employing the power which that office gave him, to the same factious purposes as he had exercised his late tribuneship. But this conjec- ture appears altogether groundless. For Cicero taking notice to Atticus of tlie death of Metellus, which seems to have happened soon after this letter was written, tells him rows take their flight, I look upon them with the contempt they deserve ; and am very willing he should cease to act as a relation, since I have the pleasure to see you assume that character in his stead. To say the truth, notwithstanding I had formerly so much regard for him as to have twice preserved him, even in spite of himself, I should now be glad to forget there is such a person in the world. That I might not trouble you too frequently with my letters, I have written to Lollius concern- ing my affairs, who will let you know what mea- sures I am desirous may be taken in regard to the accounts of this province*. If it be possible, let me still enjoy a place in your affection. Farewell. it was probable that he had appointed Clodius his heir— a circumstance utterly inconsistent with the supposition above-mentioned. The same letter may be produced as an evidence, like^vise, that, whatever were the good offices which Metellus here acknowledges, they did not proceed from the suggestions of Cicero's heart ; for he speaks of him to Atticus as of one whose character and conduct he greatly disapproved.— Ad Att. iv- 7. ■ Spain. .,''=-'-' '^. h y? Ai.- BOOK II. LETTER I. \ To Quintus Anchariics ', Proconsul. I RECOMMEND the two sons of my very excellent friend Aurelius as well deserving your esteem. 698 '^^^y *''® adorned, indeed, with every polite and valuable qualification : as they are in the number, likewise, of those with whom I most intimately converse. If ever then my re- commendation had any weight with you (and much, I am sensible, it ever had), let it prevail, I conjure you, in the present instance. And be assured, the honours with which you shall distin- gnish these, my friends, will not only indissolubly unite to you two excellent and grateful young men, but, at the same time, confer a very singular obligation upon myself. Farewell. LETTER II. To Publius Lentulus, Proconsul. I HAVE received your letter, wherein you assure me, that the frequent accounts I send you of your ii. D. 69B ^f^i''s>togetherwith the convincing proofs 'I have given you of my friendship, are circumstances extremely agreeable to you. I should ill deserve, indeed, those singular favours you have conferred upon me, if I were capable of refusing you my best services : and nothing is more pleasing to me, in this long and very distant separation. ' Quintus Ancbarius was tribune An. Urb. 694, when he distinguisbed himself by his resolute opposition to the fac- tious measures of his colleague Vatinius. In the year 697 be was chosen praetor ; and, at the expiration of that oi&ce, ho succeeded Piso in the government of Macedonia, in ■which province this letter is addi-essed to him, — Orat. pro Sext. 53 ! in Fison. 36 ; Ross, Remarks on the Epist. of Cic. than thus to converse with you as often as possible. If you do not hear from me as frequently as you wish, it is solely because I dare not trust my letters to every conveyance. But whenever I shall be able to put them into hands upon which I may safely rely, be assured I shall not suffer the oppor- tunity to slip by me. It is not easy to give a satisfactory answer to your inquiry concerning the sincerity of your pro- fessed friends, and the disposition of others in general towards you. This only I will venture to say, that a certain party, and particularly those who have the strongest obligations, as well as the greatest abilities, to distinguish themselves in your service, look upon you with envy : that (agreeably to what I have myself experienced upon a different occasion) those whom, in justice to your country, you have necessarily offended, are your avowed opposers ; as others, whose interests and honours you have generously supported, are much less inclined to remember your favours than to oppose your glory. These are circumstances, indeed, which I long suspected, and have often intimated to you, but of which I am now most thoroughly convinced. I observed upon the same occasion (and I believe I told you so in a former letter), both Hortensius and LucuUus to be extremely in your interests ; as among those who were in the magistracy, Lucius Racilius appeared very sincerely and affectionately to espouse your cause: but, excepting the two former, I cannot name any of the consulars who discovered the least degree of friendship towards you when your affair was before the senate. As for my own endeavours, they might, perhaps, be generally considered as flowing rather from those singular favours I have received at your hands, than from the uninfluenced dictates of my real sentiments. With regard to Pompey, he seldom attended the house at that season : but I must do TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 363 him the justice to say, he often takes an oppor- tunity, without my previously leading him into the subject, of discoursing with me concerning your affair, as well as very willingly enters into the conversation whenever I start it myself. 'Your last letter, I perceived, was extremely agreeable to him ; and I could not but observe, with equal admiration and pleasure, the polite and most judicious manner in which you addressed him. Before he received this letter, he seemed a little inclined to suspect, that the notion which some had entertained of his inclination to be your competitor, had alienated you from him. But you have now wholly fixed that excellent man in your interest ; who, in truth, had all the antecedent reasons for being so, that an uninterrupted series of the highest services could possibly give him". I must confess he always appeared to me, even when the conduct of Caninius had raised the strongest suspi- cions of the contrary', to favour your views. But I can now assure you, that I found him, after he had perused your letter, entirely disposed to promote whatever may contribute either to your interest or your honours. You may consider then what I am going to offer as his immediate senti- ments and advice, as indeed it is the result of frequent consultations which we have held together. Accordingly we are of opinion that it may be proper for you to consider whether any advantages may be derived from your being in possession of Cilicia and Cyprus. For if there should appear a sufficient ■ ■ ■ ■ probability of being able to make yourself master of Alexandria and Egypt, we think it equally for your own honour and that of the republic'' to " See rem, ™, p, 345. ' It was a usual artifice with Pompey to employ his friends in soliciting tliose honours in his hehalf , to which he affected to appear himself perfectly indifferent, or even averse. This was his policy in the present instance ; and at the same time that he pretended to serve Lentulus in this affair, his creature Caninius, a tribune of the people, was practising every stratagem in order to procure this commission for Pompey. " And though Cicero," as Mr. Robs observes, ' * either out of a tenderness for Lentulus, or out of an apprehension of displeasing Pompey, to whom he was at this time making his court, represents him in this place as acting an honest and friendly part, yet, in a letter to his brother, where he may be supposed to deliver his real sentiments, be speaks quite differently ; — ' nam quod de Pompeio Caninius agit, sane quam refrixlt : neque enim res probatur ; et Pompeius noster in amicitia P. Lentuli vituperatur, et hercule non est idem.' [Ep. vi. L. 2.] The truth of the case is this, when Pompey found it was impos- sible for him to procure this commission, he pretended a friendship for Lentulus, and joined with Cicero in giving the advice which makes a great part of this letter." ^ A general sketch of Ptolemy's character has already been given in the notes on the preceding book ; and it ap- pears from thence, that nothing could be less to the honour of the commonwealth, than to interpose in the behalf of this JQStly-r^ected monarch. Cicero himself represents him, in one of his orations, as unworthy of the crown he wore: — ^" Bum," says he, •* neque genere neque animo regis esse, inter omnes fere video convenire." [In Rull, ii.] But what is still more extraordinary, Cicero maizes the very measures which he here so strongly recommends to Len- tulus, an article of his charge against Antony, It was by the persuasion of the latter that Gabinius undertook (as has already been observed) the restoration of Ptolemy ; and Antony commanded the Roman cavalry in that expedition. This affords a topic of great indignation in one of the Philippics; and Cicero there speaks of this y)<)<)5o,' it would be no imprudent resolution, even in his adversaries themselves, to desist from an opposition to which they are evidently unequal. In the mean time, 1 have the satisfaction to find the world in general agreed that my character requires I should support, or at least not obstruct, the measures of Pompey, while some are even of opinion I may reasonably retire from all public business, to my favourite pursuits of a literary kind. And, indeed, were I not prevented by my friendship to Pompey, I should most certainly adopt this latter scheme, as of all others the most suitable to my inclinations. For 1 can now no longer maintain that dignity in the senate, and that freedom in the commonwealth, which was the single motive of my ambition, and the sole end I proposed to myself in all my labours : a misfortune, however, which is not peculiar to myself, but extends to every Koman in general. In a word, I am under the sad necessity either of tamely sub- mitting to the sentiments of those few who leafl the republic, or of imprudently joining in a weak and fruitless opposition '. I the rather mention this, that you may deliberate, before you retui'n amongst us, what part it maybe advisable for you to act in the present conjuncture. To speak freely, the measures, both of those of senatorian and eques- trian rank, and indeed the whole system of the commonwealth in general, are totally changed. All, therefore, that I have now to wish is, the pre- servation of the public tranquillity, which those who are in the administration seem to give us a prospect of enjoying, if a certain party could be prevailed upon to submit with less impatience to their power. As to any hopes of supporting in the senate that true consular character of a firm and inflexible patriot, it is in vain now to expect it ; every mean for that purpose is- totally lost, by the mistaken conduct of those who disobliged Pompey', P See rem. •» on letter 17, book ii. q A determined patriot could not have been reduced to the alternative which Cicero here mentions ; as there was a third expedient which every man of strict political integrity, who dared to act up to his principles, would undoubtedly have embraced. "An honest physician," says Sir William Temple, " is excused for leaving his patient, when he finds the disease growing desperate, and can, by his attendance, expect only to receive his own fees, with- out any hopes or appearance of deserving them." Our author, in one of his orations, mentions it to the immortal honour of the celebrated Mctellus, that de civitate dacdere quam de sententia maluit : and he who is actuated by the same sublime patriotism, will never find himself under the poor necessity of justifying wrong measures by tbe impossibility of enforcing right ones. See ran, ', on letter 17, book ii. ■• Pompey was very desirous of having the several granla which he had made to the cities of Asia, after his defeat of Mithridates, confli-med by the senate, in which he ivas strongly opposed by Cato, Metellus Celer, LucuUus, and othei-s. This occasioned a breach between Pompey and TO SEVERAL OF HlS FRlJENDS. 367 and dissolved that strong union whicli subsisted between the senate and the equestrian order". But to return to what more immediately relates to your own private affairs ; — Pompey is extremely your friend ; and, by all that I can observe, you may obtain anything you shall desire during his consulship ^ At least I shall solicit him very strenuously for that purpose ; and you may rely upon my most active offices in every instance where you are concerned. I_ am well persuaded my assiduity upon this occasion will not be dis- agreeable to him : on the contrary, he will receive it with pleasure, were it for no other reason than as affording him a proof of my grateful disposition. In the mean time, I entreat you to believe, that whatever bears the least connexion with your interests is of more importance to me than my own. From these sentiments it is, that I despair not only of being able to return, but even suffi- ciently to acknowledge, the infinite obligations I owe you ; though, at the same time, I am conscious of having exerted upon all occasions the most un- wearied endeavours in your service. It is rumoured here that you have obtained a complete victory, and we impatiently expect an express with the confirmation of this agreeable news. I have already talked with Pompey upon this subject, and as soon as your courier arrives, I shall employ my utmost diligence in convening the senate. In fine, were I to perform much more for your interest than lies within the compass of my present power, I should still think I had fallen £ar short of what you have a right to expect. Farewell. J 4 LETTER V. "^ To Marcus, Marius°* If your general valetudinary disposition pre- vented you from being a spectator of our late public a. u.ftje entertainments,^ it is more to fortune than to philosophy that J am to impute your absence. But if you declined our party for the senate, and gave Ceesar an opportunity of establishing an interest with the former, which, at that juncture, he found necessary for his purposes. Accordingly, being soon after elected consul, he procured a law from the people to ratify these acts.-^uet. In Vit. Jul. Caes. 19. • The farmers of the public revenues, who were com- posed of the principal persons among the equestrian order, having, as they pretended, rented some branch of the finances at too high a rate, applied to the senate for relief. Their demands, it seetas, were unreasonable : however, in the situation wherein public affairs then stood, it was thought prudent by the more moderate party not to dis- oblige GO considerable a body of m^n. But Cato obstinately opposed their demands ; and, by his means, the senate, after keeping them in suspense for several months, at length rejected their petition. But Caesar, who knew how to turn every incident to bis advantage, took up the interests of these knights ; and, in his consulship, obtained from the people a remission of one-third part of the stipu- lated rent. This single piece of policy (as one of the Greek historians observes) gave him a more considerable accession of power, even than he had before acquired by means of the people, as it gained over a much more important order to his party— Ad Att. ii. 1 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cbgs. 20; Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. * Poinpey and Crassus were at this time consuls. ° The person to whom this letter is addressed, seems to have been of a temper and constitution, that placed him fax below the ambition of being known to posterity. But no other reason than as holding in just contempt what the generality of the world so absurdly admire, I must at once congratulate you both on your health and your judgment. I say this upon a suppositioD, however, that you were enjoying the philosophical advantages of that delightful scene, in which I imagine you were almost wholly deserted. At the same time that your neighbours probably were nodding over the dull humour of our trite farces, my friend, I dare say, was indulg- ing his morning meditations in that elegant apart- ment, from whence you have opened a prospect to Sejanum, through the Stabian hills^^. And whilst you are employing the rest of the day in those various polite ' amusements which you have the happy privilege to plan out for yourself, we, alas ! had the mortification of tamely enduring those dramatical representations to which Maetius*, it a private letter from Cicero's hand has been sufficient to dispel the obscurity he appears to have loved, and to ren- der his retirement conspicuous. ^ Thoy were exhibited by Pompey, at the opening of his theatre, one of the most magnificent structures of ancient Borne, and so extensive as to contain no less than 80,000 spectators. It was built after the model of one which ho saw at Mitylene, in hia return from the Mithri- datic war ; and adorned with the noblest ornaments of statuary and painting. Some remains of this immense building still subsist.— Liv. xxxix. ; Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 3 ; Plut. in Vit. Pomp. w Sejanum (if that be the true reading, for the MSS. dif- fer extremely) is found in no other ancient author. Stabis was a maritime town in Campania, situated upon the bay of Naples, from whence the adjoining hills here mentioned took their name. One may figure the philosophical Mariua as looking down upon the world from this his delightful retirement, with reflections of the same kind as those which the poet has so exquisitely imaged, in the following beau- tiful lines : Here, on a single plank, thrown safe on shore, I hear the tumult of the distant throng. As that of seas remote, or dying storms. And meditate on scenes more silent still. Here, like a shepherd gazing from his hut. Touching his reed, or leaning on his staff, Eager ambition's fiery cLase I see : I see the circling hunt of noisy men Burst law's inclosure, leap the mounds of right* Pm:suing and pursued ; each other's prey ; As wolves for rapine, as the fox for wiles : Till death, that mighty hunter, earths them all ! YoUNGi ^ This person is supposed, by the commentators, to be the same to whose judgment Horace advises the Pisoa to refer their poetical compositions : - Si quid tamen olim Scripserls, In Msti d^scendat judicis aures. De Arte Poet. 388. But the compliment paid In these lines to the taste of MsetiuSi 111 agrees with the contemptuous manner in which Cicero here speaks of Pompey's Dramatic Censor. It appears by an ancient scholiast on Horace, that Augus- tus instituted a kind of poetical court of judicature, con- sisting of five judges, the chief of which was Matins Tarpa, mentioned in the verses above quoted. They held their assemblies in the temple of Apollo, and no poet was per- mitted to bring his play upon the stage without their ap- probation. Domitian seems to have improved upon this establishment, and extended it into an academy that dis- tributed prizes to those who excelled, not only in poetical, but prose compositions. We have seen societies of this sort formed among our neighbour nations, with good effect : and, perhaps, if, in this instance, as well as in some others, we were to follow their example, it might prove a mean, not only of refining our language, and encouraging a spirit 058 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO seems, our professed critic, had given his infallible sanction ! but as you will have the curiosity, per- haps, to require a more particular account, I must tell you, that though our entertainments were extremely magnificent indeed, yet they were by no means such a^ you would have relished : at least if I may judge of your taste by my own. Some of those actors who had formerly distinguished tliem- selves with great applause, but had long since retired, I imagined, in order to preserve the reput- ation they had raised, were now again introduced upon the stage, as in honour, it seems, of the festival. Among these was my old friend jEsopus?, but so different from what we once knew him, that the whole audience agreed he ought to be excused from acting any more ; * for when Jie was pro- nouncing the celebi:ated oath — ** If I deceive, be Jove's dread vengeance hurl'd," &c. the poor old man's voice failed him, and he had not strength to go through with the speech. As to the other parts of our theatrical entertainments, you know the nature of them so well, that it is scarcely necessary lo mention them. They had less, indeed, to plead in their favour than even the most ordinary representations of this kind can usually claim. | The enormous parade with which they were attended, and which, I dare say, you. would very willingly have spared, destroyed all the grace of the perform- ance. What pleasure could it afford to a judicious spectator, to see a thousand mules prancing about the stage, in the tragedy of ** Clytsemnestra;*' or whole regiments accoutred in foreign armour in that of the ** Trojan Horse ? " J In a word, what man of sense could be entertained with viewing a mock army drawn up on the stage in battle array ? These, I confess, are spectacles extoemely well adapted to captivate vulgar eyes ; bu^dndoubtedly would have had no charm in your^^^tn plain truth, my friend, you would have receiml more amuse- ment from the dullest piece that Protogenes could _ — . *- of polite literature, but of calling off our minds from those political speculations, which, though the privilege, in- deed, are not always the happiness of every idle Briton. Dacier, K^marques sur la x. Sat, du 1, liv. d'Horaoei Suet, in Vit. Domit. 4. y He excelled in tragedy, and was the most celebrated actor that had ever appeared upon the Roman stage. Cicero experienced the advantage of his friendship and his talents during his exile ; for iEsopus being engaged in a part upon the stage, wherein there were several passages that might be applied to our author's misfortimes, this excellent tragedian pronounced them with so peculiar and affecting an emphasis, that the whole audience immediately took the allusion : and it ha4 a better effect, as Cicero acknowledges, tlian anything his own eloquence could have expressed for the same purpose. But it is not in this instance alone that Cicero was obliged to ^sopus, as it was by the advantage of his precepts and example, that he laid the founc^atiou of his oratorical fame, and improved hhnself in the art of elocution. The high value which the Romans set upon the talents of this pathetic actor, appears by the immense estate which he acquired in bis profession, for he died worth almost ifOO.OOO;. sterling. He left a son behind him, whose remarkable extravagance is recorded by the Roman satirist. This youth having received a present from a favoiu-ite lady of a pearl out of her ear, worth a^million of sesterces, or about 0^000?. of our monqy, dissolved it, in a liquid, and gallantly drank it off: to the. health, wo may suppose, of his generous mistrgssj^ .Pljny the naturalist, who likewise mentions this story, adds that ho presented, at the same time, to each of hia guests, a cup of the same v^luabl^ ingredient.— Orat. pro Sext. 56 ; possibly have read to you* (my own oratioiis, how- ever, let me always except) than we met with at these ridiculous shows. I am well persuaded, at least, you could not regtet the loss of our Oscian and" Grecian farces*. Your own noble senate will always furnish you with drollery sufficient of the former kind^ ; and as to the latter, I know you have such an utter aversion to everything that bears the name of Greek, that you will not even travel the Grecian road to your villa'=. As I re- member you once despised our formidable gladia- tors^, I cannot suppose you would have looked Pint, in Vit. Cicer. ; Macrob. Saturn. iL 10 ; Hor. Sat ii. 3, ver. 239 ; Plin. Hist. Nat. x. .51. z It was usual with persons of distinction among the Romans to keep a slave in their family, whose sole bT!isiness it was to read to them. Protogenes seems to have attended Marius in that capacity. a The Oscian farces were so called from the Osci, an ancient people of Campania, from whom the Romans received them. They seem to have been of the same kind vrith our Eartholon^ew drolls, and to have consisted of low and obscene humour. As to the nature of the Crreek fai'ces, the critics are not agreed. Manutius supposes they differed only from, the former, as being written in the Greek language. But it does not appear that Greek plays were ever represented upon the Roman stage: and the most probable account of them is, that they were a sort of pantomimes in imitation of those on the Grecian theatre. ■ — Liv. vii. 2 ; Mong. R6m. sur lea Lett, k Att vL 449. ^ The municipal or corporate towns in Italy were governed by magistrates of their own, who probably made much the same sort of figure in their rural senate, as our burgesses in their town-hall. This, at least, seems to have bean the case in that coloration to which Marius belonged, and to have given occasion to our author's raillery. c Perhaps the Grecian road might be much out of repair, and little frequented at the time when this letter was written : and on that circumstance Cicero, it is pos- sible, may have founded his witticism. Among the many instances of Roman magnificence, that of their public roads is particularly observable. They were formed at an immense cost, and extended to a great distance from all sides of the city. LipSius computes the Appian way at '350 miles, some part of which still remains as entire aa when it was first made ; though it has now subsisted above 1800 years. It is liwelve feet broad, and chiefly composed of blue stones, about a foot and a half square. Criminals of a less atrocious sort were generally employed in those useful works : and, perhaps, it. might be well worthy the consideration of the legislature, whether punishments of this kind in delinquencies of the same nature, might not, in all respects, be of. more advantage to the public, than that which seems to have so little effect in restraining the violences that are daily committed among us. — ^Lips. do Magnif. Rom. ; Burnet's Trav. let. iv. ; Plin, Epist. x, 33. d Grjevius supposes (and it is a conjecture extremely probable) that this alludes to some services whioh Cicero had received from. Marius, in defending him against the outrages of Clodius's mob. The first show of gladiators exhibited ■ in Rome was given "ify the Bruti, in honour of their father's obsequies: about 200 years before the date of this letter. Originally the unhappy wretches who were exposed in this manner were either prisonCTs taken in war, or public criminals : but in process of time it grew into a profession, and there were men who hired themselves out for this purpose. Atticus, who seems to have omitted no opportunity of improving his finances, had a band of gladiators which he let out on public occasions, to those who were not rich" enough to maintain them at their own expense. The passion for these cortibats became at length so immoderate." that it was usual to exhibit matches of gladiators at their private entertainments : and not only men of the first quality» but even women, entered these Uafc£. Reason, moat un- TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. ssd tvith less contempt on our athletic' performers: and, indeed, Pompey himself acknowledges, that they did not answer the pains and expense they had cost liim. yThe remainder of our diversions con- sisted in combats of wild beasts ^ which were ex- hibited every morning and afternoon during five days successively; and, it must be owned, they were magnificent. Yet, after all, what entertain- ment can possibly arise to an elegant and human- ised mind, from seeing a qdl)le beast struck to the heart by its merciless hunter, or one of our own weak species cruelly mangled by an animal of much superior strenglh"? % But were there anything really worth observing in spectacles of this savage kind, they are spectacles extremely famUiar to. you, and those I am speaking of had not any peculiar novelty to recommend them. The last day's sport was composed entirely of elephants, which, though they made the common people stare, indeed, did not seem, however, to afford them any great satisfac- tion.VOu the contrary, the terrible slaughter of these poor animals, created a general commisera- tion : as it is a prevailing notion that these creatures, in some degree, participate.pf our rational faculties s. That you may not imagine I had the happiness of being perfectly at my ease during the whole of this pompous festival, I must acquaint you, that while the people were amusing themselves at the plays, I was almost killed with the fatigue of plead- ing fbr your friend Callus Caninius. Were the world as' much inclined to favour my retreat as they showed themselves in the case of ^sopus, believe me, I would for ever renounce my art, and spend the remainder of my days with you and some others of the same philosophical turn. The truth doubtedly, cannot but rise up against spectacles of this saogiiinary Ipnd. It is observable, however, that they were not introduced among the Romans till they began to be Qjvilised : and their passion for these cruel combats seems to have gathered strength in proportion as their manners, in all other respects, became more refined. There is, indeed, a wonderful disposition in hmnan nature, to be pleased with sights of horror: which even the most polite nations, in their highest periods of improvement, have not been able entirely to subdue. A very mgenious French writer imagines, that if we did not profess a religion which absolutely forbids the wanton destruction of our species, we should soon convert our prize-fightera into gladiators, and be as sanguinary in oiu: diversions as the Romans themselves. — Liv. xxxix. 22 ; Ad Att. iv. 8 ; Strab. V. p. 173 ; Stat, Sylv. i. 6. ver. 53 ; Snet. in. "Vit. Jul. Cxs. 39 ; Reflex, sur la Poes. et sur la Feint, i. 18, « The athletic games were of a less cruel kind than those described in the preceding note, aa they principally con- sisted of running;, wrestling, (and boxing-matches. It sometimes happened, indeed, tnat- one of the combatants lost his life ; but this was contrary to the laws of the sport : and if it appeared to have been the effect of design in his adversary, though he was not punished with death, he was punished in a way still more dreaded, by being deprived of the crown that would otherwise have been due to bis victory. Fausanias mentions an athletic com- batant, who, having incurred this penalty, was so affected by the disgrace, that he lost his senses. ' Beasts of the wildest and most uncommon kinds were sent for, upon these occasions, from every comer of the known world ; and Dion Caasius relates, that no less than 500 lions were killed at these huntmg-matches, with whiph Pompey entertained the people. — ^Dio, xxxix. S This was not merely avulgar opinion, but entertained by some of the learned among the ancients, as appears from the la«t cited historian ; who likewise takes notice how much the spectators of Pompey's shows were aifected by the mournful cries of these poor animals. — ^Dio, xxxix. of it is, I began to grow weary of this employment, even at a time When youth and ambition prompted my perseverance : and I will add, too, when I was at full liberty to exercise it in defence of those only whom I was inclined to as^pist. But, in my present circumstances, it is absolute slavery .^f For, on the one side, I never expect to reap any advantage from my labours of this^^kind ; and, on the other, in compliance with solicitations which I cannot refuse, I am sometimes under the disagreeable necessity of appearing as an advocate in behalf of Jhose who ill deserve that favour at my hands'.- For these reasons I am framing every possible pre- tence for living hereafter according to my own taste and sentiments : as I highly both approve and applaud that retired scene of life which you have so judiciojisly chosen.f I am sensible, at the same time, that this is the reason you so seldom visit Rome. However, I the less regret that you do not see it oftener, as the numberless unpleasing occupations in which I am engaged would prevent me from enjoying the entertainment of your con- versation,, or giving you that of mine : if mine, indeed, can afford you any. But if ever I should be so fortunate as to disentangle myself, in some degree at least, (for I am contented not to be wholly released,) from these perplexing embarrassments, I will undertake to show, even my elegant friends, wherein the truest refinements of life consisti^ In the' meanwhile, continue to take care of your health, that you may be able, when that happy time shall arrive, to accompany me in my litter to my several villas. You must impute it to the excess of my friend- ship, and not to the abundance of my leisure, that I have lengthened this letter beyond my usual extent. t It was merely in compliance with a request in one of yours, where you intimate a desire that I would compensate in this manner what you lost by not being present at our public diversions. I shall be extremely glad if I have succeeded,; if not, I shall have the satisfaction, however, to think that you will for the future be more inclined to give us your company ou these occasions than to rely on my letters for youramusement. Farewell. LETTER VI. ^ To Quintus Philippus, Proconsul'. Though I am too well convinced of your friend- ship and esteem, to suspect that you are unmindful „„„ of my former application in behalf of Bjy friends Oppius and Egnatius ; yet, I caij- not for bear again recommending their joint affairs h Cicero was now wholly under the influence of Pompey and Csesar : but the particular instances of his unworthy submission to which he here only alludes, are men^oned more fully in a subsequent letter to Lentul^ and ynll be considered in the remarks on that epistle, 'See letter I7 of this book, rem. ', d, and J. * The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the time when it was written, are equally unknown. Pighiua-.. . supposes he was governor of Asia, in the year of Home 708. y But, in this instance, the usual accuracy of that laborious- annalist seems to have failed him. For it aEp.ears._ by a letter of congratulation which 'Cicoro writes to Philippus upon his return from the province, that he must have been proconsul at some period previous to the civil war : " Gratulor tibi (says he) quod ex provincia salvum te ad tuos reoepisti incolumi fama ct rciJMWico."— Ep. Fam. xiii. 73. See letter 22 of this book. 360 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TCJLLIUS jCICERO to your protection. My connexion, indeed, with the latter, is of so powerful a Icind, that I could not be more solicitous for my own personal concerns. I entreat you, therefore, to give him proofs of my enjoying that share of your affection, which I per- suade myself I possess ; and be assured you cannot show me a more agreeable instance of your friend- ship. Farewell. LETTER Vn. To Marcus Licinius CrassusK 1 AM persuaded that all your friends have in- formed you of the zeal with which I lately both u 6^ defended and promoted your dignities^ : 'as, indeed, it was too warm and too con- spicuous to have been passed over in silence. The opposition I met with from the consuls', as well as from several others of consular rank, was the strongest I ever encountered, and you must now look upon me as your declared advocate upon all occasions where your glory is concerned. Thus have I abundantly compensated for the intermis- sion of those good offices which the friendship between us had long given you a right to claim ; but which, by a variety of accidents, have lately been somewhat interrupted. There never was a time, believe me, when I wanted an inclination to cultivate your esteem, or promote your interest. Though, it must be owned, a certain set of men, who are the bane of all amicable intercourse, and who envied us the mutual honour that resulted from ours, have, upon some occasions, been so unhappily successful as to create a coolness be* tween us™. Jt has happened, however, (what I J He had been twice consul in conjuuction with Pompey, and was at this time governor of Syria : to which province he succeeded at the expiration of his second consulate, the year preceding the date of this letter. He was esteemed among the considerable orators of his age : but his prin- cipal distinction seems to have been his immense wealth, the greatest part of which he acquired by sharing in the confiscated estates of those unhappy victims who fell a sacrifice to the cruel ambition of Sylla. In his first con- sulate he gave a general treat to the people upon ten thou- sand tables, and, at the same time, distributed to them a largess of three months' provision of com,— Plut. inVit. Crassi ; Dio, xxxix. ^ Crassus accepted the province of Syria merely with a design of making war upon the Parthians : for which, however, there was no other pretence than what his boundless avarice and ambition suggested. Accordingly, some of the tribunes endeavoured to obstruct his levies for this expedition : and when that attempt failed, Ateius, one of their number, had recourse to certain superstitious ceremonies of their religion, and devoted him in form to destruction. It was a general persuasion that none ever escaped the effect of those mysterious execrations: and, in the present instance, the event happened to correspond with this popular belief. For Crassus, together with his army, perished in this enterprise. The judicious Manutius conjectures, that after Crassus had left Rome, some motion was made in the senate for recalling him, which gave occasion to Cicero's services and to the present letter. This supposition, however, though indeed highly probable] is not supported by any of the historians.— Plut. in Vit. Crassi; Dio, xxsix. ; Vel. Pat, ii, 46. * The consuls of this year were L. Domitius Ahenobaa-bus, and Appius Claudius Pulcher. ™ How effectually soever Cicero might have served Crassus upon the occasion to which this letter relates • it rather wished than expected) that I have found an opportunity, even when your affairs were in the most prosperous train, of giving a public testimony by my services to you, that I always most sincerely preserved the remembrance of our former amity. The truth is, I have approved myself your friend, not only to the full conviction of your family in par- ticular, but of all Rome in general. In conse- quence of whidi, that most valuable of women, your excellen t wife °, together with those illustrious models of virtue and filial piety, your two amiable sons, have perpetual recourse to my assistance and ad- vice ; and the whole world is sensible that no one is more zealously disposed to serve you than myself. Your family correspondents have informed you, I imagine, of what has hitherto passed in your affair, as well as of what is at present in agitation. As for myself, 1 entreat you to do me the justice to believe, that it was not any sudden start of inclination, which disposed me to embrace this opportunity of vindicating your honour ; on the contrary, it was my ambition, from the first mo- ment I entered the forum, to be ranked in the number of your friends". I have the satisfaction to reflect that I have never, from that time to this hour, failed in the highest sentiments of esteem for you ; and, I doubt not, you have always retained the same affectionate regard towards me. If the effects of this mutual disposition have been inter- rupted by any little suspicions, (for suspicions only I am sure they were,) be the remembrance of them for ever blotted out of our hearts. I am persuaded, indeed, from those virtues which form your cha- racter, and from those which 1 am desirous should distinguish mine, that our friendly union, in the present conjuncture, cannot but be attended with is most certain his good offices did not proceed from a prin- ciple of friendship. It is extremely probable, indeed, that his supporting the cause of Crassus in the senate is one of those instances of our author's subjection, of which he complains in the preceding letter : and that it was entirely in compliance with the inclinations of Csesar and Pompey, with whom Crassus was now united. The, coolness, here mentioned, seems to have subsisted ever since the affau* of Catiline ; in whose conspiracy, as one of the witneises examined upon that occasion deposed, Crassus was con- cerned. There were few, indeed, who gave credit to this evidence, and the senate, upon the motion of Cicero, voted it false and malicious. Crassus, nevertheless, assured Saliust (as that historian declares) that this affront was thrown upon him by the artifices of Cicero himself. But whether Crassus had any just ground for this suspicion, or whether it was suggested to him by the false insinuations of those to whom Cicero here alludes, is a question by no means capable of being determined by any circiunstance in the history or character of the two men. It is cer- tain that Crassus, from this time, conceived a strong and lasting aversion to our author ; as on the other hand, that Cicero, after the death of Crassus, published an oration in which he expressly charged him with being engaged in tliis conspiracy. However, a formal reconciliation had lately passed betwe^ them, and when Crassus set out for his Eastern expedition, they parted with all the exterior marks of a sincere friendship.— Ad Att. iv. 13; Saliust. Bell. Cat. 49 ; Plut in Vit. Crassi ; Ep. Fam. i. 9. " This lady's name was Tertulla ; and, if Suetonius may he credited, she was better acqua-inted with some of Caesar's talents than was altogether consistent with her being (what Cicero here calls her) the most valuable of all uiomm.— Suet, in Vit. J. Caes. 50. ° Crassus was almost ten years older than Cicero ; so that when the latter first appeared at the bar, the former had already established a character by his oratorical abilities. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. S<5i equal honour to us both. What instances you may be willing to give me of your esteem, must be left to your own determination ; but they will be such, I flatter myself, as may tend most to advance my dignities. For my own part, I faithfully .promise the utmost exertion of my best sendees, in every article wherein I can contribute to increase yours. Many, I know, will be my rivals in these amicable offices, but it is a contention in which all the world, I question not, and particularly your two sons, will acknowledge my superiority. Be assured I love them both in a very uncommon degree ; though I will own that Publiusi" is my favourite. From his infancy, indeed, he discovered a singular regard to me, as he particularly distinguishes me at this time with all the marks even of filial respect and affection. Let me desire you to consider this letter, not as a strain of unmeaning compliment, but as a sacred and solemn covenant of friendship, which I shall most sincerely and religiously observe'. I shall now persevere in being the advocate of your honours, not only from a motive of affection, but from a principle of constancy, and without any application on your part, you may depend on my embracing every opportunity, wherein I shall think' my ser- vices may prove agreeable to your interest, or your inclinations. Can you once doubt, then, that any request to me for this purpose, either by yourself or your family, will meet with a most punctual observance ? I hope, therefore, you will not scruple to employ me in all your concerns, of what nature or importance soever, as one who is most faithfully your friend : and that you will direct your family to apply to me in all their affairs of every kind, whether relating to you or to themselves, to their friends or their dependants. And be assured, I shall spare no pains to render your absence as little uneasy to them as possible. Farewell. P Whatever sincerity might be wanting in our author's professions of friendship to the father, it is certain he had a very unfeigned affection for the son ; afi, indeed, Cicero had been greatly obliged to his zealous services when he was persecuted by Clodius. Soon after this letter was written, Publius followed his father with a body of Gallic cavalry into Parthia, where he behaved with uncommon bravery, but perished in that unfortunate expedition. He fell not, indeed, by the enemy, but by the hand of one of his attendants, who st.abbed him by his own orders, as scorning to survive so shameful a defeat, — Cic. in Brut. ;' Plut. in Vit. Crassi. <1 It has been asserted in these remarks, that Cicero acted a counterfeit part in his professions of friendship to Crassus, but as he here very strongly affirms the contrai-y, it will be proper to produce the evidence. This, indeed, is Cicero himself, who, in a letter to Atticus, written not long before the present, and wherein he gives an account of the dep^ture of Crassus, for his Parthian expedition, speaks of him in a style utterly irreconcileable with the sentiments he here professes, and in terms of the utmost contempt. •* Crossum nostrum, (says he} minore dignitate aiunt profectum paludatum, quam olim— L. Paulum. O hominem nequam ! " It must be o^vned, at the same time, that it is highly probable the heart of Crassus was aa little concerned in their pretended reconcilement as that of Cicero ; for Crassus generally regulated his attachments by his interest, and was no farther a friend or an enemy than as it suited with his avarice and ambition. — AA Att Iv. 13 J Pint, in Vit, Crassi. LETTER VIII. " To Julius Ccesar'. I AM going to give you an instance how much I rely upon your affectionate services, not only A u 609 '•"^'^'^'J^ myself, but in favour also of my friends. It was my intention, if I had gone abroad in any foreign employment, that Tre- batius* should have accompanied me ; and he would not have returned without receiving the highest and most advantageous honours I should have been able to have conferred upon him. But as Pompey, I find, defers setting out upon his commission longer than I imagined*, and I am apprehensive likewise that the doubts you know I entertain in regard to ray attending him, may possibly prevent, as they will certainly at least delay, my journey, I take the liberty to refer Trebatius to your good olGces, for those benefits he expected to have received from mine. I have ventured, indeed, to promise that he will find you full as well-disposed to advance his interest, as I have always assured him he would find me ; and a very extraordinary circumstance occurred, which seemed to confirm this opinion I entertained of your generosity. For, in the very instant I was talking with Balbus upon this subject, your letter was delivered to me ; in the close of which you pleasantly tell me, that " in compliance with my request, you will make Orfius king of Gaul, or assign him over to Lepta, and advance any other person whom I should be inclined to recommend." This had so remarkable a coincidence with our discourse, that it struck both Balbus and myself as a sort of a happy omen, that had something in it more than accidental". As it was my intention, therefore, before I received your letter, to have ' Csaar was at this time in Gaul, preparing for his first expedition into Britain, which, as Tacitus observes, he rather discovered than conquered. s See an account of him in the following letter. t A law had lately passed, by which Pompey was in." vested with the government of Spain during five years ; and it was upon this .occasion that Cicero had thoughts of attending him as his lieutenant. Pompey, however, instead of going to his province, chose to continue in Italy ; though he seems to have amused Cicero with a notion of his in- tending the contrary. For it appears, by a letter to Atticus written towards the latter end of this year, that our author had fixed the day for his departure. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp.; Ad Att. iv. 18. " Among the various kinds of omens observed with much superstition by the R(»mans, that of words hap- pening to coincide with any particular subject under con- sideration, was esteemed of singular regai'd. A remarkable instance of this sort is recorded by Livy. After the burning of Rome by the Gauls, it was debated whether the capital city should not be removed into the country of the Veil. This point was long and warmly discussed, till, at length the question was decided by an officer of the guards, who, accidentally passing by the senate-house with his company, called out to the ensign, Signifev, statue signum : hicmane- bimus Qptime, These words being heard by the fathers in council, were considered as a divine intimation : and it was immediately and unanimously agreed to rebuild the city on its former site. Caesar, of all the Roman his- torians, has most avoided the marvellous of this kind : and it is observable, that he does not mention a single prodigy throughout his whole Commentaries, except in his relation of the battle of Pharsalia. Upon that occasion, indeed, he very artfully falls in with this popular superstition, and gives an account of many predictive intimations of that day's important event. And nothing, in truth, could be more to his purpose than this mdirect manner of per- 362 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO transmitted Trebatius to you, so I now consign him to your patronage, as upon your own invita- tion. Receive him then, my dear Caesar, with your usual generosity, and distinguish him with every honour that my solicitations can induce you to confer. I do not recommend him in the manner you so justly raUied when I wrote to you in favour of Orfius : but I will take upon me to assure you, in, true Roman sincerity, that there lives not a man of greater modesty and merit. I must not forget to mention also (what, indeed, is his distinguishing qualification) that he is eminently skilled in the laws of his country', and happy in -an uncommon strength of memory. I will' not point out any par- ticular piece of preferment which I wish you to bestow upon him : I will only, in general, entreat you to admit him into a share of your friendship. Nevertheless, if you should think proper to distin- guish him with the tribunate or prefecture ^^, or any other little honours of that nature, I shall have no manner of objection. In good earnest, I entirely resign him out of my hands into yours, which never were lifted up in battle, or pledged in friendship, without effect. But I 'fear I have pressed you farther upon this occs^ion than was necessary ; however, I know you will excuse my warmth in the cause of a friend. Take care of your health, and continue to love me. Farewell. LETTER IX., To TretaHus\ I NEVER \wite to CsGsar or Balbus without taking occasion to mention you in the advantageous terms you deserve ; and this in a style that evi- ** * ' dently distinguishes me for your sincere well-wisher. I hope, therefore, you will check this idle passion for the elegancies of Rome, and reso- lutely persevere in the purpose of your journey, till suading his countrymen that the gods were parties in his cause. — ^Liv. v. 55 ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. iii. 85. , ▼ The profession of the law was held among the Romans, . as it is with us, in great esteem ; but this hody of men seem in general to have acted rather in the natui-e of our chamher coxmsel, than as advocates at the bar. The law was properly the province of those whom they called their orators : and for which every man of good sense, a ready utterance, and a general knowledge of the constitutions of his country, was thought qualified. — do. De Off. ii. 19 ; De Orat. 55, &c. w The military tribunes were next in rank to the lieutenants or commanders-in-chief under the general ; as the pra/ectus legiords was the most honourable post in the Roman armies after that of the military tribunes. The business of the former was, among other articles, to decide all controversies that arose among the soldiers ; and that of the latter was to carry the chief standard of the legion, ^ This is the same person in whose behalf the foregoing letter to Ciesar is written, and which seems to have had so good an effect, that we find him mentioned by Suetonius as in the number of Cassar's particular favourites. He appears, in this earlier part of his life, to have been of a more gay and indolent disposition than is consistent mth making a figure in business ; but he afterwards, however, became a very celebrated lawyer : and one of the most agreeable satires of Horace is addressed to him. under that honourable character. If the English reader is desirous of being acquainted with the spirit of that performance, he will find it preserved, and even improved, among Mr. Pope's excellent imitations of Horace. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. ; Hor. Sat ii. 1 ; Pope's Poems, vol. ii. p. 109. your merit and assiduity shall have obtained the desired effect. In the mean time, your friends here will excuse your absence, no less than the ladies of Corinth did that of Medea in the play ?, when she artfally persuades them not to Impute it to her as a crime that she had forsaken her country. For as she tells them, <* There are who distant from their native soil. Still for their own and country's glory toil : While some, fast rooted to their parent spot. In life are useless, and in death forgot." In this last inglorious class you would most cer- tainly have been numbered, had not your friends all conspired in forcing you from Rome. But more of this another time : in the mea,nwhile, let me advise you, who know so well how to manage securities for others, to secure yourself from the British charioteers *. And since I have been playing the .Medea, let me make my exit with the following lines of the same tragedy, which are well worth your constant remembrance : " His wisdom, sure, on folly's confines lies, Who, wise for others, for himself' s unwise." Farewell. LETTER X ^ To the same. I TAKE all opportunities of writing in your favour : and I shall be glad you would let me Imow with what succese. My chief reliance is A. D. 699. ^^ Balbus : in my letters to whom I fre- quently and warmly recommend your interest. But why do you not let me hear from you every time my brother despatches a courier ? I am informed there is neither gold nor silver in all Britain ^ If that should be the case, I would 7 Medea being enamoured of Jason, assisted him in obtaining the golden fleece, and then fled with him from her father's court. He afterwards, however, deserted her for Creusa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, whom. Medea destroyed by certain magical arts. Ennius, a Roman poet, who flourished about a century before the date of this letter, formed a play upon this story ; from which performance the following lines are quoted. ^ The armies of the ancient Britons were partly com- posed of troops who fought in open chariots, to the axle- trees of which were fixed a kind of short scythe.— Caes. De Bell. Gall. iv. 29 ; Sir William Temple's Introduction to the Hist of England. a A notion had prevailed among the Romans, that Britain abounded in gold and silver mines : and this re- port, it is probable, first suggested to Caesar the design of conquering our island. It was soon discovered, however, that these sources of wealth existed only in their own imaginations : and all their hopes of plunder ended in the little advantage they could make by the sale of their prisoners. Cicero, taking notice of this circumstance to Atticus, ridicules the poverty and ignorance of our British ancestors ; which gives occasion to the ingenious historian of his life, to breakout into the foIlOAving pertinent and useful observations : " From their railleries of this kind (says Dr. Middleton) one cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms : how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire, and "glbfyj now lies sunk in sloth' ignorance, and poverty ; enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most con-* temptible of tyrants, superstition and religious impostiu* : while this remote coimtry, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters, flourishing in all the arts and refine- ments of civil life ; yet running perhaps the same cours» TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 863 advise you to seize one of the enemy's military cars, and drive back to us with all expedition. But if you think you shall be able to make your fortune without the assistance of British spoils, by all means establish yourself in Caesar's friendship. To be serious ; both my brother and Balbus wUl be of great service to you for that purpose : but, believe me, your own merit and assiduity will prove your best recommendation. You have every favourable circumstance indeed for your advance- ment that can be wished. On the one hand, you are in the prime and vigour of your years ; as on the other, yon are serving under a commander distinguished for the generosity of his disposition, and to whom you have been recommended in the strongest terms. In a word, there is not the least fear of your success, if your own concurrence be not wanting. Farewell. LETTER XL ^ To the same. I HAVE received a very obliging letter from CsEsar, wherein he tells me, that though his numberless ,.~, occupations have hitherto prevented him A. u. 699. £ ' ft. T_ . ,_ from seemg you so often as he wishes, he will certainly find an opportunity of being better acquainted with you. I have assured him in return, how extremely acceptable his generous services to you would prove to myself. But surely you are much too precipitate in your determinations : and I could not but wonder that you should have refused the advantages of a tribune's commission, especially as you might have been excused it seems from the functions of that post. If you continue to act thus indiscreetly, I shall certainly exhibit an information against you to your friends Vacerra and Manilius. 1 dare not venture, however, to lay the case before Cornelius : for as you profess to have learned all your wisdom from his instructions, to arraign the pupil of imprudence would be a tacit reflection, you know, upon the tutor. But in good earnest, I conjure you not to lose the fairest opportunity of making yoiir fortune, that probably will ever fall again in your way. I frequently recommend your interests to Pre- cianus whom you mention ; and he writes me word that he has done yon some good offices. Let me know of what kind they are. I expect a letter upon your arrival in Britain. FarewelL LETTER XIL To the same. I HAVE niade your acknowledgments to my brother, in pursuance of your request : and am glad to have an occasion of applauding you for ■ being fixed at last in some settled reso- lution. The style of your former letters, I will own, gave me a good deal of uneasiness. And which Rome itself had run hefore it ; from virtuous industry to wealth ; from wealth to luxury ; from luxury to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals ; till, by £C total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it falls a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss qf liberty, losing everything else that is valuable,'8inks gradually again into its original barbariEm."~Ad Att. iv. ; Life of Cicero, p. 137.' allow me to say, that in some of them you disco- vered an impatience to return to the polite refine- ments of Rome, which had the appearance of much levity : that in some I regretted your indolence, and in others your timidity. They frequently, likewise, gave me occasion to think that you were not altogether so reasonable in your expectations as is agreeable to your usual modesty. One would have imagined indeed you had carried a bill of exchange upon Csesar, instead of a letter of recom- mendation: for you seemed to think you had nothing more to do than to receive your money and hasten home again. But money, my friend, is not so easily acquired : and I could name some of our acquaintance who have been obliged to travel as far as Alexandria in pursuit of it, without having yet been able to obtain even their just demands'". If my inclinations were governed solely by my interest, I should certainly choose to have you here : as nothing affords me more pleasure than your company, or more advantage than your advice and assistance. But as you sought my friendship and patronage from your earliest youth, I always thought it incumbent upon me to act with a disin- terested view to your welfare ; and not only to give you my protection, but to advance, by every means in my power, both your fortunes and your dignities. In consequence of which I dare say you have not forgotten those unsolicited offers I made you, when I had thoughts of being employed abroad ". I no sooner gave up my intentions of this kind, and perceived that Csesar treated me with great distinction and friendship , than I recom- mended you in the strongest and warmest terms to his favour, perfectly well knowing tlie singular probity and benevolence of his heart. Accordingly he showed, not only by his letters to me, but by his conduct towards you, the great regard he paid to my recommendation. If you have any opinion therefore of my judgment, or imagine that I sin- cerely wish you well, let me persuade you to continue with him. And notwithstanding you should meet with some things to disgust you ; as business perhaps, or other obstructions, may render him less expeditious in gratifying ypur views than you had reason to expect ; still however persevere, and trust me, you will find it prove in the end both for your interest and your honour. To exhort you any farther might look like impertinence : let me only remind you, that if you lose this opportunity of improving your fortunes you will never meet again with so generous a patron, so rich a province, or so convenient a season for this purpose. And (to express myself in the style of you lawyers) Cornelius has given his opinion to the same effect. I am glad, for my sake as well as yours, that you did not attend Caesar into Britain, as it has not only saved you the fatigue of a very disagreeable expedition, but me likewise that of being the per- petual auditor of your wonderful exploits. Letme know in what part of the world you are likely to take up your winter-quarters, and in what post you are, or expect to bg, employed. Farewell. 1> This alludes to those who supplied Ptolemy with money when he was soliciting his affairs in Homo ; an account of which has already been given in the notes ou the foregoing book. — See rem, ', p. 344. " See rem. ', p. 361. , 364 THE LETTERS OF MAtlCUS tULLlUS CiCERO LETTER Xin. To the same. It is a considerable time since I have heard any thing from you. As for myself, if I have not written these three months, itwas because, a. n. c» after you were separated from my brother, I neither knew where to address my letters, nor by what hand to convey them. I much wish to be informed how your affairs go on, and in what part of the world your winter-quarters are likely to be fixed. I should be glad they might be with Caesar : but as 1 wouldnot venture, in his present affliction^, to trouble him with a letter, I have written upon that subject to Balbus. In'the meanwhile, let me entreat you not to be wanting to yourself : and for my own part, I am contented to give up so much more of your company, provided the longer you stay abroad the richer you should return. There is nothing I think particularly to hasten you home, now that Vacerra is dead. However you are the best judge, and I should be glad to know what you have determined. There is a queer fejlow of your acquaintance, one Octavius or Cornelius (I do not perfectly recollect his name) who is perpetually inviting me, as a friend of yours, to sup with him. He has not yet prevailed with me to accept his compliment : however, I am obliged to the man. Farewell. LETTER XIV. To Munatius^. Lucius LivineiusTrypho is the freedman of my very Intimate friend Regulus ; and though the misfortunes of the latter cannot raise him *■ ''■ ■ higher in myaffection, they have, however, rendered me more assiduous to testify it in every instance wherein he is the least concerned. But I have still a farther reason to interest myself in behalf of his freedman, as I experienced bis services at a season when I had the best opportunity of proving the sincerity of my friends. I recommend him therefore to your protection with all the warmth of the most sensible gratitude ; and I shall be extremely obliged to you for showing him that you place to your own account those many dangerous winter voyages he formerly undertook upon mine. Farewell. <1 Cffisar about this time lost his daughter Julia, who died in child-bed. She was married to Pompey, who was so passionately fond of her, that she seems, during the short time they lived together, to have taken entire pos- session of his whole heart, and to have turned all his ambition into the single desire of appealing amiable in her eye. The death of this young lady proved a public calamity, as it dissolved the only forcible bond of union between her father and her husband, and hastened that rupture which ended in the destruction of the common- wealtli. It is in allusion to this that the elegant Pater- culus calls her medium male cohcerentis inter Pompeium et Ccesarem concordidB pignus.~-V]xit. in Vit. Pomp, et Ca-s. ; Veil. Pat. i. 47. e The person to whom this letter is addressed is uu- 3inown, as is the precise time, likewise, when it was ■written. It seems probable, however, not to have been very long after Cicero's return from banishment. For by the expression, his nostri& temporibus, he undoubtedly alludes fas Mr. Ross observes) to the misfortunes which were brought upon him by Clodius. LETTER XV. To Trehatius. I PERCEIVE by your letter, that my friend Caesar looks upon you as a most wonderful lawyer ; and are you not happy in being thus placed A. u. 699. j^ ^ country where you make so consider- able a figure upon so small a stock ^ ? But with bow much greater advantage would your noble talents have appeared had you gone into Britain ? Undoubtedly there would not have been so pro- found a sage in the law throughout all that extensive island. Since your epistle has provoked me to be thus jocose, I will proceed in the same strain, and tell you there was one part of it I could not read without some envy ; and how indeed could it be otherwise, when I found that, whilst much greater men were in vain attempting to get admittance to Caesar, you were singled out from the crowd, and even sum- moned to an audience^ ? But after giving me an account of affairs which concern others, why were you silent as to your own, assured as you are that 1 interest myself in them with as much zeal as if thdy Immediately related to myself. Accordingly, as I am extremely afraid you will have no employ- ment to keep you warm in your winter-quarters, I would by all means advise you to lay in a sufficient quantity of fuel. Both Mucins and Manilius'' have given their opinions to the same purpose ; espe- cially as your regimentals, they apprehend, will scarce be ready soon enough to secure you against the approaching cold. We hear, however, there has been hot work in your part of the world, which somewhat alarmed me for your safety ; but I com- forted myself with considering that you are not altogether so desperate a soldier as you are a lawyer. It is a wonderful consolation indeed to your friends to be assured that your passions are not an over- match for your prudence. Thus, as much as I know you love the water, you would not venture', f The ludicrous author of the " Tale of a Tub" has applied this passage with more humour, perhaps, than it was first conceived. He is accounting for tlie propagation of the several absurd doctrines of philosophy and religion that have prevailed in the world, by supposing that every system-maker is always sure of finding a set of disciples whose tone of understanding is exactly pitched to the absurdity or extravagance of his tenets. ' ' And in this one circumstance," says ho, ** lies all the skill or luck of the matter. Cicero understood this very well, when writing to a friend in England, with a caution, among other matters, to beware of being cheated by our hackney- coachmen, (who, it seems, in those days, were as errant rascals as they are now) has these remarkable words: est quod gaudeas te in ista loca venisse, ubi aliquid sapere vidercre- For, to speak a bold truth, it is a fatal mis- carriage, so ill to order affairs, as to pass for a fool in one company, when in another you might be treated as a philosopher ; which I desire some certain gentlemen of my acquaintance to lay up in their hearts as a very sea- sonable innuendo."— Tale of a Tub, p. 164. s Trebatius, it is probable, had informed Cicero, in the letter to which this is an answer, that he had been sum- moned by Cffisar to attend him as his assessor upon some trial ; which seems to have led our author into the railleries of this and the preceding passages. ^ Mucins and Manilius, it must he supposed, were two lawyers, and particular friends of Trebatius, as the himiour of this witticism evidently consists in an allusion to that profession. * In the original it is studiosissimus homo natandi, tho TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 365 I find, to nross it with Caesar ; and though nothing could Iceep you from the combats ^m RomS, you were much too wise I perceive to-attend them in Britain k. ' , ' But pleasantry apart : you know without my telling you with what zeal I have recommended you to Csesar ; though perhaps you may not be apprised, that I have frequently as well as warmly written to him upon that subject. I had for some time indeed intermitted my solicitations, as I would not seem to distrust his friendship and generosity ; however, I thought proper in my last to remind him once more of his promise. I desire you would let me know what effect my letter has produced, and at the same time give me a full account of every thing that concerns you. For I am exceed- ingly anxious to be informed of the prospect and. situation of your affairs, as well as how long you imagine your absence is likely to continue. Be persuaded that nothing could reconcile me to this separation, but the hopes of its proving to your advantage: In any other view, I should not be so impolitic as not to insist on your return ; as you would be too prudent I dare say to delay it. The truth isj one hour's gay or serious conversation ainbi^ty of which could not have been preserved in a more literal translation. The art of swimming was among the number of polite exercises in ancient Rome, and esteemed a necessary qualification for every gentleman. Thus we find Cato the elder himself instructing his son in this accomplishment; as Augustus likewise performed the same office in the education of his two gi'andsons, Caius and Lucius. It was, indeed, one of the essential arts in military discipline, as both the soldiers and officers had frequently no other means of pursuing or retreating /rem the enemy. Accordingly the Campus Martins, a place where the Roman youth were taught the science of arms, was situated on the banks of the Tiber; and they con- stantly finished their exercises of this kind by throwing themselves into the river. — This shows the wonderful pro- priety of those noble lines which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of Gassius, in that maat^rly scene where he is endeavom'ing to sound the sentiments, and fire the indig- nation of Brutus towards Cssar. We can both Endure the winter's cold as well as he. For once upon a raw and gusty day, The troubled Tiber chafing with his shores, CKsar says to me, " Darest thou, Cassius, now Leap in with me into this angry fiood, And swim to yonder point ? " Upon the word. Accoutred as I was, 1 plunged in, And bade him follow : so indeed he did. The torrent roar'd, and we did buifet it "With lusty sinews, throwing it aside. And stemming it with hearts of controversy. But ere we could arrive the point proposed, Cxsar cried, ^' Help me, Cassius, or 1 sink ! " I, as .^neas, our great ancestor. Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder. The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Caesar : and this man Is now become a God, &c. Monsieur Dacier observes, that this passage of Cicero dis- covers the justness of those verses in Horace, where Trebatius is represented as advismg the Roman satirist to swim across the Tiber, as an excellent remedy against his poetical propensity : since, like other physicians, he pre- scribed a regimen, it seems, most agreeable to his own taste and practice. — Plut. in Vit. Cato. Censor. ; Suet, in Vit. August, 64; Veget, deRe Milit. i. 10 ; Dacier, Rim. sur la Sat. i du liv. ii. d'Horaoe. I Alluding to his fondness of the gladiatorial games. ' See rem. ', p, 361. together is of more importance to us than all the foes and all the friends that the whole nation of Gaul can produce. I intreat you therefore to send me an immediate account in what posture your affairs stand ; and be assured, as honest Chremes says to his neighbour in the play', " Whatever cares thy lab'ring bosom grieve, My tongue shall soothe them, or my hand relieve.'' Farewell. LETTER XVL To the same. ^ You remember the character given of the Phry- gians in the play", " that their wisdom ever came too late:" but you are resolved, my dear ■ cautious old gentleman", that no impu- tation of this kind shall be fixed upon you. Thank heaven, indeed, you wisely subdued the romantic spirit of your first letters, as you were not so obsti- nately bent upon new adventures, as to hazard a voyage for that purpose into Britain ; and who, in troth, can blame you ? It is the same disposition, I imagine, that has immovably fixed you in your win- ter-quarters, and certainly there is nothing like acting with circumspection upon all occasions. Take my word for it, prudence is the safest shield. If it were usual with me to sup from home, most undoubtedly I could not refuse your gallant friend Octavius. I will own, however, I love to mortify the man's vanity ; and whenever he invites me I always affect to look with some surprise, as not seeming to recollect his person. Seriously, he is a wondrous pretty fellow ; what pity it is that you did not take him abroad with you °. Let me know how you are employed, and whether there is any probability of seeing you in Italy this winter. Balbus assures me, that you will certainly return immensely rich ; but whether he means in the vulgar sense, or agreeably to the maxim of his friends the Stoics, who maintain, you know, "that every man is rich who has the free enjoyment of earth and air," is a doubt which time will clear up. 1 find, by those who come from your part of the world, that you are grown wonderfully reserved ; for they tell me you answer no queries''. However, it is on all hands a settled point, (and you have 1 In Terence's play called the " Self-tormentor." »i A tragedy called the " Trojan Horse," which seems, by Cicero's frequent quotations from it, to have been in great esteem. n The celebrated Monsieur Dacier produces this passage as a proof that Trebatius must have been more than four- score years of age, when Horace addressed the satu'e to him mentioned in the remarks on the preceding letter. But that learned critic has been led into this error by taking in a serious sense, what Cicerd most evidently meant in a ludicrous one. o See the conclusion of let. xiii. p. 364. P The witticism of this passage consists in the double sense of the verb responden, which, besides its common acceptation, signifies likewise the giving an opinion as a lawyer. This conceit, such as it is, seems to have been a favourite one with our author, for he repeats it in a sub- sequent letter, where he is rallying another of his friends upon an occasion of the same nature. — See rem. ^ on letter 23 of this book. But— Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic Omnia dixisset ! Jnv. 366 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO reason, certainly, to congratulate yourself upon it,) that you are the most profound sage in the law throughout the whole city of Samarobrivai. Fare- well. LETTER XVIL To Leniulus. It is with singular pleasure I perceive, by your letter, that you are sensible, I wiU not say of ray affection only, but of my devotion towards A.U.699. y^y Even that sacred term, indeed, can but ill express the sentiments you merit from me ; and if you esteem yourself (as you would persuade me) obliged by my endeavours to serve you, it is your friendship alone which can make you think so. I am sure, at least, I could not refuse you my best good offices without being guilty of the most unpardonable ingratitude. You would have ex- perienced, however, much stronger and more powerful instances of my friendship if, instead of being thus long separated from each other, we had passed this interval together at Rome. It is not only in the particular article you mention, and in which no man is more qualified to shine, that, I impatiently wish to receive you as my coadjutor ; ft is not, I say, in the senate alone that our amicable concurrence would have been distinguished, — it would have appeared conspicuous, my friend, in ev.ery act of public concernment. (Suffer me then to add, previously to the informatton you request me to give you of my political sentiments and situation, that if fortune had not thus divided us T should have enjoyed in you a wise and faithful guide, as you would have found in me a kind, a friendly, and, perhaps, no unexperienced associate. However, I rejoice (as undoubtedly I ought) at the honourable occasion of your absence, and in which your military conduct and success has procured you the illustrious title of imperator'. Nevertheless, I must repeat it again, it is owing to this circumstance that you have not received far more abundant and efficacious fruits of that friend- ship to which you have so undisputed a claim. In particular, I should most strenuously have united with you in taking just vengeance on those whose ill offices you have experienced, partly in resentment of your having supported and protected me in my adversity, and partly as they envy you the glory of so generous an action. One of them, however, has sufficiently anticipated our revenge, and drawn down by his own hands the chastisement he merits from ours. The person I mean is that man who has ever distinguished himself by oppos- ing his benefactors, and who, after having received from you the highest services, singled you out as the object of his impotent malice. This man, in consequence of being detected in his late infamous attempts, has entirely and irretrievably lost at once .both his honour and his liberty ''. As to yourself, q A prin'cipal town in Gaul, now called Amiens, and where Trebatius seems to have had his winter-quarters. r History is altogether silent as to the occasion upon which Lentuius was saluted by his army ivith this title. a The conjectui-e of Manutins seems highly probable, that the person to whom Cicero alludes is Caius Cato, whose ill offices to Lentuius have been often mentioned in the preceding letters. But what the secret practices were which had been discovered so much to his disgrace, is a point in which history does not afford any light. though I had much rather you should gain ex- perience by my misfortunes tiian your own, yet it affords me some consolation, under your present disappointment', that you have not paid so severe a fine as I did for being taught the little dependence there is upon the professions of the world : a reflection this which may very properly serve as an introduction to the account you require of the motives of my late transactions. You are informed then, it seems, that I am reconciled with Csesar and Appius" ; a step, you assure me, which you do not disapprove. But you are at a loss to guess what reasons could induce me to appear at the trial of Vatinius, not only as an advocate but as a witness in his favour'. To set this matter in the clearest light, it will be necessary to trace back the motives of my conduct to their original source. Let me observe then, my Lentuius, that when I was recalled from exile by your generous offices, I consideredmyself as restored not only to my friends and to my family but to the commonwealth in general. And as you had a right to the best returns of my affection and gratitude for the distinguished part you acted in that affair, so I thought there was something more than ordinary due from me to my country, which had so singularly co-operated with you upon this occasion. I often took an opportunity during your consulate of publicly declaring these my sentiments in the senate, as I always, you well know, expressed myself to the same purpose in our private conver- sations. Nevertheless, I had many reasons at that time to be highly disgusted. I could not in truth but observfe the disguised malice of some, and the coolness of others, when you were endeavouring to procure a decree for restoring the inscription of that honourable monument of my public services which had been erected by the senate"/ But it ' In not obtaining the comTnission to replace Ftolemyon bis throne. ^ He was embroiled with Appius, as being the brother of his inveterate enemy, Clodius. ' It was customary at trials for the person arraigned to produce witnesses to his character, who were called lauda- toren, and ten was the nimiber requisite for this purpose. Vatinius was tribune of the people in the consulate of Caesar, and had been in the number of Cicero's most invet- erate enemies, as he waa his constant opposer likewise in politics. He was a man of a most abandoned character, and whose person (as Paterculus assures us) was not less deformed than his mind. A very learned and polite author, whose just esteem for Cicero's writings has betrayed him, perhaps, into some partiality towards his actions, acknow- ledges that " the defence of Vatinius gave a plausible handle for some censm-e upon Cicero." The truth of it is, the censiu-e was more than plausible, for not'aing certainly could discover more meanness of spirit than thus, in com- pliance with those in power, not only to defend Vatinius as an advocate, but to bear public testimony likewise to his general good conduct. Some colourable excuse, indeed, may be given for the former, by considering it in the light which Valerius Maximus has placed it, as an instance of Cicero's generosity towards his enemies ; but the latter seems to stand beyond the reach even of a plausible justification.— Veil. Pat, ii. 69 ; Val. Max. iv, 2, " The expression which Cicero xnajies use of in this place is ambiguous : — " neque de nwnumentis meis ab lis adjutus, es," &c. The commentators have supposed that this relates to Cicero's house ; but Mr, Ross, with much greater probability, imagines it alludes to the Atrium Libei-tatis, which had been erected by order of the senate, as a memorial of Cicero's services m rescuing the common- wealth from the dangerous conspiracy of Catilme. For TO SEVKRAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 367 was not only in this instance that those who had many obligations to concur in your good offices towards me, acted a part I had little reason to expect. They looked indeed with much ungener- ous indifference on the cruel outrage which was offered to my brother and myself under our own roof*, and the estimate they made, in pursuance of the senate's order, of the damages I had sustained . by these acts of violence, was far unequal to my real loss?. This last article of their injustice, though least ihdeed in my concern, I could not but very sensibly feel amidst the general wreck of my fortunes. But though these mortifying marks of their disposition towards me were much too notor- ious to escape my observation, they could not efface the more agreeable impressions of their former friendship. ' For this reason, notwithstand- ing those high obligations I had to Pompey, of which you yourself were witness and have often mentioned, notwithstanding also the affection and esteem which I always entertained for him, yet I still firmly adhered to ray political principles, nor suffered these considerations of private amity to influence me in favour of his pubUc measures. Accordingly, when Vatinius (who at the trial of P. ! Sextius* was examined as a witness against him) I iatimated -that Caesar's successes had reconciled me to his party, I told him, in the presence of Pompey, that I preferred the fate of Bibidus, un- happy as he might esteem it, to all the splendid triumphs of the most victorious general*. I Clodius had erased the original inscription, and placed his own name in its stead. — See rem. ^ on this letter, p. 370- * Clodius, after having procured a law which declared it treason to vote or talce any step towards recalling Cicero from his honishment, proceeded to pillage and bum all his . houses both in town and country. Cicero, however, being restored in the manner which he himself will relate, in a subsequent part of this letter, the senate decreed that his houses should he rebuilt at the public expense. But while the workmen were employed on his Palatine house, and had carried it up almost to the roof, Clodius made a second attack, and after driving them off, set fire to the adjoining edifice, which belonged to Cicero's brother, and wherein he himself likewise at that time was ; so that they were both obliged to make their escape with the utmost precipitation — Ad Att. iv. ; Orat. post. Red. y His house upon the Palatine hill in Rome, together with his Tusculan and Formian Tillas, were jointly esti- mated at 22,000/.^ a valuation universally condemned as extremely unequitable. But " those who had dipt his wings (as he expresses himself in a letter to Atticus upon this occasion) were not disposed they should grow again." It seems highly probable thnt Lentulus himself was in this number ; as it appears, by a letter of our author to his brother, that he had reasons to be dissatisfied with his conduct towards him. But though, in the passage before us, he speaks of the injustice that had been done him, as arising solely from those who were concerned with Len- tulus in taking an estimate of his losses ; yet, at the same time, be expresses himself in such a manner, as to throw a very artful reproach upon the latter.— Ad Att. iv. 2 ; Ad Quint. Frat. ii. 2, * " P. Sextiug was a tribune of the people A. TT. 696 in the consulship of Lentulus, and a great instrument in restoring Cicero. He resisted the faction of Clodius by force of arms, and was upon that account. In the following year, accused of public violence by M. Tullius Alfainovanus. Cicero d^ended him in an excellent oration, which is still extant, and he was acquitted by the suffrages of all the judgesr*— Ross. * M. Calpumius Bibulus was joint consul with J. Caesar A. U. 694. The senate secured the election of the former, in order to his being & check to the ambitious designs of asserted, likewise, upon another occasion, (and asserted too in the hearing of Pompey,) that the same persons who confined Bibulus to his house had driven me from mine. Indeed, the whole series of those interrogatories^, which I put to Vatinius at this trial, was entirely designed as an invective against his tribunate ; and I particularly exposed, with much freedom and indignation, his pontempt of the auspices, his corrupt disposal of foreign kingdoms <=, together with the rest of his violent and illegal proceedings. But it was not only upon this occasion that I spoke thus unre- servedly, I frequently avowed my sentiments with the same resolute spirit in the senate. Thus, when Marcellinus and Philippus were*^ consuls, I carried a motion that the affair of the Campanian lands ^ should be referred to the re -consideration of a full housed on the 15th of May following. Now tell his colleague ; and it was thought of so much importance to the republic that he should be chosen, that even Cato did not scruple upon this occasion to employ methods of bribery for that purpose. But Bibulus, after many vain efforts of patriotism, and being grossly insulted in the forum, by Csesar's mob, at length withdrew from the func- tions of his ofiGce, and voluntarily confined himself (as Suetonius relates) to his own house; thoughby the expres- sion which Tully here uses, it rather seems as if Cssar had employed some fiirce in keeping him there. After which, as the same historian informs us, Cjesar governed the republic without control.— Suet. inVit. Jul. Cks. c,20. b " Cicero, instead of examining Vatinius upon the facts in his evidence against Sextius, put to him a series of questions in such an artful manner, that he exposed all the intrigues and iniquity of his tribunate. This exami- nation is still extant, under the title of Tnterrogatio in Vatinium. " — ^Ross. c It is wholly uncertain to what particular facts Cicero alludes, when he imputes to Vatinius what he calls the donatio regnorum.- however, by comparing this expression with the oration to which it refers, and with a passage in a letter to Atticus, it seems probable that Vatinius, when he was tribune, had been bribed to procure a confirmation from the people of some disputed regal title, or perhaps to obtain assistance from the republic, in transferring a contested crown frojo. its rightful possessor into the hands of a usm-per. It ia certain at least that such unworthy methods were frequently practised at this time, in order to gratify the insatiable avarice and profusion of these degenerate Romans. — Orat. in Vatin. ; Ad Att. ii. 9. d They were ctmsuls, A. U. 697. c The lands in Campania, a district in Italy, now called the Terra di Lavoroy in th6 kingdom of Naples, were partly appropriated to the use of the republic, and partly in private hands. Csesar had procured a law for dividing the former among 25,000 poor citizens, and for purchasing the latter in order to distribute them in the same man^ ner. Both these designs seem to have been very artfully calculated by Caesar to promote and facilitate his grand purpose of usurping the supreoie power. For by parcel- ling out these lands among the common people which belonged to the republic, he secured the populace to his interest, and, at the same time, deprived the government of those very considerable supplies, both of money and corn, which it derived from its demesnes in Campania ; as on. the other side, by purchasing the remainder of these estates, he must necessarily have weakened those public treasures which were already much impoverished, and , consequently rendered the commonwealth less capable of opposing his ambitious measures. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cas. 20 ; Cic. Agi-ar. ii. 29. f A decree of the senate had not its complete force, unless it passed in a full house ; that is, when a com- petent number of the members were present. It seems, by a passage which Manutius quotes from Dio, I. 54, that before the times of Augustus, who made some alteratioo 368 THE LETTERS OF MAECUS TULLIUS CICERO me, my friend, could I possibly have made a bolder or more formidable attack upon this party ? Could I possibly have given a more convincing evidence that I had not departed from my old principles, notwithstanding all I had for- merly suffered for their sake? The truth of it is, this motion greatly exasperated not only those vrhom it was reasonable to expect it would offend, but others upon whom I did not imagine it would have had any such effect. Pompey, soon after this decree had passed, set forward upon his expe- dition into Sardinia and Africa^, without giving me the least intimation of his being disgusted. In his way thither he had a conference with Csesar at Lucca'', who made great complaints of this motion. He had before, it seems, been informed of it by Crassus at Ravenna', who took that opportunity of incensing him against me : and it appeared after- wards that Pompey was likewise much dissatisfied upon the same account. This I learned fi-om several hands, but particularly from my brother, who met him in Sardinia a few days after he had left Lucca. Pompey told him he was extremely glad of that accidental interview, as he wanted much to talk with him. He began with saying, that as my brother stood engaged' for my conduct he should expect him to exert all his endeavours to influence me accordingly. Pompey then pro- ceeded very warmly to remonstrate against my late motion in the senate ; reminding my brother of his services to us both, and particularly of what had passed between them . concerning Caesar's edicts, and of those assurances, he said, my brother had given him of the measures I would pui-sue with respect to that article. He added, that my brother himself was a witness that the steps he had formerly taken for procuring, my recal were with the full consent and approbation of Caesar. Upon the whole, therefore, he entreated him, if it were either therein, the number requisite to make an act valid was 41)0. e This expedition of Pompey into Sardinia and Africa, was in pursuance of the commission with which he liad been invested for supplying the public magazines with com. See rem. •", p. 345. h Lucca was a frontier town in Cssiir's province of Cisalpine Gaul, adjoining to Italy : it still subsists under the same name, and is a celebrated republic. It was Cesar's policy, at the end of every oampaign, to fix his winter-quarters as near Italy as possible, in order to be within observation of what passed at Rome. A numerous court was immediately formed around him in these places of his residence, consisting of the most distinguished per- sons in Rome, and the neighbouring provinces, and no less than 200 senators have been observed among the attend- ants upon these occasions. Candidates for of&ces ; young men who had run out their estates ; and, in a word, all whose affairs of any kind were embarrassed, fiocked to him in these cities ; and by liberal concessions to their respective wants and interests, he strengthened his fac- tion, and forwarded his grand enterprise. It was thus :as the judicious Plutarch observes) he bad the address to employ the forces of the republic against Gaul, and the spoils of Gaul against the republic. — Pint, in Vit Jul. Cajs. et Pomp. ; Suet in "Vit. Jul, Caes. ' A city in Cisalpine Gaul, still subsisting under the same name, in the Pope's dominions. J This alludes to those engagements which Quintus Cicero entered into in behalf of his brother, in order to Induce Pompey to favour his recal from banishment. And it appeal's by what follows, that he promised, on the part of Cicero, an unlimited resignation to the measures of that ambitious chief. not in my power or my inclination to support the , interest and dignity of the latter, that he would at least prevail with me not to oppose them. The account which my brother gave me of this conver- sation, together with a message I had before received from Pompey by VibnUius, to request that 1 would not proceed any farther in the aflfair of the Campanian lands till his return, threw me into >• very serious train of reflections. I could . not but think, after having performed and suffered so much for my country, that I might now at least be permitted to consider what was due to gratitude and to the honour of my brother ; and as I had ever conducted myself with integrity towards the public, I might be allowed, I hoped, to act the same honest part in my more private connexions''. ^ During the time I was engaged in these votes and other proceedings with which Pompey appeared thus dissatisfied, I was informed of what passed in the conversations of a set of men whom you vrill now guess without my naming. This party, though they approved of my public measures as being agreeable to what had ever been their professed sentiments, were yet so ungenerous as to express great satisfaction in believing that my conduct would by no means oblige Pompey, at the same time that it would highly exasperate Csesar. Well might I resent, indeed, so injurious a treatment, — but much more when I saw them, even before my face, maliciously encom-aging and caressing my avowed enemy'. Mine do 1 call him ? Rather let me say an enemy to the laws and tranquilBty of his country, and to every character of worth and virtue amongst us. Their malevolence, however, had not the effect they intended, and it could not warm me into those transports of indignation of which my heart is now, , indeed, no longer susceptible. On the contrary, it only induced me to examine my situation in all its various circumstances and relations with the greatest coolness and impartiality ; the process and result of which I will lay before you in as few words as 1 am able. There have been times, as experience no less 1* The destructive views of Caesar, in procuring the law in question, have been already considered in these notes* weak, therefore, undoubtedly, is the reason which Cicero here assigns, for renouncing an opposition so evidently important to the true interest of his countrj-. Had Cffisar and Pompey, indeed, been ever so much his real friends, no considerations of amity ought to have prevailed with him, to have acquiesced in a scheme which was contrary to the sentiments of all the real patriots of tlie republic, and contrary likewise to his own ; a scheme which he himself tells Atticus was formed for the destruction of the commonwealth. [Ad Att. ii. 17.] Had he attended to the indisputable maxim which he himself lays down in one of his philosophical ti'eatises, it would have decided at once the conduct which became him to observe upon an occasion where private friendship interfered with more extensive obligations: — " Hsec prima lex in amicitia sanciatur (says he) ut neque rogemus res turpes ; nee faciamus rogati." But the truth of it is, private friend- ship was not concerned in the case ; for he well knew that neither Pompey nor Csesar had any attachments to him of that kind. It was fear alone that determined his reso- lution ; and, having once already suffered in the cause of liberty, he did not find himself disposed to be twice a martyr. The awkward manner, however, in which he attempts to justify himself throughout this letter, very evidently shows liow impossible it is to bid farewell to integrity with a good grace. 1 Clodius. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 309 than history has taught me, when the power of the commonwealth was in worthless and wicked hands. In such a conjuncture, no hope of interest (which I have at all times most heartily contemned) nor fear of danger (which upon some occasions, however, has influenced the greatest minds) should prevail with me to co-operate in their measures ; no, not though I were attached to them bsthe strongest ties of friendship and gratitude. /But when a man of Pompey's distinguished character presides over the republic ; a man who has ac- quired that eminence of power and honour by the most heroic actions and the most signal services ; I could not imagine it would be imputed to me as a levity of disposition if, in some few instances, I I declined a little from my general maxims and \complied with his inclinations". But myjustifi- 'cation, I thought, would still rise in strength when it should be remembered that I favoured his credit and dignity even from the earliest part of my life, as I particularly promoted them in my prsetorship and consulate ; when it should be remembered that he not only assisted me with his vote and his influence in the senate during my adversity, but joined his counsels and his efforts with yours for the same generous purpose ; in a word, when it should be remembered that he has no other enemy in the whole commonwealth, except the man who is my professed adversary". In consequence of these sentiments, it was absolutely necessary for me, you see, to unite with Csesar, as one who was joined in the same views and the same interest. His friend- ship, likewise, which you are sensible my brother and I have long shared, together with his humane and generous disposition, which I have abundantly experienced both by his late letters and his good offices towards me, contributed greatly to confirm me in these resolutions. To which I must add, that the commonwealth in general seemed to be most strongly averse from giving any opposition.to these extraordinary men ; more especially after Csesar had performed such great and glorious exploits for the honour of his country. But what had still a farther and very powerful weight in my deliberations, was Pompey's having engaged his word for me to Csesar, as my brother had given the same assurances to Pompey. Plato, I remembered, lays it down as a maxim, in his divine writings, that " the people generally model their manners and their sentiments by those of the great ;" a maxim which, at this juncture, I ™ It ap'peai-B by what has already been remarked, that Cicero's compliance can by no means be considered in the favourable light in which he here represents it; but was io reality a concession most injurious to his honour and fatal to the liberties of Rome. It is certain, likewise, that it was not from any advantageous opinion of Pompey's political character and designs, that he was induced to fall in with his measiu-es. On the contrary, Cicero most undoubtedly had no esteem for him ; and, as to his poli- tical views, he saw and acknowledged, long before the date of this letter, that they were turned on the. destruction of the republic ; 'O/xoKoyovfievuv (says he in one of the epistles to Atticus) rvpavvi'8a trvtrKevd^erat : as in another, written upon the breaking out of the civil war, he calls him hominem oiroXiTtKtfiTaTov, a man utterly unacquainted with the arts of government. — Ad Att. it 17 ; viii. i6. " Clodius, after having driven Cicero out of Rome, entered most strenuously into the opposition against ■Pompey and Cassar. — Manutius. See below, rem. *. thought merited my particular attention. I was convinced, indeed, of its truth when I reflected on the vigorous resolutions which were taken in the senate on the memorable" nones of December ; and it seemed no wonder so noble a spirit should appear in that assembly, after the animating exam- ple I had given them upon my first entering on the consular office. I reflected, also, that, during the whole time which intervened between the expiration of my consulship and that of Csesar and BibulusP, when I still retained a very considerable authority in the senate, all the better part of the republic were united in their sentiments. On the other hand, about the time you took possession of your government in Spain, the commonwealth could not so properly be said to be under the ad- ministration of consuls as of infamous barterers of provinces', and the mean vassals and ministers of sedition. It was then that discord and faction spread through all ranks amongst us ; and I was marked out as the victim of party rage. In this critical season, however, not only every man of worth, but the greater part of the senators, and indeed all Italy in general, rose up with remarkable unanimity in my cause'. What the event proved, I forbear to mention ; as, in truth, it is to be imputed to a complication of errors and artifices. But this I will say, it was not forces, so much as leaders to conduct them, that were wanting to me at this crisis. I must add, that whatever censure The fifth. It was on this day, in the consulship of Cicero and Antonius, A. U. 690, that the senate came to a resolution of inflicting capital punishment on all those who were concerned in Catiline's conspiracy : " And it is certain (as the learned and polite historian of Cicero's life observes), that Rome was indebted to him on this day for one of the greatest deliverances which it had ever received since its foundation ; and which nothing, perhaps, but his vigilance and sagacity cuuld have so happily eflFected." — Life of Cicero, p. 61. '^'^ P Cicero was chosen consul in the year of Rome 690. Caesar and Bibulus in the year 694. 1 The consuls to whom Cicero alludes, are Lucius Cal- purnius Piso, whose daughter Cassar had married, and Aulus Gabinius, a dependant and favourite of Pompey. They succeeded Csesar and Bibulus in this office in 695, the year when Cicero went into exile. '• Cloduis secured them to his measures by a private contract to procure for them, by a gi-ant from the people, two of the best govern- ments of the empii'e ; Piso was to have Macedonia, with Greece and Thessaly ; Gabinius, Cilicia. For this #rice they agreed to serve him in all his designs, particularly in the oppression of Cicero."— Life of Cicero, p. 8ff. r " Clodius procured a law, importing, 'that whoever had taken the life of a citizen uncondemned, and without a trial, should be prohibited from firo and water.' Though Cicero was not named, yet he was marked out by this Jaw. liis crime was, the putting Catiline's accomplices to death ; which, though not done by his single authority, but by a general vote of tlie senate, and, after a solemn hearing and debate, was alleged to be illegal, and contrary to the liber- ties of .the people. Cfcero, finding himself thus reduced to the condition of a criminal, changed his habit upon it, as was usual in the case of a public impeachment, and ap- peared about the streets in a mourning gown, to excite the compassion of his fellow-citizens ; whilst Clodius, at the head of his moh, contrived to meet and insult him at every turn. But Cicero soon gathered friends enough to secure him from such insults ; and the whole body of the knights, together with the young nobility, to the-number of 50,000, headed by Crassus the son, all changed their habit, and perpetually attended him about the city to implore the protection and assistance of the people."— Plut. in Yit. Cicer. ; Orat. post Red. ; Life of Cicero, p. S9. 870 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO may justly fall on those who refused me their assistance, most certainly they who first promised it and then deserted me are not less to be blamed ^ In a word, if some of my friends may well be reproached for the timid, though sincere, counsels they gave me, how much more severe must their condemnation prove, who artfully alarmed me with their pretended fears ? Let it be noted at the same time to my honour, that zealous as my fellow- citizens showed themselves to rise up in the defence of a man who had formerly stood forth in theirs, yet I would not suffer them to be exposed (unsup- ported as they were by those who ought to have been their protectors) to the barbarous insults of a lawless banditti. On the contrary, I rather chose the world should judge by the power of my friends in recalling me from my exile, what their honest unanimity could have effected, had I permitted them to have drawn their swords to prevent it. You were sensible of this general zeal in my favour, when you undertook my cause, and you not only encouraged, but confirmed it, by your influence and authority. I shall always most wil- lingly acknowledge, that you were assisted upon this occasion by some of the most considerable persons in Rome' ; who, it must be owned, exerted themselves with much greater vigour in procuring my return, than in preventing my banishment. And had they persisted in the same resolute disposition, they might have recovered their own authority at the same time that they obtained my restoration. The spirits, in truth, of the aristo- cratical part of the republic were, at thi^ juncture, greatly raised and animated by the inflexible pa- triotism of your conduct during your consulship, together with Pompey's concurrence in the same measures. Csesar, likewise, when he saw the senate distinguishing his glorious actions by the most singular and unprecedented honours, joined in adding weight to the authority of that assembly. Had these happy circumstances, therefore, been rightly improved, it would have been impossible for any ill-designing citizen to have violated the laws and liberties of the commonwealth. But let me entreat you to reflect a moment on the subse- quent conduct of my political associates. In the first place, they screened from punishment that infamous intruder on the matron-mysteries, who showed no more reverence for the awful ceremonies s In this number was Pojnpey himself, who, thougli he had given Cicero the most solemn assurances that he would, at the hazard of his life, protect him against Clo- dius ; yet, when afterwards our author solicited the execu- tion of this promise, he treated him with much rudeness, as well as great treachery, and absolutely refused to con- cern himself in the affair. [Ad Att. ii. 20 ; x. 4.] It seems altogether unaccountable, that Cicero should be so inju- dicious as to touch upon a circumstance that destroys the whole force of his apology, so far, I mean, as he intended to justify his conduct by his friendship to Pompey. For it exceeds all power of credulity to imagine, that he could really be influenced by a motive of that kind with respect to a man, whose insincerity he had so lately and so severely experienced. t Clodius was so elated with his success against Cicero, that he had no sooner driven him out of Rome, than he conceived hopes of raiderlng himself no less formidable to Cssar and Pompey. Accordingly, he entered into an open opposition against them both ; which he carried on vrith so much warmth and petulancej that at length they found it expedient for their purposes to mortify him by recalling Cicero. of the goddess in whose honour these sacred solemnities are celebrated, than for the chastity of his three sisters". And thus, by preventing a worthy tribune of the people from obtaining that justice upon Clodius which he endeavoured to pro- cure, they deprived future times of a most salutary example of chastised sedition^ Did not they suffer, likewise, that monument, that glorious monument, which was erected, not indeed with the spoils I had gained in foreign wars, but by the generosity of the senate for my civil services ; did they not most shamefully suffer it to be inscribed with the name of the cruel and avowed enemy of his coun- try^ ! Obliged most certainly I am to them for having restored me to the commonwealth ; but I could wish they had conducted themselves, not only like physicians, whose views terminate merely in the health of their patients, but like the Aliptae* « Clodius (as Plutarch relates the story) had an intrigue with Pompeia, Csesar's wife ; but as he could not easily gain access to her, he took the opportunity, while she was cele- brating the mysteries of the bona Bea at her own house, to enter disguised in a woman's habit. While he was waiting in. one of the apartments for Pompeia, he was dis- covered by a maid-servant of Caesar's mother, who imme- diately giving the alarm, he was driven out of this female assembly with great indignation, The hona Dea, as the same author informs us, was supposed to have been a dryad with whom the god Faunus had an amour. These rites were held in the highest veneration, and conducted with the most profoimd secrecy. They were celebrated annually by women, at the house of the consul or prator, and it was not lawful for any male to be present. Seneca tells us, they carried this precaution so far, that if there happened to be a picture of any male animal in the room where these mystic ceremonies were performing, it was thought necessary it should be veiled. — Pint, in Vit. Cis. ; Sen. Ep. &J. Clodius was suspected of having a criminal commerce with his three sisters. ' Lentulus, immediately upon entering on his consular office, A. TT. 696, moved the senate that Cicero might be restored ; in which he was seconded by Pompey with much zeal, and the whole house unanimously concurred in the motion. Serranus, however, a tribune of the people, in- terposing his negative, no decree could pass at that time : nevertheless, it was with one consent resolved, that, on the 22d of the same month, a law should be proposed to the people for Cicero's recal. When the appointed day arrived, the friends of Cicero found the forum in the possession of Clodius, who had planted his mob there over-night, in order to prevent the promulgation of this law. A very bloody skirmish ensued, in which several lives were lost, and many other outrages committed ; in consequence of which, Clodius was impeached by Milo as a disturber of the public peace But Metellus, the col- league of Lentulus, together with Appius the prastor, and Serranus the tribune, determined to screen Clodius; and accordingly, by a most dangerous exercise of their autho- rity, they published their several edicts, commanding all farther proceedings in this prosecution to he discontinued. It was a very impolitic power (as a late ingenious writer upon government observes) which was lodged in the tri- bunes, of thus preventing the execution of the laws as well as the passing of them, and which caused infinite mischiefs to the republic— Orat. pro Sext. 34, 35, 41 ; L*Bsprit des Loix, i. 223. ^ "After the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy, the senate decreed that a temple should be erected to Liberty, . as a public monument of their late happy deliverance. This temple was raised at the foot of Mount Palatine, near Cicero's house- And as the inscription fixed thereon undoubtedly mentioned Cicero with honour, Clodius erased those words, and placed his own name in their stead."— Manutius. » The Aliptes were persons who prepared the bodies of TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 371 also, who endeavour to establish the spirits and vigour of those under their care. Whereas they have acted with regard to me, as Apelles did in relation tp his celebrated picture of Venus? : they have finished one part of their work with great skill and accuracy, but left all the rest a mere rude and imperfect sketch. In one article, however, I had the satisfaction to disappoint my enemies. They imagined my banish- ment would have wrought the same effect on me, which they falsely supposed a calamity of a like kind produced formerly in Quintus Metellus. This excellent person (whom I look upon t© have been a man of the greatest fortitude and magnanimity of any in his times) they represented as broken and dispirited after his return from exiled But if the athletic combatants, by unctions and other proper methods, for rendering them vigorous and active in their gymnastic exercises. y Apelles, one of the greatest masters of painting in ancient Greece, was a native of Coos, and flourished in the 112th Olymp. or about 332 years before Christ. His prin- Qjpal excellency consisted in the inimitable grace which distinguished all his performances. Pliny the elder has, by a very strong expression, informed us of the amazing force of his pencil ; pihxU (says that author) qucB pingi non possunt, tonitrua, fulgura et/ulgetra. He could even convey ideas which seemed impossible to be raised by colours, and animate his sublime pieces with all the ter- mors of thmider and lightning. His capital performance was a figure of Venus, which appears to have been at Rome in the times of Augustus. The lower parts of this pic^iure being damaged, no painter would venture to retouch it. Something of the same kind is mentioned to the honour of Raphael, whose paintings in the little Famese, at Rome, being somewhat spoiled, it was with the greatest difficulty that even Carlo Maratti was prevailed upon to restore them. Apelles began a second figure of Venus, which he intended should excel his first : but he died before he had proceeded any farther in that design than the head and shoulders.— Quintil. xii. 10 ; Plin. Hist. Jfat. xxxv. 10 ; R^ex. sur la Po^s. et sur la Peint. z Q. Caecilius Metellus was in the number of those who opposed the faction of Caius Marius ; in consequence of which he was at length driven into exile. The immediate occasion, however, of his sentence was this : Satuminus, a tribune of the people, and creature of Marius, proposed a law in the year 653, which, among other things enacted, that "the senators should swear to ratify whatever the people ordained." This oath, Metellus, with the true spi- rijt of ancient Rome, resolutely refused to take, and when hisfriends represented to him the dangerous consequences which would projaably attend his persevering in that honest resolution, he nobly replied, "It is the characteristic of a man of virtue and honour to act rightly, whatever conse- quences may ensue." Accordingly, a decree passed in an assembly of the people for his banishment ; and when his friends offered him their assistance to withstand this piece of public injustice, ho generously refused thei-r aid :— " For," said he, '* either public measures will be changed, and the people will repent of the injury they have done me; and then I shall be recalled with honour: or they will continue in the same sentiments ; and in that case banish- ment will be a happiness." He greatly chose, therefore, to withdraw hiinself from the destructive politics of hia country ; and, retiring to Rhodes, he calmly spent his time in philosophical studies. His virtues, however, prevailed at last over the iniquity of his persecutors, and he was restored to the republic, notwithstanding all the opposition of Marius. Cicero has recorded a circumstance relating to Metellus, that gives (me the highest idea of the character he enjoyed amongst his countrymen. He was accused, it seems, by the Marian faction, of having been guilty of public extortion ; but when he entered upon his defence, and produced his accounts, the judges refused to inspect them, as being well convinced that Metellus had a so^l broken he really were, it could not he the effect of his adversity ; as it is certain he submitted to his sentence without the least reluctance, and lived under it, not only with indifference, but with cheerfulness. The truth is, no man ever equalled him in the stren;gth and heroism of his mind ; no, not even the celebrated Marcus Scaurus*. Never- theless, such as they had heard, or, at least, chose to imagine Metellus to have been, they figured me to themselves, or, if possible, indeed, even yet more abject. The reverse, however, proved to be the case, and that general concern which the whole republic expressed at my absence, inspired me with more vigorous spirits than I had ever before enjoyed. The fact is, that the sentence of banishment against Metellus was repealed by a law proposed only by a single tribune of the people ; whereas, I was recalled from mine upon the motion of the consul himself^, and by a law in which every magistrate of Rome concurred. Let me add, likewise, that each order and degree in the commonwealth, headed by the senate, and supported by all Italy, zealously much too enlarged to be capable of anything so mean as injustice. I cannot forbear mentioning like-wise a noble expression of this great man, in a letter written during his banishment, as it shows the spirit with which he bore his misfortune. lUi (inimici sc.) Jure et honesiate interdicti.' ego neque aqua nequeigni careo,etsujnmagloria/rumscor. " "Whilst my enemies," says he, " vainly hoped to banish me from the common benefits of society, which, however, I still enjoy, together with the highest glory, they have much more se^^erely banished from their own breasts all sentiments of justice and honour." One cannot but ac- knowledge with regret, that neither the enemies nor the friends of Cicero did himi justice, when they compared him, to Metellus ; for, besides the great superiority of the latter in the present instance, he, upon all occasions, acted con- sistently with his avowed political principles, and pre- perved a unifoi'ui and unsullied reputation to the end of his days. — Pint, in Vit. C, Mar. ; Ad Att, i. 16 ; Orat. pro Balbo, in princip. / Aul. Gel. xvii. 2 ; Sallust. Bell. Ju- gurth. 47. s M. ^milius Scaurus was advanced a second time to the honour of the consular office, in the year of Rome 646, having enjoyed that dignity eight years before. He is men- tioned by Cicero among the orators of that age ; but thei'e was more of force and authority in what he delivered, than of grace in his manner, or elegance in his expression. He was accused, in his latter days, of having carried on a traitorous correspondence with Mithridatea The short speech which he made in his defence is extremely remark- able, and gives one a lively image of that manly contempt with which a mind, conscious of its integrity, ought ever to treat the calumnies of an accuser, whose knovm charac- ter affords the best and most expeditious antidote against his malice. The venerable old man stood forth in the midst of the assembly, and addressing himself to the whole audience, spake to this effect : •• It is somewhat hard, my countrymen, that I should be obliged to give an account to the present generation, of what I transacted before they were bom. But, notwithstanding the greater part of this assembly are too young to have been witnesses of the ser- vices and honom's of my former life, I will venture to rest the whole of my defence upon a single question. Varius, then, asserts, that Scaurus was bribed to betray his coun- try ; Scaurus, on the other hand, utterly denies that he ever was tainted with a crime of this nature. Now Jay your hands upon your hearts, and tell me, my fellow-citi- zens, to which of these two men you will give credit ? " The peopl^ were so struck with the honest simplicity of this speech, that Scaurus was dismissed' with honour, 3114 his infamous accuser hissed out of the assembly.— De Clar. Orat. no, 111 ; Val. Max. jii. 7 ; Sallust BelL Jugiirth. ; Orat. pro Fonteio ; In Verr. i. b Lentulus, the person to whom this letter is addressed, BBS 372 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO united in one common effort for recovering me to my country. Yet, high as these unexampled ho- nours were, they have never elated my heart with pride, or tempted Ine to assume an air which could give just offence even to the most malevolent of my enemies. The whole of my ambition is, not to be wanting either in advice or assistance to my friends ; or even to those whom I have no great reason to rank in that number. It is this, perhaps, which has given the real ground of complaint to those who view only the lustre of my actions, but cannot be sensible of the pains and solicitude they cost me. But whatever the true cause may be, the pretended one is, my having promoted the honours of Csesar ; a circumstance which they interpret, it seems, as a renunciation of my old maxims. The genuine motives, however, of my conduct, in this instance, are not only what I just before mentioned, but particularly what I hinted in the beginning of my letter, and will now more fully explain. -- ■ You will not find then, my friend, the aristocra- tical part of the republic disposed to pursue the same system as when you left them. That system, 1 mean, which I endeavoured to establish when I was consul, and which, though afterwards occasion- ally interrupted, and at length entirely overthrown, was again fully restored during your administration. It is now, however, totally abandoned by those who ought most strenuously to have supported it. I do not assert this upon the credit only of appear- ances, in which it is exceedingly easy to dissemble ; I speak it upon the unquestionable evidence of facts, and the public proceedings of those who were styled patriots in my consulate. The general scheme of politics, therefore, being thus changed, it is time, most certainly, for every man of pru- dence (in which number I have the ambition to be justly accounted) to vary likewise his particular \ plan. Accordingly that chief and favourite guide of my principles, whom I have already quoted, the divine Plato himself, advises not to press any political point farther than is consonant with the general sense of the community ; for methods of violence, he maintains, are no more to be used to- wards one's country than one's parent. Upon this maxim, he tells us, he 4sf.Up.ed engaging jn pub.lic affairs ; and, as he found the people of Athens confirmed, by long habit, in their mistaken notions of government, he did not think it lawful to attempt by force what he despaired of effecting by persua- sion. My situation, however, is, in this respect, different from Plato's ; for, on the one hand, as I have already embarked in public affairs, it is too late to deliberate whether I should now enter upon them or not : so, on the other, the Roman people are by no means so incapable of judging of their true interest, as he represents the Athenians. It is my happiness, indeed, to be able by the same measures, to consult at once both my own and my country's welfare'. To these considerations I c If Cieero was sincere in what he here asserted, and really imagined that by falling in witli the schemes of Cffisar and Pompey, he could more eifectually serve his country as well as himself, his policy, as far as we can judge of it at this distance, seems to have been very extra- ordinary. — To have supported the one in opposition to the other, might perhaps have been a probable method of defeating the designs of both, as they could neither of them have advanced to so f onnidahle a height, if they had not mutually assisted in raising each other. But to join in theii' coalition, was in efifect to bo accessary in cement- must add those uncommon acts of generosity which Caesar has exerted both towards my brother and myself ; so much, indeed, beyond all example, that, even whatever had been his success, I should have thought it incumbent upon me at least to have defended him. But now, distinguished as he is by such a wonderful series of prosperity, and crowned with so many glorious victories, I cannot but esteem it a duty which I owe the republic, ab- stracted from all personal obligations to himself, to promote his honours as far as lies in my power. And believe me, it is at once my confession and my glory, that, next to you, together with the other generous authors of my restoration, there is not a man in the world from whom I have received such amicable offices. And now, having laid before you the principal motives of my conduct in general, I shall be the better able to satisfy you concerning my behaviour with respect to Crassus and Vatinius in particular : for as to Appius and Csesar, I have the pleasure to find that you acquit me of all reproach. My reconciliation then with Vatinius'' was ef- fected by the mediation of Pompey, soon after the former was elected praetor. I must confess, when he petitioned to be admitted a candidate for that office, I very warmly opposed him in the^ senate ; ing an union most evidently calculated for the min of the commonwealth. This reasoning is not built merely upon distant speculation, but is supported by the express testi- mofty of one who was not only an actor in this important scene, but well understood the plot that was carrying on. " You are mistaken," said Cato, to those who were lament- ing the breach that afterwards happened between Pompey and Caesar, " you are mistaken in charging our calamities on that event ; they owe their rise to another cause, and began, not when Pompey and Caesar became enemies, hut when they were made friends." The difficulty of justify- ing Cicero in this measure, grows still stronger, when it is remembered that he niust have been sensible at this very time how much was to be dreaded from the power of these his pretended friends. For he assures Atticus, in a letter which was written at the breaking out of the civil war, that , he foresaw the storm that had been gathering to destroy the republic, fourteen years before it fell, and calls the union of these ambitious chiefs, scileratcB conscnsionis Jidis, a wioked confederacy. To which he adds, that they had upon all occasions preferred the interest of their fami- lies and the advancement of their power to the honour and welfare of their country. — Pint, in Vit. Pomp. ; Ad Att. X. 4. d Some observations have already been made upon Cicero*a conduct with regard to Vatinius ; see above, rem, ", p 366. e The passage in the origiual, it is acknowledged, does not absolutely imply the sense which is given to it in the translation. It runs thus : — " cum quidem ego ejus peti- tionem gravissimis in senatu sententiis oppugnassem." But it is not ea^y to conceive in what manner the compe- tition between Cato and Vatinius, in relation to the office of preetor, could come before the senate, unless the autho- rity of that assembly were some way necessary in nomi- nating or recommending the eandidates to the people. This interpretation- seems to be favoured by a passage in one of Pliny's letters, — " Meo suffi-agio," says he, speak- ing of a friend, for whom, not being legally qualified to sue for the tribunate, he had obtained a dispensation from the emperor for that purpose, " Meo sufFragio pervenit ad jus tribunatlun petendi, quern nisi obtinetin senatu, vercnr ne decepisse Ceesarem videar." — iL 9. That the senate ori- giually claimed this prerogative with respect to the election of kings, is indisputable. " Patres decreverunt," j^ Livy informs us, " ut cum populus regem jussisset, id sic ratum esset, si patres auctores fierent." — i. 17. It is equally clear likewise, that the senate exercised a privilege of the same TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. but it was much less from my resentment to the man himself, than in order to support the honour and interest o? Cato^. Soon after this he was im- peached, and it was in compliance with the earnest r solicitation of Csesar that I undertook his defence. But you must not inquire why I appeared at this trial, or, indeed, at any other of the same kind, as a witness in favour of the accused, lest I should hereafter have an opportunity of retorting the ques- )tion upon you. Though, to say truth, I may fairly [ ask it even now ; for do you not remember, my /friend, in whose behalf it was that you formerly Vtransmitted certain honourable testimonials, even J>from the utmost limits of the Roman empire ? You / need not scruple, however, to acknowledge the fact, J for I have acted, and shall continue to act, the same ;part towards those veiy person^. But to return to Vatinius : besides the reasons I have already assigned, I was provoked to engage in his defence, by an opposition of the same sort which the para- site recommends to the amorous soldier in the play8. The obsequious Gnatho, you know, advises his friend, the captain, whenever his mistress en- deavours to pique his jealousy, by mentioning his rival Phgedria, to play off Eamphila upon her in return. Thus, as I told the judges at this trial, since certain honourable persons, who were for- merly much in my interest, had thought proper, by many little mortifying instances in the senate, to caress my avowed enemy -before my face, I thought it but equitable to have a Clodius on my part, in opposition to the Clodius on theirs. Ac- cordingly, I have upon many occasions acted suitably to this declaration, and all the world ac- knowledges I have reason*". kind, after the republican government was established; for Cicero, taking notice in one of hja orations of an iinsuc- cessful attempt that had been formerly made by that august assembly in order to extend their power, adds, "tum enim magistratuni non gerebatisqui ceperat, si patres auctoresnon erant facti."— [Orat. pro Plane. 3.] But the difficulty is, this speech was delivered in the very same year in which the present letter was written ; so that the passage quoted from it seems to imply that no such right subsisted at the time under consideration, and indeed Dr. Chapman produces it in confirmation of this notion. [Essay on R. S. p. 317.] The difficulty, however, may per- haps be solved by supposing that Cicero's meaning is to be taken restrictively, and that the prerogative of the senate in the nomination of candidates for the several magistra- cies, or at least in confirming their election, was abolished only with respect to the election of jediles, which it is cer- tain he had principally in view, but remained nevertheless in its usual force as to all others. Conjectures are allow- able in points of so much obscurity, and in which neither critics nor commentators afford any light; but what solidity there may be in that which runs through the present remark, is submitted to the judgment of more suc- cessful inquirers, ' Cato, the year before the date of this letter, had solicited the pratorship in order to arm himself with the authority of that important office against the dangerous designs of Crassus and Pompey, who were at that time consuls. But they were too well aware of the honest pm^oses of this inflexible patriot, not to obstruct his election, and accord- ingly they caiTied it against him in favour of the pliant and worthless Vatinius, whose pretensions they supported by every infamous method of artifice, corruption, and vio- lence.— Plut. in Vit Caton. e "The Eunuch" of Terence. 1^ The conduct of Cicero with regard to Vatinius, appears by no means parallel with that of the aristocratical party , towaMs Clodius. The latter was now at variance with Cssar and Pompey, and it was undoubtedly a just and Having thus explained my conduct with regard ] to Vatinius, I will now lay before you those motives i which determined me in respect to CrassusM I was willing, for the sake of the common (Siuse^ to bury in oblivion the many and great injuries I had formerly received from him. Agreeably to this disposition, as we were then upon good terms, I should have borne his unexpected defence of Ga- biniusJ, (whom he had very lately with so much warmth opposed) if he had avoided all personal reflections on myself. But when, with the most unprovoked violence, he broke in upon me whilst I was in the midst of my speech, I must confess it raised my indignation ; and, perhaps, I took fire so much the sooner, as possibly there still remained in my heart some latent sparks of my former re- sentment. However, my behaviour in the senate upon this occasion was much and generally ap- plauded. Among the rest, I was complimented ' likewise by the same men whom I have often hi;ited at in this letter, and who acknowledged I had rendered a very essential service to their cause, by that spirit which I had thus exerted. In short, they affected to speak of me in public, as being now, indeed, restored to the commonwealth in the best and most glorious sense. Nevertheless, they had the malice in their private conversations (as I was informed by persons of undoubted honour) rational policy to take advantage of that dissention and ' endeavour by an artful management to gain him over to the cause of liberty. But Cicero's engaging in the support of Vatinius cannot be justified by any political reasons of / this nature, and to speak truth it seems to be altogether , without excuse. For Vatinius was actually in league with * the enemies of his coimtry ; to espouse his .cause, therefore, was to strengthen tjieii faction, and sacrifice public inter- est to private pique. > Bee the remarks on the 7th letter of this book, pai'ticu- larly rems. i, and ■". 3 Aulus Gabinius was consul the same year in which Cicero was so outrageously persecuted by Clodius. with whom (as has been observed in the notes above) GabiniuEi most zealously concurred. To give his chai-acter as Cicero himself has dra^vn it in several of his orations, he was effe- minate in his mien, dissolute in bis principles, and a pro- fessed libertine in every kind. After the expiration of his consulate in ( j98, he went governor into Syria, from whence he was recalled the following year by a decree of the senate. Cicero spoke very warmly in favour of the decree, and it is probable that the dispute here mentioned between him and Crassus happened in the debates which arose upon this occasion. Not many months after the date of this letter, Gabinius was impeached for mal-practices during the administration of his proconsular government, and Cicero was now so entirely at the disposal of Cjesar and Pompey, that in compliance with their request he meanly undertook his defence. But it was not without great struggles with himself, that he submitted to an office so unworthy of his principles and his character. However, he endeavoured to represent it to the world as an act of pure generosity ; and, indeed, the sentiment %vith which lie defended himself from the censure that passed upon him on this occasion, is truly noble: " Neque me vero poenitet mortales inimicitias, sempiternas amicitias ha- bere." But Gabinius was by no means entitled to the benefit of this generous maxim, nor was it true (as will incontestably appear by a passage I shall presently have occasion to produce) that Cicero was governed by it in the case imder consideration. Cicero's conduct, indeed, upon this occasion, is so utterly indefensible, that his veiy inge- nious and learned advocate. Dr. Middleton himself, is obliged to confess, that it was " contrary to his judgment, his resolution, and his dignity."— Orat. pro Sext. ; In Pison. ; De Prov. Consular. ; Pro Rabir. ; Plut. in Vit. Caton. Uticin. ', Life of Cicero, p. 144. See rem. o below. 374 THE LJETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO to express singular satisfaction in the new variance that had thus happened between Crassus and my- self; as they pleased themselves with imagining it would for ever throw me at a distance from those who were joined with him in the same interest^. Pompey, in the mean time, employed incredible pains to close this breach ; and Caesar also men- tioned it in his letters as an incident that gave him much concern. Upon these considerations, there- fore, I thought it expedient to act agreeably both to the dictates of my natural temper, and to that experience which I had gained by my former mis- fortunes. In pursuance of these sentiments, I consented to a reconcilement ; and, in order to render it more conspicuous to the world, Crassus set out for his government^ almost from under my roof; for, having invited himself to spend the pre- ceding night with me, we supped together in the gardens of my son-in-law Crassipes"". It was for these reasons that I thought my honour obliged me to defend his cause in the senate °j and I con- fess, I mentioned him with that high applause of whichj it seems, you have been informed. Thus I have given you a full detail of the several views and motives by which I am governed in the present conjuncture, as well as of the particular disposition in which I stand with respect to the slender part I can pretend to claim in the adminis- tration of public affairs. And, believe me, I should have judged and acted entirely in the same manner had I been totally free from every sort of amicable bias; For, on the one hand, I should have esteemed it the most absurd folly to have attempted to oppose so superior a force ; and, on the other, supposing it possible, I should yet have deemed it imprudent to weaken the authority of persons so eminently and so justly distinguished in the commonwealth °. k Cseaar and Pompey. The foi-mer (who wab undouht- edly as much superior to the rest of his contemporaries in genius as in fortune), finding it necessary for his purposes that Crassus and Pompey should act in concert, procured a reconciliation between them ; and by this means, says Plutarch, formed that invincible triumvirate which rjiined the authority both of the senate abd the people ; and of whichhealonerecoivedtheadvantage.— Plut. in Vit. Crass. 1 The province of Syria was allotted to Crassus, for which he set out a month or two before the expiration of his con- sulate, in the year 698, and from whence he never returned, as has already been observed in the notes on the 7th letter of this book. See p, 360. '^ These gardens were situated a small distance from Rome, on the hanks of the Tiber.— Ad Att. iv. 12 ; Ad Qmnt Frat. iii. 7- " See rem. ^ on letter 7, of this book. o It will appear very evident, perhaps, from, the fore- gping observations, thit what Cicero here asserts could not possibly be his real sentiments. That it was not practica- ble to bring down Ciesar and Pompey from that height of power to which they were now arrived, will not, probably, be disputed ; though, at the same time, it is very difiicult to set limits to what prudence and perseverance may effect. This, at least, seems undeniable, that if their power were absolutely immoveable, Cicei-o's conduct was in the num- ber of those causes which contributed to render it bo. However, one cannot but be astonished to find our author seriously maintain, that, granting it had not been impos' Bible, it would yet have been impolitic, to have checked these toweling chiefs in their ambitious flight. For it is plain, from a passage already cited, out of his letters to Atticus, (see above, rem. f^,) that he long foresaw their immoderate grot^ th of power would at last overturn the liberties of the cu. imonwealth. It had already, indeed, dMtroyed his own ; i^u d this, too, by the confession of him- self. For, in a letter which he writes to bis hi'other, taking Besides, it appears to me to be the dictates of sound policy to act in accommodation to particular conjunctures, and not inflexibly pursue the same unidterable scheme when public circumstances, together with the sentiments of the best and wisest members of the community, are evidently changed. In conformity to this notion, the most judicious reasoners on the great art of government have universally condemned an obstinate perseverance in oneuniform tenor of measures. The skill of the pilot ■is shown in weathering the storm at least, though he should not gain his port; but if shifting his sails and changing his direction will infallibly carry him with security into the intended harbour, would it not be an instance of most unreasonable tenacious- ness to continue in the more hazardous course wherein he began his voyage ? Thus (and it is a maxim I have often had occasion to inculcate) the point we ought all of us to keep in view in our administration of the commonwealth is the final enjoyment of an honourable repose; but the method of securing to ourselves this dignity of retreat is, by having been invariable in our intentions for the public welfare, and not by a positive perseverance in certain favourite modes of obtaining itP. To repeat therefore what I just now declared, had I been absolutely uninfluenced by every motive of friendship, I should still have pursued the same public measures in which I am now engaged. ' But when gratitude and resentment both conspire in recommending this scheme of action to me, I can- not hesitate a moment in adopting it, especially since it appears most conducive to the interests of the republic in general as well as to my own in particular. To speak freely, I act upon this princi- ple so much the more frequently and with the less reserve, not only as my brother is lieutenant under Caesar, but as the latter receives the slightest action or even word of mine in his favour, with an air that evidently shows he considers them as obligatioi&s of the most sensible kind ; and in fact I derive the same beneflt from that popularity and power which you know he possesses, as if they were so many advantages of my own. The sum of the whole in short is this : I imagined that I had no other method of counteracting those per- fidious designs with which a certain party were secretly contriving to undermine me, than by thus uniting the friendship and protection of the men in power, with those internal aids which have never yet been wanting to my support^. notice of the strong applications that Pompey had made to him to defend Gabinius, he declares he never will com- ply with that imworthy request, so long as he retained the least spark of liberty. But comply, however, he actually did ; equally, in truth, to his own disgrace, and to the con- futation of the doctrine he here advances. — ^Ad Quint Frat. iii. 1, See above, rem. J, p. 373. P The reasoning which Cicero here employs is certainly just, considered abstractedly, but by no means applicable to the present case. The question between the aristocra- tical party, and those who were favourers of Csesar and Pompey, was, not what road should be taken to the same end, but whether Rome should be free or enslaved. Let who would then have changed their sentiments on this point, it became not the Father of his Country to increase the number. But as Cicero acquired that most honourable of all appellations, by Catiline, he lost it again by Clodius ; or, to express the same thing in his own words,—" Non recorder (as he confesses to. Atticus) unde ceciderim, sed unde surrexerim.— Ad Att. iv. 16. 5 There is no character in all antioiiUty, perhaps, that TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 3^6 I am well persuaded had you been in Rome you would have concurred with me in these sentiments. I know indeed the candour and moderation of your temper ; and I know too that your heart not only glows with friendship towards me, but is wholly uutainted with malevolence towards others ; in a word, I know that as yon possess everysublime and generous affection, you are incapable of anything so mean as artifice and disguise. Nevertheless, even this elevated disposition has not secured you from the same unprovoked malice which I have experienced in my own affairs. I doubt not there- fore if you had been an actor in this scene, the same motives would have swayed your conduct which have governed mine. But however that may be, I shall most certainly submit aU my actions to your guidance and advice whenever I shall again enjoy your company ; and I am sure you will not be less attentive to the preservation of my honouv than you formerly were to that of my person. Of this at least you may be persuaded, that you will find me a faithful friend and associate in all your counsels and measures, as it will be the first and daily purpose of my life, to supply you with ad- ditional and more powerful reasons for rejoicing in those obligations you have conferred upon me. As you desire me to send you those compositions which I have written since you left Rome, I shall deliver some orations into the hands of Menoorates for that purpose. However, not to alarm you, their number is but inconsiderable ; for I withdraw as much as possible from the contention of the bar, in order to join those more gentle Muses which were always my delight, and are particiilarly so at this juncture. Accordingly I have drawn up three dialogues upon oratory, wherein I have endeavoured to imitate the manner of Aristotle. I trust they will not prove altogether useless to your son, as I have rejected the modern precepts of rhetoric and adopted the ancient Aristotelian and Isocratic rules. To this catalogue of my writings I must also add an historical poem which I have lately composed in three cantos, upon the subject of my banishment', and as a lasting memorial likewise of your friendship and my gratitude. This I should long since have transmitted to you had it been my immediate in- tention to make it public. But I am discouraged lies 60 open to discovery as that of Cicero ; and yet there is none, at the same time, which seems to be less generally understood. Ha4 there been no other of his writings ex- ta;nt, however, but this single letter, the patriot character, one should have imagmed, would have been the last that the world would ever have ascribed to our author. It is observable, (and it is an observation for which I am obliged to a gentleman, who, amidst far more important occupa- tions, did not refuse to be the- censurer of these papers) that " the principles by which Cicero attempts to justify himself in this epistle, are such as will equally defend the most abandoned prostitution and desertion in political con- duet. Personal gratitude and resentment ; an eye to private and particular interest, mixed with a pretended regard to public good ; an attention to a brother's advancement and farther favour ; a sensibility in being caressed by a great man in power ; a calculation of the advantages derived from the popularity and ci'edit of that great man to one's own personal self, are very weak foundations indeed, to support the superstructure of a true patriot's character. Yet these are the principles which Cicero here expressly avows and defends ! " ' This poem Cicero delivered, sealed up, to his son ; enjoining him, at the same time, not to publish or read it till after his death, — Manutius. from this design at present, not indeed as fearing the resentment of those who may imagine them- selves the objects of my satire (for in this respect I have been extremely tender), but as finding it impossible to make particular mention of every one from whom I received obligations at that season. However, when I shall meet with a proper opportunity, I will send it to you ; submitting my writings as well as my actions entirely to your judgment. I know indeed these literary medita- tions have ever been the favourite employment of your thoughts no less than of mine'. Your family concerns, which you recommend to me, are so much a part of my own that I am sorry you should think it necessary even to remind me of them. I could not therefore read your solicita- tions for that purpose without some uneasiness. I find you were prevented by an indisposition from going the last summer into Cilicia, which was the occasion it seems of your not settling my brother's affairs in that province. However, you give me assurance that you will now take all possible methods of adjusting them. You cannot indeed oblige him more ; and he will think himself as much indebted to you for procuring him this additional farm, as if you had settled him in the possession of his patrimony. In the meantime I entreat you to inform me frequently and freely of all your affairs, and particularly give me an account of the studies and exercises in which your son is engaged. For be well persuaded, never friend was more agreeable or more endeared to another than you are to me ; and of this truth I hope to render not only you but all the world, and even posterity itself, thoroughly sensible. Appius' has lately declared in the senate (what he had before indeed often intimated in convert sation) that if he could get his proconsular com- mission confirmed in an assembly of the Curiae^, he would cast lots with his colleague for the par- ticular province to which they should respectively succeed ; if not, that by an amicable agreement between themselves, he had resolved upon yours". He added, that in the case of a consul it was not B To turn from the actions of Cicero to his writings, is changing our point of view, it must be acknowledged, extremely to his advantage. It' is on this side, indeed, that his character can never be too warmly admired ; and admired it will undoubtedly be, so long as manly eloquence and genuine philosophy have any friends. Perhaps there is something in that natural mechanism of the human frame necessary to constitute a fine genius, which is not altogether favourable to the excellencies of the heart. It is certain, at least, (and let it abate om* envy of uncommon parts) that great superiority of intellectual qualifications, has not often been found in conjunction with the much nobler advantages of a moral kind. * Appius Claudius Pulcher, one of the present consuls. See rem. ^ on letter 3, book ilL II Romulus divided the city into a certain number cj districts called curiae, which somewhat resembled our parishes. "When the people were summoned together, to transact any business agreeably to this division, it was called an assembly of the curiEc : where the most votes in every curias was considered as the voice of the whole dis- trict, and the most curiffi as the general consent of the people. — Kennett, Rom. Antiq. T The senate annually nominated the two provinces to which the consuls should succeed at the expiration of their offlce ; but it was left to the consuls themselves to deter- mine, either by casting lots, or by private agreement, which of the pai'ticular provinces so assigned they should respec- tively administer.' — Manutius, De Leg. e. x. 376 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO absolutely necessary, thougli perhaps it miglit be expedient, to procure a law of this kind ; and as a government had been appointed him by a decree of the senate, he was entitled,he said, in consequence of the Cornelian law, to a military command till the time of his entrance into Rome"'. I know not what accounts you may have received of this matter from your other friends ; but I find the sentiments of the world are much divided. Some are of opinion that you are not obliged to resign your government if your successor should not be authorised by an assembly of the Curiae ; whilst others maintain that notwithstanding you should think proper to leave the province, yon may nevertheless depute a person to preside in your absence. As to myself, I am not altogether so clear with respect to the law in question ; though I must own at the same time that my doubts are by no means considerable. Of this however I am perfectly sure, that it is agree- able to your honour, and to that generosity of conduct in which I know you place your highest gratification, quietly to yield up your province to your successor, especially as you cannot in this instance oppose his ambitious views without in- curring the suspicion of being influenced by the same motives yourself. But be that as it will, I thought it incumbent upon me to inform you of my sentiments, as I shall certainly defend yours whichever way they may determine you to act. After I had finished my letter, I received your last concerning the farmers of the revenues". Your decision appears to me, I must own, perfectly equitable; yet, at the same time, I cannot but vrish you might be so happy as not to disgust a body of men whose interest you have hitherto always favoured. However, you may be assured I shall support the decrees you have made upon this occasion, though you well know the temper and disposition of these people, and what formidable enemies they proved to the excellent Quintus Scffivola''. I would recommend it to you therefore w Though the nomination of the proconsular provinces was a privilege reserved to the senate, yet it was the pre- rogative of tlie people to confer on the proconsuls the power of executing the military functions, and likewise, it should seem, to grant the necessary appointments for conveying them to their respective governments. By a law, however, which was made by Cornelius Sylla, during his dictator- ship, in the year 675, it was enacted, that, whatever magistrate, at the expiration of his office, should obtain a province by a decree of the senate, he should be invested with the full power of a proconsul, notwithstanding his commission were not confirmed by an assembly of the curitB. But Sylla's dictatorship being considered as a usurpation, it is probable, from the passage before us, that this law was not generally esteemed valid. Appius, never- theless, endeavoured to avail himself of it, from an appre- hension that he might meet with some obstruction in the usual method of applying for a ratification of his powers : and, indeed, it may be collected from a letter to Atticus, that he at last set forward to Ijis government without tho sanction of the people.— Manutius, De Leg. ; Graev. prsf. in Antiq. 1 ; Ad Att. Iv. 16. " The society of farmers of the public revenues, among the Romans, was a body of men in high repute, as being composed of the principal persons of the equestrian order : " Flos equitum Romanorum, (says Cicero,) ornamentum civitatis, firmamentum reipublicffi, publicanorum ordiue continetur." [Pro Plane] Disputes frequently arose be- tween these and the tributary provinces : and it is to some difference of this kind wherein Lentulus had given judg- ment against them, that Cicero seems to allude. y There were two very eminent persons of this name in if possible, to recover their good graces, or at least to soften them. The task, I confess, k difficult; but prudence, I think, requires you should use your best endeavours for that purpose. Farewell.^ -J — , — LETTER XVIIL , To Lucius CuUeolus, Proconsul', It was with the warmest expressions of grati- tude that my friend Lucceius" acquainted me you „„. had generously assured his agents of your ■ "■ ■ assistance, as indeed I know not a man in the world who has a heart more sensible ot obligations. But if your promises only were thus acceptable to him, how much more will he think himself indebted to you when you shall have performed (as I am well persuaded you vrill most faithfully perform) these your obliging engage- ments ? The people of BuUis* have intimated a disposi- tion to refer the demands in question between Lucceius and themselves to Pompey's arbitration ; but as the concurrence of your influence and authority will be necessary, I very strongly entreat you to exert both for this purpose. It affords me great satisfaction to find that your letter to Lucceius, together with your promises to his agents, have convinced them that no man has more credit with you than myself ; and I earnestly conjure you to confirm them in these sentiments by every real and substantial service in your power. Farewell. LETTER XIX. To the same. You could never have disposed of your favours where they would be more gratefully remembered u 699 ^^^^ °^ ""^ friend Lucceius. But the obligation is not confined to him only ; Pompey likewise takes a share in it : and whenever Cicero's time. The first, the most celebrated lawj'er and politician of his age, is distinguished by the title of augm*. The other, who was high-priest, was slain at the entrance of the temple of Vesta, as he was endeavouring to make his escape from that general massacre of the senators which was perpetrated by the orders of the young Marins. To which of these Tully alludes is uncertain. Manutius supposes to the former, but without assigning his reasons. It seems not unlikely, however, to be the latter, as there is a passage in Valerius Maximus, by which we find that he exercised his Asiatic government with so much honour and integrity, that the senate, in their subsequent decrees for nominating the proconsuls to that province, always recommended him as an example worthy of their imitar tion. It appears, by a fragment of Diodorus Siculus, that he endeavoured, durmg his administration in Asia, to reform the great abuses which were committed by the farmers of the revenues in his province, and imprisoned many of them for their cruel oppressions of the people. This drew upon him their indignation : but m what par- ticular instance he was a sufferer by it, history does not mention Liv. epit 86 ; Val. Max. viii. IS. = The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the province of which he was proconsul, are equally unknown. ■^ An account of Lucceius has already, been given in rem. ^ on letter 20, book i. ^ Geographers are not agreed as to the situation of this city, some placing it in Illyria, others in Macedonia, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS, 37; 1 see him (as I often do) he never fails to express in very strong terms how much he thinks himself indebted to you. To which I will add (what I imow will give you great satisfaction) that it afforded me also a very sensible pleasure. As you cannot now discontinue these obliging offices with- out forfeiting your character of constancy, I doubt not of your persevering in the same friendly services for your own sake, which you at first engaged in for ours. I cannot forbear, nevertheless, most earnestly entreating you to proceed in what you have thus generously begun, till you shall have perfectly completed the purposes for which we requested your assistance. You will by these means greatly oblige not only Lucceius but Pompey ; and never, I will venture to assure you, can you lay out your services to more advantage. I have nothing further to add, having given you my full sentiments of public affairs in a letter which I wrote to you a few days ago by one of your domestics. Farewell. LETTER XX. y To Curius, Proconsul'. I HAVE long been intimately connected with Qulntus Fompeius by a variety of repeated good A V 699 "ffi*^^^- ^^ ''^ ''"^ upon many former oc- casions supported his interests, his credit, and his authority in your province by my influence, so, now the administration is in your hands, he ought undoubtedly to find, by the effects of this letter, that none of your predecessors have ever paid a greater regard to my recommendations. The strict union indeed that subsists between you and myself gives me a vight to expect that you will look upon every friend of mine as your own. But I most earnestly entreat you to receive Fompeius in so particular a manner into your protection and favour, as to con- vince Mm that nothing could have proved more to his advantage and his honour than my applications to you in his behalf. Farewell. LETTER XXL ^ To Basilius^. 1 CONGRATULATE both you and myself on the. present joyful occasion. All your affairs here are i. n. 69B ™'"'l' ""y concern, as your person is infi- nitely dear to me. Love me in return, and let me know what you are doing, and what is going forward in your part of the world. Farewell. c The person to whom this letter is addressed, and the time when it was written, are unknown. ^ If Easilius be the true name of the person to whom this letter is inscribed, (and, indeed, all the editions agree in calling him so,) no account can be given concerning him. But, if we may be allowed to suppose the genuine reading to be BacUus, he was preetor in the year 708 : and Cesar not having given him a province, as was usual, at the expiration of his office, he was so mortified with the afFront, that he put an end to his lite.— Dio, xliii. p. 237. LETTER XXU. To Quintus Philippiis, Proconsul'. , I CONGRATULATE your Safe return from your province, in the fulness of your fame, and amidst A. u 699 ^^^ general tranquillity of the republic. ' If I were in Rome, I should have waited upon you for this purpose in person, and in order, likewise, to make my acknowledgments to you for your favours to my friends Egnatius and Oppius. I am extremely sorry to hear that you have taken great offence against my friend and host, Antipater. I cannot pretend to judge of the merits of the case ; but I know your character too well not to be per- suaded that you are incapable of indulging an unreasonable resentment, I conjure you, however, by our long friendship, to pardon, for my sake, his sons, who lie entirely at your mercy. If I imagined you could not grant this favour consistently with your honour, I should be far from making the re- quest ; as my regard for your reputation is much superior to all considerations of friendship which I owe to this family. But, if I am not mistaken, (and, indeed, I very possibly may) your clemency towards them will rather add to your character than derogate from it. If it be not too much trouble, therefore, I should be glad you would let me know how far a compliance with my request is in your power ; for that it is in your inclination, I have not the least reason to doubt. Farewell. LETTER XXin. To Lucius Valerius', the Lawyer: Fobs, why should I not gratify your vanity with that honourable appellation ? Since, as the times JL V 669 S"" ™y friend, confidence wiU readily pass upon the world for skill. I have executed the commission you sent me, and made your acknowledgments to Lentulus. But I wish you would render my offices of this kind unnecessary, b/ putting an end to your tedious absence. Is it not more worthy of your mighty ambition to be blended with your learned brethren at Rome, than to stand the sole great wonder of wisdom, amidst a parcel of paltry provincials''? But I long to rally you in person, for which merry e See rem. » on letter 6, of this hook. ' Valerius is only known by this letter and another, wherein Cicero recommends him to Appius as a person who lived in his family, and for whom he entertained a very singular afifection. By the ail- of this epistle he seems to have been one of that sort of lawyers who may more properly he said to he of the profession than the science. But, as the vein of humour which runs through this letter partly consists in playing upon words, it is not veiy easy, perhaps it is impossible, to be preserved in a translation ; and, as it alludes to cii'ciunstances which are now alto- gether imlmown, it must necessarily lose much of its original spirit. e The abrupt beginning of this letter has induced some of the commentators to suspect that it is not entire. But ManutiuB has very justly observed, that it evidently refers to the inscription : and he -produces an instance of tlie same kind from one of the epistles to Atticus,— Ad Att. iii. 20. l" After this passage in the original, Cicero goes on ia the following strain :—" ftuanquam qui istine veniunt, partim te superbum esse dicunt, quod nihil raspondetts. partim eontumeliosum, quod male respondeat." Tlio trans- 378 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CJCERO purpose I desire you would hasten hither as expe- ditiously as possible, I would by no means, how- ever, advise you to take Apulia in the way, lest some disastrous adventure in those unlucky regions should prevent our welcoming your safe arrival. And, in truth, to what purpose should you visit this your native province^ ? For, like Ulysses, lator, however, has ventui'ed to omit this witticism, upon the advice of Horace. . '' Quae Desperat tentata nitescere posse, relinquit." It is a pun, indeed, which has already occurred in one of the preceding letters to Trehatius, wheite our author plays in the same manner upon the equivocal sense of the verb respondere. [See rem. p on letter 16 of this book.] Voiture has manaffed an allusion of this kind much more success- fuUy. " Si V0U9 pr^tendez (says that agreeable writer to his friend the plenipotentiary at Munster) que la dignity de plfenipotentiare vous dispense de respondre, Papinian avoit k sa charge toutes les affaires de I'empire romain, et je vous monstrerai en cent lieux dans de gros livres, Papinianus respondit, et respondit Papinianus. Les plus sages et les plus prudens ^toient ceux qui avoient aceous- tum6 de respondre, et de l Tpoas Se rpSfios alphs vTrf]\v9e yv7a eKcurrot/, "EicTOpi T* avT^ dvfihs ivl arrideafft iraTaa-a-ev. Ver. 214 But there is a great difference (as Dr. Clarke observes, in his remarksupon these lines) between dvfihs ev\ tTTTlBeffffiv irdractreVj and Kapdii) e^a (TTTjdeoov idpt&tTKei, orrpSfios aluhi vTrf]\vde yuia. The Trojans, says Homer, trembled ■ at the sight of Ajax ; and even Hector himself felt some emotion in his breast ; or to express it in the same spirit of poetry which distinguishes the original. Thro' evVy Argive heart new transport ran : All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man. E'en Hector paused ; and, with new doubt opprest, Felt his great heart suspended in his breast.— Pope, Perhaps this slip of attention in so great an author may not be improperly pointed out, as engaging the candour of the reader towards those errors of the same natine, ■ which he will too probably meet with in the com-se of } this attempt ^^ BOOK III. LETTER I. To Caiits CurioK Though I am sorry you should suspect me of neglecting you, I will acknowledge that I am not A.r. 700. ^° "nnch concerned at your reproaches for 'my not writing, as I am pleased to find that you are desirous of hearing from me. Con- J Curio was a young nobleman of gi-eal parts, spirit, and eloquence; but addicted, beyond all modesty or measure, to the prevailing luxui'y and gallantries of a most dissolute age. After having dissipated his fortune by extravagant indulgences, for which no estate could suffice, he fell an easy pr^ to corruption. Accordingly, CKsar paid his debts, amounting to almost 600,000^., and by that means gained him over from the cause of liberty, to become one of the scions, Indeed, of not meriting your friendly accusation, the instance it afforded me that my letters were acceptable to you, was a very agreeable proof of the continuance of that affection which I have already so frequently experienced. Believe me, I have never omitted writing whenever any person offered whom I imagined likely to convey my letters into your hands ; and, which of your acquaintan ce, I will venture to ask, is a more punc- warmest and most active of his partisans. It is generally imagined that Virgil glances at him in those well-known lines, vendidit hie auro patriam, ic. though, indeed, they are applicable to so many others of his contemporaries, that there seems no great reason to imagine the poet had Curio particularly in his view. Lucan mentions him as one whose talents would probably have been of the highest TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 579 tual correspondent than myself? In return, how- ever, I have scarcely received more than one or two letters from you since you left Rome^ and those two extremely concise. Thus, you see, I can justly retort your charge ; you must not, therefore, pass too severe a sentence on your part, if you hope to receive a favourable one on mine. But I will dwell no longer on this article than to assure you, that since you are disposed to accept these memorials of my friendship, I doubt not of acquitting myself to your fall satisfaction. Though I regret extremely the being thus long'' deprived of your very agreeable company, yet I cannot but rejoice at an absence which has contri- buted so much to your honour ; as fortune indeed has, in all that concerns you, answered my warmest wishes, I have only to offer you one short piece of advice, and I offer it in compliance with the sincere dictates of that singular affection I bear you. Let me earnestly, then, entreat you to come well-prepared at your return, to act up to those great ideas which the world has, with so much reason, conceived of your spirit and talents. And as nothing can ever wear out the deep impressions your good offices have stamped upon my mind', so, I hope you will not forget, on your side, that you could not have attained those honours or advan- tages that attend you, if you had not, in the earlier part of your life, complied with my faithful and affectionate admonitions'". Have I not reason, then, to expect in return, that as the weight of old age now begins to bend me down", you will suffer me to repose my declining years upon your youth stJxd frieiidship ? Farewell. honour and benefit to his country, if he had lived in times of less contagious depravation : " Haud alium tanta civem tulit indole Koma, Aut ciii plus leges deherent, recta sequentL Perdita tunc urbi nocuerunt eecula, postquam Ambitus et luxus, et opum metuenda facultas, Transverso mentem dubiam torrente tulerunt." " A soul more form'd to aid his country's cause. Avenge her insults, and support her laws, Rome never knew ; but ah ! in evil hour. Fate bade thee live when virtue was no more ! When lawless lust of power, and avarice dread. And baneful luxiury the land o'erspread. Thy wav'ring mind the torrent ill withstood. Borne, scarce resisting, down the impetuous flood." He distinguished himself with great bravery in support of Gsesar's cause in Africa, where Varus commanded on the part of the republic. But, after some successful engage- ments, he lost bis life before the battle of Pharsalia, in an action against the troops of Juha, near Utica. At the time when this letter, and the rest that are addressed to him in the present book, were written, he resided in Asia, where, as Manutius conjectm-es, he was employed in quality of quastor to Caius Clodius.— VelL Pat. it 48 ; Plut. inVit. Caes. ; Val. Max. ix. 6 ; Virg. .^ri. vi. 6'20; Luc. iv. 814; Liv. epit. 110. ^ ** Curio had been most probably absent from Home about two years ; for Caius Clodius, to whom he is sup- posed to have been quaestor, obtained the government of Asia A. u. 698 ; Pigh, Annal."— Rosa ^ Curio assisted him in his contest with Clodius. " Curio, when he was a very young man, had entered into a commerce of the most criminal and detestable kind with Antony. His father, in order to break off this in- famous intercourse, was obliged to call in Cicero to his assistance ; who, by his prudent and friendly advice, weaned the son from a passion not less expensive it seems than it was execrable ; and, by this means, (aa Cicero reproaches Antony in one of his Philippics) he saved an LETTER 11. To Trebatius, If you were not already in the number of our absentees, imdoubtedly you would be tempted to A u. 700. ^^*^® "S at this juncture ; for what busi- ness can a lawyer expect in Rome during this long and general suspension of all juridical proceedings'* ! Accordingly, I advise my friends, who have any actions commenced against them, to petition each successive interrex? for a double en- largement of the usual time for putting in their pleas : and is not this a proof how wonderfully I have profited by your sage instructions in the law "J ? But tell me, my friend, since your letters, I observe, have lately run in a more enlivened strain than usual, what is it that has elevated you into so gay a humour ? This air of pleasantry I like well ; it looks as if the world went successfully with you, and I am all impatience to know what it is that has thus raised your spirits. You inform me, indeed-,. that Csesar does you the honour to advise with you.- For my own part, however, I had rather hear that he consulted your interest than your judgment,- But, seriously, if the former is really the case, or there is any probability of its proving so, let me ' entreat you to continue in your present situation,, and patiently submit to the inconveniences of a military life ; as, on my part, I shall support my- self under your absence with the hopes of its turning : to your advantage. But, if all expectations of this < kind are at an end, let us see you as soon as pos- sible ; and, perhaps, some method may be found here of improving your fortunes. ■ If not, we shall at least have the satisfaction of enjoying each other's company, and one hour's conversation toge- ther is of more value to us, my friend, than the whole city of Samarobriva^ Besides, if you return illustrious family from utter ruin. — Plut, inVit. Anton. ;- Cic. Phil. ii. ]8. ^ Cicero was at this time in the 54th year of his age.— Manutius. The feuds in the republic were raised to so great 3 height towards the latter end of the preceding year and the beginning of the present, that the office of the late consuls had expired several months before new ones could be elected. In exigencies of this kind, th^ constitution, had provided a magistrate called an Interrex, to whom the consular power was provisionally delegated. But public business, however, was at a stand, and the courts of judicative, in particular, were shut up during this interregnum: a circumstance from which Cicero takes occasion to enter into his usual vein of pleasantry with Trebatius, and to rally him in perpetual allusions to his profession.— Dio, xl. P This office of Interrex continued only five days ; a.t the expiration of which, if consuls were not chosen, a new Jnterreie was appointed for the same short period. And in this manner the succession of these occasional magis- trates was carried on, till the elections were determined. 1 The minute forms of law-proceedings among the Romans, are not sufficiently known to distinguish pre- cisely the exact point on wbich Cicero's humour in thia passage turns ; and, accordingly, the explanations which the commentators have offered, are by no means satis- factory. It would be foreign to the piu-pose of theser remarks to lay before the reader theii- several conjectures ; it will be sufficient in general to observe, that there waa- some notorious impropriety in the advice which Cicero- here represents himself as having given to his friends, and in which the whole force of his pleasantry consists. ' A city in Belgic Gaul, and probably the place wherein Trebatius had his present quarters. 380 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO soon, the disappoiatmeat you Have suftered may pass unremarked ; whereas, a longer pursuit to no purpose would be so ridiculous a circumstance, that I am terribly afraid it would scarcely escape the drollery of those very arch fellows^, Laberius, and my companion Valerius'. And what a bur- lesque character would a British lawyer furnish out for the Roman stage ! You may smile, perhaps, at this notion ; but though I mention it in my usual style of pleasantry, let me tell you it is no jesting matter. In good earnest, if there is any prospect that my recommendations will avail in obtaining the honours you deserve, I cannot but exhort you, in all the sincerity of the warmest friendship, to make yourself easy under this ab- sence, as a means of increasing both your fortunes and your fame : if not I would strongly advise your return. I have no doubt, however, that your own merit, in conjunction with my most zealous services, will procure you every advantage you can reasonably desire. Farewell. LETTER III. / To Appius Pulchcr^. If the Genius of Rome were himself to give you an account of the commonwealth, you could not be A u 700 i"ore fully apprised of public affairs, than * by the information y.ou will receive from Phanias : a person, let me tell you, not only of s Labevius was a, Roman laiight, who distiaguished himself by his comic humom*, and he had ^vritten several farces which were acted with great applause. He was pre- vailed upon by Csesar to take a part himself in one of his own performances, and the prologue which he spoke upon that occasion is still extant. The whole composition is extremely spirited, and afltords a very advantageous speci- men of his genius ; but there is something go peculiarly just and beautiful in the thought of the concluding lines, that the reader perhaps will not regret the being carried out of his way in order to observe it Laberius was sixty years of age, when, in complaisance to Csesar, he thus made his first entrance upon the stage ; and, in allusion to a circumstance so little favourable to his appearing with success, he tells the audience, " Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat ; Ita me vtetustas amplexu annorum enecat ; Sepulchri similis, nihil nisi nomen retineo !" " While round the oak the fraudful ivy twines, Robb'd of its strength, the sapless tree declines. Thus envious age, advanced with stealing pace, , Clasps my chill'd limbs, and kills with cold embrace. ' Like empty monuments to heroes' fame. Of all I was retaining but the name ! ■ Macrob. Saturn, ii. 7. t This Valerius is supposed by some of the commentators to be Quintus Valerius Catullus, a celebrated poet, who, bii appears by his works, which are still extant, was patronised by Cicero. But the opinion of Manutius is much more probable, that the person here meant is the same to whom the 13th letter of the fii-st book in this collection is addi-essed, and who is ^likewise mentioned in Uie following epistle. ^ Appius Clodius Pulcher had been consul the preceding yeai-, and was at this time governor of Cilicia. The parti- tular traits of his chai-acter will be occasionally marked out in the observations on the sevei-al letters addressed to him in this and the subsequent books. In the mean time it may be sufficient to observe that Cicero very zealously cultivated his friendship, not from any real opinion of his merit, but as one whose powerful alliances rendered him too considerable to be despised as an enemy. For one consummate politics, but of infinite curiosity. I refer you, therefore, to Mm, as to the shortest and safest means of being acquainted with our situation. I might trust him likewise with assuring you, at the same time, of the friendly disposition of my heart towards you ; but that is an office which I must claim the privilege of executing with my own hand. Be persuaded, then, that I think of you with the highest affection: as, indeed, you have a full right to these sentiments, not only from the many generous and aniiable qualities of your mind, but from that grateful sensibility, with which, as I. am informed, both. by your own letters and the general account of others, you receive my best ser- vices. I shall endeavour, therefore, by my future good offices, to compensate for that long intermis- sion which unhappily suspended our former inter- course^. And, since you seem willing to renew our amicable commerce, I doubt not of engaging in it with the general approbation of the world'''. Your freedman Cilix, was very little known to me before he delivered your obliging letter into my hands : the friendly pui-port of which he confirmed with great politeness. The account, indeed, he gave me of your sentiments, as well as of the fre- quent and favourable mention you are pleased to make of my name, were circumstances which I heard with much pleasure. In short, during our two days* conversation together, he entirely won my heart : not to the exclusion, however, of my old friend Phanias, whose return I impatiently expect. I imagine you will speedily order him back to Rome ; and I hope you will not dismiss him without sending me, at the same time, your full and unreserved commands. I very strongly recommend to your patronage Valerius the lawyer^, even though you should discover that he has but a slender claim to that appellation. I mention this, as being more cau- tious in obviating the fiav/s in his title than he usually is in guarding against those of his clients. But, seriously, I have a great affection for the man : as, indeed, he is my particular friend and compa- nion. I must do him the justice to say, that he is extremely sensible of the favours you have already conferred upon him. Nevertheless, he is desirous of my recommendation, as he is persuaded it will have much weight with you. I entreat you to convince him that he is not mistaken. Farewell. of Appius's daughters was married to Pompey's son, and the other to Brutus.— See Life of Cicero, p. 163 ; Ep. Fam. ii, 13. ^ Appius was brother to Cicero's declared enemy, the turbulent Clodius, which occasioned that interruption of their friendship to which he here alludes. It appears by a passage in the oration for Milo, that Clodius, in the absence of his brother, had forcibly taken possession of an estate belonging to Appius ; and the indignation which this piece of injustice must necessarily raise in the latter, rendered him, it is probable, so much the more disposed to a re-union with Cicero. — Orat. pro Mil. 27- '**' The whole passEwte in the original stands thus:— " Idque me, quoniam tu ita vis, puto non invita Minerva factxurum: quaiti quidem egot si forte de tuis sumpsero, non solum Pallada, sed etiam Appiada nominaho" Tho former part of this sentence is translated a^;FeeabIy to the interpretation of the learned Gronovius : but Xha latter is wholly omitted. For notwithstanding all the pains of the commentators to explain its difficulties, it is utterly unintelligible : at least I do not scruple to confess it is so to me. •■^ Seo rem. » on letter 23, book ii* TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 381 LETTER IV. ■' To Caius Memmius'. Your tenant, Caius Evander, is a person with whom I am very intimate : as his patron, Marcus i u 70O .'Emillus, is in the numher of my most particular friends. I entreat your per- mission, therefore, that he may continue some time longer in your house, if it be not inconve- nient to you : for, as he has a great deal of work upon his hands, he cannot remove so soon as the first of July, without being extremely hurried. I should be ashamed to use many words in soliciting a favour of this nature at your hands ; and I am persuaded that, if it is not very much to your pre- judice, you will be as well inclined to grant me this request as I should be to comply with any of yours. I will only add, therefore, that your Indulgence will greatly oblige me. Farewell. LETTER V. t To Trebaiius, I WAS wondering at the long intermission of your letters, when my friend Fansa accounted for A I' '00 y"""^ insolence, by assuring me that you were turned an Epicurean. Glorious efiect, indeed, of camp-conversation ! But, if a metamorphosis so extraordinary has been wrought in you amidst the martial air of Samarobriva, what would have been the consequence had I sent you to the softer regions of Tarentum^ ? I have been in some pain for your principles, I confess, ever since your intimacy with my friend Seius. But how will you reconcile your tenets to your profes- sion, and act for the interest of your client, now that you have adopted the maxim of doing nothing but for your own ? With what grace can you insert the usual clause in your deeds of agreement : " The parties to these presents as becomes good men and true," &c. ? For neither truth nor trust can there be in those who professedly govern themselves upon motives of absolute selfishness .' I am in some pain, likewise, how you will settle the law con- cerning the partition of '' rights in common :" as there can he nothing in common between those who make their own private gratification the sole crite- rion of right and wrong. Or can you think it proper to administer an oath, while you maintain that Jupiter is incapable of all resentment ? In a word, what will become of the good people of UlubrsB^'who have placed themselves under your protection, if you hold the maxim of your sect, " that a wise man ought not to engage himself in pubUc aflTairs?" Jn good earnest I shall be ex- tremely s orry, if it is true that you have really 7 See an account of him in rem. <= on tlie 27th letter of this hoolc. * Tarentum was a city in Italy distinguished for the softness and luxury of its inhabitants. Geographers inform us that the greatest part of their year was consumed in the celebration of stated festivals.— Bunon. Comment in Clu- verii Geograph, ■^ " Cicero jocosely speaks of this people, as if they belonged to the most considerable town in Italy ; whereas it was so mesji and contemptible a place, that Horace, in order to show the power of contentment, says, that a person possessed of that excellent temper of mind, may be happy even at Ulubrffi : ' Est Ulubritt animus si te non deficit aequus.' " — ^Ross. deserted us. But if your conversion is nothing more than a convenient compliment to the opinions of Pansa, I will forgive your dissimulation, pro- vided you let me know soon how your affairs go on, and in what manner I can be of any service in them. Farewell. LETTER VL To Caius Curio, Our friendship, I trust, needs not any other evidence to confirm its sincerity than what arises A n 700 ^'''"" ^^^ testimony of our own hearts. I cannot, however, but consider the death of your illustrious father as depriving me of a most venerable witness to that singular affection I bear you''. I regret that he had not the satisfaction of taking a last farewell of you before he closed his eyes : it was the' only circumstance wanting to render him as much superior to the rest of the world in his domestic happiness as in his public fame'. I sincerely wish you the happy enjoyment of your estate : and, be assured, you will find in me a friend who loves and values you with the same tenderness as your father himself conceived for you. Farewell, LETTER VH. , To Trebatius. Can you seriously suppose me so unreasonable as to be angry, because I thought you discovered A D 700 '°° inconstant a disposition in your im- patience to leave Gaul.' And can you possibly beUeve it was for that reason I have thus long omitted writing.' The truth is, I was only concerned at the uneasiness which seemed to have overcast your mind : and I forbore to write upon no other account, but as being entirely ignorant where to direct my letters. I suppose, however, that this is a plea which your loftiness will scarcely condescend to admit. But tell me then, is it the weight of your purse, or the honour of being the counsellor of Csesar, that most disposes you to be thus insufferably arrogant? Let me perish if I do not believe that thy vanity is so immoderate, as to choose rather to share in his councils than his coffers. But should he admit you into a participa- tion of both, you will undoubtedly swell into such intolerable airs, that no mortal will be able to en- dure you : or none, at least, except myself, who am philosopher enough, you know, to endure any- thing. But I was going to tell you, that as I regretted the uneasiness you formerly expressed, so I rejoice to hear that you are better reconciled to your situation. My only fear is, that your wonderful skill in the law will little avail you in your present quarters ; for I am told, that the people you have to deal with, b See rem. "' on the first letter of this book. c He was consul in the year of Rome 676, when he acted with great spirit in opposition to the attempts of Sicinius, for restoring the tribunitial power, which had been much abridged by Sylla. In the following year he went governor into Macedonia, and by his military conduct in that pro- vince obtained the honour of a triumph. He distinguished himself among the friends of Cicero when he was attacked by Clodius,— Freinsbem. Supplem. in Liv. ici. ciii. 382 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO " Best the strength of their cause on the force of their might, And the sword is supreme arbitrator of right**." As I know you do not choose to be concerned in forcible entries, and are much too peaceably dis- posed to be fond of making assaults, let me leave a piece of advice with my lawyer, and by all means recommend it to you to avoid the Treviri ' ; for I hear they are most formidable fellows. I wish from my heart they were as harmless as their name- sakes round the edges of our coin'. But I must reserve the rest of my jokes to another opportunity : in the mean time let me desire you would send me a full account of whatever is going forward in your province. Farewell. March the 4th. LETTER VIII. To CornificiusS. YouB letter was extremely agreeable to me in all respects, except that I was sorry to find by it, you had slighted my lodge at Sinuessa. *" " ■ I shall not excuse the affront you have thus passed upon my little hovel, unless you give me double satisfaction by making use both of my Cuman and Pompeian villas. Let me entreat you then to do so, and to preserve me likewise in your affection. I hope you will provoke me to enter into a literary contest with you, by some of your writings ; as I find it much easier to answer a challenge of this kind, than to send one. However, if you should persevere in your usual indolence, I shall venture to lead the way myself, in order to show you that your idleness has not infected me. I steal a moment to write this whilst I am in the senate ; but you shall have a longer letter from me when I shall be less engaged. Farewell. LETTER IX. ' To Trehatius. I AM giving you an instance, that those who love are not easily to be pleased, when I assure you, A u 700 **'' ^'"'"S'l I ^^ ■''^'■y much concerned when you told me that you continued in Gaul with reluctance, yet I am no less mortified now your letter informs me, that you like your situation extremely well. To say the truth, as 1 regretted you should not approve a scheme which you pursued upon my recommendation ; so I can ill bear that any place should be agreeable to you where I am not. Nevertheless, I had much rather endure the uneasiness of your absence, than suffer you to forego the advantages with which I hope it will be attended. It is impossible, therefore, to express how much I rejoice in your having made a friendship with a man of so improved an under- standing and so amiable a dispositio n as Matius : ^ Ennius. "^ ' « The Treviri were a most warlike people, bordering on Germany. They were defeated about this time by La- bienus, one of Caesar's lieutenants in GauL — Cses. De Bell. Call. viii. ' The public coin was under the inspection of three officers called Treviri moneiales: and several pieces of money are still extant in the cabinets of the curious, inscribed with the names of these magistrates.— Petri Bembi Epist. apud Manut. s See an account of him in letter 24, book xi. rem, K whose esteem, I hope, you will endeavour to culti- vate by every means in your power. For believe me, you cannot bring home a more valuabls acquisition. Farewell. LETTER X. To Caius Curio. You must not impute i^ to any neglect in Rupa, that he has not executed your commission ; as he ^ omitted it merely in compliance with the opinion of myself and the rest of your friends. We thought it most prudent that no steps should be taken during your absence which might preclude you from a change of measures after your return ; and therefore that it would be best he should not signify your intentions of entertain- ing the people with public games' . I may perhaps, in some future letter, give you my reasons at large against your executing that design ; or rather, that you may not come prepared to answer my objec- tions, I believe it will be the wisest way to reserve them till we meet. If I should not bring you over to my sentiments, I shall have the satisfaction at least, of discharging the part of a friend ; and should it happen (which I hope, however, it will not) that you should hereafter have occasion to repent of your scheme, you may then remember that I endeavoured to dissuade you from it. But this much I will now say, that those advantages which fortune, in conjunction with your own indus- try and natural endowments, have put into your possession, supply a far surer method of opening your way to the highest dignities than any ostenta- tious display of the most splendid spectacles. The truth of it is, exhibitions of this kind, as they are instances of wealth only, not of merit, are by no means considered as reflecting any honour on the authors of them ; not to mention that the public is quite satiated with their frequent returns. But I am fallen unawares into what I designed to have avoided, and pointing out my particular reasons against your scheme. I will waive all farther dis- cussions therefore of this matter, till we meet, and in the mean time inform you that the world enter- tains the highest opinion of your virtues. Whatever advantages may be hoped from the most exalted patriotism united with the greatest abilities, the public, believe me, expects from you. And should you come prepared (as I am sure you ought and I trust you will) to act up to these its glorious expectations, then indeed you will exhibit to your friends and to the commonwealth in general, a spectacle of the noblest and most affecting kind'. In the meanwhile, be assured no man has a greater share of my affection and esteem than yourself. Farewell. ' Curio's pretence for exhibiting these gajnes, was to pay an honour to the memory of his father, lately deceased : but his principal motive was to ingratiate himself with the people, who were passit)n.ately attached to entertainments of this kind. As Cicero well knew the profusion of Curio's temper, and that the scheme he was meditating could not be executed without great expense, he acted 'a very judi- cious and honest part, in labouring to turn him aside from a project that would cimtribute to embarrass his finances, and most probably therefore impair the foimdation of his integrity. ' Curio was not of a disposition to listen to this prudent counsel of his friend ; but in opposition to all the grave TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. S83 LETTER XI. / To Trebaiius. Two or three of your letters which lately came to my hands at the same time, though of different „„ dates, have afforded me great pleasure ; A. IT. 700. .. e ^1 j^ T as they were proofs that you have recon- ciled yourself, with much spirit and resolution, to 'the inconveniences of a military life. I had some little suspicion, I confess, of the contrary ; not that I questioned your courage, but as imputing your unensiness to the regret of our separation. Let me entreat you then to persevere in your present tem- per of mind, and believe me, you will derive many and considerable advantages from the service in which you are engaged. In the mean while I shall not fail to renew my solicitations to Ceesar in your favour upon all proper occjisions, and have herewith sent you a Greeli letter to deliver to him for that purpose ; for in truth' you cannot be more anxious than I am that this expedition may prove to your benefit. In return, I desire you would send me a full relation of the CraUic war, for you must know I always depend most upon the accounts of those who are least engaged in the action. As I do not inaagine you are altogether so consi- derable a person as to retain a secretary in your service, I could not but wonder you should trouble yourself with the precaution of sending me several copies of the same letter. Your parsimony, how- ever, deserves to be applauded, as one of them, 1 observed, was written iipon a tablet that had been used before. I cannot conceive what unhappy composition could be so very miserable as to deserve to give place upon this occasion, unless it were one of your own conveyances. I flatter myself at least, it was not any sprightly epistle of mine that you thus disgraaed, in order to scribble over it a dull one of your own. Or was it your intention to intimate affairs go so ill with you, that you could not afford any better materials ? If that should be your case you must even thank yourself for not leaving your modesty behind you. I shall recommend you in very strong terms to Balbus when he returns into Gaul. But you must not be surprised if you should not hear from me again so soon as usual, as I shall be absent from Rome during all this month. I write this from Pomptinus, at the villa of Metrilius Philemon, where I am placed within hearing of those croak- ing clients whom you recommended to my protec- tion ; for a prodigious number it seems of yourJ Ulubrean frogs are assembled in order to compli- ment my arrival among them. Farewell. April the 8th. P.S — I have destroyed the letter I received from you by the hands of Lucius Aruntius, though it was much too innocent to deserve so severe a treatment : for it contained nothing that might not have been advice of Cicero, he persevered in his resolution, and executed it with great magnificence. The consequence was just what Cicero foresaw and dreaded : he contracted debts which he was incapable of discharging, and then sold himself to Caesar, in order to satisfy the clamours of bis creditors. — See rew. J on the first letter of this book. i Cicero ludicrously gives the inhabitants of Ulubrfie this appellation; in allusion to the low and marshy situation of their town..^ec rem. % p. 381. proclaimed before a general assembly of the people. However, it was your express desire I should de- stroy it, and I have complied accordingly. I will only add, that 1 wonder much at not having heard from you since, especially as so many extraordinary events have lately happened in your province. LETTER XIL To Caius Ctirip. NuMBEKLEss are the subjects which may enter into a correspondence of the epistolary kind ; but a. n. 700 ""^ most usual, and which indeed gave the first rise to this amicable commerce is, to inform an absent friend of those private affairs which it may be necessary, either for his interest or our own, that he should know. You must not however expect anything of the latter sort from me, as your family correspondents, I am sensible, com- municate to you what relates to your own concerns, and nothing new has happened in mine. There are two other species of letters with which I am particularly pleased ; those I mean that are written in the freedom and pleasantry of common conver- sation, and those which turn upon grave and moral topics. But in which of these it would be least improper for me to address you at this juncture, is a question not easily determined. Ill indeed would it become me to entertain you with letters of humour, at a season when every man of common sensibility has bidden adieu to mirth''. And what can Cicero write that shall deserve the serious thoughts of Curio, unless it be on public affairs ? My situation, however, is such, that I dare not trust my real sentiments of those points in a letter' : and none other will I ever send you-'". Thus pre- cluded as I am from every other topic, I must content myself with repeating what 1 have often urged, and earnestly exhort you to the pursuit of true and solid glory. Believe me, it will require the utmost efforts of your care and resolution, to act up to those high and uncommon expectations which the world has conceived of your merit. There is indeed but one possible method that can enable you to surmount this arduous task. The method I mean is, by diligently cultivating those qualities which are the foundation of a just applause ; of that applause, my friend, which I know is the constant object of your warmest ambition. I might add ^ Affairs at Home were at this time in the utmost con- fusion, occasioned (as has already been observed in the notes above) by the factious interruption that was given to the usual election of the magistrates. [See rem. o, p. 379.] This state of tumult, or indeed to speak more pro- pei-ly of almost absolute anarchy, was however somewhat composed towards the latter end of the present year, by the election of Domitius Oalvinus and Valerius Messala to the consular oihce Dio, xl. p. 141. ' The disturbances mentioned in the preceding note, were artfully fomented by Cs°sar and Pompey, in order to turn them to the advantage of then' ambitious purposes. But this was too delicate a circumstance for Cicero to explain himself upon ; especially as he was now culti- vating a friendship with both. ™ The text in the original is evidently defective : '* atqua in boo genere hac mea causa est, ut neque ea qus non sentio velim scribere." The sense is supplied in the trans- lation, in a way that aeemed to coincide best with this mutilated sentence. nsi THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO much more to this purpose, but I am sensible you stand not in need of any incitements ; and indeed I have thrown out these general hints far less with a view of inflaming your heart, than of testifying the ardency with whitSh I give you mine. Fare- well. LETTER XIII. To Memmius. / I CLAIM the promise yoii gave me when we met last, and desire you to treat my very intimate and zealous friend Aulus Fusius, in the man- A. 17. 700. ^^^ y^^ assured me you would. He is a man of letters as well as great politeness, and indeed in every view of his character he is highly deserving your friendship. The civilities you shall show him will be extremely agreeable to me, as they will at the same time for ever attach to your interest a person of a most obhging and friendly- disposition. Farewell. A. D, 700. LETTER XIV. To Caius Curio. Public affairs are so circumstanced that I dire not communicate my sentiments of them in a letter. This however I will venture in general to say, that I have reason to congratulate you on your I'emoval from the scene in which we are engaged. But I must add, that in whatever part of the world you might be placed, you would still (as I told you in my last ") be embarked in the same common bottom vjith your friends here. I have another reason likew.ise for rejoicing in your absence, as it has placed your merit in full view of so considerable a number of the most illustrious citizens and allies of Rome, and indeed the reputa- tion you have acquired is universally and without the least exception, confirmed to us on all hands. Lut there is one circumstance attending you, upon which I know not whether I ought to send you my congratulations or not ; I mean with respect to those high and singular advantages which the com- monwealth promises itself from yourretum amongst us. Not that I suspect your proving unequal to the opinion which the world entertains of your virtues, but as fearing that whatever is most worthy of your care will be irrecoverably lost ere your arrival to prevent it ; such, alas, is the weak and well-nigh expiring condition of our unhappy repub- lic ! But prudence, perhaps, will scarce justify me in trusting even this to a letter ; for the rest, therefore, I must refer you to others : in the meanwhile, whatever your fears or your hopes of public affairs may be, think, my friend, incessantly think on those virtues which that generous patriot ' must possess, who in these evil times, and amidst such a general depravation of manners, gloriously purposes to vindicate the ancient dignity and liber- 1 ties of his oppressed country. Farewell. ' B Tbe letter to wliich Cicero refers ie not extant. LETTER XV. / To Trebatfus. If it were not for the compliments you sent me by Chrysippus, the freedman of Cyrus the architect, ^„„ I should have imagined I no longer pos- sessed a place in your thoughts. But surely you are become a most intolerable fine gentleman, that you could not bear the fatigue of writing to me, when you had the opportunity of doing so, by a man whom you know I look upon as one almost of my own family. Perhaps, how- ever, you may have forgotten the use of your pen ; and so much the better, let me tell you, for your clients, as they will lose no more causes by its blunders. But if it is myself only that has escaped your remembrance, I must endeavour to refresh it by a visit, before I am worn out of your mind beyond all power of recollection. After all, is it not the apprehensions of the next summer's cam- paign that has rendered your hand too unsteady to perform its office .' If so, you must e'en play over again the same gallant stratagem you practised last year, in relation to your British expedition, and frame some heroic excuse for your absence. However, I was extremely glad to hear, by Chry- sippus, that you are much in Ceesar's good graces. But it would be more like a man of equity, me- thlnks, as well as more agreeable to myinclinations, if you were to give me frequent notice of what concerns you by your own hand: a satisfaction I should undoubtedly enjoy, if you had chosen to study the laws of good fellowship rather than those of contention. You see I rally you as usual in your own way, not to say a little in mine. But to end seriously : be assured, as I greatly love you, I am no less confident than desirous of your affection in return. Farewell. LETTER XVL To Publius Sextius°. I HOPE you will not imagine by my long silence that I have been unmindful of our friendship, or A. u ''00 ^^"-^^ ^ ^^^ ^^y intention of dropping my usual correspondence with you. The sincere truth is, I was prevented from writing during the former part of our separation, by those calamities in which the general confusion of the times had involved me : as I afterwards delayed it, from an unwillingness to break in upon you, whilst your own severe and unmerited injuries were yet fresh upon your mind. But when I reflect that a ° The commentators are greatly divided as to the time when this letter was written, and the person to whom it is addressed. To examine the several reasons upon which they support their respective opinions, would be leading tbe English reader into ft field of criticism, which could afford him neither amusement nor instruction. The sub- ject, indeed, of this letter, which is merely consolatory, to a friend in exile, is not of consequence enough to merit any pains in ascertaining (if it were possible to ascertain) its precise date : and it is sufficient to observe, that it con- tains nothing but what perfectly coincides with the circum- stances both of Cicero's affairs and those of the republic in the present year. As to the person to whom this letter is written, it is impossible to determine anything eoneeming Iiim ; for the MSS. and printed copies are by no means agreed as to his name, some calling him Titius. others Sitius, and others Scxtius. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 385 sufficient time has elapsed to wear off the first impressions of your misfortunes : and consider, likewise, the virtues and magnanimity of your heart ; I think I may now write to you consist- ently with my general caution of avoiding an un- seasonable ofiiciousness. You are sensible, my dear Sextius, that I warmly stood forth your advocate, when a prosecution was formerly commenced against you in your absence ; as afterwards, when you were involved in that accusation which was brought against your friend, I exerted every means in my power for your defence. Thus, likewise, upon my return into Italy P, though I found your affairs had been managed in a very different manner than I should have advised, yet I omitted no opportunity of rendering you my utmost services. And upon this occasion, when the clamour that was raised against you on account of the corni, by those that were the enemies, not only of yourself, but of all who endeavoured to assist you : when the general cor- ruption of the judges, and, in short, when many other public iniquities had prevailed to your con- demnation against all truth and justice, 1 was not wanting in my best good offices of every kind towards your son. Having, therefore, thus faithfully performed every other sacred duty of friendship, I would not omit this likewise of entreating and exhorting you to bear your afflictions as becomes a man of your distinguished spirit and fortitude. In other words, let me conjure you to support with resolution those common vicissitudes of fortune which no prudence can prevent, and for which no mortal is answerable ; remembering that in all popular governments, as well as in our own; it has been the fate of many of the besi and greatest men to fall a sacrifice to the injustice of their country. I will add (and I wish I could, with truth, be con- tradicted) that the injurious sentence you lament has only banished you from n commonwealth in which no rational mind can receive the least satis- faction. If I were to say nothing of your son, it would look as if I were inattentive to that general applause which his virtues so justly receive : on the other hand, were I to tell you all that I hear and think of him, I am afraid I should only renew your grief for being thus separated from his company. However, you should wisely consider his uncommon virtues as a possession which inseparably attends you, in whatever part of the world you may be placed. For surely the objects of the mind are not less intimately present with us than those of the eye. The reflection, therefore, on his singular merit and filial piety, the fidelity of myself and the rest of those friends whom you have found, and will ever find, to be the followers, not of your fortune, but of your virtue ; and, above all, the consciousness of not having deserved your suffer- ings, are circumstances which ought to administer the highest consolation to you. And they will more effectually do so, if you consider that it is guilt, and not misfortune ; one's own crimes, and V Probably, when he returned from exile, in the year 696. 'I It was the business of the fediles, amongst other parts ol their duty, to superintend the markets and public maga- sines of coi-n. It seems probable, therefore, from this pas- sage, that Sextius was banished for some real or pretended miscnnduct in the administration of that office. not the injustice of others, which ought to disturb the serenity of a well-regulated mind. In the mean time be assured, that in compliance with the dic- tates of that friendship I have long entertained for you, and of that esteem which I bear for your son, I shall neglect no opportunity, both of alleviating your afflictions, and of contributing all I can to support you under them. In a word, if, upon any occasion, you should think it necessary to write to me, you shall find that your application was not made in vain. Farewell. LETTER XVII. To Curio, f I DESPATCH Sextus Villlus, a domestic of my friend Milo, to meet you with this letter, notwith- a. u. 700. s'*°'l'"g ^'s have received no account of your being yet advanced near Italy. However, we are assured that you are set forward from Asia' ; and as it is generally believed it will not be long ere yon arrive in Rome, I persuade myself that the importance of the affair which occasions you this application will justify my desire of making it as early as possible. If I estimated my services towards you by the same enlarged standard that you gratefully measure them yourself, I should be extremely reserved in requesting any considerable favour at your hands. It is painful indeed to a man of a modest and generous mind to solicit great obligations from those whom he has greatly obliged, lest he should seem to claim the price of his good offices, and ask a matter of right rather .than of grace. But I can have no scruples of this sort with respect to you ; as the services you have conferred upon me, and particularly in my late troubles, are not only of the highest, but most conspicuous nature.' An ingenu- ous disposition, where it already owes much, is willing to owe more ; and it is upon this principle that I make no difficulty of requesting your assist- ance in an article of the last importance to me. I have no reason, indeed, to fear that I should sink under the weight of your favours, even if they were to rise beyond all number, as I trust there is none so considerable that I should not only receive with gratitude, but return with advantage. I am exerting the ntuiost efforts of my cai"e, my industry, and my talents, in order to secure the election of Milo to the consulate ; and I think myself bound upon this occasion to give a proof to the world of the more than common affection with which I enter into his interest. I am persuaded no man ever was so anxious for the preservation of his own person and fortunes, as I am that Milo may obtain this honour : an event upon which the security of my own dignities, I am sensible, depends. Now, the assistance which it is in your power to give my friend is so very considerable, that it is all we want to be assured of victory ; for thus our forces stand. In the first place. Mile's conduct towards me in his tribunate' has gained him (as I hope you perfectly'well know) the affections of all our patriots, as the liberality of his temper and the 1" See rem. J, 'p. 378, towards the end. » Milo was tribune in the year of Rome 6!)6 : at which time he conferred very singular obligations on Cicero, by most zealously exerting all his pov^er and credit in pro- moting his recal from exile. — Orat. pro Mil. C C 386 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO magnificence of his shows have secured to him the favour of the populace'. In the next place, all the young part of the republic, together with those who have the most influence in electiofis, are wholly in his interest, as havirfg received, or expecting to receive, the benefit of his own popularity and active offices upon occasions of a like nature. I will add, likewise, that he has my suffrage ; which, though it may not draw after it any considerable effects, is, however, universally approved as a tribute which is justly his due ; and so far perhaps it may be considered as of some weight with the public. All, therefore, that we farther require is, a person to appear as the leader of these our rude forces, and to unite them together under one head ; and had we the choice of the whole world, we could not fix upon a man so well quahfied for this purpose as yburself. If you believe, then, that I have any wbrth or gratitude, or can even infer it from these my earnest endeavours to serve Milo ; in a word, if you esteem me deserving of your favours, I entreat you to co-operate with me in this affair, upon which my character or (to come still nearer to the truth) upon which almost my very preservation depends'. With regard to Milo himself, I will only assure you that you never can oblige a man of a niore sohd turn of mind, of a more resolute spii-it, or one who, if you should embrace his in- terest, vfill receive your good offices with a more affectionate gratitude. You will at the same time also confer so singular ail honour upon myself, as to convince me that you have no less regard for the support of my credit than you formerly showed for the safety of my person. I should enlarge much farther upon this subject, if I were not persuaded that you are perfectly sensible of the infinite obli- gations I have received from Milo, and that it is ihcuinbent' upon me to promote his election with my utmost zeal, and even at the hazard of my life'. * Milo had dissipated three very considerahle estates in the extravagant shows which, upon different occasions, he had exhibited to the people ; as he was likewise at this time proposing to entertain them in the same magnificent man- ner, at the expense of 250,000?.— Orat. pro Mil. 25; Ad Quint. Frat, iii. 9. «' Cicero was particularly concerned to secure Mile's election, not only from a principle of gratitude, but of Belf-preaervationl For Clodius, our author's implacable enemy, was now soliciting the ofiice of prastor : and if Milo were rejected from the consulship, it would fall into the hands of Plautus Hypsieus and Metellus Scipio, who were both under the influence of Clodius, By these means, the latter would once agam have been armed with the princi- pal authority of the commonwealth ; and Cicero knew, by .sad and recent experience, that he had evei'ything to fear from such an enemy when he could add^ power to malica His interest, therefore, conspired with his' friendship m supporting the pretensions of Milo, who had, upon all occasions, opposed the designs of Clodius with great warmth and spirit ; and who, in the present instance, would have proved aeounter-balance, if Clodius should have attempted a second time to fall with his whole weight upon Cicero Orat. pro Mil. passim. V In this declining state of the republic, the elections were carried on, not only by the most shameful and avowed bribery, but by the several mobs of the respective candidatea These, it may well be imagined, were both disposed and prepared to commit every outrage that the cause of their leaders should require. Accordingly, the party of Milo, and that of his competitors, had such fre- quent and bloody engagements with each other, as to raise a general apprehension of a civil war. — ^Plut. in Vit. CatOQ. I will only, then, in one word, recommend thia affair, and therein the most important of my con- cerns, to your favour and protection : and be assured I shall esteem your compliance with my request as an obligation superior, I had almost said, even to that for which I am so greatly indebted to Milo. The truth of it is, it would'give me more pleasure to make him an effectual return for the very considerable part he bore in my restoration, than I received even from the benefit of his good offices themselves. Alni this, I am confident, yorir single concurrence will fully enable me to per- form*. Farewell. LETTER XVIII. , To Titus Fadius^. I KNOW not any event which has latelyliappenedj that more sensibly affects me than yoiir disgrace. J. u 70O ^^^' t'i^'^^f°''^> ^™™ being capable of giving you the consolation I wish, I greatly stand iil need of the same good office my- self Nevertheless, I cannot forbear not only to exhort, but to conjure you likewise by our friend- ship, to collect your whole strength of reason, in order to support your afflictions with a firm aiid manly fortitude. Remember, my friend, that cala- mities are incident to all mankind, but particularly to us who live iii these miserable and distractirid times. Let it be your consolation, however, td reflect, that you have lost far less by fortune than you have acquired by merit : as there are few under the circumstances of your birth who^ ever raised themselves to the same dignities ; though therd are numbers of the highest quality who have sunk into the same disgrace. To say truth, so wretched is the fate which threatens our laws, our liberties, and our constitution in general, that well may he esteem himself happily dealt with who- is dismissed from such a distempered government upon the least injurious terms. As to your own case in particular, when you reflect that you are still urideprived of "" Soon after this letter was written, an unfortunate adventure disconcerted all Cicero's measures m behalf of his friend, and obliged him, instead of soliciting any longer for Milo as a candidate, to defend him as a criminal. It happened that Milo and Clodius having met, as they wei-e trarveliing the Appian road, a rencounter ensued, in which the latter was killed. Milo was arraigned for this murder : and, bemg convicted, was sentenced to banishment. Cicero, in his defence, laboui-ed to prove, by a variety of circum- stances, that this meeting could not have been premeditated on the. part of his client: and, mdeed, it seems probable that it was not. But, however casual that particular inci- dent might have been, Milo, it is ccrtam, had long before determined to assassmate Clodius: and it appears, too, that Cicero himself was apprised of the design. This is evident from a letter to Atticus,.written about four years antecedent to the fact of which I am speakmg : — " Reum Publium (nisi ante occisus erit) fore a Milone puto. Si sa inter viam obtulerit, occisum iri ab ipso Milone video. Non dubitat facere ; prse se fert." — Dio, xl. p. 143, 146 ; Orat pro Mil. ; Ad Att. iv. 3. ^ It is altogether uncertam to whom this letter is ad- dressed ; as there is great variety in the several readmgs of its inaoription. If the title adopted in the translation be the true one, (and it is that which has the greatest number of commentators on its side,) the person to whom it is ■wi'itten was qmestor to Cicero in his consulate ; and after- wards one of those tribunes who, in the year of Rome 696, promoted the law by which he was restored to his country. —Ad Att. iii. 23. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS, 387 your estate ; that you are happy in the affections of your children, your family, and your friends ; and that in all probability you are only separated from them for a short interval : when you reflect, that among the great number Of impeachments which have lately been carried oh?, yours is the only one that was considered as entirely groundless ; that fou were cotldenlTlfed by a majority only of one single vote ; and that, too, universally supposed to have been given in compliance with some power- ful influetice. These, undoubtedly, are considera- tions which ought grtatly to alleviate the weight of your misfortune. I will oiily add, that you may always depend upon finding in me that disposition both towards yourself and your family, as is agree- able to your wishes, as well as to what you have a right to expect. Farewell. LETTER XIX. ^ To Tims Titim': It is by no means as suspecting that my former reconSmendation was not sufficient, that I give you J ,j „Q^ this second trouble, but merely in com- pliance with the request of my friend AfianusMaecus; to whom I neither can tior indeed ought to refuse anything. The truth is, ndtwithi Standing your very obliging answer, when I men- tidted his aifair to you in person, and that I have aheady Written to you in strong terms upon the same Subject, yet he imagines I cannot toO often apply to you in his behalf. I hope, therefore, you ^1 ezcuse rile, if in thus yielding to his inclias- tions I should seem to forget that you are incapable of receding from your word ; and again entreat you to allow him a convenient port, and sufficient time for the exportation ofr his corn. Both these favours I obtained for him when Pompey had the com- mission in which you are now employed; and the term he granted him was three years. To say all in one word, you will very sensibly oblige tne by convilicing Avianus that I enjoy the same share in your affection which he justly imagines he pos- sesses of mine. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Trebaiiiis. I AcauAiNTED you with the affair of Silius. He has since been with me, when I informed him j^ „ -Qd that it was your opinion we might safely enter into the Usual recognizance. But he has consulted, he tells me, with Servius, who assures him, that where a testator has no power to make a will, it must be cOhsidered, to all intents 7 The circumstance here mentioned renders it probable that the letter before us was written in the present year. For Pompey being at this time appointed sole consul, made several salutary regulations with respect to the method of trials, and encouraged prosecutions against those who had beeii guilty of illegal practices in order to seciu-e their elections. Accordingly, many persons of the first rank in Rome were arraigned and convicted: and Fadiiis seems to have been one of that number. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp, et Caton. * The person to whom this letter is inscribed, is wholly unknown : and the occasion upon which it was written is not of importance enough to deserve any animadversions. and purposes, as if it had never subsisted ; and Offilius, it seems, agrees in this opinion. He told Ltte, at the same time, that he had not applied to you upon this subject ; but desired I would recom- mend both himself and his cause to your protection. I do not know a worthier man than Silius, nor any one, excepting yourself, who is more my friend. You will extremely oblige me, therefore, my dear Ti-ebatius, by calling upon him in order to give him the promise of your assistance : and 1 earnestly entreat you, if you have any regard for me, to pay this visit as soon as possible. Farevell. LETTER XXL / To Marcus Marius. I SHALL punctually execute your commission. But is it not a most wonderful specimen of your j^ ^ »(K, sagacity, thus to employ a man in making a purchase for you, whose interest it is to advance the price as high as possible .' Above all, I most admire the wisdom Of your restriction, in confining me to a particular sura. For had you trusted me with an unlimited order, I should have thought myself obliged, in point of friendship, to have Settled this affair with my coheirs upon the most advantageous terms in your behalf: whereas, now I know your piice, you may depend upon it, I shall rather set up a fictitious bidder than suffer the estate to be sold for less than the money you mention. But, jesting apart, be assured I shall discharge the commission you have assigned me, with all the care I ought. I know you are well pleased with my victory over Butsa*, but why then did you not more warmly Congratulate me upon the occasion ? You were mistaken in imagining the character of the man to be mu^h too despicable to* render this event a matter of any great exultation. On the contrary, the defeat of Bursa has afforded me a more pleas- ing triumph even than the fall of Clodius. Much rather, indeed, would I see my adversaries van- quished by the hand of justice than of violence : as I would choose it should be in a way that does honour to the friends of my cause, without exposing them, at the same time, to any uneasy consequences. But the principal satisfaction I derive from this affair, is in that honest and undaunted zeal with a Munatius Plancus Bursa was tribune the year before this letter was written, and had distinguished himself by inflaming those disturbances in Rome, which were occa- sioned by the assassination of Clodius. The body of Clodius being produced before the people in the forum, Biu-sa, together with one of his colleagues, infused such a spirit of riot into the populace, that, snatching up the corpse, they instantly conveyed it to the Kuria hostiUu, (a place in which the senate sometimes assembled,) where they paid it the funeral honours. This they executed in the most insolent and tumultuous manner, by erecting a funeral pile with the benches, and setting fire to the senate-house itself. Bursa, not satisfied with these licentious outrages, endeavoured likewise to instigate the mob to fall upon Cicero, the avowed friend and advocate of Milo, by whom Clodius had been killed. Cicero, therefore, as soon as Bursa was out of his office, (for no magistrate could be impeached durmg his ministry,) exhibited an information agatast him, for this violation of the public peace ; and Bursa, being found guilty, was sentenced to suffer banish- ment.— Dio, xl. p. 143, 146 ; Asoon. Argument, m Orat. pro Mil. C C 2 388 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO whicli I was supported against all the incredible efforts of a very great man*', who most warmly- exerted his power in favour orf my antagonist. I will mention another circumstance, likewise, that recommends this victory to me, and which, though perhaps you will scarcely think it a prohable one, is, nevertheless, most assuredly the case. I have conceived a much stronger aversion to this man, than I ever entertained even against Clodius him- self. To speak truth, I had openly declared war against the latter : whereas, I havte been the advo- cate and protector of the former. Besides, there was something enlarged, at least, in the views of Clodius, as he aimed, by my destruction, at over- turning the whole commonwealth: and, even in 'jnis, he acted less from the motions of his own Dreast, than by the instigations of a party who were sensible they could never be secure whilst I had any remaining credit. But the contemptible Bursa, on the contrary, singled me out for the object of his malice, in mere gaiety of heart ; and, without the least provocation, offered himself to some of my enemies as one who was entirely at their service upon any occasion wherein they could employ him to my prejudice. Upon these con- siderations, my friend, I expect that you warmly congratulate my success, as, indeed, I esteem it an event of very considerable importance. Never, in truth, did Rome produce a set of more inflexible patriots than the judges who presided at this trial : for they had the honest courage to pass sentence against him, in opposition to all the power and influence of the very person by whom they were appointed*^ to this honourable office. And, un- doubtedly, they would not have acted with such uncommon spirit, had they not considered the insults I suffered from this man as so many indig- nities offered to themselves. I have at present a great deal of troublesome business upon my hands ; as several considerable impeachments &.re going forward, and many new laws are in agitation. It is my daily wish, there- fore, that no intercalation"^ may protract these affairs beyond the usual period, and preveut the pleasure 1 propose to myself, of paying you a visit very soon. Farev/ell. l> Pompey.^Dio, p. 146. <■• Pompey, in his late consulship, made some alterations with respect to the method of choosing the judges, and elected a certain number out of the three orders of the state, for the cognizance of civil and criminal causes.— Manut. De Leg. p. 122 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 76. f^ The Roman months heing lunar, a proper number of supplemental days were added every two years, in order to adjust their reckoning to the course of the sun. This ■was called an intercalation, and was performed by the pontifical college at their own discretion. Accordingly they often exercised this important trust as interest or ambition dictated ; and by their arbitrary intercalations, either advanceft or retarded the stated times for transacting civil or religious affairs, as beet suited the private pur- poses of themselves or their friends. By these means, these unworthy obsei-vers of the heavenly motions had introduced so great a confusion into their calendar, that, when Ciesar undertook its reformation, all the seasons were misplaced ; and the appointed festivals for harvest and vintage were no longer found in the summer and autumn quarters.^-Suet. in Vit. Jul. Cks. 40 ; Macrob. Saturn. 1. LETTER XXII. ^ To Trehatius. You laughed at me yesterday when I asserted, over our wine, that it was a question among the lawyers, whether an action of theft could ^' " ' be brought by an heir for goods stolen before he came into possession. Though It was late when I returned home, and I had drunk pretty freely, I turned to the place where this question is discussed, and have sent you an extract of the passage, in order to convince you, that a point which you imagined had never been maintained by any roan, was actually holden by Sextus ^hus, Marcus Manlius, and Marcus Brutus^. But, not- withstanding these great names, I agree in opinion with Scsevola and Trebatius^ Farewell. LETTER XXIIL To Appius Pulcher. I FIND myself obliged, contrary, indeed, to ray expectation, as well as my wishes, to accept the 700 government of your province s. Amidst the numberless uneasy thoughts and occu- pations which this circumstance occasions me, it is my single consolation, that I could not have succeeded any man in this employment who would be more disposed than yourself to, deliver it up to me as little embarrassed as possible. I hope you entertain the same opinion of my disposition with regard to you : and, be assured, I shall never dis- appoint you in this expectation. I most earnestly e These were all of them lawyers of great note in their respective generations, and whose writings in the science they professed were iii much esteem. The two former flourished about the year of Rome 545, and 600 : the latter about the year 630. — Pompon. De Orig. Juris. f Seaevola was one of the names of Trebatius, as appears by a letter to Atticus wherein he is so called. There was likewise a Quintus Mucius ScEevola, a lawyer of very con- siderable eminence, who lived about fifty years before the present date, and who compiled a body of laws in eighteen volumes. Manutlus imagines, therefore, that in allusion to this person, Cicero jocularly separates the names Scce- vola and Trebatius by an intervening copulative, as if he were speaking of two diflferent men, though he only means his friend to whom he is writing. e The great commotions that had been raised the last year in Rome, on account of the elections, have already been mentioned in the notes above. In order, therefore, to remedy these evils for the future, by abating the intem- perate ai'dour with which the magistracies were pursued, it was thought expedient to deprive the prB?torship and consulate of one of tiieir principal and most tempting advantages. This consisted in the government of pro- vinces ; to which those magistrates, of course, succeeded at the expiration of their respective administrations. For these governments not only secured them from any im- peachments during the time they continued in them, but were likewise inexhaustible soiu'ces of wealth to those who were not scrupulous in the means of obtaining it. Accordingly a law passed, by which it was enacted, that no future prstor or consul should he capable of a provincial charge, till five years after the expiration of his office : and, in the meantime, that the provinces should be supplied from among those of prsetorian and consular rank, who had laid down their offices without succeeding to any government. Cicero was of this number : and it is proba- ble, there were so few of them, that he was not at liberty to refuse, what it is very certain he had no inclination to accept.— Dio, xl. p. 142. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 389 then entreat you, by all the ties of our friendship in particular, as well as by that uncommon gene- rosity which distinguishes your actions in general, to render me, upon this occasion, every good office in your power ; as undoubtedly there are many. You will observe, from the decree of the senate, that I was under a necessity of accepting the government of some province : and, I must repeat it once more, the ease with which 1 shall pass through the functions of my ministry depends upon your smoothing, as far as in you lies, the difficulties at my first entrance. You are the best judge in what particular instances you can contri- bute to this end : I will only, in general, beseech you to do so in every article wherein you imagine your services may avail me. I might enlarge on this subject, if either your own generous temper, or our mutual friendship, would suffer me to dwell upon it any longer ; and I may add, too, if the nature of my request did not sufficiently speak for itself. I will only, therefore, assure you, that if I should not make this application in vain, you may depend upon receiving a strong and lasting satis- faction from the faithful returns of my gratitude. Farewell. LETTER XXIV. To the same. \ I ARRIVED on the 22nd of May at Brundisinm, where I found your lieutenant'' Quintus Fabius ; * u 700 ^^°' agreeably to your orders, informed me, that itishighly expedient Ciliciashould be strengthened with an additional number of forces. This was conformable, not only to my own senti- ments, who am more immediately concerned in the security of that province, but to the opinion like- wise of the senate ; who thought it reasonable that both Bibulus' and myself should reinforce our respective legions with recruits from Italy. But it was strongly opposed by Sulpicius' the consul ; though not without very warm remonstrances on our parts. However, as it seemed to be the general incUnation of the senate that we should hasten our departure, we were obliged to submit : and we set forward accordingly. Let me now repeat the request I made in my last from Rome, and again entreat you to favour me in all those instances wherein one friend can oblige another who succeeds to his government. In short, let it be your care to convince the world that I could not have followed a more affectionate predecessor; as it shall be mijie to give conspi- cuous proofs, that you could not have resigned your province to one more sincerely devoted to your interest. h Every proconsul, or governor of a province, was accom- panied witli a certain number of lieutenants, in proportion to his rank and quality. These officers served him as a kind of iiist ministers in civil affairs ;, and they commanded in chief under Mm when he took the field. ' Some account has already been given of Bibulus in the notes on the preceding book. [See rem. a, p. 367.] He was appointed governor of Syria, a province bordering on that of Cilicia ; to which Cicero was on his way when ho wi-oto the present letter, and all the subsequent ones in this book. ■ J Servius Sulpicius Rufus was consul this year, together with Marcus Claudius Marcellus. For a more particular account of the fonner, see letter 12, book vii., rem. y, ami of the latter, rem. ", letter 35, of this book* I understood, by the copy which you communi- cated to me of those dispatches you sent to the senate, that you had actually disbanded a consi- derable part of your army. But Fabius assures me, this was a point which, you only had in your intention ; and that, when he left you, the whole number of your legions was complete. If this be the case, you will greatly oblige me by keeping the few forces under your command entire ; as I sup- pose the decree of the senate which passed in rela- tion to this article has already been transmitted to you. To comprise all in one word, I pay so great a deference to your judgment, that, whatever measures you may think proper to pursue, I shall, undoubtedly, believe them reasonable ; though I am persuaded, at the same time, you will pursue such only as shall appear to be for my benefit. I am waiting at Brundisium for my lieutenant Caius Pontinius, whom I expect here on the 1st of June ; and I shall take the earliest opportunity, after his arrival, of proceeding on my voyage. Farewell. LETTER XXV. Coelitis^ to Cicero. '/ % Agreeably to my promise when we parted, I have sent you a full account of every event that has „ ,„ happened since you left Rome. For this jt. u. 702. '^^ T 1 J i. 11 .. purpose 1 employed a person to collect the news of the town : and am only afraid you will think he has executed his office much too punctu- ally. I am sensible, at the same time, that you are a man of infinite curiosity ; and that travellers take pleasure in being informed of every little cir- cumstance transacted at home. But, I hope, you will not impute it to any want of respect, that I assigned over this employment to another hand. On the contrary, as much engaged as I really am,, and as little fond of writing as you know me to be, I should with great pleasure execute my commis- sion, which gave me occasion to think of you. I k Manutius has, with great industry, drawn together the several scattered passages in the ancient historians, relating to Ccelius : and it is but a piece of justice due to that learned critic to acknowledge, that the foUOAving account is ex- tracted from those materials, which his laboui's spared mc the trouble of collecting. Marcus Coelius was tribune of the people the year before this letter was written. He distinguished himself in that office by zealously and boldly supporting the claims of the senate and the interests of the aristocraticaJ party, against the attacks of the opposite faction. When the, civil wai' broke out between Pompey and Caesar, he affected at first to stand neuter : he afterwards, however, thought proper to join with the latter. But Ciesar not gratifying his am- bition in the manner he expecteti, he changed sides, and raised great distiurbances in Rome in favour of Pompey. Ccelius applied himself early to the art of oratory ; and, for that purpose, was introduced by his father to the acquaintance of Cicero, under whose direction he formed his eloquence. His parts and genius soon distinguished him in the forum : but, though his speeches were conceived with peculiar spirit and vivacity, his language was thought forced, and the harmony of his periods too much neg- lected. His morals were suitable to the degenerate age m which he lived, luxurious and dissolute ; as his temper was remarkably inflammable, and apt to kindle into tne most implacable resentments.— Cic. Orat, pro Ccelio; Ca;s. De Bell. Civ. iii.; Veil. Pat. ii. ; Dialog, de Caus. corrupt Eloquent. ; Senco. De Ira, iii. See letter 17, book vii. \ rems. v and !> 390 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO trust, however, when you cast your eye upon this volume of news, you will very readily admit my excuse ; as I know not, indeed, who else, except the compiler, could find leisure, I will not say to transcribe, but even to peruse, such a strange medley. It contains a collection of decrees of the senate and rumours of the people ; of private tales and public edicts. Sliould it happen, nevertheless, to afford you no sort of entertainment, give me due notice, that I may not put myself to this prodigious expense only to be impertinent. If any events of more importance should arise, and which are above the force of these hackney-news writers, I will take the relation upon myself, and give you a full account of the sentiments and' speculations of the world concerning it : but, at present, there is little of this kind stirring. As to the report which was so current when we were at CumseS of enfranchising the colonies on the other side the Po™, it does not seem to have travelle'd beyond that city : at least, I have heard no mention of this affair since my return to Rome. Marcellns not having yet moved that Csesar may be recalled from his government in Gaul, and intending to defer it, as lie told me himself, to the 1st of June, it has occasioned the revival of those suspicions to his disadvantage, which so strongly prevailed when you were here°. If you had an interview" with Pompey (as I remember it was your intention) let me know the conversation that passed between you, and what you could discover of his designs : for, though he seldom speaks his real sentiments, he has not arti- fice enough to conceal themf. As to Csesar, we have frequent, and ho very favourable, reports con- cerning him : however, they are at present nothing more than rumours. Some say he has lost all his cavalry ; and I believe this is the truth of the case : others, that the seventh legion has been entirely defeated, and that he himself is so surrounded by * A city in Campania, situated upon the sea-eoast ; near which Cicero had a villa. ■» Cisalpine Gaul was divided into two parts by the river Po ; and, accordingly, as the inhabitants were situated with respect to Italy, either on one side or the other of that river, they were called Cispadani, or Transpadani. CKsar had a scheme of putting the latter on.the same foot with the municipal towns of Italy ; the chief magistrates whereof had a right of suffrage in the assemblies of the Koman people, and were capable of being elected to the oflces of the republic. This seems to bo the circumstance to which Coelius here alludes ; as Cicero obscurely hints at it likewise in one of his letters to Atticus.— Ad Att v. 2; and the remark of Mongault upon that passage. n Marcellus, the present consul, distinguished himself throughout his whole administration by a warm opposition to Cajsar ; as he afterwaj-ds actually made the motion of which Crelius here speaks. He was not, however, so for- tunate as to succeed in it, being opposed by his colleague Sulpicius, in conjunction with some of the tribunes Dio, xli. p. 148. See his character in rem. » on the 35th letter of this book. » Pompey was at this time at Tarentum, a maritnne city of Calabria, where Cicero spent a few days with him in his way to Cilicia, while he waited the arrival of hia lieutenant Pontinius.— Ad Att. v. 6. P Cicero in his letters to Atticus often mentions the difficulty of penetrating into Pompey's real designs : but if Coelius may be credited, he was, it seems, one of those over-refined dissemblers, who, as our British Horace observes, are ^So very close, they're hid from none. — Popr. the Bellovaci', that he cannot possibly receive any succours from the main body of his army. But this news is not publicly known : on the contrary, it is only the whisper of a party which I need not name, and who mention it with great caution ; particularly Domitius"', who tells it in your ear with a most important air of secrecy. A strong report prevailed here that you were assassinated upon the road on the 24th of May, by Quintus Pompeius"*. I heartily cursed the idle authors of this alarm : however, it did not give me any great disturbance, as I knew Porapeius to be then at Baulis', where the poor man is reduced to exercise the miserable office of a pilot, to keep himself from stai-ving. May you ever be as secure from all other dangers as you were from this ! Your friend" Plancus is at Ravenna ; and, not- withstanding the very considerable benefaction he has lately received from Csesar^, the man is still in distress. Your political treatise" is universally read and much admired. Farewell. LETTER XXVL , To Appius Pulcher. I RECEIVED your letter at this place^ on the 4th of June, by which I am informed that you „jj2 have charged Lucius Clodius with a mes- sage to me. I am, therefore, waiting for his arrival, that I may hear as early as possible whatever he has to say on your part. In the mean time, notwithstanding I have already by many instances convinced you, I hope, of my friendship ; yet, let me assure you, that I shall particularly endeavour to show it upon every occasion, by the most tender regard for your character. I have the satisfaction in return to be informed, not only by Fabius and Flaccus, but particularly by Octavius, of the share you allow me in your esteem. I had before, indeed, many reasons for believing I en- joyed that privilege ; but chiefly by that very agree- able present of your treatise upon augury, which q A most martial and powerful people in Belgic Gaul, against whom Caesar was at this time making war. r Lucius Domitius JSnobarbns, one of Cffisar's avowed enemies, A particular account will be given of him in the remarks on the letter addressed to him in this col- lection. * Quintus Pompeius Ruf us was tribune the last year, and a prinnipal author of those disturbances which ensued upon the death of Clodius. [See rem. a, p. 387.] At the expi- ration of his office, therefore, being convicted of these misdemeanours, ho was banished from Home. — Dio, xl. p. 146. t A city in Campania. ™ Munatius Plancus Bursa: ofwhom an account lias been given in ran. a, p. 337, Coelius speaks ironically, when he calls him Cicero's friend. ^ See rem. \ ou letter 17, book ii. ^^ "It was d^a^vn up in the foi-m of a dialogue, in which the greatest persons of the republic were introduced. From the fragments of this work which still remain, it appears to have been a noble perfoiinance, and one of his capital pieces ; where all the important questions in politics and morality were discussed with the greatest elegance and accuracy."— Life of Cicero, p. 135. ^ Brundisium. This letter was written but a few days after the last addressed to Appius, which is likeivise dated from this place, where Cicero continued about a fortnight. He was prevented from embarking sooner, not only as he waited the arrival of his lieutenant Pontinius, but also by a slight indisposition,— Ad Att. v. 8, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 591 you have so affectionately addressed to me^. No testimony shall be wanting on my part, likewise, of the singular friendship J bear you. The truth is, you have continually risen in my affection ever since you first distinguished me with yours : but you are now still more endeared to me from that regard I entertain for those illustrious persons with whom you have formed a, family alliance^. For Pompey and Brutus, though .so distant from each other in point of age, have both of them the same high rank in my esteem. I must add, that the connexion between us as fellow-members of the same sacred college*, especially after the honour- able applause I have lately received from you^, is a very powerful cement of our mutual friendship. If J should have an interview with Clodius, whom I shall endeavour to see as soon as possible, I shall have occasion to write to you more fully. I will at this time, therefore, only farther assure you, that I read with great pleasure that part of your letter where you tell me, your single reason fpr continuing in the province is, in order to give me a meeting. Farewell. LETTER XXVIL To Caius Memmius^, I AM doubtful whether I have more reason to regret or rejoice that I did not find you, as I A V 702 6*P®*^*^®Sf(3 intimation from me would prevail witli you to re- linquish your right to this edifice, even though you had intended to make use of it for your own purposes. If he should hear, therefore, that not- withstanding you have no such design, I have, nevertheless, proved unsuccessful in my applica- tion i he will have a worse opinion of my friendship than of yours^ and imagine 1 did not sufficiently enforce Us request. I entreat you then to signify to your agents at Athens your consent to the repeal of the decree of the Areopagites'', which has been made in relation to this structure. Never- thelesE, I will end as I began, and again assure you, that although nothing will be more acceptable to me than your compliance in the present in- stance, yet I press it no farther than as it may coincide with your own inclinations. Farewell. LETTER XXVIIL / ' To Marcus CceUiis^. Could you seriously then imagine, my friend, that I commissioned you to send me the idle news 702 °^ *'^* town ; matches of gladiators, ad- journments of causes, robberies, and the rest of those uninteresting occurrences which no one ventures to mention to me, even when I am in the miflst of them at Rome ? Far other are the accounts which I expect from your hand, as I know not any man whose judgment in politics I have more reason to value. I should esteem it a misemployment of your talents, even were you to transmit to me those more important transactions that daily arise in the republic, unless they should happen to relate immediately to myself. There are other less penetrating politicians who will send me intelligence of this sort,' and I shall be abundantly supplied with it likewise by common fame. In short, it is not an account either of what has lately been transacted, or is in present agitation, that 1 require in your letters : I expect, as from one whose discernment is capable of looking far into futurity, your opinion of what is likely to happen. Thus, by seeing a plan, as it were, of the republic, I shall be enabled to judge what kind of structure will probably arise. Hitherto, however, I have no reason to charge you with having beeninegligent in communicating to me your prophetic conjectures. For the events which have lately happened in the commonwealth were much beyond any man's pene- tration : I am sure, at least, they were beyond mine. I passed several days with Pompey "" in conver- sation upon public affairs ; but it is neither prudent nor possible to give you the particulars in a letter. In general, however, I will assure you, that he is animated with the most patriot sentiments", and is ^ The Areopagites were magistrates who presided in the supreme council and court of judicatm'e at Athens, called the Areopagus. * This letter, as well as the preceding one, was ^vritten from Athens, and is an answer to the 2.5th of this book. ™ See rem. ° on letter 25 of this book. " Cicero so often changed his opinion, or, at least, his language, in regard to Pompey, that it is difficult to deter- mine what his true sentiments of him were. It is pro- bable, however, that he here speaks the dictates of his real thoughts, hot only as he gives the same account to Atticus, but because Pompey received bim with particular prudently prepared as w^ell as resolutely determined to act as the interest of the republic shaU require. I would advise you, therefore, wholly to attach yourself to him ; and, believe me, he will rejoice to embrace you as his friend. He now, indeed, entertains the same opinion both with you and my- self, of the good and ill intentions of the different parties in the republic. I have spent these last ten days at Athens, from whence I am this moment setting out. During my continuance in this city, I have frequently en- joyed the company of our friend Gallus Cauinius". I recommend all my affairs to your care and protection, but particularly (what indeed is my principal concern) that my residence in the province may not be prolonged f. I will not prescribe the methods you should employ for that purpose, as you are the most competent judge by what means and by whose intervention it may be best effected. Farewell. July the 0th. LETTER XXIX. / Marcus CcbHus'^ to Cicero. Yes, my friend, Messala' is most certainly ac- quitted, and acquitted, too, not only by a majority 702 iu the several orders' which compose the bench of judges, but by every individual member of each respective class. I give you this civility ; a circumstance which seems at all times to have had a very considerable influence upon Cicero's judgment, concerning the characters and designs of men. — Ad Att. v. 6,7. o It appeal's, by the fifth letter of the preceding book, that when Pompey was exhibiting his entertainments at the opening of his celebrated theatre, Cicero was engaged in the defence of one Gallus Caninius. Manutius con- jectures, that this is the same person who, in consequence of that impeachment, was now, he supposes, an exile at Athens. V The succession to the several provinces was usually annual. As Cicero entered upon his government much against his inclinations, he was extremely uneasy, lest, by any accidental circumstances of the republic, he should be continued in it beyond the expiration of his year. The province was a scene by no means suitable to his temper or talents ; and he was impatient to return to the forum, and the senate, where he imagined he could shine with a much more advantageous lustre. His conduct, however, was in no part of his life so unquestionably laudable, as in his administration of Cilicia, as will appear, perhaps, from the remarks on the following book Ad Att. v. 10. 15. q It seems probable, from one of the epistles to Atticus, that Cicero received this letter at Gyarus, a little island in the Mgean sea, at which he touched in his voyage to Cilicia Ad Att. v. 12. ^ Marcus Valerius Messala was consul in the year of Rome 700. The corrupt measures which he, as well as the rest of those who were joint-candidates with him, pursued, in order to secure their election, were so extra- vagantly profuse, as to occasion the interest of money to advance to double the usual rate. It was for those illegal practices that he was this year brought upon his trial.— Ad Att. iv. 15. 8 The bench of judges, by a late regulation of Pompey, was composed of senators, knights, and certain officers always chosen from among the plebeians, called Triiuni cerariit who, in modern language, might, perhaps, be styled auditors of the treasury. These judges (somewhat in the nature of our j uries) were divided into three classes, agreeably to their respective orders, and gave their verdict by ballots. 894 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO as a fact "witliiii my own knowledge, for I was pre- sent when their verdict was delivered. You must not imagine, however, that the world is convinced of his innocence : on the contrary, never was there an event more unexpected, or which raised so uni- versal an indignation. For my own part, even with all my prejudices in his favour, I was under the utmost astonishment when I heard him pro- nounced not guilty ; and indeed it was a circum- stance I so little expected, that I was actually preparing to condole with him on the reverse. What must have been the surprise, then, of others less biassed in his behalf ! The whole assembly, in truth, warmly exclaimed against the judges, and very strongly intimated, that they looked upon them as guilty of the most insufferable corruption. My friend, in the mean time, is in much greater danger than he was before, as he will now most assuredly be indicted on the Licinian law *. I must not forget to add, that the day after his trial, his advocate Hortensius'^ appeared in Curio's theatre'', with a view, as I suppose, of receiving the general congratulations. But he no sooner entered than, lo ! " The hiss contemptuous, and indignant roar, With thunder harsh the rending concave tore.*' This circumstance is so much the more observable, as Hortensius has passed on to a good old age without ever having before been thus insulted. But it broke out upon him with so much violence in the present instance, that it might well suffice for a whole life ; as I am persuaded, indeed, it occasioned him heartily to repent of the victory he had obtained. I have no political news to send you. Marcellus has dropped the design^, upon which he was lately so intent; but not so much from indolence, I believe, as prudence. It is wholly uncertain who will be our succeeding consuls. As to my own pursuits, there are two competitors with me for the sedileship ; the one really is, and the other would fain be thought, a man of quality. In short, Marcus Octavius^ and Cains Hirrus^ are candi- t The author of this law was M, Licinius Crassus, when he was consul with Pompey, a. u. 698. It was called De SodalUiis, by which seems to have been understood an unlawful making of pai'ties at elections. — Kennett, Rom. Antiq., p. 177- ^ Hortensius was imele to iressala, and the only orator of this age whose eloquence stood in any degree of com- petition with Cicero's. — See boojc vi., letter 8, rem. e. V This theatre was erected by Curio on occasion of those games which he exhibited in honour of his father's memory. —See rem. ^ on letter 10 of this book. ™ Coelius in this instance was not so happy in his con- jectures, as Cicero represents him in the foregoing letter. For Marcellus had not dropped the design to which Ccelius here alludes ; as appears, not only from the authority cited in rem. ", p. 390, but also from one of his own sub- sequent epistles. See the 7th letter of the following book. ^ No particular account can be given of the person here mentioned. It is certain, however, he was not the same Octavius who was father of Augustus Caasar. For it appears by the epistles to Atticus that the latter was governor of Macedonia long before the time when this letter was written, and consequently could not now be a candidate for the office of sedile. 7 Hirrus was a warm partisan of Pompey ; but if Cicero, who was his declared enemy, may be credited, he was of a character more likely to prejudice thtyi advance any cause he should espouse, for be represents him as an empty conceited coxcomb, who had the mortification to stand uniivalled in the good opinion he entertained of his own dates with me for that office^. I mention this, as I know your contempt for the latter will raise your impatience to be informed of the event of this election. I entreat you, as soon as you shall hear that I am chosen, to give proper directions about the panthers^; and, in the mean time, that you would endeavour to procure the sura of money which is due to me on the bond of Sittius. I sent my first collection of domestic news by Lucius Castrinius Paetus, and I have given the subsequent part to the bearer of this letter. Fare- well. LETTER XXX. ^ From the same. Own the truth, my friend : have I not verified what I could not persuade you to believe when you 702 ^^^^ Rome, and written to you as fre- quently as 1 promised ? I am sure, at least, if all my letters have reached your hands, you must acknowledge that I have been a more punctual correspondent than yoursdf. I am the more regular in my commerce of this kind, as it is the only method I have of amusing those few vacant hours I can steal from business, and which I used to take so much pleasure in passing with you. I greatly, indeed, lament your absence, and look upon it not only as having reduced me, but all Rome in general, to a state of total solitude. When you were within my reach, I was careless enough to let whole days slip by me without aeeing you : but now you are absent, I am every moment regretting the loss of your company. Thanks to my noble competitor, Hirrus, for giving me an additional reason thus frequently to wish -for you. It would afford you high diversion, in truth, to observe with what a ridiculous awkwardness this formidable rival of yours ^ endeavours to conce^ his mortification, in finding that my interest in the approaching election'^ is much stronger than his own. Believe me, however, it is more for your gratification than mine that I am desirous you may soon receive such an account of his success in this pursuit as I know you wish. For, as to merit and importance. " O Dii ! (says he, speaking of Hirrus in a letter to his brother) O Dii ! quam ineptus ; quam se ipse amans sine rivali !" Yet a time came when Cicero did not scruple to court the friendship of this man, whom he so much affected to despise ; and when he was making interest to obtain the honour of a triumph for his explciits in Cilicia, we find him applying to Atticus for his good offices, in order to close the breach between Hirrus and himself. Cicero seems, indeed, upon many occasions, to have recollected too late, that in popular governments, a man who is not superior to the ambition and interests of the world, can scarcely make a con- temptible enemy.— Ad Quint Frat iii, 8 ; Ad Att. vii. 1. ^ The asdiles were of two kinds,, plebeian and cnrule ; and it was the latter office that Coelius was at this time soliciting. They had the care of the temples, theatres, and other public structures ; they were the judges, likewise, in all causes relative to the selling or exchimging estates.— Rosin. Antiq. * It was customary for the asdiles to entertain the people with public shows twice, during their office. The principal paxt of these entertainments consisted in combats of wild beasts of the most uncommon kind. — Manutius. *> Hirrus stood in competition with Cicero for the office of augur, when the latter was chosen. •^ See the preceding letter. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS, 395 myself, his disappointment may possibly prove a means of my being chosen in conjunction with a colleague, whose superior finances will draw me, I fear, into much inconvenient expense. But, how- ever that may be, I shall rejoice if Hirrus should be thrown out, as it will supply us with an inex- haustible fund of mirth. And this appears likely enough to prove the case ; for the disgust which the people have conceived against the other candi- date, Marcus Octavius, does not seem to have any great effect in lessening their many objections to Hirrus. As to what concerns the behaviour of Philotimus, in relation to Mile's estate'', I have endeavoured that he shall act in such a manner as to give full satisfaction to Milo and his friends, and at the same time clear your character from all imputation. And now I have a favour to beg in my turn : let me entreat you, when your leisure shall permit (as I hope it soon will), to give me an instance of your regard, by inscribing to me some of your literary performances. You will wonder, perhaps, at the oddness of this request ; but I am very de- sirous, I confess, that posterity should see, among the many ingenious monuments you have erected to friendship, some memorial likewise of the amity which subsisted between us. You, who possess the whole circle of science, will best judge what would be the most proper subject for this purpose ; but I should be glad it might be of a kind that will take iu the greatest number of readers, and at the same time bear a proper relation to my^ own studies and character. Farewell. { LETTER XXXI. \ To Appius Pulcher. I ARRIVED at Tralles " on the 27th of July, where I found Lucilius waiting for me with your „„ letter, which he delivered, together with your message. You could not have em- ployed upon this occasion a more friendly hand, or one who is better qualified to give me light into those affairs concerning which I was so desirous of being informed. Accordingly I listened to his account with great attention, as I read your letter with much pleasure. I will not remind you of the numerous good offices which have passed between <* Milo having been sentenced to banishment, (see rem. ^, p. 386,) his estate was sold for the benefit of his creditors. Philotimus, a freedraan of Cicero, bought this estate, in partnership with some othei-s, at an underviilue. It was thought strange that Cicero should suffer Philotimus, who acted as a sort of steward in hi^ family, to engage in a purchase of this kind, which was always looked upon as odious, and was particularly so in the present case : for Cicero had received great obligations from Milo. Accord- ingly the latter complained of it, in the letters he wrote to his friends at Rome. This alai-med Cicei-o for his reputa- tion, and he seems to have written to Ccelius, as he did to several others of his coiTespondents, to accommodate this affair in the way that would be most to his honom*. It was not easy, however, entirely to vindicate him upon this article : for though he pleaded in his justification an intent of servmg Milo, yet it appears very evidently, from his letters to Atticus upon this subject, that be shared with Philotimus in the advantages of the purchase. — Ascon. in Orat. pro Mil, ; A d Att. v. ». vL 4, 5. See also Mong. R^m. sur les Let, k Att. vol, iii. p. 48. " A city in Asia Minor. us ; since that part of my last, you tell me, though extremely agreeable to you, was by no means neces- sary. I entirely agree with you, indeed, that a well- confirmed friendship needs not to be animated with any memorials of this nature. You must allow me, however, to return those acknowledgments I so justly owe you, for the obliging precautions which I find by your letter you have taken, in order to ease me in the future functions of my government. Highly acceptable to me as these your generous services are, can I fail of being desirous to con- vince both you and the world that I am most warmly your friend ? If there be ?ny whg pretend to doubt of this truth, it is rather because they wish it otherwise, than because it is not sufficiently evi- dent. If they do not yet perceive it, however, they certainly shall ; as we are neither of us so obscure that our actions can pass unregarded ; and the proofs I purpose to give will be too conspicuous not to force themselves upon their observation. But I will not indulge myself any farther on this subject, choosing to refer you to my actions rather than my professions. As I find the route I proposed to take has raised some doubt in you whether you shall be able to give me a meeting, I think it necessary to explain that matter. In the conversation which I had with your freedman, Vhanias, at Brundisium, I told him I would land in any part of the province that should be most convenient to you. Accordingly he men- tioned Sida, as being the port, he said, where you intended to embark. It was my resolution, there- fore, to have sailed thither ; but meeting afterwards with our friend Clodius at Corcyra', he dissuaded me from that design, assuring me that you would be at Laodicea on my arrival. I should have pre- ferred the former, as being much the nearest port, and indeed the most agreeable to me, especially as I imagined it would be so to you. But you have since, it seems-, altered your plan, and theretbre you now can best settle the measures for our inter- view. As for myself, I propose to be at Laodicea^ about the first of August, where I shall continue a few days, in order to get my bills exchanged. From thfince I intend to go to the army ; so that I hope to reach Iconium'' towards the 13th of the same month. But if any accident should prevent or retard these designs, (as, indeed, I am at present far distant both from the places and the purposes of my destination,) I will take care to give you as frequent and as expeditious notice as possible of the several times and stages of my journey. I neither ought, nor in truth desire, to lay you under any difficulties : however, if it might be effected without inconvenience to yourself, it seems greatly for our mutual interest that we should have a con- ference before you leave the province. Nevertheless, if any disappointment should obstruct our interview, you may §till rely upon ray best services, and with the same security as if we had met. In the mean while I shall forbear to enter upon the subject of our affairs by letter till I despair of talking them over with you in person. ' An island in the Ionian sea, at which Cicero touched in hia voyage to Cilitia. It is now called CorfoUt and belongs to the republic of Venice. s A city in Phrygia, situated on the river Lycus. b A principal city in the province of Cilicia. It still sub- sists under the name of Cogni, and belongs to the Turkish dominions. S96 THE LEtTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO I spent the three days I continued at Ephesus ' with Scsevolai. But though we entered very freely into conversation, he did not mention the least word of your having desired him to take upon him- self the government of the province during the interval between your leaving it and my arrival. I wish, however, it had been in his power (for I cannot persuade myself it was not in his inclina- tion) to have complied with your request. Fare- well.! LETTER XXXII. '^ Marcus Caelius to Cicero. You are certainly to be envied, who have every day some new wonder to enjoy ; as your admira- tion receives constant supplies in the *■ "■ ' accounts of those strange events that happen amongst us. Thus, with what astonishment will you hear that Messalat, after having been acquitted of his first impeachment, was condemned on a second ; that Marcellus ' is chosen consul ; that Calidius", after having lost his election, was immediately impeached by the two Galli ; and that Dolabella " is appointed one of the quindecimvirs" ! In one article, however, you are a loser by your absence ; as it deprived you of a most diverting spectacle in the rueful countenance which Lentu- lus P exhibited when he found himself disappointed > A very celebrated city in Ionian situated not far fruin Smyrna. J He was probably either qiiEestor, or lieutenant, to Appius. k Heiwas cousin to the present consul, Marcus Marcellus. Tl^e reader will find an account of him in the farther pro- gress of these remarks. 1 In the text he is called Mai-cus Claudius : but Manutius and Corradus both agree in the reading here adopted, which is likewise confirmed by Pighius. He was competitor for the consulate with Marcellus, mentioned in the pre- ceding note. The wonder, therefore, in these two instances, was, (as Mr. Itoss observes,) that Mai'cellus should be chosen consul, who was an avowed enemy to Cffisar ; while Calidius, though supported by the Caesarian party, lost his election. ™ Calidius was one of the most agreeable orators of his age, as Cicero, who has drawn his character at large, informs us. His sentiments were conceived mth uncom- mon delicacy, as they were delivered in the most correct, perspicuous, and elegant expression. His words were so happily combined together, and accorded with each other in such a well-adjusted arrangement, that Cicero, by a very strong image, compares his style to a piece of beau- tiful inlaid-work. His metaphors were so justly imagined and so properly introduced, that they rather seemed to arise spontaneously out of his subject, than to have been transplanted from a foreign soil. His periods, at the same time, were exquisitely musical. They did not, however, lull the ear with one uniform cadence ; but were artfuUy diversified with all the various modulations of the most skilful harmony. In short, if to instruct and to please had been the single excellences of an orator, Calidius would have merited the first rank in the Roman forum. But he forgot that the principal business of his profession was to animate and to inflame.— Cio. de Clar. Orat. 274. " A particular account will be given of him in the notes on the following book. o They were the presiding magistrates at the Apul- linarian and secular games, and entrusted likewise with the care of the Sibylline oracles. See Ross on this epistle. 1' There is some variation .amongst the MSS. in the read- ing of this name. The best commentators, however, sup- pose, that this person is the same who was advanced to the consulship two years after the date of this letter : that is. of his election'. It was an event for which he was so little prepared,- that he entered the field in all the gay confidence of victory ; whilst his competitor Dolabella, on the contrary, was so diffident of suc- cess, that if our friends of the equestrian order had not been too wise to have suffered him, he would have tamely retreated without the least contest. But as much disposed as you may be to wonder at our transactions, yon will not be surprised, I dare say, when I inform you that Servius, the tribune elect, has been tried and convicted; and that Curio' is a candidate to succeed him. This last circum- stance greatly alarms those who are unacquainted with the real good qualities of Curio's heart. I hope, and indeed believe, he wUl act agreeablyto his professions, and join with the senate in sup-- porting the friends of the republic. I am sure,, at least, he is full of these designs at present : in which Cffisar's conduct has been the principal occasion of engaging him. For Csesar, though he spares no pains or expense to gain over even the lowest of the people to his interest', has thought fit to treat Curio with singular contempt. The latter has behaved with so much temper upon this occasion, that he, who never acted with artifice in all his life ', is suspected to have dissembled his resentment in order the more effectually to defeat the schemes of those who oppose bis election : I mean the Lielii and the Antonii, together with the rest of that wonderful party. I have been so much engaged by the difficulties which have retarded the several elections, that I could not find leisure to write to you sooner : and, indeed, as I every day expected they would be determined, I waited their conclusion that I might give you at once an account of the whole. But it is now the first of August, and they are not yet over, the elections of praetors having met with some unexpected delays. As to that in which I am candidate, I can give you no account which way it is likely to be decided ; only it is generally thought that Hirrus wUl not be chosen. This is collected from the fate that has attended Vinici- anus, who was a candidate for the oflSce of plebeian aedile'. That foolish project of his for the nomina- tion of a dictator" (which we formerly, you may in the year of Rome 704. It appeai-s he was a competitor with Dolabella for the ofiico of quindecimvir. q See rem. j,f>..378. ' The account which Dion Cassius gives of Ciesar, exactly corresponds with what Ctelius here asserts. For it appeal's, from this historian, that Cffisar, when he could not by direct means secui-e the master in his interest, insinuated himself by proper applications into the good graces of the favomitc slave ; and, by condescensions of this political kind, he gained over many persons of principal rank in Rome. — Dio, xl. p. 149. s If Curio did not act with artifice in the present in- stance, tof which, however, there is great reason to doubt,' it is certain, at least, that he was far from being so inca- pable of assuming that character, as Ccelius here represents him. On the contrary, it appears by the concurrent testi- mony of the ancient historians, that he secretly favoured the cause of Csesar, long before he avowed his party And Dion Cassius, in particular, assures us, that Curio, at the same time that ho pretended to act in concert vnth the enemies of Caesar, was only gaining theu- confidence, in order to betray them.— Veil. Pat. ii. 48 ; Dio, xl. p. 149. I The plebeian ajdiles were chosen out of the commons, and were, in some respects, a sort of coadjutors to the tribunes. " The dictator was a magistrate invested with supreme TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 397 remember, exposed to so much ridicule,) suddenly turned the election against him ; and the people expressed the loudest acclamations of joy at his repulse : at the same time, Hirrus was universally called upon by the populace to give up his preten- sions at the ensuing election. I hope, therefore, you will very soon hear that this affair is determined in the manner you wish with respect to me, and which you scarce dare promise yourself, I know, with regard to Hirrus. As to the state of the commonwealth, we begin to give up all expectation that the face of public affairs will be changed. However, at a meeting of the senate, holden on the 22d of the last month in the temple of ApoUo, upon a debate relating to the payment of the forces commanded by Pompey", mention was made of that legion, which, as appeared by his accounts, had been lent to Csesar : and he was asked, of what number of men it consisted, and for what purposes it was borrowed. In short, Pompey was pushed so strongly upon this article, that he found himself under a necessity of pro- mising to recal this legion out of Gaul : but he added at the same time, that the clamours of his enemies should not force him to take this step too precipitately. It was afterwards moved, that the question might be put concerning the election of a successor to Caesar. Accordingly the senate came to a resolution that Pompey (who was just going to the army at Ariminum", and is now actually set out for that purpose,) should be ordered to return to Bome with all expedition, that the alfair relating to a general election of new governors for all the provinces might be debated in Ms presence. This point, I imagine, will be brought before the senate on the 13th of this month ; when, if no infamous obstacles should be thrown in the way by the tribunes y, the house will certainly come to some resolution : for Pompey, in the course of the debate, let fall an intimation that he " thought every man owed obedience to the authority of that assembly." However, I am impatient to hear what Faulus, the senior consul elect, will say when he delivers his opinion upon this question. and absolute power ; but was never created unless on emergencies of great and sudden dangei', which required the exertjon of an extraordinary authority. Accordingly, it was on occasion of the disturbances that happened at Rome in the year 700, [see rem. ▼, p. 386, and rem. a, p. 307,] that some of the friends and flatterers of Pompey proposed hira for this office. Vinicianus and Hirrus were the principal promoters of this scheme : but it was so unacoeptable to the people in general, that this single circumstance, it appears, turned the election against the former; and, probably, was the chief reason that the latter was likewise disappointed of the xdileship. See letter 29 of this book, p. 393 ; Ad Quint. Frat. iii. 8. ^ Because Hirrus was supported by Pompey. ^ Pompey, though be remained in Rome, was at this time governor of Spain : which had been continued to him for four years at the end of his late consulship. Itwas the payment of his troops in that province, wliich was under the consideration of the senate. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ^ Now called liimini, situated upon the Rubicon : a river which divided Italy from that part of the Roman province called Cisalpine Gaul. The army here mentioned, is supposed to be part of those four legions which were decreed to Pompey for the support of his government in Spain.—Plut. ibid. y Some of the tribunes, together with Sulpicius, one of the present consuls, were wholly in Cesar's interest. — They thought, or pretended to think, that it was highly uiyust to divest Caesar of his government, hefofethe time I repeat my former request in relation to the money due to me on the bond of Sittius ; and I do so that you may see it is an article in which I am greatly interested. I must again likewise entreat you to employ the CybiratEe^, in order to procure me some panthers. I have only to add, that we have . received certain accounts of the death of Ptolemy". Let meknow, therefore, what measures you would advise me to take upon this occasion ; in what condition he has left his kingdom ; and in whose hands the administration is placed. — Farewell. August the first. LETTER XXXIII. From the same. How far you may be alarmed at the invasion I* which threatens your province and the neighbour- „„ ing countries, I know not ; but for myself, I confess, I am extremely anxious for the consequence. Could we contrive indeed that the enemy's forces should he only in proportion to the number of yours, and just sufficient to entitle you to the honour of a triumph", there could not be a more desirable circumstance. But the misfortune is, if the Parthians should make any attempt, I well know it will be a very powerful one : and I am sensible, at thesame time, that you are so little in a. condition to oppose their march, that you have scarce troops to defend a single defile. But the world in general will not be so reasonable as to make the proper allowances for this circumstance. On the contrary, it is expected from a man in your station, that he should be prepared for every occur- rence that may arise, without once considering whether he is furnished with the necessary supplies for that purpose. I am still the more uneasy upon / your account, as I foresee the contests concerning affairs in Gaul will retard the nomination of your successor : and though I dare say you have already had this contingency in your view, yet I thought proper to apprise you of its probability, that you might be so much the more early in adjusting your measures accordingly. I need not tell you that the usual artifices will undoubtedly be played off. was completed for which it had been decreed, and of which there now remained about two years unexpired. — Die, xl. p. 148. z " Cibyra was a city of Phrygia Major, situated upon the banks of the river Meander, and gave name to one of the three Asiatic dioceses, which were under the jiu-isdic- tion of the governor of Cilicia." — Ross. "^ Ptolemy Auletes, of whom an account has been given in the notes on the first book. By the following inquiries which Ccelius makes, it is probable he was one of those who had lent money to that king when ho was at Rome, soliciting the senate to assist him with troops for the reco- very of his dominions. See rem. ', p. 344. b The Parthians, having lately obtained a most signal victory over Crassus, (an account of whose unfortunate expedition has already been given in the course of these notes,) were preparing to make an incursion in the Roman provinces that lay contiguous to their dominions.— Accord- ingly they soon afterwards executed this design by invading Syria and Cilicia ; as will bo related at large in the letters of the following book. The kingdom of Parthia is now included in the empire of Persia, of which it makes a very considerable province. « No general could legaUy claim this honour, unless he had destroyed 6,000 of the enemy in one engagement.— Val. Max. ii. 8. 398 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO A day will be appointed for considering of a successor to Csesar : upon which some ti-)bune will interpose his negative ; and then a second will probably declare, that unless the senate shall be at liberty to put the question freely concerning all the provinces in general, he will not suffer it to be debated with regard to any in particular. • And thus we shall be trifled with for a considerable time : possibly, indeed, two or three years may be spun out by these contemptible artifices. If anything new had occurred in public affairs I should, as usual, have sent you the account, together with my sentiments thereupon : but at present the wheels of our political machine seem to be altogether motionless. Marcellus is still pursuing his former designs concerning the provinces ; but he has not yet been able to assem'ble a competent number of senators. Had' this motion been brought on the preceding year, and had Curio at the same time been tribune, it would probably have succeeded : but as affairs arenow circumstanced, you are sensible how easy it will be for Csesar, regardless as he is of the public interest when it stands in competition with his own, to obstruct all our proceedings. Farewell. LETTER XXXIV., From the same. Will you not be surprised when I teU you of the victory I have gained over Hirrus ' .' But if you knew how easy a conquest he proved, you would blush to think that so power- less a competitor once ventured to stand forth as your rival^. His behaviour since this repulse affords us much diversion, as he now affects upon all occasions to act the patriot and vote against Csesar. Accordingly, he insists upon Caesar's being immediately recalled; and most unmercifully in- veighs against the conduct of Curio. In a word, as Uttle conversant as he is in the business of the Forum, he is now become an advocate professed, and most magnanimously pleads the cause of liberty**. You are to obsenre, however, that it is only in a morning he is seized with these violent fits of patriotism ; for he is generally much too elevated in an afternoon to descend into so grave a character. I mentioned in one of my former, that the Sffair of the provinces would come before the senate on the 13th of the last month : nevertheless, by the. intervention of Marcellus, the consul elect, it was put off to the first of this instant. But when the day arrived, they could not procure, a sufficient d See rem. 7, on the foregoing letter. ' There is an obscurity in tlie original, which the com- mentators have endeavoured to dissipate by various read- ings. None of their conjectures, however, appear so much to the purpose as that of an ingenious gentleman, to whose animadversions I have already acknowledged myself in- debted. [See rem. % p. 374.] My judicious friend supposes that some words of the same import \vith those which are distinguished by italics in the translation, have been omitted by the carelessness of transcribers ; a supposition extremely probable, and which solves the principal diffi- culty of the text. f At the election for cimile asdiles. See letter 29 of this book. g As a candidate with Cicero for the office of augur. ** Instead of agit causas Uberalis, as in the common edi- *', for your de- parture. This proceeding (to speak of it in the softest terms) must look with no friendly aspect in the eye of those who are unacquainted with cur real sentiments towards each other, — as it has the appearance of your industriously avoiding a con- ference : whereas mine, on the contrary, must undoubtedly be deemed conformable to whatever could be expected from the strongest and most intimate union. «- A sea-port town of considerahle note iu tamphylia. * It was usual for the governors of provinces, when they entered upon their administration, to publish what they styled an edict ; which was a kind of code or formulary of laws, by which they intended to proceed in the dispensa- tion of justice. Cicero's institutes of this sort were founded upon maxims so extremely different from those by which Appius had regulated himself, that the latter looked upon them as so many indirect reflections upon his own rniwiu-- thy conduct And this seems to have been the occasion of his treating Cicero in the manner of which he here, and in other subsequent letters, so much and so justly com- plains.— Ad Att. vi. 1. ^ y This lawwas so called from its author, ComeliuBSyUs, the dictator, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 403 la the letter I received from you before iny arrival in the province, though you mentioned your design of going to Tarsus", you still flattered me "vith hopes of a meeting. In the mean time, there are some who haVe the malice (for malice, I sup- pose, is their motive, as that vice indeed is widely diffused among mankind) to lay hold of this plau- sible pretence to aUenate me from you, little aware that I am not easily shalcen in my friendships. They assure me, that when you had reason to be- lieve I was arrived in the province, you held a court of judicature at Tarsus, and exercised such other acts of authority as even those who have yet some litde time unexpired ia their ministry do not usually choose to discharge. Their insinuations, nevertheless, are far from malcing any impression upon me. On the contrary, I rather consider you as having Icindly eased me of part of my approach- ing troable; and I rejoice that you have thus abridged me of one fatiguing month out of the twelve I must pass through in my government. To speali freely, however, there is a circumstance that gives me concern ; and I cannot but regret to find, that out of the small number of forces in the province, there are no less than three complete cohorts wanting, and I know not in what part they are dispersed. But my principal uneasiness is, that I cannot learn where I shall see you ; and I should have sooner told you so if I had not con- cluded, from your total silence, both as to what you were doing and where you proposed to give me an interview, that I might daily expect your arrival. I have, therefore, despatched my brave and worthy friend Antonius, prsefect of the Evooati", with this letter ; and, if you think proper, you may deliver up to him the command of the troops, that I may be able to enter upon some action ere the season is too far advanced. 1 had reason to hope, both from our friendship and your letters, to have had the benefit, of your advice upon tiiis occasion ; and indeed I will not even yet despair of enjoying that advantage. However, unless you give me notice, it is impossible I should discover either when or where I am to have that satisfaction. In the mean while, I shall endeavour to convince even the most uncandid^ a& well as the equitable part of the world, that I am sincerely your frieAd. I cannot forbear saying, nevertheless, that those who are not disposed to judge in the most favourable manner, have some little cause to imagine that you do not bear the same amicable disposition towards me, and I shall be much obliged to you for endea- vouring to remove their suspicions. That you may not be at a loss what measures, to take in order to our meeting consistently' with 2 The capital city of Cilicia. It is celebrated by Strabo, for having once vied with Athens and Alexandria in polite and philosophical literature ; but it is far more worthy of notice as being: the birth-place of that great apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul. * These were troops composed of experienced soldiers, who had served out their legal time, or had received their dismission as a reward of their valom-. They usually guard- ed the chief standard, and were excused from the more servile employments of the militai-y functions. ^ It appears by what follows, that this time was already elapsed. Mr. Ross was aware of this difficulty, and has solved it by supposing that Cicero ' ' must mean some place without the limits of the province." For otherwise Cicero's request cannot Tie reconciled, that commentator observes, to the terms of the Cornelian law. the terms of the Cornelian law, I think it necessary to inform you, that I arrived in the province on the last day of July ; that I marched from Iconium on the 31st of August, and am now advancing to Cilicia by the way of Cappadocia. After having thus traced out my route, you will let me know, in case you should think proper to meet me, what time and place will be most convenient to you for that purpose. Farewell. LETTER IV. To Marcus Cato". I THOTJOHT it agreeable to our friendship to communicate to you the intelligence I have lately u 70' received. I am to inform you, then, that envoys from Antiochus, king of Comma- gene '', arrived in my camp at Iconium, on the 30th of August. They brought me advice that the king of Parthia's son, who is married, it seems, to a sister of the king of Armenia, was advanced to the banks of the Euphrates ; that he was at the head of a very considerable army, composed of his own nation, together with a large body of foreign auxi- liaries ; that he had actually begun to transport his troops over the river ; and that it was reported the king of Armenia had a design to invade Cappa- docia. I have forborne to acquaint the senate with this news for two reasons. The first is* because the Commagenian envoys assured me that Antiochus had immediately despatched an express to Rome with this account ; and, in the next place, knowing that the proconsul Marcus Bibulus" had sailed from Ephesus with a favourable wind about the 1 3th of August, I imagined he had by this time reached his province, and would be able to give the senate a more certain and particular intelli- gence. As to my own situation with respect to this im- portant war, it is my utmost endeavour to find that security from the clemency of niy administration, and the fidelity of our allies, which I can scarce expect from the strength and number of my troops'. I have only to add my entreaties that you would continue, as usual, to favour me with your friendly offices in my absence. Farewell. LETTER V. To Thermus, Proprietor. Cltjvius PtTTEOLANUs distinguishes me, upon aU occasions,, with the highest marks lOf esteem ; -g, indeed, we are united in the strictest bands of amity. He has some affairs in your province, and, unless he should be able by my means to settle them during your administration, he looks upon them as utterly desperate. This task, my very obliging friend having assigned to my care, I take the liberty (in confidence of that most amicable disposition you have ever discovered towards me) of transferring it to yours ; with this restriction, nev ertheless, that it do not engage yon ~t Some account mil be given of this great and celebra- ted patriot, in the notes on the first letter of the following book. <1 Commagene was a pai't of Syria not subjected to th? Roman dominion. e Proconsul of Syria. 404 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO in too much trouble. I am to inform you, then, that the corporations of Mylata and Alabanda' are respectively indebted to Cluvius ; and that Euthy- demus assured me, when 1 saw him at Ephesus, he would take care that syndics e should be sent to Rome from the former, in order to adjust the matters in controTersy between them. This, however, has not been performed : on the con- trary, I hear they have commissioned deputies to negotiate this affair in their stead. But syndics are the proper persons, and therefore I entreat you to command these cities to despatch those officers to Rome, that this question may be soon and finally determined. I am farther to acquaint you, that Philotes, of Alabanda, has assigned cer- tain effects to Cluvius by a bill of sale. But the time for payment of the money, for which they are a security, being elapsed, I beg you would compel him either to discharge the debt, or to deliver the goods, to the agents of Cluvius. My friend has likewise some demands of the same kind upon the cities of Heraclea and Bargylos ••. I beseech you, therefore, either to procure him satisfaction by an immediate payment, or to oblige them to put him in possession of a proportionable part of their demesnes. The corporation of Caunus' is also indebted to Cluvius : but they insist that, as the money has been ready for him, and actually lodged m the temple for that purpose, he is not entitled to any interest beyond the time the principal was so deposited'. I entreat the favour of you to f Two cities of Caria, in Asia Minor. s These officers were a kind of solicitors to the treasury of their respective corporations. *i In Caria. i This city was likewise in Caria, J This passage is rendered in a sense very different from that in which all the commentators have understood it. They take the expression, aiunt sepecuniam depositam habuisse, to mean, that the Caunians pretended the money in dispute was a deposite ; and, therefore, that they were not liable to pay interest. But if we suppose the question between the Caunians and Cluvius to have been, whether the sum he demanded was or was not a deposite, the request which Cicero afterwards makes must be highly unjust:— "si intellexeris cos neque ex edicto neque ex decreto depositam habuisse, des operam ut usurse Cluvio eonserventur." For if they were merely trustees, it could make no equitable difference whether the money came to them by a judicial decree, or from a private hand ; and in either case it must have been equally oppressive to oblige them to pay interest. Now, this difficulty will be entirely removed by supposing that the expression depositam haivAsss, is periphrastical, and to be resolved into deposu- isse. And this is agreeable to the idiom of the Latin language, as well as to the manner in which Cicero expresses himself upon other occasions. Thus in his trea- tise " De Clar. Orat." (147,) habere cognitum Scavolam, is equivalent to cognosca-e : as in Plautus vobis hanc habeo €dietionem> is the same as edico.-^PseuA. i. ii. 39.] But if pecuniam depositam habuisse, is a cii-cumloeution for dcposuisse, some substantive must be understood to com- plete the sense ; and accordingly a passage in the letters to ' Atticus will not only point out the word required, but prove likewise thatdejionois used in this elliptical manner. —Cicero, giving an account to Atticus of a transaction relating to the claim of a debt due from the city of Salamis, in Cyprus, tells him that deponere DoJftorii— [Ad, Att. vi! 1.] which, in another letter where he is speaking of the very same affair, he expresses at full length : " ut infano deponerentpostulantibus,(saysbe,)Honconcessi.*'[AdAtt. V. al.] And the last-cited passages will not only justify, but explain, the sense contended for ; as theyprove that it wag usual where any controversy arose cjoncerning the enquire into the truth of the fact; and if it shall appear that the sum in question was not paid into the sacred treasury either in conformity to the general edict"^, or special decree, of the praetor, to direct that Cluvius may have such a rate of in- terest allowed him, as is agreeable to the laws you have established in these cases. I enter with so much the more warmth into these affairs, as my friend Pompey likewise makes them his own, and, indeed, seems more solicitous for their success than even Cluvius himself As E am extremely desirous that the latter should have reason to be satisfied with my good offices, I most earnestly request yours upon this occasion. Fare- well. LETTER VL' To the Consuls, the Prators, the Tribunes of ike People, and the Senate, The first intelligence I received that the Par- thians had passed the greatest part of their army 702 °^®^ ^^^ Euphrates was extremely posi- tive. However, as 1 imagined the pro- consul, Marcus Bibulus, could give you a more certain account of this event, I did not think it necessary to charge myself with the relation of what more immediately concerned the province of an- other. But, since my last despatch, I have been farther and more satisfactorily assured of this fact, by several expresses and deputations that have been sent to me for that purpose. When I con- sider, therefore, the great importance of this news to the republic ; that it is uncertain, likewise, whether Bibulus is yet arrived in Syria ; and that I am almost equally concerned with him in the conduct of this war ; I deem myself obliged to communicate to you the purport of my several informations. The first advice I received was from the ambas- sadors of Antiochus, king of Commagene, who acquainted me that thePanhians had actually begun to transport a very considerable body of forces over the Euphrates. But, as it was the opinion of some of ray council that no great credit was to be given to any intelligence that came from this quarter, I thought proper to wait for better information. Ac- cordingly, on the I9th of September, whilst I was on my march towards Cilicia, I was met by a courier on the frontiers of Lycaonia and Cappado- cia, with an express from' Tarcondimotus ; a prince esteemed the most faithful of our allies on that side quantum of a debt, for the defendant to apply for leavo to pay the money into some temple ; from which time it no longer carried interest. Thus Cicero tells Atticus that the interest upon the debt due from thti city of Salamis ought to have ceased, consistere usura debuit: and assigns this reason for it — deponere valebant; they were ready and desirous to have lodged it in the sacred treasury. But in the case of Cluvius, if the Caunians had paid in the money without giving him notice, (which might very possibly have been the fact if they had not acted under a judicial order,) it was no tmreasonable request to desire they might be compelled to pay the whole interest up to the time when Cluvius should receive the principal. ^ By the term edict is meant, in this place, that formu- lary of provincial laws explained in rem. ^, p. 402. ' His dominions lay on the southern side of Mount Tau- rus, in a part of Cilicia which the Romans had not thought proper to annex to their province. A coin of this prince is still extant.— See Biblioth. Raisonnte, torn. xii. p. 329. TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 405 the Taurus, and extremely in the interest of the Romans. The purport of his despatches was to inform me that a powerful body of horse, com- manded by Pacorus, the son of Orodes, king of' Paithia, had passed the Euphrates, and were en- camped at Tyba, and that the province of Syria was in great commotion. The same day I received an express likewise to this purpose from Jamblichus, an Arabian phylarch", and one who has the gene- ral reputation of being a friend to the republic. Upon the whole, therefore, I came to a resolution of leading my army to Tarsus °, I was sensible that our allies in general were far from being warm in our interest, and were only waiting the opportunity of some favourable revolution to desert us. I flat- tered myself, however, that the lenity and modera- tion of my conduct towards such of them through whose territories I had already passed, would render them better inclined to the Romans, as I hoped to strengthen Cilicia in its allegiance, by giving that part of my province an opportunity of experiencing also the same equitable administra- tion. But I had still a farther inducement : I determined upon this march, not only in order to chastise those who had taken up arms in Cilicia, but also to convince our enemies in Syria that the army of the Romans, far from being disposed to retreat upon the news of their invasion, were so much the more eager to advance. If my advice, then, has any weight, let me ear- nestly exhort and admonish you to take proper measures for the preservation of these provinces ; measures, indeed, which ought to have been con- certed long before, as you were well apprised of those dangers which are now almost within my view. I need not inform you in what manner you thought proper to equip me when I was sent into this part of the world, under a full expectation of being engaged in so important a war. If I did not, however, refuse this commission, it was not because I was so weak as to be insensible how ill provided I was to execute it in a proper manner, but merely in submissive deference to your commands. The truth is, I have at all times willingly exposed my- self to the utmost hazards, rather than not testify my implicit obedience to your authority. But the plain fact is, that if you do not speedily send a very powerful reinforcement into these provinces, the republic will be in the greatest danger of losing the whole of her revenues in this part of the world. If your reliance is upon the provincial militia, be assured you will be extremely disappointed ; as they are very inconsiderable in point of numbers, and such miserable dastards as to run away upon the first alarm. The brave Marcus Bibulus is so sen- sible of the nature of these Asiatic troops, that he has not thought proper to raise any of them, though he had your express permission for that purpose. As to the assistance that may be expected from our allies, the severity and injustice of our government has either so greatly weakened them as to put it out of their power to be of much service to us, or so entirely alienated their affections as to render it unsafe to trust them. The inclinations, however, and the forces too (whatever they be°) of king "■ The lord or chief of a clan. » In the original it is ad, Taurum ; but Mr. Koss with good reason supposes there is an error in.the text, and that It should he read ad Tarsum. *' It is probable that Cicero did not at this time know Deiotarus, I reckon as entirely ours. Cappadoeia is wholly unfurnished with any place of strength : and as to those other neighbouring princes, our allies, they are neither willing nor able to afford us any considerable succours. Ill provided, however, as I am with troops, my courage, you may be assured, shall not be wanting ; nor, I trust, my prudence. What the event may prove is altogether uncertain : I can only wish that I may be in a con- dition to defend myself with as much success as I certainly shall with honour. LETTER VIL ' Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. Though I have some political news to commu- nicate to you, yet I can acquaint you with nothing, I believe, that will give you more pleasure ■ than what I am going previously to mention. You are to know then that RufusP, your favourite Sempronius Rufus, has been lately con- victed of false accusation 1, to the singular joy of the whole city. This prosecution was occasioned by the following circumstance. Rufus, soon after the exhibition of the Roman games'^, was impeached by Marcus Tuccius ; and being sensible that the charge would be proved against him, and that his trial must unavoidably come on this year, unless some other of a higher nature^ intervened, he de- termined upon an expedient for that purpose. Accordingly, as no one, he thought, had so good a title to the honour of this precedence as his prose- cutor, he preferred an accusation upon the Plotian law' against Tuccius, for a violation of the public their number ; but they were by no means inconsiderable. For it appears by a letter to Attlcus, that they amotmtod to 12,000 foot, armed in the Homan manner, and 2,000 horse. — Ad Att. vi. 1 . p Cicero mentions this person In a letter to Atticus, as a man who had failed in the civilities he owed him, by not waiting upon bim before he set out for Cilicia ; but at the sametimeexpresses asatisfaction in having, by that means, been spared the trouble of a very disagreeable visitor. The epithet, therefore, which Ccelius here gives to Hufus must be understood ironically. — Ad Att. v. S. q *' The Roman laws were particularly severe against those who were discovered to have offended in this point. In criminal causes they inflicted banishment, and ordinis amissio (the loss of rank). In civil causes the plaintiff generally deposited a sum of money, which he forfeited if he was found guilty of bringing a vexatious suit. Cicero alludes to another punishment of marking a letter upon the forehead of the false informer, * Pro Rose. Am. 20.' It wsfi the letter K which was impressed upon them, that being the first letter, according to the old orthography, in the word Kalumnia" — Ross. r These games were instituted by Tarquinius Priscus, A.U. 138, in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Their BTiTiTigl celebration commenced on the 9th of September, and continued nine days. * It is probable, as Manutius observes, that the judges of the present year were in general no friends to llufus, which made him endeavour to postpone his triaL The same learned commentator remarks, that all trials were brought on in a regular rotation, unless in accusations that were connected with some other cause that had been imme- diately before adjudged, or m the case of impeachments for the violation of the public peaca These he proves, by several instances, were always determined preferably to all other causes whatsoever. ' The author of this law was P. Platius, or Plautius, tribune of the people, A. U. 675 ; and the penalty inflictoij by it was banishment. 406 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TUJLLIUS CICERO peace; a charge, however,which he could not prevail with a single person to subscribe". As soon as I was apprised of this affair, I flew to the assistance of Tuccius without waiting his request. But when I rose up to speak, I forbore entering into a parti- cular defence of my friend, contenting myself with displaying the character of his adversary in all its true and odious colours, in which you may be sure I did not forget the story concerning Vestorius, and his unworthy conduct towards you. I must inform you,likewise,of another trial which at present greatly engages the forum. Marcus Servilius had been convicted of e-xtortion in his office^ and I ventured to be his advocate, notwith- standing the popular clamour was strongly agaiast him. Servilius, however, liaving dissipated his whole estate, and being utterly insolvent, Pausa- nius'' petitioned the prsetor Laterensis (and I spoke likewise in support of this petition) that he might be empowered to pursue the sum in question into whose hands soever it should appear to have been paid^. Bat this petition was dismissed ; the prsetor alleging that Pilius, a relation of our friend Atticus, had also exhibited articles of impeachment against my client for a crime of the same kind. This news immediately spread throughout Rome ; and it was generally said in all conversations, that Pilius would certainly make good his charge. Appius, the younger, was much disturbed at this report, as having a claim upon Servilius of eighty- one hundred thousand sesterces'', a sum which he scrupled not to avow had been deposited in the hands of Servilius, in order to be paid over to the prosecutor in an information against his father, provided the informer would suffer himself to be nonsuited. If you are surprised at the weakness of Appius in thus acknowledging so shameful a bargain, how much higher would your astonishment have risen, if you had heard his evidence upon the trial of that very ill-judged action which he brought against Servilius for this money .' He most clearly ™ It seems to have been customary for the prosecutor in capital causes to procure some of his friends to join with him in signing the articles of his impeachment. These were styled subscriptores, and acted as a sort of seconds to him in this judicial comhat They could not, however, be admitted into this association without a special licence from the judges for that pmrpose.— Hottom. in Q. Caicil. Bivin. 15. ▼ The whole account of the following transactions con- cerning Servilius is extremely (perhaps impenetrably) obscure in the original, and has exercised the ingenuity of all the commentators to enlighten. The translator, how- ever, has ventured in some instances to depart from them, though he acknowledges, at the same time, that he isscarce more satisfied with his own interpretation than with theirs. w "Who this person was, or in what manner concenicd In the present cause, is altogether undiscoverable. Perhaps, as Mr. Ross conjectures, he might have been the prosecu- tor. * It appears by a passage which Manutius produces from the oration in defence of Rabirius, that in convictions of this kind thfe money was recoverable by the Julian law from any hand into which it could be proved to have been paid. — Pro Rabir, Post. 4. y About 63,367!. of our money. This sum must appear excessive if considered only with respect to the wealth of the present times. But Appius might well be enabled to give it, and it might have been extremely prudent in him, likewise, to have done so, if this prosecution was (what seems highly probable) on account of his father's having plundered some province committed to his administration. indeed made appear, to the full satisfaction of the whole court, both his own folly and his father's guilt. To complete the absurdity of his conduct upon this occasion, he was so imprudent as to summon the very same judges upon this cause, who tried the information I just now mentioned to have been brought against his father. It happened, how- ever that their voices were equally divided^ But the prjetor, not knowing tiow the law stood in this case, declared that Servilius had a majority of the three classes of judges in his favour, and accord- ingly acquitted him in the usual form. At the rising of the court, therefore, it was generally imagined that the acquittal of Servilius would be enrolled. But the prsetor thinking it advisable to look into the laws upon this point before he made up the record, found it expressly enacted, that " in all causes sentence sliall be pronounced according to the majority of the votes in the whole collective number of judges"." Instead, therefore, of regis- tering the acquital of Servilius, he only inserted in the roll the number of voices as they stood in each respective class. Appius, in consequence of this mistake, re-commenced his suit ; while the prsetor, by the intervention of LoUius, promised to amend the record, and enter a proper judgment. But the hapless Servilius, neither entirely acquitted nor absolutely condemned, is at length to be delivered over, with this his blasted character, to the hands of Pilius. For Appius not venturing to contend with the latter, which of their actions should have the priority, has thought proper to waive his prose- cution. He himself is likewise impeached by the relations of Servihus for bribery : as he has also another accusation laid against him by one Titins, a creature of his own, who has charged him with a breach of the peace. And thus are these two worthy combatants most equally matched. As to public affairs : we had waited several days in expectation that something would be determined concerning Gaul, frequent motions having been made in the senate for this purpose, which were followed by very warm debates. At length, how- ever, it plainly appearing, agreeable to Pompey's sentiments, that Caesar's command in Gaul should not be continued longer than the first of March, the senate passed the following orders and decrees'. " By authority of the senate, held in the temple of Apollo, on the 30th day of September, Signed': L, Domitius Ahenobarbus ; Q. Cascilius ; MetuUus Pius Scipio; ,L. Villius Annalis ; C, Septimius; Caius Lucceius Hirrus ; C, Scribonius Curio ; L, * In this case the Roman law determined by the most favourable presumption, and absolved the defendant. » It has already been observed in the foregoing remarks that the judges were divided into three classes. [See rem. S p. 393.] It is obvious, therefore, th.at there might have been a majority in two of the classes out of the three, in favour of Servilius, and yet that the voices considered with respect to the whole number of judges might have been equal. But it is ii\conceivable that a magistrate of praeto- rian rank could possibly be ignorant of a practice which one can scarce suppose the most common citizen of Rome to have been unacquainted with. Notwithstanding, there- fore, C«liu8 ascribes the prffltor's conduct to ignorance, it seems much more probable to have arisen from design. ** With regard to the diiference between an order and a decree of the senate, see rem, r, p. 346. c The decrees of the senate were usually signed in this manner by those who wore the principal promoters of tho question. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 4f7 Atteius Capita ; M. Oppius. Whereas a motion was made by Marcus Marcellus, the consul, con- cerning the consular provinces, it is ordered, that Lucius Panlus and Caius Marcellus, consuls elect, shall, on the first of March next, following their entering upon their office, move the senate con- cerning the consular provinces, at which time no other business shall be proceeded upon, nor any other motion made in conjunction therewith. And for this purpose the senate shall continue to assemble, notwithstanding the comitial days'*, and until a decree shall be passed." " Ordered, that when the consuls shall move the senate upon the question aforesaid, they shall he empowered to summon such of the three hundred judges who are members of the senate to attend'." " Kesolved, that if any matters shall arise upon the question aforesaid, which shall be necessary to be laid before the people, that Servius Sulpicius and Marcus Marcellus, the present consuls, together with the pr8etors and tnbunes of the people, .or such of them as shall be agreed upon, shall call an assembly of the people for this purpose : and if the magistrates aforesaid shall fail herein, the same shall be proposed to the people by their successors." " The thirtieth day of September, in the temple of Apollo. Signed : L. Domitius Ahenobarbus ; Q. Csecilius ; Metullus Pius Scipio ; L. Villius Annalis ; C. Septimius ; C. Scribonius Curio ; M. Oppius. " The consul, Marcus Marcellus, having moved the senate concerning the provinces, " Resolved, that it is the opinion of the senate, that it vrill be highly unbecoming any magistrate who has a power of controlling their proceedings, to occasion any hindrance whereby the senate may be prevented from taking the aforesaid motion into consideration as soon as possible : and that whoso- ever shall obstruct or oppose the same shall be deemed an enemy to the republic. ". Ordered, that if any magistrate shall put a negative upon the foregoing resolution, the same shall be entered as an order of the senate, and again referred to the consideration of this house." This resolution was protested against by Caius CobUus. Lucius Vinicius, P. Fablius Cornelius, and Gains Vibius Pansa. " Resolved, that the senate will take into consi- deration the case of such of the soldiers under Caesar's command who have served out their legal time, or who, for other reasons, are entitled to a discharge, and make such order thereupon as shall be agreeable t o equity'." ** The comitial days were those on which the comitiat or assemblies of the people, were held ; and on these the law prohibited the senate to he convened. The senate, how- ever, in the present instance, and agreeably to a preroga- tive which they claimed and exercised upon many other occasions, took upon themselves to act ^vith a dispensing power.— Mid. on the Rom. Sen. p. 121. e This clause was inserted in order to secure a full house, a certain number of senators being necessary to he present for making a decree valid. [See rem. f, p. 367-] The cor- rection of Manutius has been adopted in the translation, who, instead of sex abducere liceret, reads eos ahducere, &c, ' A Roman soldier could not be compelled to hear arms after having been in the service ten yearr.. As the strength of Casar's army in Gaul consisted principally in his vete- rans, this clause wna added, as Gronovius observes, with a view of drawing off those soldiers from his troops. " Resolved, that if any magistrate shall put his negative upon the foregoing decree, the same shall stand as an order of senate, and be again referred to the consideration of this house." This resolution was protested against by Caius Coelius and Caius Pansa, tribunes of the people. " Ordered, that such of the present praetors who have never held any provincial command, shall draw lots to succeed respectively to the government of Cilicia and the eight remaining PrsetorianK pro- vinces. But if there shall not be a sufficient number'' of these to fill up the aforesaid govern, ments ; then, and in this case, the deficiency shall be supplied by lot out of the first college' of prsetors. among those who have never held a foreign rovern- ment. And if there shall not be found a si>fficienc number among these last, so qualified as uforesaid, the same shall be supplied from the members of each preceding college, till the whole number required be completed. "Hesolved, that if any magistrate shall put his negative upon the foregoing decree, the same shall stand as an order of the senate." This decree was protested against by Caius Ccelius and Caius Pansa, tribunes of the people. In the debates which preceded these decrees, Pompey let fall an expression that was much ob- served, and gave us very confident hopes of his good intentions. " He could not, witliout great injustice, he said, determine anything in relation to the provinces under Caesar's command, before the first of March : but after that time, he assured the senate he should have no sort of scruple." Being asked, " what if a negative should then be put upon a decree of the senate for recalling Csesar ?" he declared that he should look upon it as just the same thing, whether Caesar openly refused to obey the authority of the senate, or secretly procured some magistrate to obstruct their decrees. '' But suppose," said another member, " Caesar should pursue his pretensions to the consulate, and retain his command abroad at the same time." — " Suppose," replied Pompey, with great temper, " my own son should lay violent hands upon me ?" From expres- sions of this kind the world has couceired a notion that a rupture will undoubtedly ensue between Pompey and Csesar. I am of opinion, however, that the latter will submit to one of these two con- ditions : either to give up his present pretensions to the consulate, and continue in Gaul, or to quit the province, provided he can be assured of his election. — Curio is preparing most strongly to oppose his demands. What he may be able to effect, I know not ; but sure I am, that a man who acts upon such patriot principlesj must gain honour, at least, if he gain nothing else. He treats me upon all occasions with great generosity ; and indeed, in a late instance, has been more liberal than I could have wished ; as his civility has drawn upon me a trouble, which perh aps I might otherwise g The provinces of lesser note were usually assigned to the praetors, and from thence they were distinguished by the name of the praetorian provinces. ^ The number of pra?tors varied in different periods of the republic. In the times of Cicero this magistracy was composed of eight persons, as Cellarius remarks in his note upon this passage^ 1 Every annual set of prsetors were distinguished, by col- leges, styled the 1st, 2d, 3d, ic. according to their several rsmovee from the current year. 408 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO have escaped. He has presented me with some African panthers, which he had procured for his own games, and by that means laid me under a necessity of malcinguse of tbemJ. I must, therefore, remind you of what I have often mentioned already, and entreat you to send me some of these animals from your part of the world ; and I again likewise recommend to your care the hond of Sitius. I have had occasion to despatch my freedman, Philo, together with Diogenes, a Greek, into your province. I hope you will afford your patronage both to them and their commission ; as you will find, by the letter they are to deliver to you on my part, that it is an affair'' in which I am deeply interested. Farewell. LETTER VIII.' To Publius Silius^, Proprceior. You are apprised, I imagine, of the friendship that subsisted between Titus Pinnius and myself. He has sufficiently declared it indeed A. u. 702. jjy jjjg ^jjj^ wherein he not only ap- pointed me one of the guardians to his son, but left me the contingent reversion also of his estate. My ward (who is a youth of uncommon modesty, as well as great application to his studies) has a very considerable demand upon the city of Niceea, amounting to eight millions of sesterces'" : and the corporation, I am told, are inclined to pay off part of this sum the first debt' they shall discharge. Now, as not only the rest of the trustees who know the regard you bear me, but the young man him- self, is persuaded that you will not refuse anything to my request, I shall be exceedingly obliged to you for employing your good offices, (as far, I mean, as may be consistent with your dignity and character,) that they pay off as large a proportion of this demand as possible. Farewell. LETTER IX, To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-jEdile elect. I CONGRATULATE you 00 the honourable post you have lately obtained", and on the prospect u 702 ™''''''^> ''y ''''^ mean, is open to you, of advancing still higher in the dignities of the republic. I am somewhat late, I confess, in my compliments : however, you must not impute it to any intentional neglect, but merely to my J In the games he was preparing to exhibit as sedilc. ^ This affair seems to beexplained by an epistle to Atti- cus, wherein Cicero mentions the receipt of a very pressing letter from Coelius, by the hands of his freedman. The purport of it appears to have been to solicit Cicero to levy a contribution upon his province, towards the expense of ttose public games, which Ccelius as cedile was obliged to exhibit. This oppressive tax bad been frequently raised by the governors of provinces in favour of their friends at Rome, and was, indeed, almost established into a custom. — But Cicero, notwithstanding he seems to have had a sin- cere affection for Ccelius, would by no means be prevailed upon to break through the equitable maxims of his admi- nistration, and with great integl'ity refused his request.—. Ad Att. vi. 1. ; Ad Quint. Frat. i. 9. ^ He was at this time proprsetor, or governor, of Bithynia and Pontus in Asia, where he discharged the provincial functions with great applause.— Ad Att. vi. 8. '" About 70,000J. sterling. » The aidileship. ignorance of what passes at Rome. For, partly from the great distance of my situation, and partly from those banditti which infest the roads, it is a considerable time before I can receive any intelli- gence from Italy. And now I know not where to find words sufficiently strong to give you joy upon this occasion, or to express my thanks for your having thus "furnished me (as you termed it in one of your former letters) with a subject of per- petual ridicule." When I first received the news of your victory, I could not forbear mimicking a certain worthy friend of ours, and imitating the droll figures those gallant youths exhibited, of whose interest he had so confidently boasted". But it is not easy to give yon in description a complete idea of this my humorous sally. I must tell you, however, that I next figured you to myself, and accosted you, as if present, in the words of the comic poet : Far less, ray good friend, I rejoice at your deed. As exceeding whatever before did exceed, Than as mounting aloft o*er my hopes the most high ; And for this, *' By my troth 'tis amazintj" I ciy. Upon which I broke out into a most immoderate fit of laughter ; and, when some of my friends reproved my mirth, as deviating almost into down- right folly, I excused myself by the old verse. Excessive joy is not exceeding wise. In short, whilst I ridiculed this noble friend of ours, I became almost as ridiculous as himself. But you shall hear farther upon this subject another opportunity: for, in truth, I have many things to say both of you and to you, whenever I shall find more leisure for that purpose. In the mean time be assured, my dear Ccefius, that I sin- cerely love you. I consider you, indeed, as one whom fortune has raised up to advance my glory, and avenge my wrongs : and, I doubt not, you will give both those who hate and those who envy me sufficient reason to repent of their folly and their injustice. Farewell. LETTER X. To Publius Silius, Propreeior. / Your good offices in the affair of Atilius afford me an additional motive for giving you my affection. A u 702 ^''f®" indeed, as I applied to you in his behalf, I have, however, by your generous intervention, preserved a most worthy Roman knight from ruin. The truth is, I always looked upon my friendship with Lamia as giving me a claim to yours. In the first place, then, I return you thanks for easing my mind of all its disqui- etude with respect to Atilius ; and, in the next, after thus acknowledging your last favour, I have the assurance to request another : and it is a favour n A mere modem reader, who judges of past ages by the modes that prevail in his own, must uudoubtedly concoivo a very low opinion of Cicero from the account which he here gives of his behaviour. But mimicry was not esteemed by the Romans, as it is with us, a talent becoming only a comedian or a buffoon. On the contrary, this species of humour was thought worthy of the gravest chai*acters even upon the gravest occasions : and it was practised by their orators, as well as recommended hy their rhetoricians, aa a quality, undei' certain restrictions, of singular grace and efficacy in the whole business of public eloquance.—Cic. de Orat. ii. 5.0, CO, -TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 409 vrhich 1 shall repay with the utmost returns of my esteem and gratitude. Let me entreat you, then, if I have any share in your heart, to allow my brother an equal enjoyment of the same privilege ; which will be adding a very considerable obligation to that important one I so lately received at your hands. Farewell. LETTER XI.^ To Appius Pulcher. By all that I can collect from your last letter, this will find you in the suburbs" of Rome. But, *. n 702. '•''""S'' tli6 impotent calumnies of these paltry provincials will probably be sub- sided ere this reaches your hands, yet, I think it necessary to return some answer to the long epistle I received from you upon that subject ; and 1 shall do so in as few words as possible. As to the accusation contained in the two first paragraphs of your letter, it is conceived in such vague and general terms, that it is impossible to give it a direct reply. The whole that I can gather from it is, that I am accused of having discovered, by my countenance and my silence, that I was by no means your friend ; a discovery which I made, it seems, upon some occasion in the courts of judi- cature, and, lilcewise, at certain public entertain- ments. I am very sure there is not the least grouttd for this imputation ; but as you do not point out the particular instances, I know not in what manner to vindicate myself from the charge. This, however, 1 most undoubtedly know, that I have mentioned you upon all occasions, both public and private, with the highest applause, and with the warmest professions of friendship. As to the affair of the deputies f, I will appeal to your own breast, whether I could possibly have acted with more probity and discretion than to lessen the expenses of these impoverished cities, without any diminution, at the same time, of those honours which they proposed to pay you ; especially as it was in compliance with their own immediate request? And, indeed, I was wholly unapprised of the particular purposes of that deputation, which was going to Rome with the customary compli- mental address to the senate upon your account. o Appius at his return from Cilicia demanded a triumph as the reward of his military exploits in that province, and accordingly took up his residence without the city. For those who claimed this honour were not admitted within tho walls of Rome till their petition was either granted or rejected, or they chose to drop it themselves. The latter was. the case with respect to Appius, as will hereafter appear. P " It was a custom for the governors of provinces, upon their retirement from their government, to procure ambas- sadors to he sent to Home from the several cities under their jurisdiction to praise the integrity and equity of their administration. The origin of this custom was undoubt- edly good,' and in some few instances we find that it was undertaken voluntarily ; but it was generally extorted by force, and a great burden to the miserable inhabitants, who perhaps had been already fleeced by the rapine and plunder of that very person whose lenity and moderation they were compelled to extol. Appius had taken care, before he left Cilicia, to secure this compliment to be paid to himself, though as undeserving of it as any of his pre- decessors. But Cicero, who set out upon a more frugal plan than other governors, prevented it, out of compas- sion to the poverty and Indigence of the province."~llos8. When I was at Apameai, some of the principal inhabitants of several different cities complained to me of the excessive appointments that were decreed to their deputies; a.ssuriug me, that their respective communities were by no means in a condition to support the assessments . levied upon them for that purpose. This suggested to my thoughts various reflections : and I imagined, that a man of your refined sentiments could not be extremely fond of honours of this unsubstantial nature. Accordingly, it was at Synnada, I think, that I took occasion to say from the tribunal, (and I expatiated very largely upon the subject,) " that the approved merit of Appius was sufficient, with- out the testimony of the Midensiaus (for it was in their city"" that the proposal first arose) to recom* mend him to the esteem of the senate and the Roman people ; that I had often, indeed, seen instances of this kind of deputations, but did not remember they were ever admitted to an audience ; tiiat, however, I applauded the gratitude they had thus shown for your merit towards them, but thought the particular instance in question was wholly unnecessary; that "if any of them were willing to undertake this commission at their own expense, I should highly commend their zeal ; and I would even consent it should be performed at the public charge, provided they did not exceed a rea- sonable sum ; but, beyond that, I would in no sort give my permission." I am persuaded there is nothing in what I thus saitl, that can possibly give you offence : and, indeed, your principal complaint is levelled, I per- ceive, against my edict^. For there were some, it seems, who thought it manifestly drawn up with a view of preventing these legations. I cannot for- bear saying, that, to give attention to these ground- less insinuations, is no less injurious to me than to be the author of them. The truth of it is, I settled this edict before I left Rome ; and the single addition that I made to it afterwards, was at the instance of the farmers of the revenues, who, when they met me at Samos', desired I would transcribe a paragraph out of your edict and insert it into mine. It was that article which restrains' the public expenses, and contains several new and very salutary regulations, which I greatly approved. But as to that particular section which gave rise, I find, to the suspicion that I framed it with a design of striking at you, it is copied entirely from the old precedents. I was not, indeed, so absurd as to think (what I perceive you imagine) that some private affair was concerned in this deputation ; well knowing that it was sent from a public body in felation to your public character, and addressed to that great council of the whole world, the senate of Rome. Nor did I, (as you object,) when I pro- hibited any person from going out of the province without my permission, exclude all those from the possibility of o btaining that leave, who could not <1 A city in that part of Phrygia which was annexed to Cicero's province : as was Synnada, likewise, mentioned a few lines below. , ' A town in the neighbourhood of Synnada. In the ori- ginal it is Myndensium: but Quartier has given good reasons for the reading here followed. s The nature of these proconsular edicts has atoeady been explained in rem. ^, p. 402. t An island'near the coast of Ionia, lying opposite to the city of Ephesus.' Cicero touched at this island in his voy- age to the province. 410 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO follow me to the camp and beyond Mount Taurus ; an imputation, I must needs say, the most ridicu- lous of any in your whole letter. For where, let me ask, was the necessity that any person should follow me for this purpose to the camp, or beyond Mount Taurus, when 1 regulated my journey from Laodicea to Iconium in such a manner, that all the magistrates and deputies of the several cities in that district might have an opportunity of meeting me? They could not, therefore, be under the diffi- culty you charge me with having thrown in their way. unless they had taken up the design of going to Rome after my having passed Mount Taurus ; which most undoubtedly was not the case. For, during my stay at Apamea, Syunada, Philomelum'^, and Iconium, all affairs of that nature were entirely settled. I must farther assure you, that I decreed nothing concerning the abating or abolishing the appoint- ments of the deputies, but at the express request of the principal inhabitants of several cities ; and their view was, to prevent any unnecessary exactions that were occasioned by the farming of the subsidies imposed for this purpose, and raising them in that cruel method of capitation with which you are so well acquainted. Compassion, indeed, as well as justice, inclined me to ease the calamities of these unhappy cities, oppressed, as they chiefly were, by their own magistrates* : and when I was engaged in a design of that nature, I could not possibly overlook an expense which appeared so extremely superfluous as that of the appointments of these deputies. It was but a piece of justice therefore due to me, not to have listened to any idle tales that might be related to you upon this subject. But if it should prove, after all, that you attribute to the reports of others what, in truth, receive their rise merely from your own suspicions, you certainly make use of a sort of figure which the language of friendship will by no means authorise. Had it ever, indeed, been my design to derogate from your reputation in the province, I should scarcely have acted in the manner I^did ; I should not have referred it to your son-in-law at Rome, to your freedman at Brundisium, and to the com- mander of your artillery when I saw him at Cor- cyra, to name the place which they thought would be most agreeable to you for our meeting- In short, I wish you would remember the maxim which those great authors have laid down, who have written so excellently upon friendship ; that ' ' to accuse and to defend are terms which ought for ever to be banished from intercourses of this amicable kind.'' But do you imagine that I have had no oppor- « A eity in Phrygia Major, situated on the frontiers towards Galatia. The situation of the other cities men- tioned in this place has ab-eady been occasionally noted as they occm-red in the preceding l&tters. T It appears from the letters to Atticus, to whom it was that the grievances of these unhappy cities were principally owing. Theii' own magistrates, i^ is true, had some share in them ; but their chief oppressor was Appius himself. The desolation he had brought upon this plundered pro- vince was so dreadful, that one would rather imagine, says Cicero, some savage monster had been let loose upon them, than that they had been trusted to the care of any human creature. And in another letter he tells Atticus, that he Jiad sufficient employment in applying remedies to those wounds which bad been given to this province by hia pre- deeeseor.— Ad Att. v. 16, 17. tunities of listening, in my turn, to accusations of the same nature against yourself? Was it never told me, do you think, that after you had appointed me to meet you at Laodicea, you retired beyond Mount Taurus ? That, at the very time I was employed in my juridical ofiice at Apamea, Syn- nada, and Philomelum, you took the liberty to exercise the same authority at Tarsus ? But I forbear to enter farther into these particulars, that I may not follow your example in the very instance of which I am complaining. This, however, I will say, (and I say itvrith great sincerity,) that if you are really persuaded of the truth of these reports, you do me much injustice ; and you are not entirely without reproach, if you only suffered them to be related to you. The truth is, it will appear that I have acted towards you in one uniform tenor of friendship. And let those who impute artifice to me say, whether it is probable that, after having paid the utmost attention to your interest during your absence from Rome, and at a time when I had not the least expectation of its ever being in your power to return me the same favour, I should give you just reason to abandon me now that I have so many occasions for your good offices. I must, however, acknowledge that there is one article wherein I may not, perhaps, have regulated myself altogether agreeably to your inclinations. I am sensible you would be displeased with any liberties that should be taken with the characters of those who acted in office under you ; and I will own that I have heard very unfavourable repre- sentations of some of them. But, I must add, that no persons were ever mentioned upon this occasion, or any greater irregularities laid to their charge, than those which yourfriend Clodius himself named to me when I saw him at Corcyra, who lamented, 1 remember, that you had been some sufferer in your reputation by tlie malpractices of those officers^. Reports of this kind (and many such indeed there are) I never in the least encouraged : but I will frankly acknowledge, likewise, that I never greatly endeavoured to repress them ; well persuaded as I am, that they can, in no sort, affect your character. "^ A particular instance of the cruelty of one of these officers under Appius is mentioned in the letters to Atti- cus. Scaptius, w^ho commanded a troop of horse in Cyprus, surrounded their senate with his forces in order to compel them, it is probable, to comply with some unjust demands, and kept them thus besieged till five or the members pei-ished with himger. When the government of this pro- vince came into the hands of Cicero, the Cyprians, as their island lay within his jurisdiction, petitioned that these troops might be withdrawn, and he very humanely com- plied with their request. He relieved them, likewise, as well as other cities imder his government, from the immo- derate interest which they paid for the money which their necessities had obliged them to borrow in Rome, reducing it from 4 per cent., paid monthly, to 1 per cent. This equitable reduction very considerably affected Brutus, who was concerned in these loans ; and he seems to have com- plained of it to Atticus. But notwithstanding the latter strongly pressed Cicero to favour Brutus in this affair, and Brutus himself likewise had written to Cicero for the same purpose; yet he resolutely withstood their united solicita- tions. " If Brutus," says he, " resents my conduct upon this occasion, I shall be sorry ; but much more so, to find him a differerit man from what I always thought him." And if Cicero,! will add, had spoken and acted upon every other occasion with the same spirit and int^rity as he certainly did in the present, he would have merited all the encomiums which the warmest of his admirers could have hestowed. — Ad Att, vi. 1, 2. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 411 Whoever attempts to persuade you that there is no such thing as a perfect reconcilement between friends whose affections have once been alienated, discovers the perfidy of his own heart, instead of proving the dissimulation of mine ; at the same time that it is evident that he has not a worse opinion of my sincerity than he must necessarily entertain of yours. But if any man has taken offence at the measures I pursue in my government, as not exactly coinciding with yours, I am per- fectly unconcerned at the loss of his friendship. To say truth, we have both acted in the manner we ought, though we have not both followed the same plan. Tiie instances you gave of your diffusive liberality in this province were suitable to a man of your quality. Though, indeed, even you your- self were obliged, the last year, in compliance with the calamities of the season, a little to restrain the munificence of your natural disposition. But if mine, on the contrary, flows in a somewhat more limited Channel, let not those to whom the benefit of that stream has not reached, wonder that I rather choose they should suffer from the necessary restrictions of my bounty, than that I should, from the just reproaches of my conscience. I have ever, indeed, been extremely reserved in dispensing largesses at another's cost ; as I cannot but be sensibly affected with distresses that extend them- selves throughout a whole community. I am much obliged to you for the account you gave me of affairs at Rome, and particularly for the assurance of your faithfully executing all my requests. What I principally recommend to your care is, that neither the business nor the period of my administration may be enlarged. To this end, I beg you would entreat our common friend and^ colleague Hortensius, that if ever he was disposed to comply with my inclinations, he would not per- sist in my continuing two years in this govern- ment, than which he cannot do me a more unfriendly office. As to the information you desire concerning my own motions ; I marched from Tarsus in my way to Amanus, on the seventh of October ; and I write this the day following, from my camp in the plains of Mopsuhesta?^. If any action should happen, I shall not fail of giving you notice ; and you may depend upon my enclosing a letter to you, when- ever I send one to my family. With respect to the Parthians whom you inquire after, I am per- suaded that none ever appeared. They were only a troop of Arabians, armed after the Parthian manner. But these, it is said, are all returned home, and I am assured there is now no appear- ance of an enemy in Syria. I entreat you to write to me as often as possible, not only as to what regards your own and my private affairs, but as to those likewise of the republic. I am more than ordinarily, indeed, solicitous concerning the latter, as I find by your letter that Pompey is going into Spain ^ FarewelLO C^^^t'^" ' la the augural college. y A city in Cilicia, situated upon the banks of the river Pyramus. ' The government of Spain had been renewed to Pompey for five years at the end of his consulate in the preceduig year : which province, however, he administered by his lieutenants, whilst be himself still continued in llome.-~ Die, zli. p. 148. LETTER XII. To Publiiis Silius, Propraior. I DID not imagine I should ever have found myself at a loss for expressions : yet at a loss 702 ''^''P^^ ™^ I am, to recommend Marcus Lsenius to you in the terms he deserves. I must content myself, therefore, with explaining the business of this letter in few words ; but in such, however, as may render you sufficiently sensible of my inclinations. It is incredible how great an esteem both my dearest brother and myself entertain for Laenius : an esteem which is founded not only on the many good offices he has conferred upon us, but on the exalted integrity of his heart, and the singular modesty with which all his virtues are accompanied. It was with the' utmost regret, therefore, that I- consented to part with him, as I receive much advantage from his counsels, as well as great entertainment from his company. But if I should expatiate any farther in his praise, will yon not think that, far from wanting words, as I just now complained, I have employed more than are necessary ? To be short, then, I recommend Lsenius to your protection with all that warmth which you must be sensible I ought, after what I have here said. Let me earnestly entreat you to expedite the business which has called him into your province, and to favour him likewise with your advice in the conduct of it. You will find him, be assured, a man of ^ most generous and well-natured disposition : for which reason I bog you will send him back to us vrith the satisfaction of having finished his affairs by your means, as soon as possible. Your comphance with this re- quest will extremely oblige both my brother and myself. Farewell. LETTER XIIL / To Marcus Cailius, Curule-jEdilc elect. I "WISH you would inquire the reason that your letters miscarry ; for I cannot be induced to think „„ that you have not once written to me since your election'. I am persuaded, on the contrary, that you would not have omitted to communicate, a piece of news I so much wished with regard to yourself, and so little expected in relation to Hirrus. The truth, however, is, that I have not heard from you since that glorious and joyful event ; which gives me some uneasiness, lest my letters should have had no better success in find- ing their way to your hand. But be assured I have never written to my family without accompanying my packet with a letter for you ; as, indeed, there is no man whom I more sincerely and tenderly value. But to turn to the principal purpose of this epistle. Your wish has succeeded, and I have just had employment enough of the military kind to entitle me to a triumph. You were under some apprehensions, I perceive, about the Parthians, as being diffident of my forces. I must acquaint you, then, that having received advice that the Parthians had committed hostilities, I took the advantage of some defiles, and of the neighbouring mountaras, to lead my army, supported by a tolerable number of auxiliaries, to Amanus. T he reputation of my » Into the office of ffidile. 412 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO name was of some benefit to me likewise in my march : for you cannot imagine of what importance it is, in places of this kind, to have the populace ask. Is this the consul that saved Rome ? Is this he that was so honoured by the senate ? together with other questions of the same import, which I need not add. When I approached to Amanus, a mountain which separates Ciliciafrom Syria, I had the satisfaction to hear that Cassius'' had obliged the enemy to abandon the siege of Antiochea, and that Bibulus had taken upon himself the command of the province. However, I employed my army in harassing the Amanienses, our eternal enemies ; and having put many of them to the sword, as well as taken a great number of prisoners, and entirely dispersed the rest, I surprised and burnt some of their fortresses. Having thus obtained a complete victory, I was saluted with the title of Imperator by the whole army at Issus' ; the very place (as your favourite historian Clitarchus'^ has often, I have heard you say, informed you) where Alexander defeated Darius. From thence I marched into the most infested parts of Cilicia, where I am now before Pindenessum, a city of great strength, and whicli I have already been battering above these three weeks. The garrison makes a most obstinate and vigorous defence ; so that nothing seems want- ing to complete the glory I shall here obtain, but that the name of this place were less obscure. If I should make myself master of it (as I trust I shall), I will send an immediate express to the senate. In the mean time I have given you this general account of my operations, to let you see there is some foundation to hope that your good wishes win take effect. But to return to the Par- thians. This summer's campaign has proved, you find, tolerably successful : I am in great pain, how- ever for the next. Let me entreat you, therefore, my dear friend, to endeavour that a successor be appointed to my government : but if that should prove a matter of too much difficulty, (as you inti- mate in one of your letters, and as 1 am myself inclined to suspect,) be careful at least to guard against what may easily be prevented ; I mean the prolongation of my residence. I expect from your letters (as I mentioned in one of my former), not merely an account of what is at present going forward in the republic, but a clear prospect also of what is likely to happen. For which purpose I entreat you to inform me fully of everything that concerns the public. Farewell. LETTER XIV. ' Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. Wb " have r'eceived an express from Cains Cassius, and another from Deiotarus, which greatly alarm . u. 702. US. The former writes that the Parthian army has passed the Euphrates ; and the latter, that they are actually marching towards your fa He ivas lieutenant to Crassus, in Syria, after whose death the command of the province devolved upon him, till Bibulus, who was appointed auceessor to Crassus, arrived. A more partieular account will be given of him in the farther progress of these remarks. « A city whieh stood on the frontiers of Cilicia and Syria. ^ A Greek historian, who attended Alexander in his Persian expedition. ' This letter appeal's to have heen written before any cf province, by the way of Commagene. As I well know how ill provided you are with troops, the principal concern I feel from this invasion, with respect to you, is lest you should be a loser by it in point of reputation. Had you been better pre- pared, indeed, to receive the enemy, I should have been in great pain for your life ; but as the very small number of your forces will inclinfe you, I imagine, rather to think of a retreat than an engage- ment, I am only anxious concerning your honour. For how far the world may consider the necessity of the case, and approve of your thus declining a battle, is a point, I confess, which gives me much uneasy reflection. In short, I shall be in continual anxiety till I hear of your arrival in Italy. In the mean time, this news of the Partbians has occa- sioned a variety of speculations. Some are of opinion that Pompey ought to be sent to oppose them ; and others, that it isby no means convenient he should leave Rome. A third party is for assigning this expedition to Csesar and his army, whilst a fourth names the consuls ' as the most proper persons to be employed. But all agree, however, in being silent as to any decree of the senate for placing this command in private handsB. The consuls, in the apprehension that they shall either be nominated to a commission which they do not relish, or suffer the disgrace of its being given from them, forbear to convene the senate, and by this mean incur the censure of neglecting the public interest. But whether indolence or pusillanimity be the real motive of their declin- ing the conduct of this war, it is concealed under the specious appearance, however, of modesty. As we have received no courier from you, it was suspected, till the despatch from Deiotarus arrived, that the whole was an invention of Cassius, who, it was thought, in order to cover his own rapine, had sutfered a parcel of Arabs to make an incursion into the province, and then represented them to the senate as a formidable body of Parthians. Whatever, therefore, may be the true state of the affair, let me persuade you to be extremely circumspect in giving a faithful and accurate account of it to the senate, that you may neither be reproached with magnifying matters in order to gratify the private purposes of Cassius, nor with concealing anything wluch may be of importance for the public to know. It is now the eighteenth of November ; and as we are advanced thus far towards the end of the year, I do not see that anything can be done in this affair before the first of January'. For you know how slow and inactive Marcellus is upon all occasions, and are no stranger to the dilatory dis- position of Sulpicius. You will easily judge, there- fore, what is to be expected from two men of this nn performing cast ; and that they who usually act with so much coldness, as to make one doubt their inclinations, even in points they really desire to effect, will not be very warm in forwarding a business from which they sire certainly averse. Cicero's despatches, concerning the Partbians, had reached Rome ; and consequently before Ccslius had received the preceding epistle. ' Marcus Marcellus, and Servius Sulpicius. 8 That is, in the hands of those who were not invested with some public command. •^ When the consuls elect entered upon the wlmlnistra- tiun of their office. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 418 If the Parthian war should become a serious matter, the new magistrates will be engaged, for the first two or three mouths of their office, in adjusting the proper measures to be taken in this conjuncture. On the other hand, if it should appear to be an invasion of no consequ!ence, or such, at least, that, with the supply of a few additional troops, may easily be repelled by you and the other proconsuls already in those provinces, or by your successors. Curio, I foresee, will begin to play bis double game : that is, he will in the first place attempt to weaken the authority of Csesar' j and in the next, endeavour to throw some little advan- tages on the side of Pompey. As for PaulusJ, he declares most vehemently against suffering Ceesar to continue in Gaul ; and our friend Furnius is the only tribune whom I suspect of obstructing his measures for that purpose. You may depend upon these articles as certain ; but beyond these I cannot with any assurance pronounce. Time, indeed, may produce much ; as many schemes, ,1 know, are con- certed : but they all turn upon the points I have already specified. I forgot to mention that Curio designs to make an attempt to procure a division of the lands in Campania''. It is pretended that Ceesar does not concern himself in this matter : certain, however, it is, that Pompey is very desirous of having the distribution settled before Caesar's return, that he may be precluded from applying them to his own purposes. As to what concerns your leaving the province, I dare not promise that you shall be relieved by a successor ; but you may rely upon my endeavour- ing all 1 can that your administration shall not be prolonged. Whether you will think proper to remain in your government, if affairs should be so circumstanced as to render it indecent for me to oppose any decree of the senate for that purpose, depends upon yourself to determine, as it does upon me to remember, how warmly you made it your request wLen we parted, that I would pre- vent any such resolution from being taken. Fare- well. LETTER XV. / To PuUius Silius, Proprcetor. It was with the warmest and most grateful acknowledgment of your favours that my friend A. Ti 702 Nero assured me you have distinguished him with every honour in your power. You may depend upon the most efficacious in- stances of his friendship in return, as there is not a man in the world of a more grateful and generous disposition. You have conferred, at the same time, a veiy singular obligation upon myself, for I know not any man amongst all our nobility who stands higher in my e steem and affection. Your good ' Curio had not as yet pulled off the mask, and declared himself openly in favour of Cajsar. J One of the consuls elect. See rem. 1, p. 400. ^ Cssar, when ho was conbul, A. U. 694, had procured a law for the distribution of these lands, and part of them had actually been distributed accordingly. The remaining pai-t was what Curio had in his view, which were to be purchased of the private possessors with the public money, and parcelled out amongst the poor citizens in the same maimer as those had been which were already iJivided.— See rem, ', p. 36J. Vide etiam Manut. in Ep. Fam. L9k offices to him, therefore, in the following instances, wherein he desired I would particularly request them, will be highly agreeable to me. In the first place, I beg you to, defer the affair of Pausanias, an inhabitant of Alibanda, till Nero arrives in your province ; and as this is a point in which I perceive he is exceedingly solicitous, it is with a proportion- able degree of zeal that I entreat your compliance. The next favour I am to ask is, your particular protection for the citizens of Nysa. Nero is greatly attached to the interest of , this corporation, and I hope you will show them that nothing can be more to their advantage than his patronage. I have frequently had occasion of recommending Strabo Servilius to you ; but I renew my applica- tions with so much the more ardour, as Nero takes a share in his concerns. We jointly then entreat you to settle his affair, and not leave an innocent man to be a prey, perhaps, to one who may succeed to your government with a turn of mind far different from that generosity which distinguishes yours. This will be acting in a manner highly agreeable to myself, and suitable at the same time to your usual humanity. In a word, the purport of my present application amounts to this : that you would upon all occasions continue to distinguish Nero with your most peculiar regard. The truth is, your province has, in this respect, greatly the advantage over mine, as it affords you full scope of doing honour to so noble, so ingenious, and so virtuous a youth. Your perseverance in the same generous offices with which you have thus far assisted my friend, will give him an opportunity of confirming and strengthening those illustrious clientships which have been delivered down to him from his ancestors. And let me add, that it will be placing your favours with great judgment in respect to Nero, as well as bestowing them in the most obliging manner likewise with regard to myself. Farewell. LETTER XVL / To Curio, Tribune of the People. The congratulations of a friend are not usually considered as too late if they are paid as early as A 702 possible: my great distance thereforefrom Rome, together with the slow progress with which news travels into this comer of the world, will excuse me for not sooner sending you mine. But I now sincerely give them you, and most ardently wish that you may obtain immortal honour by your administration of the tribunate. To this end, I must exhort you not to suffer yourself to be turned aside from your natural bias, in com- pliance with the sentiments and advice of others : on the contrary, let me entreat you to be directed in your ministry by the faithful light of your own superior wisdom. No man, indeed, is capable of giving you more prudent counsels than will arise from the suggestions of your own good sense ; and believe me, you can never be misguided so long as you pursue the honest dictates of your uniifluenced judgment. I say not this inconsiderately, but as perfectly well knowing the genius and principles of him to whom I am addressing myself. Yes, my friend, I can never be apprehensive that you will act either weakly or irresolutely whilst you support the measures your heart approves. It was 414 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO neither chance nor ignorance that led you to solicit this magistracy in so important a crisis. It was a deliberate and well-considered resolution that engaged you in this design, arid you were perfectly sensible of the great and general confusion in which the commonwealth is involved, together with the utter uncertainty in what manner these our unhappy divisions will finally be terminated. You frequently reflect, I doubt not, on the vain, the treacherous, and the pliant dispositions of the present generation. To repeat, then, what I just now mentioned, let me conjure you steadfastly to persevere in your old principles ; to consult the dictates of your own breast, and faithfully to comply with its wise and worthy admonitions. Hardly, perhaps, is any man more qualified than yoiirself to direct the conduct of others ; — none, I am sure, to steer your own. Good gods ! why am I thus prevented from being a witness of your glorious actions, and an associate in your patriot designs ? The latter, I am per- suaded, you are far from wanting : however, the strength and warmth of my affection might possibly render the conjunction of my counsels with yours ^ot altogether unprofitable. You will hear from me again very soon, as I purpose in a few days to send an express to the senate with a particular account of the success of my arms during the last summer's campaign. In the mean time you will perceive, by the letter which I delivered to your freedman Thraso, with what zealous pains I have solicited your election to the pontifical dignity ; an election,, indeed, that will be attended with much dif&culty, I conjure you in return, my dear Curio, not to' suffer this my very troublesome provincial administration to be lengthened out beyond the usual period, and I entreat it by all the strong and tender ties of our mutual friendship. When I first made this request to yoa in person, and several times afterwards repeated it by letter, I had not the least imagination of your being tribune. I then, indeed, only entreated your good oflSces as an illustrious senator, and as one who stood high in the favour and esteem of every Roman. But I now apply to Curio not only as my noble friend, but as a powerful tribune. I do not desire, however, (what indeed would be more difficult to obtain,) that anything unusual shouldbe decreed in my favour ; but, on the contrary, that you would support that decree, and maintain those laws by which I was appointed to this government. In a word, my single and most earnest request is, that the terms upon which I set out for this province may not be changed. Farewell. LETTER XVII. ( To Thermusj Proprisior, I FOUND you perfectly well inclined to employ every good office in your power for my lieutenant A. u. 702. Marcus Anneius, when I mentioned his affair to you at Ephesus. However, as my affection will not suffer me to omit any circum- stance which may tend to his advantage, I write to you in the belief that this letter will considerably add to the favourable disposition in which you already stand towards him. He has long enjoyed a share in my friendship ; as, indeed, I have suffi- ciently shown the good opinion I entertain of him, by having appointed him my lieutenant in prefer- ence to so many others who solicited for that office. The war in which I was soon afterwards engaged gave me occasion of experiencing his military abilities ; and the prudence, the courage, and the fidelity with which he executed his commission, together with the extraordinary marks he gave me of his affection, have raised him to the highest possible degree of my esteem. I informed you at Ephesus, that there were some points in controversy between him and the city of Sardis', the particulars of which you will best learn when the cause shall come before you. And here, I must confess, I have been long debating with myself what I should farther say to you. The world universally acknow- ledges and admires your impartial administration of justice, and my friend's claim is so well founded as to require no other protection than that of your usual equity. However, as I am sensible of the great authority which naturally attends the prffitorian office, especially where it is exercised with so much honour, lenity, and wisdom, as are well known to distinguish your administration, I entreat you to exert that influence in such a manner upon this occasion as may convince Anneius that you are his friend. He is already indeed persuaded that you are so, and has often mentioned you to me in^that character. Nevertheless, I cannot forbear conjuring you, by those reciprocal good offices which have equally passed between us, to let him see that this letter has rendered you still more inclined to serve him. Be assured, the whole extent of your provincial power cannot supply you with an opportunity of more effectually obUging me. It is unnecessary I should add, that you cannot better dispose of your favours than by con- ferring them on Anneius ; and I am persuaded you have too high an opinion of his merit and gratitude to entertain the least doubt upon that article. Farewell. LETTER XVIIL ^ To Volumnius". The familiar manner in which your letter to me was addressed, though extremely agreeable indeed A. D. 702. ''* ^^^ intimacy that subsists between us, made me at first doubt whether it did not come from my very good friend, your namesake, the senator. But I soon found, by that lively and elegant humour with which it was distinguished, that it could be the produce of no other hand than yours. I was exceedingly pleased with it in every respect, but that I perceived you had not suffici- ently discharged your trust and defended the credit of my possessions as a wit. For you tell me, that since I left Rome, every paltry joke, even those of the dull Sextius himself, is placed to my account. And did you suffer your friend to be thus dishonoured 1 In Lydia. "^ The person to whom this letter is addressed was a Roman knight, extremely admired for his wit and plea- santry. It was this quality, it is probable, that recom- mended him to Antony, with whom he appears to have been in some credit, as he was likewise employed by him in the civil wars. Atticus also was in the number of Volumnius's friends; and after the battle of Modena, when Antony's faction was supposed to be irrecoverably ruined, he generously protected him from the violences of the successful party.— Ad Att. iv. 8 ; Com. Nep. in Vlt. Attici. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 415 without heroically standing forth in vindication of his genius ? 1 was in hopes that my wit was stamped with such distinguishing marks as to prevent the possibility of its being mistaken. But it seems there is such a general depravation of taste in Rome, that no man's conceits are so execra- bly vile as not to meet with admirers. As you value my reputation, then, assert boldly that every low thing which is repea,ted of this sort is none of mine. And unless it be some smart pun or elegant hyperbole, some striking paragram ", or some arch and unexpected turn" — ^in a word, unless it answers the character of true humour', as described in my dialogue on oratory, I desire you would do me the favour most vehemently to swear that mine you' are conSdent it is not. With regard to those little pretenders to eloquence of whom you complain, as having usurped my place in the forum, I am much less concerned. Fare it as it may with plaintiffs and defendants of every kind, I am nothing disturbed ; " The hyperbole is a figure of speech by which anything is extravagantly magnified or diminished beyond the truth ; as a paragram is a species of the pun, which con- sists in changing the initial letters of a name. It would be needless to produce any example in explanation of the former ; and an instance of the latter kind will occur to every English reader in the well-known reply which Crom- well made to the judges, when they reminded him of Magna Charta. Of this kind is what the Duke of Buckingham once said toanoble earl: — " My lord, you will certainly be damned." " How, my lord ! *' returned the earl, with some warmth. " Nay," replied the duke, *' there's no help for it : for it is positively said, Cm-sed is he of whom all men speak welL" — Tatler, vol. i. No. 17. P Cicero, in the treatise to which he here refers, intro- duces, one of his speakers as pointing out the principal som'ces of oratorical humour, among which he makes very honourable mention of the pun. There is scarce an author, indeed, of any note among the ancients, that has not, in some part or other of his ^vi-itings, tried his genius at a conceit : and it is remai-kable, tliat there is one in particu- lar wiiieh runs through almost the whole set of Roman classics. The first that appears to have started it is that venerable censor, Cat(t the elder, who, in a grave speech recorded by Livy, taking notice of those fine statues that Lad been lately transported into Italy, after the conquest of Greece, expresses his concern — " ne illae magis res nos ceperiht quam nos ilias." Horace was so well pleased with this witticism, that he has transplanted it into one of his epistles :— Grxcia capta fcrum vlctorem cepitt et artes Intulit agresti Latio. And even the majestic Vii'gil could not secure himself from the infection of tliis contagious ambiguity :^ Num capii potuore capi? A quibble, which was afterwards taken up by Quintus Ciu'tius : though it seems to be somewhat' damaged in passing through his hands : — ** plures captivi {says that historian, speaking of one of Alexander's victories,) quam qui capej'ent, erant." When it is considered how early this species of false wit appeared in the world ; with what difficulty it has been subdued ; that some of the best writers have not been able entirely to abstain from it ; and that it was the favourite of so unquestionable a genius as Cicero ; one cannot forbear thinking with the inimitable Mr. Ad- dison, *• that the seeds of punning are in the nimds of all uien." It is the business, therefore, of criticism, to root out a weed, which the best as well as tho worst soil, it Bcems, is so strongly disposed to produce ; aij it cannot spread \vithout checking the nobler growth of true wit and just imagination.— Cic. Do Orat. ii. 38 ; Liv. xxxiv. 4 ; Hor. E? ii 1, 157; Vug. Ma. vii. 295; Quint. Cm-t. v. 13; Addisoa, Bpect. i. No. 81. no,not though the worthless Selius himself should be deemed eloquent enough to persuade the world that he is not an arrant slave. But in the article of wit, my friend, there indeed I am much too jealous not to assert my prerogative. It is an article, however, in which I stand in fear of no other competitor but yourself: for your pretensions, doubtless, are formidable. Yet when I say this, you will modestly suspect perhaps that I am bantering ; and who but must own that Volumnius is a man of penetra- tion ? To speak seriously, a most agreeable and lively vein of wit runs throughout your whole letter. I will confess, however, that what you mention concerning our friend', though you repre- sented it in a very droll light, did not once make me smile. It is much my desire, I must own, that he should conduct himself through his .tribu- nitial office with dignity, not only for his own sake, as you know he is a man I value, but for the sake likewise of my country, which, however ill it has treated me, I shaU never cease to love. And now, my dear Volumnius, I hope you will continue the agreeable correspondence you have begun, and give me frequent accounts of affairs both private and public : for,be assured, your letters are extremely pleasing to me. I entreat you, like- wise, to endeavour to gain Dolabella entirely to my interests, by confirming him in that amicable disposition towards me which I know he is inclined to entertain. Not that I suspect he wants any appUcations of this sort ; but as I am very desirous to make him my friend, it is a point, I think, that cannot be too much laboured. Farewell. LETTER XIX. To Crassipes^. I TOOK occasion, before I left Rome, of recom- mending the Bithynia' company to you in the A u "02 strongest terms I was able ; and I had the pleasure to find you perfectly well disposed, not only from my instances but your own inclinations, to do them all the good offi.:es in your power. However, as those who are concerned in the affairs of this society think it may be to their advantage that I should thus repeat my assurances of the regard 1 bear them, I make no difficulty of yiglding to their solicitations. Be well persuaded, then, that I have ever been desirous of rendering to this whole order in general my best services ; to which, indeed, the important obligations they have conferred upon me give them an un- doubted right. But my attachments are more particularly strong to that branch of them con- cerned in the finances of Bithynia; as this company, from the rank and character of its members, forms one of the most considerable bodies in the whole republic. It is composed, indeed, out of all the other companies, and happens to consist of several of my most intimate friends. In this number their q This.seems to allude to Curio. r He was quaestor in Bithynia, and, probably, at the same time when P. SUius was governor of that province. See rem. ^ p. 40B. ■ The revenues of the republic arismg from the foreign provinces were farmed by the Roman knights, who wei-e divided into several companies distinguished by tho name of the particular province whose taxes they rented. S^ nm^,^, p. 376. 416 THE LETTERS OF MAUCUS TULLIUS CICERO governor Publius Rupilius holds the principal rank ; the most important part of whose function is con- cerned in my present address. T make it, then, my earnest request (and it is a request you may very easily comply with) that you assist and protect their agent Pupius in discharging his services to the satisfaction of the company ; and, in general, thkt you would promote their interest by all those means which, I well know, are in the power of a quaestor. Your compliance in this instance will greatly oblige me ; and I will add too, what I can affirm from my own experience, that you cannot confer your good offices upon a society that will more gratefully remember them. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Puhlius Silius, Proprislor. ' PuBLinsTerentius Hispo, who is deputy-receiver- general of the customs arising from pasture and «-,g cattle in your province, is a person for whom I have a very particular friendship ; as, indeed, many important good offices have mu- tually passed between us. The settling his accounts with the several cities under his department which yet remain unadjusted, is a point wherein his cha- racter, you are sensible, is greatly concerned. This I attempted in his behalf with regard to the inha- bitants of Ephesus ; but my attempts, I must confess, proved unsuccessful. It is the general opinion of the world, however, and what I am firmly assured of myself, that the justice and cle- mency of your administration has gained you such an ascendant over the people of Greece, that you may easily obtain of them anything you shall re- quest. I entreat you then to employ your interest with them in favour of Hispo ; and 1 ask it as a point in which my honour is peculiarly concerned. The truth is, not only the whole company in this branch of the revenues has placed itself under my protection, but I have particular intimacies with many of its members. Your compliance therefore with my request will strengthen my interest with this society in general, and wiU also give me the satisfaction and credit of having obtained your good offices for my friend. To this I will add, that you may depend on receiving great complacency, both from the grateful returns of Hispo in particu- lar, and from the interest you will establish with this illustrious company in general. You will like- wise oblige me in a most sensible manner : for, be assured, the whole extent of -your government cannot supply you with an opportunity of render- ing me a more acceptable service. Farewell. BOOK V. I^ETTER I. To Marcus Cato^. The great authority you bear ia the republic, together with the high esteem I have ever enter- V 703 *^^^6*i ^or your uncommon virtues, make me look upon it as a point of much conse- quence to me, that you should be apprised of the t This illustrious Roman was. great-grandson to Maa-cus Cato, the Censor, to whom he was no less allied In virtue than in blood. He had all his merit, indeed, without any of his failings ; and mth the same determined inflexibility in his public conduct, he was far more amiable in the common intercourses of private lifa Perhaps a character equally perfect is nowhere to be found in the whole annals of profane history ; and it may well be questioned whether human philosophy ever produced, cither before or since, BO tffuly great and good a man. It is a just observation of Seneca,— "magnam rem puta, umtm hominem agere;" and it is this uncommon consistency of action that marks the character of Cato with its most distmguishing beauty. All the parts of his conduct accord with each other, and are the regular result of one steady and Invariable prin- ciple : — Patrije — impendere vitam : Nee sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo. This was the glorious object of his ambition from his first appearance in the world to the last moment of his life * and he undauntedly pursued it through all the various insults and opposition that Ca?sar, Crassus, and Pompey could contrive to traverse and perplex his way. He reso- lutely, indeed, opposed the progress of their power, in every step of its unconstitutional advancement ; and, with a most consummate prudence, perpetually forewarned his countrymen of those calamities which they afterwards experienced. Cicero, nevertheless, has said (and it has been often repeated after him) that there was more of probity than of prudence in Cato's politics, and particu- success of my arms ; of the disinterested protection I have given to our allies ; and of the integrity of my administration in general. And I doubt not, when you shall be informed of these several articles, I shall find the less difficulty in persuading you to comply with the request I am going to make. , I arrived in this province on the last of July ; and, as the season of the year rendered it necessary for me to hasten to the army, I continued only two days at Laodicea, four at Apamea, three at Syn- nadse, and as many at Philomelum. I found great larly instances his treatment of the Roman knights in a very nice case, wherein they petitioned the senate for redress. [See rem. s, p. 357.] Perhaps Cato's firmness in this article cannot be justified : but certainly it would not be reasonable to pronounce, from a particular ai-ticle, that he did not, in the general tenor of his public actions, discover great abilities. Cicero speaks' of them, it is true, upon other occasions also, with some diminution: but it is no wonder he should represent that conduct as injudi- cious, which was almost in every respect the very reverse of his own. One cannot easily, indeed, believe that Cato's talents were unequal to his virtues, when one considers the perpetual jealousy with which he was looked upon by the first triumvii'ate, the violent measures they employed to prevent his being elected ptfastor, and that they would never suffer him to attain the consular office. Integrity under the direction of much inferior abilities, could not, surely, have been thus formidable, especially in an age the most venal and unprincipled that ever darkened the aimals of human corruption. But whatever may be deter- mined as to the measure of his intellectual qualities, he imquestionably possessed the patriot virtues in their highest perfection ; and (as a noble author justly observes) " if he could not save, he prolonged the life of liberly.*'— Plut. in Vit. Caton. ; Senec. Ep. 120 ; Lucan. ii. 382; Ad Att. i. 18, U, 6 ; Let. on the Spirit of Patriotism, p. 35, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 417 numbers of people assemUed in these several towns in expectation of my arrival : and, during my stay m each, I relieved many cities from the oppressive taxes they laboured under, reduced the exorbitant interest they paid for the money they had been obliged to borrow, and discharged them from the unjust demands of their usurious creditors. Before I arrived in my government, a mutiny had arisen in the army, and the soldiers had dispersed them- selves into different parts of the provinces : five cohorts, in particular, were retired to Philomelum, without a single officer to command them. I therefore ordered my lieutenant Anneius to conduct these scattered regiments to the main body in Lycaonia, and to assemble the whole army at Ico- nium, where I directed him to encamp. These orders he very diligently executed ; and I joined the troops on the 26th of August. In the interval, I employed myself, agreeably to the injunctions of the senate, in raising a strong body of evocati", together with a proper number of cavalry, as also in assembling those auxiliary forces which the free as well as regal states in alliance with the republic had voluntarily offered me. As soon as the junc- tion of all the troops was completed, I reviewed the whole army ; and, on the 30th of August, we begi&i to move towards Cilicia. In the mean time, envoys from the king of Commagene arrived with a very confused indeed, but, however, as it ap- peared afterwards, a very true account, that the Parthians had invaded Syria. This news greatly alarmed me, not only for the danger to which that province, but my own, was exposed ; and which threatened, likewise, all Asia in general. I thought it advisable, therefore, to lead my troops through that part of Cappadocia which borders on Cilicia. If, indeed, I had marched directly into Cilicia, I could easily have protected that district of my pro- vince from any invasion on the side of Syria ; as it cannot be entered from thence without traversing Mount Amanus, over which there are only two narrow defiles, that might be defended by a very small force. In short, nothing can be more impreg- nable than Cilicia is from that quarter, by the for- tifications with which nature has secured it. But my chief concern was for Cappadocia, which lies entirely open towards Syria: and besides, there are several little kingdoms in its neighbourhood, which, though in friendship with the Romans, yet dare not openly act against the Parthians. These considerations, therefore, determined me to lie with my army oi> the borders of Cappadocia ; and accordingly I encamped at Cybistra, a town situated not far from Mount Taurus. By these means, I was in a condition of protecting Cilicia, at the same time that, by possessing myself of Cappadocia, I prevented the contiguous states from entering into any measures to our prejudice. Whilst affairs were in this commotion, and there was reason to apprehend a general war, king Deio- tams sent an embassy to my camp with an offer of joining me with all his forces. I was extremely sensible of tliis instance of his zeal and friendship, and immediately returned him a letter of acknow- ledgments, with my pressing exhortation, at the same time, that he would hasten his march. I cannot but observe, upon this occasion, that Deiotarus justly merits those peculiar marks of " Soe rem, », on letter 3, liook iv. favour and esteem, with which both you and I in particular, as well as the senate in general, have ever distinguished him. He discovers, indeed, a remarkable fidelity and affection to the republic, together with an uncommon presence and greatness of mind both in action and in council. I found it necessary, for the better concerting my plan of operations, to continue five days at Cybistra. During my stay there, I had the satis- fection to be of singular service to Ariobarzanes ; a prince particularly assigned to my protection by the senate, in consequence of your motion for that purpose. I delivered him from a very dangerous consiiiracy, which was just upon the point of being carried into execution. I did more indeed ; and not only preserved his person, but strengthened his authority. For this purpose I procured Metras and Athenseus (the latter of whom you strongly recommended to my care) not only to be recalled from that exile into which the intrigues of the cruel Athenais had driven them, but to be restored to their former favour and credit with the king. And as it would have produced a very terrible civil war if the high priest", who was among the disaf- fected party, had taken up arms, as was generally supposed to be his intention, I found means of obliging him to depart the kingdom. This young man abounded both in money and troops, and pos- sessed every other advantage that could render him of importance to those who were inclined to attempt a revolution. In a word, I recovered the authority of Ariobarzanes, without occasioning the least bloodshed or disturbance, and firmly established him in his royal dignity. In the mean time, I was informed, by various expresses, that a considerable army of Parthians and Arabians were advanced to the city of Antio- chia" ; and that a large body of their cavalry which had penetrated into Cilicia, were entirely cut to pieces by a detachment of mine, supported by the preetorian * cohort in garrison at Epiphanea^. Per- ceiving, therefore, that the Parthians had turned off from Cappadocia, and were approached within a small distance of the frontiers of Cilicia, I con- ducted the army with all possible expedition to Amanus. Upon my arrival, I found the enemy was retired from Antiochia, and that Bibulus had taken possession of the city. I sent an express, therefore, to Deiotarus, who was upon full march with all his forces to join me, acquainting him that I did not at present see occasion of drawing him out of his dominions ; but that if any new occur- rence should arise, I would immediately give him notice. My principal view in advancing to Amanus was, that I might be ready to assist either Cilicia or Syria, as circumstances should require. I had likewise another design, which I had before medi- tated, and now prepared to execute, as being of great importance to both provinces : I mean, to ▼ It appears, by a passage whieh Maniitius cites from Hirtins, that the high priest of the temple of Bellona, at Commana, a city in Cappadocia, was next in rank and power to the king himself.— Hirt. Do Bell. Alexand. w In Syria. >: The praetorian cohort composed a sort of hody-guard to the proconsul, or general, and consisted of a select numhor chosen out of the evocati. The nature of the latter haa been already explained in remark ■*, p. 403. 7 A city in Cilicia. E B 418 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO quell the insurrection of these highlanders, and extirpate an enemy that was perpetually infesting us. To this end I made a feint of retiring towards anotherpart of Cilicia; and, having actually returned a day's march, I encamped at Epiphanea. But, on the 12th of October, in the evening, I struck my tents, and, by a long march during the whole night, I arrived early the next morning at Amanus. I immediately formed in order of battle, heading part of the troops myself, in conjunction with my bro- ther, and distributing the command of the rest amongst my other lieutenants. The enemy being thus surrounded by surprise, were taken and de- stroyed in great numbers. Meanwhile, my lieute- nant Pontinius attacked Sepyra, Commoris, and Erana ; the latter of which is the principal town on these mountains, and indeed considerable enough to be called a city. They each made a very obsti- nate resistance j and, notwithstanding the attack bfegan before day-break, they did not surrender till night, nor without having suffered a prodigious slaughter. In this action we took six fortresses, and burnt many more. Having thus successfully completed this expedi- tion, we encamped at the foot of Mount Amanus, near Alexander's^ Altars, where I continued four days. During the whole time I remained here, I was employed in extirpating the rest of these mountaineers, and destroying that part of their lands which lies within my province. From hence I sat down before Pindinessum, a city in the terri- tories of that part of Cilicia which has never submitted to the Romans. This was « place of great strength, and inhabited by a stubborn people who had preserved themselves unconquered, even by the neighbouring kings. It was a harbour, likewise, for fugitives of every kind, and they were greatly also in the interest of the Parthians, whose approach they impatiently expected. Upon these • considerations, I thought it for the honour of my arms to restrain their insolence ; especially, as I should by this means the more easily subdue the spirit of those other cantons which were equally averse to the Roman government. In consequence of this resolution, I invested the town ; and, having raised six large fortresses, I began to play my battering engines agaihst their walls. They held out, however, iifty-seven days ; but at length find- ing the flames had seized several parts of the town, and that other quarters were laid in ruins, they surrendered at discretion, after having occasioned me an infinite fatigue. I had the satisfaction to complete this enterprise without occasioning our allies the least inconvenience or expense. After having thus reduced Pindii\essum, and received hostages from the Tiburani, a neiglibouring people equally bold and insolent, I sent my army into winter-quarters. This care I assigned to my bro- ther, and ordered him to canton the troops amongst those towns we had lately taken, or that were most disposed to revolt. And now, if a motion should be made in the senate concerning the honours due to the success of my arms, I shall esteem it the highest glory to be supported in my pretensions by your suffrage. I aih sensible it is usual for the gravest characters to re quest, as well as to be requested, for favours * A place near Issus, where Alexander, having defeated Darius, consecrated three altars to Jupiter, Hercules, and Minerva, as memorials of his victory. — Quint. Ciirt. iii. - of this nature in the strongest terms ; but I per- suade myself it will be more proper for me to remind, than to solicit you, in the present instance. You have frequently, indeed, not only distinguished me with your vote, but with your highest applause, both in the senate and in the assemblies of the people^ And believe me, I have ever thought there was so much weight and authority in all you uttered, that a single word of yours in my favour was the highest honour I could possibly receive. I remember, upon a certain occasion, when you refused to vote for a public thanksgiving' which was proposed in favour of a very worthy and iUus- trious citizen ; you told the senate that you should willingly have given your suffrage in support of the honour in question, had it been designed as a reward for any civil services which that consul had per- formed in Rome. Agreeably to this maxim, you formerly concurred in voting that a pubUc thanks- giving should be decreed to me ; not, indeed, for having advanced the glory of our country by my military achievements, (for that would have been a circumstance nothing uncommon,) but for having, in a most singular and unexampled manner, pre- served the liberties of the whole commonwealth ' without drawing a sword. I forbear to mention the generous share you have taken in all the envy, the difficulties, and the dangers to which my life has been exposed ; and a far greater you were willing to have taken, if I could have been pre- vailed upon to have consented. I forbear to men- tion, likewise, that you considered my enemy" as your own ; and that, in order to give me a con- vincing proof of your great regard, you scrupled not to show your approbation even of his death, by defending Milo in the senate. In return, (and I speak of it not as a favour for which you are in- debted to me, but as a tribute which I owed to truth,) I have been no silent admirer of your virtues; for who, indeed, can suppress his applause of them? In all my speeches, both in the forum and the senate, as well as in the several pieces I have pub- lished, either in our own language or in Greek, I have ever represented your character as superior, not only to the noblest amongst our contemporaries, but to the most celebrated in history. After all, you will wonder, perhaps, what should induce me to set so high a value upon these little transient honours of the senate. I will acknow- ledge, then, the whole truth, and lay open my heart before you with a freedom becoming that philo- sophy we cultivate, and that friendship we profess ; a friendship delivered down to us from our parents, and improved by many reciprocal good offices. , . Let me previously observe, that if ever any man ' " was a stranger to vain-glory, and a desire of vulgar ] ^ Cicero, soon after the expiration of his consulate, had very particular obligations to Cato, of the kind he men- tions. For the latter being tribune at that time, procured him a confirmation, from an assembly of the people, of the glorious title of father of his country. — Plut. in Tit. Cicer. ■* This honour was usually decreed to a general after some signal advantage obtained by his arms. It consisted in appointing a solemn festival, in order to return thanks to the gods for the public success; at which time the senate went in solemn pi-ocession to the principal temples in Rome, and assisted at the sacrifices instituted for such occasions. " By the suppression of Catiime's conspiracy. >> Clodius. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 4tD admiration, it is myself ; and this frame of mind, whicli 1 possess by temper, has been still strength- ened (if I am not deceived) by reason and philo- sophy. As an evidence of this, I appeal to my consulate ; in which, as in every other part of my life, though I pursued that conduct, I confess, from whence true honours might be derived, yet I never thought they were of themselves an object worthy of my ambition. On the contrary, I refilsed the government of a very noble province" ; and, notwithstanding it was highly probable I might tave obtained a triumph, yet I forbore to prosecute my pretensions of that kind. I forbore, too, the offering myself as a candidate for the office of augur, though you are sensible, 1 dare say, that I might have succeeded without much difficulty. But I will acknowledge that the injurious treatment I afterwards suffered, though you always speak of it, indeed, as a circumstance which reflects the highest honour upon my character, and as a. mis- fortune only to the republic, has rendered me desirous of receiving the most distinguished marks of my country's approbation. For this reason I solicited the office of augur, which I had before ■^ dechned ; and, as little as 1 once thought the mili- tary honours deseiTed my pursuit, I am now ambi- tious of that distinction which the senate usually confers on its successful generals. I will own I have some view, by this mean, of healing the wounds of my former untneiited disgrace ; and, therefore, though I just now declared that I would not press you upon this article, I recal my words, and most earnestly conjure your suffrage and assist- ance. I make this request, however, up0n the supposition that what I have performed in this campaign shall not appear contemptible in your ^e, but, on the contrary, far superior to the actions of many of those generals who have obtained the most glorious rewards from the senate. I have observed, (and you are sensible I always listen with great attention whenever you deliver your ojjinions,) that, as often as any question of this nature has come before the senate, you were less inquisitive into the military than civil conduct of the proconsul. It was the political ordinances he had established, and the moral qualities he had displayed, that seemed to have the principal weight in determming your vote. If you should examine my pretensions in this view, you will see that, with a weak and inconsiderable army, I found a strong resource against the danger of a very formidable invasion in the lenity and justice of my govern- ment. By these aids I effected what I never could by the most powerful legions : I recovered the finendship of our alienated allies ; firmly strength- ened their allegiance to the republic ; and conci- liated their affections at a time when they were waiting the opportunity of some favourable con- juncture to desert us. But perhaps I have expatiated farther upon this subject than is necessary ; especially to you, before whom all our allies in general are accus- to med to la y their complaints^. To them, there- • Macedonia ; fo which he had a right by lot to have succeeded at the enpiratidn of his consulate. See rem. k, p. 335. ' Catn settled a correspondence throughout the whole Roman provinces, and received constant intelligence of the conduct of the several governors in their respective commands, so attentive was this vigilant patriot to what- fore, I refer you for an account of the benefits they have received by my administration. They will all of them, as with one voice, I am persuaded, give you the most advantageous testimony in my favour ; but particularly those illustrious clients of yours, the Cypriansif aiid Cappadocians, to whom I ever concerned the interest of the commonwealth ! — Pint. in Vit. Caton. g Cyprus had a particular claim to the patronage of Cato, as he had been employed in executing a oomraisaion by which that island was annexed to the dominions of the republic. This commission was artfully conti'ived by Clodius in his tribunate, in order to remove Cato out of his way ; but the precise natiu-e of it is nowhere distinctly explained. It should seem, by what may be collected from Plutarch, that it was only an embassy in which Cato was appointed to claim, on behalf of the republic, the domi- nions of Ptolemy, king of Cyprus, and to offer him, at the same time, the high-priesthood of the temple of Venus, in the island of Paphos, which in those'days might have been no disadvantageous exchange. Cato, however, has been severely censured by some modem historians, for having accepted this oflSce ; and Dr. Middleton, in particular, thinks he cannot be justified. But none of the ancient historians speak of it as in the least unworthy of Cato's virtue ; and, indeed, one of the most moral writers in all antiquity mentions it upon an occasion which evidently shows that it was by no means thought inconsistent with that character of rigid justice which this illustrious Roman had so deservedly obtained. Seneca, in his letter of conso- lation, addressed to Maroia, on the loss of her son, taking notice of the advantages of an early death, instances, among other examples, those calamities which a more extended period had brought upon Cato.—" Marcum Cato- nem (says he) si a Cypro et hereditatis regis dispensatione redeuntem mare devorasset, — nonne iUo bene actum foret ? —Nunc annoruni adjectio paucissunorum, virum libertati non sua; tantmn sedpubliose natum, coegit Cjesarem fugere, Pompeium sequi." It is evident, then, that this action was so fai- from being deemed unjustifiable in the opinion of the ancients, (by Which alone it can be fairly examined,) that the noblest of their moralists has chosen it to com- plete the glory and grace the exit of his favourite hero. It inust unquestionably, therefore, have been founded upon some circumstances that reconciled it to that law of nations which then prevailed in the world. Accordingly, it appears, by some passages in Cicero's orations, that the republic had an ancient claim to these dominions. For Alexander, king of Egypt, to whose territories Cyprus belonged, appointed the Koinan commonwealth his general heir ; and though the senate did not judge proper, at that juncture, to assert their full right under his will, they thought it, however, a sufficient title to possess themselves of Alexander's effects. From that time down to the date of Cato's commission, frequent attempts had been made in the senate to enforce their right under the will, and a decree had actually passed for that purpose. But as this decree was protested against by some tribune, it had never been carried into execution. Thus far it should seem that Cato's commission was not founded upon a mere arbitrary exertion of power, but on a right which had long before received the sanction of the senate, and which had already in pai-t been vindicated to the public. In the next place, the inhabitants of Cyprus were extremely oppressed under the government of Ptolemy, and desirous of ti-ansferring their subjection to the Romans. Paterculus represents this prince as one who well deserved the punishment he suffered: — "omnibus morum vitiis (says he) earn contu- meliam meritum," And Dion Cassius expressly declares, that the Cyprians received Cato, " ovk a-KOvaias hoping that, from slaves, as they were before, they should be raised into the numlier of the friends and allies of Itome." But to consider this question in .another view : what pro- bable reason of personal interest can be asaigned for Cato's undertaking this office? It could not be from a spirit of avarice : for it is imanimously confessed that he discharged jtwith the most unspotted integi-ity, It could not b^from E E 2 420 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO may likewise add your great and royal friend'', prince Deiotarus. If thus to act is a merit of the most superior kind, if in all ages the nttmber has been far less considerable of those who kaew how to subdue their desires than to vanquish their ene- mies, he that has given an instance of both, cannot, certainly, but be deemed, in Cato's estimation at least, to have strengthened his claim to the honours of his country, and to have improved the splendour of his military achievements by the more unusual lustre of his civil conduct. Let me, in the last place, and as in diffidence of my own solicitations, call in Philosophy for my advocate ; than which nothing has ever afforded me a more sensible satisfaction. The truth is, she is one of the noblest blessings that the gods have bestowed on man. At her shrine we have both of us, from our earliest years, paid our joint and equal adorations ; and \^hile she has been thought by some the companion only of indolent and sechided speculatists, we (and we alone, I had almost said) have introduced her into the world of business, and familiarised her with the most active and important scenes. She, therefore, it is that now solicits you in my behalf ; and when Philosophy is the sup- pliant, Cato surely can never refuse. To say all in one word, be well assured, if I should prevail with you to concur in procuring a decree I so much wish to obtain, I shall consider myself as wholly indebted for that honour to your authority and friendship. Farewell. LETTER IL Marcus Cato to Cicero. The affection I bear both to you and to the republic induces me, very sincerely, to rejoice ■ in £ V 703 *''"^™S '^*' y"! exercise the same in- tegrity and vigilance in the conduct of our arms abroad as distinguished your administra- tion of our most important affairs at home. I have, therefore, paid your actions that'ljpnour which was most consistent with my judgment ;'and, in speak- ing to this question before, the senate, as well as afterwards when I assisted in drawing up the decree that has passed in your favour, I applauded the probity and prudence with which you have protected your province, preserved the crown and person of Ariobarzanes, and conciliated the affec- tions of our allies in general. If you rather choose, however, that we should ascribe to the gods those advantages which the republic has gained entirely by your own consum- mate wisdom and probity, I am glad the senate a motive of ambition ; for he refused all tho honours, upon this occasion, which his country would have paid him. It could not be from a servile compliance with the power of Clodius ; for he died rather than submit even to that of Cffisar. Upon the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable to assert, that Cato acted in this instance, as in all others, upon a principle of disinterested patriotism, and consis- tently with the strictest maxims of pagan morality. — Plut. in Vit. Caton. ; Orat. in Bui. i. 1. 11. 16 ; Yell. Pat ii. 46 ; l)io, p. lul ; Senec. Consol. ad Mare. 20. n Cato took a voyage into Asia, in order to inform himself of the strength and disposition of these eastern provinces ; and if. was upon this occasion that he entered into a per- woiml friendship with Deiotarus, who paid him the honouns of his court with singular marks of esteem and considera- tion. — Plut. in Vit, Caton. has passed a decree for that purpose. But if you are willing that fortune should have the credit of your actions, as supposing a public thanks^ving necessarily opens your way to a triumph, I must observe that the latter is not always a consequence of the foi-mer. Yet, granting it were, is it not far more to the honour of a general, to have it declared, by a vote of the senate, that he presei-ved his province by the mildness and equity of his administration, than that he owed it either to the strength of his troops, or to the peculiar inter- position of Providence? Such, at least, were my sentiments when this question came before the house ; and if I have employed more words than usual in explaining them, it was from a desire of convincing you, that, though I proposed to the senate what I thought would be most for the advantage of your reputation, I rejoice that they have determined what is most agreeable to your wishes. I have only to request the continuance of your friendship, and to entreat you steadily to persevere in those paths of integrity which you have hitherto pursued both in respect to our allies and the republic'. Farewell. LETTER in. ' To Cams jMarcellus^f Consul. Nothing could be more agreeable to my wishes, than that the question concerning the honours due A u 703 ^ ^y military services should come before the senate at a time when you are consul, as it will afford you an opportunity of gratifying that uncommon zeal for my interests which I have upon all occasions experienced from every branch of your family. Let me entreat you, therefore, when the letter I have addressed to the senate shall be laid before that assembly, to exert your influence in procuring a decree in my favour of the most distinguished kind. I persuade myself you will find no difficulty in complying with this request, as the senate, I trust, will by no means be averse to my pretensions. If there were any of your family whose friendship I enjoyed in a higher degree than yours, I should have applied to you by their intervention. But though no man ever entered more warmly into my interests than your father ; though the esteem which your relation Marcus Marcellus has long entertained for me is conspicuous to the whole world; and, in a word, though all your family, in general, have ever honoured me with the most signal marks of their regard ; yet there is not one of them who hath afforded me stronger instances of affection than yourself. I conjure you, then, to distinguish me with the highest honours ; and let me experience, ' This letter (to speak in the virtuoso language) is a unique, and extremely valuable, as being the only compo- sition that has been transmitted to us from the hands of Cato. It confirms what Plutarch expressly asse^, that Cato's manners were by no means of a rough and unpolished cast, as no vefusal could have been drawn up in more decent and civil terms. A judicious eye, however, cannot but discern, through this veil of politeness, the nice touches of a delicate and concealed raillery, which Cicero, never- theless, thought proper to dissemble, as will appear by his !inswer to this letter in the following book. See letter 10, hook vi. J SOe rem. 0,3), 399. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 421 in the affair of my thanksgiving} as well as in every other wherein the gloiy of my reputation is con- cerned, that I want no solicitor to recommend me to your good offices. Fai-ewell. LETTER IV. , To Lucius Paulus^, Consul. Among many reasons for wishing myself with you at Rome, the principal was, that I might, both A D 703 *' your election and in the course of your consular ministry, have given you proofs of that zeal to which you have so undoubted a i-ight. I am sensible, at the same time, that the unanimity with which you were chosen, (and of which, indeed, I never entertained the least doubt,) would have rendered my assistance in that article altogether imnecessary : and I sincerely wish you may have as little occasion for it in the subsequent discharge of your office. However, I should have had the satisfaction, at least, of seconding your views in both. It is a great concern to me, I confess, when 1 reflect that, notwithstanding I experienced many important instances of your affection during my consulship, I am yet utterly incapable of making any return in youi's. And what renders this reflec- tion still more mortifying, is, that you were but a young man when you thus generously displayed the effects of your friendship : whereas, I am at a time of life when much greater advantages might well be expected from mine. I know not, in truth, by what fatality it is that you have continually had opportunities of advancing my dignities, and that I have never been able to contribute anything but ineffectual good wishes to yours. Thus, as not only in the instance I just now mentioned, but in the article of my restoration, I was indebted to you fur the highest honours, so a fresh occasion now presents itself to you of distinguishing me, as my military achievements have happened to fall within the period of your consulate. The dignity of that office with which you are invested, and the import- ance of those honours I am suing for, might well require that I should address you in all the warmth of soUcitation ; but I dare not venture thus to press you, lest it should look as if I forgot, or at least imagined that you had forgotten, your usual dis- position to serve me. I will make my request, therefore, in few words : and it will be treating you in a manner more agreeable, I dare say, to your own inclinations, as well as to those favours which all the world is sensible I have received at your hands. If any others, indeed, than you and your 'colleague were in possession of the consular office, you are the first man whose mediation I should have employed in order to render the consuls favourable to my pretensions. But as this high authority is vested in you, with whom I have the strongest and most conspicuous connexions, I cannot scruple to conjure your assistance in speed- ily procuring a decree of the most illustrious kind in my favour ; an honour which you will find, by the letter I have addressed to the senate, that my arms are not unworthy of receiving. I recommend then my reputation, and, indeed, my concerns of every sort, to your generous patronage. But, above all, I beseech you (and it is a request I mentioned k See rem. % p. 406. in my former letter) that you would not suffer the time of my continuance here to be prolonged. It is much my desire, in truth, to see you in your consular office ; and I doubt not of obtaining from your administration every advantage, both here and in Italy, that I most wish to enjoy. Farewell. LETTER V. / Marcus Coslius to Cicero. You have been informed, I doubt not, that Dolabella has exhibited articles of impeachment A u 703 ^S*"'^'' Appius' ; and this prosecution seems to be more agreeable to the world in general than I imagined. Appius, however, has acted with great prudence upon the occasion : for as soon as his adversary had lodged his information, he withdrew his petition for a triumph, and imme- diately entered the city". By these means he silenced the reports to his disadvantage ; as he appeared more willing to take his trial than his prosecutor expected. Appius rehes greatly in this conjuncture upon your assistance ; and I am per- suaded you are not disinclined to serve him. You have it now in your power° to do so as far as you shall think proper ; tliough, I must add, you would be more at liberty to limit your good offices towards him, if you and he had never been upon ill terms together. But, as the case now stands, were you to measure out your services by the right he has to demand them, it might be suspected that you were not sincere in your reconcilement : whereas, you can hazard no censure by obliging him ; as you will show that you are not to be discouraged from acting a generous part, even where friendship** might incline you to the contrary. This reminds me of acquainting you that Dolabella^, sidfe- ob- ■ tained a divorce just upon the commencement pf this prosecution. I remember the comuaissionr you left with me when you set out for the province ; as I dare say you have not forgotten what I after- wards wrote to 'you concerning that affair. I have not time to enlarge upon it at present : only let me advise you, how much soever you may relish the scheme, to wait the event of this trial before you discover your sentiments. If, indeed, your inclinations should be known, it will raise a very invidious clamour against you ; and should you give Dolabella the least intimation of them, they 1 He "was prosecuted by Dolabella in two distinct im- peachments. The first was, for being guilty of treason in bis government of Cilicia ; and the other, for bribery and corruption in his election to the consulate. — Ep. Fam. iii. 11. ^ See rem. o, p. 409. n As one of Dolabella's impeachments against Appius was for his mal-practices in Cilicia, it was extremely in the power of Cicero to serve Appius in those examinations which were necessary to be taken in his province. o To Dolabella. p It seems probable, from this passage, that there was some prospect of a divorce between Dolabella and his wife before Cicero left Eome ; and that the latter had commis- sioned Coelius, in case this event should happen, to talro some measures for procuring a match between Dolabella and his daughter TuUia. There will be occasion to make great use of this circumstance in a remark upon a letter in the toUowihg book: and, therefore, it is here pointed out for the reader's particular observation. See rem . S, oa letter I, book vi. 422 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO will certainly become more public than will be con- venient either for your interest or your honour. He would, undoubtedly, be unable to conceal a circumstance so advantageous to his present views, and which would give so much credit to the pro- secution in which he is engaged ; and I am per- suaded he would scarcely refrain from malting it the subject of his conversation, notwithstanding he were sure the discovery would prove to his pre- judice. Pompey, I am told, interests himself ex- tremely in behalf of Appius ; insomuch, that it is generally imagined he has a design of sending one of his sons in order to sohcit you in his favour. Meanwhile, we are in the humour here of acquit- ting all criminals : nothing, in truth, so base or so villanous can be perpetrated that is not sure of escaping punishment. You will perceive how wondrously active our consuls are in their office, when I tell you that they have not yet been able to procure a single decree of the senate, except one for appointing the Latiani festivals. Even our friend Curio has not hitherto acted with any spirit in his tribunate ; as, indeed, it is impossible to describe the general indolence that has seized us. If it were not for my contests with the vintners and the surveyors of the public aqueducts, all Rome would appear in a -profound lethargy. In short, I know not to what degree the Parthians may have animated you; but, as for us, in this part of the world, we are fast asleep. But how much soever we may want to be awakened, I hope it will not be by the Parthians. It is reported, nevertheless, though I know not on what founda- tion, that they have gained some slight advantage over the troops of Bibulus, near Mount Amanus. Since I wrote the ahove, I must recal what I said concerning Curio. The cold fit is at length expelled by the warmth of those censures to which the levity of his conduct has exposed him. For, not being able to carry his point with respect to the intercalation', he has deserted the interest of the senate, and harangued- the people in favour of Csesar'. He threatens, likewise, to propose a Apiarian law, somewhat of the same tendency with the Agrarian one which was formerly attempted by RuUus' ; as , jo. 407- i The several prstors, before they entered upon their office, drew up and published a sort of formulary; whifch they intended to observe in their respective administra- tions of justice.— Rosin. Antiq. Horn. vii. 700. JWhen Cicuro wrote this opisUe, ho l)!id not received the letter from CkUus, lyhereini ,be giveu him an account of 436 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO from a selfisli Epicurean principle, and as it may probably facilitate my own pretensions of the same kind, but as taking a sincere and disinterested share in every increase of your dignities. I entreat you, then, as you have more frequent opportunities of writing into this province than any other of my friends, that you would give me immediate notice as soon as you shall have obtained the decree, which you have so much reason to expect, and which I so unfeignedly wish you. If the tedious resolutions of the long bench, as our friend Pompey calls the senate, should delay your hopes a few days, (and more than a few days they surely cannot delay them,) be confident, however, that they will at length distinguish you with those honours which are so justly your due. Again, therefore, I conjure you, as you give me your atfection, or would pre- serve mine, to let me participate in the joy of this good news as early as possible. To this request I will join another, and remind you of executing your promise of sending me the completion of your treatise on augury''. I ask this, not only as being desirous of informing myself in the rites and principles of the sacred college, but as I receive with uncommon satisfaction every mai'k of your favour. As to the request you made me on your part of returning you a compliment in the same kind, it is a point I must well consider. For it would ill become an author whom you have so often applauded for the pains' he bestows upon his compositions, to suffer any crude and indigested performance to come forth from his hands, espe- cially upon an occasion that would jiistly expose him to the censure, not only of being guilty of negligence, but of a most ungrateful disrespect. However, I may find some opportunity, perhaps, of satisfying both you and myself upon this article. In the mean time, I hope you will endeavour, in conformity to your promise, that a public thanks- giving of the most distinguished kind be decreed, as soon as possible, on account of my late victories ; and I am persuaded you will act with that zeal which is agreeable to your sincerity, and to the friendship which has long subsisted between us. I Applus having dropped his petition for a triumph, — See the 5th letter of this hook. ^ Bearem.7,p. 391. I '* 'Tis strange to aee how differently the vanity of man- kind runs in different times aaid seasons. 'Tis at present the hoast of almost every enterpriser in the Muses' art, that, hy his genius alone and a natural rapidity of style and thought, he is ahle to carry all before him ; that he plays with his business, does things in passing, at a ven- ture, and in the quickest period of time. In the days of Attic elegance, as works were then truly of another form and turn, so workmen were of another humour, and had their vanity of a quite contrary kind. They became rather affected in endeavouring to discover the pains they had taken to be correct. They were glad to insinuate how lahcu-iously, and with what expense of time, they had brought the smallest work of theirs (as perhaps a single ode, or satire, an oration, or panegyric) to its perfection. When they had so polished their piece, and rendered it so natural and easy that it seemed only a lucky flight, a hit of thought, or flowing vein of humour, they were then chiefly concerned, lest it should in reality pass for such, and their artifice remain undiscovered. They were wiiliug it should be known how soriaus their play was, and how elaborate their freedom and facility; that they might say, as the agreeable and polite poet, glancing on himself, Ludeutis speciem dabit et torquebitur." — Bhaftesbm-y's ChmactoriBtios, i. 233. ; was somewhat later in my public despatches for this purpose, than I wished; and as they were delayed likewise by the difficulty of navigation at that season, they did not, I suppose, arrive before the senate was prorogued. It was the influence which your advice always has upon my judgment that induced me to defer them ; and I am satisfied it was perfectly right not to acquaint the senate of my being saluted with the title of Imperator, till I had gained still farther advantages by my arms, and entirely completed the campaign. I confidently rely, therefore, upon the assistance you have pro- mised me, and recommend to your protection whatever else concerns either my affairs or my family. Farewell. LETTER XII. , To Marcus Ccelius. Would you imagine that I should ever be at a loss for words ! I do not mean of that chosen and A u 703 elegant kind which are the privilege of you celebrated orators, but those of ordi- nary and common use. Yet, believe me, I am utterly incapable of expressing the solicitude I feel concerning the resolutions that may be taken in the senate in regard to the provinces. I am extremely impatient, indeed, to return to my friends at Rome, among which number you are principally in my thoughts. I will confess, likewise, that I am quite satiated of my government. For, in the first place, I have more reason to apprehend that some reverse of fortune may deprive me of the glory I have here acquired, than to expect I shall be able to raise it higher. And, in the next place, I cannot but look upon the whole business of this scene as much Inferior to my strength, which is both able and accustomed to support afar more important weight. I will acknowledge, too, that I am uneasy in the expectation of a very ter- rible war™, which is likely to be kindled in this part of the world, and which I may probably escape if I should obtain my dismission at the stated time. I do not forget tne panthers you desired, and have given my orders to the persons usually em- ployed in hunting them : but these animals are exceedingly scarce with us. They take it so unkind, you must know, that they should be the only crea- tures in my province for whom any snares are laid, that they have withdrawn themselves from my government, and are marched into Caria. How- ever, the huntsmen, and particularly honest Par tischus, are maidng very diligent inquiry after their haunts ; and all the game fiiey can meet with shall certainly be yours : but what the number will prove is altogether uncertain. Be well assured the honour of your sedileship is much my care ; and this day particiilarly reminds me of it, as it is the festival of the Megalesian games". m With the Parthians. ^ The Megalesian games were tmder the conduct of the curule sediles, as well as those called the Sonum. The learned Manutius, therefore, conjectures that the anniver- sary of the former reminded Cicero of the panthers which Coelius requested, in order to grace those shows he was to exhibit at the latter, which were celebrated with greater pomp and magnificence. The natiu*e of the i2o»nan games has already been explained in rem. ^, p. 405. The Megale- sian games were instituted in honour of the mother of the TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 427 I hope you will send me a minute detail of our public afifairs, as I have an entire dependence on the accounts which are transmitted to me by your h^nd. Farewell. LETTER XIII. , To Thermus, Proprator. YoHR very generous treatment of Marcus Mar- cilius, the son of my friend and interpreter", is a A 11.703 ™''^'' obliging iostance, among many '. others, of the regard, you pay to my re- commendations. He came to i^'at Laodicea, and expressed the highest gratitud»for the good offices you had conferred upon him at my request. As you see, therefore, that your favours are not bestowed upon those who are insensible of their value, I hope you will be. the more inclined to continue them. I entreat you,' then, to interpose, as far as your honour will permit, in preventing a prosecution wherein the mother-in-law of this young man is likeiy to be involved. And though I strongly recommended Marcilius to you in my former letter, yet it is with still greater warmth that I do so in this ; as I have since received very singular, and, indeed, almost incredible proofs of his father's probity and fidelity during the many months he has'been engaged in my service. Fare- well. LETTER XIV. ' To the same. The report of a very considerable war being kindled in Syria, is confirmed to me by daily ji u 703 ^xpi'^sses. I take the liberty, therefore, in confidence of our mutual friendship, to press you so much the more strongly to dismiss my lieutenant Ann^us as soon as possible. His miUtary abilities, indeed, will render his advice and assistance of singular advantage ia this con- juncture, both to myself and to the republic. Nothing could have induced him to leave me, at this critical season, or, in truth, have prevailed with me to consent to his absence, but an affair of the last importance to his interest. However, as I purpose to go into CiliciaP about the beginning of May, it is absolutely necessary he should return before that time. I will take this opportunity of most earnestly renewing the request I made to you in person, and which I afterwards repeated in a letter, that you would ernploy your good offices in settling his contest with the city of Sardis, agreeably to the justice of his cause, and the dignity of his charac- ter. I had the pleasure, when I talked with you gods, and were so called from Megalesia, (soil. 5 vahs TT\s ftcyAAijs 6eas,) a temple in Phrygia, from whence the statue and worship of that goddess was brought to Rome. This festival commenced on the 4th of April, and conti- nued six_ days. "The governors of provinces were prohihited from using any other language than.the Latin, in the functions of their ministry, for which reason they were always attended with interpreters.— Val. Max. ii. 2. 1* Besides the province of Cilicia, properly so caJUed, there were three other adjoining districts annexed to Cicero'a government, in one of which he appears to have been at the time of writing this letter. upon this subject at Ephesus, to find you perfectly well disposed to assist him upon his own account. Let me add, however, that your adjusting this affair to his satisfaction, will be performing the most acceptable service likewise to myself- I con- jure you, therefore, to despatch it with all possible expediti^on. Farewell. LETTER 'S.Y.f To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-^dile. Your very agreeable letters visit me but seldom : perhaps, by some accident or other, they lose their A. u. 703. ^^^' HowfuUwas the last', which came ' to my hands, of the most prudent and obliging advice ! I had determined, indeed, to act in the manner you recommend: but it gives an additional strength to one's resolutions, to find them conformable to the sentiments of so faithful and so judicious a friend. I have often assjired you of my extreme affection for Appius ; and I had reason to believe, after our mutual reconcile- ment, that he entertained the same favourable disposition towards me. For he distinguished me in his consulate with great marks of honour and amity, and appeared willing upon all occasions to gratify my requests even in favour of others. I must appeal to you (since the droll Phania' is, I think, no more) that I was not waoting on my part in a suitable return ; and, indeed, he stood so much the higher in my esteem, as I was sensible of the affection he bad conceived for you. Add to this, that I am, as you well know, wholly devoted to Pompey, and tenderly attached also to Brutus'. Can I then want a r '.ason of uniting myself with Appius, thns supported as he is by the most pow- erful friends and alliances, and flourishing in every other advantage that can be derived from affluent possessions in conjunction with great abilities' I But, besides these considerations, I must mention, likewise, the connexion that subsists between us as members of the same ^acred college, and the honour ^p has publicly paid me in his learned treatise concerning its institutions. I mark out these several circumstances the more particularly, q The fifth letter of this book. ^ A favourite freedman of Appius. » That Cicero was wholly devoted to Pompey, cannot be doubted : but that he was sincere in this declaration with respect to Brutus, may well be questioned. It ap- pears, indeed, that they were neither of them perfectly satisfied with each other at this time : and Cicero com- plains to Atticus of having received some very haughty and disrespectful letters from Brutus, even when the latter was soliciting his good ofiices in favour of Appius,- — •' Nul- las unquam (says he) ad me literas misit Brutus, ne proxime quidem de Appio, in quibus non esset arrogans, aKOtyuVTyrhv aliquid.- — Plane parum cogitat, quid scribat, ^ aut ad quem."— Ad Att. vi, 3 ; vide etiam vi. 1 ; v. 21. See rem. ^, p. 410. t These were the true, and perhaps the only reasons which induced Cicero to endeavour to be upon good terms- with Appius, For that he had a real affection for him, as he pretends in this epistle, is by no means probable. On the contrary, in a letter to Atticus he speaks of his dis- position tov/ards Appius, in terms of much lower import, and discovers, at the same time, the principal motive that engaged him in his interest: — •* Pro Appio n«s hie omnia faciemus ; honeste tamen, sed plane libenter. Nee entm ipsum odimus ; et Pompeius mlrjfice a me contendit."— • Ad Att. vi, 2. 428 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO as your letter seemed to intimate a doubt in what manner I was inclined towards him. This leads me to suspect that some idle tale or other has been reported to the disadvantage of my sentiments respecting Appiud : but, be assured, whatever you have heard of that nature is utterly false. I must confess, at the same time, that his maxims and mine in the administration of this province have been somewhat different ; and it may from thence, perhaps, have been suggested that I acted counter to his measures, more from a spirit of opposition than from any rea:l disagreement of principles. But, beheve me, I have never said or done the least thing throughout the whole course of my government with a view of prejudicing his reputa- tion. And now that my friend Dolabella has so rashly attacked him, I am exerting all my good offices to dissipate the rising storm with which he is threatened. You mentioned something of a lethargic inac- tivity that had seized the republic. I rejoiced, no doubt, to hear that you were in a state of such profound tranquillity, as well as that our spirited friend" was so much infected with this general indolence as not to be in a humour of disturbing it. But the last paragraph of your letter, which was written, I observed, with your own hand, changed the scene, and somewhat, indeed, discomposed me. Is Curio really, then, become a convert to Ceesar ? But, e.xtraordinary as this event may appear to others, believe me it is agreeable to what I always suspected. Good gods 1 how do I long to laugh with you at the ridiculous farce which is acting in your part of the world ? I have finished my juridical circuit, and not only settled the finances of the several cities upon a more advantageous basis, but secured to the farmers of the revenues the arrears due on their former agreements, without the least complaint from any of the parties concerned. In short, I have given entire satisfaction to all orders and degrees of men in this province. I propose, there- fore, to set out for Cilicia ' on the 7th of May, from whence, after having just looked upon the troops in their summer cantonment, and settled some affairs relating to the army, I intend, agreeably to the deci'eo of the senate for that purpose, to set forward to Rome. I am extremely impatient, indeed, to return to my friends, but particularly to you, whom I much wish to see in the adminis- tration of your sedileship. Farewell. ) LETTER XVI. \ To Quintus 7'hermus, ProprtBtor. It is with great pleasure I perceive that my services to Rhodo and others of your friends, as A „ •-01 ^^'' "^ those likewise which I have per- formed to yourself, prove acceptable to a man of your grateful disposition. Be assured you will find me still more and more desirous of ad- vancing your credit and reputation : though I must add, that the lenity and justice of your government seem already to have raised them as high as possible. The more I reflect upon your affairs, (and they are the daily subject of my thoughts,) the more I am confirmed in that advice I communicated to " Curio. ' See rem. P, p. 42/. you by Aristo. I am well persuaded, indeed, that you will draw upon yourself very powerful enemies, if you should put any slight upon a young noble- man of your quaestor s rank and interest. And a slight it will undoubtedly be, if you should not at your departure commit the administration of the province to his hands, as there is no other person to whom you can trust it of superior quality. But, abstracted from all considerations of this kind, he has an unquestionable right, as your quasstor, to be preferred to any of your lieutenants, whose blame- less and worthy conduct, however, I must at the same time in justice acknowledge. I am perfectly sensible that you have nothing to fear from the resentment of any man. I could wish, neverthe- less, that you would not incur the displeasure, and especially with just reason, of three such distin- guished persons as your quaestor and his brothers ; for they are all of them men of some eloquence, as well as great spirit ; to which I must add, that I am persuaded they will successively be tribunes of the people'" during the three next following years. Now who can tell what turn public affairs may take ? For my own part, I think there is much appearance of great commotions arising in the commonwealth. I should be sorry, therefore, that you should render yourself obnoxious to so formidable a power as the tribunitial ; especially since you may easily avoid it without offending any person, by justly preferring your qusestor to your lieutenants. And should his conduct as your vicegerent in the province, prove worthy of his glorious ancestors, as I hope and believe, it will reflect, in some degree, an honour upon yourself. But, on the contrary, should he deviate from their illustrious examples, the whole discredit will fall singly \ipon his own character, without involving yours in any part of the reproach. I am this moment setting out for CUicia^ ; so that I have only time to write these loose hints just as they occur. I thought it incumbent upon me, however, to send you my general sentiments of a point wherein your interest is so nearly concerned. May the gods give success to whatever you shall determine ! But if my advice has any weight, you will avoid raising to yourself unnecessary ene- mies, and prudently consult your future repose. Farewell. LETTER XVU. A To C. Titius Rufus, Prcetor. Lucius Custidius is not only of the same tribe' and corporation^ with myself, but is likewise my n. u. 703. Particular friend. As he has a cause which he purposes to bring before you, I recommend his interest to your protection, but no ■^ Pighius ^vith great probaTjility conjectures, from the circumstances here mentioned, compared with other pas- sages in Cicero's ■writings, that Caius Antonius, second brother to Mark Antony, was quasstor to Thermus.— Pighii Annal. anno 70a ^ See rem. P, p. 427. y Romulus divided his citizens into three trihes, each of which were subdivided into ten curie, or wards. These tribes were, in after-times, gradually increased, till they amounted to the number of thirty-five. ^ The corporate or mimicipal towns were those whicli were allowed to govern themselves by their own laws and constitutions, and at the same time were honoured with TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 420 farther, however, than is consistent with your honour and my own good manners. All I request, therefore, is, that you would allow him freely to wait upon you as often as he shall have occasion j that you would comply with his desires as far as they shall appear equitable ; and, in a word, that you would convince him that my friendship can effectually avail, even at this distance. Farewell. LETTER XVIII. To Silius. Will you not think that I am employed in a very unnecessary office, when I take upon me to jj »(I3 recommend a man to your friendship who already, I know, enjoys that privUege ? Let it be a proof, however, that I am with passion, as well as esteem, devoted to his interest. I most earnestly entreat you, then, to con^dnce Egnatius, by the good effects which this letter shall produce in his favour, both of your affection for me, and. of mine for him. And, be assured, your compliance with this request will be the most agreeable of all the many and great instances I have received of your disposition to oblige me. The pleasing hopes I entertained of public affairs are now totally vanished. However, whilst we wish things were better, let us support ourselves with the trite consolation, that we must submit to what cannot be remedied. But this is a subject I will reserve to our meeting. In the mean time, continue to give me your friendship, and be well persuaded of mine. Farewell. the privilegeB of Roman citizens. Cicero was a native of one of these corporations, called Arpinum, situated in a district of Italy which now makes part of the kingdom of Naples. LETTER XIX. To Publius Ciesius. I MOST earnestly recommend to your favour my very intimate friend Publius Messienua, a Roman A. u. 703. ''°ig''ti who is distinguished by every valuable endowment. I entreat you, by the double ties of that amity which I enjoy with you and your father, to protect him both in his fame and his fortunes. Be assured you will by this means conciliate the affection of a man highly deserving of your friendship, as well as confer a most acceptable obligation upon myself. Farewell. LETTER XX. To the Magistrates of Fregella". If my connexions with Quintus Hippius were not of the strongest and most amicable kind, I ^ u. 703 should not depart from the rule I have laid down to myself of not troubling you with my applications. This maxim, you will bear me witness, I have hitherto strictly observed, though I was ever persuaded, at the same time, that there is nothing you would refuse to my re- quest. However, I now most earnestly entreat your generosity in behalf of my friend's son, and that you would do me the honour to show so much regard to my inclinations as to enfranchise the estate he has purchased of your corporation. I shall esteem your compliance with this request as a very singular favour. Farewell. , » It is supposed to he the same town which is now called Caperaro in the Campagna di Roma. BOOK VI. LETTER L ' To Appius Pulcher. When I first received an account of the ill- judged prosecution which has been commenced « u 703 sgainst you'', it gave me great concern; and, indeed, nothing could possibly have happened that I less expected. But as soon as I had recovered from my surprise, I was well satis- fied that you will easily disappoint the malice of your enemies : for I have the highest confidence in your own judicious conduct on this occasion, as well as a very great one in that of your friends. I see many reasons, indeed, to believe that the envy of your adversaries will only brighten that character they mean to sully : though I cannot but regret that they should have thus snatched from you an honour you so justly merit, and of which you had so well- grounded an assurance ; the honour, I mean, of a triumph'. However, you will show your judgment if you should consider this pompous distinction in the light it has ever appeared to my own view ; and at the same time enjoy a triumph of the completest kind in the confusion and disappointment of your ' Seer , p. 421. c See rem. o. p. 40l». enemies : as I am well convinced that the vigorous and prudent exertion of your power and influence will give them abundant reason to repent of their violent proceedings. As for myself, be well assured (and I call evei-y god to witness the sincerity of what I promise) that I will exert my utmost interest in support — I will not say of your person, which I hope is in no danger, — ^but of your dignities and honour. To this end, I shall employ my best good offices for you in this province, where you once presided ; and employ them with all the warmth of an intercessor, with all the assiduity of a relation, with all the influence of a man who, I trust, is dear to these cities, and with all the authority of one who is invested with the supreme command. In a word,' I hope you will both ask and expect of me every service in my power : and believe me, I shall give you greater proofs of my affection than you are disposed perhaps to imagine. Notwithstand- ing, therefore, that the letter I received from you by the hands of Quintus Servilius was extremely short, yet I could not but think it much too long : for it was doing an injury to the sentiments of my heart, to suppose you had any occasion to solicit my assistance. I am sorry you should have an 430 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO opportunity of experiencing, by an incident so little agreeable to you, the rank you bear in my affection, the esteem which I entertain for Pompey, whom I justly value indeed above all men, and the measure of my unfeigned regard for Brutus : circumstances, I should hope, of which our daily intercourse had rendered you sufficiently sensible. However, since it has so happened, I should think that I acted a most unworthy, not to say a criminal part, if I were to omit any article wherein my services can avail you. Pontinius remembers the singular instances of friendship he has received from you, and of which I myself was a witness*^, with all the gratitude and affection to which you have so undoubted a right. The urgency of his affairs had obliged him, though with great reluctance, to leave me. Nevertheless, having been informed, just as he was going to em- bark at Ephesus, that his presence in this province might be of advantage to your cause^ he immedi- ately returned back to Laodicea. t-^L am persuaded you will meet with numberless such instances of zeal upon this occasion : can I doubt, then, that this troublesome affair will prove in the conclusion greatly to your credit ? If you should be able to bring on an election of censors', and should exercise that office in the manner you certainly ought, and for which you are so perfectly well qualified, you can never want tiiat authority in the republic which will afford at once a protection both to yourself and your friends. Let me entreat, therefore, your most strenuous en- deavours to prevent my administration from being prolonged ; that, after having filled up the measure of my affectionate services to you here, I may have the satisfaction also of presenting them to you at Rome. I read with pleasure, though by no means with surprise, the account you gave me of that general zeal which all orders and degrees of men have shown in your cause, — a circumstance of which I had likewise been informed by my other friends. It affords me great satisfaction to find, that a man with whom I have the honour and pleasure to be so intimately united is thus distinguished with that d Pontinius was praetor in the consulate of Cicero, and at this time one of his lieutenants in the province. He distinguished himself in the affair of Catiline : and having quelled the insurrection of the Allobroges, who took up arms on that occasion, he demanded a triumph. But he met with so strong an opposition to this claim, and par- ticulai'ly from Cato, that it was four_years before his petition was granted. Appius was at that. time consul ; by whose interest It chiefly was, that Pontinius at length succeeded: and it is to this circumstance that Cicero seems to allude.— Liv. Epit. 103 ; Dio, xl. ; Ad Att. iv. 16. « See rem. ^, p. 421. f The oface of censor v^as the most honourable post in the Roman republic ; though its authority was not so con- siderable as that of the consul. The two principal branches of his duty consisted in taking a general survey of the people, in order to range them in their proper classes ; and in watching over the public manners. Appius, toge- ther with Piso, whose daughter Ca?sar had married, were chosen censors soon after the date of this letter ; aud they were the last (as Dr. Middleton observes) «' who bore that office during the freedom of the republic :" if the republic, indeed, could with any propriety be said to have enjoyed freedom at this period, when all was faction and misrule. —Rosin, de Antiq. Rom. 699 ; Life of Cicero, p. 165. See rem. o, and the passage to which it refers, letter 16 of this boolc. universal approbation he justly deserves. But I rejoice in this upon, another consideration Kkewise ; as it is a proof that there still remains a general disposition in Rome to support the cause of illus- trious merit : a disposition which 1 have myself also experienced upon every occasion as the honour- able recompense of my pains and vigils in the pablic service. But I am astonished that Dolabella, a young man whom I formerly rescued with the utmost difficulty from the consequences of two capital impeachments, should so ungratefully forget the patron to whom he owes all that he enjoys, as to be the author of this ill-considered prosecution i of my friend. And what aggravates the folly of his conduct is, that he should thus venture to \ attack a man who is distinguished with the highest/ honours, and supported by the most powerful ■, friendships ; at the same time, that he himself (to speak of him in the softest terms) is greatly defi- '\ cient in both these respects. I had received an' account from our friend Coelius, before your letter I reached my hand, of the idle and ridiculous report i he has propagated, and on which you so largely/ expatiate. There is so little ground, however, for) what he asserts, that be assured I would much\ sooner break off all former fiiendship vrith a man i who had thus declared himself your enemy, than { be prevailed upon to engage with him in any new i connexions &. -^^ e Nothing could be more distant from. Cicero's heart than what he here pretends. For there is the strongest evidence to believe, that it was his fixed intention, at this very time, to enter into an alliance with Dolabella: and, in fact, Tullia was married to him soon after the date of this letter. Cicero affirms, I must acknowledge, in an epistle to Atticus, what he likewise asserts in a subsequent one to Appius, " that this transaction was entirely with- out his knowledge :" but he seems to have dealt as insin- cerely upon this occasion with his hoBom friend, as he too frequently did with all the world beside. Accordingly, he assures Atticus, he so little expected the news of his daughter's match, that he was actually in treaty for the disposal of her to another person. But if the latter part of this assertion were true, it aggravates his dissimulation ; as the former most evidently was not. For, not to mention the great probability there is, that he left a commission with Coelius when he set out for the province, relating to the marriage in question, [see let. 5, p. 421], it appears that ho had received more than one letter from him upon this subject, before he wrote the last-mentioned to Atticus ; and, consequently, that he could not have been so much a stranger to the afTair as he chose to represent himself. Cicero's answer to the letter of Coelius concerning this treaty with Dolabella is extant : and it cannot be dated later than the beginning of May in the present year; because he mentions the seventh of that month as a future day, on which he proposed to return from another part of his province into Cilicia. But the letter to Atticus must have been written in the latter end of the same year, because he takes notice in it of the death of Hortensius. Now he was not informed of that event tUl he came to Rhodes, in his voyage from Cilicia ; as he himself tells us, in the introduction of his oratorical treatise inscribed to Brutus. If Cicero then was capable of thus disguising the truth concerning Dolabella to the nearest and most valu- able of his friends, it is no wonder he should not scruple to act a still more coimterfeit part in all that he says of him to Appius. And this dissimulation he very freely acknow- ledges to CccUuB ; who, indeed, was in the whole secret of the affair : as it was by his intervention that it seems to have been principally conducted. Accordingly, Cicero taking notice to Coelius of the letter now before us, which he tells him was ivritten in consequence of the information he had received from him, in the 5th of the foregoing TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 431 You have not the least reason to doubt of my zeal to serve you ; of which I have given many conspicuous testimonies in this province as well as at Rome. Your letter, nevertheless, intimates some sort of suspicion of the contrary. It would be improper at this juncture to reproach you with indulging so injurious a thought ; but it is neces- sary 1 should convince you that it is altogether without foundation. Tell me, then, wherein did I obstruct the deputation which was intended to be sent to Rome with the complimental addresses to you of this province ? Had I been your avowed enemy, I could not have indulged my spleen by a more impotent piece of malice : and most cer- tainly, if I had meant to act with a disguise^ malevolence, I could not have chosen an occasion that would have rendered my sentiments more notorious. Were I as perfidious as the authors of these unjust insinuations, yet surely 1 should not have been so weak either to discover my enmity where I designed to conceal it, or to show a strong inclination of injuring you by instances utterly ineffectual. I remember, indeed, that some com- plaints were made to me concerning the excessive appointments allowed to the deputies from this province. In answer to which, I rather advised than directed that all expenses of this kind should be regulated by the Cornelian law*". But far was I firom insisting even upon this, as may appear by the public records of the several cities. For when they afterwards passed their accounts before me, I suffered them to charge to the article of their deputations whatever sum they thought proper. Yet what falsehoods have not these worthless informers imposed upon you ? They have affirmed, it seems, not only that I absolutely prohibited all expenses of this kind, but even obliged the agents of those deputies, who were actually set forward in their way to Rome, to refund the appointments that were lodged in their hands ; and by these means discouraged several others from undertaking the same commission. I might here, with great justice, complain of your giving credit to these calumnies ; but I forbear, as I said before, in tenderness to your present disquietude, thinking it more proper, at this season, to vindicate myown conduct than to reproach yours. I will only, therefore, remind you of a few reasons that ought to have secured me against suffering in jour opinion from these groundless imputations. If ever, then, you experienced the probity of my heart, or observed a disposition in me worthy of those sublime contemplations to which 1 have devoted myself from my earliest youth ; if ever you discovered, by my conduct in the most important transactions, that I was neither void of spirit nor destitute of abilities, you ought to have believed me incapable of acting a low and little part tow ards my friends, much more a base book } he expresses himself in the following remarkable words: *'Quid si meam (se. epistolam) legas, quam ego turn ex tuis Uteris misi ad Appiuni? sed quid agas? sic vivitur ;" whioh in plain English amounts to this, that if a man would be well with the world, he must submit to the lowest and most contemptible hypocrisy. And it must be owned that Cicero, in the present instance, as well as in most others, acted up to the full extent of his maxim.— Ad Att. vi. 6 ; Ep. Fam. viii. 6 ; De Clar. Orator. 1 ; Ep. Fam. ii. in. ^ This law was enacted, it is probable, in order to restrain the immoderate sums which were expended in these complimental deputations — Manutius. and a treacherous one. But if artifice be the cha- racter, after all, in which I must needs be repre- sented, could anything, let me ask, be less consistent with such a temper, than either to slight the friend- ship of a man of your high rank and credit, or to oppose your glory in an obscure and remote pro- vince, after having openly supported it in view of the whole world at Rome .' Can anything have less the appearance of artifice than to discover an impotent malevolence, and betray to very little purpose a strong propensity of doing an injury ? But what possible motive could induce me to cherish so implacable a spirit toward you, who was far from showing yourself my enemy, (and I speak it upon the information of my own brother,) even at a time when you were almost under an indis- pensable obligation of appearing SO'? And after our reconciliation had been effected, agreeably to our mutual desires for that purpose, did you once, throughout the whole period of your consulate, make a single request to me in vain .' or which of the commands that you left with me, when I attended you to Puteolse', did I not execute with a zeal and assiduity even beyond your expectations ? But were 1 really the artful roan I am represented, and if it be the characteristic of that disposition to act entirely with a view to interest, nothing surely could be more conducive to mine than the friend- ship of one, from whose rank and abilities, from whose power, family, and alliances, I might hope to derive the highest honours and advantages : con- siderations, I will own, that rendered me ambitious of your friendship, not from any low unworthy cUftfliag, but from those principles of prudence which Wisdom will surely justify. But these were( not the only considerations that attached me to '. your interest : I was drawn by others of a higher^ and more prevailing influence with me — by a simili- ( tude 6f taste and studies, by the pleasing habitudes / of familiar intercourse, and by the same common f researches into the most concealed and unfrequented ; paths of philosophy. To these indnSements of a private kind, I may add those of a more popular ' and public nature. For after having rendered our mutual reconcilement conspicuous to the whole world, I could not even undesignedly act counter to your interest without incurring a suspicion of my sincerity. Let me mention also those obliga- tions which result from my being associated with you in the college of augurs : obligations which our ancestors esteemed of sO sacred a nature, that they not only held it impious to violate them, but would not even suffer a candidate to be elected into this society who was known to be at variance with any of its members. But abstractedly from these numerous and powerful motives, there is one which of itself might be sufficient to evince the disposition in which I stand towards you : for tell me, did ever any man possess, or had reason to possess, so high an esteem for another as that which you know I > This alludes to the services whioh Cicero received from Appius in his recal from banishment. " For Appius (as Mr. Koss obseivos) was at that time prjetor : and though he at fii-st supported his brother Clodius, and opposed the repeal of his law, yet he afterwards deserted him, and joined with the friends of Cicero."— Cic. pro Bom. 33. • J A maritime city in Campania, in the kingdom of Naples, now called Pozzuoli. When the proconsuls set out for their goverhments, they were usually escorted by their friends to some distance from Rome. 452 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO entertain for the illustrious^ father-in-law of your daughter ? If personal obligations, indeed, can give hira a title to these sentiments, do I not owe to Pompey the enjoyment of my country, my family, my dignities, and even ray very self i* ? If friendship may be supposed to have any effect, is there an instance amongst all our consulars of a more inti- mate union than his and mine ? If confidence can create affection, what has he not committed to my care, or communicated to my secrecy? Whenever he was absent from Rome, was there any other man whom he preferred to be the advocate of his interest in the senate ? And what honour is there which he has not endeavoured to confer upon me in the most distinguished manner ? In fine, with how much temper did he suffer my zeal in the cause of Mile, notwithstanding the latter had upon some occasions joined in the opposition to his measures ? And how generously did he protect me by his counsel, his authority, and even his arms, from the insults and the dangers to which I exposed myself in that defence' ? And I cannot but here observe, that far from being disposed, as you have shown your- self in this affair of the deputies, to listen to the little idle tales that might be propagated to my disadvantage by any paltry provincial, he nobly scorned to give attention to the malicious reports which were dealt about to my prejudice by the most considerable persons in Rome™. Upon the whole, then, as you are united not only by alliance, but J Pompey. ^ Cicero by no means thought himself so much obliged to Pompey as he here pretends : and all these extravagant professions were a mere artifice (and a thin one, it must be owned) to make Pompey believe that he had forgotten the ill usage he had formerly received from him. [Ad Att. ix. 13.] The truth of it is, Cicero had just the same sort of obligation to Pompey for the enjoyments he mentions, as he would have had to a highwayman, who, after having taken his purse, should have restored it again : for iJ Pom- pey had not acted a treacherous and dishonest part in the aflFair of Clodius, to which our author here alludes, Cicero would never have been deprived of his coimtry, his family, and his dignities. But if Pompey restored him to these, he could not restore hira to liimself : for, as the elegant Mon-, gault, in his remarks on the epistles to Atticus, justly observes, if he rose after his fall, he always appeared, how- ever, to be somewhat stimned by the blow. 1 If Dion Cassius may be credited in what he relates concerning the circumstances which attended Milo's trial, Cicero had as little reason to acknowledge his obligations to Pompey in the present instance, as in that mentioned in the preceding remark. For Pompey being apprehensive that Milo's party might attempt some violent measures in order to obstruct the course of justice, surroimded the court with his troops ; which so intimidated Cicero, that it utterly disconcerted his eloquence, and he made a very languid defence of his friend. Accordingly the oration which Cicero published, and whioh is still extant, was not spoken, as Dion assures us, at the trial, but was the after- produce of his more composed thoughts. But whether the historian's assertion is to be corrected by Cicero, or Cicero's to be discredited by the historian, is a point I shall not venture to decide. Though I must in justice add, that Asconius, a much earlier writer than Dion Cassiua, and one who was a greater admirer of Cicero, accounts in a different manner for the disorder which seized the Roman orator upon this occasion : for he ascribes it to the cla- mours with which he was insulted by the party against Milo, when he rose up to speak in his defence.— Dion, xl. p. 145, 146 ; Ascon. Argument, in Milon, ^ Milo was suspected, or at least his adversaries pre- tended to suspect him, of having a design against Pompey's life : and perhaps Cicero's enemies endeavoured to persuade by, affection, to my illustrious friend, what are the sentiments, do you imagine, that I ought to beai towards you ? The truth of it is, were I your pro- fessed enemy, as I am most sincerely the reverse, yet, after the letter which I lately received from Pompey, I should think myself obliged to sacrifice my resentment to his request, and be wholly governed by the inclinations of a man to whom I am thus greatly indebted. But I have said enough, and perhaps more than was necessary, upon this subject : let me now, therefore, give you a detail both of what I have effected and am still attempt- ing for your interest \ * * * * * » ^ «- * ««»«« This, my friend, is what I have performed, or am endeavouring to perform, in support of your charsicter, I will rather say, than in defence of your person. But I expect every day to hear that you are chosen censor : the duties of which office, as they require the highest fortitude and abilities to execute, so, I am sure, they far better deserve your attention than any services I am capable of render- ing to you in this province. Farewell. LETTER II. To Papirius Pains'^. Your letter has rendered me a most complete general. I protest I did not imagine you were so 703 wonderfully skilled in the art military. But I perceive you are an absolute adept, and deeply studied in the tactics of king Pyrrhusi" and his minister Cineas. I have some thoughts, therefore, of following your most curious precepts, and indeed of improving npon them. For as I am assured that the best armament against the Par- thian cavalry is a good fleet, I am designing to equip myself accordingly. Seriously, you cannot imagine what an expert commander you have un- dertaken to tutor : for after having worn out Xenophon's life of Cyrus with reading it at Rome, I have now fairly practised it out in the province. But I hope soon to joke with you in person. In the meEtn time, attend with submission due to my high behests. You are not ignorant, I suppose, of the particular intimacy that subsists between Marcus Fabius and myself. I value him, indeed, Pompey, that our author was privy to that design.— Orat. pro Milon. 24. " The particulai- instances of Cicero's services to Appiua are omitted in the originsd ; and, probably, were so by the first editor of these letters, as not being thought propei', perhaps, for public inspection. o Lucius Papirius Pa?tuB appears to have been a person of great wit and humour, and in close friendship Avith Cicero. " He was an Epicurean, and, in pursuance of the plan of life recommended by the principles of that sect, seems to have sacrificed his ambition to his ease. He had sent some military instructions by way of raillery to Cicero, who returns an answer to this letter in the same jocose manner." — Ross. , P Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who flourished about 300 years before the date of this letter, was esteemed by the ancients as one of the greatest soldiers that ever appeared in the world. His wliole thoughts and application were turned to theart of war: upon which subject he published some treatises, that were extant in Plutarch's time. Cineas was one of the generals who commanded under this heroic prince ; and who, as it should seem from this passage, had likewise distinguished himself by his military ■writings— Pint, in Yit. Pyrrhi. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 438 extremely, not only for the singular integrity and modesty of his heart, but as he is a most excellent second to me in those contests wherein I am some- times engaged with certain jovial Epicurean com- panions of yours. He lately joined me at Lao- dicea, where I am very desirous of detaining him : but he received an unexpected letter, which has given him great uneasiness. The purport of it is, that his brother has advertised his intentions of selling an estate at Herculaneumi, in which they are both equally interested. This news exceedingly alarms my friend, and as his brother's understand- ing is not extremely strong, he is inclined to think he has been instigated by some of their common enemies, to take this very extraordinary measure. Let me then entreat you, my dear Psetus, if you have any friendship for me, to ease Fabius of the trouble of this affair, by receiving the whole bur- den of it upon yourself. We shall have occasion for your authority, your advice, and your interest : and I hope you will exert them all, in order to prevent these two brothers from the disgrace of appearing as adversaries in a court of justice. I must not forget to tell you, that the persons whom Fabius suspects to be the malicious authors of this advice to his brother, are Mato and Pollio. To say all in one word, I shall think myself inexpressibly obliged, if you ease my friend of this troublesome affair ; a favour, he persuades me, entirely in your power. Farewell. LETTER in. To C(elius Caldus', Qvissior elect. When 1 received the very acceptable news of your being elected my qusestor, I was well per- A u 703 ^"^^^^i^ '•'^^' tl*^ longer you continued with me in this province, the more I should have occasion to be satisfied with that choice. It is of importance to the public relation which has thus arisen between us that it should be improved by a nearer intercourse. But, having received no account, either from yourself or any other of my friends, of your being set forward on your way hither, I began to be apprehensive (what I still fear) that 1 should leave this province before your arrival. I was favoured, 'tis true, with a most obliging and polite letter from you, on the 22d of June, whilst I was encamped in Cilicia ; and it afforded me a very pleasing instance both of your abilities and friendly disposition. But it was with- out any date, nor did it mention when I might expect you. The person, likewise, that delivered it, not having received it immediately from your 1 The famous city near Naples, which was swalluwed up hy an earthquake in the reign of Vespasian ; and which is now furnishing the literary world with so many invaluahle treasures of antiquity. ■ He was a yoimg man of a noble family, and this seems to have hcen the whole of his merit. For, notwithstanding Cicero addresses him in this letter, as-oncof whose talents and virtues he had conceived a favourable opinion, it is certain bis real sentiments of him were far different. This appears from an epistle to Atticus, where both the morals and understanding of Caldus are mentioned in terms greatly to his disadvantage. *' Nosprovinciaeprae- ficimus Ccelium : puerum inquies, et fortasse fatuum, et non gravem, et non continentem. Assentior : fieri non potuit aliter."— .\d Att. vi. 6. See the 13th letter of this book. own bauds, could give me no information either when or from ^hat place it was written. Never- theless, I thought proper to despatch my couriers and lictors with this express ; and if it reaches you time enough, you will greatly oblige me by meeting me in Cilicia as soon as possible. The strong letters I received in your behalf, from your relations, Curius and Virgilius, had all the influence which is due to the recommendations of such very intimate and very worthy friends ; but your own letter had still a greater. Believe me, there is no man whom I should have rather wished for my qusestor ; and I shall endeavour to show the world, by distinguishing you with every honour in my power, that I pay all the regard which is so justly due to your own personal merit, as well as to that of your illustrious ancestors. But this I shall the more easily be enabled to effect, if you should meet me in Cilicia : a circumstance in which not only the public interest and mine, but particu- larly your own, is, I think, nearly concerned. Farewell. LETTER IV. , To Marcus Calius, Curule-Mdile. I AM extremely anxious concerning affairs at Rome, as I hear there have been great disturbances 703 '" "'^ general assemblies of the people', and that the festival of Minerva' was celebrated in a most riptous manner. But my in- telligence goes no lower than that period, and I am altogether uninformed of anything which has since passed.' Yet nothing mortifies me more than being prevented the pleasure of laughing with you at several ridiculous incidents which attended, I am told, these public tumults ; but they are of such a delicate nature, that I dare not mention them in a letter. I am a good deal uneasy, likewise, at not having received any account of these commotions from yourself. For which reason, notwithstanding I shall be set out for Italy before this reaches your hand, yet I hope I shall meet a letter from you upon the road, that I may not arrive an utter stranger to the state of public affairs ; as I am sure no man is more capable of instructing me concern- ing them than yourself. Your agent, the worthy Diogenes, together with your freedman Philo", parted from me at PSssinus', in order to proceed on their journey to the king of Galatia'' ; though with little hopes of succeeding at it court neither very able nor very willing to comply with the purposes of their embassy. Rome, my friend, Rome alone, is the object that ■' Manutius conjectures that this alludes to the disturb- ances which some of the tribunes occasioned at Rome, in opposing the attempts of the Pompeian party to divest Caesar of his government in Gaul. At the head of these tribunes, Curio, who had lately changed Bides, now chose to distinguish himself. — Ad Att. vi: 2. ' This festival was celebrated on the 19th of March, and continued five days. 1 CceliuB mentions these persons in a former letter, as being employed by him to execute some commission in this part of the world ; but the nature of the business with which they were charged, does not appear. — Ep. Fam. viii. 8. ' A city in Phrygia, within the jurisdiction of Cicero's government. w Deiotarus, F F 4S4 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO merits your attention ; and may you ever live within the splendour of that illustrious scene ! All foreign employments (and it was my sentiments from my first entrance into the world) are below the ambi- tion of those who have talents to distinguish them- selves on that more conspicuous theatre. And would to God, as I was ever well convinced of this truth, that I had always acted accordingly ! Be assured, the pleasure of a single walk with you would afford me more satisfaction than all the advantages I can derive from my government. I hope, indeed, I shall receive the applause of having conducted myself throughout my administration with an untainted integrity ; however, I should have merited as much honour by refusing the government of this province, as by having thus preserved it from the hands of our enemies. " But where, then," you will ask, perhaps, " had been the hopes of a triumph ?" Believe me, I should have deemed that loss well compensated by escaping so long and so tedious a separation from all that 1 hold most valuable. But I hope I shall now soon be with you. In the mean time, let me meet a letter from you, worthy of your political penetration^. Farewell. i LETTER V. To\Appius Puhher, Whilst I lay encamped on the banks of the Pyramus?, I received two letters from you, and A. o. 703. both at the same time, which Quintus Servilius forwarded to me from Tarsus. One of them was dated on the 5th of April, but the other, which seemed to have been written later, was without any date. I will answer the former, therefore, in the first place, wherein you give me an account of your having been acquitted of the impeachment exhibited against you for mal-admi- nistration in this province. I had before been apprised of many circumstances of this event by various letters and expresses as well as by general report ; as, indeed, there never was any occurrence more particularly known. Not that it was in the least unexpected, but because the world is usually very minute in its accounts of all that concerns the honour of so distinguished a character. But, not- withstanding your letter was thus in some measure anticipated, yet it heightened my satisfaction to receive the same good news from your own hand. My information was by this means not only more full than what I had learned from common fame, but it brought you nearer to my imagination, and rendered you in some sort present to those senti- ments of joy which arose upon this occasion in my heart. Accordingly, I embraced you in my thoughts, and kissed the letter that gave me so much reason to rejoice, upon my own account, as well as upon yours. I say upon my own account, because I look X In the original it is only said, " mihi mitte epistolas te dignas" — But it seems evident what Cicero had in hia thoughts, by a passage a little higher in this letter : — " obviK mihi velim sint literjE tuse, quas me erudiant de omni republica." And our author frequently speaks of Ocellus as one of that sort of discerning politioians, who, in the language of Shakspeare, . can look into the seeds of time. And say which grain will ^ow, an4 which will not. . MACBEin. y A river in Cllicia. upon those honours which are thus paid by the general voice of my country, to virtue, industry, ■ind genius, as paid to myself; being too much dis- posed, perhaps, to imagine that these are qualities to which my own character is no stranger. But though I am by no means surprised that this trial should have ended so much to your credit, yet I cannot forbear being astonished at that mean and -J unworthy spirit which induced yonr enemies' to engage in this prosecution. But you will tell me, perhaps, that I am pre- mature in my congratulations ; for, while there is a charge still subsisting against you, what imports it, you will possibly ask, of which impeachment you are first acquitted .' And I must confess it is a point of no consequence with respect to your character ; for you are not only perfectly innocent of both accusations, but are so far from having committed any action injurious to the honour of the republic, that you have greatly contributed to raise and extend its glory'. However, there is this advantage gained by your present victory, that the principal difficulty of the whole contest is now over. For, by the terms in which Sylla's law is drawn up concerning offences against the state, and upon which your first prosecution was founded, it is easy for any man to give a colour to the most groundless charge. Whereas an information of bribery turns upon a fact in its own nature notori- ous, as no man can be guilty of this crime un- observed by the public ; and consequently either the prosecutor, or the person accused, must evi- dently, and beyond all power of artifice, appear infamous. But who ever entertained even the slightest suspicions of your having obtained the high dignities through which you have passed by illegal methods ? How do I regret that I could not be present at these prosecutions, that I might have exposed them to all the ridicule they so justly deserve ! You mentioned two circumstances which attended your trial that afforded me particular satisfaction. The one is, that general zeed which was expressed by the whole republic in your behalf ; the other, that generous and friendly part which both Pompey and Brutus have acted towards you in this oonjunc- ^ It may be unnecessary, perhaps, to remind the reader that this alludes to Dolab^la, whose friendship and allianca Cicero was at this time courting. * Cicero himself will furnish the most proper comment upon this passage. For, in a letter to Atticus, written not many months before the present, he describes the conduct of Appius, in Cilicla, in terms which show that he was far from being unjustly arraigned by DolabcUa, He re- presents him as having spread desolation through the pro- vince by fire and sword ; as having left nothing behind him which he could possibly carry away ; and as having BufTered his ofi&cers to commit all kinds of violences which lust and avarice could suggest. " And I am going," says he, •' this very morning to repeal several of his iniquitous edicts." Appius, '• cum ^| atpaip&reas provinciam cura- rit, sanguinem miserit, quidquid potuit detraxerit, mihi tradiderit enectam, &c. — Quid dicam de illius prsefectis, comitibus, legatis ? etiam de rapinis, de libidinib is, de contumeliis ! — Bo ipse die, quo hiec ante lucem scribebam, cogitabam ejus multa inique constituta et acta tollere." It is pleasant to observe, upon some occasions, the different colours in which the same character is painted by different hands ; but one has not so frequently the opportunity of hearing the same conduct thus abused and thus applauded by the same man, and almost, too, in the same breath,— Ad Att vi. 1. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. ASS ture. ■'H^th regard to the first, it would undoubtedly have been the interest of the commonwealth, even in the most flourishing periods of heroic virtue, to have distinguished a citizen of your exalted merit ; but it is more especially so in the present age, when there are so few of the same patriot character to whom she can look up for protection. And as to the latter, I sincerely rejoice that your two relations, and my very particular friends, have thus warmly and zealously exerted themselves iu your cause. The truth of it is, I look upon Fom- '! pey as the most considerable man that any age or ' nation has ever produced'' : and Brutus, I am per- suaded, will soon rise to the same honourable pre- eminence above his fellow-citizens in general, which now distinguishes him among our youth in parti- cular. With regard to those witnesses who were suborned to give evidence against you, it shall be my care, when I pass through Asia (if Flaccus has not already prevented me) to bring them to condign punishment; And now let me turn to your second letter. 1 received great pleasure from the judicious sketch yon communicated to me of public affairs. It appears that the dangers of the commonwealth are much less considerable, as well as her resources much more powerful, than I imagined, since the principal strength of Rome is united (as you in- form me3 under Fompey. It afforded me much satisfaction, at the same time, to remark that spirit of patriotism which animates your letter : and I am infinitely obliged to you, likewise, that you should suspend your own more important oc- cupations, in order to teach me what judgment to form of our political situation. As to your treatise upon Augury", I beg you would reserve it to a season when we shall both of us be more disen- gaged. When I reminded you of that design, I ^ In the last remark 1 took occasion to contmst Cicero with lumself , in respect to his sentiments and his profes- sions of Appius. The present passage affords an opportu- nity of showing him in the same opposition with regard to Pompey. The author, then, of this encomium, has else- where said of the hero of his present panegyric, that " he was artful and ungenteel in his common intercourse ; and as to his political conduct, that was altogether void of everything great or disinterested, and utterly unworthy of a man who meant well to the liherty of his country." " Nihil come, nihil simplex, nihil ec ro7s iroKiTiKot^ honestum, nihil illustre, nihil forte, nihil liherum." This character, 'tis true, was drawn several years before the date of the present letter ; and different sentiments of the same man, at different times, are perfectly reconcilable, no doubt, with truth and sincerity. But there is extant a letter to Atticus, written after this to Appius, and at the distance too of not many months, wherein Cicero expresses the same contemptible opinion of Pompey. "Ego hominem OiVOKiTlKiinaToy (says he) omnium jam ante cognoram, nnncvero etiam aaTpaTiiy)'iK:iTaTOi'*" Andrin another still more recent letter to Atticus, he asserts, that Pom- pey*s political conduct had been full of mistakes during the last ten years :■ — " 0t enim alia decern annorum pec- cata omittam," ic. The truth of it is, Cicero seMom con- tmues long in the same sentiments, or at least the same language, of Pompey ; and if he raises a trophy to his fame in one letter, we may he almost sure of seeing it reversed in another. If oiu- author's judgment and penetration were less unquestionable, these variations from himself might be imputed to a more favourable cause than can now, perhaps, be reasonably assigned.— Ad Att. >. 13 ; viii. 16; vii.13. ' Sec letter 36, book ill. rem. 7. imagined you were wholly unemployed and wsuting in the suburbs of Rome the determination of your petition''. But I shall now expect your orations" in its stead ; and hope, agreeably to your promise, that you will send me such of those performances as have received your last hand. Tullus, whom you charged, it seems, with a commission to me, is not yet arrived ; nor have I any other of your friends with me except those of my own train, every one of whom I may with strict propriety call yours. I do not well know what particular letters you mean by those which you c^ my angry ones. I have written twice, 'tis true, in order fully to justify myself against your suspicions, as well as tenderly to reprove you, for too hastily crediting reports to my disadvantage; and I thought I acted in this agreeably to the strictest friendship ; but since you seem to be displeased with what I said, I shall not take the same liberty for the future. However, if these letters were not, as you tell me, marked with my usual vein of eloquence, I desire you would consider them as none of mine. £or, as Aristar- chus^ insisted that every verse in Homer was spurious which he did not approve, I desire you would in the same manner look upon every line which you think unrhetorical, as not the produce of my pen. You see I am in a humour to be jocose. Farewell : and if you are (as I sincerely hope) in the possession of the censorial office, reflect often on the virtues of your illustrious ancestor^. LETTER VI. From Marcus Cwlius. Wb met vrith a difficulty that greatly embarrassed our schemes for procuring you a thanksgiving ; but A. V 703. ^ difficulty, however, which we were not long in surmounting. For Curio, not- withstanding he is much in your interest, declared that, as all his attempts for convening a general assembly of the people had been obstructed'', be ^ For a triumph. e Appius maintained some rank in the republic as an orator, and was well skilled likewise in the laws and anti- quities of his country. The orations which Cicero inquires after were probably those which Appius spoke in defence of himself on these trials. — ^De Clar. Orat. 297. ^ A celebrated critic, who flourished at Alexandria 176 years before Christ. He is said to have left two sons behind him, both of them fools ; but they will not, perhaps, bo thought to have degenerated very greatly from their father, if what is reported of him be true, that he wrote above a thousand commentaries upon different authors. Miser si tarn multa supervacua legisseti e The commentators suppose that Cicero alludes to Appius Claudius Coecus, who was censor in the year of Rome 442. He distinguished himself in his office by two works of great utility to the public ; for he made that famous road called the Via Appia^ part of which subsists to this day, and was the first, likewise, that supplied the city of Rome with water, by conveying the river Anio through an aqueduct of eleven miles in length.-— Liv. ix. 29. h Paulus, one of the present consuls, not having yet sacrificed his integrity to his interest, very warmly opposed the attempts of Curio, who waa endeavouring to procure certain laws from the people in favour of Caesar's present designs. Curio, in revenge, would not suffer any businesa to proceed in the senate— a power with which he was invested as tribune of the people. F F 2 436 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO ■would by no means suffer the senate to pass any decree of the kind in question. If he were to depart, he said,^ from this resolution, it would look like giving up the advantages he had gained by the indiscreet zeal of the consul Paulua, and he should be considered as deserting the cause of the public. In order, therefore, effectually to remove this objection, we entered into an agreement with him, that if he would suffer the decree for your ^^^hanksgiving to pass, no other thanksgiving should be proclaimed during the remainder of this year ; to which the consuls likewise consented. Your acknowledgments are accordingly due to them both, but particularly to Paulus ; for he came wholly and readily into our proposal in the most obliging manner ; whereas Marcellus somewhat lessened the merit of his compliance, by telling us that " the affair of these thanksgivings was an article upon which he laid no sort of stress." After having thus adjusted matters with Curio, /we were informed that Hirrus intended to defeat '^ our measures, by lengthening out the debates^ when the question should come before the senate. Our next business, therefore, was to make our applications on that side, which we so successfully did, that we not only prevailed with him to drop this design, but when the question was moved concerning the number of the enemy's forces, and he might easily have prevented the decree, by re- ^quiring a list of the slain J, he sat entirely silent. Indeed, the single opposition he gave to us was by voting with Cato, who, though he would not assent to this motion, spoke of your conduct, however, in very honourable terms. I must not forget to mention Favonius, likewise, as a third in this party. You will distribute your thanks, therefore, as they are respectively due : — to the three last, for not preventing this decree, when it was both in their inclination and their power to have done so ; and to Curio, for making an exception in your favour to the general rule he had laid down to him- , jelf. Furnius and Lpntulns laboured in this affair, as they ought, with as much zeal as if it had been their own, and went about with me in all my appli- cations to solicit votes. It is but justice to Balbus Cornelius'' to name him too In the catalogue of your active friends. He exerted himself, in truth, with great spirit in gaining over Curio : to whom he warmly remonstrated, that if he continued to obstruct the senate in this article, it would affect the interest of Csesar', and consequently render his own sincerity sus picious". Among those who » A very singular custom prevailed in the Roman senate, with regard to their method of debating ; for when a sena- tor was required to deliver his sentiments on the point in question, he was at liberty to harangue on any other sub- ject as long as he thought.proper. This method was fre- quently employed to postpone a decree by those of an opposite party, when they found the majority was likely to be against them. J The number of slain necessary to entitle a general to the honour of a triiunph, was 5000 ; but, as a public thanks- giving was a distinction of an inferior nature, pci-haps a less number might be sufficient.— Val. Max. ii. 8. k 1 have already had occasion to observe, that Balbus acted US a kind of superintendant of Cjcsar's political affairs at Rome. i As Cicero's popular talents could not but render him of service to any party be should espouse, he was at this time coin tnd botli by Pompey and Csesar. n» That is, witli respect to Casar : in whose interest Curio had lately declared himself. voted in your favour, there were some that in their hearts, nevertheless, were by no means well-wishers to the decree. In this number were the Domitii and the Scipios : in allusion to which Curio made them a very smart reply, when they affected to be extremely importunate with him to withdraw his protest. " I am the more inclined," said he, " to do so, as I am sure it would be a terrible disappoint- ment to some who have voted on the other side." As to political affairs, the efforts of all parties are at present directed to a single point ; and the general contest still is in relation to the provinces. Pompey seems to unite in earnest with the senate, that the 13th» of November may be limited for Csesar's resigning his government. Curio, on the contrary, is determined to oppose this, to the utmost, and accordingly has relinquished all his other schemes, in order to apply his whole strength to the affair in question. As to our party", you well know their irresolution, and consequently will readily believe me when I tell you they have not the spirit to push their opposition to the last extremity. The whole mystery of the scene, in short, is this : Pompey, that he may not seem to oppose Caesar, or to aim at anything but what the latter shall think perfectly equitable, represents Curio as acting in this affair merely upon his own authority, and with no other view than to create disturbances. It is certain, at the same time, that Pompey is much averse to Caesar's being elected consul, before he shall have delivered up his go- vernment, together with the command of the army ; and indeed he seems to be extremely apprehensive of the consequences, if it should prove otherwise. In the meanwhile, he is severely attacked by CuriOj who is perpetually reproaching him with deviating from the principles upon which he acted in his second consulship. Take my word for it, notwith- standing all the difficulties they may throw in Curio's way, Csesar will never want a friend to rise up in his cause : and if the whole turns, as they seem to fear, upon his procuring some tribune to " The commencement of Caesar's government in Gaul cannot be dated higher than the year of Rome 695 ; for it is unanimously agreed by all the ancient historians, that he was consul in the year 694. This government was at first granted to him for five years, and afterwards enlarged for five more. Agreeably to this computation, therefore, the legal period of his administration could not expire till the year 705 , yet Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, wi'itten in the very beginning of the year 704, speaks of it as abso-, lutely completed. Cssar, on the contrary, in the harangue which he made to his army, just before his march into Italy, in the commencement of the same year, expressly says, that they had served under him nine years : and it appears, by what he mentions soon aftei'iv'ards, that there wanted six months to complete his decennial period when he was recalled from his government. The historians, likewise, are neither agreed with themselves, nor with each other, in their account of the continuance of Cesar's administration in Gaul. For Suetonius in one place calls it nine years, and in another ten : whereas, Dion Cassius expressly says it was hut eight. As the decision of this difficulty would prove very little entertaining to the gene- rality of English readers, it is only marked out for the consideration of those who may think the solution worth their inquiry.— Ad Att. vii. 9 ; Cies. De Bell. Civil, i. 7, 9 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Ces. 2,5, 69 ; Dio, xliv. p. 263. o This party was what they called the optimates, and which, in modern langimge, might be termed the "country party." They wanted not only spirit, hut imanimity, to act to any effectual purpose : " non enim honi, ut putant, consentiunt," says Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, 'rii. fi. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 437 interpose his negative to their decrees, I will venture to pronounce that he may remain in Gaul as long as he shall think proper. You will find the several opinions of the senators in relation to this affair, in the newspaper which I herewith send to you. I leave you to select such articles as you may think worthy of notice ; for though I have omitted all the idle stories of such a man being hissedv at the public games, of another being buried with great funeral pomp, together with various impertinences of the same uninterest- ing kind ; it still abounds with many paragraphs of little moment. However, I chose to err on the right side, and had rather hazard informing you of what you may not, perhaps, desire to hear, than pass over anything material. I am glad to find that your care has not been wanting to procure me satisfaction from Sittius ; and since you suspect that affair is not in very safe hands, I entreat you to take it altogether into your own. Farewell. LETTER VIL To Cdninius Sallustius'^, Proqueesior. Your courier delivered both your letters to me at Taurus, oa the seventeenth of July, which I will J ,.(.„ answer, as you seem to desire, according to their respective dates. I have heard no news of my successor ; and indeed I am inclined to believe that none will be appointed. Nevertheless, I see no occasion for my continuance in this province after the expiration of my year', especially now that all our fears are over with respect to the Parthians. I do not propose to stay at any place in my return ; though, perhaps, I may visit Rhodes, in order to show that city to my son and nephew' ; but of this I am not yet determined. The truth is, I am desirous of reach- ing Rome as soon as possible : however, I shall regulate my journey according to the posture of public affairs. But I am afraid it will be impossible for your successor to be so expeditious, as to give you an opportunity of joining me in Asia. As to what you mention concerning your accounts, it may save you, I confess, some trouble, to make use of the dispensation which Bibulus, it seems, is willing to grant. But I think you can scarce neglect delivering them in, without violating f It was usual with the populace, when any person, who had incurred their displeasure, entered the places of piiblie entertainments, to express their resentments by a general liiss. An instance of this kinrt, whieh happened with rcgai'd to the celebrated nortensius, is mentioned in the 29th letter of the third hook. 1 Nothing more is known of this person than what may be collected from the present letter : by which it appears, that he was quxstor to Bibulus in Syri.i. ' That period was now mthin a few days of expiring ; for the letter before us eould not have been written sooner than the 17th of July, arid Cicero's adniinisti-ation ended on the last day of the same month, computing it from the time he entered his province— Ep. Vam. xv. 3, ■ " The island of Khodcs is situated in tho MediteiTa- ncan, not far from the coast of Lyeia and Caria. It had a city of the same n.^mc, whieh was at this time much celebrated and resorted to, on account of its schools of eloquence and philosophy. Cicero himself, in tho course' of his li'.ivcls, resided some time here, and applied himself to the study of oratory under the direction of Molo, who was both an cxpcriciiccd pleader and fine ^vriter."— Rosa. the Julian law' ; and though Bibulus may have liis particular reasons" for not paying obedience to that ordinance, I cannot but strongly advise your ob- serving its injunctions. I find you agree with some others of my friends in thinking that I ought not to have drawn the troops out of Apamea : and I am soiTy I should have given occasion by that step to the malicious censures of my enemies. But you are singular in doubting whether the Parthians had at that time actually repassed the Euphrates. It was in full confidence of a fact so universally confirmed, that I evacuated the several garrisons of those brave and numerous troops with which I had filled them. It is by no means reasonable that I should trans- mit my quaestor's accounts to you ; nor indeed are they yet settled. I intend, however, to deposit a copy of them at Apamea. In answer to what you mention concerning the booty we took from the Parthians in this war, let me assure you that no man shall touch any part of it, except the city qntestors on behalf of the public. I purpose to leave the money at Laodicea which shall arise from the sale of those spoils, and to take security for its being paid in Rome, in order to avoid the hazard both to myself and the commonwealth, of conveying it in specie. As to your request concerning the 100,000 di-achmas", it is not in my power to comply with it. For the chests of money taken in war fall under the direction of the praefects, in the same manner as all other plunder ; and the particidar share that belongs to myself is in the hands of the quEestor. In return to your question, What my thoughts are concerning the legions which have received orders to march into Syria, — I always doubted of their arrival ; but I am now fully persuaded, if it should be known at Rome that everything is quiet in your province, before those forces enter Syria, that they will certaitJy be countermanded. And as the senate has ap- pointed your successor, Marius, to conduct those troops, I imagine it will be a considerable time before you see him. Thus far in reply to your first letter : I am now to take notice of your second. I want no inclination to recommend you, as you desire, in the strongest manner to Bibulus. But I must take this opportunity of chiding you a little for having never acquainted me of the ill, though unmerited, terras on which I stand with him^'. You are indeed the only one of my friends among his oiHcers who omitted to inform me that when the city of Antiochia was in a general con- t Julius Csesar procured a law in his ihrst consulate, by whieh it was enacted that the several magistrates in the provinces should deposit a copy of their respective ae- coimts in the two principal cities of their government.— PiglL Annal. i. 352. « Bibulus, in the year of Home 694, was elected joint consul with Caesar, by whom he was treated mth great contempt and indignity for endeavouring to withstand tho violent measm-es of his administration. [See rem. », p. 367.] It is probable, therefore, that Bibulus, in resent- ment of these injuries, refused to acknowledge the vali- dity of tho hiw mentioned in the preceding note : as not having been passed, perhaps, with aU the necessaiy for- malities. , ' About 3000!. of our money. . ,,. , '' ^ Notwithstanding Cicero represents the disgust whicli Bibulus had conceived against him to have been alto- gether without foundation, yet (as Manutius justly observes upon this passage) ho had great reason to be offended : for Cicero bad been a principal promnUr of 438 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO sternation from the late invasion of the Parthians (and their great hopes depended npon me and my ar(ny), that Bibulus often declared he would suffer the last extremity rather than be obliged to my assistance. However, I was not offended at your silence, as I imputed it to that particular and powerful connexion in which you stood related to him as his quaestor, though I was not ignorant, at the same time, of the manner in which he treated you. But his unfriendly disposition appeared likewise in another instance ; for though he de- spatched a courier to Thermus with an account of the irruption of the Parthians, he did not tliink proper to communicate any intelligence of that kind to me, notwithstanding he well knew that I was particularly concerned in the consequence of that invasion^. The single letter I received from him was to desire my interest when his son was soliciting the olfice of augur ; to which, in compliance with those sentiments I ever bore towards him, and in tenderness to the affliction under which he then laboured?, I endeavoured to return him the most civil and friendly answer I was capable. If this behaviour proceeded from a general moroseness of temper (which I confess I never took to be his disposition) I have the less reason to complain ; but if it arose from any par- ticular coolness to myself, my recommendations can nothing avail you. I am inclined to suspect the latter, from the whole tenor of his conduct towards me. For in his late despatches to the senate, he is pleased to usurp the entire credit of an affair in which 1 was jointly concerned with him : and assures that venerable assembly that "he had taken proper care to settle the exchange'' in such a man- ner as would be most advantageous to the public." He mentions, at the same time, as his own act, what was solely and absolutely mine ; and says, that "in order to ease the people of the burden of maintaining the Lombard troops', he forbore to demand them." On the other hand, he thought proper to give me part in an action which belongs altogether to himself, and names me in the letter I am speaking of as " joining in his application for a larger allowance of corn for the use of the auxiliary troops." To point out another instance, also, which betrays the meanest and most contemptible malevolence : — Ariobarzanes having been particu- larly recommended by the senate to my protection'', and it being by my means they were prevailed upon to acknowledge bis regal title, Bibulus constantly speaks of him, throughout his letter, under the degrading appellation of " the son of the late king." My recommendation, therefore, to a person thus ill-disposed towards me, would only render him so much the more disinclined to serve yon. tboBe excessive honours which had teen paid to Cjeaar. See rem. ", above. * Cicero's province being contiguous to that of Syria. y Two of his sons had lately been murdered at Alexan- dria by some Boman soldiers. Seneca mentions the belia- viour of Bibulus, upon this occasion, as an example of philosophical magnanimity ; for the very next day after he had received this afflicting news, he had the resolution to appear in the public exercise of his proconsular office. .— Ynl. Max. iv. 1 ; Seneo. Consol. ad Hare. 14. » Of the public money which was to be remitted from Gilicia and Syria, to the treasury at Rome. » WhiGh were raised in order to be sent against the Parthians. ^ Sec letter 1, book iv. Nevertheless I herewith enclose a letter which I have written to him in comphance with your request ; and I leave it to your flwn discretion to make what use of it you shaU think proper. - FarewelL LETTER VIIL Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. I coNGEATULATE you on your alliance' with so worthy a man as Dolabella ; for such I sincerely think him. His former conduct, it is true, A. n. 703. j^^^ ^^j jjggjj altogether for his own ad- vantage. But time has now worn out those little indiscretions of his youth : at least, if any of them should still remain, the authority and advantage of your advice and friendship, together with the good sense of TuUia, will soon, I am confident, reclaim him. He is by no means, indeed, obstinate in his errors ; and it is not from any incapacity of discern- ing better, whenever he deviates from the right path. To say all in one word, I infinitely love him. Do you know, my dear Cicero, what a victory Curio has lately obtained in relation to the pro- vinces ? The senate, in pursuance of a former order, having assembled to consider of the obstruc- tion which some of the tribunes had given to their decree ■■, Marcus Marcellus moved, that application might be made to those magistrates to withdraw their protest : but it was carried in the negative by a considerable majority. Pompey is at present in such delicate circumstances, that he will scarcely find any measures, I believe, perfectly to his satis- faction. The senate, however, seem to intend, by the resolutibn I just now mentioned ', that Caesar shall be admitted as a candidate for the consulship, notwithstanding he should refuse to resign his government. What effect this may have upon Pompey yon shall know as soon as I can discover '. In the mean time, it imports you wealthy veterans to consider what methods to pursue, in case the latter should appear either unable or unwilling to support the republic. HortensiusK lies at the point of death. Farewell. = See rem. e on the first letter of this book. d This decree, together with the protest of the tribunes here mentioned, is inserted at large in the 7th letter of the 4th hook. e Cicero speaks of this resolution in a letter to Atticus, and produces it as a proof that the intentions of the senate were not true to the interest of the commonwealth. For had the motion of Marcellus been vigorously supported, Curio's opposition, he says, would have been m vain, and CsEsar must necessarily have resigned his command. — ^Ad Att. vii. 7. . . f There is evidently some error m the Latin text : which runs thus, " Quemadmodum hoc latnrus Pompeius sit, cum cognoscat, quidnam reipublicse futurum sit, si ant non curet, vos 6enes,"&c. I have ventxu^d, though un- supported by any of the manuscripts or commentatoxB, to read this passage m the following maimer: " Quemad- modum hoc Pompeius laturus sit, cum cognoscam, te cer- tioremfaciam. Quidnam reipublic£E futurum sit, si aut non possit, aut non curet, vos," &c. s Hortensius would have been considered as the noblest orator that ever shined in the Roman forum, if Cicero bad not risen with superior lustie. There was a peculiar eloquence in his manner ^ as well as in his expression : and it was difficult to determmo whether his audience beheld the gi'aoe of his action, or listened to the charms of bis rhetoric, with greater admiration and pleasure. Cicero often celebi-ates him for the prodigious strength of hia to SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 4S9 LETTER IX, To Appius Puloher. That I may answer your letter in due form, let me pay my congratulations to you in the first .„- place, and then turn to what concerns A. n. 703. i^ ;„ myself. Be assured the account you gave me concerning the event of your trial on the information for hribery*", afforded me great pleasure. Not because you were acquitted, for I never entertained the least doubt of the contrary, but to find that there was not a single judge who dared throw in a nega- tive upon your innocence, even under all the secrecy and safety which the method of balloting would have secured to his malice. This is a circumstance altogether extraordinary : a circumstance, indeed, so little agreeable to the general principles and purposes of the present depraved generation, that the more I reflect on your high rank, on your ipublic and private virtnes, and on the distinguished honours to which they have exalted you, the more I consider it with astonishment. I can truly say, no occurrence has happened for a considerable time that surprised me more. And now, let me entreat you to ima^e yourself, for a moment, in my situation with respect to the affair you mentioned', and, if you should then find that you are under no difficulties, I will not desire you to excuse mine. You will allow me to join in your own good-natured wishes that an alliance 1 which was conducted without my knowledge, may prove happy both to me and to my daughter. I will venture to hope, too, that something may be derived not altogether unfavourable to my wishes^, even from the particular conjuncture wherein this transaction has happened ; though I must add, that nothing encourages me in this hope so much as the sentiments I entertain of your candour and good sense. What farther to say I know not. On the one hand, it would not become me to speak with more despondency of an affair to which you have kindly given your favourable presages ; on the other, there are some lights in which I cannot view it without uneasiness. I am apprehensive, indeed, lest you should not be sufficiently persuaded memory : of which the elder Seneca has recorded a remark- able instance. He undertook, it seems, as a proof of its force, to attend a whole day at a public auction, and give an exact account of everything that wa£ put up to sale, of the price at which it waa sold, and of the name of every particular purchaser: and this ho accordingly executed without failing in a single article. Cicero received the news of his death with real concern : for though there was a perpetual emulation, there was a mutual friendship nevertheless between them. This harmony, so unusual with those who contend together for the same prize, was greatly owing to the good offices of Atticus ; who seems, indeed, upon all occasions {and it la the most amiable part of his very eingnlar character) to have employed the remarkable influence he enjoyed with all parties, in reconciling difTerences and cementing friendshipa Hor- tensius was about six years older than Cicero : and died in the 63d year of his age— Val. Max. viii. 10 ; Cio.de Clar. Orator. 301 j Senec. Controvers. i. in prooem. ; Ad Att. vi. «; viii. 8 ; Com. Nep. in Vit. Att. S. I" See rem. 1 on letter 5, book v. I The marriage of Cicero's daughter with Dolabella. i What Cicero seems to intimate in this passage is, that he might, probably, be enabled, by the influence which his alliance would give him with Dolabella, to infuse into him a more favourable disposition towards Appius. that this treaty was managed without my privity ''j as, in truth, it was by some of my friends, to whom I gave a general commission to act in my absence as they should judge proper, vrithout referring themselves at this great distance to me. But, if you ask what measures I would have taken had I been present, I will freely own I should have approved of the match^, though, as to the time of consummating it, I should certainly have done nothing either without your advice or contrary to your inclination. You have already discovered, I dare say, how terribly I am perplexed between apologising for a step which I am obliged to defend, and avoiding, at the same time, saying anything that may give you offence. Have so much charity, therefore, I be- seech you, as to ease me of this embarrassment ; for, in fair truth, I never pleaded a more difficult cause. Of this, however, be well persuaded, that, had I not, ere I was informed of this alliance, completed my good offices in your service, it would have induced me to defend your reputation, not, Indeed, vrith more zeal, (for that would have been impossible,) but certainly with so much the more conspicuous and significant testimonies of my friendship. The first notice that was given me of this mar- riage, was by a letter which I received on the 3rd of August upon my arrival at Sida ; at which city J touched in my voyage from the province. Your friend Servilius, who was then with me, seemed a good deal concerned at the news ; but I assured him that the only effect it would have, with respect to myself, would be to give an additional strength to my future services in your behalf. To be short, though it cannot increase my affection for you, it has increased my endeavours of rendering that affection more evident : and as our former dis- union made me so much the more cautious to avoid affording the least suspicion that my recon- cilement with you was not thoroughly sincere, so this alliance vrill heighten my care not to give the world reason to think that it has in any degree impaired the strength of that perfect friendship I bear you. Farewell. LETTER X. j To Marcus Cato'". " Praise from thy lips 'tis mine with pride to boaat: ' He best can give it who deserves it most :" as Hector, I think, says to the venerable Priam, in ooe of Neevius's plays. Honourable, indeed, is that A n 703 *PP''o''*tibn which is bestowed by those who have themselves been the constant object of universal applause. Accordingly, I esteem the encomiums you conferred upon me in the ^ Bee rtm. % on letter 1 of this book. I Cicero had eiurely forgotten what he said to Appius in a former letter. For taking notice of the report which Dolabella had spread concerning this match, he afHrms there was so little of truth in it, that he would much sooner renounce all former correspondence with Dolabella, than enter into a new connexion mth a man who had declared himself the enemy of Appius. '* Ego citius cum eo, qui tuas inimicitias suscepissit, veterem conjunctionem diremissem, quam novam conciliassem."— Bp. Fam. iii, 10, See the first letter of this book. ™ This letter is an answer to the second in the preceding book. 440 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS ClCEllO ' ■' senate, together with your congratulatory letter, as a distinction of tlie highest and most illustrious kind ". Nothing could be more agreeable to my wishes, as nothing could be more glorious for my reputation, than your having thus freely given to friendship whatever you could strictly give to truth. Were Rome entirely composed of Catosr or could it pro- dhpe many (as it is surprising it can furnish even ,~ one) of that venerable character, my desires would , ■ be amply satisfied, and I should prefer your single ' T approbation to all the laurels and all the triumphal I cars "in the universe. In my own judgment, indeed, and according to the refined estimate of true phi- losophy, the honours you paid me in the senate, and which have been transmitted to me by my friends, is undoilbtedly the most significant dis- tinction I can possibly receive. I acquainted you in my former letter with the particular motives which induced me to be desirous (for I will not call it ambitious) of a triumph ; and, if the reasons I there assigned will not, in your opinion, justify a warm pursuit of that honour, they must prove, at least, that I ought not to refuse it it the senate should make me the offer : and I hope that assem- bly, in consideration of my services in this province, will not think me undeserving of a reward so usu- ally conferred. If I should not be disappointed in this hope, my only request is, (what indeed you kindly promise,) that, as you have paid me the honours you thought most to my glory, you would rejoice in my obtaining those which are most to my inclination. And this disposition you have already very sincerely shown, not only by your n Cicero was at thia time well pleased with the part which Cato had acted towards him : for he tells Atticus, what he likewise says in this letter, that " he looked upon the applauses which the former bad conferred upon him, in the senate, as preferable to all the triumphs in the world." But he soon changed his language : and, in his subsequent letters to Atticus, he expresses himself with great warmth and indignation against Cato's behaviour in Ibis very article. Cato, it seems, had granted to Bibulus what he refused to Cicero, and voted that a general thanks- giving should be appointed, for the success of the former in Syria. This was a preference which Cicero could not digest, and be complains of it to Atticus in terms to the , following purpose. "Cato, says he, " has given ma his "^ , 1 applauses, which I did not desire, but refused me his / suffrage, though I earnestly requested it. Yet this un- grateful man has voted that a thanksgiving eh'all be appointed for twenty days, in honour of Bibulus. Pardon ^me for saying it ; but I neither can nor will forgive so injurious a treatment." Cicero ascribes this conduct of- Cato to envy ; and his ingenious translator. Monsieur Mon- ' gault, irnputes it to partiality. On the contrary, I am persuaded it flowed neither from the one nor the other, but was the pure result of that impartial justice which seems upon all occurrences to have invariably determined his actions. For Cicero had undoubtedly no claim to the honour he demanded : and for this reason, among others, because the number of the slain on the side of the enemy was not so great as the laws in these cases required. CEp. Fam. viii. 11 .] But it is probable that the claim of Bibulus was supported by all the legal requisites. For though the Farthians were driven out of Syria before his arrival in the province ; yet Cassius, by whose bravery they were repulsed, acted under the auspices of Bibulus : sub eju^ auspicio res gestte erant, as they expressed it. Now the success of the lieutenant, or other subordinate officer, was always imputed to the general, notwithstanding he were not actually present ; as being supposed to arise from the effect of these auspicia, or sacred rites, which he previously performed ere he set out on his intended expe- ~> elition.~Ad Att. vU. 1, 2, 3 ; Rosin. Antiq. Rom. 963. letter, but by having signed the decree that has passed in my favour ; for decrees of this kind, I know, are usuaUy subscrihed by those who are most in the interest of the person to whose honour they are voted. I will only add, that I hope to see you very shortly ; and may I find the repubhe in a happier situation than I have reason to fear ! Farewell. LETTER XL *• To Caius Marcellus, Consul. I AM informed, by the letters of all my friends, what, indeed, I was sufficiently sensible of by the A. u. 703. effects, that you have exerted the same generous zeal in promoting my honours", now that you are consul, which yon always dis- covered, in conjunction with your whole family, in every preceding station of your life. There is no good office, therefore, which you have not a full right to claim at my hands, as there is none which I shall not at all times be most warmly and joyfuUy ready to return. It is a point of much importance from whom one receives an obligation ; but, believe me, there is not a man in the world I would rathei choose be obliged to you than yourself. For, not to mention that I have been attached to you by a simili- tude of studies, and by the msmy generous services I have received both from yourself and your father ; there is an additional inducement which, in my estimation, is, of all others, the most engaging ; I mean the manner in which yon act, and have ever acted, in the administration of public affairs. As nothing, then, is more dear to me than the com- monwealth, can I scruple to be as much indebted to you in my own particular, as I am in common with every friend to the republic ? And may yonr patriot labours be attended, as I trust they will, with all the success they deserve. If the Etesian windsr, which usnally begin to blow about this season of the year, should not retard my voyage, I hope to see you very speedily. Farewell. LETTER XII. ' To Appius Puloher. When the question concerning the military honours to be paid to your arras i was formerly ^ P yjg debated in the senate, I supported the cause of your glory with as much warmth and zeal as if I had foreseen that I should one day have occasion for yonr good offices of the same kind to myself. Truth obliges me, however, to acknowledge that you have returned much more than you received. All my letters, indeed, from Rome agree in assuring me that you not only supported my interest by the authority of your eloquence, and the credit of your vote, (which was as much as I could in reason desire from a man of o This alludes to the good otBces of Marcellus, in relation to the general thanksgiving which had lately been voted for the success of Cicero's arms in Cilicia. See the 6th letter of this book. p Periodical winds, which constantly blow the same way diu-ing a certain number of months every year. 1 1n Cilicia, probably ; in which province Appius, as the reader has been informed, was predecessor to Cicero. Thifl letter is upon the same subject mth the preceding ■ TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 441 your rank and cbaracter,) but that, by contributing your advice, by assisting at the meetings which were held upon my account, by your personal applications, and, in short, by your assiduity in general, you rendered the good offices of the rest of my friends altogether superfluous. These are circumstances far more to my credit than the ho- nour itself for which you thus generously laboured. The latter, indeed, has frequently been obtained by those who had done nothing to deserve it, but no man was ever supported with so much zeal by an advocate thus illustrious, without merit to justify his claim. But the great benefit that I propose to myself by your friendship, arises entirely from the advantages which naturally flow from an inter- course of this kind ; as nothing, in truth, can be attended with greater, especially between two per- sons, who, like you and me, are united by the same common pursuits ; for I profess to act with you upon the same political principles in which our sentiments are perfectly agreed, as well as to be joined with you in an equal attachment to the same arts and sciences which we mutually cultivate. I sincerely wish that fortune had as strongly con- nected us in every other respect, and that you could think- of all who belo ng to me' with the same friendly sentiments I entertain t'orlhose who stand related to you. But I do not despair that even this may be effected. It is a point, however, in which you are no way concerned, and which it is my part alone to manage. In the mean time I beg you would be persuaded, as you will most certainly experience, that this alliance has, if possible, rather augmented than diminished the warmth of my zeal for your service. But, as I hope I am now writing to a censor ', I must have the modesty to shorten my letter, that I may not be guilty of a breach of respect to a magistrate who is the great superintendant of good manners. Farewell. ix LETTER Xin. To Marcus Ccelius, Curule-jEdile, Nothing could be njore judicious, nor more carefully conducted, than. your management of A D 703 ^""° '■* relation to the thanksgiving'. Indeed, the circumstances of that whole affair have proved entirely conformable to my wishes ; not only as it passed the senate with so much expedition, but as our mutual competitor, Vthe angry Hirrus, expressed his assent to those divine encomiums with which Cato honoured my actions. I am inclined to flatter myself, therefore, that this will lead to a triumph ; and I desire you would be prepared accordingly. / It is with great pleasure I find that Dolabella 1 enjoys the happiness of your esteem and friendship. ) I was at no loss to guess the circumstance to. which i you alluded, when you mentioned your hopes that I the prudence of my daughter TuUia would temper j bis conduct. But what would you have said had \. you seen the letter I wrote" to Appius immediately "■ This alludes to Dolabella, whose conduct to Appius has been so often mentioned in these remarks. ' See rem. ' ontho-iirst letter of this book. * See the sixth letter of the present book, to which this Is an answer, " The letter to which Cicero alludes is the first of the present hook. after I received yours upon that subject ? Yet thus we must act, my friend, if we would live in the worlds I hope the gods will give success to this match, and that I shall have reason to be well satisfied with my son-in-law ; I am sure, at least, your amicable offices will extremely contribute to that endo The-tlark prospect of public affairs fills me with great disquietude. I am well inclined towards Curio ; it is my wish that Caesar's achievements may meet with the honourable rewards they de- serve ; and I would willingly sacrifice my life in support of Pompey ; still, however, none of my afiections are superior to that which I feel for my country. But, I perceive, you do not take any great part in her contests ; being divided, I suppose, between the different obligations of a patriot and a friend. Upon my departure from the province, I left the administration in the hands of Caldus". You will be surprised, perhaps, that I should commit/ so great a trust to so young a man. But you will remember that he was my quaestor ; that he is a youth of a noble family, and that I am justified in ray choice by a practice almost universal. Besides, I had no other person near me of superior rank ; for Pontinius had long before quitted the province, and, as to my brother, I could by no means have prevailed upon him to accept the employment. Indeed, if I had placed the administration in his hands, the malicious part of the world would pro- bably have said, that, instead of resigning my government in obedience to the decree of the senate, I still continued it in the person of one who may justly be considered as my second self. Tuey might perhaps have added, too, that the intentions of the senate were, that those only should command in the provinces who had never enjoyed a government before" ; whereas, my bro- ther had actually presided in Asiay during three whole years. The method I have taken, therefore, secures me from all censure ; whereas, if I had substituted my brother, there is no abuse I should not have had reason to expect. In fine, I was induced, I will not say to court, but, at least, to avoid disobliging, a young man of Caldus's quality, ^ not only by my own inclination, but by the ex- ample also of our two great potentates' r'mio, in the same manner, and for the same reason, distin- guished their respective quaestors, Cassius and Antonius". Upon the whole, my friend, I expect that you approve of my choice, for it is now out of my power to recal it. The hint you dropped concerning Ocella was so extremely obscure'' that I could make nothing of it, and I find no mention of it in your newspaper. You are become so wonderfully celebrated, that T See rem. e on letter 1 of this book, w The person to whom the third letter of this book is addressed. ^ The particular decree to which Cicero alludes, may bo found among those Which are inserted in the seventh letter of the fourth book. It stands the last. y He was elected governor of Asia Minor, in the year of Rome 692, 2 Caesar and Pompey. • Quintus CaBsius, brother to the celebrated Caius Cassius, was quaestor to Pompey, in Spain ; as Mark Antony served under Casar in the same quality, wlien he presided as pro- prsetor in that province, l> See the sixth letter of the fifth book, p. 422. 442 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO the fame of your conduct in relation to Matrinius has travelled beyond Mount Taurus. If I should not be delayed by the Etesian winds, I hope to embrace you and the rest of my friends very soon. Farewell. ^ LETTER XIV. Marcus Caslius to Cicero. I AM ashapaed to own how much occasion I have to complain of Appius. This ungrateful man ^ singled me out as the object of his secret A. u. 703. gpiggn^ for no other reason but because he has received greater obligations from me than his narrow spirit would suffer him to return. How- ever, he could not carry on his malicious purposes with so much concealment, as to prevent my receiving an intimation of them ; and indeed I had myself observed that he certainly did not mean me well. Accordingly, I found that he had been tam- pering with his colleague' to my prejudice ; as he soon afterwards openly avowed his injurious designs to some others of his friends. I discovered also, that he had entered into some consultations of the same kind with Lucius Domitius ; who is lately, I must inform you, become my most bitter enemy. In short, I perceived that he was endeavouring to recommend himself to Pompey by his ill offices to me. Nevertheless I could not submit to enter into any personal remonstrances or intercessions .with a man whom I had reason to consider as indebted to me even for his life. I contented myself therefore with complaining to some of our common friends, who had been witnesses to the obligations he had received at my hands. But as this method I found was to no purpose, and that he would not deign to give me the least satisfaction, 1 determined to apply to his colleague. I rather chose indeed to ask a favour of the latter, (notwithstanding I was sensible that my connexions with you"^ had rendered him far from being my friend,) than undergo the mortification of engaging in a personal confidence with so ridiculous and contemptible a mortal as Appius. This step extremely exasperated him, and he was no sooner apprised of it, than he warmly complained that I was seeking a pretence to quarrel with him, merely in resentment, he said, for his not having fully gratified my avaricious expectations. Soon after this he openly endea- voured to procure Servius to exhibit articles of impeachment against me, and entered into several consultations with Domititts for that purpose. But when they perceived that they could not succeed in their intended charge, they dropped this design, and resolved to encourage a prosecution of another kind ; though at the same time they well knew that there was not the least shadow of evidence to support their accusation. However, towards the close of my Circeiisian games', these shameless c Lucius Calphurnius Piso, the father-in-law of Cssar, was colleague with Appius in the censorial office. •^ An enmity ha.d subsisted between Piso and Cicero, ever since the consulate of the former, who concurred with Clodius in those violent measures which terminated in Cicero's exile — See rem. ", p. 341 , and rem. % p. 369. « Circensian games is a general name for those shows of various kinds, which were exhibited at different seasons to the people in the Circus ; a place in Rome set apart for those purposes. But the particular games alluded to in this paaaace, are most probably las Manutius, with great confederates caused me to be indicted on the Scan- tinian law'. But Pola, whom they had spirited up to be the informer, had scarce entered his action when I lodged an information against our worthy censors himself, for the very same crime. And nothing in truth could have been more happUy concerted ; for this retaliation was sd universally applauded, and by the better sort too among the people, that the general satisfaction they have expressed, has mortified Appius even more than the disgrace of the information itself. I have charged him likewise with appropriating a little chapel to his private use, which belongs to the pubUc''. It is almost six weeks since I delivered my former letter to the slave who now brings you both ; and I am extremely vexed at the fellow's delay. — I think I have no farther news to send you, except that Domitius ' is in great pain for the success of his approaching election. As I earnestly vrish to see you, I expect your arrival with much impatience. I will only add my request that you would show the world you are as sensible of the injuries done to me, as I have ever warmly resented those which have at any time been offered to yourself. Farewell. A. u. 703. LETTER XV. \ From, the same. If you had taken the king of Parthia himself prisoner and sacked his metropolis, it would not make you amends for your absence from these diverting scenes. You have lost indeed a subject of inexhaustible mirth, by not being a spectator of the very ridiculous figure which the luckless Domitius displayed when he lately found himself disappointed of his election ^ The reason, conjectures) those which they called the Roman. For these were exhibited by the lediles in September ; and this letter seems to have been written some time in that or the following month. The nature of these games has been explained in a former note. ' The author of this law was Marcus Scantinius, who was tribune of the people in the year of Rome (iOl. ■ It prohibited that horrid and unnatural commerce, which, in after-ages of more confirmed and shameless corruption, became so general as to he openly avowed even by those who affected, in other respects, a decency of character. Horace and Pliny the consul are both instances of this kind, and afford a very remarkable evidence, that the best dispositions are not proof against fashionable vices, how detestable soever, without a much stronger counterpoise than a mere moral sense can supply b: Appius."^- ^ Manutius, in his remark upon this place, produces a passage from Livy, by which he proves, that it was the business of the censors to take care that these public chapels should not be shut up by private persons from the general and common use to which they were originally erected. Coelius, therefore, informed against his adversary for having practised himself what it was incumbent upon him, by the duties of his office, to punish in others.—. Manutius in loc. * This person, it is probable, is the same who is men- tioned before in this letter. The commentators suppose that the election of which Ccelius speaks was for a mem- ber of the augural college, in the room of Hortensius, lately deceased. For it is said, in the next letter, that Mark Antony was his competitor ; and it appears, from Hirtius, that the former was chosen augm' about this time. — Hirt. De Bell. GaU. vii. 60. J See the last note of the preceding letter. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 443 assembly of the people was exceedingly mimerous ' upott this occasion : but the force of party bore down aU before It"", and even carried away many of the friends of Domitius from his interest. This circumstance he imputes to my management : and as he considers the preference wliich has been thus given to his competitor as a real Injury done to himself, he honours me with the same marks of his displeasure with which he distinguishes the most intimate of his friends. He is at present indeed a very diverting spectacle of indignant wrath : which he impotently discharges, in the first place against myself for promoting the election of Mark Antony, and in the next against the people, for expressing so much satisfaction in his repulse. Under this article of news relating to Domitius, I must not forget to mention, that his son has commenced a prosecution against Saturninus : a man, it must be owned, whose conduct in the former part of his life has rendered him extremely odious. The public is waiting with great impatience for the event of this trial : but since the infamous Peducseus has been acquitted, there is a fair prospect that Saturninus will not meet with more inexorable judges. As to political affairs, I have often mentioned to you that I imagined the public tranquillity could not possibly be preserved beyond the present year : and the nearer we approach to those contentions which must inevitably arise, the more evident this danger appears. For Pompey is determined most strenuously to oppose Cffisar*s being consul unless he resigns his command : and Caesar, on the con- trary, is persuaded that he cannot be safe upon those terms'. He has offered however to throw up his commission, provided Pompey will do the game. And thus their very suspicious friendship and alliance will probably end at last in an open war. For my own part I shall be extremely per- plexed in what manner to act in that conjuncture : and I doubt you will likevrise find yourself under the same embarrassment. On the one hand 1 have an interest and connexion with Pompey's party : and on the other, it is Caesar's cause alone and not his friends that I dislike. You are sensible, I dare say, that so long as the dissetations of our country are confined within the limits of debate, we ought ever to join with the more righteous side ; but that as soon as the sword is drawn, the strongest party is always the best". With respect to our present divisions, I foresee that the senate, together with the whole o rder of judges", will declare in favour of ^ Marie Antony was supported hy all the interest and credit of Caesaj: who exerted himself very strenuously upon this occasion, by going in person to the several municipal towns of Italy that lay nearest to his province of Gaul, in order to engage them in favour of his friend. For thete cities being admitted to the freedom of Rome, had a light of voting at elections. — ^Hirt. De Bell. Gall. Tiii.50. * Casar had acted in a very arblti%bry and illegal manner during his first consulate: he apprehended, therefore, and ■with just rea^n, that if he should divest himself of his command, and return to Rome in a private character, his enemies would immediately arraign him for his mal-admi- nistration. — Dio, p. 148. ^ It were to be wished that every man who embraees this maxim, were as little scrupulous of acknowledging it as the author of this letter : for of all noxious creatures, a knave without a mask is by far the least dangerous. ° The expression in the original is, quique resjudicant ; Which Dr. Middleton has translated, and all who judge of Pompey : and that all those of desperate fortunes, or who are obnoxious to the laws, will list them- selves under the banners of Caesar. As to their armies, I am persuaded there will be a great inequality. But I hope we shall have time enough to consider the strength of their respective forces, and to declare ourselves accordingly. t had almost forgotten to mention a piece of news much too remarkable to be omitted. You must know that our worthy censor Appius is become the very prodigy of reformers, and is most out- rageously active in restraining our extravagances in pictures and statues, in limiting the number of otir acres, and abolishing usurious contracts". The man imagines, 1 suppose, that the censorship is a kind of specific for discharging the stains of a blemished reputationP. But I have a notion he will find himself mistaken : for the more pains he takes of this sort to clear his character, the more visibly the spots vrill appear. — In the name of all the gods, iriy dear Cicero, hasten hither to enjoy the diverting spectacle of Appius sitting in judgment on extravagance, and Drusus i on debauchery ! It is a sight, believe me, well worth your expedition. Curio is thought to have acted very prudently in withdrawing his protest against the decree for the payment of Pompey's ti'oops But to answer your question in few words concerning my senti- ments of public affairs : if one or other of our chiefs should not be employed against the Parthians, I am persuaded great dissentlons will soon ensue : dissentions, my friend, which nothing -can terminate but the sword, and which each of them seem well- inclined and prepared to draw. In short, if your own safety were not deeply concerned, I should say that Fortune is going to open to you a most entertaining scene^. Farewell. things. But this explanation is contrary to the concurrent sentiments of the best commentators, who agree that qui res judieant is a circiunlocutiou for judiees. The phrase, it must be owned, is singular : and so is the style of Coelius in general. But what principally coniinns the sense here adopted is, that it is most agreeable both to credibility and to fact. For it is by no means probable that every man of judgment was an enemy to CEesar : and it is most certain that the whole order of judges were friends to Pompey. — Ad Att. viii. 16 ; Life of Cicero, p. 65. " It is probable that Appius had himself as remarkably transgressed the rules of moderation in this last article, as he undoubtedly had in the other two : for avarice is an attendant that seldom fails of accompanying luxury. It is certain, at least, that bis own possessions were far above mediocrity : for Cicero frequently speaks of him in the preceding letters as a man who, by his wealth as well as by his alliances and abilities, was of great weight in the republic. And as to his extravagance of the virtuoso kind, it appears that when he intended to offer himself as a candidate for the ofBce of aJdile, he plundered all the temples of Greece, as well as other less sacred reposittiri'es, in order to make a collection of pictures and statues for the decoration of the games which were annually exhibited by those magistrates. — ^Ep. Fam. iii. 10 ; Fro Dome, 43 ; Vide et Pigh, Annal. in anno 696. P The batteries of ridicule are_ never more properly pointed, than when they are thus levelled at counterfeit virtue: as there is nothing that more justly raibes con- tempt and indignation than those reforming hypocrites, Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt. — Juven. q It is supposed from what Cceliushere says of him, that he was one of the prstors this year. — Pigh. Annal. 703. ' The meaning of this seems to be (as one of the com- mentators has explained it) that if Cicero himself were not in danger from the dissention between Caisar and 444 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XVL ^ To Terentia and TuUia. The amiable young Cicero and myself are per- fectly well, if you and my dearest TuUia are so. a. u, 703 arrived here' on the 14th of this ' month, after a very, tedious and dis- agreeable passage, occasioned by contrary winds. Acastus' met me upon my landing, with letters from Rome, having been so expeditious as to perform his journey in one-and-twenty days. In the packet which he delivered to me, I found yours, wherein you express some uneasiness lest your former letters should not have reached my hands. They have, my Terentia : and I am ex- tremely obliged to you for the very full accounts you gave me of everything I was concerned to know. I am by no means surprised at the shortness of your last, as you had reason to expect us so soon. It is with great impatience I wish for that meeting : though I am sensible at the same time of the unhappy situation in which I shall find the republic. I All the letters indeed which I received by Acastus, I agree in assuring me that there is a general tend- ) ency to a civil war : so that when I come to Rome I shall be under a necessity of declaring myself on one side or the other. However, since there is ^ no avoiding the scene which fortune has prepared for me, I shall be the more expeditious in my journey, that I may the better deliberate on the several circumstances which must determine my choice. Let me entreat you to meet me as far on my way as your health will permit. The legacy which Prescius has left me is an acquisition that I receive with great concern : as I tenderly loved him, and extremely lament his death. If his estate should be put up to auction before my an'ival, I beg you would recommend my interest in it to the care of Atticus ; or in case his affairs should not allow him to undertake the office, that yon would request the same favour of Camillus. And if this should not find you at Rome, I desire you would send proper directions thither for that purpose. As for my other affaii-s, I hope I shaE be able to settle themmyself : forlpurposetobeinltaly, if the gods favour my voyage, about the 13th of November. In the mean time I conjure you, my amiable and excellent Terentia, and thou my dearest TuUia, I conjure you both, by all the tender regards you bear me, to take care of your healths. Farewell. "Athens, October the 18th. / LETTER XVII. To Tiro". ^ 1 DID not imagine I should have been so little able to support your absence ; but indeed it is more than I can well bear. Accoidingly, a. u. 703. notwithstanding it is of the last impor- Pompey, it must afford him great diversion to see these two chiefs, who had both of them used him ill, revenging his quarrel upon each other. 3 Athens. t A freedmau belonging to Cicero. " He was a favourite slave of Cicero, who trained him up in his family, and formed liim imder his ovm imme- diate tuition. The probity of his manners, the elegance of tance to my interest' that I should hasten to Rome, yet I cannot but severely reproach myself for having thus deserted you. However, as you seemed altogether averse from pursuing your voyage tU! you should re-establish your health, I approved of your scheme : and I still approve of it, if you con- tinue in the same sentiments. Nevertheless, if after having taken some refreshment, you should think yourself in a condition to follow me, you may do BO or not, as you shall judge proper. If you should determine in the afiirmative, I have sent Mario to attend you : if not, I have ordered him to return immediately. Be well assured there is nothing I more ardently desire than to have you with me, provided I may enjoy that pleasure without pre- judice to yourself. But be assured too, that if your continuing somewhat longer at Patrse" should be thought necessary, I prefer your health to all other considerations. If you should embark im- mediately, you may overtake me at Leucas"^. But if you are more inclined to defer your voyage till your recovery shall be better confirmed, let me entreat you to be very careful in choosing a safe ship ; and that you would neither sail at an improper season nor without a convoy. I particularly charge yon also, my dear Tiro, by all the regard you, bear me, not to suffer the arrival of Mario, or anything that I have said in this letter, in the least to influence your resolution. Believe me, whatever will be most agreeable to your health, will be most agreeable likewise to my inclinations : and therefore I desire you would be wholly governed by your own his genius, and his uncommon erudition, recommended him to his master's peculiar esteem and affection: of which the letters addressed to him in this collection are a lasting and remarkable memorial. They are many of them ^vritten, indeed, in a style so different from the ordinary language of friendship, that they probably gave strength and currency to a suspicion highly disadvan- tageous to Cicero's moral character. Tliis imputation seems to have been first propagated by the son of the cele- brated Asinius Follio ; who, in a treatise which he pub- lished in order to magnify his father's eloquence at the expense of Cicero's, Inserted a wanton sonnet, which he pretended was composed by the latter on Tiro. Button speak impartially, there does not seem, from all that can be traced of Cicero's private conduct, the least sufficient evidence to charge him with having been infected with this execrable vice of his degenerate countrymen. In passing judgment, therefore, on these letters to Tiro, it should be remembered that Cicero's temper was more than commonly warm : which infused a peculiar heat into all his expressions, whether of friendship or of enmity. This, together with those notions of amity which were carried by the ancients, in general, so much higher than they have risen in modern ages, may account, perhaps, for those overflowings of tenderness which are so very observ- able in the letters to Tiro. — Aul. Gell. xiii. 9 ; Plin. Epiat. vii. 4. ' As Cicero was full of the hopes of obtaining a triumph, he was desirous of hafitening to Rome before the dissentions between Cssar and Pompey should be raised to so great a height as to render it impossible for him to enjoy that honour. ^ A city in Peloponnesus, which still subsists under the name of Patras. Cicero had left Tiro indisposed in this place, the day before the date of the present letter. ^ A littlo Grecian island in the Ionian sea, now called Saint Maure. It was on this island that the celebrated promontory stood, from whence the tender Sappho is said to have thrown herself in a fit of amorous despair ; and which the inimitable Addison has rendered still more celebrated by his ingenious papei's on the tover't Leap-" See Spectator, vol. iii. No. 223, 233. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. US pradence. It is true I am extremely desirous of your company, and of enjoying it as early as pos- sible : but the same affection which makes me wish to see you soon, makes me wish to see you well. Let your health therefore be yonrfirst and principal care ; assuring yourself, that among all the numberless good offices I have received at your hands, I shall esteem this by far the most acceptable. __Hpvembev the 3d. LETTER XVin. I To the same. I CANNOT describe to you (nor would I indeed if it were in my power) the uneasy situation of my A n 703 "'^°^' I "''i ""ly '^y- tl"** your speedy recovery and return to me will afford infinite satisfaction to both of us. , The third day after we parted brought me to this place''. It lies within a hundred and twenty stadia' of Leucas, where I promise myself that we shall meet, or at least that I shall find Mario there with a letter from you. In the mean while let me entreat you to be careful of your health, in propor- tion to the mutual tenderness we bear towards each other. Farewell. Alyzia, Nov. the 5th. LETTER XIX. To the same. I DESPATCHED a letter to you yesterday from this place, where I continued all that day in order A V 703 ''^'' ^^^ arrival of my brother ; and I write this before sunrise, just as we are setting out. If you have any regard for us, but particularly for me, show it by your care to re- establish your health. It is with great impatience I aspect to meet you at Leucas ; but if that cannot be, my next wish is that I may find Mario there with a letter. We all of us indeed, but more especially myself, earnestly long to see you ; how- ever, we would by no means, my Tiro, indulge ourselves in that pleasure, unless it may be con- sistent with your health. There is no necessity therefore of hastening your journey, as there will he days enough to enjoy your company when once you shall he thoroughly recovered. I can easily indeed forego your services ; hut your health, my dear Tiro, I would fain preserve, for your own sake in the first place, and in the next for mine. Farewell. A. V. 703. LETTER XX. To the same. ' YoTjR letter produced very different effects on my mind, as the latter part somewhat alleviated the concern which the former had occa- sioned. I am now convinced that it will not be safe for you to proceed on your voyage till your health shall be entirely re-established ; and I shall see you soon enough, if I see you perfectly recovered. I find by your letter that you have a good y Alyzia, a city of Acamia in Greece. 2 About fifteen miles. ' 1 opinion of your physician, and lam told he deserves it. However, I can by no means approve of the regimen he prescribed ; for soups cannot certainly be suitable to so weak a stomach. I have written to him very fully concerning you, as also to Lyso. I have done the same likewise to my, very obliging friend Curius ; and. have particularly requested him, if it should be agreeable to yourself, that he would remove you into his house. I am appre- hensive indeed that Lyso will not give you proper attendance ; in the first place, because carelessness is the general characteristic of all his countrymen' ; and in the next, because he has returned no answer to my letter. Nevertheless, as you mention him with esteem, I leave it to you to continue with Mm or not just as you shall think proper. Let me only enjoin you, mydear Tiro, not to spare any expense that may be necessary towards your re- covery. To this end I have desired Curius to supply you with whatever money you shall require ; and I think it would be proper, in order to render your physician the more carefvd in his attendance, to make him some present. Numberless are the services I have received from you, both at home and abroad ; in my public and my private transactions ; in the course of my studies and the concerns of my family. But would you crown them all .' Let it be by your care that I may see you (as I hope I soon shall) perfectly recovered. If vour health should permit, I think you cannot do better than to take the opportnnity- of embarking with my queestor Mescinius ; for he is a good-natured man, and seems to have conceived a friendship for you. The care of your voyage indeed is the next thing I would recommend to you, after that of your health. ' However, I would" now by no means have you hurry yourself, asj my single concern is for your recovery. Be assured, my dear Tiro, that all my friends are yours ; and, consequently, as your health is of the gi-eatest im- portance to me as well as to yourself, there are numbers who are solicitous for its preservation. Your assiduous attendance upon me has hitherto prevented you from paying due regard to it* But now that you are wholly at leisure, I conjure you to devote all your application to that single object \\ and I shall judge of the affection you bear me by your compliance with this request. Adieu, my dear Tiro, adieu ! adieu I may you soon be restored to the perfect enjoyment of your health. Lepta, together with all your other friends, salute you. Farewell. Leucas, Nov. the 7th. LETTER XXL To the same. Though it was but an hour or two that you and I spent with Xenomenes at Thyreum', yet he has 703. •"""^S'^^'I ^s strong an affection for you ^' ' as if he had conversed with you his whole life, so wonderfully engaging is my Tiro ! Accord- ingly he has promised to assist you in all your occasions ; and it is a promise, I am well persuaded, he will punr^"'lly perform. 1 shouh^i De glad, if you find yourself better, that you would remove to Leucas, in order to perfect * The Grecians. 1j a city of Peloponnesus. 446 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO your recovery." Nevertheless, I would not have you change your present situation without taking the sentiments of Curius and Lyso, together with those of your physician. I had some thoughts of sending Mario baclc to you, whom you might return to me with a letter as soon as your health should be somewhat mended. Biit I considered that this would be only securing the pleasure of hearing from you once ; whereas, I hope to receive that satisfaction frequently. And if you have any regard for me, you may easily give it me by sending Acastua every day to the quay, where he cannot fail of meeting with many who will readily charge fhemselves with conveying a letter to me. You may be assured, in return, that I shall not suffer any opportunity to escape me of sending a line or two by those who are going to Patrse. I rely entirely upon the care of Curius for your recovery ; as nothing. I am sure, can exceed either his friendship to myself or his humanity in general. I desire therefore you wotdd be wholly resigned to his direction. As I am willing to sacrifice the pleasure of your company to the advantage of your health, I entreat you to have no other concern but what relates to your recovery ; all the rest, be assured, shall be mine. Again and again I bid you farewell. 1 am this moment leaving Leucas. Nov. the 7th. LETTER XXII. To the same. J This is the third letter I have written to you within these four-and-twenty hours ; and I now i. u. 703. *^''® "P ™y P™ '"'"'^ ™ compliance with my usual custom than as having anything new to say. I can only repeat indeed what I have often requested, that you would proportion the care of your health to the affection you bear me. Tes, my Tiro, I conjure you to add this to the numberless good offices you have conferred upon me, as the most acceptable of them all. When you have taken, as I hope you will, all necessary measures for that purpose, my next desire is, that you would use the proper precautions likewise to secure to yourself a safe voyage. In the mean time, you will not fail to write to me as often as you shall meet with any person who is coming into Italy, as I shall take all occasions of doing the same on my part, by those who may be going to Patras. In one word, take care of yourself, my dear Tiro I charge you ; and since we have been thus pre- vented from pursuing our voyage together, there is no necessity for resuming yours in liaste. Let it be your single care to re-establish your health. Again and again farewell. Acfciumd, Nov. the 7th, in the evening. LETTER XXin. / To the same. I HAVE been detained here " this whole week by contrary winds, which have likewis;; vifined my A. u. 703. l'™"'^!^ aid his son at Buthrotumf. I ' am full of anxiety about your heauh, ^ A city in Epirus, ' In Corcyra. ' A city in Kpinis. ^ though by no means surprised at not hearing from you, as the same winds which delay my voyage prevent the arrival of your letters. Let me entreat you to exert your utmost care in regaining your health ; and I hope, as soon as the season of the year and your recovery shall render it convenient for you to embark, you will return to him who infinitely loves you. Your arrival will be impatiently expected by numberless others as well as by myself ; for all who bear any affection for me are tender well-wishers to you. Again and again, my dear Tiro, I conjure you to take care of your health. Farewell. Corcyi-a, Nov. the 16th. LETTER XXIV. To the same. We parted, you know, on the second of Novem her ; on the sixth I arrived at Leucas, from whence «. u. 703. ^ reached Actium the following day. I was detained there by contrary winds till the next morning, when I sailed for Corcyra, where I arrived on the ninth, after having had a very favourable passage. The weather proving extremely tempestuous, I was obliged to continue in that place till the sixteenth, when I again proceeded on my voyage ; and on the seventeenth I entered the bay of Cassiope, a maritime town in Corcyra, situated about a hundred and twenty stadia from my former port. Here, the wind shifting, I was detained till the 23d. In the mean time, those ships that had accompanied me thither, and were so impatient as immediately to put- to sea again, were many of Ihem test. However, on the evening of the day I last mentioned we weighed anchor ; and, having sailed all'that night and the next day with a fair gale from the south and a very clear sky, we gained with great ease the port of Hydruns in Italy.! The same wind carried us the following day, being the twenty-fifth, to Brundisium. I was met at this place by Terentia (who desires me to assure you of her esteem), and we entered the town together. On the twenty-seventh, a slave of Plancius arrived here with your very acceptable letter, dated th6 thirteenth of this month ; which, though it did not entirely answer my wishes, con- tributed greatly to alleviate the uneasiness I was under upon your account. I had the satisfaction likewise of hearing at the same time from your physician, who confirms me in the hope that you will soon be well. And now, as I perfectly well knowyour prudence, your temperance, and tie affection you bear me, can it be necessary thati I should entreat you to employ your utmost care to re-establish your health ? I am persuaded indeed you will do every thing in your power to return to me as soon as possible ; however, I would by no means have you more expeditious than your strength will bear. I am sorry you accepted Lyso's invitation to his concert, lest your going abroad so soon should occasion a relapse on the fourth critical weeks. S The ancients entertained a variety of superstitious notions concerning the mystical power of numbers, parti- cularly the number seven with its several multiplications and divisions. Cioero, n one of his philosophical treatises calls this number rerum omnium fere nodus ; and it is to *.s particular influence ivith regard to the crisis of disteoi- TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 447 But, since you were willing to hazard your health rather than appear ileAcient in point of politeness, I hope you will guard against any ill consequence that may attend your complaisance. I have written to Curius to request he would malce a proper acknowledgment to your physician, and supply you likewise with whatever money your occasions shall require, which I will repay to his order. You will find a horse and a mule at Brun- disium, which I have left there for your service. I am proceeding on my journey to Bx)me, where I expect to see great commotions upon the entrance of the new consuls into their office"". However, pers, that he alludes in the present passage. Macrobius has retailed abundance of absurd learning in relation to this wonder-working number, which he concludes with the following reflections : — " Undenon immerito hie numerus totius fabrics dispensator et dominus, segris quoque cor- poribus periculum sanitatemve denuntiat." This opinion however is not altogether inconsistent with a more im- proved philosophy, and experience shows that the 7th, the 14th, &c. days, are frequently attended with certain deter- mining symptoms in the progress of acute diseases. — Maorob. in Somn. Scip. i. 6. ^ The consuls entered upon their office on the first day of the new year. it is my resolution not to engage in the violent measures of either party. I have only to add my most earnest reqneft, that you would not embark without taking all prudent precautions to secure a sale voyage. The masters of ships, I know, who are governed entirely by their hopes of gain, are always in haste to sail. But I entreat you, my dear Tiro, not to be too hazardous j and remember that you have a wide and dangerous sea to ti;8verse. I should be glad you would, if possible, take your passage with Mescinius, who is n?ver disposed to run any im- prudent risks in expeditions of this kind. But if your health should not permit you to embark so soon, let me desire you would look out for some other companion in your voyage, whose public character may give him an authority with the com- mander of your ship, i In a word, you cannot more effectually oblige me than by exerting your utmost care to return tq^ me safe and well. Again and again, my dear Tito, I bid you adieu. I have recommended you in the strongest terms to the care both of Curius and Lyso, as well as of your physician. Adieu. BOOK VII. LETTER I. To Tiro. Notwithstanding that I feel the wantof your, services in every place and upon all occasions, yet A. ?04. ^^ assured your illness gives me far less concern, on my own account, than on yours. However, since it has terminated, as Curius informs me, in a quartan ague, I hope, if you are not wanting in pi'oper care, that it will prove a means of more firmly establishing your' health. Be so just, then, to the regard you owe me, as not to suffer any other concern to employ your thoughts but what relates to your recovery. I am sensible, at the same time, how much you suffer from this absence ; but, believe me, all will be well whenever you Sre so. I would by no means, therefore, have you in so much haste to return to me, as to expose yourself to the dangers of a winter voyage ; nor, indeed, to the fatigue of a sea-sickness, before you shall have sufficiently recovered your strength. I arrived in the suburbs^ of Rome on the fourth of January, and nothing could be more to my honour than the manner in which I was met on my approach to the city. But I am unhappily fallen into the very midst of public dissention ; or rather, indeed, I find myself surrounded with the flames of a civil war. It was my earnest desire to " A quai-tan ague was supposed by the ancients to be extremely salutary in its consequences, Aulus Gellius mentions a contemporary orator and philosopher who wrote a serious panegyric upon this wholesome distemper, wherein he supported his opinion upon the authority of a passage in some writings of Plato, which are now lost. — . NocL Att. xvii. 12. J As Cicero claimed the honour of a triumph, he was obliged, till his preteneions should be determined, to take np his residence without the walls of the city, agreeably to a custom which has been frequently mentioned in the preceding observations. have composed these dangerous ferments ; and I probably might, if the passions of some, in both parties, who are equally eager for war, had not rendered my endeavours ineffectual. My friend Caesar has written a very warm and menacing letter to the senate '^. He has the assurance, notwith- standing their express prohibition, to continue at the head of his army, and in the government of his province ; to which very extraordinary measures he has been instigated by Curio. The latter, in con- junction with Quintus Cassius and Mark Antony, without the least violence having been offered to them', have withdrawn themselves to Csesar. They took this step immediately after the senate had given it in charge to the consuls'", the preetors, and the tribunes of the people, together with those ^ The purport of Cjeear's letter was, that he declared himself willing to resign his command, provided Pompey did the same ; but if this were not complied with, that he would immediately march into Italy, and revenge the injuries done both to himself and to the liberties' of the republic. — Appian. De Bell. Civ, ii, 1 The letter mentioned in the last note was received by thesenate with great indignation, and considered as an open' declaration of war. Accordingly they voted, that if CEesar did not resign his command by a certain day named ib their decree for that purpose, he should be deemed an enemy to his country. This decree was protested against by Curio, Quintus Cassius Longinus, and Mark Antony, in virtue of their prerogative as tribunes of the people ; and while the senate were deliberating in what manner to punish the authors of this protest, they were advised by the consul Lentulus to withdraw before any decree against them had actually passed. Perhaps this is all that Cicero means when he asserts, that *• no violence had been offered to these tribunes," for, otherwise, his assertion would be contradicted by the unanimous testimony of all the ancient historians,— Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. 1. 5. ; Die, xli, p. 1S3. " The consuls of this year were Clodius Mareellus, and Cornelius Lentulus Cms. 44a THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO of us who are invested with proconsular power, to take care of the interests of the republic". And never, in truth, were our liberties in more imminent danger ; as those who are disaffected to the com- monwealth never were headed by a chief more capa- ble or better prepared to support them. We are raising forces with all possible diligence, under the authority and with the assistance of Pompey, who now begins, somewhat too late I fear, to be appre- hensive of Csesar's power. In the midst, however, of these alarming commotions, the senate demanded, in a very full house, that a triumph should be im- mediately decreed to me. But the consul Lentulus, in order to appropriate to himself a greater share in conferring this honour, iold them that he would propose it himself in proper form, as soon as he should have despatched the affairs that were neces- sary in the present conjuncture. In the mean time I act with great moderation ; and this con- duct renders my influence with both parties so much the stronger. The several districts of Italy are assigned to our respective protections ; and Capua is the department I have taken for mine, I thought it proper to give you this general in- formation of public affairs, to which I will only add my request, that you would take care of your health, and write to me by every opportunity. Again and again I bid you farewell. Jan. the 12lh. LETTER II. To Rufus". I SHOULD have used my utmost endeavours to have given you a meeting, if you had continued in u 704 y°"' resolution of going to the place you first appointed ; and though you were willing to spare me that trouble, yet be assured I should, upon the least notice, have shown you that I prefer your convenience to my own. If my secretary, Marcus Tullius, were not absent I should be able to send you a more explicit answer to your letter. This, however, I will assure you, that, with regard to exhibiting the accounts'' you mention (for I will not venture to be so positive as to any other instance), he has not intentionally taken any step injurious either to your interest or your reputation. As to my own share in this transaction, had the law formerly observed in mat- ters of this kind been still in force, I should not, most certahily, have laid my accounts before the treasury, without having, agreeably to those con- " By this decree, the magistrates tlierein named were invested with a diseretionary power of acting as they should judge proper in the present exigency of public affairs ; a decree to which tlie senate never liad recourse but in cases of the utmost danger and distress. — Cfes. De Bell. Civ. i. 5. o Lucius Mescinius Rufus, the person to whom this letter is addressed, was qus>stor to Cicero in Cilicia. His conduct in that office seems to have given occasion to the character we find of him in the letters to Atticps, where he is represented as a man of great levity, and of a most debauched and avai'ieious turn of mind, — Ad Att. iv. 3. V These were Cicero's accoimts relating to the public expenses of his government in Cilicia ; in which there seem to have been articles inserted not altogether favour- able to the reputation of Rufus as quaestor, and which he was desii'ous therefore should have been altered or sup. pressed before they had been delivered into the treasury at Rome. nexions that subsist between usi, previously exa- mined and adjusted them with you. But the ancient usage in these cases being now superseded by the Julian law', which obliged me to leave a stated account in the province, and exhibit an exact copy of it to the treasury ; I paid you that compliment in Cilicia, which I should otherwise have paid you at Rome. Nor did I at that time by any means endeavour to control your accounts by mine ; on the contrary, I made concessions to you, of which, I dare say, you willnever give me reason to repent. 'The fact is, I resigned my secretary (whose conduct you now, it seems, suspect) entirely to your directions ; and it was Tullius, together with your brother, (who you desired might be joined withhim,) that settled these accoimts with you in my absence, I concerned myself, indeed, no farther than just to cast my eye over them ; and I considered the copy, which I thus received from my secretary, as coming immediately from your brother's own hand- In this whole transaction I have treated you with all possible respect and confidence ; and it was not in my power to have employed a person to make up these accounts, who would have been more cautious than my secretary that nothing should appear to your (Usadvantage. That I have paid a necessary obedience to the Julian law, by deposit- ing a copy of my stated accounts in the two prin- cipal cities of the province, is most certain. But though 1 had many reasons for being desirous of passing them as expeditiously as possible ; yet I should have waited your return to Rome, had I not considered their being thus deposited in the pro- vince as just the same thing, with respect to you, as if they had been actually carried into the treasury at Rome. As to the article you mention relating to Volusius, it could by no means be inserted in the account. For I am informed by those who are conversant in business of this kind, particularly by my most judicious friend Camillus, that Volusius cannot stand charged with the sum in question, instead of Valerius'; but that the sureties of the latter are necessarily liable to the payment of this debt. It amounts, however, to no more than nineteen thousand sesterces', and not to thirty thousand", as you state it in your letter. For I had recovered part of it from Valerius, and it is only the re- mainder that I have charged. But you are unwil- ling, it should seem, to allow me the credit of having acted upon this occasion either with gene- rosity in regard to my friends, or (what, indeed, I less value myself upon) even with common caution with respect to myself. Why else should you suppose that my lieutenant and prsefect owe it to my secretary, rather than to myself, that they are eased of a very severe, and, in truth, a very uncon- scionable burden? and why else should you imagine 1 As proconsul and qusstor. ^ See rem. *, on letter 7, book vii, 8 The nature of this affair concerning Valerius and Volusius is utterly inexplicable, as it refers to a ti-ansae- tion of which we know neither the full circumstances, nor the particular laws to which it relates. Vain, therefore, would be the task of retailing the several opinions of the commentators upon this and the following passages, or the attempt to clear them up by any additional eon- jectiues : as it is better to remain quietly in the dark, than to blunder about in quest of a light which is no whore to be found. • About 162;. sterling. » About 240i. sterling. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 449 me so negligent in a point wherein both my duty and interest were equally and greatly concerned, as to suffer my secretary to settle this account just as he thought proper, without requiring him even to read it over to me ? In short, though I flatter myself that I have taken no imprudent measures in this business, yet you will not believe, it seems, that I have bestowed upon it even a single thought. The truth, however, is, that the scheme of throwing off this debt from Volusius was entirely my own ; as I am endeavouring, likewise, to discharge the sureties of Valerius, and even Marius himself, from so severe a penalty. And I have the satisfac- tion to find this my design not only generally approved, but applauded ; though, to tell you the whole truth, it is not, I perceive, greatly relished by my secretary. Nevertheless, I thought it the duty of an honest man to spare the fortunes of such numbers of his friends and fellow-citizens, when he could do so without prejudicing the public interest. In regard to what you mention concaning Luc- ceius, I have acknowledged that the money was deposited in the temple by my orders. In pursuance of Pompey's advice. The latter has received this sum for the public use^, as Sestius possessed him- self of that which you had deposited in the same place. I am very sensible that this is an affair in which you are in no sort concerned. However, I should be extremely sorry that I omitted to parti- cularize this circumstance, if it did not most au- thentically appear, by the decree of the senate, and by the letters which passed between us, for whose use it was delivered into the hands of Sestius. If was the notoriety of this fact, and the certainty that it was of no importance to you, which pre- vented me from making particular mention of it. But since you wish that 1 had, I wish so too. I agree with you in thinking that it is proper you should insert this article into your accounts; nor will they by that mean appear in the least inconsistent with mine ; as you will only add what I omitted, and vouch my express orders. I have no reason, most certainly, to deny them ; nor should I indeed, if I had, when you desired the contrary. As to the nine hundred thousand sesterces'', they are specified in the manner that you, or your brother, at least, required. And if there is any item in respect to my lieutenant which you are dissatisfied with, and which (after having renounced the privilege I was entitled to by the decree of the senate^) it is in my power to rectify, I will endea- vour to do so as far as I legally may y. In the mean ' For the purposes, perhapB,.of the war which he was now preparing to carry on against Caesar. ^ About 7263Z. of our money. ^ It seems prohable from this passage, that there was some decree of the senate which indulged the proconsuls with a longer time for bringing in their accounts, than they were entitled to by the law ; which privilege Cicero thought proper to waive. — Manutius. 7 There is a passage in the original between this and the next sentence which is omitted in the translation. It runs thus; '* Tu certepecunia exacta ita eferre ex meis ratio- nibus relatis non oportuit, nisi quid me fallit : sunt enim alii peritiores." The principal difficulty of this period lies in the words exacta and efferre ; which the commentators have endeavoured to remove by various readings and con- jectures. But as neither their readings not conjectures offer anythmg satisfactory, I leave it to the explanation of some more successful Interpreter, applauding, in the time, be well assured I shall take no step in this affair, if I can possibly avoid it, that may prove inconsistent either vrith your interest or your incli. nation. In answer to your inquiry (Concerning my hono- rary list', I must acquaint you, that I have only delivered in the names of my prsefects and military tribunes, together with those who attended me as proconsular companions *. I had conceived a notion that no certain time was limited for this purpose : but I have since been informed, that it is necessary to present this list within thirty days after ex- hibiting the aecaunts. I am sorry you had not the benefit of paying this compliment, as I have no ambitious views to serve by taking it upon myself. But it is still open to you, with respect to the cen- turions and the companions of the military tribunes, the law not having fixed any time for presenting a list of that sort. I have nothing farther, I think, to observe upon your letter, except in relation to the hundred thousand sesterces'". I remember you wrote to me upon this subject before, in a letter dated from Myrina", and acknowledged- it to be an error of your own : though, if there be any error in the case, it seems rather chargeable on your brother and my secretary. But, be that as it will, the mistake was discovered too late to be corrected : for I had then quitted the province and deposited my accounts. I believe, therefore, that the answer I returned was agreeable to the disposition in which I always stand towards you, and to those hopes I had then conceived of my finances. I do not, however, remember that I carried my complaisance so far as to make myself your debtor for that sum, any more than I imagine that you intended this part of your letter as one of those importunate memorials so frequent in these times of general distress. You wUl consider, that I left in the hands of the farmers of the revenues at Ephesus all the money which legally accrued to me from my government ; and that this whole sum, amount- ing to no less than two millions two hundred thou- sand sesterces'", was seized for the use of Pompey. Whatever effect this great loss may have upon me, I am sure you ought not to be discomposed at yours : and you should only look upon it as a dish the less at your talple, or an inconsiderable diminu- mean time, themodestyofGrsvius, who closes his remark upon this place with the following ingenuous acknowledg- ment, so unusual in a critic by profession : *' Nihil ih re tarn obscura definlo, (says he) nee mihi ipse satisfacio." z The proconsuls, upon their retiun to Rome, after the expiration of their provincial ministry, used to present a list of such of their officers and attendants who had parti- cularly distinguished themselves by their zeal and fidelity in their respective functions. — Manutius. a These were generally young noblemen who attended the proconsol into his government as a sort of volunteers, in order to gain experience and acquaint themselves with business. — Manutius. ^ About 800^ « A maritime city in jEolia, a province of Asia. d One may judge from hencewhat immense wealth those rapacious governors of the Roman provinces acquired , who did not scruple to oppress the people committed to their charge by every method of extortiontbat avarice could sug- gest. For Cicero, who professed to conduct himself with the most exemplary disinterestedness in his province, was yet able, it appears^ to acquire so large a sum in a single yearasaboutl7,600i.ofour money, and that too from apro- vince by no means the most considerable of the republic's dominions. GG 450 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO tion of what you might otherwise have expected from my liberality. But had you actually advanced these hundred thousand sesterces to me out of youi: own purse, yet, to be sure, you are too complaisant to insist upon a security ; and as to paying them, were I ever so well disposed for that purpose, you must know it is not in my power. You see I ahswer you in the same spirit of pleasantry in which I suppose that part of your letter was written to which this refers. But to be serious : if you t^ink that Tullius can be of any service to you in this affair, I will send him as soon as he returns from the country. I have no objection to your destroying this letter when you shall have read it. Farewell. LETTER III. To Terentia and to TuUia. In what manner it may be proper to dispose of yourselves during the present Conjuncture, is a „„, question which' must no* be decided by A. u. 704. ^ . J . i 1_ ' u ■ your own judgments as much as by mine. Should Ceesar advance to Rome without commit- ting hostilities, you may certainly, for the present at least, remain there 'unmolested : but if this mad- man should give up the city to the rapine of his soldiers, I much doubt whether even Dblabella's credit and atithority will be' sufficient to protect you'.' I am under some apprehension, likewise, lest, while '^ou are dehberating in what manner to act, you should find yourselves so surroundfed with the army as to render it impossible to withdraw, thbugh you should be ever so much inclined. The liCxt question is, (and it Is' a que&tibh Which jfou yourselves are best able to deterrriirie,)'whether any ladies of your rank venture to continue in the city ; if n6t, will it be Consistent with your character to slpp'ear singular in that pbint .' ' But, be that as it will, you cannot, I thiiik, as Siifairs are now situated, be more comniodiously placed than either with ma or at some of our farms in this district ; supposing, I mean,' that I should be able to maintain my present post. I must add, likewise, that' a short time, it is to be feared, wiU produce a ^Cat scarcity in Rome. However, I Should be glad J'ou would take the sentiments of AtticUs, or Gamillus', or atly other friend whom you may chb6se to consult upon this subject. In the mean while, let me con- jure you both to keep up your spirits. The coming over of Labienps' to our party, has given affairs a much better aspect. And'Piso having withdrawn himself from the city, is likewise another very favourable circumstance : as it is a plain indication- that he disapproves the impious measures of his son-in-IawA ' ■ ' : i e Latienus was one of Csesar's principal and most favour- ite lieutenants in Gaul, where he greatly' distinguished himself by his military conduct. The Pompeian party therefore were very assiduous in their applications to gain him over to their cause, as they promised themselves great advantages from his accession. But none however appears to have attended it ; and he, who in Caesar's camp had been esteemed a very considerable officer, seemed to have lost all his credit the moment he went over to Pompey's. i Fortis in armis ■ Cfiesarls LabienuB erat, nunc transfuga vilis. Hirt. De Bell. Gall. viii. 52 ; Ad Att. viii. 2 ; Lucan. v. 345. ' Cicero, as has been observed in a former note, has painted the character of Piso in the darkest and most I entreat you, my dearest creatures, to write to me as frequently as possible, and let me know how it is with you, as well as what is going forward m Rome.' My brother and nephew, together^ with Rufus, affectionately salute you. Farewell. MintamES, Jan. the 25th, LETTER ly. To the same. It well deserves consideration, whether it will be more prudent for you to continue in' Rome, bi to remove to some secure place within ■*■ "■ ' my department : and it is a considera- tion, my dearest creatures, in which your own judgments must assist mine. What occurs to my present thoughts is this. On the one 'hand, as you will probably find a safe protection'' in Dola- bella, yiiur residiiig in Rome may prove a mean of securing our house from being plundered, should the soldiers be suffered to commit any' violences of that kind .' Biit, on the other, when I reflect that all the worthier part of the republic ha-ve with- drawn themselves and their families from the city, I am inclined to advise you to follow their example. I must add likewise, that there are several towns in this canton of Italy under my command which are particularly in oui- interest ; as also, that great part of bur estate lies in the same district. '-If, therefoVe, you should remove hither, you may not only very frequently be with me, but whenever we shall be' obliged to separate, you may be safely lodged at one or other of my farms. However, I am utterly unajjle to determine at preseiit which of these schemes is preferable : only let me entreat you to observe what steps other ladies of your rank pursue in this conjuncture ; and be cautious likewise that you be not prevented from retiring, should it prove your choice. In the mean time, I hope you will maturely deliberate upon this pbint between yourselves, and take the opinion also of our friends. At all events, I desire you would direct Philotimus to procure a strong guard to defend our house : to which request I must add, tliat you would engage a proper number of regular couriers, in order to give me the satisfaction of hearing from you every day^ But, above all, let me conjure you both to take care of your healths as you wish to preserve mine. Farewell. Formiae i, the 25th. odious colours. But satires and invectives are not gene- rally the most faithful memoirs, and it is evident, from Piso's conduct upon this ocbasion,' that he was byno means what our author represents hiin in one of his orations,' portentum et pane ftmus reipubliciE : at least if Cisar's measures -were really more unfavourable to liberty than those of Pompey. — See letter 8, boolc i. rem. °. r A town iii Campania. This letter, in some of the Latin editions^ bears date in July ; in others no month is specified. But it was undoubtedly -written in January, as it appears by a lettferto "Atticils that Cicero's wife and daughter came to him at Formist on the 2d of February.— Ad Att. vii. 18. ''This epistle seefins to have be^ a sort of duplicate of the former, and though it is dated from a different place, it was probably written on the same day, and conveyed by some'unexpecteii opportunity that occurred after he had despatched the foregoing. ' A maritime city in Campania, not far from Mintumas, the place from whence the preceding letter is dated. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 461 LETTER V. To Tiro. You will easily judge of our distress, when I tell you that myself and every friend of the republic A. o 704 !^*^® abandoned Rome, and even our cpuntry, to all the cruel devastations of fire and sword, pur affairs, indeed, are in so desperate a situation', that nothing less than the powerful interposition of some favourable divinity, or some happy turn of chance, can secure us froin ufter ruin. It has been the perpetual purpose of all my speecheSj^ my votes, and my actions, ever since I returned to Rome, to preserve the public tranquillity. But an invincible rage for war had unaccouhta))ly' seized not only the enemies, but even tliose who are esteemed the friends, of ithe commonwealth : and it was in vain I remonstrated, that nothing was more to be dreaded than a civil war. CsEsar, in the mean time, unmindful of his former character and honours, and driven, it should seem, by a sort of frenzy, has taken possession of Ariminum, Pisaurum, Ancona, and Arretum. In consequence of this, we have all deserted the city ; but how pru4ently, or how heroically, it now avails riot to examine'. Thus you see our wretched situa- tion ! Csesar, however, has offered us the following conditions: in the first place, that Pompey shall retire to his government in Spain ; in the next, that the army we have raised shall be disbanded, and our garrisons evacaated. Upon these terms he promises to deliver up the farther Gaul into the hands of Domitius, and the nearer into those of Ponfidius Konianus, the persons to Whom these provinces have' been respectively allotted. He farther engages to resign his right of suing for the consolsliip in his absence, and is wilUng to return to Rome in order to appear as a candidate in the regular form''. We have accepted these proposi- tions, provided he withdraws his forces from the several towns above mentioned, that the senate inay securely assemble themselves at Rome in order to pass a decree for that purpose'. If he should think proper to comply with this proposal, ) So long as CsBSar kept himself within the limits of his province, pompey treated his designs of invading Italy with the Utmost contempt : but Caesar had no sooner passed the Rubicon and possessed himself of those several towns mentioned in this letter, than it appeared that Pompey was utterly unprepared to oppose him. Accordingly, he withdrew from Rome into the more southern partsof.Italy with great precipitation, in order, as he pretended, to assemble the troops in those quarters. But his real inten- tion seems to have been to retreat gradually to Brundisium, and from thence to draw the war into Greece. The proba- ble reason of this conduct will he explained in a subsequent note. See rem. i, on letter 14 of this book. Ad Att. vfl. 8 ; Dio, xli. . !■ ' In the original it is se prasentem irinuTldinum petitu- rum. Man'utius conjectures, from this expression; that it was usual to proclaim the names of the eandtdateg on three market-days, at which time the candidates themselves; it is probable, were required to be present. } The expression in the text is somewhat ambiguous: '~ ' ut sine metu de iis conditionibus Roma senatus haberi possit." but the sense is determined hj^the following pas- sage in a letter to Atticus, where, speaking of these propo- sals of CjEsar, and of the terms upon which they were accepted, he adds, " id si fecisset (sc. Casar) responsum est ad urbem nos redituros esse et rem per senatum con- fecJiTOs."— Ad Att. vii. 14. there are hopes of peace; not indeed of a very honourable one, as the terms are imposed upon us : yet anything is preferable to our present cir- cumstances. ' But if be should refuse to stand to his overtures, we are prepared for an engagement : but an engagement whic'h Caesar, after having incurred the general odiW of retracting his own conditions, will scarfie be a^le to sustain". The only difficulty will' be to intercept his march to Rome : and this we have a prospect of effecting, as we have raised a very considerable body of troops ; and we imagine that he will scarce venture to advance, lest he should lose the two Gauls ; every part of those provinces, excepting only the Trans- padani, being utterly averse to him. There are, likewise, six of our legions from Spain, commanded by Afranius and Petreius, and supported by a very powerful body of auxiliaries that lie in his rear. In short, if he should be so mad as to approach, there is great probability of his being defeated, if we can but preserve Rome from falling into his hands. It has given a very considerable blow- to his cause, that Labienus, who had great credit in his army, refused to be an associate with him in his impious enterprise". This illustrious person has not only deserted Ciesar, but joined himself with us : and it is said that many others of the same party intend to follow his example. I have still under my protection all the coast that extends itself from Formise. I did not choose to enter more deeply at present into the opposition against Csesar, that my exhortations, in order to engage him to an accommodation, might be attended with the greater weight. If war', however, must, after all, be our lot, it will be impossible for me, I perceive, to decline the command of some part bf our forces". To this uneasy reflection I must add another : my son-in-law Dolabella has taken ' party with Caesar^ I was willing to give you this general information of public affairs ; but suffer it not, I charge you, to make impressions upon your mind to the disadvan- tage of your health. I have strongly recommended you to Aulus Varro, whose disposition to serve you, as well as whose particular friendship to myself, I have thoroughly experienced. I have entreated him to be careful both of your health and of your voyage ; and, in a word, to receive you entirely under his protection. I have full confidence that he will comply with my request, as he gave me his promise for that purpose in the most obliging manner. As I could not enjoy the satisfaction of your company at a season wjien I most wanted your faithful services, I beg you would not now hasten your return, nor undertake your voyage either during the winter, or before you are perfectly recovered : for, be assured, I shall not think I see you too late, if I see you safe arid well. I have '"The favourable prospect which Cicero gives in this and the following passages of the senate's affairs, is so little consistent with the despondency he expresses in the former part of this letter, that one would be apt to inspect they were two distinct epistles, which some negligent transcri- ber bad bleiided together. n See rem. ^, on letter 3 of this book. o This, however, Cicero contrived to avoid ; and though, after much hesitation, he followed Pompey into Greece, ho Would accept of no command in his army, nor was he pre- sent at any engagement. G G2 452 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO heard nothing of you since the letter I received by Marcus Volucius ; but indeed I do not wonder at it, as I imagine the severity of the winter has like- wise prevented my letters from reaching your hands. Take care of yourself, I conjure you, and do not sail till your health and the season shall be favourable. My son is at Formiee ; but Terentia sad Tullia are still at Rome. Farewell. Capua, January the 29th. LETTER VL Quintus Cicero^ to Tiro. Your ill state of health occasions us great uneasi- ness ; for though we have the satisfaction to hear 704 "'^' '' '^ ""' attended with any dangerous symptoms, yet we are informed that your cure must be the work of time. But we cannot think, without much concern, of being longer separated from one whose agreeable company we learn to value by the regret we feel at his absence. However, notwithstanding I wish most earnestly to see you, yet I conjure you not to undertake so long a voyage tiU the season and your health shall render it safe. A tender constitution can ill defend itself against the severity of the weather even when sheltered under the covert of a warm roof, much less when exposed to all the inclemencies both of sea and land. Foes to the weak are chilling blasts severe : as Euripides q assures us. What credit you may give to that divine poet, I know not ; but for my- self, I look upon his verses as so many indubitable maxims. In short, if you have any value for me, endeavour the re-establishment of your health, that you may as soon as possible return to us perfectly recovered. Farewell : and continue to love me. — My son salutes yon. LETTER VII. Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. Was there ever a more absurd mortal than your friend Pompey, to act in so trifling a manner, after a. u. 704. 'i^i"? raised such terrible commotions .» Let me ask, on the other hand, whether p The brother of our author. ftuintus Cicero, after having passed through the office of prajtor, in the year of Borne e92, was elected governor of Asia, where he presided three years with little credit. He distinguished himself' in Gaul as one of Cffisar's lieutenants, but at the breaking out of the civil wai-, ho followed the fortune of Pompey. However, after the battle of Pharsalia, he made his peace with Caisai', and returned into Italy. He appears to have been of a haughty, imperious, petulant temper, and, in every view of his character, altogether unamiable. But what gives it a cast of peculiar darkness, is his conduct towards Cicero, whom he endeavoured to prejudice in the opinion of Csesar at a time when they were both the sup- plicants of his clemency. This, as far as can be collected from the letters to Atticus, was an instance of the basest and most aggravated ingratitude ; for whatever Cicero's failings might be in other respects, he seems to have had none with regard to Quintus, but that of loving him with a tenderness he ill deserved. — Ad Att. i, 15 ; vi. 6 ; xi. 8. 1 A celebrated Greek dramatic poet, whose death is said to have been occasioned by excessive joy for having obtained the poetic prize at the Olympic games. He flourished about 400 years before the Christian era. you ever heard or read of a general more undaunted in action, or more generous in victory, than our illustrious Csesar ? Look upon his troops, my friend, and tell me whether one would not imagine, by the gaiety of their countenances, that, instead of having fought their way through the severest cli- mates in the most inclement season, they had been regaling themselves in all the delicacies of ease and plenty ! And, now, will you not think that I am immoderately elated ? The truth of it is, if you knew the disquietude of my heart, you would laugh at me for thus glorying in advantages in which I have no share. But I cannot explain this to you till we meet, which I hope will be very speedily : for it was CiEsar's intention to order me to Rome as soon as he should have driven Pompey out of Italy ; and this I imagine he has already effected, unless the latter should choose to suffer a blockade in Brnndisium. My principal reason for wishing to be at Rome is in order to pour forth the fulness of my heart before you ; for full, believe me, it is. And yet the joy of seeing you may perhaps make me, as usual, forget all my complaints, and banish froic my thoughts whatever I intended to say. In the mean while, I am obliged (as a punishment, I suppose, for my sins) to march back towards the Alps. I am indebted for this agreeable expedition to a foolish insurrection of the Intemelii'^. Bel- lienus, whose mother was a slave in the family of Demetrius, and who commands the garrison there, was bribed by the opposite faction to seize and strangle a certain nobleman of that place, called Domitius, a person connected with Csesar by the rites of hospitality ^ The citizens, in resentment of this outrage, have taken up arms ; and I have the mortificatioti to be commanded to march thither, through a deep snow, with four cohorts, in order to quell them. Surely the Domitii are a curse wherever they exist. I wish, at least, that 1^ The inhabitants of Intemelium, a maritime city in Liguria, now called Vintimiglia, in the territories of Genoa. s Hospitality was considered from the earliest ages as in the number of the primary social duties. The sacred historian has recorded a remarkable instance of this kind in the story of Lot, who would rather have sacrificed his own daughters to the flagitious demimds of his infamous fellow-citizens, than give up the supposed travellers whom he had invited to rest under the shadow of his roof. Agree- ably to this Eastern practice, Homer frequently inculcates the maxim, that strangers are to be received as guests fi-om heaven : npbs yhp Atbs elfflv linavTfS Heifoi. And Horace mentions the hospitable connexion among those of nearest and most tender regard : Quo sit amore parens, quo f i-ater amandus et hospes. It will appear by several passages in the following letters, that this generous virtue subsisted among the Romans when every other was almostutterly extinct. The custom, indeed, of receiving strangers was so generally established, that travellers were scarce ever reduced to the necessity of taking up their lodgings at an inn. Those who were thus entertained, or who exercised the same rites of humanity towards others, were called hospites, and they mutually exchanged certain tokens which were termed tcssem has- pitalitatis. These were preserved in families, and carefully transmitted from father to son as memorials and pledges of the same good oflices between their descendants.— Pen tat. Gen. xi-N. ; Homer. Odyss. xiv. 207. Hor. Ars Poet. 313. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 453 our heaven-descended' chief had acted like this other" of more humble lineage, and had treated Domiiius at Corfinium' in the same manner that his namesake has been treated at Intemelium. I salute your son. Farewell. LETTER VIII. To Tiro. I SHALL think myself indebted to you for all that I most value, whenever you give me the satis- faction of seeing you perfectly recovered. ■*■ " " In the mean time, I am in the utmost impatience for the return of Menander, whom I lately despatched with a letter to you. I conjure you, if you have any affection for me, to take care of your health, and let me see you as soon as it shall be thoroughly re-established. Farewell. April the 10th. LETTER IX. To the same. Menander returned a day later than I expected, which caused me to pass a miserable night in the most disquieting apprehensions. But "' " ■ though your letter did not remove my uncertainty as to your health, it in some measure, however, dispelled the gloom which had overcast my mind, as it was an evidence at least that you were still in being. I have bidden adieu to all my literary amuse- ments of every kind; nor shall I be capable of resuming them again till I see you here. Mean- while, I desire you would give orders that your physician's demands may be satisfied ; for which purpose I have likewise written to Curius. The former, I am told, attributes your distemper to that anxiety which I hear you indulge. But if you have any regard for me, awaken in your breast that manly spirit of philosophy for which I so tenderly love and value you. It is impassible you should recover your health if you do not preserve your spirits ; and I entreat you to keep them up for my sake as well as your own. I desire you likewise to retain Acastus, that you may be the more conveniently attended. In a word, my Tiro, preserve yourself for me. Remember the tune for the performance of my t Ceesar affected to he thought a descendant from ^neae, who, it is well known, was supposed to have received his hirth from Yenus. Accordingly, in allusion to this pre- tended divinity of his lineage, he always wore a ring, on which was engraven the figure of that goddess, and with wliich he used to seal his most important despatches. The propagating a helief of this kind must necessarily have proved of singular service to Cxsar's purposes, aB it im- pressed a peculiar veneration of his person upon the minds of the populace. Antony very successfully made use of it to instigate them against the conspirators, when he reminded them, in the funeral oration which he spoke over Cxsar's hody, that he derived his ongin on one side from the ancient kings of Italy, and on the other from the im- mortal gods.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 6 ; Bio, xliv. p. 235, 359. " Bellienus, commander of the garrison at Intemeliiun ; and who, as appears from this letter, was the son of a feniale slave. ' Domitius Enoharbus, a little before the date of this letter, was besieged in Corfinium by Cxsar, to whom he was at length obliged to surrender the town. Cssar treated him with great generosity, and not only gave him hia promise"" is approaching ; but if you return to Italy before the day I fixed for that purpose. I will execute it immediately. Again and again I bid you farewell. LETTER X. To the same. jEgypta returned hither on the 12th of April. But though he assured me that you had lost your 704 *^^^'^' ^""^ were much mended, it gaveSbie great uneasiness to find that you were not yet able to write ; and the more so, as Hermia, whom I expected the same day, is not yet arrived. The concern I feel on account of your health is beyond all belief. Free me from this disquietude, I conjure you, and in return I will ease you of all yours. I would write a longer letter, if I thought you were in a disposition to read one. I will therefore only add my request, that you would employ that excellent understanding, for which I so greatly esteem you, in studying what methods may best preserve you both to yourself and me. I repeat it again and again, take care of your health. Farewell. Since I wrote the above, Hermia is arrived. He delivered your letter to me, which is written, I perceive, with a very unsteady hand. However, I cannot wonder at it, after so severe an illness. I despatch ^gypta with this ; and as he is a good- natured fellow, and seems to have an affection for you, I desire you would keep Mm to attend you. He is accompanied with a cook, whom I have like- wise sent for your use. Farewell. LETTER XL Quintus Cicero to the same^. I HAVE strongly reproached you in my own mind for suffering a second packet to come away * V 704 without inclosing a letter to me. All your own rhetoric will be insufficient to avert the punishment you have incurred by this unkind neglect ; and you must have recourse to some elaborate production of your patron's elo- quence to appease my wrath. Though I doubt whether even his oratory wiU be able to persuade me that you have not been guilty of a very unpar- donable omission. I remember it was a custom of my mother to put a seal upon her empty casks, in order, if any of her liquors should be purloined, that the servants might not pretend the vessel had been exhausted before. In the same manner, you should write to me though you have nothing to say, that your empty letters may be a proof, at least, that you would not defraud me of what I value. I value all, indeed, that come from you, as the very sincere and agreeable dictates of your heart. Farewell, and continue to love me. liberty, but restored to hun a sum of money which he had lodged in the public treasury of the city. Some account of the occasion of this inveterate enmity which Ccelius expresses towards Domitius, may be seen in the 15th letter of the preceding book. Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. 23. w The commentators suppose, with great probability, that this alludes to a promise which Cicero had made to Tiro, of giving him his freedom. X The tinie when this letter was written is altogether uncertain, and it is placed under the present year, not because there is any good reason for it, but because there is none against it. 45i THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER Xn. To Senilis Sulpidus^. I AM iuformed by a letter from my friend Trebatius that you lately inquired after me, and „ »Q^ expressed, at the same time, much con- cern that your indisposition had prevented you from seeing me when I was in the suburbs of Rome. To which he adds, that you are desirous, if I should approach the city, of having a conference with me, in order to deliberate in what manner it becomes us to act in this critical season. I sin- cerely wish it had been in our power to have con- ferred together ere our affairs were utterly ruined, as I am persuaded we might have contributed somewhat to the support of our declining constitu- tion. For, as you had long foreseen these public calamities, so I had the pleasure to hear, whilst I was in Ciljcia, that both during your consulate and afterwards, you always stood forth an advocate for the peace of our country^ But, though I totally concurred with you in these sentiments, yet, upon my return to Rome, it was too late to enforce them. I was, indeed, wholly unsupported in my opinion, and not only found myself among a set of men who were madly inflamed with a thirst of war, but was considered likewise as one who, by a long absence, was utterly unacquainted with the true state of the commonwealth. But, though it seems in vain to hope that our united counsels can now avail the republic, yet, if they can in any degree advantage ourselves, there is no man with whom I should more willingly confer. Not indeed with any view of securing the least part of our former dignities, but to consider in what manner we may most worthily deplore their loss ; for I well know that your inind is amply stored with those exam- ples of the great, and those maxims of the wise, which ought to guide and animate our conduct in this important conjuncture. I should have told you before now that your presence in the senate, or, to speak more properly, in the convention of senators', would be altogether ineffectual, if I had not been apprehensive of giving offence to that person who endeavoured, |)y in- stacing your example, to persuade me to join them. I very plainly assured him, however, when he applied to me for this purpose, that if I went to _.y Servius Sulpicius Rufus was descended from one of , the noblest and most considerable families in Rome, seve- ral of his ancestors having borne the highest offices and lionours of the republic. He was elected to the consular dignity in the year of Rome 702 ; to which his eminent skill in the law principally contributed.— Suet, in Vit. Tiberii; Dio, xli. p. 148. See rems. « and \ letter I, book ix. ^ Sulpicius was well aware that the recalling CKsar from his government in Gaul before the expiration of the time for which it was granted him, together with the refusing him the privilege, which he had obtained by an express law, of suing for the consulate in his absence, would ine- vitably draw on a f ivil war. And, accordingly, he exerted himself with great zeal in opposing his colleague, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, in the several attempts whichhemade for that purpose.— -pio, ubi sup. ' The meeting of the senate, to which Cicero alludes, was held in Home, after Pompey had deserted Italy. Cicero calls it "a convention of senators," as not admit- ting the legality of its assembling ; both the consuls together with the principal magistrates of the republic, having withdraivn theraselws, together with Pompey, into Greece. the senate, I should declare the same opinion con- cerning peace, and his expedition into Spain, which you had already delivered a^ yours i*. The flames of war, you see, have spread them. selves throughout the whole Roman dominions, and all the world have taken up arms under oui respective chiefs. Rome, in the mean time, des- titute of all rule or magistracy, of all justice or control, is wretchedly abandoned to the dreadful inroads of rapine and devastation. In this general anarchy and confusion, I know not what to expect ; I scarcely, know even what to wish. But, notwith- standing I had determined to retire to a farther distance from Rome, (as, indeed, I cannot even hear it named without reluctance,) yet I pay so great a regard to your judgment j that, if you think any advantage may arise from our interview, I am willing to return. In the mean time, I have re- quested Trebatius to receive your commands, if you should be desirous of communicating any to me by his mouth. I should be glad, indeed, that you would employ either him or any other of your friends whom you can trust upon this occasion, as 1 would not lay you under the necessity of going out of Rome, or be myself obliged to advance much nearer to it. Perhaps I attribute too much to my own judgment, though I am sure I do not to yours, when I add, that I am persuaded the world will approve whatever measures we shall agree upon. Farewell. LETTER Xin. Marcus Coelius to Cicero. The melancholy cast of your letter affects pie with the deepest concern j and though you do, not A. V 704 declare your intentions in direct and ex- plicit terms, yet you leave me no room to doubt of what kind they are ". , I thus instantly, therefore, take up my pen, in order to conjure you, my dear friend, by the tenderness you bear to your children, and by all that is most valuable in your esteem, not to resolve upon any measures so totally inconsistent with your true welfare. Heaven and earth will be my witness that I have offered you no advice, nor sent you any prophetic adpoonltions, which I had not well and maturely considered. It was not, indeed, till after I had an interview with Caesar, and had fully discovered his sentiments, that I informed you in what manner he would most assuredly employ his victory. If you imagine he will be as easy in pardoning his enemies as he was reasonable in offering them terms of accommoda- 1^ Cicero had an interview with Caesar, in the return of the latter from Brundisium, after Pompey had abandoned that city and fled into Greece. Cffisar laboured to prevail with our author to return to Rome and take his seat in the senate. But Cicero acted upon this occasion with a spirit which we cannot but regret should have ever deserted him : he declared he would not attend ,the senate, but upon the terms of being at full liberty to deliver his sentiments, which, he confessed, were utterly against caiTying the war into Spain, and altogether in favour of peace. Casar as plainly assm'ed him, that this was what he could not suffer; and recommending it to him to think better of the matter, the conference ended, " very little," says Cicero, " to the satisfaction of Cfesar, and very much to my own."— Ad Att. ix. 18. ' That Cicero had formed a resolution of following Pom- pey into Greece. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 455 tion, believe me, you will find that you have made a very erroneous calculation. His heart and his expressions breathe the severest resentment,; and he left Rome highly incensed both against the senate and tribunes''. In pl^in truth, he is by no means in a disposition to show the Ibast favour to his adversaries. If you have any tenderness, there- fore, to yourself, to your son, or to your family in general ; if either my friendship, or the alliance of 5iat worthy man who has married' your daughter, can give us a claim to some influence over you, let me conjure you not to disconcert the measures we have taken to preserve our fortunes, nor lay us under the miserable alternative of either abandon- ing a cause upon which our own safety depends, or of impiously wishing well to one which must necessarily be inconsistent with yours. Consider, you have already disgusted Pompey, by this your delay in joining him ; and would it not be utterly impolitic, after ha,ving so cautiously avoided giving bifence to Caesar, when his affairs were yet doubtful, to declare against him now that they are attended with such uncommon success ? Would it not be the highest indiscretion to join with those who are fleeing before his troops, after having refused to act in concert with them when they seemed inclined to resist ? In fine, my friend, let me entreat you, whilst you are endeavouring to escape the impiita- tion of being deficient in patriotism, to be careful lest you incur the censure of being deficient in prudence. But, after all, if I cannot wholly dis- suade you from your resolution, sufier me at least to prevail with you to suspend the execution of it till the event of our expedition into Spain, which I shall venture, however, to assure you, will most certainly fall into our hands upon the very first ap- pearance of, Csesar's troofis. , And what hopes the opposite party can possibly entertain after the loss of that province, I am perfectly unable to discover. As far, likewise, is it beyond my penetration, what motive can induce you to join with those whose aifa rs are thus evidently desperate. This design, which you so obscurely intimated in your letter, had reached the knowledge of Csesar s and the first thing he said, after the usual salutations had passed between us, was to inform me of what he had heard concerning you. I professed myself entirely igno- rant that you had any such thoughts ; but if you had,, I said, it: was my request that he would write to you in such terms as might most probably pre- vail with you to renounce them. I have received his commands to attend him into Spain ; otherwise I would instantly have come to you, wherever you •* Caesar, upon his return to Rome, after the siege of Brundisium, proposed to the senate that an embassy should be sent to Pompey, with proposals of peace. This the house agreed to ; but when the question was moved concerning the persons to he appointed for this purpose, none of the members would undertake that commission. CKsar endeavoured, likewise, to procure a law for granting him the money in the public treasury, in order to carxy on the war against Pompey. But Metellus, the tribune, interposing his negative, Cffisar obtained bis purpose by a shorter method. For, breaking open the temple of Saturn, in whjph this money was preserved, he first plundered his country of her patrimony, {says Florus.) and then of her liberty. Having thus possessed himself of an immense wealth, he inunedlately set out upon , his expedition against Afranins and Petreius, the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain.— Caes. De Bell. Civ. i. .13 ; Dio, xlS. Flor. iv. 2. e Dolabclla. had been, in order to have pressed these reasons upon you in person, and, indeed, to have retained you in Italy by absolute force. Consider well your scheme, my dear Cicero, ere you carry it into exe- cution, lest you obstinately, and against all remon- strances, involve both yourself and your family in utter and irrecoverable ruin. But if you are aflFected by the reproaches of those who style them- selves patriots, or cannot submit to be a witness of the insolence of some in the opposite party, let me advise you to retreat into a neutral city, till our contests shall be decided. This will be acting with a prudence which I cannot but own to be a laudable oije, and which Csesar, I am sure, will by no means disapprove. Farewell. LETTER XIV. Cicero to Marcus Ccelius. I SHOULD have been extremely afiected by your letter, if reason had not banished from my heart . y^. all its disquietudes, and despair of seeing better days had iiot long since hardened it against every new impression of grief. Yet, strong as I must acknowledge my despondency to be, I am not sensible, however, that I said any- thing in my last which could justly raise the suspicion you tave conceived. What more did my letter contain than general expressions of dis- s^tisfactioii at the sad pj:qsp,ect of pur, affairs ? a prospect which cannot, surely, suggest to your own mind leas gloomy apprehensions than it presents to mine. For I am too well persuaded of the force of your penetration, to imagine that my judgment can discover consequences which lie concealed from yoiirs. But I am surprised that you, who ought to , know mq perfectly , well, slipuld, , believe me capable of acting with ^p little policy as to abandon a rising .fortune, for one in its decline, at least, if 'not utterly fallen j , or ao variable, as not only to destroy at once all the interest I have established with Cffisar, but to deviate even from myself, by engaging at last m a civil war, whiph it has hitherto been my deternijned maiim to avoid. Where, then, did you discover those, unhappy resolu):ions you impute to nie? Perhaps yoyi, coUect,ed ,them from what I said of secluding unyseif in some sequestered solitude. And, indeed, you are sensible how ill I can submit, I do not say to endure, but even io be a witness of the insolences of the successful party ; a seiitiment, my friend, which once, I am sure, was yours no les^ than mine, But in vain would 1 retire, whilst I preserve the title' with which I ifCfL at present ^distinguished, and continue ,to be attended with this embarrassing parade of lictorss. Were I eased of this troublesome honour, there is no part of Italy so obscure in which I should ndt be well contented to hide myself. Yet these my laurels, unwelcome as they are to myself, are' the f That of Jmperator. See rem. b, on letter I, book 1 g The lictorswere a sort of beadles, who carried the ensigns of magistracy before the consuls, proqonsuls, and other supreme, officers of the state. These lictors conti- nued to attend the proconsul after his return from his government, if he aspii'ed (as Cicero did) to the honour of a triumph. ' Cicero undoubtedly gave, upon this (fccasion, but too much coloui to the censure of his enemies: for it oould 450 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO object both of the envy and the raillery of my malevolent enemies. Nevertheless, under all these temptaitions of withdrawing from so disgusting a scene, I never once entertained a thought of leaving Italy without the previous approbation of yourself and some others. But you know the situation of my several villas, and as it is among these I am obliged to divide my time, that I may not incom- mode* my friends, the preference I give to those which stand on the sea-coast, has raised a suspicion that I am meditating a flight into Greece. If peace, indeed, were to be found in that country, I should not, perhaps, be unwilling to undertake the voyage : but to enter upon it in order to engage in a war, would be altogether inconsistent, surely, with my principles and character ; especially, as it would be taking up arms, not only against a man who, I hope, is perfectly well satisfied with my conduct, but in favour of one whom it is now impossible I should ever render so. In a word, as I made no secret to you, when you met me at my Cuman villa, of the conversation which had passed between Ampius and myself, you could not be at a loss to guess my sentiments upon this head : and, indeed, you plainly saw how utterly averse I was to the scheme of Fompey's deserting Rome. Did I not then affirm that there was nothing I would not suffer, rather than be induced to follow the civil war beyond the limits of ItalyJ ? And has any event since happened, that could give me just reason of changing my sentiments ? On the con- not but have a very strange appearance, that he should pi-eserve the thoughts of a triumph, at a time when his country was bleeding with a civil war. But as he was extremely ambitious of this honour, he was equally unwil- ling to renounce it ; Rtill flattering himself, perhaps, that some accommodation between Cssar and Fompey would afford him an opportunity of enjoying what he so strongly desired. > That is, by continuing in the suburbs of Rome ; where, as he had no house of his own, he must necessarily he a guest to some of his friends. For he could not enter the city without relinquishing his claim to a triumph. i Cicero perpetually condemns the conduct of Pompey, in first retiring from Rome, and afterwards removing the seat of war out of Italy. But with regard to the former, it appears, even from our author himself, that it was attended with a very good effect, and which Pompey, it is probable, had in view when he resolved upon that measure. For it raised a more general indignation against Cjesar to see Pompey thus fleeing before him, and rendering the people more averse from favouring his cause. " Fugiens Pompeius mirabiliter homines movet. Quid quaeris ? alia causa facta est : nihil jam concedendum putant Cassari." [Ad Att. vii. 11,] And as to Pompey's leaving Italy, he seems, as far as can be judged at this distance of time, to have acted upon a very rational plan. Pompey's forces were much inferior to Csesar's ; and even the few troops which he had, were such as he could by no means depend upon. As he was master of a very considerable fleet, there was great probability of his being able to prevent Caesar from following him into Greece : at the same time that Afranius and Petreius were in the rear of Caesar, with an army composed of approved and veteran forces. Italy was supplied with corn from the eastern provinces, specially from Egypt ; which Pompey was in hopes of cutting off by means of his fleet. These provinces, together with the neighbouring kings, were likewise greatly in his interest ; and he had reason to expect vei-y large subsidies from them, both of men and money. Perhaps, therefore, when these several circiun stances shall be duly weighed, it will not appear that Pompey determined injudiciouslj;, when he resolved to cross the Adriatic— Ad Att. vii. 13 ; is. 9 ; x. 8 ; Dio, xli. p. 158. trary, has not every circumstance concurred to fix me in them"*? Be assured (and I am well persuaded it is what you already believe) that the single aim of my actions, in these our public calamities, has been to convince the world that my great and earnest desire was to preserve the peace of our country; and when this could no longer be hoped, that there was nothing I wished more than to avoid takings ^ny^, part in the civil war. And I shall never, I trust, have reason to repent of firmly persevering in these sentiments. It was the frequent boast, I remember, of my friend Hortensius, that he had never taken up arms in any of our civil dissentions. But 1 may glory In the same honest neutrality with a much better grace : for that of Hortensius was suspected to have arisen from the timidity of his temper ; whereas mine, I think, cannot be imputed to any motive of that unworthy kind. Nor am I in the least terrified by those considerations with which you so faithfully and aflfectionately endeavour to alarm my fears. The truth of it is, there is no calamity so severe to which we are not all of us, it should seem, in this universal anarchy and con- fusion, equally and unavoidably exposed. But if I could have averted this dreadful storm from the republic at the expense of my ovm private and domestic enjoyments, even of those, my friend, which you so emphatically recommend to my care, I should most willingly have made the sacrifice. As to my son, (who I rejoice to find has a share in your concern,) I shall leave him a sufficient patrimony in that honour with which my name will be remembered so long as the repubhc shall subsist : and if it be destroyed, I shall have the consolation, at least, to reflect that he will suffer nothing more than must be the commou lot of every Roman. With regard to that dear and ex- cellent young man my son-in-law, whose welfare you entreat me to consider, can you once doubt, knowing as you perfectly do the tenderness I bear, not only for him, but for Tullia, that I am infi- nitely anxious upon his account ! I am the more so, indeed, as it was my single consolation, amidst these general distractions, that they might possibly prove a means of protecting him from those incon- veniences in which his too generous spirit had unhappily involved him'. How much he suffered t Notwithstanding Cicero's strong assertions that he had no thoughts of joining Pompey, he had actually deter- mined to do so a few days before he received the preceding letter from Ccelius ; as appears by an epistle to Atticus, wherein he expressly tells him that he was only waiting for a fair wind. But before he wrote the present letter, he had received some news not altogether favourable to Pompey's party ; in consequence of which he renounced his former design, and was now determined (though he does not think proper to own it in this letter) to retire to Malta, as a neutral island. This resolution, however, he soon afterwards rejected, and resumed his first intentions of following Pompey into Greece. And this scheme he at length executed — Ad Att. x^ 8, 9. See rem. ' on letter 15 of this book. 1 It should seem, by this passage, that Dolabella, who had contracted very considerable debts, was at this time under some difficulties from his creditors, from whom Cicero flattered himself that Ciesar's power would have protected him. Some commentators, however, instead of liberalitate, adopted in this translation, read libertale, and suppose that Cicero alludes to the prosecution in whioh Dolabella had been engaged against Appius, of which a detail has been given in the preceding remaiks. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 457 from them during the time he continued in Rome, as well as how little that circumstance was to my credit, are points which I choose to leave to your inquiry. - Affairs in Spain, I doubt not, will terminate in the manner you mention. But I neither wait the event of them in order to determine my conduct", nor am I acting in any other respect with the least artifice,.--If-the:;rtfpviblic should be preserved, I shjiFcertainly hold my rank in it : but if it should be subverted, you yourself, I dare say, will join me in my intended solitude. But this latter supposition is perhaps the vain and groundless surmise of a disturbed imagination ; and affairs, after all, may take a' happier turn than I am apt to presage. I remember the despondency which prevailed in my earlier days amongst our patriots of more advanced years" : possibly my present apprehensions may be of the same cast, and no other than the effect of a common weakness incident to old age. Heaven grant they may prove so ! And yet you have heard, I suppose, that a robe of magistracy is in the looms for Oppius ; and that Curtius has hopes of being invested with the double-dyed purple ° : but the principal workman, itseems, somewhat delays hlm>'. I throw in this little pleasantry to let you see that I can smile in the midst of my indignation. Let me advise you to enter into the affair which I formerly mentioned concerning Dolabella, with the same warmth as if it were your own. I have But whichever be the tiiie word, the sentiment is obaerv- able. For surely it was utterly unworthy of Cicero, to find the least consolation amidst the calamities of his ' countr>s in the hope that they might prove a screen to Dolabella, either from the Justice of his creditors, or the malice of his enemies. ™ The contrary of this was the truth : for Cicero was, at this time, determined to wait the event of Caesar's expe- dition against the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain. And for this purpose he had thoughts of retiring to Malta ; — " Melitum, opinor, capessamus (says he to Atticus) dum quid In Uispania." — Ad Att. x. 9. " This alludes to the contentions between Sylla and Marius, which, notwithstanding the probability of their terminating in the total subversion of the constitution, the republic however survived. ° Oppius and Curtius were persons who probably bad distinguished themselves in no other manner than as being the servile instruments of Cxsar's ambition. The former, however, appears to have been in high credit during Caosar's usurpation ; but the latter is often mentioned in the letters to AtticuB with great contempt. Servius, in his comment on the 7th book of the .Sneid, informs us that the colour of the augural robe was a mixture of purple and scarlet; it is probable, therefore, from the expression which Cicero employs, that Curtius bad a promise of being advanced into the sacred collega It might well discourage Cicero's hopes of better days, when he saw men of this character singled out to fill the most important dignities of the republic. And, indeed, it was an earnest of what Ca>sar afterwards practised, when he became the sole fountain of all preferment ; which be distributed in the most arbitrary nianner, without any regard to rank or merit. " Nullos Bon honores (says one of the historians) ad libidinem cepit et dedit Civitate donates, et quosdam e semibarbaris Gallorum, recepit in curiam."— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cks. 76. P " Sed eum ir^fector moratur." This witticism, which turns upon the equivocal sense of the word in/ector, could not be preserved in the translation. It is probable that Cssar had gained Curtius, as he had many others, by some seasonable application to bis wants or his avarice : for Cicero seems to use this word in allusion to the verb from whence it is derived, as well as in its appropriated mean- ing ; ivjicio signifying both to corrupt and to di/e. only to add, that you may depend upon it I sliall take no hasty or Inconsiderate measures. But to whatever part of the world I may direct my course, I entreat you to protect both me and mine, agreeably to your honour and to our mutual friendship. Farewell. LETTER XV. To Servius Sulpicius. I KECEiVED your letter at my Cuman villa, on the 29th of April. I find you shortened it upon the supposition that Philotimus would ^' " ' deliver it into my hands ; whom, it seems, you had instructed to give me a more fuU and explicit information. But he did not execute his commission with the care he ought ; for, instead of bringing your letter to me himself, he sent it by another person. However, this omission was supplied by a visit from your wife and son, who are both of them extremely desirous you should come hither, and indeed pressed me to write to you for that purpose. You desire to know what measures I would recommend to you in this critical conjuncture. Believe me, I am in a situation of mind which renders me much more in need of a guide myself, than capable of conducting another. But were it othervrise, how should I venture to offer my advice to a man of your distinguished wisdom and dignity? This, however, I will say, that If the question be, in what manner it becomes us to act, the answer is plain and obvious : but what will be most expedient for our Interest, Is a point far less easy to determine. In short. If we think, as I am sure we ought, that honour and true interest must ever point the same way, there can be no dispute what path we have to pursue. You imagine that we are both of us in the same circumstances ; and most certainly we both com- mitted the same mistake, when we honestly declared our opinions in favour of peace. All our counsels Indeed equally tended to prevent a civU war ; and as this was the true Interest of Caesar, we thought he would consider himself as obliged to us for supporting pacific measures. How much we were deceived is evident, you see, from the present posture of affairs. But you look, I know, much farther, and take into your view not only what has already happened or is now transacting, but the whole future progress and final tendency of these commotions. If, then, you should determine to remain in Rome, you must either approve the measures which are there carrying on, or be present at a scene which your heart condemns. But the former seems an unworthy part, and the latter, I think, altogether an unsafe one. My opinion is consequently for retiring : and the single point Is, whither to direct our course ? But as public affairs were never in a more desperate situation, so never was there a question attended with greater difficul- ties : whichever way one turns it, some important objection occurs. If you have resolved upon any scheme which is not consistent with mine, I could wish you would spare yourself the trouble of a journey hither : but If you are Inclined to parti- cipate of my measures, I w ill wait your arriva li. 1 Sulpicius had an interview with Cicero at his Cuman villa,, soon after the date of this letter ; but the former was BO much dispirited and so full of fears, that Cicero could 458 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO I beg you would be as expeditious for that, purpose as you conveniently can : a request iii which both Servius and Fosthumia equally join'. Farewell. LETTER XVL To Rufus'. Though I never once doubted that I enjoyed the highest rank in your friendship, yet every day's experience streDgthens me in that per- * suasion. You assured me, I remember, in one of your letters, that you should be more assiduous in giving me proofs of your affection now, than when you were my quaestor, as they would more indisputably appear to be the free result of a disinterested esteem. And though nothing, Ithought, could exceed your good offices to me in the province, yet you have since fully evinced the sincerity of this promise. Accordingly, it was with great pleasure I observed the friendly impatience with which you expected my arrival in Rome when I had thoughts of going thither, as well as the joy you afterwards expressed at my having laid aside that design when affairs had taken a different turn from what you imagined. But your last letter was particularly acceptable to me, as an instance both of your affection and your judgment. It afforded me much satisfaction, indeed, to find, on the one hand, that yon consider your true interest (as every great and honest mind ought always to consider it) as inseparably connected vrith a rec- titude of conduct ; and on the other, that you promise to accompany me whithersoever I may determine to steer. Nothing can be more agreeable to ray inclination, nor, I trust, to your honour, than your executing, this resolution. Mine has been fixed for some time, and it was not with any design of concealing it from you that I did not acquaint you with it before. My only reason was, that in public conjunctures of this kind, the communication of one's intentions to a friend looks like admo- nishing, or rather indeed pressing him to share in the difficulties and the dangers of one's schemes. I cannot, however, but willingly embrace an offer which proceeds from so affectionate and generous a disposition ; though I must add, at the ?ame time, (that I may not transgress the modest limits I have set to my requests of this nature,) that I by no means urge your compliance. If you shaU think proper to pursue the'measuresyou propose, 1 shall esteem myself greatly indebted to you : if not, I shall very readily excuse you. For though I shall look upon the former as a tribute which you could .not well refuse to my friendship, yet I shall consider the latter as the same reasonable concession to your fears. It must be owned, 'there is great difficulty how to act upon this occasion. It is true, what honour would direct is very apparent ; but the pru- dential part is far from being a point so clear. However, if we would act up, as we ought, to the not bring him to any determination. They broke .up their conference, therefore, without coming to any explicit peso- lution : for though Cicero's was already formed, he did not think proper to avow his design of joining Pompey, to a man whom he found in so timid and finctuating a state of mind.— Ad Att x. 14. ' The son and mfe of Sulpicius. Fosthumia was one of those many ladies who found Caesar as irresistible a gallant as he was a soldier.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 60. * See rem. «, p. 448. dictates of that philospphy we have mutually cul- tivated, we cannot once he^tate in thinking that the worthiest measures must, upon the whole, be the most expedient. If you are inclined, theri, to embark with me, you must cpme hither inime- diately : but if it shoujd not suit yo^ to be thus expeditious, I will send you an exact account of mv route. To be short, in whatever manner you may decide, I shall always consider you fis my fjriend ; but much more so if you should determine as I wish. Farewell. 7i LETTER XVII. To Terentia and Tutlia. I AM entirely free from the disorder in my stomach ; which was the more painful, as I saw it occasioned both you and that dear girl ■^' " ■ whom I love better than my life so n^uch uneasiness. I discovered the cause of this compl^iit the night after I left you, having discharged, a great quantity of phlegm. This gave me so imme- diate a relief, that I cannot but believe I owe my cure to some heavenly interposition : to Apollo^ np doubt, and iEsculapius. You vnil offer up your grateful tributes therefore to these restoring powers with all the ardency of your usual devotion. I am this moment embarked', and have procured t In order to join Pompey in Greece, who had left Italy about three months before the date of this letter. A late learned and most able panegyriat of Cicero assures us, that he took this measure, as choosing to " follow the cause which he thought to be the best, and preferring the consi- deration of duty to that of his safety.'! Cicero deserveB so highly from every friend to genius ajod literature, that it is no wonder Dr. Middleton should not always spekk of him with the Qool impartiality of an unbiassed histori^ui. But it is the principal purpose of these remarks to inquire, without prejudices of any kind, into the real merit of Cicero's political character: and as his conduct . during this important crisis will evidently show the strength and measure of bis patriotism, I shall trace it from the break- ing out of the civil war to the present period, and then leave the facts to speak for themselves. Upon the news that Csesar was marching into Italy, Pompey was .appointed general-in-chief of the republican forces, and the principal magistrates, together with those who were invested with proconsular power, were distri- huted into different cantons of Italy in order to raise troops for the defence of the common cause. Cicero had his particular district assigned bim among the rest ; but instead of executing this important commission with spirit and vigour, he remained altogether inactive at his several villas in that part of Italy. And this he signified to Csewx; by means of their common friend Trebatius, who had written to him in. Cassar's name, in order to prevail with him to return to Borne.. " Rescripsi ad Trebatium quam illud hoc tempore esset difficile : me tamen in prsediis meis esse, neque delectum ullum, neque negotium sus- cepisse."— [Ad Att. viL 37.] Pompey, m the mean time, was pressing Cicero to join him : but, he excused ihimself by representing that whilst he was actually on the road for that purpose, he was informed that he could not pro- ceed without the danger of being intercepted by Cesar's troops. [Epist. 2 ; Cicer. ad Pomp., apud Epist. ad Att, viii.] Cicero, however, is so ingenuous as to acknowledge, in the same letter to Pompey, .that so long as tiieie were hopes that the negotiations for a peace would be attended vrith success, he thought it a justifiable piece of prudence not to -be too active in forwarding the preparations that were carrying on against Caesar ; remembering, he says, how much he had formerly suffered from tiie resentment of the latter in the affair of his exile. This was explaining* TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 459 a ship which I hope is well able to perform her voyage. As soon as I shall have finished this letter, I propose to write to several of my friends, recom- inending you and our dearest Tullia in the strongest terms to their protection. In the mean time I should exhort you to keep up your spirits, if I did not know that both of you are animated with a more than manly fortitude. And, indeed, I hope there is a fair prospect of your remaining in Italy without any inconvenience, and of my returning to the defence of the republic, in conjunction with those who are no less faithfully devoted to its iaterest. After earnestly recommending to you the care of your health, let me make it my next request, that you would dispose of yourself in such of my villas as are at the greatest distance from the array. And if provisions should become scarce in Rome, I should think you will find it most convenient to remove with your servants to Arpinura^. at once, the true principle of his whole conduct, and he avowB it more expressly in a letter to Atticus. " Non simul cum Fompeio mare transierimus ? Omnino non poterimus ; exstdt ratio dierum, sed tamen (fateamur enim quod eat) fefellit ca me res, qus fortasse non dcbuit, sed fefellit ; pacem putavi fore : quas si esset, iratum mihi Caesarem esse, cum idem amicus esse^ Pompeio, nolui. Senseram enim quam idem, essent. Hoc verens in hanc tarditatem incidi," [Ad Att. x. 8.] Pompey, however, bad no sooner set sail for Greece, than Cicero was struck with the consciousness of Ills having acted an unvrorthy part: — "Postquam Pompeius et,consules ex Italia, exi- enmt, non angor (says he) sed ardeo dolore uou sum, inquam, xoihi crede, mentis compos, tantum mihl dedeco- riaadmigisse.yideor." [Ad Att. ix. 6.] After several deli- berations, therefore, he was determined, he tells Atticus, to follow Pompey, without waiting the event of Caesar's arms in Spain. [Ad Att. ix. 19 ; x. 8.] This resolution, nevertheless, soon gave way to a second; for having received some accounts which contradicted a former report that had heen spread concemingthe advantageous posture of Pompey's affairs, Cicero renounced his intention of joining him, and now purposed to stand neuter. [Ad Att. x. 9.] But a neiv turn in favour, of Pompey seems to have hrought Cicero back to his former scheme : for, in a sub- sequent letter to Atticus, wherein he mentions some reasons to believe that Pompey's afiFairs went well in Spain, and takes notice, lilcewise, of some disgust which the populace expressed towards Csesar in the theatre, we find him resxuning his design of openly uniting with Pompey ; and accordingly he resolved to join those who were maintaining Pompey's cause in Sicily. [Ad Att. at. 12,] It does_uot appear, by any of his letters, upon what motive he afterwards t^xchanged h?s plan for^ that of sailing directly to Pompey's camp in Greece ; which) after various debates witjh himself, he at length, we see, exe- cuted. There is a passage, however, in Caesai'*s Commen- taries, which, perhaps, will, render it probable that the news which, about this time, was confidently spread at Home, that Ceesar's army had been almost totally defeated in Spain, was the determining reason that sent Cicero to Pojnpey. The fact wag, that Afranius and Petreius had gained some advantages over Csesar ; but as they magnified them, in their letters to Eome, much beyond the truth, several persons of note^, who had hitherto been fluctuating in their resolutions, thought it was now high time to declare themselves, and wentjoff immediately to Pompey. — " Hffic Afranius, Petreiusque, et eoi-um amici, pleniora etiam atque uberiora Romam ad suos perscribebant. Multa ruraor fingebat: ut pene helium confectum vide- retur., Quibus Uteris nuuciisque Romam perlatis ^multi ex Italia ad Cn. Pompeium proficiscebantur ; alii ut prin- cipes talem nunciam attulisse ; alii nee eventum belli expectasse, aut ex omnibus novissimi veniase viderentur." -Cks. De Belt Civ. 1. 53. ^ A city in the country of the Volsci, a district of Italy The amiable young Cicero most tenderly salutes you. Again and again I bid you farewell. June the Uth. LETTER XVin. Marcus Ccelius to Cicero. Was^ it for this thatlfoUowed Csesar into, Spain? Why was I not rather at Formise, that I might have ^ accompanied you to Pompey.' But I ■*' ' ■ was infatuated ; and it was my aversion to Appius^^, together with my friendship for Curio, that gradually dr'ew me into this cursed cause. Nor were you entirely unaccessary to my e^ror : for that night, when I called upon you in my way to Ariminum'^, why did you forget the friend when you were gloriously acting the patriot, and not dissuade me from the purpose of my journ'ey, at the same time that you commissioned me to urge Csesar to pacific measures ? Not that I have an ill opinion of the cause ; but, believe me, perdition itsetf were preferable, to being a witness of the in- sufferable behaviour of these hjs insolent partisans y. They have rendered themselves so generally odious, that we should long since have been driven out of Rome, were it not for the apprehensions which people have conceived of the cruel intentions of your party '^. There is not, at this juncture, a man in Rome, except a few rascally usurers*, who does not wish well to Pompey ; and I have already brought over to your cause not only those among which now comprehends part of the Campagna di Roma, and of the Terra di Lavoro. Cicero was bom in this town, which still subsists under the name of Arpino. ^ 'i This letter confirms the character that has been given pf Ccelius in a. former remark i, [See rem. ^, p. -389,] and shows him to have been of , a temper extravagantly warm and impetuous. Theresontment and indignation with which it is animated, was owing to some disappoint- ment that he had met with from Csesar, who had not dis- tinguished him agreeably to his expectations, Ccelius, therefore, who was one of the praetors for the present year, endeavoured to take hia revenge by opposing the execution of certain laws which Csesar had procured. His attempts for this purpose having, created great disturbances in Rome, he was. not only deposed from his office, but expelled the^ senate ; and the present letter seems to have been written immediately upon that event,— Dio, xlii. p. 195 ; Csea. De Bell. Civ. iii 20. ., w Appius engaged on the side of Pompey, as..Curio was a warm partipan of Caesar. For the occasion of Ccelius's resentment against Appius, see book vi. letter 14. ^ In order to join Cssar. Ccelius was one o;f the party with Curio and Antony, when they fied to Cssar, [Dio, xlL p. 153.] — See the first letter of this book, and rem, ^ on the same, r The chiefs pf CsEsar's party at Rome. 2 When Pompey left Rome, upon the approaph of Csesar, he declared ^bat he should treat all those as enemies who did not follow him : a declaration, it was imagined, which he would most rigorously have fulfilled, if fortune had put it in his power.— Cses. De Bell. Civ. i. ; Cic. Epist. passim* a As great numbers of those who embraced the party of Cffisar were deeply involved in debt, it was apprehended that they would procure a law for a general discharge from theii* creditors. But Cffisax adjusted matters by a more prudent method, and in such a manner as to faci- litate the payment of these loans with little prejudice to those who had advanced them. It appears that Casar rendered himself, by these means, extrem'ely acceptable to those persons at Rome who dealt in this sort of pecuniary commerce.-i.CBes. DeBell, Civ. i. 460 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO the plebeian families who were in the interest of Coesar, but the whole populace in general. But you will ask, perhaps, what can this avail us now ? Wait the event, ray friend : victory shall attend you in spite of yourselves ''. For surely a profound lethargy has locked up all the senses of your party, as they do not yet seem sensible how open we lie to an attack, and how little capable we are of making any considerable opposition. It is by no means from an interested motive that I offer my assistance, but merely in resentment of the un- worthy usage I have received ; and resentment is a passion which usually carries me, you know, the greatest lengths. — But what are you doing on the other side the water =? Are you imprudently waiting to give the enemy battle ? What Pompey s forces may be, I know not ; but Csesar's, I am sure, are accustomed to action, and Inured to all the hardships of the most severe campaigns. Farewell. LETTER XIX. Dolaiella^ to Cicero. 1 SHALL rejoice to hear you are well : I have the satisfaction to inform you, that both TuUia and myself are perfectly so. Terentia, A. u. 704. indeed, has been somewhat indisposed, but is now, 1 am assured, perfectly recovered. As to the rest of your family, they are all of them in the state you wish. It would be doing me great injustice to suspect that I have at any time advised you to join with me in the cause of Csesar, or at least to stand neuter, more with a view to the advantage of my own party than of your Interest. But now that fortune has declared on our side*, it is impossible I should be supposed to recommend this alternative for any other reason but because the duty I owe you will not suffer me to be silent. Whether my advice, therefore, shall meet with ^our approbation or not, you'wUl at least be so just as to believe that it proceeds, my dear Cicero, from an honest intention, and from a heart most sincerely desirous of your welfare. You see that neither the lofty title with which Pompey is distinguished ^ nor the credit of his former illustrious actions, nor the advantages he so frequently boasted of having kings and nations in the nuinber of his clients, have anything availed him On the contrary, he has suffered a disgrace which never, perhaps, attended any other Roman general. For, after having lost both the Spamss, together with a veteran army, and after having also been driven out of Italy, he is now so strongly invested on all sides, that he cannot execute what the meanest soldier has often performed,-^e can- not make even an honourable retreat". You will consider, then, agreeably to your usual prudence, what hopes can possibly remainjelt her to Em or to yourself; and the result will evidently pomf out the measures which are most expedient for you to pursue. Let me entreat you, if Pompey has alreadj extricated himself out of the danger in which he was involved, and taken refuge in his fleet, that you would now at least think it time to consult your own interest in preference to that of any other man. You have performed everything which gra- titude and friendship can expect, or the party you approved can require. What remains, then, but to sit down quietly under the republic, as it now subsists, rather than, by vainly contending for the old constitution, to be absolutely deprived of both I If Pompey, therefore, should be driven from his present post and obliged to retreat still farther, I conjure you, my dear Cicero, to withdraw to Athens, or to any other city unconcerned in the war. If you should comply with this advice, I beg you would give me notice, that I may fly to embrace you, if by any means it should be in my power. Your own interest with Caesar, together with the natural generosity of his temper, wiE render it extremely easy for you to obtain any honourable conditions you shall demand ; and I am persuaded that my solicitations will have no inconsiderable weight for this purpose. I rely upon your- honour and your humanity to take care that this messenger may safely return to me with your answer. Farewell. V b This bojist of Ccelius ended in nothing but his own destruction. For, not succeeding in his attempts at Rome, he \s'ithdrew to Thurii, a maritime to^vn on the gulf of Terentum ; where, endeavouring to raise an insurrection in favour of Pompey, he was murdered by the soldiers of Caesar's faction.^ — Dio, xlii. p. 196. c Cicero was at this time in Pompey's camp in Greece. *' The reader has already been apprised, in the foregoing remarks, that Dolabella was son-in-law to Cicero. He was a young man of a warm, enterprising, factious disposition, and one of the most active partisans of Caesar's cause. His character, conduct, and fortune will be more particularly mai'ked out, as occasion shall ofifer.'in the farther progress of these observations. ' e Caesar having defeated Afranius and Petreius, the lieutenants of Pompey, in Spain, was at this time with his ai-my before Dyrrachium, a maritime city in Macedonia, now called Duraazi. f When he was a very young man, he was honoured by Sylla with the title of Pompey the Great ; a title which he ever afterwards assumed. LETTER XX. To Terentia^. I AM informed, by the letters of my friends, as well as by other accounts, that you have had a sudden attack of a fever. I entreat you, A. u. 704. tiigrgfofg^ to employ the utmost care in re-establishing your health. The early notice you gave me of Csesar's letter was extremely agreeable to me ; and let me desire you would send me the same expeditious intelU- gence, if anything should hereafter occur that concerns me to know. Once more I conjure you to take care of your health. Farewell. June the 2d. S This country was divided by the Komans into tlie Nearer and tlic Farther Spain ; that part which lay near the Pyrenees and the river Ibro being comprehended under the former appellation, and all beyond that river, under the latter. ^ It is probable that some slight success which Cffisar had obtained befoi-e Dyrraohium, had been greatly magnified at Rome : for Pompey was so fai* from being in the situa- tion which Dolabella here represents him, that Caesar found himself obliged to abandon the siege of this city, and to retire into Thessaly. — ^Dio, xli. p. 177. ' " This letter was written by Cicero, in the camp at Dyrrachium j for there is one extant to Atticus later than this, and dated from the camp. Ad Att. xi. 18."— Rosa. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. -161 LETTER XXL To the sameK I ENTREAT you to take all proper measures for the recovery of your health. Let pie request, likewise, that you would provide whatever *' may be necessary in the present con- juncture, and that you would send me frequent accounts how everything goes on. Farewell. LETTER XXIL To the same. I HAVE seldom an opportunity of writing, and scarce anything to say that I choose to trust in a letter. I find, by your last, that you *' "■ ' ' cannot meet with a purchaser for any of our farms. I beg, therefore, you would consider of some other method of raising money, in order to satisfy that person who, you are sensible, 1 am very desirous should be paid^. I am by no means surprised that you should have received the thanks of our friend, as I dare say she had great reason to acknowledge your kindness. If Pollex* is not yet set out, I desire you would exercise your authority, and force the loiterer to depart immediately. Farewell. July the 15tb. LETTER XXIII. To the same. May the joy you express at my safe arrival in Italy" be never interrupted ! But jny mind-w^s so much discom posed by those atrocious ' injuries I had received", that I have J This letter was probably written soon £^ter the forego- ing, and from the same place. ^ This letter, as well as the two former, was written while Cicero was with Pompey in Greece. TJie business at which he so obscurely hints, has been thought to relate to the payment of part of TuUia's portion to Dolabella. But it seems evident from the 4th epistle of the 11th book to Atticus, that Cicero was not at this time come to any resolution concerning the second payment of his daughter's portion ; for, in a postscript, he desires the sentiments of Atticus upon that subject. "De pensione altera (says he) oro te omni cura considera quid faciendum sit." [Ad Att. xi. 4.] Now that this letter to Atticus was written about the same time, with the present to Terentia, appears from hence, that Cicero plainly refers in it to the same epistle to which this before us is an answer. •• Ex proximis cog- novi pradia non vcnisse;" [Ad Att. ibid.] which tallies with what he says in the letter under examination : — " ex tuis Uteris, quas proxime accepi, cognovi praediuin nullum venire potuisse ;" and proves that the date of each must have been nearly, if not exactly, coincident. For these reasons, it seems necessary to look out for another inter- pretation uf the present passage ; and, from the cautious circumstance of the name being suppressed, it may be inspected that Cxsar is the person meant. It is certain, (It least, that Cicero owed him a sum of money ; concern- ing; which, he expresses some uneasiness to Atticus, upon the breaking out of the civil war ; as he could not, indeed, continue in Caesar's debt with any honour, after he had joined the party against him.— Ad Att. vii. 3. ' It appears, by a letter to Atticus, that this person iUited as a sort of steward in Cicero's famUy.— Ad Att. xiiL 47. taken a step, I fear, which may be attended with great difficulties*". Let me, then, entreat your utmost assistance ; though I must confess, at the same time, that I know not wherein it can avail me. ^ I would by no means have you think of coming hither; for the journey is both long and dangerousj and 1 do not see in what manner you could be of any service. Farewell. Brundisium, Nov. the 5th. LETTER XXIV. To the same. The ill state of health into which Tullia is fallen, is a very severe addition to the many and great A. V. 704. disquietudes that afflict my mind p. But I need say nothing farther upon this "» After the battle of Fharsalia, Cicero would not engage himself any farther with thePompeian party; hut,hav?ng endeavoured to make his peace with Caesar by the media- tion of DolabeUa, he seems to have received no other answer than an order to return immediately into Italy. And this he accordingly did a few days before the date of the present letter.— Ad Att. xi. 7. " Cicero, who was somewhat indisjwsed and much out of humour, did not attend Pompey when he marched from Dyrrachium in order to follow Caesar. Cato was likewise left behind, with fifteen cohorts, to conduct the baggage ; but upon the news of Pompey's defeat in the plains of Pharsalia, he pressed Cicero to take upon himself the com- mand of those troops, as being of superior rank in the republic. Cicero, who had all along declined accepting any commission in Pompey's army, was not disposed, it may well he Imagined, to be more active against Cssar, when the latter had just obtained a most signal victory. Accordingly, he absolutely refused this offer which Cato made ; declaring, at the same time, his resolution of \vith- drawing from the common cause. This exasperated the young Pompey and his friends to such a degree, that they would have killed Cicero upon the spot, if Cato had not generously interposed, and conducted him safely out of the camp. It is probably to this outrage that he here alludes. —Ad Att. xi. 4 ; Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ° It has been observed, that Cicero scarce ever executed an important resolution of which he did not immediately repent. This, at least, was the situa.tion of his mind in the present instance ; and he was no sooner arrived in Italy, than he began to condemn himself for having too hastily determined upon that measure. The letters which he wrote to Atticus at this period, and which comprise almost the 11th book of those epistles, contain little else than so many proofs of this assertion. Cicero imagined, after the decisive action that bad lately happened ^n the plains of Pharsalia, that the chiefs of the Pompeian party would instantly sue for peace. But Cajsar, instead of directly pursuing his victory, suffered himself to be diverted by a war altogether foreign to his purpose, and in which the charms of Cleopatra, perhaps, can-ied him farther than he at first intended. This gave the^ompeians an oppor- tunity of collecting their scattered forces, and of forming a very considerable army in Africa. As this circumstance was utterly unexpected by Cicero, it occasioned him infi- nite disquietude, and produced those reproaches which he is perpetually throwing out upon himself in the letters above-mentioned to Atticus, For, if the republican party should, after all, have returned triumphant into Italy, he knew he should be treated as one who had merited their utmost resentment. This and the following letters in this book to Terentia were written during the interval of Cicero's arrival at Brundisium, and Caesar's return into Italy, which contains a period of about eleven months. V The anxiety which Cicero laboured under, at this juncture, was undoubtedly severe. Besides the uneasiness 462 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 8ul)ject, as I am sure her welfare is no Jess a part of your tender concern than it is of mine. I agree both with you and her in thinking it proper that I should advance nearer to Rome' ; and I should have done so before now, if I had not been prevented by several difficulties which I am not yet able to remove. But I am in expectation of a letter from Atticus, with his sentiments upon this subject ; and I beg you would forward it to me by the earliest opportunity. E'arewell. LETTER XXV. To the same. In addition to my other misfortunes, I have now to lament the illness both of Dolabella and Tullia. The whole frame of my mind is, A. u. /04. jmjggj^ go utterly discomposed, that I know not what to resolve, or how to act, in any of my affairs. I can only conjure you to take care of yourself and of Tullia. Farewell. LETTER XXVI. To the same. If anything occurred worth communicating to you, ifly letters would be more frequent and much . ' longer. But I need not tell you the situ- A. u. 704. ^y^jj j,f my affairs ; and as to the effect they have upon iny mind, I leave it to Lepta and Trebatius to inform you. I have only to add my entreaties that you would take care of your own and TuHia's health. Farewell. LETTER XXVII. To Titius'. There is none of your friends less capable than 1 am to offer consolation to you under your present affliction, ^as the share I take in your A. u. 7 . jQggs renders me greatly in need of tjie same good office myself. However, as my grief does not rise to the same extreme degree as yours, I should not think I discharged the duty which my connexion and friendship with you require if I remained altogether silent at a time when you are thus overwhelmed with sorrow. I determined, mentioned in the last remark, lie was, likewise, under great disquietude from the uncertainty of the disposition in which Cassar stood towards him. And, to add yet more to the discomposure of his mind, it was at this time that he received the cruel usage from his hrother, of which an account has hceu given in rem. P, p. 452. He had still greater misfortunes of a domestic kind to increase the weight of his sorrows, which ■will he pointed out as they shall occasionally offer themselves in the remaining letters to Terentia. q Cicero was still at Brundisium, fronx which place all the following letters in this book to Terentia, except the last, seem to have been written. r It is altogether uncertain who the person is to whom this letter is addressed ; perhaps the same to whom the 16th of the third hook is written. [See rent, o, p. 304.] The precise date, likewise, is extremely doubtful : how- ever, the opinion of Dransfeld is here followed, who, in his edition of these epistles, has placed it under the present year. » Of his son therefore, to suggest a few reflections to you which may alleviate, at least, if not entirely remove, the anguish of your heart. There is no maxim of consolation more common, yet at the same time there is none which deserves to be more frequently in our thoughts, than that we ought to remember, "We are men,"— that is, creatures who are bom to be exposed to calamities of every kind; and, therefore, "that it becomes us to submit to the conditions by which we hold our existence, without being too much dejected by accidents which no prudence can prevent." In a word, that we should learn, by " reflecting on the misfortunes which have attended others, that there is nothing singular in those which befal ourselves." But neither these, nor other arguments to the same purpose which are inculcated in the writings of the philosophers, seem to have so strong a claim to success as those which may be drawn from the present unhappy situation of public affairs, and that endless series of misfortunes which is rising upon our country. They are such, indeed, that one cannot but account those to be most fortunate who never knew what it was to be a parent ; and as to those persons who are deprived of their children in these times of general anarchy and mis- rule, they have much less reason to regret their loss than if it had happened in a more flourishing period of the commonwealth, or while yet the republic had any existence. If your tears flow, indeed, from this accident, merely as it affects your own personal happiness, it may be difficult perhaps en- tirely to restrain them. But if your soiTow takes its rise from a more enlarged and benevolent principle, if it be for the sakfe of the dead themselves that you lament, it may be an easier task to assuage your grief. I shall not here insist upon an argu- ment which I have frequently heard maintained in conversations, as well as often read, likewise, in treatises that have been written upon this subject.' " Death," say those philosophers, " cannot be considered as an evil ; because, if any consciousness remains after our dissolution, it is rather an entrance into immortality than an extinction of life ; and if none remains, there can be no misery where there is no sensibility'." Not to insist, I say, upon any reasonings of this nature, let me remind 7"° °^ ^"^ argument which I can urge with much more confi- dence. He who has made his exit from a scene where such dreadful confusion prevails, and where t The notion of a future state of 'positive punishment, seems to have been rejected by the ancient philosophers in general, both by those who maintained the eternal, and those who only held the temporary duration of the soul after death. Thus Cicero and Seneca, though of different sects, yet agree in treating the fears of this sort as merely a poetical delusion: CTuacul. Disput 1. 21, 30; Seneo. Consolat. ad Marc. 19.] and even Socrates himself affixes no other penalty to the most atrocious deviations from moral rectitude, than that of a simple exclusion from the mansions of the gods. This shows how impotent the purest systems of the best philosophers must have beea for the moral government of mankind, since they thus dropped one of the most powerful of all sanctions for that purpose, the terrors of an actual chastisement. The com- parative number of those is infinitely small, whose conduct does not give reason to suspect that they would be willing to exchange spiritual joys in reversion, for the full gratifi- cation *of an importunate appetite in present ; and the interest of virtue can alone be suflficiently guarded by the divine assurance of intense punishment as well as of com- plete happiness hereafter. TO SEVERAL OF FJIS FRIENDS. 4G3 BO many approacMng calamities are in prospect, cannot possibly, it should seem, be a loser by the exchange. Let me ask, not only where honour, virtue and probity, where true philosophy and the useful arts, Can now fly for refuge, but #h^re even our liberties and our lives can be secure ? ' For my own part, I have never once heard of the death of any youth during all this last sad year, whom I have not considered as kindly delivered by the immortal gods from the miseries of these wretched times. If, therefore, you can be persuaded to think that their condition is by no means unhappy whose loss you so' tenderly deplore, it must undoubtedly prove a very coiisiSerable abatement of your present aMiction ; for it wiU then entirely arise from what you feel upbh your own account, and have no re- lation to the persons whose death you regret. Now it would ill agree with those wise and generous maxims which have ever inspired your breast, to be too sensible of misfortunes which terminate in your own person, and affect not the happiness of those you love. You have upon all occasions, both public and private, shown yourself animated with the firmest fortitude ; and it becomes you to act lip to the character you have thus justly acquired. Time necessarily wears out the deepest impressions of sorfow ; and the weakest mother that ever lost a child has foiind some period to her grief^ But we should wisely anticipate that effect Which a certain revolutioti of days will undoubtedly produce, and not wait for a remedy from time which we way mtfch sooner receive from reason. Ifwhatlhave said can anything avail in lessening the weight of your'affliction, 1 shall have obtained my wish ;' if not, I shall at least have discharged the duties of that friendship and affection which, beUevs me, I ever have preserved, and evfei* shall preserve towards you. Farewell. ' ' LETTER XXVIIL To Tereniia. My affairs are at present in such a situation, that I Have no reason to expecit'a letter oh your part, i. n. 705 ^^^ ''*^® nothing to communicate! to ybu on mine. Yet I know not how it ' is, I can no more forbear flattering myself that I may hear from you, than I can refrain from writing to yon whenever I meet with a conveyance.' Volumnia ought to have shown herself more zealous for your interest ; and in the particular instaiice ybu mention, she might have acted with greater care and caSution. This, howevei-, is but a slight grievance amongst others which I far more severely feel and lament. They have the effect upon me, indeed, which those persons undoubtedly wished", who compelled me into measures utterly opposite to my own sentiments. Farewell. December the 31st. ° The conmientatorB are divided in their opinions con- cerning the pel-sons to whom Cicero here alludes, as they are likewise as to the year when this letter was written. There are two periods, indeed, of Cicero's life, with which this epistle wiU equally coincide : the time wheivlie was in banishment, and the time when he returned i^n Italy, after the defeat of Pompey, The opinion, howfever, of Tictorius has been followed, in placing this letter under the present year ; who supposes, not without probability, that the persons here meant are the same of whom Cicero complains in the 23d letter of this book. LETTER XXIX. To Acilius, Proconsul'. Lucius Manlius Sosjs was formerly a citizen of Catina'"' ; but having afterwards obtained the A. V 706. '■'^^do'"! of Naples, he is at present one of the members of their council. He is likewise a citizen of Rome ; having been admitted to that privilege with the rest of the Neapolitans, in consequence of the general grant whidh was made for that purpose to our allies and the'inhabit- ants of Latium. He has lately succeeded to an estate at Catina by tbe death 'of his brother, and is novv in actual possession. But though I do not imagine that his right is likely to be controverted ; yet, as he has other affairs of consequence in Sicily, I recommend his concerns of evei-y kind in tbat island' to your protection.' But I particularly re- commend himself to you as a most worthy man ; as one with whom I am intimately connected ; and as a person who excels in those sciences I princi- pally admire. Whether, therefore, he shall think proper to return " into Sicily or not, I desire you would consider him as my very particular friend, and that you woufd treat him in such a manner as to convince him that this letter proved greatly to his advantage. Farewell. LETTER XXX. To Terentia. TuLLiA arrived here" on thel2th of this month r. It extremely affected me to see a woman of her A. u 706 s'^SHI*'" *•"! amiable virtues reduced (and redufeed too by my own negligence) to a situation far other than is agreeable to her rank and filial piety*. I have some thoughts of sending my son, accom- ▼ He was governor of Sicily; which is all that is known of his history. The laborious and accurate Pighius places his administration of that island under tbe present year ; and M'r.' Ross 'assigns a very good reason for being of the same opinioli. For it appears (as that gentleman observes) that Cicero's correspondence with Acilius was carried on when the latter was proconsul'of Sicily, and during the time that Cffisar had the supreme authority. It is proba- ble, therefore, that' these letters were bitten in the present year ; because, in all the others that fall within that period, the persons who severally p^eaid^d 'in Sicily are kno^vn to have been Po^thumius'Albinus, Aulus AUienus, and Titus FursaniuB.' See Mr. Boss's Remarks on the Epist. Famil. vol. ii. p. 502. '^ A maritime city in Sicily, now called Catania. It con- tinued to be a town of conBi4erable note, till the eruptions of mount ^taa in 1669 and 1693, whicn almost entirely laid it in ruin§. '' " Brundisium, where Cicero was still waiting for Ciesar's arri'val from Egypt'. " ' 7 June. '■ Dolabella was greatly embarrassed in his affairs ; and it seems by this passage as if he had not allowed Tullia a maintenance, during his absence abroad, sufficient to sup- port her rank and dignity. The negligence with which Cicero reproaches himself, probably relates to his not hav- ing secured a proper settlement on hie daughter, when he made the second payment of her fortune to Dolabella. For in a letter written to Atticus about this time, he ex- pressly condemns himself for having acted imprudently in that affair. " In pensione secunda (says he) cieci fuimus." —Ad Att. xi. 19. 4C4 THE LETTERS OF MAIICUS TULLIUS CICERO panied by Sallustius, with a letter to Caesar • ; and if I should execute this design, I will let you know when he sets out. In the mean time, be careful of your health, I conjure you. Farewell. LETTER XXXI. To the same. I HAD determined, agreeably to what T mentioned in my former, to send my son to meet Csesar on A u 706 ^^^ return to Italy; but I have since altered, my resolution, as I hear no news of his arrival. For the rest I refer you to Sicca, who will inform you what measures I think neces- sary to be taken ; though I must add, that nothing new has occurred since I wrote last. Tullia is still with me. — Adieu, and take all possible care of your health. June the 20th. LETTER XXXII. To Aciiius, Proconsul. Catus Flavids, an illustrious Roman knight, of an honourable family, is one, with whom I live ji. u. 706 ™ great intimacy; he was a very particu- lar friend hkewise of my son-in-law Piso. Both he and his brother Lucius show me the strongest instances of their regard.* I shall receive it, therefore, as an honour done to myself, if you will treat Caius with all the marks of favour and distinction that shall be consistent with your cha- racter and dignity ; and be assured you cannot, in any article, more effectually oblige me, than by complying with this request. I will add, that the rank which he bears in the world, the credit in which he stands with those of his own order, together with his polite and grateful disposition, will afford you reason to be extremely well satisfied with the good offices you shall confer upon him. When I say this, believe me I am not prompted by any interested motives, but speak the sincere dictates of truth and friendship. Farewell. LETTER XXXIII. To Terentia. I WKOTE to Atticus (somewhat later indeed than I ought) concerning the affair you mention. When A u 706 y"" **''^ '•° ''™ "P™ *^' •'^^•^> •>« will inform you of my inclinations ; and I need not be more explicit here, after having written so fully to him'. Let me know as soon as possible what steps are taken in that business ; and acquaint me at the same time with everything else which concerns me. I have only to add my request, that you would be careful of your health. Farewell. July the 9th. « In order to supplicate Caesar's pardon, for having en- gaged against him on the side of Pompey. t* Mr. Ross supposes that the letter to which Cicero refers is the 19th of the 11th l^ook to Atticus. If this conjecture be right, (as it is highly probable,) the business hinted at concerned the making of Terentia's will, and also the raising of money towards the support of Tullia, by the sale of some plate and furniture.— Ad Att. xi. 19, 20. LETTER XXXIV. To Hie same. In answer to what you object concerning the divorce I mentioned in my lasf^, I can only say, -„„ that I am perfectly ignorant what power Dolabella may at this time possess, or what ferments there may be among the populace''. However, if you think there is anything to be apprehended from his resentment, let. the matter rest; and perhaps the first proposal may come from himself. Nevertheless, I leave you to act as you shall judge proper ; not doubting that you will take such measures in this most unfortunate affair as shall appear to be attended with the fewest unhappy consequences. Farewell. July the 1 0th. LETTER XXXV. To Aciiius, Proconsul. Marcus and Caius Clodius, together with Archagathus and Philo, all of them Inhabitants of A n 706 '^^ noble and elegant city of Halesa, are persons with whom I am united by every tie of friendship and hospitality. But I am afraid if I recommend so many at once to your particular favour, you will be apt to suspect that I write merely from some motive of an interested kind ; though, indeed, both myself and my friends have reason to be abundantly satisfied with the regard you always pay to my letters of this nature. Let me assure you, then, that both Archagathus and Philo, as also the whole family of the Clodii, have, by a long series of affectionate offices, a right to my best assistance. I very earnestly entreat yoa, therefore, as an obligation that will be highly agreeable to mcf that you would promote their interest upon all occasions, as far as the honour and dignity of your character shall permit.— Farewell. c Between Tullia and Dolabella. The occasion of this divorce is 80 darkly hinted at in the letters to Atticua, that it is altogether impossible to penetrate into the rea^ sons that produced it ; one, however, seems to have arisen from an intrigue that was carrying on between Dolabella and Metella. This la^y was ^vife to Lentulus Spinther (to whom several letters in the first and second book of this collection are addressed), and is supposed to be the same person whom Horace mentions to have had a commerce of gallantry with the son of the celebrated tragedian iEsopus.— See rem. y,p. 358 ; Ad Att xi. 20. . K See rem. o, p. 461. that the Alexandrine war could have been drawn out to so great a length, or that the paltry Phar- naces, could have struck such a terror throughout Asia"" .' But though we both acted by the same measures, our preseut situations, however, are extremely different. The scheme which you thought proper to execute, has given you admission into Ceesar's councils, and opened a prospect to you of his future purposes ; an advantage, most certainly, that must spare you aU the uneasiness which attends a state of doubt and suspense. Whereas, for myself, as I imagined that Ciesar would immediately after the' battle of Pharsalia have returned into Italy, I hastened hither in order to encourage and improve that pacific disposition which he had discovered by his generosity to so many of his illustrious enemies : by which means I have ever since been separated from him by an immense distance. Here, in truth, I sit the sad witness of those complaints* that are poured forth in Rome, and throughout all Italy : complaints which both you and I, according to our respective powers, might contribute somewhat to remove, if Csesar were present to support us. I entreat you, then, to communicate to me, agreeably to your wonted friendship, all that you observe and think concerning the present state of affairs ; in a word, that you would inform me what we are to expect, and how you would advise me to act. Be assured, I shall lay great stress upon your sentiments ; and had I wisely followed those yon gave me in your first letter from Luceria', I might, without difficulty, have still preserved my dignities. Farewell. b Pharnaces was son of the famous Mithridatea, king of Fontus. [See rem. c, p. 333.] This young prince, taking advantage of Csesar's being engaged in the Alexandrine war, made an incursion into Cappadocia and the Lesser Armenia, the dominions of Deiotarus, a tributary king to the Romans. Bomitius Calvinus, whom Cssar had appointed to command in Asia and the neighbouring pro- vinces, having received notice of this invasion, marched immediately to the assistance of Deiotarus. The two armies came to an engagement, in which Pharnaces had the supe- riority. Calvinus, at the same time, being called away by CfEsar, who had occasion for those troops to complete the conquest of Alexandria, Pharnaces took that opportunity of entering Fontus, which he seized as his hereditary dominions, and/where he committed great cruelties and devastation. This letter seems to have been written soon after the transaction above related, and probably while Csesar himself was on the march in order to chastise the insolence of Pharnaces. It war, in giving an account of this expedition that Cssar made use of that celebrated expression in a letter to one of his friends. Vent, vidi, vici. — EUrt. De Bell. Alexand. 31 ; Plut. in Vit. Ca!sar. » Caesar, after the battle of Pharsalia, sent Mark Antony intoltaly, ashis master .of the horse ; an office, in the absence of the dictator, of supreme authority in the common- wealth : but Antony abused the power with which he was thus invested, and taking advantage of the disturbances mentioned in rem. d, p. 464, turned them to his private purposes, by enriching himself with the spoils of his fellow citizens. This seems to have been the occasion of those general complaints to which Cicero here alludes. — Flut. in Vit. Anton. ; Cio. Phil. ii. 24, 25. J Now called lucera, a city of Italy, situated in the Capitinata, a part of the ancient Apulia. d36 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIDS CICERO LETTER XXXVIL To Acilius, Proconsul. There is no man of the same rank as Otacilius Naso, with whom I more intimately converse ; as, ^ indeed, the polite and -virtuous cast of his *■ "■ ' mind renders my daily intercourse with him extremely pleasing to me. After having thus acquainted you with the terms upon which we live together, I need add nothing further to recommend him to your good opinion. He has some affairs in ■your province which he has entrusted to the ma- nagement of his freedmea Hilarus, Antigonus, and Demostratas: these, therefore, together with all the concerns of Naso, I heseech you to receive under your protection. I ask this with the same warmth as if I were personally interested ; and be assured, I shall think myself highly obliged if I should find that this letter shall have had great weight with you. Farewell. LETTER XXXVni. To Terentia. I HAVE not yet heard any news either of Caesar's arrival, or of his letter which Philotimus, I was „„„ informed, had in charge to deliver to me. ' But be assured, you shall immediately receive the first certain intelligence I shaU be able to send you. Take care of your health. Adieu. August the nth. ♦ LETTER XXXIX. To the same. I HATE at last received a letter from Caesar, and written in no unfavourable terms'". It is now said wjwj that he will be in Italy much sooner than was expected. I have not yet resolved whether to wait for him here, or to meet him on his way ; but, as soon as I shall have determined that point, 1 will let you know. I beg you would immediately send back this messenger ; and let me conjure you, at the same time, to take aE possible care of your health. Farewell. August the 12th. ♦ — LETTER XL. To Acilius^ Proconsul. I HAVE been an old and hereditary guest^ at the house of Lyso, of Lilybseum™, ever since the time a D 706 of his grandfather, and he accordingly dis- tinguishes me with singular marks of his J* Thisletter is not extant ; but Cicero mentions the pm-- port of it in one of his orations, by which it appears, that Caesar therein assured our author, that he would preserve to him his former state and dignities — Pro Ligar. 3. 1 Cicero was proquasstor of Sicily in the year of Rome 678, and he afterwards visited that island in order to fur- nish himself with evidence against Verres, the late gover- nor, whomhe had undertaken to impeach for his oppressive and cruel administration of that province. It was proba- bly upon these occasions that he had been entertained at the house of Lyso, as well as of several others whom he respect ; as, indeed, I have found him to be worthy of that illustrious ancestry from which he descends. For this reason, I very strenuously recommend both himself and his famUy to your good ofSces, and entreat you to let him see that my recommen- dation has proved much to his honour and advaa- tage. Farewell. LETTER XLL To Terentia. I AM in daily expectation of my couriers, whose return will, perhaps, render me less doubtfal what course to pursue". As soon as they shall A. I'. 706. j^f fi^g^ I T^u gj-pe you immediate notice. Meanwhile be careful of your health. Farewell. September the 1st. LETTER XLII. To the same. I ptJEposE to be at my Tusculan villa about the 7th or 8th of this month". I beg that everything may be ready for my reception, as I shall, perhaps, bring several friends with me ; and I may probably, too, continue there some time. If a vase is wanting in the bath, let it be supplied with one : and I desire you would, likewise, provide whatever else may be necessary for the health and entertainment of my guests. Farewell. VenuBiaP, October the 1st. LETTER XLIII. To Acilius, Proconsul. Caius Avianus Philoxends is my old host. But, besides this connexion, he is, likewise, my A u 706 P^rti'^'il*'' friend ; and it was in con- sequence of my good offices that Caesar admitted him into the corporation of Novocomam. It was upon this occasion he assumed the family name of his friend Flaccus Avianus, whom I believe you know to be, likewise, extremely mine. I mention these circumstances as so many proofs that my recommendation of Philoxenus is not founded upon common motives. I entreat you, then, to receive him into the number of your friends ; to assist him in every instance that shall not break in upon your own convenience ; and, in a word, to let him see that this letter proved of singular service to him. Your compliance with this request vrill be obliging me in the most sensible manner. Farewell. recommends in his letters to Acilius as persons to whom he was indebted for the rites of hospitality. >" A sea-port town in Sicily, now called Marsala, n "Whether to wait at Brundisimn the arrival of Casar, or to set out in order to meet him. ° * ' Cicero continued at Brundisium till Caesar arrived in Italy, who came much sooner than was expected, and landed at Tarentmn some time in September. They had an interview with each other, which ended much to the satisfaction of Cicero, who, intending to follow Caesar towards Rome, wrote this letter to his wife, to prepare for his reception at his Tusculan villa." — ^Ross, Remarks on Cic. Epistles. P Now called Venosa, a town in the kingdom of Naples, situated at the foot of the Apcnnine moimtains. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 46? LETTER XLIV. To Trebonms''. I READ yonr letter, but particularly the treatise that attended it', with great pleasure. It was a 706. pleasure, nevertheless, not without its alloy ; as I could not hut regret that you should leave us at a time when you had thus in- flamed my heart, I do not say with a stronger affeoMon (for that coidd admit of no increase), but with a more ardent desire of enjoying your com- pany. My single consolation arises from the hope that we shall endeavour to alleviate the pain of this absence by a mutual exchange of long and frequent letters. Whilst I promise this on my part, I assure myself of the same on yours ; as indeed you have left me no room to doubt how highly I stand in your regard. Need I mention those public instances I formerly received of your friendship, when you showed the world that you considered my enemies as your own ; when you stood forth my generous advocate in the assemblies of the people ; when you acted with that spirit which the consuls ought to have shown, in maintaining the cause of liberty, by supporting mine ; and, though only a qusestor, yet refused to submit to the supe- rior authority of a tribune, whilst your colleague, at the same dme, meanly yielded to his measures"? Need I mention (what I shall always, however, most gratefully remember) the more recent instances of your regard to me, in the solicitude you expressed 1 He waa tribune in the year of Rome 698, at which time he distinguished himself by being the principal promoter of those unconstitutional grants that were made by the people to Pompey, Ceesar, and Crassus, for the enlarge- ment of their power and dignities. After the expiration of his tribunato, he went into Gaul, in quality of Caesar's lieutenant ; and on the breaking out of the oivil war, he was honoured by Caesar with the command at the siege of Marseilles, In the year before the date of this letter, he was elected to the oifice of prBetor, in which he discovered great spirit and judgment in opposing the factious mear aures of his colleague, the turbulent Ccelius, of whose attempts mention has been made in rem. ▼, p. 459. In the present year he was appointed proconsul of Spain, to which province he waa either just setting out or actually upon the road when this letter was written. — ^Dio, xxxix. p. 105 ; Cesar De Bell. Civ. i. 36 ; iii. 20 ; Hirt. De BelL Afrio. 64. Por a farther account of Trebonius, aee rem. », below, and letter 10, book xii., rem. K ' A collection of Cicero's bans mots. ■ Trebonius wi»a qusstor in the year of Rome 693, when Iiucius Afranius and (^uintus Metellus Celer were consuls. It was at this tiuie that Clodius (desirous of obtaining the tribunate, in order to oppress Cicero with the weight of that powerful magistracy) made hie first effort to obtain a law for ratifying his adoption into a plebeian family, none but plebeians being entitled to exercise that office. The tribune to whom Cicero here alludes is Herennius, whom Clodius had prevailed upon to propose this law to the people, and whose indigence and principles qualified him for undertaking any work for any man that would give him his price. Both the oonsulswere likewise favour- ers of this law when it was- first proposed ; but Metellus, when he discovered the factious designs which Clodius had m view, thought proper, afterwards, most strongly to oppose it; The colleague of Trebonius in the quffistorship was QuintuB CieciUus Nepos, of whose particular enmity to Cicero an account has been given in rem. ^ on letter 2, of book t, and by Cicero himself in the third letter of the same book.— Ad Att. i. 18, 19 ; Dio, xxxvil. p. 83; Pigh. AunaL 693, for my safety when I engaged in the late war ; ia the joy you showed when I returned into Italy' ; in your friendly participation of aU those cares and disquietudes with which I was at that time op- pressed" ; and, in a word, in your kind intent of visiting me at Brundisium', if you had not been suddenly ordered into Spain .' To omit, I say, these various and Inestimable proofs of your ftieudship, is not the treatise you have now sent me a most con- spicuous evidence of the share I enjoy in your heart ? It is so, indeed, in a double view ; and, not only as you are so partial as to be the constant, and, perhaps, single, admirer of my wit, but as you have placed it, likewise, in so advantageous a light as to render it, whatever it may be in itself, ex- tremely agreeable. The truth of it is, your manner of relating my pleasantries is not less humorous than the conceits you celebrate, and half the reader's mirth is exhausted ere he arrives at my joke. In short, if I had no other obligation to you for making this collection than your having suffered me to be so long present to your thoughts, I should be utterly insensible if it were no{ to impress upon me the most affectionate sentiments. When I consider, indeed, that nothing but the warmest attachment could have engaged you in such a work, I cannot suppose any man to have a greater regard for himself than you have thus discovered for me. I wish it may be in my power to make you as ample a return in every other instance, as I most certainly do in the affection of my heart ; a return with which I trust, however, you will be perfectly well satisfied. But to return from your performance to your very agreeable letter : full as it was, I may yet answer it in few words. Let me assure yon, then, in the first place, that I no more imagined the letter which I sent to Calvus" would be made public, than I suspect that this will ; and you are sensible that a letter designed to go no farther than the hand to which it is addressed, is written in a very different manner from one intended for general inspection. But you think, it seems, that I have spoken in higher terms of his abilities than truth will justify. It was my real opinion, however, that he possessed a great genius, and, notwithstanding that he misapplied it by a wrong choice of that par- ticular species of eloquence which he adopted, yet he certainly discovered great judgment in his exe- cution. In a word, his compositions were marked with a Tein of uncommon erudition; but they wanted a certain strength and spirit of colouring to render them perfectly finished. It was the attainment, therefore, of this quality that I endea- voured to recommend to his pursuit; and the seasoning of advice with applause, has a wonderful t After the battle of Fharsalia. ™ See rem. o, p. 461. V When he was waiting the arrival of Caesar. w A very celebrated orator, who, though not much above thirty when he died, (which was a short time before this letter was written), yet left behind him a large collection of orations ; he was concerned with Cicero in most of the principal causes that came into the foriun during the short time in which he flourished. The letter here men- tioned was probably part of a correspondence carried on between Cicero and Calvus on the Subject of eloquence, the whole of which was extant long after the death of our author, though none of these epistles have reached our times.— duint. Inst. x. 1 ; Auct. Dialog, de Cans, oof- rupt. Eloquent. 18, 21. H H 3 468 THE LETTfikS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO efficacy in firing the genius and animating the efforts of those one wishes to persuade". This was the true motive of the praises I bestowed upon Calvus, of whose talents I really had a very high opinion. I have only farther to assure you, that my affec- tionate wishes attend yo%in your journey ; that I shall impatiently expect your return ; that I shall faithfully preserve you in my remembrance ; and that I shall soothe the uneasiness of your absence by keeping up this epistolary commerce. Let me entreat you to reflect, on your part, on the many and great good offices I have received at your hands ; and which, though you may forget, I never can, without being guilty of a most unpardonable ingratitude. It is impossible, indeed, you should reflect on the obligations you have conferred upon me, without believing, not only that I have some merit, but that I think of you with the highest esteem and affection. Farewell. LETTER XLV. To Acilius, Proconsul. I HAVE long had obligations to Demetrius Magus for the generous reception he gave me when I was tj^ inSicily^iindeedthereis none ofhis coun- trymen with whom I ever entered into so strong a friendship. At my particular instances, Dolabella prevailed with Csesar to grant him the freedom of Rome, and I assisted at the ceremony of his admission ; accordingly he now takes upon him- self the name of Publius Cornelius. The ill use which some men, of a mean and avaricious turn, had made of Caesar's confidence, by exposing privileges of this kind to sale, induced him to make a general revocation of these grants. However, he assured Dolabella, in my presence, that he had no reason to be under any apprehension with respect to Magus ; for his benefaction, he said, should still remain to him in its full force. I thought proper to mention this, that you might treat him with the consideration which is due to a Roman citizen ; and it is with the utmost zeal that I recommend him to your favour in all other respects. You cannot, indeed, confer upon me a liigher obligation than by convincing my friend that this letter pro- cured him the honour of your peculiar regard. — Farewell. -'' •' It is but allowing a man to be wliat he would have the world think him, (says Sir Richard Steele,) to make him anything else that one pleases." This judicious piece of flattery, however, deserves to he highly applauded in the present instance, as it proceeded entirely from a desire of benefiting the person on whom it was employed.— But what renders it more remarlcahly generous is, that Cal- vus contested, though very unequally indeed, the palm of eloquence with Cicero. Yet the latter, we see, gene- rously endeavoured to connect the taste of his rival, and improve him into a less inadequate competitor. For Cicero was too conscious of his sublime abilities, to b« infected with that low jealousy so visible in wits of an inferior rank, who seem to think they can only rise in fame in proportion as they'shall be able to sink the merit of contemporary geniu.ses.— Senee. Controvers. iii. 19. y See rem, ', 3?, 466. LETTER XLVl. To Sextilius Rufvs^, Quteslor. I RECOMMEND all the Cyprians in general to your protection, but particularly those belonging .(^ to the district of Paphos": and I shall *■ " ■ hold myself obliged to you for any in- stance of your favour that you shall think proper to show them. It is with the more willingness I apply to you in their behalf, as it much imports your character (in which I gi'eatly interest myself) that you, who are the first qugestor that ever held the government of Cyprus', should form such ordinances as may deserve to be followed as so many precedents by your successors. It will contribute, I hope, to this end, if you shall pursue that edict which was published by your friend Lentulus", to- gether witii those which were enacted likewise by myself, as your adopting them will prove, I trust, much to your honour. Farewell. LETTER XLVIL To Acilius, Proconsul. I STRONGLY recommcnd my friend and host Hippias to your good offices : he is a citizen of A. D. 706 Calactina, and the son of Fhiloxenus. His estate (as the affair has been repre- sented to me) has been illegally seized for the use of the pnblic ; and if this should be the truth, your own equity, without any other recommenda- tion, will sufficiently incline you to see that justice is done him. But, whatever the circumstances of his case may be, I request it as an honour to my- self, and an honour too of the most obliging kind, that yon would in this, and in every other article in which he is concerned, favour him with your assistance ; so far, I mean, as shall not be inconsist- ent with the honour and dignity of your character. Favewell. LETTER XLVIII. To the same. Lucius Bruttius, a young man of equestrian rank, is in the number of those with whom I am A u 706 ">"*'' particularly intimate : there has been a great friendship, likewise, between his father and myself, ever since I was qusestor in Sicily. He distinguishes me by peculiar marks of his observance, and is adorned with every valuable accomplishment. He is at present my guest ; but I most earnestly recommend his family, his affairs, and his agents, to your protection. You will con- fer upon me a most acceptable obligation, by giving him reason to find (as, indeed, I have ven- tured to assure him he undoubtedly will) that this letter proved much to his advantage. Farewell. ' He was appointed governor of the island of Cyprus, as appears by the present letter. And this, together with his commanding the fleet under Cassius, in Asia, after the death of Cassai-, is the whole that is known of him. ^ A city in the island of Cyprus. ' Before this time it was always annexed (as'Manutius observes) to the province of Cilicia. c Lentulus Spinther, to whom several letters in the first and second books of this collection are addressed. See rem. *>, ^, 343. <* Cicero succeeded Appius in the govennnent of Cihcia. TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. LETTER XLIX. To Lucius Papirius Pastus". Is it true, my friend, tliat you look upon your- self as having been guilty of a most ridiculous piece A u. 706 "^ '"'lyi ™ attempting to imitate the thunder, as you call it, of my eloquence ? With reason, indeed, you might have thought so, had you failed in your attempt : but, since you have excelled the model you had in view, the dis- grace surely is on my side, not on yours. The verse, therefore, which you apply to yourself, from one of Trabea's' comedies, may with much more justice be turned upon me, as my own eloquence falls far short of that perfection at which I aim. But tell me what sort of figure do my letters make.' are they not written, think you, in the true fami- liar .' They do not constantly, however, preserve one uniform manner, as this species of composition bears no resemblance to that of the oratorical kind ; though, indeed, in judicial matters, we vary our style according to the nature of the causes in which we are engaged. Those, for example, in which private interests of little moment are con- cerned, we treat with a suitable simplicity of dic- tion ; but where the reputation or the life of our client is in question, we rise into greater pomp and dignity of phrase. But, whatever may be the sub- ject of my letters, they still speak the language of conversation. How came you to imagine that all your family have been plebeians, when it is certain that many of them were patricians, of the lower orders ? To begin with the first in this catalogue, 1 will instance Lucius Papisius Magillanus, who, in the year of Home 312, was censor with Lucius Sempronius Atratinus, as he before had been his colleague in the consulate. At this time your family name was Papisius. After him there were thirteen of your an- cestors who were curule magistrates ', before Lucius Papirius Crassus, who was the first or your family that changed the name of Papisius. This Papirius, in the year 315, being chosen dictator, appointed Lucius Papirius Castor to be his master of the horse, and four years afterwards he was elected consul, together with Caius l)uilius. Next in this Ust appears Cursor, a man highly honoured in his generation ; and after him we find Lucius Masso, the sedile, together with several others of the same appellation : and I could wish that you had the portraits of all these patricians among your family- pictures. The Carbones and the Turdi follow next. This branch of your family were all of them ple- « See rem. o, on letter 2, book vi. ' The-time when this poet flourished is uncertain. His dramatic writings seem to have been in great repute, as Cicero frequently quotes them in his Tusculan Disputa- tions. E The patrician families were distinguished into the higher and the lower order. Of the former sort were those who derived their pedigree from the two hundred senators that composed the senate, as it was originally established byllomulus: of the latter, were the descendants of the members which, above a century afterwards, were added to this celebrated council, by Tarquinius Priscus. — Rosin. Antiquit. Rom. p. 687. ^ The curule magistrates were those particular ofiScers of the state who had the privilege of being drawn in a car. These were the consuls, the censors, the prajtors, and curule fediies. beians, and they by no means reflect any honour upon your race. For, excepting Caius Carbo, who was murdered by Damasippus, there is not one of his name who was not an enemy to his country. There' was another Caius, whom I personally knew, as well as the buffoon, his brother : they were both of them men of the most worthless cha- racters. As to the son of Rubria, he was my friend, for which reason I shall pass him over in silence, and only mention his three brothers, Caius, Cneius, and Marcus. Marcus, having committed number- less acts of violence and oppression in Sicily, was prosecuted for those crimes by Publius Flaccus, and found guilty : Caius being, likewise, impeached by Lucius Crassus, is said to have poisoned himself with cantharides. He was the author of great disturbances during the time that he exercised the office of tribune, and is supposed to have been concerned in the murder of Scipio Afrioanus. As to Cneius, who was put to death by my friend Pompey', at Lilybseum, there never existed, I be- lieve, a more infamous character. It is generally imagined that the father of this man, in order to avoid the consequences of a prosecution which was commenced against him by Marcus Antonius, put an end to his life by a draught of vitriol. Thus, my friend, I would advise you to claim your kindred among the patricians ; for you see the plebeian part of your family were but a worthless and seditious race '. Farewell. LETTER L. To Acilius, Proconsul. I HAVE long had a friendship with the family of the Titurnii ; the last surviving branch of which in « n 706 •M*''cus Titurnius Rufus. He has a claim, therefore, to my best good offices, and it is in your power to render them effectual. Accordingly I recommend him to your favour, in all the most unfeigned warmth of my heart ; and you will extremely oblige me by giving him strong proofs of the regard you pay to my recommenda- tion. Farewell. » This Cneius Papirius Carbo was three times consul ; the last of which was in the year of Rome 671. Having exercised his power in a most oppressive and tyrannical manner, he was deposed, to the great satisfaction of the republic, by Sylla, who was immediately declared dictator. Carbo soon aftenvards appeared, with a considerable fleet, upon the coast of Sicily ; and being taken prisoner by Pompey, whom Sylla had sent in pursuit of him, he was formally arraigned before thetribimalof Pompey, and publicly executed by his orders at Lilybseum. — Plut. in Vit. Pomp. J It may be proper to apprise the reader, in this place, that there is one epistlefrom Cicero to Paetus, which is omitted -in this translation.- Cicero takes occasion, in this rejected letter, to explain to bis friend the notion of the Stoics concerning obscenity; and, in order to illustrate their absurd reasoning upon this subject, he introduces a great variety of d See rem. ▼, p, 472. " See the second letter of this boolt. " He was brother to Flancus Bursa, the great enemy of Cicero, and of whom an accoimt has been given in rem. "j p. 367. Plancus does not seem to have figured in the commonwealth ; at least, history does not take much notice of him till after the death o£ Casar, at which time ie waa at the head of a considerable army in the farther Ganl, as governor of that province. But as there are several letters in this collection which passed between him and Cicero at that period, the particulars of his character ^viU be best remarked in the observations that will arise upon his conduct in that important crisis. In the mean "ime, it nyiy be sufficient to observe, that when this letter was written, he was probably an officer under Caesar in the African war. See letter 20, book xii. rem. K P The studies to which Cicero here alludes are, pro- toly, those of the philosophical kind. not impatient to learn the purpose of this long introduction ? Be assured, then, it is not without just and strong reason that I have thus enumerated the several motives which concur in forming our amity ; as it is in order to plead before you with more advantage the cause of my very intimate friend Ateius Capitol. I need not point out to you the variety of fortune with which my life has been chequered ; but, in all the honours and dis. graces I have experienced, Capito has ever most zealously assisted me with his power, his interest, and even vrith his purse. Titus Antistius, who was his near relation, happened to be quaestor in Macedonia (no person having been appointed to succeed him) when Pompey marched his army into that province'. Had it been possible for Antistius to have retired, it would have been his first and most earnest endeavour to have returned to Capito, whom he loved with all the tenderness of. a filial affection ; and, indeed, he was so much the more desirous of joining him, as he knew the high esteem which Capito had ever entertained for Csesar. But, finding himself thus unexpectedly in the hands of Pompey, it was not in his power wholly to decline the fimctions of his office : how- ever, he acted no farther than he was absolutely constrained. I cannot deny that he was concerned in coining the silver at Apollonia=. But he was by no means a principal in that affair ; and two or three months were the utmost that he engaged in it. From that time he withdrew from Pompey's camp, and totally avoided all public employment. I hope you will credit this assertion, when I assure you that I know it to be fact : for, indeed, Antis- tius saw how much I was dissatisfied with the war, and consulted with me upon all his measures. Accordingly, that he might have no part in it, he withdrew as far as possible from Pompey's camp, and concealed himself in the interior parts of Macedonia. After the . battle of Pharsalia, he retired to his friend Aulus Flautius', in Bitbynia. It was here that he had an interview with Csesar", who received him without the least mark of dis- pleasure, and ordered him to return to Rome. But he soon afterwards contracted an illness, which he carried with him into Corcyra, where it put an end to his life. By his will, which was made at Rome in the consulate of Paulus and Marcellus, he has left ten-twelfths of his estate to Capito. The remaining two parts, amounting to 300,000 sesterces^, he has devised to those for whose interest no mortal can be concerned ; and, there- fore, I am not in the least solicitous whether Csesar shall think proper, or not, to seize it as for- feited to the public. But I most earnestly conjure you, my dear Flancus, to consider the cause of Capito as my own, and to employ your influence 4 Fighius supposes that this is the same Ateius Capito who devoted Crassus to destruction when be set out upon his Parthian expedition : of which the reader has already met with an account in rem., ^,p. 360.— ^igh. Annal. iii. 389. ' "When Pompey retreated before Cssar, and abandoned Italy. 8 For the payment of Pompey's army. Apollonia was a city in Thrace : a part of Greece annexed to the province of Macedonia. ' At that time governor of Bithynia, an Asiatic province situated on the Euxine sea. " Probably in his return from the Alexandrine war. • About 24002. of our money. 470 THE LETTERS OF MARCOS TULLIUS CICERO with Caesar, that my friend may be permitted to inherit this legacy, agreeably to the will of his relation. I entreat yon by all the various ties of our friendship, as well as by those, likewise, which subsisted between your father and myself, to exert your most zealous and active offices for this pur- pose. Be assured, if you were to grant me all that lies within the compass of your extensive credit and power, you could not more effectually oblige me than by complying with my present request. I hope it may be a means of facilitating your success upon this occasion, that Capito, as Csesar himself can witness, has ever held him in the highest esteem and affection. But Caesar, I know, never forgets anything : I forbear, therefore, to furnish you with particular instances of Capito's attachment to him, and only desire you to make a proper use of those which are fresh in Caesar's memory. It may not, however, be unnecessary to point out one proof of this sort, which I myself experienced : and I will leave it to your own judg- ment to determine how far the mentioning of it may avail. I need not teU you by what party my interest had been supported, nor whose cause I espoused in our public divisions. But, believe me, whatever measures I pursued in this war, which were unacceptable to Csesar, (and I have the satis- faction to find that he is sensible of it himself,) were most contrary to my own inclinations, and merely in compUance with the persuasions and authority of others. But, if I conducted myself with more moderation than any of those who were joined with me in the same cause, it is principally owing to the advice and admonitions of Capito. To say truth, if the rest of my friends had been influenced by the same spirit with which he was actuated, I might have taken a part that would have proved of some advantage, perhaps, to my country ; I am sure, at least, of much to myself*. In one word, my dear Plancus, your gratifying my present request will confirm me in the hope that I possess a place in your affection, and, at the same time, extremely contribute to your own advantage, in adding, by a very important obligation, the most grateful and worthy Capito to the number of your friends. Farewell. w The pai"t which Cicero here accuses his friends (and surely with some want of genei'osity), tliat they would not suffer him to act, seems to have been that of standing neuter in the war between Pompey and Csesai". And it must be o^vned that this conduct would have been far less exceptionable, if, instead of faintly joining with one side, be had determined to engage with neither. This too, ' as the event proved, might have been most prudential in point of interest : for a neutrality was all that Caesar de- sired of him. But that it could in any sort have advan- taged his country, appears to be a notion altogether impro- bable, and advanced only to give a colour to his not having entered with more spirit into the cause of the republic. Cicero often intimates, indeed, that by preserving a neu- trality, he might have been more likely to have facilitated an accommodation between Pompey and Cajsar. But it is utterly incredible, from the temper and character of these contending chiefs, that either of them entertained the least disposition for this purpose : as it is certain, from Cicero's own confession in his letters to Atticus, that ho was well persuaded Pompey would never listen to any pacific overtures. — Ad Att. vii. 8 ; viii. 15. LETTER IX. To Allienus, Proconsul^. Democritus of Sicyon is not only my hostr, but (what I can say of few of his countrymen beside) he Is likewise my very intimate ji. o. 7U7. fj.jgj^|j jjg is a person, indeed, of the highest probity and merit, and distinguished for his most generous and polite hospitality towards those who come under his roof; in which number I have received particular marks of his affection and esteem. In one word, you will find him a man of the first and most valuable character amongst his fellow-citizens, I had almqst said in all Achaia. I only mean, therefore, by this letter, to introduce him to your acquaintance ; for I know your senti- ments and disposition so well, that I am persuaded nothing more is necessary to make you think him worthy of being received both as your guest and friend. Let me entreat you, in the mean time, to favour him with your patronage, and' to assure him that, for my sake, he may depend upon all the assistance in your power. If after this you should discover (as 1 ti-ust you will) that his virtues render him deserving of a nearer intercourse, you cannot more sensibly oblige me than by admitting him into your family and friendship. Farewell. LETTER X. To Lucius Meschiius''. Your letter afforded me great pleasure, as it gave me an assurance (though indeed I wanted j^ -a ijm none) that you earnestly wish for ray company. Believe me, I am equally de- sirous of yours ; and, in truth, when there was a much greater abundance of patriot citizens and agreeable companions who were in the number of my friends, there was no man with whom I rather chose to associate, and few whose company I liked so well. But now that death, absence, or change of disposition has so greatly contracted this social circle, I should prefer a single day with you to a whole life with the generality of those with whom I am at present obliged to live*. Soli- tude itself, indeed, (if solitude, alas ! I were at liberty to enjoy,) would be far more eligible than the conversation of those who frequent my house ; one or two of them, at most, excepted. I seek my relief, therefore, (where I would advise you to look for yours,) in amusements of a literary kind, and in the consciousness of having always intended well to my country. I have the satisfaction to reflect, (as I dare say you will readily beUeve,) that I never sacrificed the public good to my own pri- vate views ; that, if a certain person (whom for my sake, I am sure, you never loved,) had not * He was at this time proconsul, or governor of Sicily, and distinguished himself by his care and diligence in transporting the troops which Caesar received from theoce in order to carry on the present wai" in Africa. There is a silver coin still extant, on which is inscribed, A. ALLIBNVS. PRO. COS. and on the reverse, C. CSSAB. IMP. COS. ITER— Pigh. Annal. iii. 453. 7 See rem. ^ on letter 7, book vii. ^ See rem. », p. 44& » The chiefs of the Caesai-ean party; with whom Cicero now found it convenient to cultivate a friendship, in order tc ingratiate himself with Cssar, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 477 looked upon me with a jealous eye'', both himself and every friend to liberty had been happy ; that I always endeavoured that it should not be in the power of any man to disturb the public tranquillity ; and, in a vpord, that vphen I perceived those arms, which I had ever dreaded, vpould prove an over- match for that patriot- coalition I had myself formed •= in the republic, I thought it better to accept of a safe peace, upon any terms, than impo- tently to contend with a superior force. But I hope shortly to talk over these, and many other points, with you In person. Nothing, indeed, de- tains me in Rome but to wait the event of the war in Africa; which, I imagine, must now be soon decided. And though it seems of little import- ance on which side the victory shall turn, yet I think it may be of some advantage to be near my friends when the news shall arrive, in order to consult with them on the measures it may be advisable for me to pursue''. Affairs are now reduced to such an unhappy situation, that though there is a considerable difference, it is true, between the cause of the contending parties, I believe there will be very little as to the consequence of their success. However, though my spirits were too much dejected, perhaps, whilst our affairs remained in suspense, I iind myself much more composed now that they are utterly desperate. Your last letter has contributed to confirm me in this dis- position, as it is an instance of the magnanimity with which you support your unjust disgrace^. It' is with particular satisfaction I observe, that you owe this heroic calmness, not only to philosophy, but to temper. For I will confess, that I imagined your mind was softened with that too delicate sen- sibility which we, who passed our lives in the ease ^ Pompoy ; who being jealous of the popularity which Cicero had acquired dui-ing his consulship, struck in with the designs of Cffisar, and others, who had formed a party against our author. It was by theso means that Fompey laid the principal foiradation. of Caesar's power, which, without the assistance of the foi-mer, could never have prevailed to the destruction both of himself and of the republic. [See rem. >=, p. 334.] The censure which Cicero here oasts upon Pompey 's conduct towards him, is undoubt- edly just: but it is a proof, at the same time, how un- worthily he flattered that great roan in the plenitude of his power, when he professed to have received obligations from huu, that gave him the most unquestionable right to his highest gratitude.— See rem. ^, p. 432. <= Cicero probably alludes to the coalition he formed during his consulship, of the equestrian order with that of the senate: which, indeed, was one of the most shining pftrts of his administration. *' This order (as Dr, Middle- ton observes) consisted, next to the senators, of the richest and' most splendid families in Rome : who, from the ease and affluence of their fortunes, were naturally well affected to the prosperity of the republic ; and being also the con- stant farmers of all the revenues of the empu-e, had a great part of the inferior people dependent upon them. Cicero imagined that the united weight of these two orders would always be an overbalance to any other power in the state, and a secure barrier against any attempts of the popular and ambitious upon the common liberty."'— Life of Cicero, p. 43. , ^ Cicero would have had great occaaion for the advice of his friends, if the remains of Pompey's army had defeated Cesar's in Africa. For he had reason to expect, and would probably have experienced, the severest effects of their resentment, if they had returned victorious into Italy. — Ep. Fam. ix. 6. ^ MesciniuB, it is probable, was banished by Cassar, as a partisan of Pompey, to a certain distance from Rome. and freedom of Rome, were apt in general to con- tract. But as we bore our prosperous days with moderation, it becomes us to bear our adverse fortune, or more properly, indeed, our irretrievable ruin, with fortitude. This advantage we may, at least, derive from our extreme calamities, that they will teach us to look upon death with contempt ; which, even if we were happy, we ought to despise, as a state of total insensibility' ; but which, under our present afflictions, should be the object of our constant wishes. Let not any fears then, I conjure you by your affection for me, disturb the peace of your retirement ; and, be well persuaded, nothing can befal a man that deserves to raise his dread and horror, but (what I am sure ever was, and ever; will be, far from you) the reproaches of a guilty heart. I purpose to pay you a visit veiy soon, if nothing should happen to make it necessary for me to change my resolution : and if there should, I will immediately let you know. But I hope you will not, whilst you are in so weak a condition, be tempted by your impatience of seeing me, to remove from your present situation : at least, not without previously consulting me. Tn the mean time, con- tinue to love me, and take care both of your health and your repose. Farewell. ' Cicero expresses himself to the same purpose, in two or three other of these letters. Thus, in one to Torquatus ; — '* si non ero, sensu omuino carebo : " and in another tn Toranius; — "tTna ratio videtur, quicquid ev'enerit ferro moderate ; prjesertim cum omnium rerum mors sit extro- mum." From whence it has been inferred, that Cicero, in his private opinion, rejected the doctrine of the soul's immortality. In answer to which it may be observed, in the first place, that these passages, witliout any violence of construction, may be interpreted as affirming nothing more, than that death is an utter extinction of all sensi- bility with respect to human concerns : as it was a doubt with some of the ancients whether departed spirits did not still retain a knowledge of wHat passed in this world. In the next place, admitting these several passages to be so many clear and positive assertions, that the soul perishes with the body ; yet it would by no means follow, that this was Cicero's real belief. It is usual with him to vary his sentiments in these letters, in accommodation to the prin- ciples or circumstances of his correspondents. Thus, in a letter to Dolabella, he does not scruple to say, " sum avidior quam satis est glorise :" but in writing to Cato, ho represents himself of a disposition entirely the reverse : *• ipsam quidem gloriam per se nunquam putavi expeten- dam." In a letter to Torquatus, when he is endeavouring to reconcile him to his banishment from Rome, he lays it down as a maxim, that " in malis omnibus acerbius est videre quam audire :*' but, in another letter to Marcellus, written in order to persuade him to return to Rome, he reasons upon a principle directly opposite, and tells him, — '* non est tuum uno sensu oculorum moveri : cum idem illud auriJms percipias, quod etiam majus videri solet," &c. Other instances of the same variation from himself might be produced : but these, together with those that have already been occasionally pointed out in the course of these reniarks, are sufficient, perhaps, to evince, that Cicero's real sentiments and opinions cannot be proved by any particular passages in these letters. In those to Atticus, indeed, he was generally, though not always, more sincere : and Mr. Ross has cited a passage from one of them, in which Cicero very expressly mentions his expectations of a future state : " tempus est nos de ilia perpeiua jam, (says he,) non de hac exigua vita cogitare." But Cicero's specu- lative notions are best determined by looking into his philosophical writings ; and these abound with various and full proofs that he was strongly persuaded of the soul's immortality.— Ep. Fam. ix. 14; xv. 4; vi. 4; iv. 9; Ad Att. X. 8 ; see also Life of Cicero, p. 306 478 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIDS CICERO LETTER XI. To Allienus, Proconsul. As you are no stranger, I imagine, to the esteem I entertained for Avianus Flaccus ; so I have often i n. 707. ^^^'^^ ^^ acknowledge the generous manner in which you formerly treated him ; as, indeed, no man ever possessed a more grateful or better heart. His two sons, Caius and Marcus, inherit aU the virtues of their father ; and I most warmly recommend them to your protec- tion, as young men for whom I have a very singular affection. Caius is now in Sicily, and Marcus is at present with me. I entreat you to show every mark of honour to the former, and to take the affairs of both under your patronage ; assuring yourself, that you cannot render me in your govern- ment a more acceptable service. Farewell. LETTER XII. To Varro. Though I have nothing to write, yet I could not suffer Caninius to pay you a visit without u 707 t^l^'^S ^^^ opportunity of conveying a letter by his hands. And now I know not what else to say, but that I propose to be vrith you very soon : an information, however, which I am persuaded you will be glad to receive. But will it be altogether decent to appear in so gay a scene K, at a time when Rome is in such a general flame ? And shall we not furnish an occasion of censure to those who do not know that we observe the same sober philosophical Hfe, in all seasons, and in every place ? Yet, after all, what im- ports it ? since the world will talk of us in spite of our utmost caution. And, indeed, whilst our censurers are immersed in every kind of flagitious debauchery, it is much worth our concern, truly, what they say of our innocent Telaxations ! In just contempt, therefore, of these illiterate barbarians, it is my resolution to join you very speedily. I know not how it is, indeed, but it should seem that our favourite studies are attended with much greater advantages in these wretched times than formerly : whether it be that they are now our only resource, or that we were less sensible of their salutary effects when we were in too happy a state to have occasion to experience them. But this is sending owls to Athens '^, as we say, and suggesting reflec- e Varro seems to have requested Cicero to give liiin a meeting at Baia?, a place mucli frequented by the Romans on account of its hot baths ; as the agreeableness of its situation on the bay of Naples rendered it, at the same time, the general resort of the pleasurable world. The tender Propertius has addressed some pretty lines to his Cynthia at this place, which sufficiently intimate in what manner the Roman ladies were amused in that dangerous scene of gallantry and dissipation. " Tu modo quam primum corruptas desere Baia3, Multis ista dabunt littora dissidium : Littora quae fuerant castis inimica puellis," &c " Fly, fly, my love, soft Baise's tainted coast, "Where many a pair connubial peace have lost ; Where many a maid shall guilty joys deplore : Ah fly, my fair, detested Bais's shore !" ^ A proverbial expression of the same import with that of " sending coals to Newcastle." It alludes to the Athenian tions which your own mind will far better supply. All that I mean by them, however, is, to draw a letter from you in return, at the same time that I give you notice to expect me soon. Farewell. LETTER Xin. To the same. Our friend Caninius paid me a visit, some time ago, very late in the evening, and informed me that A V Iff! ^^ purposed to set out for your house the next morning. I told him I would give him two or three lines to deliver to you, and desired he would call for them in the morning. Accordingly I wrote to you that night' : but as he did not return, I imagined he had forgotten his promise; and should, therefore, have sent tiiat letter by one of my own domestics, if Caninius had not assured me of your intention to leave Tusculum the next morning. However, after a few days had intervened, and I had given over all expectations of Caninius, he made me a second visit, and ac- quainted me that he was instantly setting out to you. But, notwithstanding the letter I had written was then become altogether out of date, especially after the arrival of such important newsJ, yet, as I was unwiUiug that any of my profound lucubra- tions should be lost, I delivered it into the hands of that veiy learned and affectionate friend of yours, who, I suppose, has acquainted you with the con- versation which passed between' us at the same time. I think it most prudent for both of us to avoid the view at least, if we cannot so easily escape the remarks, of the world : for those who are elevated with this victory look down upon ns with an air of triumph, and those who regret it are displeased that we did not sacrifice our lives in the cause. But you will ask, perhaps, (as it is in Rome that we are particularly exposed to these mortifications,) why I have not followed your example in retiring from the city ? But tell me, my friend, superior as your judgment confessedly is, did you never find yourself mistaken ? Or who is there, in times of such total darkness and confusion, that can always be sure of directing his steps aright ? I have long thought, indeed, that it would be happy for me to retire where I might neither see nor hear what passes in Rome. But my groundless suspi. cions discouraged me from executing this scheme ; as I was apprehensive that those who might acci- dentally meet me on my way would put such con- structions upon my retreat as best suited with their own purposes. Some, I imagined, would suspect, or at least pretend to suspecl;, that I was either driven from Rome by my fears, or withdrew in order to form some revolution abroad j and perhaps, too, would report, that I had actuijly provided a ship for that purpose. Others, I feared, who knew me best, and might be disposed to think most favourably of my actions, would be apt to impute my recess to an abhorrence of a certain party'. It is these apprehensions that have hitherto, contrary coin, which was stamped (as Hanutius observes) with the figure of an owl. ' Probably the preceding letter. 1 Concerning Cesar's defeat of Scipio in Africa. ' The Cecsareans. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 479 to my inclinations indeed, detained me.in Rome : but custom, however, lias familiarised the unpleas- ing scene, and gradually hardened me into a less exquisite sensibility. Thus I have laid before yon the motives which induce me to continue here. As to what relates to jour own conduct, T would advise you to remain in your present retirement, till the warmth of our public exultation shall be somewhat abated, and it shall certainly be known in what manner affairs abroad are terminated : for terminated, I am well persuaded, they are'. Much will depend on the general result of this battle, and the temper in which Cffisar may return. And though I see, already, what is abundantly sufficient to determine my sentiments as to that point, yet I think it most advisable to wait the event. In the mean time, 1 should be glad you would postpone your journey to Baise, till the first transports of this clamorous joy is subsided ; as it will have a better appearance to meet you at those waters, when I may seem to go thither rather to join with you in lamenting the public misfortunes, than to participate in the plea- sures of the place. But this I submit to your more enlightened judgment : only let us agree to pass our lives together in those studies which were once, indeed, nothing more than our amusement, but must now, alas ! prove our principal support. Let us be ready, at the same time, whenever we shall be called upon to contribute not only our counsels, but our labours, in repairing the ruins of the republic. But if none shall require our services for this purpose, let us employ our time and our thoughts upon moral and political inquiries. If we cannot benefit the commonwealth in the forum and the senate, let us endeavour, at least, to do so by our studies and our writings ; and after the example of the most learned among the ancients, contribute to the welfare of our country, by useful disquisitions concerning laws and government. And now, having thus acquainted you with my sentiments and purposes, I shall be extremely obliged to you for letting me know yours in return. Farewell. LETTER XIV. To the same. You must know, my friend, that I am one of those philosophers who hold the doctrine of Dio- i.D.yoy. dorus concerning contingencies". Ac- cordingly I maintain, that if you should make us a visit here, you are under an absolute necessity of bo doing ; but if you should not, that it is because your coming hither is in the number of those things which cannot possibly happen. — When thia letter was written, there seems to have iMen only some general accounts arrived of Cassar's suc- cess in Africa ; hut the particulars of the battle were not yet known. •* Diodorus was a Greek philosopher who lived in the court of Ptolomffius Soter, and flourished ahout 280 years before the Christian era. He is said to have died with grief for not being able immediately to solve a philoso- phical question which that prince put to him in conver- Bation. He maintained that nothing could be contingent ; but that whatever was possible mast necessarily happen. CSoero ludicrously applies this absurd doctrine to the in- teaiied visit of his friend.— Cio. de Fato, 7. Now tell me which of the two opinions you are most inclined to adopt : whether this of the philo- sopher I just now mentioned, whose sentiments, you know, were so little agreeable to our honest friend Diodotus °, or the opposite one of Chrysip- pus° .' But we will reserve these curious specula' tions till we shall be more at leisure : and this, I will agree with Chrysippus, is a possibility which either may or may not happen. I am obliged to you for your good ofBces in my affair with Cocceiusi", which I likewise recom- mend to Atticus. If you will not make me a visit, I will pay you one ; and as your library is situated in your garden, I shall want nothing to complete my two favourite amusements — reading and walk, ing. Farewell. LETTER XV. To Apuleiits, ProqucBstor i. Lrcitrs Egnatius, a Roman knight, is a very particular friend of mine, whose affairs in Asia, ^ 1, ijm together with his slave Anchialus, who superintends them, I recommend to you with as much zeal as if they were my own. For be assured we are united to each other, not only by a daily intercourse of the highest friendship, but by many good offices that have been mutually exchanged between us. As he has not the least doubt of your disposition to oblige me, let me ear- nestly entreat you to convince him, by your services in his fiivour, that I warmly requested them. Farewell. n Diodotus was a Stoic philosopher, under whom Cicero had been educated, and whom he afterwaids entertained for many years in his house. He died about thirteen years before the date of this letter, and left his friend and pupil a considerable legacy. — Cic. Academ. ii. ; Ad Att. ii. UO. o Chrysippus was successor to Zeno, the celebrated founder of the Stoic school. It appears, by a list of some of his writings, which Laertius has given, that he pub- lished a treatise on Fate ; and probably it was in this book that he opposed the ridiculous notions of Diodotus. Seneca represents him as a penetrating genius, but one whose speculations were somewhat too subtle and refilled. He adds, that his diction was so extremely close, that he never employed a superfluous word ; a character he could scarce deserve, if what is reported of him he true, that he published no less than 311 treatises upon logic, and above 400 upon other subjects. — One cannot hear, indeed, of such an immoderate flux of pen, without being in some danger of suffering the same fa;te that attended tliis inexhaustible genius, who is said to have died in a fit of excessive laughter.— Laertius in Vit. ; Senec. de Benefic. i. 3 ; Stan- ley's Hist, of Philos. 487. P In the text he is called Costius ; hut, perhaps, {as one of the commfintators imagines,) it should be Cocceins. For Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, supposed to have been written about the same time with the present, requests his assistance in procuring the payment of a sum of money owing to him from Cocceius ; which is not un- likely to be the same affair he alludes to in this passage- Ad Att. xii. 13. q It is wholly uncertain both who this person was, and when he exercised the office of proqusestor. THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XVI. To Varro. The 7th seems to be a very proper time, not only in consideration of public affairs, but 1 regard ^ jj »uy also to the season of the year : I approve, therefore, of the day you have named, and will join you accordingly. I should be far from thinking we had reason to reproach ourselves for the part we have lately acted, even were it true that those who pursued a different conduct had not repented of their mea- sures. It was the suggestions of duty, not of interest, that we followed, when we entered into the war ; and it was a cause utterly desperate, not the duty we owed our country, that we deserted when we laid down our arms. Thus we acted, on the one hand, with greater honour than those who would not leave Italy in order to follow the war abroad ; and, on the other hand^ with more pru- dence than those who, after having suffered a total defeat', would not be prevailed upon to return home. But there is nothing that I can bear with less patience than the affected severity of our inglorious neuters ; and, indeed, whatever might be the final event of affairs, I should be much more inclined to venerate the memory of those mistaken men who obstinately perished in battle, than to be in the least concerned at the reproaches of those who only lament that we are still alive. If I should have time, I purpose to call upon you at Tusculum before the 7th : if not, I wiU follow you to Cumse, agreeably to your appoint- ment. But I shall not fail to give you previous notice, that your bath may be prepared. Farewell. LETTER XVII. To the same. Your letters to Seiiis and myself were delivered to us, whilst we were at supper together, in his A. v. 707. 'louse. I agree with you in thinking that this is a very proper time for your in- tended expedition ; which, to own my artifice, I have hitherto endeavoured to retard by a thousand pretences. I was desirous, indeed, of keeping you near me, in case any favourable news should have arrived". For, as Homer sings, " The wise new wisdom from the mse acquire."* But now that the whole affair is decided, beyond all doubt, you should set forward with the utmost speed. When I heard of the fate that has attended Lucius Caesar", I could not forbear saying to myself, with r At the battle of Pliarsalia, s Concerning the success of the Pompeian party against Ca:gar, in Africa ; an event, if it had taken place, that would extremely have embarrassed Cicero. For which reason he was desirous of keeping Varro within his reach that he might iramedia;tely have consulted with him in what manner to act — See rem. o, p. 461. t II. X. 224, Pope's translation. » He was a distant relation of Julius Ca?sar ; whom however, he had constantly opposed throughout the civil war.— Lucius, being taken prisoner at the late battle of Thapsus, where Cassai- gained a complete victory over the combined troops of Scipio and Juba, obtained the con- queror's pardon ; but CsDsar afterwards changed his mind, the old man in the play, " What tenderness then may not I expect'!" For this reason, 1 am a constant guest at the tables of our present poten- tates ; and what can I do better, you know, than prudently swim with the current of the times? But, to be serious, (for serious, in truth, we have reason to be, J *' See vengeance stalk o'er Afric's trembhng plain ; And one wide waste of horrid luin reign" :" A circumstance that fills me with very uneasy apprehensions. 1 am unable to answer your question, when Caesar will arrive, or where he proposes to land. Some, I find, doubt whether it will be atBaise; and they now talk of his coming home by the way of Sardinia. It is certain, at least, that he has not yet visited this part of his demesnes ; and though he has not a worse yarm* upon all his estate, he is far, however, from holding it in contempt. For my own part, I am more inclined to imagine he will take Sicily in his return. But these doubts will soon be cleared up, as Dolabella'' is every moment expected. I believe, therefore, I must take my instructions from my disciple^, as many a pupil, you know, has become a greater adept than his master. However, if I knew what you had determined upon, I should chiefly regulate my measures by yours ; for which purpose 1 expect a letter from you with great impatience. Farewell. and gave private orders to have him assassinated. — Die, xliii. p. 219. ' This alludes to a passage in the " Andria " of Terence, where Simo, the father of Pamphilus, giving an account of bis son's tender behaviour at tbe funeral of Chrysis, could not forbear reflecting, he says, — " Quid mihi hie facict patrll" But Cicero applies it in a different sense, and means that, if Cffisar acted towards bis own relations with so much cruelty, he had little reason to expect a milder treatment. w These lines are quoted from Ennius, a poet, of whom some account has been given in the foregoing remarks. The troops of Caesar pursued their victory over those of Seipio with great cruelty :—'■ acrior CKsarianorum impetus f nit (says Florus) indignantium post Porapeiiun crevisse helium." Numbers, indeed, of Seipio's armymust necessarily have been massacred in cool blood : for the historians agree that Ca?sar's loss amounted only to 50 men ; whereas 10,000 were killed on the side of Scipio, according to the account which Hirtius gives of this action, and five times that number if we may credit Plutarch.— Plor. iv. 2 ; Hirt De Bell. Afric. IXi ; Pint, in Vit. CiESar. X The island of Sardinia Avas, in the time of the Remans, (what it still is,) extremely bai-ren and unwholesome. Martial has a pretty allusion to this latter circumstance, in one of his epigrams : — *' Nullo fata loco possis exoludere : cum mors Venerit, in medio Tibure Sardinia est." — iv. 60. 7 Dolabella attended Ca?sar in the African war. 2 Cicero means that he should leai-n from Dolabella where Cffisar purposed to land, and in what temper he was returning into Italy, together with such other circum- stances as it was necessary he should bo apprised of, in order to pay his personal congratulations to the conqueror in the most proper and acceptable manner. It seems pro- bable, from this passage, that Dolabella bad formed his eloquence under Cicero, agreeably to an excellent custom which prevailed in Rome, of introducing the youth, upon their first entrance into business, to the acquaintance and patronage of some distinguished orator of the forum, whom they constantly attended in all the public exercises ofbisprofession.— Auct.Dialog.de Cans. corrupt-EloquenU 34. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 481 LETTER XVIII. To Apuleius, Proqutestor. Lncius ZoiLVS was appointed, by the will of his patron, coheir in conjunction with me. I mention i u 707. ^^^^' ""'' X '° ^'""' ^°^ *''® occasion of ■ my friendship with him, but as an evi- dence likewise of his merit,l)y being thus distin- guished by his patron. I recommend him, there- fore, to your favour as one of my own family ; and you will oblige me in letting him see that you were greatly influenced to his advantage by this letter. Farewell. LETTER XIX. To Varro. Our friend Caninius acquainted me with your request that I would write to you whenever there A. D. 707. ^^ *"y "^"^ which I tliought it con- cerned you to know. You are already informed that we are in daily expectation of Caesar" : but I am now to tell you that as it was his intention, it seems, to have landed at Alsium'', his friends have written to dissuade him from that design. They think that his coming on shore at that place will prove extremely troublesome to himself, as well as very much incommode many others ; and have therefore recommended Ostia'= as a more convenient port. For my own part, I can see no difference. Hirtius'', however, assures me that hunself as well as Balbus", and Oppius,' (who, let me observe by the way, are every one of them greatly in your interest,) have written to Csesar for this pur- pose. I thought proper, therefore, to send you this piece of Intelligence for two reasons. In the first place, that you might know where to engage a lodging ; or rather, that you might secure one in both these towns ; for it is extremely uncertain at which of them Caesar will disembark. And in the next place, in order to indulge a little piece of vanity, by showing you that I am so well with these favourites of Caesar as to be admitted into their privy council. To speak seriously, I see no reason to decline their friendship ; for, surely, there is a wide difference between submitting to evils we cannot reme(iy, and approving measures that we ought to condemn B. Though, to confess *> Cxsar returned victorious from Africa, about the 26th of July, in the present year; ao that this letter was pro- bably written either in the beginning of that month, or the latter end of June.— Hirt De Bell. Afric. 98. l" The situation of this place is not exactly Icnown : some geogi-aphers suppose it to he the same to^vn which is now called Severa, a sea-port about twenty-five miles distant from Rome, on the western coast of Italy. '■■ It still retains its ancient name, and is situated at the mouth of the Tiber. •* He lived in great intimacy %vith Csesar, and had served under him in quality of one of his lieutenants in Gaul. It appears, by this passage, that he did not attend Cssar into Africa; so that if the history of that war annexed to Ciaar's Commentaries was really written, as is generally ^apposed, by Hirtius, he was not an eye-mtness of what he relates ; a circumstance which considerably weakens the authority of his account. . ' See rem. •", p. 399. ' See rem- °. p. 457. 8 To cultivate friendships with the leaders of a successful f^tion. has siu'ejy something in it that much resenihles the the truth, I do not know there are any that I can justly blame, except those which involved us ia the ' civil wars ; for these, it must be owned, were alto- gether voluntary. I saw, indeed, (what your dis- tance from Rome prevented you from observing'',) that our party were eager for war ; while Ctesar, on the contrary, appeared less inclined than afraid to have recourse to arms. Thus far, therefore, our calamities might have been prevented, but all beyond was unavoidable ; for one side or the other must necessarily prove superior. Now, we both of us, I am sure, always lamented those infinite mis- chiefs that would ensue, whichever general of the two contending armies should happen to fall in battle ; as we were well convinced, that of all the complicated evils which attend a civil war, victory is the supreme. I dreaded it, indeed, even on that side which both you and I thought proper to join, as they threatened most cruel vengeance on those who stood neuter, and were no less offended at your sentiments than at my speeches. ' But had they gained this last battle, we should still more severely have experienced the effects of their power, as our late conduct had incensed them to the highest degree. Yet what measures have we taken for our own security, that we did not warmly recommend for theirs ? And how have they more advantaged the republic by having recourse to Jnba and his elephants', than if they had perished by their own swords, or submitted to Jive under the present system of affairs, with some hopes, at least, if not with the fairest. But they may tell us, perhaps, (and, indeed, with truth,) that the government under which we have chosen to live is altogether turbulent and unsettled. Let this objection, how- ever, have weight vrith those who have treasured up no stores in their minds to support themselves under all the possible vicissitudes of human affairs ; a reflection which brings me round to what I prin- cipally had in view when I undesignedly wandered into this long digression. I was going to have said, that as I always looked upon your character with great admiration, so nothing raises it higher in my esteem than to observe that you are almost the only person, in these tempestuous days, who has wisely retreated into harbour, and are enjoying the happy fruits of those important studies which are attended with more pubUc advantage, as well as private satisfaction, than all the ambitious ex- ploits or voluptuous indulgences of these licentious victors. The contemplative hours you spend at your Tusculau villa are, in my estimation, indeed, what alone deserve to be called life ; and I would willingly renounce the whole wealth and splendour of the world to be at liberty to pass my time in the same philosophical manner. I follow your exam- approving of measures which we ought to condemn ; and though it may be policy, most certainly it is not patriotism. It ill agrees, at least, with that sort of abstracted life which Cicero, in the first letter of this book, declares ho proposed to lead, if the republic should be destroyed.— Bp. Pam. v'i. 3. ■i Varro, at the breaking out of the civil war, was in Spain ; where he resided in quality of one of Pompey's lieutenants. ' These elephants were drawn up in the front of the right and left wing of Seipio"s army. But being driven back upon the lice behind them, they put the r.anks into great confnsion ; and, instead of proving of any advantage to Scipio, contributed to facilitate his defeat.— Hirt. Dp Bel). Aflic. 83. I 1 482 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLItJS CICERO pie, however, as far as the circumstances in which I am placed will permit, and have recourse, with great satisfaction of mind, to my favourite studies. Since our country, indeed, either cannot or will not accept our services, who shall condemn us for returning to that contemplative privacy which many philosophers have thought preferable (I will not say vrith reason, however, they have preferred,) even to the most public and patriot labours ? And why should we not indulge ourselves in those learned inquiries, which some of the greatest men have deemed a just dispensation from all public employ- ments, when it is a liberty, at the same time, which the commonwealth itself is willing to allow us ? But I am going beyond the commission which Caninius gave me : and while he only desired that I wonld acquaint you with those articles of which you were not already apprised, I am telling you what you know far better than I can inform you. For the future I shall confine myself more strictly to your request, and will not fail of communicating to you whatever intelligence I may leam, which I shall think it imports you to know. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Papirius Patus'. Yoxm letter afforded me a very agreeable instance of your friendship, in the concern it expressed lest A. u. 707. ^ should be uneasy at the report which had been brought hither by Silius'. I was before, indeed, perfectly sensible how much you were disturbed at this circumstance, by your care in sending me duplicates of a former letter upon the same subject ; and I then returned such an answer as I thought would be sufScient to abate, at least, if not entirely remove, this your generous solicitude. But, since I perceive, by your last letter, how much this affair still dwells upon your mind, let me assure you, my dear Fsetus, that I have employed every artifice (for we must now, my friend, be armed with cunning as well as prudence,) to conciliate the good graces of the persons you mention ; and, If I mistake not, my endeavours have not proved in vain. I receive, indeed, so many marks of respect and esteem from those who are most in Ceesar's favour, that I cannot but flatter myself they have a true regard for me. It must be confessed, at the same time, that a pretended affection is not easily discernible from a real one, unless in seasons of distress. For adversity is to friendship what fire is to gold,, the onlyinfaUible test to discover the genuine from the counterfteit ; in all other circumstances they both bear the same common signatures. I have one strong reason, however, to persuade me of their sincerity ; as neither their situation nor mine can by any means tempt them to dissemble vrith me. As to that person' in whom all power is now centred, I am not sensible that I have anything to fear from him ; or nothing more, at least,, than what arises from that general precarious state in which all things must stand where the fence of laws is broken down" ; and, from its being impossible to pronounce 3 See rem. « on letter 9, book vi. ^ SUius, it should seem, had brought an aecoimt from the army, that some witticisms of Cicero had been reported to Csesar, which bad giv^ him offence. J CsAar, with assurance concerning any event which depends wholly upon the will, not to say the caprice, of another. But this I can vrith confidence affirm, that I have not, in any single instance, given him just occasion to take offence ; and, in the article you point out, I have been particularly cautipus. There was a time, it is true, when I thought it well became me, by whom Rome itself was free", to speak my sentiments with freedom ; but now that our liberties are no more, I deem it equally agree- able to my present situation, not to say anything that may disgust either Csesar or his favourites. But were I to suppress every rising raillery that might pique those at whom it is directed, I must renounce, you know, all my reputation as a wit. And, in good earnest, it is a character upon which I do not set so high a value as to be unwilling to resign it if it were in my power. LHowever, 1 am in no danger of suffering in Caesar's opinion, by being represented as the author of any sarcasms to which I have no claim ; for his judgment is much too penetrating ever to be deceived by any imposition of this nature.J I remember your brother Serrius, whomllookupon to havebeenoneof the most learned critics that this age has produced, was so conversant in the writings of our poets, and had acquired such an excellent and judicious ear, that he could imme- diately distinguish the numbers of Flautus from those of any other author. Thus Ceesar, 1 am told, when he made his large collection of apoph- thegms", constantly rejected any piece of wit that was brought to him as mine, if it happened to be spurious ; a distinction which he is much more able to make at present, as his particular friends pass almost every day of their lives in my com- pany. As our conversation generally turns upon a variety of subjects, I frequently strike out thoughts which they look upon as not altogether void, perhaps, of spirit or ingenuity. Now, these little sallies of pleasjmtry, together with the general occurrences of Rome, are constantly transmitted to Csesar, in pursuance of his own express direc- tions ; so that, if anything of this kind is mentioned by others as coming from me, he always disregards it. Yon see, then, that the lines you quote with so much propriety from the tragedy of CEnomans", ™ Alluding to hia services in the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy. " This collection was made by Csesar when be was very young, and probably it was a performance by no means to his honour. For Augustus, into whose hands it dima after his death, would not suffer it to be published. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cses. 66. o Written by Accius, a tragic poet, who flourished about the year of Rome 617- The subject of this piece, probably, turned upon the death of OSnomaus, king of Elis, and the marriage of his daughter Hippodamia. This prince being informed, by an oracle, that he should lose his life by his future son-in-law, contrived the following expedient to dis- appoint the prophecy. Being possessed of a pair of horses of such wonderful swiftness, that it was reported they were begotten by the winds, he proposed to the several suitors of his daughter, that whoever of them should beat him in a chariot-race should be rewarded ivith Hippo* damia, upon condition that they consented to be put to death if they lost the match. Accordingly, thu-teen of these unfortunate rivals entered the list: and each of them, in their turn, paid the forfeiture of their lives. But Pelops, the son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, being more artful than the rest, bribed the charioteer of CEno- maus to take out the linch-pin of his chariot-wheel : by wbjcb menr's fF.nnmaus wns dashed to pieces in the coui-se, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 483 contain a caution altogether unnecessary. For tell me, my friend, what jealousies can I possibly create ? Or who will look with envy upon a man in my humble situation ? But, granting that I were in ever so enviable a state, yet let me observe, that it is the opinion of those philosophers who alone seem to have understood the true nature of virtue, that a good man is answerable for nothing farther than his own innocence. Now, in this respect, I think myself doubly irreproachable : in the first place, by having recommended such public measures as were for the interest of the common- wealth ; an4 in the next, that, finding I was not sufficiently supported to render my counsels effec- tual, I did not deem it advisable to contend for them by arms against a superior strength. Most ceiliainly, therefore, I cannot justly be accused of having failed in the duty of a good citizen. The only part, then, that now remains for me, is to be cautious not to expose myself, by any indiscreet word or action, to the resentment of those in power J a part which I hold likewise to be agree- able to the character of true wisdom. As to the rest ; what liberties any man may take in imputing words to me which I never spoke; what credit Ctesar may give to such reports ; and how far those who court my friendshfp are really sincere ; these are points for which it is by no means in my power to be answerable. My tranquillity arises, therefore, from the conscious; integrity of my counsels in the times that are past, and from . the moderation of my conduct in thesethat are present. Accordingly, I apply the simile' you quote from Acciusi', not only to Envy, but to Fortune; that weak and inconstant power, whom every wise and resolute mind should resist with as much firmness as a rock repels the waves. Grecian story will abundantly supply examples of the greatest ^raen, both at Athens and Syracuse, who have, hi some sort, preserved their - independency amidst the geoeral servitude of their respective communities. May I not hope, then, to he able so to comport myself, under the same circumstances, as neither to give offence to our rulers on the one hand, nor to injure the dignity of my character on the other.' But to turn from the serious to the jocose part of your letter. — The strain of pleasantry you break into, immediately after having quoted the tragedy of (Enomaus, puts me in mind of the modern method of introducing at the end of those graver dramatic pieces the humour of our mimes, instead of the old Atellan farces'. Why else do yon talk of your paltry polypus ', and your mouldy cheese ? In pure good nature, it is true, I formerly sub- mitted to sit down with you to such homely fare ; but more refined company has improved me into a better taste. For Hirtius and Dolabella, let me and PelopB carried off the beautiful Hippodamia. — Hygin. Fab, 83. P The poet mentioned in the preceding remark. 1 These Atellan farces, which, in the earlier periods of the Roman sta^c, were acted at the end of the more Berious (Iramatic performances, derived their name ftom Atella, a town in Italy, from whence they were first Introduced at Rome. They consisted of a more liberal and genteel Irind of humour than the mimes — a species of comedy which Beems to have taken its subject from low life. — Manntius, in loo. ' A Eea-iish so extremely tough, that it was necesBary to beat it a considerable time before it could be rendered fit for the table.—Bruyer. De Be Cibar. xxi. H, tell yon, are my preceptors in the science of the table ; as, in return, they are my disciples in that of the bar. But I suppose you have already heard, at least if all the town-news is transmitted to you, that they frequently declaim at my house", and that I as often sup at theirs. You must not, how- ever, hope to escape my intended visit, by plead- ing poverty in bar to the admission of so luxurious a guest. Whilst you were raising a fortune, indeed, I bore with your parsimonious humour ; but now that you are in circumstances to support the loss of hsdf your wealth, I expect that you receive me in another manner than you would one of your compounding debtors '. And though your finances may somewhat suffer by my visit, remember it is better they should be impaired by treating a friend than by lending to a stranger. I do not insist, however, that you spread your table with so un- bounded a profusion as to furnish out a splendid treat with the remains : I am so wonderfully mo- derate as to desire nothing more than what is perfectly elegant and exquisite in its kind. I remember to have beard you describe an enter- tainment which was given by Fhameas. Let yours be the exact copy of his : only I should be glad not to wait for it quite so long. Should you still persist, after all, t» invite me, as usual, to a penu- rious supper, dished out by the sparing hand of maternal economy ; even this, perhaps, I may be able to support. But I would fain see that hero bold who should dare to set before me the vilknous trash you mention, or even one of your boasted polypuses, with a hue as florid as vermilioued Jove". Take my word for it, my friend, your prudence will not suffer you to be thus adventurous. Fame, no doubt, will have proclaimed at your villa my late conversion to luxury, long before my arrival ; and you will shiver at the sound of her tremendous report. Nor must you flatter yourself with the hope of abating the edge of my appetite by your cloying sweet-wines before supper : a silly custom, which I have now entirely renounced ; being much wiser than when I used to damp my stomach with your antepasts of olives and Leu- canian sausages. — But not to run on any longer in this jocose strain ; my only serious wish is, that I may be able to make yon a visit. You may compose your countenance, therefore, and return to your mouldy cheese in full security ; for my being your guest will occasion you, as usual, no other expense than that of heating your baths. As B Cicero had lately instituted a kind of academy for eloquence in bis own house, at which several of the lead- ing young men in Rome used to meet in order to exercise themselTes in the art of oratory. Cicero himself will acquaint the reader with his motives for instituting this society, in the 22d letter of the present book. t This alludes (as Manutius observes) to a law which Cssar passed m favour of those who had contracted debts before the commencement of the civil war. By this law, as appears from the passages which that commentator has cited, commissioners were appointed to take an account of the estate and effects of thepe debtors, which were to be assigned to their respective creditors according to their valuation before the civil war broke out : and whatever sums had been paid for interest, was to bo considered as in discharge of the principal. By this ordinance, Patus, it seems, had been a particular sufi'erer. — Cbbs. De Bell. Civ. Hi. 1 ; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 43. « Pliny, the naturalist, mentions a statue of Jupiter, erected in the Capitol, which, on certain festival days, it Wfts customary to paint with vermilion. — Manutius. 118 484 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO for all the rest, you are to look upon it as mere pleasantry. The trouble you have given yourself about Sellcius's villa" is extremely obliging, as your description of it was excessively droll. I believe, therefore, from the accounts you give me, I shall renounce all thoughts of making that purchase : for though the country, it seems, abounds in salt, the neighbourhood, I find, is but insipid. Farewell. LETTER XXL To Volumnius''. You have little reason, believe me, to regret the not being present at my declamations ^ ; and if you ^ ^^vy should really envy Hirtius, as you assure * * ^ ' me you should, if you did not love him, it must be much more for his own eloquence than as he is an auditor of mine. In truth, my dear Volumnius, either I am utterly void of all genius, or incapable of exercising it to my satisfaction, now that 1 have lost those illustrious fellow-labourers at the bar that fired me with emulation when, I used to gain your judicious applause. If ever, indeed, I displayed the powers of eloquence with advantage to my reputation, let me send a sigh when I reflect with the fallen Philoctetes'^ in the play, that These potent shafts, the heroes* wonted dread, Now spend on meaner war their idle force ; Aim'd at the wing'd inhabitants of air ! However, if you will give me your company here, ray spirits will be more enlivened, though I need not add that you will find me engaged in a multitude of very important occupations. But if I can once get to the end of them (as I most earnestly wish), I shall bid a long farewell both to the forum and the senate, and chiefly devote my time to you and some few others of our common friends. In this number are Cassius and Dolabella, who are united with us in the same favourite studitss, and to whose performances I with great pleasure attend. But we want the assistance of your refined judgment, and of that uncommon erudition which has often struck me with awe when I have been delivering my sentiments before you. I have determined, then, if I should obtain the consent, or at least the permission of Csesar, to retire from that stage on which I have frequently performed a part that he " In Naples. v see rem. "», on letter 18, hook iv. w See rem. s, on the preceding letter. ^ Philoctetes was the friend and companion of Herculesj who, when he was dying, presented him with his quiver of arrows which had been dipped in the hydra's gall. When the Grecian princes assembled in order to revenge the cause of Menelaus, they were assured by an oraclo that Troy could never be taken -without the assistance of these arrows. An embassy therefore was sent to Philoctetes to engage him on their side, who accordingly consented to attend their expedition. But being disabled from proceeding with these , heroes in their voyage, by an accidental wound which he received in the foot from one of his own arrows, they ungenerously loft him on a desolate island, and it was here that he was reduced to the mortifying necessity of employing these formidable shafts in the humble purposes of supplying himself with food. The lines here quoted ai-e taken from Accius, a dramatic poet who flourished about the year of Rome 623, and who probably had formed a tragedy upon the subject of this adventure.— Sery. in J?n, iii. <0?. ■ -. t himself has applauded. It is my resolution, indeed, totally to' conceal myself in the secret shades of philosophy, where I hope to enjoy, with you, and some others of the same contemplative disposition, the honourable fruits of a studious leisure. I am sorry you shortened your last letter in the apprehension that I should not have patience to read a longer. But assure yourself for the future, that the longer yours are, the more acceptable thes will always prove to me. Farewell. LETTER XXII. To Papirius PcBtus. YouK very agreeable letter found me wholly disengaged at my Tusculan villa. I retired hither »^ during the absence of my pupils y, whom * I have sent to meet their victorious friend^, in order to conciliate his good graces iu my favour. As Dionysius the tyrant, after he was expelled from Syracuse, opened a school, it is said, at Corinth"; in the same manner, being driven from my dominions in the forum, I have erected a sort of academy in my own house ; and I perceive, by your letter, that you approve the scheme. I have many reasons for approving it too, and principally as it affords me what is highly expedient in the present conjuncture, a mean of establishing an interest with those^ in whose friendship I may find a protection. How far my intentions in this respect may be answered, I know not : 1 can only say, that I have hitherto had no reason to prefer the difflsrent measures which others of the same party with myself have pursued ; unless, perhaps, it would have been more eligible not to have sur- vived the ruin of our cause. It would so, I confess, had I died either in the camp*= or in the field : but the former did not happen to be my fate ; and as to the latter, I never was engaged in any action. But the inglorious manner in which Pompey^, together with Scipio ^, Afranius ^ and your friend Lentulus s, r Hirtius and Dolabella. * Csesar, in his retxmi from the African war. "^ He was expelled from Sicily about 340 years before the birth of our Saviour, on aceoimt of his oppressive govern- ment; when, retiring to Corinth, he employed himself in exercising the himibler tyranny of a pedagogue. It is supposed that he engaged in this office the more efFeetoally to conceal the schemes he was still meditating of recovering his dominions. — Justin, xxi. 5, ^ Particularly Hirtius and Dolabella. '^ The expression in the original is extremely concise.— "Inlectulo? Pateor: sed non accidit." This seems to allude to the sickness with which Cicero was attacked in the camp of Dyrrachium, and that prevented him from being present at the battle of Pharsalia, or at least fur nisbed him with a plausible excuse for his absence.— Plut. in Tit, Cioer. ** An account of the manner and circumstance of Pom- pey's death has already been given in rem. '\, p. 470. 6 Scipio, after the imfortunate battle of Thapsua [see rem. w, ^. 490.] endeavouring to make his escape into Spain, was di-iven back upon the coast of Africa, where ho fell in with a squadron of Csesar's fleet, commanded by Hirtius. Scipio was soon overpowered by the strength and number of the enemy's ships, and himself, together with the few vessels that attended him, were all sunk.— Hirt De Bell. Afric. 96. ' Afranius had been one of Pompisy's lieutenants in Spain, and had a Qomraand in gp^ict's array in Africfj. He TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 485 severally lost their lives, will scai'cely, I suppose, be thought a more desirable lot. As to Cato's death'', it must be acknowledged to have been truly noble ; and I can still follow his example, whenever I shall be so disposed. Let me only endeavour, as in fact 1 do, not to be compelled to it by the same necessity': and this is my first reason for engaging in my present scheme. My next is, that I find it an advantage, not only to my health^ which began to be impaired by the inter- was taken pTisoner in attempting to make his escape after the defeat of that general, and murdered by the soldiers. — Hirt De Bell. Afric. 95. e This is not the same person to whom the letters in the first and second book of this collection are addressed ; but Lucius Lentulus, who was ccmsul with Marcellus A. U. 704, the year in which the civil war broke out. After the defeat at Fharsalia, he fled to the island of Cyprus, where i-eceiving intelligence that Pompey was gone into Egypt, he immediately set sail in order to join him. He arrived on the next day after that unfortunate general had been cruelly assassinated^ and being seized the moment he landed, he underwent the same fate with that of his illus- trious friend, in pursuance of an order for that purpose from Ptolemy.— Plut. in Vit. Pomp. ; Caes. De Bell. Civ. ill 102, 104. ^ The manner and circumstances of Cato's having destroyed himself, ai'c too well Imown to be particularised in this place. A late noble writer is of opinion that Cato abandoned the cause of liberty too soon, and that he would have died with a better grace at Munda than at Utica. This censure, it must be owned, has the appearance of being just, if we consider it only in respect to the event ; but if there had been a real foimdation for the reproach, it can scarce be supposed that it should have escaped every one of the ancient writers who speak of ttiis illustrious Roman's exit ; and that CicorOj in particular, who most certainly did not love Cato, should have made an honour- able exception of his death, out of that list which ho hero condemns. It is true the republican party, after the defeat of Scipio in Africa, made a very powerful struggle against Cfesar under the command of yoimg Pompey in Spain. But it is highly probable that there was not the least rational expectation of this circumstance, when Cato thought it became him to put an ond to his life. For it appears from Plutarch that he would have defended Utica to the last, if he could have persuaded the principal Romans in that garrison to have supported him ; and it was not till after all bis remonstrances for that purpose proved utterly ineffectual, and that he had secured the retreat of those who did not choose to surrender them- selves to Cssar, that this exemplary patriot fell upon his own sword. Thus died this truly great and virtuous Roman ! He had long stood forth the sole uncorrupted opposer of those vices that proved the ruin of this degene- rate commonwealth, and supported, as far as a single arm could support, the declining constitution. But when his services could no farther avail, he scorned to smwive what had been the labour of his whole life to preserve, and bravely perished with the liberties of his country. This is the purport of that noble eulogy which Seneca, in much stronger language, has justly bestowed upon Cato :— " Ad- versus vitia degenerantis, civitatis (says he), stetit, solus, et cadentem rempublicam, quantum,modo una retrahi manu poterat, retinuit ; donee comitem se diu sustentatse i-uinse dedit : simulque extincta sunt qux nefas erat dividi. Neque enimCato post libertatem, visit, nee libertas postCatonem." —Lord Bolingbroke's Letter on Patriotism, p. 36 ; Plut. in Vit. Caton ; Senec. De Constant. Sapient. 2. ^ The only necessity which Cato was under of putting an end to his life, arose from that uniform opposition he had given to the dangerous designs of the conqueror ; and it must be allowed ^at Cicero took sufficient care not to fall under the same. i A mere English reader will bo sm-prised to hear Cicero talk of eloquence as an exercise* There is nothing indeed mission of exercises of this kind, but also to my oratorical talents, if any I ever possessed, which would have totally lost their vigour if I had not had recourse to this method of keeping them in play. The last benefit I shall mention (and the principal one, I dare say, in your estimation) is, that it has' introduced me to the demolishing of a gi'eater number of delicious peacocks'* than you have had the devouring of paltry pigeons in all your life. The truth of it is, whilst you are humbly sipping the meagre broths of the sneaking Aterius, I am luxuriously regaling myself with the savoury soups of the magnificent Hirtius. If you have any spirit, then, fly hither, and learn, from our elegant bills of fare, how to refine your own : though, to do your talents justice, this is a sort of knowledge in which you are much superior to our instructions. However, since you can get no purchasers for your mortgages, and are not likely to fill those pitchers you mention with denarii*, it will be your wisest scheme to return hither ; for it is a better thing, let me tell you, to be sick with good eating at' Rome, than for want of victuals at Naples™. In short, I plainly perceive that your fmances are in no flourishing situation ; and I expect to hear the same account of aU your neighbours : so that famine, my friend, most formidable famine, must be your fate, if you do not provide against it in due time. And since you have been reduced to sell your horse, s'en mount your mule (the only animal, it seems, belonging to you which you have not yet sacrificed to your table), and convey your- self immediately to Rome. To encourage you to do so, you shall be honoured with a chair and cushion next to mine, and sit the second great pedagogue in my celebrated school. Farewell. more indolent and immovable than a British orator : for if he ventures into action, his gestures are generally such as would render the finest speech that Demosthenes or Cicero ever delivered absolutely powerless or ridiculous. *' You may see many a smart rhetorician (says the inimitable Mr. Addison) turning his hat in his hands, moulding it into several different cocks, examining sometimes the lining and sometimes the button, during the whole course of his harangue. A deaf man would think he was cheap- ening a beaver ; w'hen, perhaps, be is talking of the fate of the British nation." But among the orators of Greece and Rome it was far otherwise : they studied the eloquence of action as much as that of diction, and their rhetoricians have laid do^vn rules for the graceful management of the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and the feet, which were each of them engaged by turns in the emphatical exercise of ancient elocution. — Spectator, vL p. 50 ; Quint, xi. 3. k This bird was esteemed by the Romans amongst the most refined delicacies of the table, and no entertainment was thought completely elegant where a peacock did not make one of the dishes. Thy bore a most incredible price : Varro assures us that a hundred peacocks produced to the owner the annual profit of about three hundred pounds sterling. — ^Var. De Re Rustic, iii, 6. 1 The denarius was a silver coin, equivalent to about eight-'pence of our money. Cicero's raillery alludes to the loss which Pffitijs had suffered by the late edict of Caesar concerning debtors ; of which an account has been given in rem. ', p. 483. >n Pffitus had a house in Naples, where he appears ta. have been when this letter was written. 4S6 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XXin. To the same. Your saCirical humour, I find, has not yet forsaken you ; and I perfectly well understand A u. 707 y*"" ■'^il'sry, when you gravely tell me that Balbus contented himself with your humble fare. You insinuate, I suppose, that sinc6 these our sovereign* rulers are thus wonderfully temperate, much more does it become a discarded consular" to practise the same abstemiousness. But do you know, my friend, that I have artfully drawn from Balbus himself the whole history of the reception you gave him .' He came directly to my house the moment he arrived in Rome : a circumstance, Ijy the way, somewhat extraordinary. Not that I am surprised at his wanting the polite- ness to call first at yours ; but my wonder is, that he should not go directly to his own". However, after the two or three first salutations had passed, ■ I immediately inquired what account he had to give of my friend Faetus. " Never (he protested) was he better entertained in his whole life." Now, if you merited this compliment by your wit, I desire you to remember that I shsdL bring as elegant a taste with me as Balbus himself But if he alluded to the honours of your table, let it never be said that the family of the stammerers" were more splendidly regaled by Psetus than the sons of elocution. Business has prevented me, from time to time, in my design of paying you a visit : but if I can despatch my affairs, so as to be able to come into your part of the world, 1 shall take care that you shall have no reason to complain of my not having given you timely notice. Farewell. LETTER XXIV. To the same. Abe you not a pleasant mortal to question me concerning the fate of those estates ■■ you mention, ^07 ^^^^ Balbus had just before been payitig ■ yoa a Visit ? It iB from him, indeed, that I derive my whole fund of intelligence ; and you ttiay be assured, that where h6 is ignorant, I have no chance of being better informed. I might with much more propriety desire you would tell me what is likely to be the fate of my own possessions, since * Balbus was a sort of prime minister and cliief confidant of CceBar. ^ The consiilars were tliose who had passed through the office of consul. " There is undoubtedly some raillery in this passage, either upon PeetusorBalhus;'but, it is impossible todiscover of what nature, as it alludes to circumstances utterly unknown. In the oi"iginal it Is, •* ne pluris esse BaXbos, quam disertos putes : " a witticism which could not possibly be preserved in the translation. For it turns upon the equi- vocal sense of the word BalbuSt which was not only the name of the person of whom Cicero is speaking, but signi- fies likewise a man who labours imder that defect of speech called stuttering. P Probably the estates of the Pompeians that lay about Naples, where Paetus seems to have been when this letter was written. It appears that Fsetus had been alarmed with a rumour that Caesar intended to seize these estates, and therefore had applied to Cicero to learn the truth of this report. you have so lately had n person's uiider your roof, from whom, either in or out of his cups, you might certainlyhave discovered that secret. But this, my dear Peetus, is an article that makes no part of my inquiry ; for, in the first place, I have reason to be well satisfied, having now almost these four years' been indulged with my life, if life or indulgence it maybe called,to be the sad survivorof our country's ruin. In the next place, I believe it is a question I may easily answer myself. For I know it will be just as it shall seem meet to the men in power ; and the m«n in power, my friend, will ever be those whose swords are the mOst prevailing. I must rest con- tented, therefore, with'whatever grace it shall be their pleasure to show me ; for he who could not tamely Submit to such wretched terms ought to have taken refuge in the arms of death. Notwith- standing, therefore, that the estates about Veil and Capena " are actually dividing out, (and these, you know, are not far distant from Tusculum',) yet it gives me no sort of disquietude. I enjoy my pro- perty whilst I may, and please myself with the hope that I shall never be deprived of that privilege. But should it happeti otherwise, still, however, since it was my noble maxim (hero and philosopher as I was) that life is the fairest of all possessions, I cannot, undoubtedly, but love the man" by whose bounty I have obtained the continuance of that enjoyment. It is certain, at the same time, that how much soever he may be disposed, perhaps, to restore the republic (as we ought all of us most certainly to wish), yet he has entangled himself in such a variety of different connexions, that he is utterly embarrassed in what manner to act. But this is going farther into these points than is neces- sary, considering the person to whom I am writing. Nevertheless, I will add, that our chief himself is as absolutely ignorant what measures will finally be resolved upon, as I am, who have no share in bis coantsils. For Caesar is no less under the control of eircumstances than we are Under (he control of Ctesar ; and it is as much impossible Tor him to foresee what these may require, as it is for us to penetrate into what he may intend. You must not impute it to neglect (a fault, you are sensible, of which I am seldom guilty io the article of writing) that I have not said thus much to you before. The single reason for my not sooner answering your inquiry was, that as I could only speak from conjecture, I was unwilling, without a just foundation, either to increase your fears, or to encourage your hopes. But this I can with truth assure you, that I have not heard the"least bint of Q Balbus, r One of the commentators, who conceals -his true name under that of Raga&onius, collects from this passage, that the present letter was wrioten A. U. 707; whereas it seems to prove, on the contrary, that lis date cannot be pteced earlier tiuin the year 709. For Cicero appears, evidently, to allude to the paMon he had received from Casar. Now this could not have been till after the battle of Phars^fia, A. U. 705 ; and the fourth year from that period brings us down to 709. In tire beginning, therefore, ct that year, this letter ought to have been placed ; but the error of its present situation was not discovered till it was too iate to be rectified. " Veil and Capena were cities in that part (rf Italy called Etruria, which is now comprehended under the name o( Tuaoany. * "Where Cicero had a villa. " Coisar. To SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. Pit he danger you apprehend. A man of your pMlo- >ophy, however, ought to hope for the best, to be prepared for the worst, and to bear with equaniiiiity irhatever may happen. Farewell. LETTER XXV. To the same. YooR letter gave me a double pleasure : for it not only diverted me extremely, but was a proof, , »„ likewise, that you are so well recovered as to be able to indulge yoiu: usual gaiety. I was well contented, at the same time, to find myself the subject of your raillery ; and, in truth, the repeated provocations I had given you were sufficient to call forth all the severity of your satire. My only regret is, that I am prevented from taking ray intended journey into your part of the world, where I purposed to have imade myself, I do not say your guest, but one of your family. You would have found me wonderfully changed from the man I formerly was, when you used to cram me with your cloying antepasts'. For I now more prudently sit down to table vrith an appetite altogether unim- paired, and most heroically make my way through every dish that comes before me, from the eg-g" that leads the van, to the roast veal that brings up the rear". The temperate and unexpensive guest whom yott were wont to applaud is now no more : I have hidden a total farewell to all the cares of the patriot, and have joined the professed enemies of my former principles ; in short, I am become an absolute Epicurean. You are by no means, how- ever, tO'Consider me as a friend to that injudicious profusion which is now the prevailing taste of our modern entertainments : on the contrary, it is that more elegant luxury I admire which you formerly used to display when your finances were most flourishing?, though your farms were not more numerous than at present. Be prepared, therefore, for my reception accordingly ; and remember you are to entertain a man who has not only a most enormous appetite, but who has some little know- ledge,, let me tell you, in the science of elegant eating. You know there is a peculiar air of self- sufficiency that generally distinguishes those who enter late into the study of any art. You will not wonder, therefore, when I take up,on me to inform you, that you must banish your cakes and your sweetmeats, as articles that are now utterly dis- > The inhabitants of Latium, a part of My which is now called the Campagna di Roma. They obtained the honour and advantage of being made free of Rome, towards the close of the Italic war, A. U. 664.— See rem. «, p. 349 j Pigh. Annal. ii. 226. ' C«sar, in the wantonness of his ptfwBT, had lately ad- mitted several of the Oauls into the privileges of Roman citizens, and had even introduced some of them to a seat in the senate. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caea. 76. J It is diilioult, if not altogether impossible, to deter- mine, with any precision, what it was that distinguished the spirit of this true old Roman wit and humour which Cioero here represents as almost entirely extinct. But, in general, as far as can be coUeoted from other parts of our author's writings, it seems to have consisted in what they call urbanity : a term, however, which they themselves did not well know how to explain. For wbeu Brutus, in TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 496 lis reason, whenever I converse with you, I nagine myself transported back into former times, nd to be talking with the Granii, the Lucilii, or, 1 truth, even with the Crassi and the Lselii of Id**, There is not a single person, indeed, except ourself, in whom I can discover the least vein of tat original spirit which so agreeably distinguished he pleasantry of our forefathers. But since to hese uncommon charms of wit, you add the ttractions, likewise, of so singular a friendship owards myself, can you wonder tliat I wa3 greatly larmed at your late very dangerous iiidisposi- ionl As to your other letter, in which you acquit rourself of all intention to dissuade me from my !^eapolitan purchase^ and the assurance you give ne that you only meant to advise my continuance n Rome, I understood you in no other sense. But I suppose (and your letter now before me soufirms the supposition) that you did not agree vith me in thinking I might be justified, I will not lay in wholly renouncing, but in seldom taking a part in public affairs. With this view I imagine it was, that you reminded me of those times in erhich Catulus acted so distinguished a parf". the dialogue concerning the most celebrated orators, in- quires, '* Qui est iste, tandem urbanitatis color?" Cicero replies, " Nescio, inqoam. Tantum esse quendam scio." Nevertheless, it appears, hy what he immediately subjoins, to have resulted frcon a certain refinement of expression and elegancy of pronunciation which was to be found on^y E^ongst the most polite and cultivated natives of Rome. Perhaps, therefore, it -was this inexplicable grace of lan- guage and utterance that was infected by the admission of these strangers into Rome ; who, probably, had intro- duced, among the little pretenders to wit ^d humour, a foreign tone of voice, together with ^n exotic turn of phraseology. A prevailing fashion of this kind would necessarily extinguish that spirit which seasoned the old Homan pleasantry with a nescio quo gapore vernaculo (as Cicero somewhere calls it), a certain exquisite taste and flavour peculiar to its native soiL — Cic. de Clar. Orator. 170, et seq. ^ The several persons here mentioned werp celebrated wits, who flourished about the time that Cicero was born, that is, in the consulate of C. Atilius Serranus and Q,. Ser- vilius Csepio, TT. C. 647- The re^^ef has already had some account of Lxlius in rem. ', p. 334. Crassus was the most diHtingnished orator of his times, and signalised h|s eloquence when he was only twenty-one years of age, at the trial of C. Carbo, who was concerned in the disturb- ances ^hich were raised by the Gracchi. Lucilius was a Roman knight, and great-uncle to Pompey. He consider- ably improved upon that kind of satirical poetry, which received its utmost perfe.ction in the following century from the hands of Horace. Some fragments of his writings still remain. Granius was a person pf low rank ; beip^ only a praeco, or sort of crier, in the coiu-ts of justice. Wcero, however, has immortalised his memory 'by the i^equent encomiums he passes upon the singular elegance and pleasantry of his wit and humour. — Cic. de Clar. Orator. 1*58, 169, &c. ; Dacier, Pr^f. siu: les Sat. d'Horace, V. 10. * See the last paragraph pf letter 20, book viii. ^ Q. li. Catulus was consul in the year 675, mid died about the year 693 : during which period he had many opportunities of exerting his patriotism, by rising up against the gradual encroachments of Pomp^ and Caesar i^jon the public liberiy. Thus he oppo8e4, with a spirit worthy the best times of ancient Rome, that unlimited and unconstitutional commission which was granted to Pompey under a pretence of the piratic wax ; and rendered himself so gloriously obnoxious to Caesar, that the latter endeavom-ed, though unsuccesefully, to blast his weU- establiBhed credit by aa impeaphment for embezzling the But tell me, my fiiend, what resemblance is there between those days and the present ? • I was, at that period, far from being inclined to absent myself from the care of the republic, as I then sat at the helm of the commonwealth, and shared in the direction of its most important motions". But now I can scarce claim the privilege to officiate even in the lowest functions of the state. Were I to reside, therefore, altogether at Naples, would there be a single decree of the senate the less by my absence ? On the contrary, though I live in S'Ome, and appear publicly in the forum, they are settled by our friend" in his own house, entirely without my participation. If I happen, however, to occur to his memory, he sometimes does me the honour to prefix my nameP. Accordingly, I am often informed, from Syria and Armenia, that a decree of the senate is published in those pro- vinces, and published, too, as made on my motion, of which I had never heard the least mention before. You will suspect, perhaps, that I am not serious ; but, he assured, I speak the literal truth. I have at this instant letters in my possession from the remotest potentates of the globe, returning me thanks for havipg procured them an acknowledg- ment of thejr regal title from the senate's : when I was so fi^r from knowing they were honoured with that appellation, that I was utterly ignorant there were any sijch persons e:$isting. Nevertheless, as long as this swperintendant of our manners^ shall continue in Rome, 1 will comply with your advice ; but the moment he leaves us^, I shall certainly set out to join you oyer a plate of mnshrooms'. If I can procijre a housp at Naples, it is my purpose, pi^blic treasure. In short, the welfare of his country was the great and constant object of his unwearied labours ; in which he persevered with a zeal and resolution which no fears or hopes could shake, and which Cato, of all his contfemporariee, seems alone to have equalled-— Pigh. Annal. ii. 279 ; DaP> xxxyi- p. 18, 49, 50 ; Orat. pro Sext. 47: n TJ^ consulate of Cicero fell within the period meu-^ tioned in the preceding remark ; t}iat is, in the year 690. o Caesar. P It was usual, in drawing up the decrees of the senate, to prefix the names of those senators who were principally concerned in promoting them. 9 It was the ambition of &reign princes to obtain an aclqnowleidgn^cnt of tjieir regal tttl^ from the seuate, and to be declared fiie;nds jand allies of the republic ; an honour which, in the mor^ regular times of the Roman govern- ment, was but rarely granted, and only in consideration of some signal services. But in that general corruption which preceded the ruin of the commonwealth, this honour became venal, as it supplied a very plentiful stream of wealth to those leading men in the state who were not ashamed to prostitute the most sacred privileges to l^eir insatiable avarice. Caesar, in particular, drew immense riches from this single sotu-ce ; a strong instance of which has already beai produced in rem. », p. 344 ; Cses. De Bell. Gall. i. 43; Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cas. 54. ? This title had lately been 4ecreed to Caesar, by which he was invested with all the power of the censorial office, without the name. It does not appear for what reason he chose this appellation rather than that of censor. Some have supposed that it was from an affectation of modesty ; but they who assign this reason seem to forget that Csesar did not blush to be associated with the gods in the public worship of his degenerate Romans.— Suet, in Vit Jul. Cass. 76 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. iii. p. 494. B Caesar was at this time preparing to set out upon hia expedition against the twQ sons of Pompey, who had assembled a very considerable army in Spain, t This dish was in great esteem among the Romans, ' 490 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO you must know, to live so abstemiously, that what our late sumptuary law*^ allows for one day's expense shall suffice me for ten. But if I cannot meet with one to my satisfaction, I intend to be your guest ; and I am sure it is not in ray power to oblige you more. Though I mentioned iu my last that I almost despaired of Sylla's house, yet Ihave not absolutely given up all thoughts of that purchase. Agreeably therefore to your offer, I beg you would take some •workmen with you in order to survey it ; for if the walls and roof are in a good repair, I shall perfectly well approve of all the rest. Farewell. / LETTER Xn. To Trehonius* Though I had always a great affection for Dolabella, yet I never received any favour from him till now. liideed, he never before A. u. 7 v. jjg^jj ^^ opportunity of repaying those good offices he owed me for having more than once stood forth in his defence. But his late zeal in protecting your estate, together with his present assistance in promoting your restoration, have so abundantly satisfied every claim I have to. his services, that there is no man to whom I think myself more strongly obliged. I take so sincere a part with you in the joy of this event, that in- stead of yourthanks, I expect your congratulations. The former, indeed, I by no means desire ; but the latter you may, with great propriety, send me. Since your distiiiguished merit has thus removed aJl obstructions to your return, itwiU be agreeable to your good sense and greatness of mind, to forget all that you have lost, and reflect only on the advantages you have recovered. You will remember, then, that you are restored to your family and to your friends ; and that whatever you have suffered in your estate is considerably overbalanced by the glory you have acquired; which, I am. persuaded, would be still more acceptable to you if the republic had in any degree subsisted. I have received a letter from my friend Vestorius, wherein he informs me of the grateful mention you make of my services. I am extremely obliged to you for your professions of this kind in general, but particularly for those you expressed to our friend Syro^ ; as I am greatly desirous to approve my conduct upon all occasions to every sensible and judicious man. I hope to see you very soon, Farewell. « This law was enacted by Caesar soon after liis return from the African war. It regulated the expenses of the Romans, not only with regard to their tables, but also their dress, equipage, furniture, and buildings. But Cffisar seems to have found it a much easier task to corrupt than to reform ; for though he was very desirous of enforcing this salutary law, yet it appears to have been extremely ill observed.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Csbs. 43 ; Ad Att. xiii. 7. V A celebrated Epicurean philosopher, who is said to have been Vu-gil's preceptor. LETTER Xin. To Marcus Srutus^o I AM persuaded that your quaestor, Marcus Varro'', who is setting out to attend you, needs no recommendation to your favour ; for I A. V. 707. ^Qu^t not that, in conformity to the maxims of our forefathers, you look upon his office as giving him a sufficient title to your regard. And I need not tell yon, that it was the policy of ancient times to consider the relation between a proconsul and his queestor, as next to that of a father and son. However, as Varro imagines that a letter from me will have great weight, and has pressed me to write to you in the strongest terms, I willingly perform an office which he believes will prove so much to his advantage. That you may be sensible I ought not to refuse this request, I must inform you that he cultivated my friendship from his first appearance in the forum ; as, in his more mature years, two circumstances concurred which extremely increased the affection I had con- ceived for him : the one, that he distinguished himself, as you. well know, with great genius and application j.n that persuasive art in which I still take particular pleasure ; the other, that he early became a member of the society for farming the public revenues. I vrish, indeed, that he had never embarked in their concerns, as he has been a considerable sufferer by his engagements of this sort. However, his union with a company for whose interests I have so great a regard was one means of more strongly cementing our friendship. w Marcus Brutus was nephew to Cato, whosa virtues he had the just ambition to copy. He seems, however, in some points, to have fallen short of the model he proposed to imitate ; as he by no means acted up to that inflexible uniformity of conduct which renders the character of Cato so gloriously singular. Thus, though Brutus, at the battle of Pharsalia, engaged on the side of Pompey, yet, imme- diately after the unsuccessful event of that action, he not only made his peace with Caesar, but was ^Tilling to con- tribute to the niin of that cause in which he had so lately engaged. For when Caisar ^vas doubtful what route Pompey had taken in his flight, it was by the advice and J information of Brutus that he followed him into Egypt. Cffisar, just before he set out for Africa, appointed Brutus governor of Cisalpine Gaul, which he administered with great moderation and integrity. It was during his resi- dence in this province, that the present and following letters addressed to him in this book appear to have been written. — Plut. in Vit. Brut. ^ Some of the commentators have supposed that this is the celebrated Marcus Terentius Varro, to whom several letters in the preceding book are a,ddressed. But Cellwius has justly observed, that the age and dignity of that illus- trious Roman render it highly improbable he should at this time have been qusestor to Brutus, who was a much younger man than himself. Perhaps the pereon recom- mended in this letter is the same whom Horace mentions as an unsuccessful adventurer in satiric poetry :— " Hoc erat, experto fnistra Varrone Atacino, Atque quibusdam aliis, melius puod scribere possem." Sat. x.lib.i.4& For the commentators upon these lines inform us, that the poet here spoken of was Terentius Van'O, a native of the city of ^(aa:, in the Narhonensian Gaul, from which he was called Atacinus, and who was bom in theyeai* of Rome 673. He must, consequently, in the present year have been thirty-four, which perfectly well coincides with tfao age one may justly suppose the person to have been in whose favom' this letter is ^vritten^ TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 497 After having acted with the highest integrity and applause, both as an advocate and a judge, he turned his ambition (long indeed before this revo- lution in the commonwealth had taken place) upon obtaining some employment in the magistracy ; and he esteemed the honours of this kind, which his country should confer upon him, as the noblest reward ofall his former services. During my late residence at Brundisium', he obligingly charged himself with carrying a letter and a message from me to Caesar ; and he gave me a very strong proof of his affection, in the zeal and fidelity with which he undertook and executed this generous com- mission. I purposed, after having thus assigned the reasons which induce me to give Varro my friendship, to have particularly pointed out the virtues of his heart; but I think I must have sufficiently rendered you sensible of these, by declaring upon what motives he has so strongly engaged my affection. Nevertheless, I will here, in a more distinct and explicit manner, assure yon, that you will receive much satisfaction and advantage from the company and assistance of my friend. You will find him, indeed, to be a man of singular modesty and good sense, as well as of indefatigable application to business, at the same time that he is an entire stranger to immoderate desires of every kind. I know not whether I ought to promise thus far in his behalf, as his character, after all, must be referred to your own experience. But in forming new connexions of every sort, it is of much im- portance in what manner the first approaches are made, and by whose hands the avenues of friendship (if I may so express myself) are laid open. It is this office that I have here undertaken ; and though the employment in which Varro stands related to you may well render my services unnecessary, yet they certainly cannot render them prejudicial. If, then, I possess that share in your esteem which Varro imagines, and which I myself am persuaded 1 enjoy, let me soon have the satisfaction of hearing that my friend has received all the advantages from this letter that are agreeable to his own hopes, and to my firm expectations. Farewell. LETTER XIV. To Ligarius'. Though, agreeably to the friendship which subsists between us, I ought to have offered you . either assistance or consolation under • '"'• your misfortunes j yet I have hitherto forborne writing, in the belief that it was not in the power of mere words to remove or alleviate your afflictions. But, as I have now reason to entertain the strongest hopes of shortly seeing you restored to your country, I cannot any longer omit to y Cicero, upon his return to Italy, after the battle of Pliarsalia, resided at Brundisium till Caesar's arrival. ' Qulntus Ligarius was lieutenant to C. Considius, pro- consul of Africa, in the year 703 ; in which post he gained the general esteem of the whole province. Accordingly, at their unanimous request, Considius, upon his departure for Home, resigned the administration into the hands of liigarius. During his residence in that station, the civil war broke out ; and he was at this time suffering exile, for having acted upon that occasion on tlie side of Pompey. — Orat, pro Ligar. 1 ; see rem, s on letter 26 of this boolc. acquaint you with my sentiments and inclinatioa concerning your affairs. In the first place, then, I am well convinced that you will by no means find Csesar inexorable. The situation of public circum- stances, a regard to his character in the world, length of time, together with what appears to me to be his natural temper, these all concur to soften his resentment every day more and more. This, I imagine, will appear to be his disposition towards all in general who have offended him ; but that it is particularly so with respect to yourself, I will assure you upon the authority of his most intimate friends. I have never ceased to solicit them in your behalf ever since we received the first nowg from Africa" : and your brothers have, with equal assiduity, joined me in these applications. Their virtues, indeed, together with that affectionate and unwearied zeal with which they enter into your cause, are so extremely engaging, that I am per- suaded even Csesar himself cannot refuse anything to their requests'. But if we do not advance with all the expedition we wish, it must be imputed to those numberless and important occupations which render Csesar difficult of access ; as it is to him alone that every suit is now preferred. To this I must add, that as he was particularly incensed by the late war fomented against him in Africa, he was inclined to keep those so much longer in snspense concerning their fate, to whom he imagines it was owing that he had so many additional difficulties to encounter. But his resentment, even upon this article also, appears evidently to be cooling ; and I desire yon would both believe and remember the assurance I here give you, that you will soon be removed from your present uneasy situation. Having thus acquainted you with my sentiments of your affairs, I had rather leave it to my actions than professions, to declare how much I wish to assist you in them. Let me assure you, however, if I possessed that influence in the commonwealth which you are pleased to think I have merited by my services, you should have no reason to regret your present circumstances. — But, alas ' the same cause for which you are suffering in your person, has impaired me in my credit. But whatever remains to me of my former authority j whatever shadow still attends me of that dignity I once enjoyed ; .in a word, as far as my advice, my assistance, or my interest can avail, they shall, upon all occasions, be faithfully employed in seconding the pious zeal of your excellent brothers. In the mean time, preserve that manly composure of mind which you have always possessed. You ought to do so, indeed, in the first place, for the reasons I have already assigned ; and in the next, because your public conduct has ever been such as to afford you a just ground to entertain the most favourable hopes. But were your prospect entirely the reverse, yet a consciousness of the integrity of all your counsels and actions, with regard to the commonwealth, should enable you to support the worst that can happen with a firm and unshaken fortitude. Farewell. » Concerning Casar's victory over Scipio. b The two brothers of Ligarius seem to have stood neuters in the civil war. But one of them had something more than a mere negative merit to plead, as he had distin- guished himself, during his quKstorsWp, by promoting the honours and interest of Csesar.— Orat. pro Ligar. 12. 408 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XV. To Marcus Brutus. I HAVE always had the satisfaction to observe, that you were particularly inquisitive into every A u 707 circumstance relating to me. I doubt not, therefore, of your being apprised, not only that Arpinum is the place of my nativity, but that, upon all occasions, I zealously patronise the interests of this city. The whole of their revenues for religious purposes, as also for the repairs of their temples and other public buildings, arises entirely from their estates in GauL Accordingly, we have despatched Quintus Fufidius, Marcus Faucius, and Quintus Mamercus, each of them persons of equestrian rank, in order to collect the rents, and to inspect our affairs in that province. I therefore recommend them to your particular protection, entreating you, by our mutual friend- ship, to assist them in the speedy and successful discharge of their commission, and to distinguish their persons, agreeably to your usual politeness, vpith every possible mark of honour. You will, by these means, add three very worthy men to the number of your friends, as well as oblige a com- munity extremely sensible of the good offices they receive. Let me add, too, you will perform a service highly acceptable also to myself ; who, as I have at all times stood forth the patron of the Arpinates, am in a more especial manner engaged to take their interests under my protection during the present year. For, in order to the better government of this corporation, I have procured my son and nephew, together with my friend Marcus Cassius, to be chosen aediles ; the only magistrates which our city admits. It will be much, therefore, to the credit of their administration, as weU as a particular honour to myself, if the affairs of this community, during their office, should, by the assistance of your generous services, be placed in a more advantageous posture. For which pur- pose I must again most earnestly conjure you to comply with my present request. Farewell. LETTER XVL To the same. I HAVE, in a separate letter, recommended to you, with all possible warmth, the commissaries A u 707 *PP°i'ite'i ^1 tli6 city of Arpinum. But 'I shall here single out one of them in particular, and desire your peculiar regards to Q. Fufidius, a person with whom I am united by every friendly tie. I do not mean, however, by thus distinguishing him from the rest, to lessen the weight of my general recommendation, but only to add this as a sort of supplement to what I have there requested. Fufidius, who is son-in-law to my particular friend Marcus Csesius, acted under me in CUicia, in quality of military tri- bune ; and he acquitted himself so much to my satisfaction, that I had reason to think I received a favour, instead of bestowing one, when I nomi- nated him to that employment. To this I must add, what I know will considerably raise him in your esteem, that he has a taste and genius for our favourite studies. Let me entreat you, then, to Feceive my friend with the ipost distinguishing marks of your politeness, and to assist him in the more effectual discharge of an office which he accepted merely in compliance with my persuasions, and contrary to his own convenience. But as it is the ambition of every man of a generous mind to be approved in all his actions, Fufidius is desirous of executing this commission in such a manner as to merit not only my applause in particular, who engaged him to undertake it, but that, likevrise, of our whole community, in general. Now this he will undoubtedly receive, if my recommendation should procure him your friendly offices. Farewell. LETTER XVII. To Servius Sulpicius. The excuse you allege for so frequently sending me duplicates of your letters, I very readUy admit j hQ- so far, I mean, as it relates to your cau- tion of guarding against the negligence or treachery of those who undertake to deliver them. But when you add, that a poverty of genius likewise (to use your own expression) obliges you to this continual repetition, it is an apology I can neither approve nor allow. On the contrary, I who am enriched, as you ironically tell me (for in that sense 1 understand your compli- ment) with all the treasures of eloquence, and who, in good earnest, do not think myself wholly destitute of them ; even I am far from pretending to equal'the delicacy and elegance of your compo- sitions. I always approved of your having accepted the government of Achaia ; but much more so after I had read your last letter. The several reasons you mention are every one of them perfectly just, and altogether worthy of that prudence and dignity which distinguishes your character. But I can by no means agree with you in (^linking that this affair has proved so different from ^at you expected as to give you just occasion to condemn the step you have taken. The truth of it is, the dreadful con- fusion and desolation which this detestable civil war has universally spread, inclines every man ta imagine that both himself, and the scene in which he happens to be placed, are, of all others, the most completely miserable. Hence it is that you repent of the choice you have made, and look upon us as much happier who remain at Rome ; whereas we, on the contrary, though we do not suppose your situation is wholly without its inconveniences, yet think it greatly preferable to our own. In one respect I am sure it is so, as you have at least the happiness of daring to write your complaints j which is more than we can do with any safety. This, however, is not to be imputed to the con- queror, who conducts himself, it must be acknow- ledged, with the utmost moderation ; but is entirely owing to that general spirit of insolence which victory, in all civil wars, never fails to inspire. The single point in which our situation can pretend to have had the advantage of yours, is, that It gave us the satisfaction not only of knowing somewhat earlier than you could, that your colleague Mar- cellus= has obtained his pardon, but of being witnesses in what manner that whole affair was <= SiUpicius and Marcellus were coUeagues in the officeof ponsul.— ^n. Urb. 702. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 499 conducted. For, be assured, it is the only honour- able transaction of a public nature that has passed amongst us since the breaking out of this calami- tous civil war. Csesar, after having complained of the acrimony (as he called it) with which Marcellus had opposed him, and mentioned, with the highest applause, the equity and pi-udence of your conduct in the same conjuncture^, on a sudden, and much beyond our expectations, declared, that notwith- standing he had so much reason to complain of Marcellus, he could not refuse to pardon him at the general request of the senate. For I should have told you, that as soon as Lucius Piso had mentioned in the senate the affair of Marcellus, and his relation Caius Marcellus had thrown him- self at Ctesar's feet, the whole house unanimously rose up, and approaching towards Csesar, joined in one common intercession. In short, there was something so truly gloiious in the transaction of that day, that I could not but look upon it as a sort of symptom that the republic was again reviving. All the senators who had been asked' their opinion 'before me, severally returned their acknowledgments to Csesar, except Volcatius', who declared that he would not have made them, even if he had been in the place of Marcellus himself. But when it came to my turn, I instantly changed a resolution which I had long formed. I had de- termined, not from indolence, beUeve me, but as being sensible of the want of that authority which once attended my eloquence, to preserve a perpe- tual silence in public. But the greatness of mind which Csesar discovered upon this occasion, toge- ther with that noble zeal which broke forth at the same time in the senate, entirely overcame the strength of my resolution, and I addressed my acknowledgments to Csesar in a long harangue^. This, I- fear, may prove the occasioi;, in other instances, of drawing me out from that literary retirement, which affords the single consolation I receive under our general misfortunes. Never- theless, since I have, by this means, avoided giving Offisar offence, who, perhaps, would have inter- ^ That is, during the consulate of Sulpicius and Mar- cellus. See an account of his conduct at this critical period, in rem. ', J7. 454. E When a question was moved in the senate, the meUiod of debating upon it was, that the consul, after having delivered his own opinion, proceeded to ask the opinions of all the other senators severally by name, and in their proper order ; beginning always with thp consulars, and going on to the praetorians, &c. — Mid. on the B, S. p. 1.50. ' Probably the person here mentioned is Lucius Vol- catius TuUus, who was consul in the year 687. The noble spirit which he showed upon this occasion, in scorning to thank Ctesar for what the usurper ought to have had no power to bestow, Ayas worthy of the best ages of the republic : and though Cicero speaks of it without the least approbation, it was the only circumstance in this business that merited his applause. For must it not have affected a true patriot with the utmost concern and indignation, to see the Roman senate, that august council of the whole world (as Ciceio himself has somewhere called it), humbly supplicating, at the feet of Csesar, for the restoration of one of the most illustrious citizens of the commonwealth ? E This speech la still extant : and perhaps'it is one of the noblest monuments that remains of the grace and energy of ancient eloquence. It abounds with the most spirited and best-tumed compliments that wit ever paid to power : for which the severest patriotism could scarce condemn .Cicero, as they all artfully tend to induce Csesar to restore the republic. preted my silence into - proof that I considered the republic as no longer subsisting, I shall now and then resume this practice : I shall resume it, however, extremely seldom, and only just enough to comply with his inclinations, without interrupt- ing my philosophical studies. For though I was early devoted to all the liberal arts and sciences, and particularly to philosophy, yet I find my passion for her growing stili stronger upon me every day I live : perhaps it is because age has rendered me more mature for the lessons of wisdom, and that the misery of the times has deprived me of every other relief. I perceive by your letters that you are called off by numberless occupations from studies of this kind : I hope, however, that the long nights vrill now afford you some leisure to resume them. Your son (and let me call him also mine) dis- tinguishes me with great marks of his consideration ; as in return 1 admire him not only for his probity and virtue, but for his learning and genius. He frequently confers with me in relation to your resigning, or continuing in your government ; and I still remain in the same opinion, that we should neither of us take any measures but such as shall be perfectly agreeable to Csesar. Affairs are so situated at Rome, that you could find no other satisfaction in being here than what would arise from enjoying the company of your friends and family. For though Caesar's conduct is imexcep- tionable, yet with respect to all the rest, both of persons and circumstances, I am sure you would much rather (if one or other must necessarily be your choice) receive an account of them from others than be a spectator of them yourself. When I say this, it is in preference of your interest to my own ; as upon all other considerations I am extremely desirous of seeing you amongst us. Farewell. LETTER XVin. To Marcus Brutus. Lccins Castronius P.etus is by far the most considerable person in the city of Lucca ; but not ~if. more distinguished, however, by his birth ■ ' ' and rank, than by the solidity of his un- derstanding, and the friendliness of his disposition. In one word, he is in every respect a most worthy man. I might add, too, (if it were of any import- ance to his character,) that he is not only conspi- cuous for his eminent virtues, but for his affluent fortunes. I converse with him upon terms of the most unreserved intimacy ; and, indeed, there is no man of senatorian rank whom he treats with greater marks of esteem. I therefore recommend him to you, not only as my friend, but as worthy of being yours. And I am very sure, that what- ever service you shall render him will afford a satisfaction to yourself, as well as confer an obliga- tion upon me. Farewell. K Ka 60O THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XIX. To Marcus Marcellus. I SENT you a long letter'', a very few days ago, by Quintius Mucius ; wherein I fully explained ^ J, yoy my sentiments with respect to the dispo- sition and conduct which I thought would became you in the present conjuncture. Never- theless, as your freedman Theophilus (of whose faithful affection towards you I have been a witness) is setting out for Greece, I was unwilling he should wait upon you without bringing a letter from me. To repeat what I urged in my last ; let me again most earnestly exhort you, whatever the form of our government be, to return to Rome as soon as possible. It is true, you will have the mortifica- tion, perhaps, to see many things that will give you pain ; but not more, however, than you every day learn from common report. Now, it would be unworthy a man of your character, to be affected only with what passes before his view, when he can hear the very same facts related (and probably magnified too) with less concern. But you will tell me, perhaps, that should you return to Rome, you must submit either to act or to speak in con- tradiction to the sentiments of your heart. In answer to which, I must observe, in the first place, that it has ever been deemed the part of true wisdom, to yield to the circumstances of the times ; or, to express the same thing in other words, to comply with unavoidable necessity : and, in the next place, that, as matters now stand, the con- straint you fear is in no sort among the number of our present grievances. It is possible, indeed, that you may not be at liberty openly to declare your opinions ; but totally silent you may un- doubtedly be. For the sole cognizance of all affairs is centred in a single persou'; and he de- termines as seems good to himself, without con- sulting any of his party, ^nd this would have been pretty much the case, had that other chief J, whose cause we chose to follow, been now in pos- session of the commonwealth. For at a time when we were all-embarked with him in the same common danger, he admitted none into his council but those that were ill qualified to be his advisers. And can it be supposed that he would have placed himself more upon a level with us after victory than when his success was altogether doubtful } Is it to be imagined, that he who rejected those most prudent measures you recommended in your con- sulate, and refused, likewise, to follow the concur- rent sentiments of you and your relation'' who succeeded you in that office, and administered it by your counsels — is it to be imagined that such a man, were he now at the head of the common- wealth, would consult either your opinion or mine .' All civil wars abound with numberless calamities : a truth which though our ancestors were so happy as never once to have experienced, the present generation too frequently has'. But amidst its many miserable consequences, none is more justly li This letter is not extant : but it probably contained an account of what had passed in the senate, concerning the restoration of Marcellus. — See letter 17 of this book, p. 499. i Csesar. i Pompey. ^ Caius Marcellus. ' The first civil war, in the strict acceptation of that term, which Rome had ever seen, was between Marius and Sylla ; about forty-two years before the date of this letter. to be dreaded than victory itself. For though it should turn on the more meritorious side, yet it will be apt to inspire even these with a spirit ot insolence and cruelty ; and if they should not be so by inclination, they at least will by necessity. For, in many instances, the victor must find him- self constrained to comply with the will of those who assisted him in his conquest. Tell me, my friend, did we not both foresee what cruelties would have been exercised if our party had proved successful .' And would you, in that ease, have lived an exile from your country, that you might not have been a spectator of so sad a scene ? I know you will reply in the negative ; and will assure me, that you should then have remained in the un- disturbed possession of your estate and honours. Yet certainly it would have become a man of your patriotic spirit to have been far less concerned for his own interest than for that of the republic. But to what purpose, let me farther ask, should you persevere in banishing yourself from Rome ? Hitherto, indeed, the world has approved your conduct, in having entered into the civil war with reluctance, and in having wisely declined pushing it to its last desperate extremity. The world admires, too, your good fortune (as it may justly be called, considering the distracted state of the times) in having been able to maintain your dig. nity and reputation in an honourable retreat. But the time is now arrived when you ought to think no place more desirable than your native country. If she appears less beautiful than formerly, this circumstance should not diminish your affection, but rather raise your compassion : and as there are so many illustrious citizens whose loss she deplores, you should spare her the additional sorrow of being deprived likewise of you. If you dis- covered a true greatness of spirit in scorning to be the suppliant of Csesar's power, may you not betray too much pride in contemning the' offers of his clemency ? And if you acted wisely in withdraw- ing from your country, may it not be thought insensibility, should you show no desire of return- ing ? In a word, though you should take no satis- faction in public affairs, yet surely it is imprudent to abandon your own. But, above all, let me entreat you to consider whether your present situ- ation is as secure as it may perhaps be agreeable. Violences are everywhere committed with great licentiousness ; but more particularly in foreign countries, where villany is less restrained by awe and shame from its cruel purposes. I mention this from my concern for your welfare j which is so great, indeed, that if it be not equal, it is certainly, at least, inferior only to that of your relation Marcellus "■. Believe me, then, it becomes you to act agreeably to the circumstances of the times, and with a rational regard to the preserva- tion of your life and fortunes. Farewell. — ♦ — LETTER XX. Marcus Marcellus^ to Cicero. I HAVE upon every occasion shown you, hut particularly in the present, that I pay the highest *■ u. 707. '■'£'"''1 '0 y^""" sentiments and advice. , Accordingly, notwithstandin g my ver y »» Caius Marcellus. " This lettar seems to be an ims^vcr to thai which is mentioned iu the first remark on the preceding epistle. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 601 affectionate relation Caius Maroellus had not only entreated, but earnestly conjured me to act in the manner you recommend, yet his persuasions could by no means prevail, till I found them supported by yours. I am indebted to your letter for a particular account of the manner in which this affair has been transacted ; and I am extremely obliged to you for your congratulations thereupon, as 1 know they proceed from an excellent heart. But among the very few friends and relations who have sin- cerely endeavoured to promote my recal, nothing in this whole transaction affords me so true a joy as to have experienced your singular zeal and good-will towards me. Everything else, indeed, the calamities of the times have taught me to resign with great tranquillity and indifference : but to be deprived of the friendship of men of your worth and ctiaracter, would render life, under every circumstance, altogether insupportable. It is upon the enjoyment, therefore, of thi^ privilege that I chiefly congratulate myself ; and I shgll .endeavour to convince you, that you have conferred your good offices upon one who is most sincerely and warmly your friend. Farewell. LETTER XXL To Marcus Brutus. Lucius TiTius Strabo is one of the most illustrious and most distinguished of our Roman ^ ^ ™ knights. I live with him in the strictest familiarity, as indeed we are united by every kind of friendly coimexion. He claims a debt which is owing to him in your province, from Fublius Cornelius ; but Volcatius, who presides in our court of justice" at Rome, having refused to take cognizance of the cause, has directed it to be tried in Gaul. I request your assistance, therefore, in bringing this afifair to a speedy determination ; and I request it so much the more earnestly than if it were my own, as a man may with a better grace be more anxious for the pecuniary concerns that relate to his friend than to himself. Let me entreat you, then, to take the whole conduct of this business under your immediate direction.. And I hope you will endeavour, as far as justice shall permit, that Strabo's freedman, who is employed to manage this suit, may recover tjie money in question with as httle trouble and expense as possible. In this you will greatly oblige me : and you will find, likewise, that Strabo is extremely deserving of your friend- ship. Again and again, therefore, I conjure you to take his interest under your protection, with the same care you are wont to exert in every instance that you know will be agreeable to me. ' Farewell. » The person who so presided was, according to the con- Btitution of the Roman government, the prator urbanut, or city praetor : but Caesar would not suffer the people to proceed^his year to the usual election of their magistrates, excepting only ^vith respect to the -tribunes and sediles. Instead of prators, therefore, he arbitrarily appointed a certain number of persons to administer the civil juris- diction of the city ; whioh is the reason (as one of the com- mentators conjectures) that Cicero does not call Volcatius by the proper title of his office.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Caes. 76. LETTER XXII. To L. Papirius Patus. I WRITE this letter in great haste upon my tablets, in the midst of an entertainment p at the house of Volumnius. We lay down about A. V. 707. jijg jjiufjj ijouf q . and \ ani placed with your friends Atticus on my right hand, and Verrius on my left. You will wonder to find that I can pass my time thus jovially in the midst of servitude. Yet tell me, my friend, you who are the disciple of a philosopher, what else should I do ? And to what purpdse should I torment myself with endless dis- quietudes? " Spend your days," you will probably reply, "in literary occupations." But can you imagine I have any other .' or that, without them, my very being would not be utterly insupportable ? However, though employments of this kind cannot satiate, there is a certain time, nevertheless, whea it is proper to lay them aside. Now, at such intervals, though a party at supper is not altogether a point of so much importance to me as it was to you, when you made it the single subject of your arch query to the philosopher' ; yet I know not in what manner I can more agreeably dispose of myself till the hour of sleep. But I was going to name the xesi of our company, and to tell you that Cytheris ' is reclined' at the left hand of Eutrapelus. You will he astonished, I suppose, to find your grave and philosophical friend in such society, and will be apt to cry out with the poet", " And is this he, the man so late renown'd ? Whom virtue honour'd, and whom glory crown'd ; ThU the famed chief, of every tongue the praise : Of Greece the wonder, and of crowds the gaze." The truth of the matter is, I had not the least sus- picion that this fair lady was to be of our party. However, I have the example of the Socratic Aristippus^, to keep me in countenance ; who, when P The time of meals seems a very extraordinary season for the pm'pose of writing letters. However, it was cus- tomary with the Romans to employ themselves in tbia manner between the several com-ses: and they usually carried tablets about them for that use. Plutarch informs us that Caesar generally signed his despatches at table. — Plut. in Vit. Jul. Cses. Q The Romans reclined themselves upon couches at their meals. The ninth hour answers to our three o'cloct in the afternoon, and was the usual time when they made their last and principal meal. >■ The story to which Cicero here alludes is more expli- citly mentioned, in a subsequent part of this letter. ^ 8 A celebrated courtesan, who, a few years before the date of this letter, had been a very favourite mistress of Mark Antony- K the authority of Servius may be relied upon, she is the Lycoris whose infidelity to the poet Gallua is the subject of the lastofVirgU's pastorals.— Plut. in Vit. Anton, Serv. ; in Virg. Eclog. 10. * The reclining posture, at table, was esteemed indecent for women, and only practised by those of a loose cha- racter ; as the Roman ladies of modesty always sat at their meals. " Manutius supposes that the verses here quoted are from a tragedy of the poet Ennius, entitled " Telamon ;'* which is frequently mentioned by the ancient gram- marians. V He was a disciple of Socrates ; but either mistaking or perverting the lessons of his excellent master, he main- tained that " sensual pleasure was the supreme and ulti- mate good." His practice was agreeable to his doctrine, and he spent his lite (a great part of which he passed at the court of Dionysius, the Sicilian tyrantl in every kini. 502 THE LKTTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO he was reproached with having a commerce of gallantry with the Corinthian courtesan, ' Tis true, replied the philosopher, (without being in the least disconcerted) T possess Lais, but Lais possesses not me. The expression is much stronger in the original '", and I leave you, if you think proper, to render it in its full import. In the mean time, let me assure you that I never had any passion of this sort even when I was a young fellow, and much less now that I am an old oue. But my great delight is in these festive meetings, where I throw out just what comes uppermost, and laugh away the sighs and sorrows of my heart. Nor were you yourself in a more serious mood, my friend, when even a venerahle philosopher could not escape your raillery, to whom, when he was inquiring if the company had any questions to propose to him^, you repUed, vrith great gravity, that " it had been a question with you the whole morning, where you should find a party to sup ? " The formal pedant expected, perhaps, that you were going to ask him whether there was one heaven only, or heavens innumerable : whereas it was at that time, it seems, much more your concern to be resolved in the humorous problem you proposed. Thus you see in what manner I pass my time. I devote part of every day to reading or writing ; after which, that I may not entirely seclude myself from the society of my ftiends, I generally sup in their parties. But upon these occasions I am so far from transgressing our sumptuary law, (if any law, alas ! can now be said to subsist) that I do not even indulge myself to the fuU extent it allows. You need not be alarmed, therefore, at my intended visit : you will receive a guest who jokes much more abundantly than he eats. Farewell. LETTER XXIII To Ampius. i Believe me, my dear Ampius, it is with the utmost reason that I congratulate you on the -I,- success of your affairs. I am by no '" means, indeed, so imprudent as to flatter of luxurious indulgence.— Cic. de Orator. Ui. 16, 17 ; Athen. Deipn. 12. " "E-Xm JVaiSa o4k e^oiMai, was the answer of Aiis- tlppus ; where the verb evfu, as Manutius observes, con- veys a more obscene sense than the word habeo, into which Cicero translates it. s The conceitedness of the ancient sophists was so extra- vagant, that they pretended to be possessed of all know- ledge, human and divine ; insomuch that one of them pub- licly boasted, at the Olympic games, that he ^vas not only master of the whole circle of liberal arts and sciences, but of the meanest mechanic crafts. Accordingly, it was cus- tomary with them to call upon their audience to propose any question whatever in which they were desirous to be informed ; which was no sooner delivered out, than these philological mountebanks harangued upon it in that fluent jargon mth which schoolmen in all ages have been so liberally endowed. The first who assumed these impious, shall they he termed, or ridiculous pretensions to omni- science, was one Gorgias, a Grecian : and this man, who in more enlightened days would have been looked upon with the utmost contempt by all true philosophers, was iield in such high 'esteem by his countrymen, that they erected a statue to his memory, of solid gold. — Cic, de Orator, iii. 32 ; De Finib. ii. 7 Titus Ampius had gradually risen through the several employments of the state, till he arrived at the pnctor- you with false hopes ; for an unexpected disappoint- ment would probably so depress your spirits that nothing would ever be capable of raising them again. 1 have solicited your cause with more freedom than was altogether suitable perhaps to a man in my circumstances ; as the invariable friendship which I have ever borne towards you, and which you have always most faithfully cultivated, taught me to surmount the difficulties that fortune, by impairing my credit, had thrown in my way. Accordingly the promise of your pardon is obtained, and all preliminaries are adjusted and confirmed that relate to your restoration. I speak this upon my own certain knowledge, having been a vntness to the whole transaction. It happens indeed, very luckily, that I am connected with aE Caesar's favourites ; insomuch that, next to Csesar, there is no one who stands so high in their friendship as myself. Fansa, Hirtius, and Oppius, Balbus, Matius, and Fostu- mius, have each of them distinguished me with particular n^rks of their esteem. If I had endea- voured to establish this interest merely with a view of serving you in the present conjuncture, I should by no means think I had reason to be ashamed. But I did not cultivate their good graces upon any motive of this temporising kind : on the contrary, every one of these whom I incessantly solicited in your behalf, are my old friends. In this number we are principally obliged to Pansa, who, as he has the greatest credit and influence with Csesar, so he showed himself extremely zealous for your interest, and very desirous likewise of obliging me. I must mention Tullius Cimber^ also as one with whose good offices, upon this occasion, I have great reason to be satisfied. He employed them more success- fully upon your account than he possibly could in favour of any other man ; for it is not interested solicitations so much as those which proceed entirely from friendship and gratitude, that prevail with Cffisar. Your warrant, however, is not yet actually signed, for there are certain malevolent spirits (who affect to talk as if they were not secretly pleased that this civil war broke out, and who represent you as the principal fomenter of it) that would be exceedingly offended if they knew you had obtained your pardon. It was thought advisable, therefore, to manage this affair with great caution and secrecy ; nor by any means, at present, to suffer our success to be publicly known. It soon, however, will ; and I doubt not that every thing will be ripe for that purpose, before this letter shall reach your hands : for Pansa, whose word may be depended upon, has promised me, in the strongest terms, that he will in a very few days procure your warrant. In the mean time, I thought proper to send yon this previous account of the prosperous state of your affairs. For I find, by ship : from which post he was elected, in the year 696, to the government of Cilicia. As he had distinguished him- self during his tribxmate by promoting the interest and honours of Pompey, so he appears to have been a warm partisan of his cause in the civil wars ; in consequence of which, he was at this time in exile. — Pigh. Annal. iii. 376. 2 This person, though greatly in favour with Cffisar, was afterwards one of the principal conspirators against him. It was he that gave the signal to the rest of his associates, when they assassinated Cssar in the senate ; and Cimber held him by. the gown, while Cassius gave him the first stab.— Suet, in Vlt. Jul, Css. 82. To SEVERAL OF HIS PRIENBS. 503 talking with your wife Epnlia, and by the tender tears of your daughter Ampia, that you are more dispirited than your letters intimate ; and they are apprehensive that your uneasiness will be increased by their absence. In order, therefore, to compose this anxiety of your mind, I thought it incumbent on me thus to anticipate a piece of good news, which most assuredly will be verified. You are sensible that in my former letters I have rather employed such arguments of consolation as were proper to affect a man of your philosophical magna- nimity, than encouraged you to entertain any other certain hopes than those of being restored with the republic when these flames should subside. And here let me remind you of your letters to me, in which you have always discovered the most heroic determination to meet with firmness and fortitude whatever it might be your fate to suffer. I was by no means surprised to find that you were animated with these manly sentiments, when I reflected that you had been conversant in the affairs of the world from your earliest youth ; that yon had exercised some of the most important employments of the commonwealth, at a time when our lives and liberties were in the utmost danger * ; and that you entered into the present war, not merely with the pleasing prospect of victory, but with a mind prepared to bear the reverse with a wise and philosophical resignation. In fine, as you are employed in recording the deeds of illustrious heroes'", it particularly concerns you to copy out, in your own conduct, that magnanim- ity which you are celebrating in others. But this is talking in a style more suitable to your late cir- cumstances than to your present. Let me only, then, exhort you to come prepared to endure those calamities which you must suffer here in common with every citizen of Kome ; calamities, for which, if I had discovered any remedy, I should most certainly impart it to you. The only refuge from them is in those philosophical studies, in which we have both of us ever been conversant ; and these, though in more prosperous days they were only our amusement, must now prove likewise our strongest support. But, to end as I began, let me desire you to be well persuaded that all things are completely settled concerning your full pardon and restoration. Farewell. LETTER XXIV. To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proconsul. As the friendship that subsists between us, and the singular affection you bear me, are circumstances A. ". 707. universally known, I find myself under a frequent necessity of applying to you in behalf of those who solicit my recommendations. But though I am a general well-wisher to all whom I thus introduce to your favour, yet I do not pre- tend to be equally interested in the success of every one of them. 1 am particularly so, however, in * Ampius was tribune in the consulate of Cicero, when the conspiracy of Catiline was discoveied ; and was prsetor in the year 695, when Clodius, who at the same time was tribune, raised so much disturbance by his seditious laws ; particularly by that which occasioned Cicero's banishment. — Pieh. Annal. ii. 36.1. ^ This work seems to have been of the biographical kind, and to have included the life of Julius Crosar ; as Suetonius quotes a passage from it, concerning the conduct of that emperor.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cbbs. 77. that of Titus Egnatius, as he was the generous companion of my exile, and shared with me in all the pains, the difficulties, and the dangers which I underwent, both by sea and land, during that most unfortunate period of my life. Nor would he, without my consent, have left me at this juncture. I recommend him to you, therefore, as one of my family for whom I have the greatest regard ; and you will much oblige me by convincing him that this letter shall have proved greatly to his advan- tage. Farewell. LETTER XXV. To Curius'. There was a time when I thought you made a very injudicious choice, by preferring a foreign A. u.' 707 "O'^ntry to your own. I imagined that Rome (while yet, alas ! it was Rome) must be far more suitable, I will not only say than Patrse, but even than the noblest city in the Pelo- ponnesus, to a man of your amiable and elegant turn of mind. But now, on the contrary, I look upon your having retired into Greece, when our affairs were well-nigh desperate, as a strong proof , of your great penetration ; and I consider your absence, not only as a yery judicious, but a very happy resolution. Yet, why do I call it happy ? when it is impossible that happiness should be the portion of any man, in these wretched times, who possesses the least degree of sensibility. However, that desirable privilege which you, who were at liberty to leave Italy, enjoy by travelling, I have procured by another method ; and I can in some sort say, no less than yourself, that I live " Where nor the name nor deeds accursed I hear Of Pelops' impious race •*." For, as soon as my levee is over, (which is some- what more frequented than formerly, a patriot being now looked upon as a sight, of aU others, the most uncommon',) I shut myself up in my library. And it is there, my friend, that I am employed in compositions which you will find, perhaps, to be animated with all that spirit you once said so ill *: He was one of the city quffistors in the year 691, and about five years afterwards was elected into the post of tribune. It does not appear that he advanced any farther in the oifices of the state. On the contrary, it seems pro- bable that he turned his pursuits into an humbler channel, and engaged in some branch of commerce. It was for this purpose, perhaps, that about the time when the dissen- tions between Pompey and Cffisar broke out, he retired into Greece, and settled at Patrse. See letter 2 of the following hook ; Pigh. Annal. ii. 334. <* The sons of Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes, whose impious and cruel acts are recorded in fabulous history. ThedramaticpoetAttiuswToteatragedyentitled" Atreus," from which play, it is probable, this line was quoted, and which Cicero seems to apply to the violences committed by some of the leading men in the successful pai'ty. That Cicero, however, by no means lived the recluse he here represents himself, has already appeared by several letters in the present and preceding book, by which it is evident that he mixed, with great freedom and gaiety, among the chiefs of the victorious faction. = A true patriot was a sight in all ages too uncommon, it must be o^vned, not to have been worth remarking ; but, whether those who visited Cicero, in order to view so singular a cnriosity, were disappointed or not, is a ques- tion which every reader by this time, perhaps, 'may be able very clearly to determine. 604 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO agreed with my dejection and despair, when you reproached me, at your house, for not acting up to the fortitude that appeared in my writings. I must confess, I could not at that time forbear lamenting the wretched fate of the republic ; to which I was the more tenderly attached, as I had not only been distinguished with its honours, but had greatly assisted it by my services. And even now, that time (which wears out the sorrows of the weakest minds), together with reason (which ought to have the strongest influence for that purpose), have jointly contributed to compose my breast ; yet I still lament to see the commonwealth thus fallen, without a hope of ever rising more ! There is nothing, how- ever, that can at present be justly imputed to Him, in whom all power is now vested ; unless, perhaps, it be that he has more than he ought. And as to what is past, our fate and our follies have had so large a share in all that has happened, that we cannot complain with a good grace. As little reason is there to hope that affairs will mend. 1 cannot, therefore, but conclude my letter as I began it, with admiring your judgment if it were choice, or your fortune if it were chance, that led you from this unpleasing scene. Farewell. LETTER XXVL To Ligarius. Be assured that I am exerting my utmost efforts of every kind in order to procure your restoration. A u 707 ^^ truth, the singular and pious affection of your brothers, for whom I bear the same warm friendship that I entertain for yourself, will not suffer me to neglect any opportunity of employing my best offices in your behalf. But I had rather you should learn from their letters than from mine, what I have already performed, and what I am still endeavouring to perform, in your affairs. I will only, therefore, acquaint you myself with the strong and well-grounded hopes I have conceived, that your restoration will soon be effected. Let me previously observe, that my fears in all doubtful cases of importance are ever apt to be much superior to my hopes ; a fault, if itbe a fault, which I am very ready to acknowledge. Never- theless, the last time I waited upon Csesar, I came away with a full persuasion that there was not the least reason to doubt of his granting you a pardon. I attended him for this purpose, at the request of your brothers, on the 26th of November last, in the morning, not without encountering all the usual difficulties and indignities before I could gain ad- mittance. Your brothers, and the rest of your relations, having thrown themselves at his feet, I supported their petition with such arguments as I thought suitable to the occasion'. And I could ' Cicero bad, shortly afterwords, a more public occasion of testifying his zeal for his friend. For Tubero, though he had himself engaged in the same party witli Ligarius, having from private pique opposed the recal of Ligarius, Cicero defended him before Cssar in the forum, in a noble oration which is still extant. It was upon this occasion, that the pomp and energy of the Koman orator's rhetoric is said to have had such a wonderful effect, that it not only madeCssar tremble, but, what is yet more extraordinary, it made him change his determined purpose, and acquit the man he had resolved to condemn. This story has often Iteen alleged in proof of the power of ancient eloquence ; plainly perceive, not only by the gracious answer which Caesar returned, but by the whole air of his countenance, together with several other little cir- cumstances, much easier to remark than describe, that he was extremely well inclined in your favour^. Preserve, then, my friend, a firm and vigorous frame of mind ; and if you bore the dark and tem- pestuous season of your affairs with fortitude, let their present more serene and favourable aspect fill your heart with c-eerfulness. As for myself, I shaU continue to act with as much assiduity in your cause as if there were still many obstacles to surmount. To this end, I shall very zealously per- severe in my applications not only to Caesar, but to all those who are most in his favour ; every one of whom I have experienced to be much my friend. Farewell. and the translator confe^ies, that he has himself, in the letters published under the name of Sir Thomas Fitz- osborae, produced it for that pui-pose. But, upon a stricter inquiry, the supposed fact seems to be extremely ques- tionable. For, in the first place, there is not the least trace of it in any part of Cicero's writings. Now this bis total silence seems to furnish a very strong presumptive argument to destroy the credit of the story ; for it is alto- gether improbable that a man of Cicero's chai-acter should have omitted any opportunity of displaying a circmnstance so exceedingly to the honour of his oratorical powera In the next place, it is very observable, that Valerius Maximus, who has a chapter expressly to show the force of eloquence, and who mentions a particulai* instance of this kind with regard to Csesar himself, yet takes not tba least notice of the fact in question. But if it had been true, is it credible either that it should never have reached his knowledge, or that, knowing it, he should have passed it over in silence ? especially as it afforded him a much stronger instance for his purpose than any he has thought proper to enumerate. It is remarkable, likewise, that Quintilian, though he frequently cites the very passage in this celebrated oration which is supposed to have raised the strongest emotions in Cesar's breast, yet gives not the least intimation of the effect which it is pretended to have wrought Plutarch is the only ancient ivriter who relates this story, and he introduce it with a \ey£Tat Se, an expression which seems to imply that he did not copy it from any earlier historian, hut received it only from common tradition. Now it might be sufficient to give rise to such a report, if Cassar had been seized during the course of this trial with one of his usual epileptic fits, which were attended with that change of colour and trembling of the nerves that Plutarch ascribes to the force of Cicero's rhetoric. And that this is all that there was of truth in the case, is rendered probable by the testi- mony of Suetonius, who informs us that Casar was twice seized with these fits when he was engaged in judicial affairs.— Val. Max. viii. 9 ; Quint. Instit. Orat. viii. 4, 6 ; ix. 2 ; Pint, in Vit. Cicer. ; Suet in Tit. Jul. Caes. 45. s Cicero's presages in the present instance appear to have been well grounded ; for Ligarius, shortly afterwards, obtained Ciesar'a permission to retuni to Rome. Ligarius, nevertheless, entered into the conspiracy against him; and history has recorded the very spirited answer which Liga- rius made to Brutus, when that illustiious Roman paid him a visit in order to invite him into a participation of his scheme. Brutus, finding him sick in bed, began to lament that he should be confined at so critical a con- juncture ; upon which, Ligarius, raising himself on his arm, and taking Brutus by the hand, " Oh, my friend," said he, '* if you are meditatingany enterprise worthy . V. 7W. j^jg illustrious father : and the early pre- sages I observed in the son, of the most exalted probity and eloquence, won my affections to him k He was appointed by Csesar proconsul of Sicily for the following year ; in which post he is said to have conducted himself with great clemency and moderation — ftuartiei. 506 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO from Ms youth. We were attached to each other, not only by the mutual exchange of many friendly offices, but by the same common tastes and studies : insomuch, that there is no man for whom I ever entertained a more tender regard. After this, I need only add, that I am under the strongest obli- gations, as you see, to protect both his person and his fortunes, to the utmost of my power. As I know, by many instances, the sentiments you enter- tain both of the calamities of the republic, and of those who suffer for its sake, I am sure your own inclinations wiU lead you to assist Ceecina. 1 will only entreat you, therefore, to suffer my recom- mendation to increase that favourable disposition in proportion to the esteem which I am sensible you bear me : and be well persuaded, that you cannot give me a more sensible proof of your fi:iendship. Farewell. LETTER XXX. Aulus Ccecina to Cicero. I HOPE you will not only pardon the fears, but pity the misfortunes, which prevented your re- ^i_ ceiving my performance so soon as I intended : but my son was apprehensive, I hear, that the publication of this piece might prove to my prejudice. And, indeed, as the effect of compositions of this kind depends more upon the temper in which they are read than on that in which they are written, his fears were by no means irrational ; especially as I am still a sufferer for the liberties of my pen. In this respect my fate, surely, is somewhat singular. For the errors of an author are generally either reformed by a blot, or punished by the loss of his fame : whereas banishment, on the contrary, has been thought the more proper method of conecting mine. And yet the whole of my crime amounts only to this — that I poured forth my invectives against the man with whom I was openly at war. Now, there was not a single person, I suppose, in the same party with myself, who was not in effect guilty of the same offence ; as there was not one who did not send up his vows for success to our cause, or that offered a sacrifice, though upon an occasion ever so foreign to public affairs, without imploring the gods that C8esar might soon be defeated. If he imagines otherwise, he is extremely happy in his ignorance. But if he knows this to be fact, why am I marked out as the particular object of his wrath, for having written something which he did not approve, whilst he forgives every one of those who were perpetually invoking Heaven for his perdition ! But I was going to acquaint you with the reason of those fears which I mentioned in the beginning of my letter. In the first place, then, I have taken notice of you in the piece in question; though, at the same time, I have touched upon your conduct with great caution and reserve. Not that I have, by any means, changed my sentiments concerning it ; but, as being afraid to say all that they dictated to me. Now it is well known, that in composi- tions of the panegyrical kind, an author should not only deliver his applauses with a full and unlimited freedom, but heighten them, likewise, with a suitable strength and warmth of expression. In satire, indeed, though great liberties are generally thought allowable, yet, a writer must always be upon his guard, lest he degenerates into petulance and scurrility. An author is still more restrained in speaking advantageously of himself ; as, without much care and circumspection, he will appear arrogant and conceited. Of all subjects, therefore, of a. persortal nature, it is panegyric alone wherein a writer may expatiate uncontrolled ; as he cannot be sparing in the encomiums he bestows upon another, without incurring the imputation of envy or inability. But, in the present instance, you will think yourself, perhaps, obliged to me. For as I was not at liberty to represent your actions in the manner they deserve, the next favour to being totally silent concerning them, was to mention them as little as possible. But difficult as it was to contain myself upon so copious a subject, I however forbore : and as there were various parts of your conduct I did not venture even to touch upon, so, in the revisal of my work, I not only found it necessary to strike out several circum- stances I had inserted, but to place many of those which I suffered to remain in a less advantageous point of view. But should an architect, in raising a flight of steps, omit some, cut away part of those he had fixed, and leave many of the rest loose and ill joined together, might he not more properly be said to erect a ruin, than an easy and regular ascent ? In the same manner, where an author is constrained, by a thousand unhappy circumstances, to break the just coherence of his piece and destroy its proper gradation, how can he hope to produce anything that shall merit the applause of a refined and judicious ear ? But I v^as still more embarrassed where my subject led me to speak of Csesar : and I will own that I trembled whenever I had occasion to mention his name. My fears, however, did not arise from any apprehension that what I wrote might draw upon me his farther chastisement, but lest it should not be agreeable to his particular sentiments, with which, indeed, I am by no means well acquainted. But with what spirit can a man compose when he is obliged to ask himself, at every sentence, "WiE Csesar approve of this.' May not this expression appear of suspicious import ? Or will he not think it still worse if I change it thus ?" But, besides these difficulties, I was per- plexed, likewise, in regard to the applauses and censures which I dealt out to others ; as I was afraid I might apply them where they would not, perhaps, be very agreeable to Csesar, though they might not actually give him offence. I reflected, that if his vengeance pursued me for what I wrote, whilst I had my sword in my hand ; what might be the consequence, should I displease him now that I am a disarmed exile .' These fears increased upon me, when I considered the cautious manner in which you thought it necessary to deliver your sentiments in your treatise entitled the Orator i where you modestly apologise for venturing to publish your notions upon the subject, by ascribing it to the request of Brutus. But if you, whose eloquence has rendered you the general patron of every Roman, deemed it expedient to be thus art- fully guarded, how much more requisite is it for your old client, who is now reduced to implore that protection from every citizen in general, which he once received from yourself in particular ? An author who writes under the constraint of so many doubts and fears, though fears, perhaps, that are altogether groundless ; who is forced to adjust TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 607 almost every sentence, not to his own judgment, but to the impression it may probably make upon others ; will find it extremely difficult to execute any composition with success. And though this is a difficulty which you have never, it is possible, experienced, as your exalted genius is equal to every undertaking ; yet I am sure I experienced it very sensibly myseljf. Nevertheless, I ordered my son to read my performance to you ; but not to leave it in your hands, unless you would promise to correct it ; that is, unless you would new-model it in all its parts. As to my Asiatic expedition : notwithstanding my affairs require my presence in that province, yet, in obedience to your advice, I have laid aside my intended voyage. And now, as you are sensible that my fate must necessarily, one way or other, be soon determined, I need not, I am persuaded, particularly exhort you to assist me with your good offices. Let me only entreat you, my dear Cicero, not to defer them in expectation of my son's arrival. For his youth, his tenderness, and his fears, render him ill able to think of every measure which may be proper to be taken for my advantage. The whole management, therefore, of my cause, must rest entirely upon you, as it is upon you, in truth, that all my hopes depend. Your judicious observa- tion has enabled you to penetrate into the recesses of Ceesar'g heart ; and you are acquainted with all the most probable methods of prevailing with him : so that each successful step that shall be made in this affair, from its commencement to its conclusion, must proceed altogetherfrom you. I am sensible, likewise, that you have great interest with Csesar, and still greater with all his favourites. I doubt not, then, of your effecting my restoration, if you will exert yourself for that purpose, not only in such instances wherein I shall particularly request your assistance (though that, indeed, would be a very considerable obligation), but by taking the whole conduct of this matter into your own hands. Perhaps my judgment is blinded by my misfortunes, or I expect more from your friendship than in modesty I ought, when I venture thus to impose upon you so heavy a burthen. But whichever may be the case, your general conduct towards your friends will furnish me with an excuse ; for the zeal which you exert upon all occasions where their interest is concerned, has taught them not only to expect, but even to claim your services. With regard to the book which my son will deliver to you, I entreat you either not to suffer it to be published, or to correct it in such a manner that it may not appear to my disadvantage. Farewell. LETTER XXXL To P. Servilius Isauricus, Proconsul. I NEED not inform you, that Curtius Mithres is the favourite freedman of my very intimate friend ^ Postumus : but let me assure you, that he distinguishes me with the same marks of respectwhich he pays to his patron himself. When- ever I was at Ephesus, I made use of his house as my own ; and many incidents concurred which afforded me full proofs both of his fidelity and his affection. For this reason, as often as either my friends or mysdf have any affairs to transact in Asia, I always apply to Mithres : and I command not only his services, but his purse and his house, with the same freedom that I should dispose of my own. I particularise these circumstances the more minutely, that you may see it is not upon common motives, or to gratify the purposes of any ambitious views, that I now apply to you ; but, on the con- trary, that it is in favour of one with whom I am united by the strongest connexions. I entreat you then to do me the honour of assisting him with your good offices, not only in the law-suit wherein he is engaged with a certain citizen of Colophon ', but in every other instance also, as far as shall be consistent with your own character and convenience. But though I make this exception, yet I am sure he has too much modesty to ask anything improper of you. Indeed, it is his utmost wish, that his own merit, in conjunction with my recommendation, may procure him your esteem. I very earnestly, therefore, conjure you, not only to favour him with your protection, but to receive him into the number of your friends. In return, you may depend upon my most zealous services upon all occasions wherein I shall imagine either your interest or your inclina- tion may require them. Farewell. LETTER XXXII. To Aulus Ccecina. As often as I see your son (and I see him almost every day) I never fail to assure him of my zealous assistance, without any exception of time, A. u. 707. ^j labour, or of business : and I promise him likewise my credit and interest, with this single limitation, that he may rely upon them as far as the small share I possess of either can possibly extend. I have read your performance", and still con- tinue to read it, with much attention ; as I shall preserve it with the greatest fidelity. Your affairs, indeed, of every kind are my principal concern ; and I have the pleasure to see them every day ap- pear with a more and more favourable aspect. Yon have many friends who contribute their good offices for this piirpose: of whose zeal your son, I am assured, has already acquainted you, as well as of his own hopes that their endeavours will prove effectual. In regard to what maybe collected from appearances, I do not pretend to discern more than , I am persuaded, you see yourself : but as you may reflect upon th'em, perhaps, with greater discomposure of mind, I think it proper to give you my sentiments concern- ing them. Believe me, then, it is impossible, from the nature and circumstances of public affairs, that either you, or your companions in adversity, should long remain under your present misfortunes : yes, my friend, it Js impossible that so severe an injury should continue to oppress the honest advocates of so good a cause. But my hopes are particularly strong with respect to yourself : not merely in con- sideration of your rank and virtues (for these you possess in common with many others), but particu- larly from your singular learning and genius. The man in whose power we all of us are, holds these shining qualities in much esteem : and I am well persuaded, you would not have remained, even a single moment, in your present situation, if he had not imagined himself w ounded" by those talents ' A city of PDnia, in Asia Minor ; and one of those Avbiell claimed the honour of heing the birth-place of Homer. •» See the 30th letter of this hook, n See rem. 1 on letter 28 of this book. .508 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO he admires. His resentment, however, seems daily cooling : and it has been intimated to me by some of his most particular friends, that you will un- doubtedly find advantage in the high opinion he has conceived of your abilities. Let me conjure you, then, in the first place, to preserve a firm and unshaken fortitude of mind, as what you owe to your birth, to your education, to your learning, and to that character you have universally obtained; and, in the next place, that, for the reasons I have already assigned, you would entertain the strongest and most favourable hopes. Be well persuaded, hkewise, that I shall always most readily contribute my warmest services both to you and to your family. You have, indeed, a full right to expect them, from that affection which has so long subsisted between us, from the conduct I ever observe towards all my friends, and from the numberless good offices I have received at your hands. Farewell. LETTER XXXIIL To P. Servilius Imuricus, Proconsul. As the share you allow me in your friendship is by no means a secret to the world, it occasions ^j.« great numbers to apply to me for recom. mendations. My letters to you, therefore, of this kind, are sometimes, I confess, no other than the tributes of common compliment. They are much more frequently, however, the dictates of a real affection ; as is the case, be assured, in the present instance, when I recommend to you Am- pins Menander, the freedmac of my friend Ampius Balbus. He is a very worthy, modest man, and highly in the esteem both of his patron and myself. You will much oblige me, then,'by assist- ing him with your good offices, in every instance that shall not be inconvenient to you : and, believe me, it is with great earnestness that I make this request. Farewell. LETTER XXXIV. To Aulus CiBcina. I AM afraid you will think that I am a more negligent correspondent than I ought, considering A n. 707. "^^ union between us as partisans of the same cause, as being joined in the same studies, and as having mutually conferred upon each other many obliging good offices. The sin- cere truth, however, is, that I should much sooner and much oftener have written to you, if I had not been in daily expectation of seeing your affairs in a better train j and X rather chose, instead of confirming you in the spirit with which you bear your misfortunes, to have sent you my congratu- lations on their being ended. I still hope to have that pleasure very shortly. In the mean time, I think it incumbent upon me to endeavour, if not with all the authority of a philosopher, at least with all the influence of a friend, to confirm and strengthen you in that manly spirit with which I hear, and be- lieve, you are animated. For this purpose, I shall not address you as one whose misfortunes are without hope ; but as a person of whose restoration I have conceived the same well-grounded confidence which you formerly, I remember, entertsined of mine. For when I was driven from my country by a set of men who were convinced they could nevei effect their destructive purposes so long as I con- tinued in the commonwealth, I was informed by many Of my friends who visited me from Asia, where you then resided, that you strongly assured them of my speedy and honourable recal. Now, if the principles of the Etruscan science", in which you were instructed by your illustrious and excel- lent father, did not deceive you with respect to me, neither will my presages be less infallible with regard to you. They are derived, indeed, not only from the maxims and records of the most distin- guished sages, whose writings, you well know, I have studied with great application, but from a long experience in public affairs, and from having passed through various scenes both of prosperity and adversity. I have the stronger reason to con- fide in this method of divination, as it has never once deceived me during all these dark and dis- tracted times ; insomuch, that were I to mention my predictions, I am afraid you would suspect that I framed them after the events I pretend to have foretoldP. However, there are many who can bear me witness, that I forewarned Pompey against entering into any association with Csesar' ; and that I afterwards as strongly endeavoured to dissuade him from breaking that union. I clearly saw, indeed, that their conjunction would consider- ably impair the strength of the senate, and that their separation would as inevitably kindle the flames of a civil war. I lived at that time in great familiarity with Cassar, as"well as entertained the highest regard to Pompey j and, accordingly, the faithful advice I gave to the latter was equally to the benefit of both. I forbear to instance several other articles, in which my prophetic admonitions have been verified. For, as I have received great obligations from Caesar, I am unwilling he should know, that had Pompey followed my counsels, though Ceesar would still have been the first and most distinguished person in the republic, he would not have been in possession of that extensive power he now enjoys. I will confess, however, that I always gave it as my opinion, that Pompey should go to his government in Spain ; with which, if he had happily complied, we should never have been involved in this fatal civU war'. I contended, The Bomaus derived their doctrine and rites of divi- nation, and probably, indeed, many other of their reli- gious and civil institutions, from the Etruscans, a very ancient, learned, and powerful nation, who were once masters of almost all Italy, and who inhabited that part which is now called Tuscany. Caecina, who was a native of this province, and well skilled in that pretended pro- phetic art for which his countrymen were particularly famous, foretold, it seems, that Cicero's banishment would soon end (as in fact it did) in a glorious restoration. — Vai. Max. i. I ; Liv. v. 33 ; Pigh. Annal. i. p. 430. See rtm. ', p. 605. P Cicero's wonderful reach o<«gudgmeut, in penetrating far into the consequences of evenfe, is by no means exag- gerated in the present passage. On the contrary, it is confirmed by the testimony of an historian who knew him well, and who assures us that Cicero pointed out, with a prophetic discernment, several circumstances that were fuMUed not only in his own life-time, but after his death. —Com. Nep. in Vlt. Attic. 17. 1 The motives which induced Pompey to enter into this union ^vith Cajsar have been already explained in rent, ', p. 356. ' Pompey, instead of going to his govermnefit of Spain, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 509 likewise, not so mucli that Csesar should be received as a candidate for the consulship during his ab- sence ', as that the law which the people enacted for that purpose, and enacted too at the earnest solicitation of Pompey in his consulate, should be religiously observed'. It was the rejecting of this advice that gave occasion to the civil war ; which I still laboured to extinguish by every method of remonstrance in my power, and by warmly repre- senting that in contests of this kind, though ever so justly founded, even the most disadvantageous terms of accommodation were preferable to having recourse to arms. But my sentiments were ovet^ ruled ; not so much by Pompey himself (upon whom they seemed to make some impression)', as by those who, depending upon his victory, thought it would afford them a very favourable opportunity of extricating themselves from the difficulties of their private affairs, and of gratifying their immo- derate ambition. The war, therefore, commenced without my participation, and I still continued in Italy as long as I possibly could, even after Pompey was driven out of it". My honour, however, at length prevailed over my fears ; and I could not support the thoughts of deserting Pompey in his continued in Italy, witli the command of two legions wliioh were quartered near Home. This gave umbrage to Caesar, who suspected, as the truth was, that these troops were designed to act against him. In order, therefore, to remove his apprehensions of this kind, it was proposed hy Cicero and some others of the more moderate party, that Pompey should retire to his government. But this motion was overruled by the consul Lentulus ; who prevailed with the senate to pass a decree, whereby Cffisar, who had already crossed the Rubicon, was commanded to withdraw his forces out of Italy by a certain day therein named, and in case of disobedience, that he should he considered as a public enemy .^ — Caes. De Bell. Gall. viii. 55 ; Cecs. De Bell. Civ. i. 2. ■ Pompey, when he was consul the third time, in the year 701, procured a law empowering Cssar to offer him- self as a candidate for the consulship, without appearing personally at Rome for that purpose. This was contrary to the fundamental principles of the Roman constitution, and proved, in the event, the occasion of its being utterly destroyed ; as it furnished Cassar with the only specious pretence for turning his arms against the republic. Cicero affirms, in one of his Philippics, that he endeavoured to dissuade Pompey from suffering this law to pass : — ** Duo —tempera inciderunt (says he) quibus aliquid contra CiEsareni Pompeio suaserim — Cnum, ne, &c. alterum, ne pateretur /erri vt absentia ejus ratio haberetur. Quorum si utrumvis persuasissem, in has miserias nunquam inci- dissemus." [Phil. ii. 10.] But if what Cicero here asserts be true, he acted a most extraordinary part indeed. For, at the same time that he laboured to dissuade Pompey from suffering this law to pass, he persuaded Ccelius, who was one of the tribunes of the people, to promote it, or at least not to oppose it ; agreeably to a' promise which he had given to Csesar for that purpose. This appears by a passage in one of his letters to Atticus, where, speaking of CBPsar's claim to sue for the considate, without personally attending at Rome, he tells Atticus, " Ut illi hoc liceret, adjuvi ; rogatus ab ipso Ravennae de Ccelio tribune plehis." —Ad Att. vii. I. * Wliether this law should, or should not, he superseded, was a question upon which Cicero found tho republic divided at his return from Cilicia, just before the civil war broke, out. And although he certainly acted an unjus- tiiiable part in promoting this law, yet, after it had once passed, it seems to have been right policy in him to advise that it ijhould be observed ; as it was the only probable means of preserving the public tranquillity. " See rem. «, p. 458. distress, who had not abandoned me in mine. Partly, therefore, upon a principle of duty, partly, in tenderness to my reputation with the patriots ; and partly as being ashamed to forsake my friend, I went, as is fabled of Amphiaraus^, to that ruin which I clearly foresaw. And, indeed, there was not a single misfortune attended us during that whole campaign, which I did not point out before it arrived. You see, therefore, that I have the same right of being credited which augurs and astrologers are wont to urge, and may claim your belief of my present predictions in conse- quence of the veracity of my former. But I do not found these my prophecies in your favour on those intimations of futurity which are taught by our augural science. I derive them from observa- tions of a difierent sort s which, though not more certain in themselves, are less obscure, however, and consequently less liable to be misinterpreted. The signs, then, from whence I draw my presages, are of two kinds : the one taken from Caesar him- self, the other from the nature and circumstances of public affairs. M'"ith respect to the former, they result, in the first place, from that general clemency of Cassar's disposition which you have celebrated in that ingenious performance entitled your Com- plaints"''' ; and, in the next place, from that extra- ordinary regard he discovers for men of your distinguished genius and abilities. To this I must add, that he will certainly yield to those number- less solicitations in your favour which proceed, not from any interested motives, but from a real and just esteem ; among which the unanimous application of Etruria"^ will, undoubtedly, have great weight with him. If you ask, whence it has happened that these considerations have hitherto proved ineffectual .' I answer, that Csesar thinks if he should immediately grant a pardon to you, against whom he may seem to have a more reasonable ground of complaint, he could not refuse it to others whom he is less inclined to forgive. But you will say, perhaps, "If Ceesar is thus incensed, what have I to hope } " Undoubt- edly, my friend, you have much ; as he is sensible he must derive the brightest splendour of his fame from the hand which once somewhat sullied its lustre. In fine, Csesar is endowed with a most acute and penetrating judgment ; and as he per- fectly well knows, not only the high rank you bear in a very considerable district of Italy?, but that there is no man in the commonwealth, of your age, who is superior to you in reputation, abilities, or popularity, he cannot but be convinced that it will be impossible for him to render your exile of any long duration. He is too politic, therefore, to lose the merit of voluntarily conferring upon you, at present, what will otherwise most unques- tionably be extorted from him hereafter. Having thus marked out the favourable prog- V Amphiarauswas a Grecian prophet, as the poets feign, who, foreknowing that he should be killed if he went to the Theban war, concealed himself, in order to avoid that expedition. But his wife being bribed to disclose the place of his concealment, he was forced to the war, and his death confirmed the truth of his prediction.— Manutius. " This seems to be the performance concerning which Ciecina writes to Cicero in the .SOth letter of tBls book. I Cojoina was a native of Etruria, and a person of great consideration in that part of Italy. . Etruria. 510 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO nostics whicli I collect from circumstances respect- ing Cssar, I will now acquaint you with those which I gather from the temper and complexion of the times. There is no man, then, so averse to that caufee which Pompey espoused with more spirit, indeed, than preparation, as to venture to arraign the principles or the patriotism of those who joined in his party. And I cannot but ob- serve to you, that I have often occasion to admire the justice and judgment of Caesar, who never speaks of Pompey but in terms of the highest honour. Should it be said, that whatever regard he may show to his memory, he treated his person upon many occasions with great asperity, let it be remembered that these instances cannot reason- ably be imputed to Caesar, but were the natural consequences of war. But how favourably has he received many of us, and myself in particular, who were engaged in the same party ? Has he not appointed Cassius to be his lieutenant ? has he not given the government of Gaul to Brutus, and that of Greece to Sulpicius ? In a word, highly incensed as he was against Marcellus^ has he not, in the most honourable manner, restored him to his friends and to his country ? What I would infer, therefore, from the whole, is this,- — that whatever system of government may prevail, good policy will never permit, in the first place, that a difference should be made among those who were equally involved in the same cause ,' and, in the next, that a set of honest and worthy citizens, who are free from all imputation on their moral characters, should be banished from their country, at the same time that such numbers of those who have been exiled for the most infa- mous crimes are suffered to return. These are the presages of your friend ; and they are presages, of which, if I had the least doubt, I would by no means have laid them before you. On the contrary, I should, in that case, rather have employed such consolatory arguments as would unquestionably have proved effectual for the support of a great and generous mind. I should have told you, that if you were induced to take up arms in defence of the republic (as you then ima- gined) merely from a confidence of success, small indeed would be your merit ; and that if, under a full conviction of the very precarious event of war, you thought it possible that we might be defeated, it would be strange that you should have so much depended upon victory as to be utterly unprepared for the reverse. I should have reasoned with you on the consolation you ought to receive from reflecting on the integrity of your conduct, and reminded you of the satisfaction which the liberal arts will afford in the adverse seasons of life. I should have produced examples, not only from history, but in the persons of our leaders and asso- ciates in this unhappy war, of those who have suffered the most severe calamities ; and should have also cited several illustrious instances of the same sort from foreign story. For to reflect on the misfortunes to which mankind in general are exposed, greatly contributes to alleviate the weight of those which we ourselves endure. In short, I should have described the confusion of that turbu- lent scene in which we are here engaged ; as un- doubtedly the being driven from a commonwealth in rains, is much less to be regretted than from one in a flourishing and a happy situation. But these are arguments which I have by no means any occasion to urge, as I hope, or rather indeed as I clearly foresee, that we shall soon welcome your return amongst us. In the mean while, agree- ably to the assurances I have often given you, I shall continue to exert my most active offices in the service of yourself and your excellent son ; who, I must observe with pleasure, is the very express resemblance of his father both in person and genius. I shall now, indeed, be enabled to employ my zeal more effectually than heretofore, as I make great and daily advances in Csesar's friendship ; not to mention my interest also with his favourites, who distinguish me with the first rank in their affection. Be assured I shall devote the whole of my influence, both with Csesar and with his friends, entirely to your service. In the mean time, let the pleasing hopes you have so much reason to entertain, together with your own philosophical fortitude, support you with cheerfiil- ness under your present situation. Farewell. LETTER XXXV. To P. Servilius Isauricus', Proprastor, I PERrECTLY well know the general compassion of your heart for the unfortunate, and the invio- A.U. 707. ^^^^ fidelity you observe towards, those who have any particular claim to your protection. As Csecina, therefore, is a family client of yours, I should not recommend him to your favour, if the regard I pay to the memory of his father, with whom I lived in the strictest inti- macy, and the unhappy fate which attends himself, with whom I am united by every tie of friendship and gratitude, did not affect me in the manner it ought. I am sensible that your own natural dis- position, without any solicitations, would incline you to assist a man of Csecina's merit, in distress ; but I earnestly entreat you that this letter may render you still more zezdous to confer upon him every good office in your power. I am persuaded, if you had been in Rome, you would effectually have employed it also in procuring his pardon ; which, in confidence of your colleague's* clemency, we still strongly hope to obtain'. In the mean time, Csecina has retreated into your province, not only as thinking it wiU afford him the securest refuge, but in pursuit likewise of that justice which he expects from the equity of your administration. I most warmly request you, therefore, to assist him in recovering those debts which remain due to him upon his former negotiations '^, and in every other article to favour him with your patronage and protection ; than. which you cannot confer upon me, be assured, a more acceptable obligation. Farewell. * It appears by this letter, which is a recommendation of Cascina to the governor of Asia, that he had regomed the design of going into that province ; which, in the 30th epistle of this book, he tells Cicero he had laid aside in pursuance of his advice. * Servilius was colleague with Cssar in his second con- sulate, A. tr. 705. ^ Accordingly Csecina, some time afterwards, received his pardon from Cssar ; which Suetonius mentions ns an instance, amongst others, of that conqueror's singulai' cle- mency.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Ca?8. 75. c CsBcina had, probably, been concerned in farming some branch of the Asiatic revenue. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. Sll LETTER XXXVI. To Publius Sulpieius^. Notwithstanding it is very seldom, in the present situation of public affairs, that I attend -^ the senate, yet, after having received i.D. 7W. yg^j. jgtjgr^ J thought it would not be loting agreeably to our long friendship, and to those many good offices that have passed between us, if I did not contribute all in my power to the advancement of your honours. It was with much pleasure, therefore, I went to the house, and voted for your public thanksgiving ; which has been decreed accordingly. You will always find me equally zealous in whatever concerns your interest or your glory : and I should be glad you would, in your letters to your family, assure them of this my disposition towards you ; that they may not scruple to claim my best services, if, in any future instance, you should have occasion for them. I very strongly recommend to you my old friend Bolanus, as a man of great spirit and probity, and adorned, likewise, with every amiable accom- plishment. As you will extremely oblige mc by letting him see that my recommendation proved of singular advantage to him, so you may depend upon finding him of a most grateful disposition, and one from whose friendship you will receive much satisfaction. I have another favour likewise to ask, which, in; confidence of our friendship, and of that disposition * It is altogether uncertain who this Sulpicius was : perhaps the same who commanded a squadron of Casar's fleet off the island of Sicily, which engaged with and de- feated the fleet under the command of Caasius, about the time that Ctesar gained the battle of Pharsalia. But who- ever he was, he appears, from the present letter, to have been governor of Illyricum, and to have lately had the honour of a public thanksgiving decreed for some successes which his arms liad obtained in that province. Some of the commentators are of opinion that the supersoription of this letter is a false reading, and that instead of Sulpi- cius, it should be Vatinius: but those who are inclined to see this notion very solidly confuted, are referred to the observations of Manutius upon this epistle. — Cas. De Bell. Civ. iii. 101 ; Pigh. Annal. ii. 449. which you have ever shown to serve me, I very earnesfly request. My library-keeper, Dionysius, having stolen several books from that valuable collection which I entrusted to his care, has with- drawn himself into your province, as I am informed by my friend Eolanus, as well as by several others, who saw him at Narona". But as they credited the account he gave them of my having granted him his freedom, they had no suspicion of the true reason that carried him thither. I shall think myself inexpressibly indebted to you, therefore, if you will deliver him into my hands : for although the loss I have sustained is not very great, yet his dishonesty gives me much vexation. Bolanus will inform you in what part of your province he is now concealed, and what measures will be proper in order to secure him. In the mean time, let me repeat it again, that I shall look upon myself as highly indebted to you if I should recover this fellow by your assistance. Farewell. LETTER XXXVII. To Quinius Gallius'. I FIND by your letter, as weE as by one which I have received from Oppius, that you did not forget my recommendation^ ; which, indeed, is A. u. 707. nothing more than what I expected from your great affection towards me, and from the coimexion that subsists between us. Nevertheless, I will again repeat my solicitations in favour of Oppius, who still continues in your province ; and of Egnatius, who remains at Rome : and entreat you to take their joint affairs under your protection. My friendship with Egnatius is so great, that were my own personal interest concerned in the present case, I could not be more anxious. I most ear- nestly request you, therefore, to show him, by your good offices, that I am not mistaken in the share which I persuade myself I enjoy in your affection ; and be assured you cannot oblige me in a more acceptable manner. Farewell. e In Libumia, now called Croatia, which formed part of the province of niyrieum. t See rem. ^, p. M3. e See letter 9 of this book. BOOK X. LETTER L ToAulus TorquatusK Although every one is apt, in these times of universal confusion, to regret his particular lot as A. n. 707 singularly unfortunate, and to prefer any situation to his own, yet undoubtedly a ^ Cicero mentions him in other parts of his writings, ns a man of singular merit, and one to whose generous offices he had been greatly indebted during the persecution he suffered from Clodius. In the year 701, Torquatus was advanced to the prsetorship ; after which, nothing material occurs concerning him till the present letter ; by which, it appears, he was at this time in banisliment at Athens, for having taken part with Porapey in the civil wars. He was of a very ancient and illustrious family, being descended from the brave Titus Manlius, who, in the year 394, obtained the name of Torquatut, from the torquis, or man of patriot sentiments can nowhere, in the present conjuncture, be so unhappily placed as in Rome. 'Tis true, into whatever part of the world he might be cast, he must still retain the same bitter sensibility of that ruin in which both himself and his country are involved. Nevertheless, there is something in being a spectator of those miseries with which others are only acquainted by report, that extremely enhances one's grief ; as it is impos- sible to divert our thoughts from misfortunes which are perpetually obtruding themselves in view. Among the many other losses, therefore, which must necessarily sit heavy upon your heart, let it not be your principal concern (a s I am inform ed collar, which he took from the neck of a gigantic Oanl, whom he slew in single combat.— Ad Att. v. 1 ; Cio. Do Pinib. ii. 22 ; Pigh. Annal. ii. p. 411 ; Liv. vii. JO. S12 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO it is) that you are driven from Rome, For, not- withstanding that you are thus exceedingly uneasy at being separated from your family and fortunes, yet they still continue in their usual situations ; which, as they could by no means be improved by your presence, so neither are they exposed to any particular danger. Whenever, therefore, your family are the subject of your thoughts, you should neither lament them as suffering any calamities peculiar to themselves, nor consider it as a hard- ship that they are not exempted from those which are common to us all. As to what concerns your own person, you ought not, my dear Torquatus, to indulge those gloomy reflections which either fear or despair may suggest. It is certain that He', from whom you have hitherto received a treatment unworthy of your illustrious character, has lately given very considerable marks of a more favourable disposition. It is equally certain, that while we are looking up to Caesar for our preservation, he is far from being clear by what methods he may best secure his own. The event of every war is always precarious ; but with regard to the present), as I well know that you yourself never imagined you had anything to fear if the victory should turn on one side, so I am persuaded, should it fall on the other, you can only suifer in the general ruin. The single circumstance, then, that can give you much disquietude, is that which in some sort I look upon as a kind of con- solation : I mean, that the danger to which you are exposed is no other than what threatens the whole community. And this, it must be acknow- ledged, is so extremely great, that whatever philo- sophers may pretend, I question whether anything can effectually support us under it, except one consideration alone : a consideration which is always more or less efficacious, in proportion to the strength and firmness of a man's own mind. But, if to mean honestly and to act rightly be all that is necessary to constitute human happiness, it should seem a sort of impiety to call that man miserable who is conscious of having always regu- lated his conduct by the best intentions. It was not, I am persuaded, any private advantage which we promised ourselves from the success of our arms, that induced us lately to abandon our fortunes, our families, and our country'' : it was tlie just sense of that sacred regard we owed both to the commonwealth and to our own characters. Nor, when we acted thus, were we so absurdly sanguine as to flatter ourselves with the prospect of certain victory. If the event, then, has proved agreeable to what, upon our first entrance into the war, we were well aware it possibly miglit, we ought, by no means, surely, to be as much dispirited as if the reverse of all that we expected had befallen us. Let us, then, my friend, cherish those sentiments which true philosophy prescribes, by esteeming it our only concern in this life to preserve our inte- grity; and so long as we are void of all just reproach, let us bear the various revolutions of human affairs with calmness and moderation. The sum of what I would say, in short, is this, — that virtue seems i CtEsar. J The war in Spain between Csesar and the sons of Pompey. ^ Upon the first breaking out of the civil war, v/ben Cieero and Torquatus left Italy, in order to join the army of Pompey in Cii-eece. sufficient for her own support, though all things else were utterly lost. Still, however, if any hopes should yet remain to the repubhc, you should by no means despair, whatever its future situation may be, of holding the rank in it you deserve. And here, my friend, it occurs to me, that there was a time when you, likewise, used to condemn my despondency ; and v/hen I was full of appre- hensions, and altogether undetermined how to act, you inspired me by yovir advice and example with more spirited and vigorous resolutions. At that season, it was not our cause, but our measures, I disapproved. I thought it much too late to oppose those victorious arms which we ourselves had long been contributing to strengthen ; and I lamented that we should refer the decision of our political disputes, not to the weight of our counsels, but to the force of our swords. I do not pretend to have been inspired with a spirit of divination, when I foretold what has since happened. I only saw the possibility and destructive consequences of such an event. And it was this that alarmed my fears ; especially as it was a contingency of all others the most likely to take effect. For the strength of our party, I well knew, was of a kind that would little avail us in the field ; as our troops were far inferior, both in force and experience, to those of our adversaries. The same spirit and resolution, then, which you recommended ■ to me at that juncture, let me now exhort you, in my turu, to assume in the present. I was induced to write to you upon this subject by a conversation I lately had with your freedmaa Philargyrus. In answer to the very particular inquiries I made concerning your welfare, he informed me (and I have no reason to suspect his veracity) that you were at some seasons exceedingly dejected. This is a state of mind yon should by no means encourage. For if the republic should in any degree subsist, you have no reason to doubt of recovering the ranlfyoa deserve j and should it be destroyed, your particular condition will be no worse,at least, than that of every Roman in general. As to the important affair now depending', and for the event of which we are all of us in so much anxiety ; this is a circumstance which you ought to bear with the greater tranquillity, as you are in a city where philosophy, that supreme guide and governess of human life, not only received her birth, but her best and noblest improvements "• But, besides this advantage, you enjoy the company likewise of Sulpicius", that wise and favourite friend, from whose kind and prudent offices you must undoubtedly receive great consolation. And had we all of us lately been so politic as to have followed his advice, we should have chosen rather to have submitted to the civil, than to the military power of Csesar ". 1 The war in Spain. •n The Athenians (among whom Torquatus, as has been observed above, at this time resided) were supposed to have been the first who instructed mankind, not only in the refinements of poetry, oratory, and philosophy, but in manufactures, agriculture, and civil government. Athens, in short, was esteemed by the ancients to be the source, as it was unquestionably the seat, of all those useful or polite arts which most contribute to the ease and ornament of human life.— Justin, ii. 6 ; Lucret. vi. 1, &c. " Sulpicius was at Athens, as governor of Greece. See rem. c, p, 488, o Thi.s alludes to the opposition which Sulpici'is moile TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 613 But I have dwelt longer, peruaps, upon this subject than was necessary : I will despatch, there- fore, what is more material in fewer words. How much I owed to some of those friends, whom the fate of this cruel war has snatched from me, you pertectly well know ; but I have now none remain- ing from whom I have received greater obligations than from yourself. I am sensible, at the same time, how little my power can at present avail ; but as no man can be so totally fallen as not to be capable of effecting somewhat at least by his earnest endeavours, be assured that both you and yours have an unquestionable right to the best and most zealous of mine. Farewell. LETTER IL To Servius Sulpioius, Manius Curiusp, a merchant of Patrae, is a person whom I have many and great reasons to value. The friendship between ns has ' long continued : so long, indeed, as from his first appearance in the forum. He has formerly, at different junctures, and lately, during this un- happy civil war, offered me an asylum at Patrse ; and I should have used his house with the same freedom as my own, if I had found occasion. But my strongest connexion with him results from a motive of a more sacred kind, as it arises from his intimacy with my friend Atticus, for whom he entertains a very singular affection and esteem. If Curius is known to you, I imagine I am paying him the tribute of my good offices somewhat too late ; for 1 dare say his polite and elegant manners have already recommended him to your regard. However, should this prove to be the case, I very earnestly entreat you to suffer this letter to confirm and increase the favourable disposition you have conceived towards him. But if his modesty has concealed him from your notice, or you have only a slight acquaintance with him, or for any other reason, a farther recommendation may be neces- sary, I most warmly and most deservedly give him mine. I will be answerable, too (as every one ought, indeed, whose offices of this kind are sincere and disinterested), that you will experience so much politeness and probity in Curius, as to convince yon that he is worthy both of my recommendation andofyourfriendship. In the mean time, be assured you wUl very sensibly oblige me, if I should find that this letter shall have had all the inSuence with you which I confidently expect. Farewell. LETTER III. To Aulus Torquatits, It was more in compliance vrith the affection of my heart, than as thinking It in the least necessary, ji u 70? "'*' ^ ^^'*'°^'^ y"" ^o 1°°S '" ""y last'. Your fortitude wants not to be animated by any exhortations of mine ; and, indeed, I am in every respect too much distressed myself, to be to the proposal of recoUing Cssar from his government In Gaul, just before the commencement of the civil War. See rem. z^ p. 454, P This is the same person to whom the 95th letter of the preceding book is addressed. See rem.- c, p. 503. i The first letter of the present book. capable of encouraging another. But, whatever reason there might or might not have been for the length of my former letter, I am sure it may well excuse me from extending my present, nothing new having since occurred. For as to the various and contradictory reports which are every day pro- pagated amongst us, concerning affairs in Spain, I imagine they are spread likewise into your part of the world. They will all terminate, however, in the same fatal catastrophe ; a catastrophe which I no less clearly discern (and I am well assured it is equally visible to yourself) than if it were now actually before my view. 'Tis true no one can determine what will be the event of the approach- ing battle i but as to that of the war in general, I have no manner of doubt ; at least, none with respect to its consequences : for one side or the other must certainly be victorious ; and I am well convinced of the use that either party will make of their success. Such a use, indeed, that I had rather suffer what is generally esteemed the most terrible of all evils, than live to be a spectator of so dreadful a scene. Yes, my friend, life, upon the terms on which we must then endure it, would be the completion of human misery ; whereas death was never considered by any vrise man as an evil, even to the happy themselves. But you are in a city where the very walls will inspire you with these and other reflections of the same tendency, in a far more efficacious manner than I can suggest them'. I will only, therefore, assure you (unsubstantial as the consolation is which arises from the misfortunes of others), that you are at present in no greater danger than any of those of the same party, who have either totally renounced the war, or who are still in arms, as they are both' under equal appre- hensions from the victor. But there is another and far higher consolation, which I hope is yovr support, as it certainly is mine. For so long as I shall preserve my innocence, I will never whilst I exist be anxiously disturbed at any event that may happen ; and if I should cease to exist, all sensi- bility must cease with me'. But I am again re- turning to my unnecessary reflections, and, in the language of the old proverb, am " sending owls to Athens'." To put an end to them, be assured that the welfare of yourself and family, together with the success of all your concerns, is my great and principal care, and shall continue to be so to the end of my days. Farewell. LETTER IV. To Servius Sulpioius. Your very polite and obliging letter to Atticus affoi-ded him great satisfaction ; but not more than I received from it myself. It was, indeed, •*■ "■'"'• equally agreeable to us both. But although we neither of us doubted that you would readily comply with any request he should make, yet your having voluntarily and unexpectedly offered him your services, was a circumstance, I must acknow- ledge, that raised Atticus's admiration less than mine. As you have given him the most ample assurances, therefore, of your good offices, it is unnecessary that I should desire you to add any- ' See rem. "», p. 512. t See rem. ^t p. 478. ■■ See rem. ', p. 477. 514 THE LETTERS OF MAPCUS TULLIUS CICERO thing to them from your regard to me. It would be no less impertinent, likewise, to send you my acknowledgments upon this occasion, as your offer was entirely the spontaneous result of your par- ticular friendship to Attieus. This, however, I will say, that as such an uncommon proof of your esteem for a man whom I singularly love and value, could not but be highly agreeable to me, so it is an obligation I must necessarily place to my own account. And, indeed, as I may take the liberty, from the intimacy between us, to transgress the strict rules of propriety, I shall venture to do the two things which I just now declared were both improper and unnecessary. Accordingly, let me request, in the first place, that you would add as much as possible to those services, for my sake, with which you have shown yourself willing to favour Attieus for his own ; and, in the next place, desire your acceptance of my acknowledgments for those which you have already so generously pro- mised him. And be assured, whatever good offices you shall render to Attieus in regard to his affairs in Epirus", or upon any other occasion, will be so many obligations conferred upon myself. Farewell, LETTER V. To the same. I HAVE long Deen united with Lyso, a citizen of Patrse, by ties which I deem of sacred obligation ; .()j the ties, I mean, of hospitality '. This is a sort of connexion, it is true, in which I am engaged also with many others ; but I never contracted with any of my hosts so strict an inti- macy. The many good offices I received from Lyso, together with the habitudes of a daily inter- course, improved our acquaintance into the highest degree of friendship ; and, indeed, during the whole year he resided here, we were scarce ever separated. We neither of iis doubted that my former letter would have the effect I find it has, and induce you to take his affairs undel- your protection is his absence. Nevertheless, as he had appeared in arms in favour of our party, we were under perpetual apprehensions of his resentment, in whom' aU power is now centred. But Lyso's illustrious rank, together with the zealous applications of myself and the rest of those who have shared in his generous hospitality, have at length obtained all that we could wish, as you will perceive by the letter which Cassar himself has written to you. I am so far, however, from thinking him in circum- stances that will allow me to release you from any part of my former solicitation, that I now more strongly request you to receive him into your patronage and friendship. '^Philst his fatp was yet in suspense, I was less forward in cMming your good offices, being cautious of giving you a trouble which possibly might prove to no pui'pose. But as his pardon is absolutely confirmed, I most ardently entreat your best services in his behalf. Not to enumerate particularsj I recommend to you his whole family in general, but more especially his u Epirus was contiguous to Greece, and annexed to the government of that province. It is now called Janna, and is under the dominion of the Tiu'ks. A considerable part of Atticus'a estate lay in this coimtry. — Com. Nep. in Vit Att. 14. " See rem. ', p. 452. son. My old client Memmius Gemellus", having been presented with the freedom of the city of Patrffi during his unhappy banishment, adopted this young man according to the forms prescribed by the laws of that community : and I beseech you to support him in his right of succeeding to the estate of his adoptive father. But, above all, as I have thoroughly experieru;ed the merit and grateful disposition of Lyso, let me conjure you to admit him into a share of your friendship. I am per- suaded, if you should do so, you will hereafter look upon him with the same affection, and recommend him with as much zeal, as 1 have expressed in the present instance. There is nothing, indeed, 1 more earnestly wish than to raise in you this disposition towards him ; as I fear, if you should not confer upon him your best services, he will suspect, not that you are unmindful of my recommendations, but that I did not sufficiently enforce them. For he must be perfectly sensible, not only from what be has frequently heard me declare, but from your own obliging letters to me, of the singular share 1 enjoy in your friendship and esteem. Farewell. LETTER VL To the same. AscLAPo, a physician of Patrse, is my very par- ticular friend; to whose company, as well as skill in his profession, I have been much i. o. 707. in^g^tgd. I had occasion to experience the latter in my own family ; and had great reason to be satisfied with his knowledge, his integrity, and his tenderness. I recommend him, therefore, to your favour ; and entreat you to let him see, by the effects of this letter, that I did so in the strongest manner. Your compliance with this request will oblige me exceedingly. Farewell. LETTER VIL To the same. Marcus jEmilids Avianus has distinguished me, from his earliest youth, with peculiar marks of ..y affection and esteem. He is a man not only of great politeness but probity ; and, indeed, in every view of bis character, is extremely amiable. If 1 imagined he were at Sicyon*, I should think it utterly unnecessary to add anyl^bing farther in his behalf, being well persuaded that the elegance and integrity of his manners would be sufficient of themselves to recommend him to the same degree of pour affection which he possesses, not only of mine, but of every one of his friends in general. But as I hear he still continues at Cybira, where I left him some time ago?, I most strongly recommeiul his affairs and family at Sicyon to your favour and protection. Among these, I must par- ticularly single out his freedman, Hammonius, as one who has a claim to my recommendation upon his own account* He has gained my good o pinion, w Probably the same person to whom the 2701 letter of the 3d book is addressed. @ee rem. <=, p. 301. X A city in the Peloponnesus, now called Batilica. r Cybira was a city of Lycacnia, annexed to the.govem- ment of Ciltcia : Cioero alludes tq the time when he was proconsul of that province, TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 616 lot only by his uncommon Zealand fidelity towards lis patron, but by the very important services like- vise which he has conferred upon myself. Indeed, lad it been to me that he had been indebted for the jrivilege of his freedom, be could not have acted vitb a more faithful and affectionate as^dnity than [ experienced from him in my troubles'. In th? irst place, then, I entreat your protection of Ham- nonivts, as agent in the affairs of his patron : and, n the next, I recommend him upon his own iccount, as worthy to be received into the number rf your friends. Believe me, you will find him of 1 modest, obliging temper, and well deserving a place in your affection. Farewell. LETTER VIH. To the same. I HAVE a very great regard for Titus Manlius, a merchant of Thespise ; not only as one from whom ™ I have always received singular marks of consideration and esteem, but as be is an admirer also of our favpurite studies. To this I must add, that my friend Varro Murena very warmly espouses his interest : and though Murena has full confidence in the effect of that letter which he has himself written to you in favpnr of Manlius, yet he is persuaded that my recommendation like- wise may somewhat increase your disposition to assist him. In compliance, therefore, with my desire of serving both Murena and Manlius, I recommend the latter to you in the strongest terms : and you will greatly oblige me by promoting the interest and honours of Manlius in every instance con- sistent with your own character and dignity. I will venture to assure you likewise, from the know- ledge I have of his polite and humanised disposition, that your good offices towards him will be attended with nil the satisfaction you can promise yourself from the gratitude of a worthy man. Farewell. LETTER IX. To the same. My friend and tribe-fellow", Lucius Cossinius, is one with whom I have long lived in great inti- j, „ j(^ macy ; and wliich (lis connexion vrith Atticus has contributed still farther to improve. I enjoy the affection of his whole family, hut particularly of his freedman Ancbi?lus, who is highly in the esteem not pnly of his patron, hut of all his patron's friepds ; in which number I have already mBntipne4 myself. I recpiurneBcl Anchialus therefore to your favour, with as ptucb warmtlj as if he stood in the same relation to me as he does tq Cossinius. Yen will oblige me, indeed, iq a very sensible manner, by receiving him. into your friend- ship, and giving him any assistance he may require — as far, I mean, ss your own convenienge will admit. * During his pei'secutlon by Clodiua. ■^ The collective body of tlie Roman people was divided ipto tbirty-ijve tribes : and every citizen, of whatever pank, waa necessarily enrolled under one or other Qf these ^voral elasBos. They were each distinguished by a particular name, aa the Tribus Popilia, Tribug Velina, &c., which name was derived either from the place which the tribe.-prind- pally inhabited, or from some distinguished family it con- tained— Rosii^. Antiq, Rom. And you will hereafter, I am persuaded, receive much satisfaction from your compUance with this request, as you will find Anchialus to be a man of tine greatest politeness and probity. Farewell. LETTER X. To the same. The pleasure I took in the reflectign of having written to you in behalf of my friend and host, jj „. Lyso, was much increased when I read bis letter : and I particularly rejoiced in hav- ing so strongly recommended him to your esteem, when I found he had before been a sufferer in your good opinion ; for my recommendation, he tells me, was of singular advantage in removing the groundless suspicion you bad entertaineji of him, from a report that he. had frequently, whilst he was at Rome, treated your character in a disrespectful manner. Let rne, in the first place, then, return you those thanks which I so justly owe you, for suf- fering my letter to efface every remaining impres- sion of this injurious calumny. And, in the next place, although Lyso assures me that, agreeably to your well-natured and generous disposition, he has entirely satisfied you of his innocence, yetl entreat you to believe me when I protest, not only in justice to my friend, but to the world in general, that I never heard any man mention you without the highest applause. As to Lyso in particular, iii all the daily conversations we had together whilst he continued here, you were the perpetual subject of his encomiums ; both as he imagined that I heard theni with pleasure, and as it was a topic extren^ely agreeable likewise to himself. But though he- is fully satisfied with the effects of my former letter, and 1 am sensible that the generous manner in which you treat him renders all farther application perfectly unnecessary, yet I cannot forbear renew- ing my earnest solicitations that you would continue your favours towards him. I would again also represent to you how well he deserves them, if I did not imagine you were by this time sufficiently acquainted with his pierit. Farewell. LETTER XL To the same, Hagesarbtus of Larissa' having received considerable honours from me during my consu- A Ti 707 '*'®' ^^^ ^^^' SLnoe distinguished me with *' ■ " lingular marks of gratitude and respect. I strongly fecqgimend him, therefore, to you as my host and friend ! as a man of an honest and grate- ful heart ; as a person of principi|l rank in his native city ! and, ii} abort, as one who is altogether worthy of being admitted into, your friendship. And I shall be exceedingly obliged to you for letting Wm see that you p»y regard to this my, recommendation. Farewell. 1" There were two cities of this name in Thessaly : a country contiguous to Greece, and which formerly made par-t of the kingdom of Macedonia. One of these cities was situated upon the river Pcneus, and is now called Larsa ; the other was a maritime town. Oeograpbers suppose the latter to be the present 4rmino, a considerable sea-port belonging to the Turks. 1. 1. 2 616 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XIL To the same. The connexion between Lucius Mescinius and myself results fi-om no less powerful a tie than ^ „ »(,_ that of bis having been formerly my quaestor'. But, though I always con- sidered a relation of this kind in the high regard it was viewed by our ancestors, yet the refined and elegant virtues of Mescinius'' rendered it still more justly sacred. Accordingly, there is no man with whom I live in a higher degree of intimacy, or from whose friendship I derive greater satisfaction. He doubts not of your disposition to serve him upon every occasion that shall comport with your honour : however, be is persuaded that a letter from my hand will considerably strengthen your inclinations for that purpose. This he collects not only from his own observation, but from those fre- quent declarations he has heard me make of the very pleasing and intimate friendship in which you and 1 are so strictly joined. I am to inform you, then, that his late brother, who was a merchant in Elis=, has left bim his estate ; and I entreat you, with all the warmth which you are sensible ought to animate me in the concerns of a friend to whom I am so strongly and closely attached, that you would assist him with your power, your influence, and your advice, in settling theseiis affairs in your province. In view to this, we have sent directions to his agent, that if any disputes should arise con- cerning the estate or effects of the testator, that they shall be guided by your sentiments, and (if it be not troubling you too much) determined by your arbitration ; an office which I earnestly en- treat you to undertake, and the acceptance of which I shall esteem as an honour done to myself. But if any of the claimants should be so obstinate as to refuse your award, I shall receive it as a singular obligation if you will refer their pretensions (pro- vided you shall not think it a derogation from your dignity) to be determined in the courts at Rome ; as the matter in contest is with a Roman senator. That you may the less scruple to comply with this request, I have procured a sort of recommendatory letter to you from the consul Lepidus'. I say a recommendatory one ; for to have desired him to write in a more authoritative style, would not, I thought, be treating your high station with the deference which is so justly due to it. I would ad\i, that your obliging Mescinius in this instance, will be laying out your favours to much advantage ; if I were not, on the one hand, well persuaded that this is a circumstance of which you are already apprised ; and, on the other, were I not soliciting you as for an affair of my own. For, be assured, I take an equal concern with Mescinius in every article wherein he is interested. As I am very desirous, therefore, that he may obtain his right with as little trouble as possible, so I am solicitous likewise that he should have reason to think that my recommendation has greatly contributed to this end. Farewell. c See rem. o^p, 443. <* The reader will find, by the remark referred to in the last note, how little there was of truth and sincerity in the character which Cicero here bestows upon his friend. E A city in the Peloponnesus. ' He was this year appointed by Caesar to be his colleague in the consular offioei — Plut. in Vit. Anton. LETTER XIII. To the same. The regard you pay to my recommendations has given me, and will hereafter give me, I dare „^ say, frequent occasions of repeating my a. u. /07. 3g]jm,„iedgments. However, I will attempt, if possible, to convey my thanks to you in a style as various as the several instances that demand them ; and, in imitation of you lawyers s, express the same thing in different words. I have received a letter from Hammonius, fall of the strongest expressions of gratitude for the services you have rendered both to him and Avianus, in consequence of my recommendation' ; and he assures me that nothing can be more generous than the personal civilities you have shown to himself, as well as the attention you have given to the affairs of his patron. This would afford me a very sen- sible pleasure, were I to consider it only as a benefit to those to whom I have the strongest attachments ; as indeed Avianus has distinguished himself above all my friends by his superior sensibility of the many and great obligations I have conferred upon bim. But my satisfaction still increases when I view it as an instance of my standing so high in your esteem, as to incline you to serve my friends more efficaciously than I myself should, perhaps, were I present for that purpose. Possibly the reason of your having this advantage over me, may be, that I should not yield altogether so easily to their requests as you comply with mine. But whatever doubt I may have as to that point, I have none of your being persuaded that I entertain the sentiments of your favours they deserve ; and I entreat you to believe (what I will be answerable is the truth) that both Avianus and Hammonius have received them with the same grateful disposition. I beseech you then, if it be not engaging you in too much trouble, that you would endeavour that their affairs may be settled before you leave the province. I live in a most agreeable intimacy with your son, whose genius and uncommon application, but, above all, his probity and virtue, afford me a very sensible pleasure. Farewell. LETTER XIV. To the same. It is always with much pleasure that I apply to you in behalf of my friends; but I find a still J, jQH greater in expressing my gratitude for those favours you yield to my solicitations This indeed is a pleasure with which you never fail of supplying me ; and it is incredible what acknow- ledgments I receive, even from persons whom I have but slightly mentioned to you. I think my- self greatly indebted for these instances of your friendship ; but particularly for those good offices you have conferred upon Mescinius. He informs me that immediately upon the receipt of my letter', you gave his agents full assurance of your services ; and have since performed even more tha n you e Sulpicius was one of the most considerable lawyers of the age. See rem. \ p. 488. ' >> See the 7th letter of this book. > The 12th letter of this hook. TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 517 promised. Believe me, (and I cannot too often repeat it,) you have, by these means, laid an obligation upon me of the most acceptable kind ; and it affords me so much the higher satisfaction, as I am persuaded Mescinius will give you abun- dant reason to rejoice In it yourself. Virtue and probity, in truth, are the prevailing qualities of his heart ; as an obliging and friendly ofBciousness is his distinguishing characteristic. To this I must add, that he is particularly devoted to our favourite speculations ; those philosophical speculations, my friend, which were always the delight, as they are now also the support and consolation, of my life. Let me entreat you, then, to give him fresh instances of your generosity upon every occasion, wherein it shall not be inconsistent with your dignity to inter- pose. But there are two articles in which I will particularly request it. The first is, that if those who are indebted to the estate of his testator, should insist upon being indemnified in their pay- ments to Mescinius, that my security may be accepted; and the next is, that as the greatest part of the testator's effects are secreted by his wife, that you would assist in concerting measures for sending her to Rome. Should she be once per- suaded that this method will be taken with her, we doubt not of her settling everything to the satis- faction of Mescinius ; and, that it may be so, I most strongly again request the interposition of your good offices. In the mean time, I will be answerable for what I just now assured you, that the gratitude and other amiable qualities of Mes- cinius wiE give you reason to think your favours were not ill bestowed, which I mention as a motive on his own account, to be added to those which induced you to serve him upon mine. I am persuaded that the Lacedaemonians doubt not of being sufficiently recommended to your justice and patronage, by their own and their ancestors' virtues, and I know you too well to question your being perfectly acquainted with the national rights and merit of every people who are connected with the republic. Accordingly, not- withstanding the great obligations I have received from the citizens of Lacedeemon, yet, when Phi- lippus requested me to recommend them to your protection, my answer was, that the Lacedaemo- nians could not possibly stand in need of an advo- cate with Sulpicius. The truth is, I look upon it as a circumstance of singular advantage to all the cities of Achaia', in general, that you preside over them in these turbulent times ; and I ain persuaded that you, who are so peculiarly conversant, not only in the Roman but Grecian annals, cannot but be a friend to the Lacedaemonians for the sake of their heroic descent. I wiU only, therefore, en- treat you that, when you are acting towards them in consequence of what your justice and honour requires, you would, at the same time, intimate that you receive an additional pleasure from indulg- ing your own inclinations of that sort, by knowing them to be agreeable likewise to mine. As I think myself obliged to show this city that their concerns are part of my care, it is with much earnestness I make this request. Farewell. ^ Greece. LETTER XV. To LepiaK The moment I received your letter from the hands of Seleucus, I despatched a note to Balbus, u 708 ^° inquire the purport of the law you mention^. His answer was, that such persons as at present exercise the office of praeco', are expressly excluded from being decurii"" ; but this prohibition extended not to those who had formerly been engaged in that employment. Let not our friends, then, be discouraged. It would, indeed, have been intolerable that a parcel of paltry fortune-tellers should be thought worthy of being admitted into the senate of Rome", at the same time that having formerly acted as a praeco should disqualify a man for being member of the council of a country corporation. We have no news from Spain : all that we know with certainty is, that young Pompey has drawn together a very considerable army. "This we learn from a letter of Faciaecus " to Caesar, a copy whereof Caesar himself has transmitted to us ; in which it is affirmed that Pompey is at the head of eleven legions P. Messala, in a letter he lately wrote to Quintus Salassus, informs him that his brother, Publius Curtius, has been executed by the command of Pompey, in the presence of his whole army. This man had entered, it seems, into a conspiracy with some Spaniards, by which it was agreed, in case Pompey should niarch into a certain village for provisions, to seize upon his person, and deliver him into the hands of Caesar. In relation to the security in which you stand engaged for Pompey, you may depend upon it, as soon as Galba, who is jointly bound with you, returns hither, I shall not fail to consult with him about measures for settling that affah'. He seemed, I remember, to imagine that it might be adjusted ; and you know he is a man who spares no pains where his money is concerned. J Cicero mentions a person of this name in a foiiner let- ter, who appears to have been liis prc^ectus /ahruniy or what might be called, perhaps, in modern language, the commander of his train of artillery, when lie was governor of Cilicia. It is probable, therefore, as Manutius conjec- tures, that he is the same person to whom this letter is addressed.— Ep. Fam. iii. 1. k Manutius very justly observes, that this could not be a law which GEesar had actually passed, hut one which he intended, perhaps, to enact, when he should return from Spain: for if it had been actually promulgated, Cicero could have had no occasion to apply to Balbus for his in- telligence. 1 The office of jyfceco seems to have been much in the nature of a crier in our coiurts of justice, but not altogether so low ia repute. ' ■n A decui'io was, in a corporate city, the same as a sena- tor of Rome ; that is, a member of the public council of the commimity. " This is a sneer upon Ca?sar, who had introduced per- sons of the lowest rank and character into the Roman senate. See rem. <>, p. 457. o He was a native of Spain, and a person of great note in that province. Caesar entrusted him with a very con- siderable command in the expedition against the sons of Pompey.— Hu:t. De Bell. Hisp. 3. p The number of horse and foot in a Roman legion varied in different periods of the republic. In its lowest computation, it appears to have amounted to 300U font and 2U0 horse ; and, in its highest, to have lisen to GtiOt) of tlia former, and 400 of the latter, — Rosin. Autiq. Rom, 9iii^ 518 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO It gives me much pleasure to find that you so highly approve of myi Orator. Whatever skill I have in the art, I have displayed it all in that treatise; and, if the commendations you bestow upon it are not too partial, 1 cannot but set some value upon my judgment. To speak truth, I am willing to rest all my reputation of this kind upon the merit of that performance. I hope my little favourite, your son, already discovers some relish for writings of this sort ; and although he is yet too young to enter far into these studies, yet it will be no disadvantage to him to begin thus early to form his taste by compositions of this nature. I have been detained at Rome on account of my daughter TuUia's lying-in. But though she is now, I hope, out of all danger, yet I still Wait here in expectation of my first payment from the agents of Dolabella"' ; and, to tell you the truth, I ain not so fond of changing the scene as formerly. The amusement I found in my country houses, together with the sweets of retirement, were wont heretofore ■to draw me frequently out of Rome. But the situation of my present house is altogether as plea- sant as that of any of my villas. 1 am, indeed, as much retired here as if I lived in the most unfre- quented desert, and carry on my studies without the least interruption. I believe, therefore, that I have a better chance of a visit from you in Rome than you have of seeing me in the country. I would recommend Hesiod to the agreeable little Lepta as an author which he ought to retain by heart ; and particularly let him always have in his mouth those noble lines. Farewell. High on a rugged rock, &c. => LETTER XVL To Aulus Torquatns. Thbre is no news to send you ; and, indeed, if there were any, yet all accounts of that kind, I A. V. 708. ''""■W) are usually transmitted to you by your own family. As to what may here- after happen, though it is always difficult to de- termine concerning future events, yet, when they are not placed at too great a distance, one may sometimes form a tolerable guess. At present, however, all 1 can conjecture is, that the war is not likely to be drawn out into any great length ; though I must acknowledge there are some who think differently. I am even inclined to believe that there has already been an engagement ; but I do 1 This elegant and judicious piece is insoribed to Brutus, and was written in answer to a question ho had often pro- posed to Cicero, concerning the noblest and most perfect species of eloquence. ■■ This seems to intimate that there had been a divorce between Dolabella and TulUa : as it was usual, in cases of that kind, for the husband to retimi the portion he had received from his wife, at three annual payments. See rems. " and q, on letter 2, book xi. ' The passage in Hesiod, at which Cicero hints, is to the following purpose : High on a rugged rock the gods ordain. Majestic Virtue shall her throne maintain : And niany a thorny path her sons must press. Ere the glad summit shaU their labours Ijlras. There joys serene to arduous toils succeed. And peace eternal is the Victor's meed. not give you this as a fact ; I mention it only as extremely probable. The event of war is always precarious ; but, in the present instance, the num- ber of forces is so considerable on each side, and there is such a general spirit, it is said, in both armies, of coming to action, that it will not be matter of surprise, whichever side should obtain the victory'. In the mean time, the world is every day more and more persuaded, that although there may be some little difference in the cause of the contending parties, there will be scarcely any iu the consequence of their success. As to one of them, we have already in soma sort expericncefl their disposition" ; and, as to the other, we are all of us sufficiently sensible how much is to be dreaded from an incensed conqueror'. , If, by what I have here said, I may seem' to increase that grief which I should endeavoui- to alleviate, I must confess that I know but one reflection capable of supporting us under these public misfortunes. It is a reflection, however, of sovereign eflicacy, where it can be applied in its full force, and of which I every day more and more experience the singular advantage. It is, indeed, the greatest consolation under adversify, to be conscious of having always meant well, and to be persuaded that nothing but -guilt deserves to be considered as a severe evil. But as yon and I are so far from having Anything to reproach omselves with, that we have the ■satisfaction to reflect that We have ever acted upon the most patriot prin- ciples ; as it is not onr measures, but the ill success of those measteres, which the World regrets j in a word, as we have faithfully discharged that duly we owed to our country, let us bear the event with calmness and moderation. But I pretend not to teach you how to support these our common cala- mities. It is a lesson which requires much greater abilities than mine to inculcate, as well as the most singnlar fortftude of Soul to practise. There is one point, however, in wMeh any man is qualified to be your instructor, as it is easy to show fli^ you have no reason to be particularly afflicted. For with respect to tisesat, though he has appeared somewhat more slow in granting your pardon than was generally imagiired, yet I have not the least doubt of his consenting to your restoration ; and as to the other parly*, you perfectly well know how your interest stands with them, without my telling you. Your only remaining disquietude, then, must arise from being thus long separated from your family : and it is a circumstance, I con- fess, thatjustly merits your concern, especially as you are by this inean deprived of the company of ' This letter was probably written very early in the present year, as it was on the 17th of March that the two armies came to a general engagement. This decisive bat- tle was fought imder the walls of Munda, a city which still subsists in the province of Oranada. Caesar obtained a complete victory; but It was disputed by the PoMpeians with so much courage and obstinacy, that It was long doubtful on which side the advantage would turn, or, as Plotus most elegantly expresses it,"iit plane viderdtm nesoio quid deliberare Fortuna."— Htrt. De Bell. Hisp. SI ; Flor. iv. 2. " The Csesarean party. ' Young Pompey, who, if he had succeeded, would un- doubtedly have acted with great severity towards Cicero, and the rest of those who had deserted the cause of bii father. " The PompeiauB. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 51d those most amiable yoaths, your sons. But, as I observed in a former'' letter, it is natural for every man in these unhappy times to look upon his own condition as of all others the most miserable, and to deem that place the least eligible in which it is his fortune to be situated. Fbr my own part, indeed, I think that we who Uto at Rome are most to be lamented ; not only as in misfortunes of every kind a spectator must be more sensibly affected than he who is acquainted with them merely by report, but as we are more exposed to tile danger of sudden violences than those who are placed at a greater distance. Yet, after all my endeavours to reason yon out of your disquietudes, I cannot but acknowledge that I am more obliged to time than to that philo- sophy which I have ever cultivated, for the miti- gation of my own ; and how great they once were, you perfectly well know. But, in the fo-st place, I have the consolation to reflect, that when I was so desirous of peace as to think even a bad one preferable to a civil war, I saw farther into con- sequences than some of my countrymen. And although I do not pretend to a spirit of divination and itwas chance aloncthat verified my predictions, yet I will own that I take great satisfaction in the empty honour of my fruitless penetration. In the next place, I have the consolation, in common with yourself, that should I now be called tipon to lay down my life, I shaU not be cut off from a commonwealth which I can by any means regret to leave ;. especially as the same blow that deprives me of my life will deprive me likewise of all sensi- bility ^ Besides, I am already arrived at a fulness of years'' ; and, as I can took back with entire satisfaction en the course I have completed, so I have nothing to fear from any violence which may be offered to me, since nature herself has now weH- nigh conducted my days to their final period. In a word, when I reflect upon that great man^, orratfaer, indeed, upon those many illustrious personages who perished in this war, it would seem a want of modesty to regret submittuig to the same fate, whenever I shall find it necessary. The truth is, I represent to myself all that can possibly happen to me ; as, indeed, there is no calamity so severe which I do not look upon as actually impending. However, since to live in perpetual fear is a greater evil than any we can dread, I check myself in these refiections, espemtly as I am approaching to that state, which is not only unaittended with any pain in itself, but which will put an end to all painful sensations for ever. But 1 have dwelt longer upon this subject, perhaps, than was necessary. How- ever, if I run out my letters to an imreasonable extent, you must not impute it to impertinence, but affection. I am sorry to hear that Sulpicius has left Athens"; as I am persuaded that the daily com- pany and conversation of so wise «nd valuable a friend afforded you great relief under your afflic- tions. But I liope you will continue to bear them as becomes you, and support yourself vvith your usual fortitude. In the mean time, be assured I * The first letter of this hodi:. ' See rem. I, p. 477. J Cicero was at this time in his eist year. * Pomjiey. * In order, probably, to return to Home upon thccxpi- latiou of his govenum>iit. shall promote, with the utmost zeal and care, what- ever I shall think agreeable to the interest or inclination either of you or yours. And in this I can only imitate you in your disposition to serve me, without being able to return your generous offices in the same efficacious manner. Farewell. LETTER XVII. To Caius Cassius. I SHOULD not send you so short a letter, if your courier had not called for it just as he was setting „„ out. But I have still another reason ; for I have nothing to write to you in the way of pleasantry, and serious affairs are topics in which it is not altogether safe to engage. You will, therefore, wonder, perhaps, that I should be in any humour to be jocose ; and indeed it is no very easy matter. However, it is the only expe- dient left to divert pur uneasy thoughts. But where, then, you will probably ask, is our philo- sophy ? 'Why, yours, my friend, is in the * kitchen, I suppose ; and as to mine, it is much too trouble- some a guest to gain admittance. The fact is, I am heartily ashamed of being a slave ; and, there- fore, that I may not hear the severe reproaches of Plato, I endeavour to turn my attentipn another way. We have hitherto received no certain intelligence from Spain. I rejoice, upon your account, that you are absent from this unpleasing scene, though I greatly regret it upon my own. But your courier presses me to despatcli, so that I can only bid you adieu, and entreat the continuance of that friend- ship you have ever shown me from your earUest youth. LETTER XVin. To Dolabella". I WOULD not venture to omit writing to you by our friend Salvius ; tiough I have nothing more „(,„ to say than what you perfectly "well know *■ ■ ' sdready,that 'I infinitely dove you''. I have much more reason, indeed, to expect a letter from you, than you can 'have to receive one from me, as I imagine there is nothing going forward in Rome which you will think of importance enough to jaise your curiosity, unless, perhaps, that 1 am to sit in judgment between two learned grammarians ; our friend ^Nicias, and his antagpnistVi^us. Thelatter, you must know, ha$ produced a certain manuscript, relating to an account between them, tp w^ich Nicias, like a second Aristarchus ", very ipecemp- torily insifi):s that some of the Unes are altogether spivrions. Now I, like a venerable ancient critic, am to determine whether these suspected mterpo-' laiions are genuine or not. But you will question. b This is a raillery upon .the tenets of Cassius, who held the doctrines of the Epicurean sect. c He was, at this time, with Csesar, .in Spain. <* ■Whatever disagreement thewe was between PolabeUa and TiiUia, it did not, in appeajranee at least, ocoasion any coolness between him and his father-in-law; a circum- stance, which, considering the tenderness of Cicero .for his daughter, can only be. accounted for by Dolabella's great credit with'GsGsar. ' A celebrated Gioek oiiac. Soo rem, ', p. 433. 620 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO perhaps, whether I have sufficiently forgotten the delicious mushrooms and those noble prawns ' with which I have been so often regaled by Nicias and his gentle spouse, to be qualified for an impartial judge in this important cause. Let me ask you, in return, whether you imagine I have so entirely thrown off all my former severity, as to retain nothing of my old solemnity of brow, even when I am sitting in grave tribunal. You maybe sure, however, that my honest host shall be no great sufferer. Though, let me tell you, if I should pass sentence of banishment upon him, I shall by no means allow you to reverse it, lest Bursa should be supplied with a pedagogue to teach him his letters e. But I am running on in this ludicrous style, without reflecting that you, who are in the midst of a campaign, may perhaps be too seriously engaged to relish these humorous sallies. When I shall be certain, therefore, that you are in a dis- position to laugh, you shall hear farther from me. I cannot, however, forbear adding, that the people were extremely solicitous concerning the fate of SuUa*^, till the news of his death was confirmed ; but now that they are assured of the fact, they are no longer inquisitive how it happened, well con- tented with their intelligence that he is undoubtedly defunct. As for myself, I bear this deplorable accident like a philosopher ; my only concern is, lest it should damp the spirit of Ctesar's auctions'. Farewell. LETTER XIX. To Aultis Torquatus. I HOPE you will not imagine that you have been out of my thoughts, by my having lately been a more remiss correspondent than usual. A. u. 7 . ^j^g j^^g occasion of my silence has partly arisen from an ill state of health, which, however, is now somewhat mended, and partly has been owing to my absence from Rome, which prevented me from being informed when any courier was despatched to you. Be assured that I constantly and most affectionately preserve you in my remem- brance, and that your affairs of every kind are as much my concern as if they were my own. Believe me, you have no reason, considering the unhappy situatign of public affairs, to be uneasy that yours still remain in a more dubious and un- settled posture than was generally hoped and imagined. For one of these three events must * In the original, it is cuHnarMm, which conveys no sense, or, at least, a very forced one. The reading, therefore, proposed hy Gronovius, is adopted in the translation, who imagines the true word was squillarum ; for pra-ivns was a fish in great repute amongst the Roman epicures. g Bursa was a particular enemy of Cicero, and had been banished for his riotous attempts to revenge the murder of ClodiuB, from which banishment he was lately recalled. See rem. a, p. 387. h This man had rendered himself extremely and gene- rally odious by the purchases he had made of the confis- cated estates, during the proscriptions both of Sylla and CsEsar.— Cio. de Offlc. ii. 8. ' In which the confiscated estates were put up to sale. One of the methods that Caesar took to reward his parti- sans, was by sufi'ering them to purchase these estates at an under-value ; and it was the hopes of being a sharer m these iniquitous spoils, that furnished one of the principal incentives to the civil war.— Cic. w&i tup. necessarily take place ; either we shall never see an end of our civil wars, or they will one day sub- side, and give the republic an opportunity of re- covering its vigour, or they will terminate in its utter extinction. If the sword is never to be sheathed, you can have nothing to fear either from the party which you formerly assisted, or from that by which you have lately been received'. But should the republic again revive, either by the contending factions mutually agreeing to a cessa- tion of arms ; or by their laying them down in mere lassitude ; or by one side being vanquished ; you will undoubtedly be again restored both to your rank and to your fortunes. And should our con- stitution be totally destroyed, agreeably to what the wise Marcus Antonius'^ long since apprehended, when he imagined that the present calamities were even then approaching, you will have the consola- tion, at least, to reflect, that a misfortune which is common to all cannot be lamented as pecuUar to any : and miserable as this consolation must prove to a man of your patriot virtues, 'tis a consolation, however, to which we must necessarily have re- course. If you well consider the full force of these few hints, (and I do not think it prudent to be more explicit in a letter,) you must be convinced, with- out my telling you, that you have something to hope, and nothing to fear, so long as the republic shall subsist, either in its present, or any other form. But should it be entirely subverted, as I am sure you would not, if you were permitted, survive its ruin ; so I am persuaded you will pa- tiently submit to your fate, in the conscious satis- faction of having in no sort deserved it. But I forbear to enter farther into this subject, and will only add my request, that you would inform me how it is with you, and where you purpose to fix your quarters, that T may know where a letter or a visit will find you. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Caius Cassiits, Surely, my friend, your couriers are a set of most unconscionable fellows. Not that they have V 708 S^^^° ^® ^"y particular offence ; but as they never bring me a letter when they i Torquatus was now in Italy, having obtained the per- mission of returning, by means of Dolaliella. with whom Cicero had employed his good offices for that purpose ; as appears by several passages which Manutius has produced from the letters to Atticus. But whether Torquatus, afterwards, procured a full pardon from Csesar, and was restored to his estates and honours, is uncertain ; all that is farther known of him, is, that he was in the army of Brutus and Cassius, at the battle of Philippi, and in the number of those whom Atticus generously assisted in their distress after the event of that unfortunate action,— Ad Att. xiii, 9, 20, 21 ; Com. Nep, in Vit. Att. ii, k This eloquent and illustrious pjitriot, the grandfather of Mark Antony, was consul in the year 653 ; and, about twelve years afterwards, was put to death by the command of Mai'ius. whose partyhe had strenuously opposed, Marius was at dinner when the executioner of his cruel orders brought him the head of Antonius, which that sanguinary Itflman received into his hands, with all the insolent and horrid exultation of the most savage barbarian.— Plut. in Vit, Anton. -, Appian, De Bell, Civ, i. 344 ; Val Max. ix. 2. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 521 arrive here, is it fair they should always press me for one when they return ? It would be more con- venient, however, if they would give me earlier notice, and not make their demands in the very instant they are setting out. You must excuse me, therefore, (if an excuse I can want, who am so much more punctual a correspondent than your- self,) should this letter prove no longer than my last : as you may be assured of receiving an ample detail d everything in my next. But that my pre- sent epistle may not be wholly barren of news, I must inform you that Publius Sulla', the father, is dead. The occasion of this accident is variously reported: some say he was a martyr to his palate; and others, that he was murdered by highwaymen. The people, however, are perfectly indifferent as to the manner, since they are quite clear as to the fact : for certain it is, that the flames of his funeral pile have consumed him to ashes. And what though Liberty herself, alas ! perished with this paragon of patriots, you will bear the loss of him, I guess, with much philosophy. But Caesar, 'tis thought, will be a real mourner, in the apprehension that his auctions will not now proceed so currently as usual. On the other hand, this event affords high satisfaction co Mindius Marcellus, and the essenced Attius, who rejoice exceedingly in having thus gotten quit of a formidable antagonist. ' We are in great expectation of the news from Spain, having, as yet, received no certain intelli- gence from that quarter. Some flying reports, indeed, have been spread, that things do not go well there ; but they are reports without authority. Our friend Faosa set out for his government "■ on the 30th of December. The circumstances that attended his departure afforded a very strong proof that " virtue is eligible upon its own account :" a truth which you have lately, it seems, begun to doubt ". The singular humanity with which he has relieved such numbers in these times of public dis- tress, drew after him, in a very distinguished manner, the general good wishes of every honest man. I am extremely glad to find that you are still at Brundisium, and I much approve of your continu- ing there. You cannot be governed by a more judicious maxim than to sit loose to the vain ambi- tion of the world ; and it will be a great satisfaction to all your friends to hear that you persevere in this prudent inactivity. In the mean time, I hope you will not forget me when you send any letters to your family ; as, on my own part, whenever I hear of any person that is going to you, I shall not fail to take the opportunity of writing. Farewell. LETTER XXL To the same. Will you not blush when I remind you that this is the third letter I have written without hav- ing received a single line in return ? ■ However, I do not press you to be more expeditious, as I hope, and indeed insist, that you will make me amends for this delay, by the length of your next epistle. As for myself, if I had the * See rem. ^ on letter 18 of this book. '^ Of Gaul : in which he aucceeded Marcus Brutus. " As having lately embraced the Epiciu-ea nprinciples. See the following letter. opportunity of conveying my letters as frequently as I wish, I should write to you, I believe, every hour ; for as often as I employ my pen in this manner, you seem, as it were, actually present to my view. This effect is by no means produced, let me tell you, by those subtle images which your new ° friends talk so much of, who suppose that even the ideas of imagination are excited by what the late Catius, with wondrous elegancy, has styled spectres. For by this curious wordP you must know he has expressed what Epicurus, who bor- rowed the notion from Democritus ', has called images. But granting that these same spectres are capable of affecting the organ of vision, yet I can- not guess which way they can contrive to make their entrance into the mind. But you will solve this difficulty when we meet, and tell me by what means, whenever I shall be disposed to think of you, I may be able to call up your spectre, and not only yours, whose image, indeed, is already so deeply stamped upon my heart, but even that of the whole British island, for instance, if I should be inclined to make it the subject of my medita- tions. — But more of this another time. In the mean while I send this as an experiment to try with what temper you can bear my railleries. Should they seem to touch you, I shall renew my attack with so much the more vigour, and will apply for a writ of restitution to reinstate you in your old tenets, " of which you, the said Cassius, have by fbrce and arms' been dispossessed." Length of possession, in this case, will be no plea in bar ; for, whether the time be more or less since you have been driven by the allurements of plea- sure from the mansions of virtue, my action will be still maintainable. But let me not forget whpm it is that I am thus bantering ; is it not that illus- trious friend whose every step, from his first en- trance into the world, has been conducted by the highest honour and virtue .' If it be true, then. o The Epicureans ; to whose system of philosophy Cassius had lately become a convert. Accordingly Cicei'O rallies him in this and the following passages, on their absurd doctrine concerning ideas ; which they maintained were excited by certain thin forms, or images, perpetually float- ing in the air. These images were supposed to be con- stantly emitted from all objects, and to be of so delicate and subtle a texture, as eiisily to penetrate through the pores of the body, and by that means render themselves visible to the mind. — ^Lucret. iv. 726, &c. P It is probable that Catius either coined this word him- self, or employed it in a new and improper manner. For it is observable, that both Lucretius and Cicero, whenever they have occasion to express, in their o^vn language, what the Greek Epiciu-eans called etStuKa, always render it by the wold simulacra or imagines. <1 He was a native of Abdera, a city in Thrace, and flom'ished about 400 years before the Christian era. Epi- curus, who was bora about forty years afterwards, bor- rowed much of his doctrine from the writings of this philosopher. — Cic. de Fin. i. 6. r These were the formal words of the praetor's edict, commanding tho restoration of a person to an estate, of which he had been forcibly dispossessed. Cicero, perhaps, besides tho humour of their general application, meant likewise archly to intimate, that Cassius had been driven out of his more rigid principles by his military com- panions: as, in a letter written to Trebatius, when he was making a campaign with Caesar in Gaul, where our author is rallying him upon a similar occasion, he insinuates that he had acquired his epicurism in the camp. " Indioavit mihi Pansa (says he) Bpicm'euni te esse factum. O oastra prsEclaia ! "— Ep. Fam. vii. 12. 522 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO that yoii have embraced the Epicurean principles, I doubt they have more strength and solidity iu them than I once imagined. And now, will you not be inclined to ask, how I could possibly think of amusing you in this idle manner P The truth of it is, I am not famished with a more important subject, as I have nothing to write to you concerning public affairs ; nor. Indeed, do I choose to trust my sentiments of them in a letter. Farewell. LETTER XXII. Cassius to Cicero. Nothing affords me a greater pleasure, in my travels, than to converse with my friend. It brings 708 y°"' '°''^®^> *° strongly to my mind, that 'I fancy myself indulging a vein of plea- santry with you in person. This lively impression, however, is by no means produced by those Catian spectres you mention ^ : and for which piece of rail- lery, I intend to draw up in my next such a list of inelegant stoics as will force you to aclcnowledge that Catius, in comparison with these, may well pass for a native of the refined Athens. It gives me much satisfaction, not only upon our friend Pansa's account, but for the sake of every one of us, that he received such marks of public esteem when he set out for his government *. I hope this circumstance will be thought a conviraang proof how amiable a spirit of probity and benevo- lence, and how odious the contrary disposition, renders its possessor : and that the world will learn from hence, that these popular honours, which are so passionately courted by bad tatizens, are the sure attendants on those whose characters are the reverse. To persuade mankind that virtue is its own reward, is a task, I fear, of too much difficulty : but that real and undisturbed pleasures necessarily flow from probity, justice, and whatever else is fair and beautiful in moral actions, is a truth, surely, of most easy admission. Epicurus himself, from whom the Catii, and the Amaiinii, together with the rest of those injurious interpreters of his mean- ing, pretend to derive their tenets, expressly declares, that " a pleasurable life can alone be procured by the practice of virtue." Accordingly Pansa, who pursues pleasure agreeably to this just notion of it, still perseveres, you see, in a virtuous conduct. The truth is, those whom your sect has stigmatised by the name of voluptaarie&i are warm admirers of moral beauty ; and consequently cultivate and practise the whole train of sooisd duties. But commend me to the judicious Sulla : who, observing that the philosophers were divided in their opinions concerning the supreme good, left them to settle the question among themselves, whilst he turned his views to a less controverted acquisition, by purchasing every good tihing that was put up to sale^- I received the news of his death with much fortitude : and, indeed, Csesar will take care that we shall not long have occasion to regret his loss ; as there are numbers of equal merit whom he can restore to us' in his place. Nor will Csesar himself, I suppose, much lament * In the preceding letter. Seersms, o and P theraon. ' See rem, ^ on letter 20 of this boolj:. " See rem. ^ on letter 18 of this book. V This alludes to the great number of those whom Csear, this excellent customer of his, when he shall see what a worthy son he has left to succeed him. But to turn to public affairs ; let me know what is doing in Spain. It is a point, indeed, upon which I am extremely solicitous : as I had mudi rather submit to an old master, whose clemency I have experienced, than run the hazard of being exposed to the cruelty of a new one. You know the weakness of young Pompey's intellects ; that he looks upon cruelty as heroism ; and that he is sensible how much he has ever been the object of our ridicule. I fear, therefore, he would be apt to treat us somewhat roughly, and return our jokes with the point of his sword. If you have any value for me, tiien, you will not fail to let me know whatever shall happen. Ah, my friend, how do I wish I were apprised whether you read this with an easy or an anxious mind ! for, by that single circumstance, I should be determined what mea- sures are proper for me to pursue. But not to detain you any longer, I will only entreat you to continue your friendship to me, and then bid you parewell. P.S. If Caesar should prove victorious, you may expect to see me very soon. LETTER XXin. To liolabella. Caius Subebinus, a native of" Calenum, is one with whom I am particularly united ; and he y is extremely so, likewise, with our very intimate friend Lepta. This person, in order to avoid being engaged in our intestine com- motions, attended Marcus Varro into Spain", before the civil war broke out : imagining, as, indeed, everybody else did, that after the defeat of Afranius ?, there would be no farther disturb- ances in that province. However, he was, by that very measure, involved in those misfortunes he had taken so much pains to escape. For the sud- den insurrection whicli was formed by Scapula, and afterwards raised to so formidable a height by young Pompey, forced him unwillingly to take a part in that unhappy enterprise. The case of Mar- cus Planius likewise, who is also in the number of Lepta's particular friends, is much the same with that of Suberinus. In compliance with my friend- ship, therefore, for these two persons, and in com- passion to their misfortunes, I recommend them with all possible warmth and earnestness to your favour. But I have still another motive which engages me in their cause : Lepta interests him- self no less ardently in their welfare, than if his own were at stake ; and I caanot but feel the next, I might have said an equal, degree of soUcitude, where my friend is so anxiously concerned. Ac- cordingly, though I have often had occasion to experience your affection ,; yet, believe me, I shall principally judge of its strength by your compU- ance with my present request. I desire, therefore, as soon as he got the power into his hands, had permitted to retuim from the bonisliment to -ft'hich they had for TariouB cnimes been condemned. " A city of CaEQpaaia, in the Idngdom of Naples. " See rem, d, p, 473, y He was one of Pompey^s lieutenants in Spain, in the year 704, in conjunction with Varro and Petreiua. Caesar's victory over these generals has alreac^ been occasiooaUy mentioned In the preceding remarks. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 523 or, if you will suffer me to employ so humble a phrase, I even beseech you, to afford your pro- tection to these unhappy men, whose distress arises rathfer from unavoidable fortune, than from anything blameworthy in their own conduct. I hope, that by your good offices in this affair, you will give me an opportunity of obliging, not only these my friends, but the corporation of Calenum likewise, with which I have gi'eat connexions : but above all, that you will, by these means, put it in my power to render a grateful service also to Lepta. What I am going to adi, is not extremely material, I believe, to the cause I am pleading : however, it cert&inly can do it no prejudice. Let me assure you then, that one of these unfortunate persons is in very low circumstances, and the other has scarcely sufficient to entitle him to be admitted into the eqiiestrian orders. As Csesar, therefore, has generously spared their lives, and they have little else to lose, I entreat you, by all your affec- tion towards me, to procure them the liberty of returning into Italy. The journey, indeed, is long : however, they are willing to undergo it, for the sake of living and dying among their friends and countrymen. I most earnestly request, therefore, your zealous endeavours for this purpose : or rather, indeed, (since I am persuaded it is entii'ely in your power,) I warmly entreat you to obtain for them this desirable privilege. Farewell. A. u. 708. LETTER XXIV. To CtBsar. I VERY particularly recommend to your favour the son of our worthy and common friend Prsecilius, a youth whose modest and polite beha- viour, together with his singular attach- ment to myself, have exceedingly endeared him to me. His father, likewise, as experience has now fully convinced me, was always my most sincere well-wisher. For, to confess the truth, he was the first and most zealous of those who used both to rally and reproach me for not joining in your cause, especially after you had Invited me by so many honourable overtures. But, AlHinavailiiig proved his every art. To Bbake the pui'pose of my steadfast hearts. For Whilst the gallant chiefs of our party were on the other side perpetually exclaiming to me, '* Rise thon, dlstinguisli'd "midst the eons of fame. And fair transmit to times unborn thy name *> ;" Tooeaay dupe of Flattery's specious voice. Darkling 1 stray'd from Wisdom's better choice c And fain would they still raise my spirits, while they endeavour, insensible as I now am to the charms of glory, to rekindle that passion in my heart. With this view they are ever repeating, O let me not inglorious sinlcin death, ■And yield like vulgar souls my parting breath : In some brave ^fifort give me to expire, That distant-ages may the deed admire^.' ^ ' Tile estate necessary to qualify a man for being received into the equestrian order was four hundred thousand ses- terces, equivalent to about 3000!. sterling. Cicero artfully mentions the slender fortunes of his friends, as an intima- tion to Bolabella not to expect any douceurs for his good offices towards them. « Horn. Odyss. vii. 2S8. " Horn. Odyss. i. 302. ° Horn. Odyss. zxiv. 314, <^ Eom. II. xxil. But I am immoveable, as you see, by all their persuasions. Renouncing, therefore, the pompous heroics of Homer, I turn to the just maxims of Euripides, and say with that poet. Curse on the sage, who, impotently wise, O'erlooks the paths where humbler Prudence lies. My old friend Praecilius is a great admirer of the sentiment in these lines : insisting that a patriot may preserve a prudential regard to his own safety, and yet. Above his peers the first in honour shine e. But to return from this digression : you will greatly oblige me by extending to this young man that uncommon , generosity which so peculiarly marks your character, and by suffering my recom- mendation to increase the number,of those favours which I am persuaded you are disposed to confer upon him for the sake of his family. I have not addressed you in the usual style of recommendatory letters, that you might see I did not intend this as an application of common form. Farewell. LETTER XXV. To the same. Amongst all our young nobility, Publius Cras- sus' was one for whom I entertained the highest 4 u ?08 ^"S*''''^ ! ""'l' indeed, he amply justified, in his more mature years, the favourable opinion I had conceived of him from his infancy. It was during his life that his freedman Apollonius first recommended himself to my esteem ; for he was zealously attached to the interest of his patron, and perfectly well qualified to assist him in those noble studies to which he was devoted. Accord- ingly, Crassus was extremely fond of him : but Apollonius, after the death of his patron, proved himself still more worthy of my protection and friendship, as he distinguished with peculiar marks of respect all who loved Crassus, or had been beloved by him. It was this that induced Apollo- niu3 to follow me into Cilicia, — where, upon many occasions, I received singular advantage from his faithful and judicious services. If I mistake. not, his most sincere and zealous offices were not want- ing to you likewise in the Alexandrine war, and it is in the hope of your thinking so that he has re- solved, in concurrence with my sentiments, but chiefly indeed from his own, to wait i;pon you in Spain. I would not promise, however, to recom- mend him to your favour. Not that I suspected my applications would be void of weight, but I ^thought they would be unnecessary in behalf of a man who had served in the army under you, and whom, from your regard to the memory of Crassus, you would undoubtedly consider as a friend of your own. Besides, I knew he could easily procure letters of this kind from many other hands. But, as he greatly values my good opinion, and as I am sensible it has some influence upon yours, I very willingly give him my testimonial. Let me assure you, then, that I know him to be a man of litera- ture, and one who has applied himself to the polite arts from his earliest youth : for when he was a boy, he frequently visited at my house with Dio- dotus, the stoic, — a philosopher, in my judgment, e Qom. II. vi. 208. 'SeoMOT. p.p. 361. t,2i THE LETTERS OK MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO of consummate erudition. ApoUonius, inflamed with zeal for the glory of your actions,, is greatly desirous of recording them in Greek, and I think him very capable of the undertaking. He has an excellent genius, and has been particularly conver- sant in studies of the historical kind, as he is wonderfully ambitious, likewise, of doing justice to your immortal fame. These are my sincere senti- ments of the man ; but how far he deserves them your own superior judgment will best determine. But though I told ApoUonius that I should not particularly recommend him to your favour, yet I cannot forbear assuring you, that every instance of your generosity towards him will extremely oblige me. Farewell. LETTER XXVL Quintus Cicero to Marcus CiceroS. 1 PROTEST to you, my dear brother, you have per- formed an act extremely agreeable to me, in giving Tiro his freedom ; as a state of servitude *■ " ■ was a situation far unworthy of his merit. Believe me I felt the highest complacency when I found, by his letter and yours, that you rather chose we should look upon him in the number of our friends than in that of our slaves ; and I both congra- tulate and thank you for this instance of your gene- rosity towards him. If I receive so much satisfaction from the services of my freedman Statius, how much more valuable must the same good qualities appear in Tiro, as they have the additional advan- s The date of this letter is altogether uncertain. tages of his learning, his wit, and his politeness, to recommend them ! I have many powerful motives for the affection I bear you ; and this mark of your beneficence to Tiro, together with your giving me part (as, indeed, you had reason) in the family joy upon this occasion, still increases the number. In a word, I saw and admired all the amiable qualities of your heart in the letter you wrote to me on this subject. I have promised my best services to the slaves of Sabinus ; and it is a promise I will most assuredly make good. Farewell. . u. 708. LETTER XXVIL To SexK LiciNins Aristotelbs, a native of Melita', is not only my old host, but my very particular friend. These are circumstances, I doubt not, that will sufficiently recommend him to your favour ; as, in truth, I have experienced, by many instances, that my applications of this sort have always much weight with you. Csesar, in compliance with my solicitations, has granted him a pardon ; for I should have told you that he was deeply engaged in the same cause with myself. He persevered in it, indeed, much longer ; which, I am persuaded, will recommend bim so much the more to your esteem. Let me entreat you, then, to show him, by your good offices, that this letter proved greatly to his advantage. Farewell. t He was at this tiine propraitorof Sicily. — ^Figh. Ajmal. ii. 459. " The island of Malta. BOOK XL LETTER I. To Tiro. YouK letter encourages me to hope that you find yourself better : I am sure at least I most 708 ^'^^^^®^y ^ish that you may. I entreat you, therefore, to consecrate all your cares to that end, and by no means indulge so mistaken a suspicion as that I am displeased you are not with me. With me you are, in the best sense of that expression, if you are taking care of your health, — which I had much rather you should attend than on myself. For though I always both see and hear you with pleasure, that pleasure will be greatly increased when I shall have the satis- faction, at the same time, to be assured that you are perfectly well. My work is at present suspendedJ, as I caknot make use of my own hand ; however, I employ myself a good doal in reading. If your tran- scribers should be puzzled with my manuscript, I beg you would give them your assistance ; as, indeed, there is an interlineation relating to a cir- dumsiance in Cato's behaviour, when he was only J The work to which Cicero alludes was probably a panegyric upon Cato, which he wrote and published about this time. four years of age^, that I could scarce decipher myself. You will continue your care, likewise, that the dining-room be in proper order for the ^ Plutarch mentions several instances in the life of Cato, wherein that consummate patriot had given very early indications of his resolute and inflexible spirit. But the most remarkable, and probably the same which Cicero had celebrated in the passage he is here speaking of, was one that happened when Cato was in the house of his uncle, Livius Drusus, who had taken upon himself the care of his education. At that time the several states of Italy, in alliance with the republic, were strenuously soliciting the privileges of Roman citizens ; and Pompedius Silo, a person of great note, who came to Rome in order to prosecute this affair, was the guest of Drusus. As Pompedius was one day amusing himself with the children of the fomiiy, "Well, young gentlemen," said he, addressing himself particularly to the little Cato and his brother, '^ I hope you will use yoiu- interest with your uncle, to give his vote in our favour." The latter very readily answered in the affirmative, while Cato signified his refusal, by fixing his eyes sternly upon Pompedins, without saying a single word in reply. Pompedius, snatching him up in his arms, ran with him to the window, and, in a pretended rage, threatened to throw him out, if he did not immediately yield to his request. But in vain : nature had not formed the atrocem animum Catonis of a texture to be menaced out of its purposes. "Accordingly Pompedius was so struck with that early symptom of an tmdaunted spint, that ho could not forbear saying to some of his friends who were TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 525 reception of our guests, — in which number I dare say I may reckon Tertia, provided Publius be not invited. That strange fellow Demetrius was always, I know, the very reverse of his namesake, of Pha- leris' ; but I find he is now grown more insufferable than ever, and is degenerated into an arrant Bilienus'". I resign the management of him, therefore, entirely into your hands, and you will pay your court to him accordingly. But, however, — ePye see, — and as to that, — (to present you with a few of his own elegant expletives) if you should have any conversation with him, let me know, that it may furnish me with the subject of a letter, and at the same time afford me the pleasure of reading so much longer a one from yourself. In the meanwhile take care of your health, my dear Tiro, I conjure you, and be well persuaded that you cannot render me a more pleasing service. Farewell. LETTER IL To Dolabella'. On ! that the silence you so kindly regret had been occasioned by my own death rather than by A. u. 708 ''"' ^^''^"^ loss" I have suffered ; a loss I should be better able to support, if I had you with me, — ^for your judicious counsels and singular affection towards rae would greatly con- tribute to alleviate its weight. This good office, indeed, I may yet perhaps receive ; for, as I ima- gine we shall soon see you here, you will find me still so deeply affected as to have an opportunity of affording me great assistance ; not that this affliction has so broken my spirit as to render me unmindful preaent, *' How happy will it be for Italy if thiu boy should live! For my part," continued he, "I am well persuaded, if he were now a man, we should not be able to procure a single suffrage throughout all Rome."— Plut. in Tit. Caton. Uticen, ^ Demetrius, surnamed Phalereus, from Phaleris, a sea- port town in Greece, was a celebrated orator, who flourished about three centuries before the birth of Christ. •" Who this person and Demetrius were is utterly un- known ; but it is probable that the ridiculous part of their characters, to which Cicero here alludes, was that of being very dull and inelegant orators. " He was at this time with Caesar in Spain. The death of his daughter TuUia.^It appears by a former letter that she had lately lain-in at Borne, from whence she was probably removed, for the benefit of the air, to her father's Tusculan villa, where she seems to have died. This letter furnishes a presumptive argument against the opinion of those who imagine that Dolabella and TuUia were never actually divorced. For, in the first place, not- ^vithstanding it appears that there was some distance of time between the accident of her death and the present epistle, yet.it seems to have been the first letter which Cicero had written to Dolabella upon the occasion. Now it is altogether improbable, if the marriage had subsisted, that Cicero should not have given him immediate notice of an event in which, if not from affection, at least from interest, he would have been greatly concerned. In the next place it is equally improbable, supposing there had been no divorce, that Cicero should speak of this misfor- tune only in general and distant terms, as he does through- out this whole letter, without so much as mentioning the name of TuUia, or intimating even the remotest hint of any connexion between her and Dolabella, But the fol- lowing letter will supply a farther and more positive argu- ment against the opinion above-mentioned. See rem. 1 on the next letter,— Ad Att. xii. 45, 46. that I am a man, or apprehensive that I must totally sink under its pressure. But all that cheer- fulness and vivacity of temper which you once so particularly admired has now, alas ! entirely forsaken me. My fortitude and resolution, never- theless, (if these virtues were ever mine) I still retain, and retain them too in the same vigour as when yon left me. As to those battles which, you tell me, you have sustained upon my account, I am far less solicitous that you should confute my detractors p, than that the world should know (as it unquestionably does) that I enjoy a place in your affection ; and may you still continue to render that truth conspicuous. To this request 1 will add another, and entreat ypu to excuse rae for not sending you a longer letter. I shorten it, not only as imagining we shall soon meet, but because my mind is at present by no means sufficiently composed for writing. Farewell, LETTER in. Servius Snlpicins to Cicero. I RECEIVED the news of your daughter's death with all the concern it so justly deserves ; and, . indeed, I cannot but consider it as a misfortune in which I bear an equal share with yourself. If I had been near you when this fatal accident happened, I should not only have mingled my tears with yours, but assisted you with all the consolation in my power. I am sensible, at the same time, that offices of this kind afford at best but a wretched relief i for as none are qualified to perform them but those who stand near to us by the ties either of blood or affection, such persons are generally too much afflicted themselves to be capable of administering comfort to others. Never- theless, I thought proper to suggest a few refiections which occurred to me upon ttiis occasion ; not as imagining they would be new to you, but believing that, in your present discomposure of mind, they might possibly have escaped your attention. Tell me then, my frieiid, wherefore do you indulge this excess of sorrow ? Reflect, I entreat you, in what manner fortnne has dealt with every one of us ; that she has deprived us of what ought to be no less dear than our children, and overwhelmed in one general ruin our honours, our liberties, and our country : and, after these losses, is it possible that any other should increase our tears .' Is it possible that a mind long exercised in calamities so truly severe should not become totally callous and indifferent to every event ? But you will tell me, perhaps, that your grief arises not so much on your own account as on that of TuUia^ Yet surely you must often, as well as myself, have had occasion in these wretched times to reflect that their condition by no means deserves to be regretted P The person to whom Cicero alludes was, in all proba- bility, his o'wn nephew, who was at this time in the army with Cssar, This young man had taken great liberties with hie uncle's character, aspersing it upon all occasions, and in all companies : in particular (and what gave Cicero the greatest uneasiness) , he attempted to infuse a suspicion among the principal officers of the aimy, that Cicero was a man of dangerous designs, and one against whom Csesar ought to be particularly upon his guard, — Ad Att, xii. 38 ; xiii, 37, ,^ 626 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO whom death has gently removed from this unhappy scene. What is there, let me ask, in the present circumstances of our country, that could have rendered life greatly desirable to your daughter ? What pleasing hopes, what agreeable views, what rational satisfaction, could she possibly have pro- posed to herself from a more extended period ? Was it in the prospect of conjugal happiness, in the society of some distinguished youth' ? as if, indeed, you-could have found a son-in-law amongst our present set of young men worthy of being entrusted with the care of your daughter ! Or was it in the expectation of being the joyful mother of a flourishing race, who might possess their patri- mony with independence, who might gradually rise through the several dignities of the state, and exert the Uberty to which they were born in the service and defence of their friends and country ? But is there one amongst all these desirable privilege?, of which we were not deprived, before she was in a capacity of transmitting them to her descendants ? Yet, after all, you may still allege, perhaps, that the loss of our children is a severe affliction ; and un- questionably it would be so, if it were not a much greater to see them live to endure those indignities which their parents suffer. I lately feU into a reflection which, as it afforded great rehef to the disquietude of my own heart, it may possibly contribute, lUcevpise, to assuage the anguish of yours. In my return out of Asia, as I was sailing'from jEgina towards Megara', I amused myself with contemplating the circumjacent coun- tries. Behind me lay .Sgina, before me Megara ; on my right I saw Pirseeus', and on my left Corinth'. These cities, once so flourishing and magnificent, now presented nothing to my view but a sad spectacle of desolation. " Alas ! (I said to myself,) shall such a short-lived creature as man complain when one of his species falls either by the hand of violence or by the common course of nature, whilst in this narrow compass so many great and glorious cities, formed for a much longer duration, thus lie extended in ruins ? Remember, then, oh my heart ! the general lot to which man is born, and let that thought suppress thy un- 1 This passage seems strongly to intimate, that the man-iage hetween Dolahella and Tullia was actually dis- solved'hefore her death. It must he acknowledged, how- ever, that a very learned and accurate critic is of opinion that the affirmative side of this question can no more he proved from these words of Sulpicius, than it can he infer- red from those which he immediately adds, anutmUberos ex sese parer^t, that Tullia died without issue, which it is well known she did not. But there seems to he this dif- ference hetween the two instances, that with respect to the latter, Sulpicius might very properly put the question ho there does, notwithstanding Tiillia's having left a son ; for, although she had one, she might reasonably indulge the expectation of having more : whereas, with regard to the former, would it not have been highly injurious to her character if Sulpicius had argued from a supposi- tion which implied that Tullia entertained thoughts of another husband, whilst her marriage with Bolabella was still subsisting ?—Vide epist. Tunstal. advir. erud. Con. Middleton. p. 186. r .Sgina, now called Engia, is an island situated in the gulf that runs between the Peloponnesus and Attica, to which it gives its name. Megaxa was a city near the isth- mus of Corinth. s A celebrated sea-port at a small distance from Athens, now called Fort-Lion. t A city in the Peloponnesus. reasonable murmurs."/ Believe me, I found my mind greatly refreshed and comforted by these reflections. Let me advise you, in the same man- ner, to represent to yourself what numbers of our illustrious countrymen have lately been cut off at once", how much the strength of the Roman republic is impairedf and what dreadful devastation has gone forth throughout all its provinces : and can you, with the impression of these greater calamities upon your mind, be so immoderately afflicted for the loss of a single individual, a poor, little, tender woman ? who, if she had not died at this time, must, in a few fleeting years more, have inevitably undergone th^i, common fate to which she was born'. Reasonable, however, as these reflections are, I would call you from them awhile; in order to lea4 your thoughts to others more peculiarly suitable to your circumstances and character, Remeoiber, then, that your daughter lived as long as life was worth possessing, that is, till liberty was no more ; that she lived to see you in the illustrious offices of praetor, consul, and augur, to be married to some of the noblest youths in Rome"', to be blessed vrith almost every valuable enjoyment, and at length to expire with the republic itself. Tell me, now, what is there in tMs view of her fate that could give either her or yourself just reason to complain? In fine, do not forget that you are Cicero — ^the wise, the philosophical Cicero, who were wont to give advice to others, nor resemble those unskilful empirics who, at the same time that they pretend to be furnished with remedies for othJex meil's disorders, are altogether incapable of finding a cure for their own. On the contrary, apply to your private use those judicious precepts you have ad- ministered to the public. Time necessarily weakens the strongest impressions of sorrow ; but it would be a reproach to your character not to anticipate this its certain effect by the force of your own good sense and judgment. If the dead retain any consciousness of what is here transacted, your daughter's affection I am sure was such, both to you and to all her relations, that she can by no tt In the civil wars. T One of the finest and most elegant of all writers, either ancient or modem, has given us some reflections which arose in his mmd m walldng amongst the repositories of the dead in Westminster Abbey, which, as they are not altogether foreign to the subject of this letter, the reader, perhaps, will indulge me in the pleasure of producing, as a sort of corollaries to thesentiments of Sulpicius: — ''Wheu I look upon the tombs of the great,** says the mcomparable Addison, " every emotion of envy dies within me ; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out ; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion ; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow ; when I see kings lying by those who deposed them } when I con- sider rival wits, placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world ^vith their contests and disputes, I reflect witU sorrow and astonishment on the little compe- titions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yester- day, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries* and make our appearance together."— Spectator, vol. i. No. 26. " To Piso, Crassipes, and DoIabeUa ; of eaoh of whom an account has been occasionally given in the preeediJlg ' observations. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 527 meBDS desii'e you should abandon yourself to tbis excess of grief. Restrain it then, I conjure yon, for ber sake, and for the sake of the rest of your family and friends, who lament to see you thus afflicted. Restrain it too, I beseech you, for the sake of your country ; that whenever the oppor- tunity shall serve, it may reap the benefit of your counsels and assistance. In short, since such is our fortune, that we must necessarily submit to the present system of public affiiirs, suffer it not to be Etuspeoted that it is not so much the death of your daughter as the fate of the republic and the success of our viotors that you deplore. But it would be ill-manners to dwell any longer upon this subject, as I should seem to question the efficacy of your own good ^ense. I will only add, therefore, that as we have often seen you bear prosperity in the noblest manner, and with the highest applause, show us, likewise, that you are Bot too sensible of adversity, but know how to support it with the same advantage to your charac- ter. In a word, let it not be said that fortitude is the single virtue to which my friend is a stranger'^. As for what concerns myself, I will send you an account of the state of this province, and of what is transacting in this part of the world, as soon as I shall hear that you are sufficiently composed to receive the information. Farewell. LETTER IV. To Sermus Sitlpiciua. I JoiK with you, my dear Sulpicius, in wishing that yon had been in Rome when this most severe calamity befel me. I am sensible of the *■ " ■ advantage I Should have received from your presence, and I had almost said your equal participation of my grief, by having found myself somewhat more composed after I had read your letter. It furnished me, indeed, with arguments extremely proper to soothe the anguish of afHiction, and evidently flowed from a heart that sympathised with the sorrows it endeavoured to assuage. But although I could not enjoy the benefit of your own good offices in person, I had the advantage, how- ever, of your son's, who gave me a proof, hy every tender assistance that could be contributed upon so melancholy an occasion, how much he imagined that be was acting agreeably to your sentiments when he thus discovered the affection of his own. More pleasing instances of his friendship I have frequently received, but never any that were more obliging. As to those for which I am indebted to yourself, it is not only the force of your reasonings, and the very considerable share you take in my afflictions, that have contributed to compose my mind ; it is the deference, likewise, which I always pay to the authortfy of your sentiments. For, knowing as I perfecUy do the superior wisdom with * Sulpicius has drawn, together, in this admired letter, whatever human philosophy has of fprce to compose the perturbations of a mind under the disquietude of severe afflictions. But it is evident that all arguments of the sort here produced tend rather to silence the clamoiu'S of sor- row, than to soften and subdue its anguish. It is a much more exalted philosophy, indeed, that must supply the effectual remedies for this purpose ; to which no other but that of Christianity alone will be found, on the trial, to be bi any rational degree sufficient. which you are enlightened, T should be ashamed not to support my distresses in the manner you think I ought : I will acknowledge, nevertheless, that they sometimes almost entirely overcome me ; and I am scarce able to resist the force of my grief when I reflect, that I am destitute of those consola- tioDS which attended others, whose examples I propose to my imitation. Thus Quintus Maximus? lost a son of consular rank, and distinguished by many heave and illustrious actions ; Lucius Faulus* was deprived of two sons in the space of a single week ! and your relation Gallus", together vrith Marcus Caito", had both of them the unhappiness to survive their respective sons, who were endowed with the highest abilities and virtues. Yet these unfortunate parents lived in times when the honours they derived from the republic might, in some treasure, alleviate the weight of their domestic misfortunes. But as for myself, after having been stripped of those dignities you mention, and which I had acquired by the most laborious exertion of my abilities, 1 had one only consolation reniaining, — and of that I am now bereaved ! I could no longer divert the disquietude of my thoughts, by employing myself in the causes of my friends or the business of the state ; for I could no longer, with qny satisr faction, appear either in the forum or the senate. In short, I justly considered myself as cut off from the benefit of aU those alleviating occupations in vshich fortune and industry had qualified me to y Quintus Fablus Maximus, so well known for h is brave and judicious conduct in opposing the progress of Hanni- bal's arms in Italy, was five times advanced to the consular office, the last of which was in the year of Rome 54.5. At the expiration of his fourth consulate, he was succeeded in that ofdce by his son, Marcus Fabius, who likewise dis- tinguished himself by his military achievements. It does not appear when or by what accident Marcus died ; but his illustrious father was so much master of his grief upon that occasion, as to pronounce a funeral eulogy in honour of his son before a general assembly of the people.' — liv, xxiv. 43 ; Plut. in Vit. Fab. « A very few days before Paulus iEmilius made his pub- lic entry into Home, in the year 585, on occasion of hia victory over Perseus, he had the misfortune to lose one of his sons ; and this calamity was succeeded by another of the same kinid, which befel him about as many days a/ter his triumph, — Liv. xlv. 41. ft Manutius conjectures, that the person here men- tioned is Caius Sulpicius GaUus, who was consul in the year 586. ^ The Censor. His son was praetor in the year of Rome 638, and died whilst he was in the administration of that office. I cannot forbear transcribmg upon this occasion a noble passage from Cicero's treatise concei-ning old age, aa 1 find it extremely weU translated to my hand,, by a late ingenious writer (Mr. Hughes, if I mistake not) in the Spectator. Our author represents Cato as breaking out into the following rapture at the thoughts of his approach- ing dissolution :— " O happy day," says this amiable moral- ist, •' when I shall escape from this crowd, this heap of pollution, and be admitted to that divine assembly of exalted spirits ! when I shall go — to my Cato, my son ; than whom a better man was never born, and whose fune- ral rites I myself performed ; whereas, he ought rather to have attended mine. Yet has not his soul deserted me, hut seeming to east a look on me, Is gone before to those habitations to which it "was sensible I should fbllow liim. And though I might appear to have borne my loss with courage, I w^ not unaffected with it ; but I comforted myself in the assurance that it would not be long before we should meet again, and be divorced no more."— Pigh. Annal. ii. 99! Hut. in Vit. Caton. ; Cic. de Senect 23; Spectator, vol. vii. No. 637. 628 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO engage. But I considered, too, that this was a depriration which I suffered in common with your- self and some others ; and, whilst I was endea- vouring to reconcile my mind to a patient endurance of those ills, there was one to whose tender offices I could have recoiirse, and in the sweetness of whose conversation I could discharge all the cares and anxiety of my heart. But this last fatal stab to my peace has torn open those wounds which seemed in some measure to have been tolerably healed : for I can now no longer lose my private sorrows in the prosperity of the commonwealth, as I was wont to dispel the uneasiness I suffered upon the public account, in the happiness I received at home. Accordingly, I have equally banished myself from my house' and from the public, — as finding no relief in either from the calamities I lament in both. It is this, therefore, that heightens my desire of seeing you here ; as nothing can afford me a more effectual consolation than the renewal of our friendly intercourse ; a happiness which I hope, and am informed indeed, that I shall shortly enjoy. Among the many reasons I have for im- patiently wishing your arrival, one is, that we may previously concert together our scheme of conduct in the present conjuncture, — which, however, must now be entirely accommodated to another's will. This person'', it is true, is a man of great abilities and generosity. And one, if I mistake not, who is by no means my enemy, — as I am sure he is extremely your friend. Nevertheless, it requires much consideration, I do not say in what manner we shall act with respect to public affairs, but by what methods we may best obtain his permission to retire from them. Farewell. LETTER V. To Lucius Lucceius^. All the letters I have received from you upon the subject of my late misfortune, were extremely A. u. 708. ^'"'^ptsl'ls to me, as instances of the highest affection and good sense. But the great advantage I have derived frbm them, principally results from that animating contempt with which you look down upon human affairs, and that exemplary fortitude which arms you against all the various assaults of fortune. I esteem it the most glorious privilege of philosophy, to be thus superior to external accidents, and to depend for happiness on ourselves alone : a sentiment which, Edthough it was too deeply planted in my heart to be totally eradicated, has been somewhat weakened, I confess, by the violence of those repeated storms to which I have been lately ex- posed. But you have endeavoured, and with great success indeed, to restore it to all its usual strength and vigour. I cannot, therefore, either too often or too strongly assure you, that nothing cbuld give me a higher satisfaction than your letter. But, powerful as the various arguments of consolation are which you have collected for my use, and ele- gantly as you have enforced them, I must acknow- c Cicero, upon the death of his daughter, retired from his own house, to one belonging to Atticus, near Rome : from which, perhaps, this letter was written. •^ CjEsar. <= The same to whom the 20th letter of the first book is written. See an account of him in rem, » on that epistle. ledge, that nothing proved more effectual than that firmness of mind which I remarked in your letters, and which I should esteem as the utmost reproach not to imitate. But, if I imitate, I must neces- sarily excel my guide and instructor in this lesson of fortitude ; for I am altogether unsupported by the same hopes which I find you entertain, that public affairs will improve. Those illustrations, indeed, which you draw from the gladiatorial combats', together with the whole tendency of your reasoning in general, all concur in forbidding me to despair of the commonwealth. It would be nothing extraordinary, therefore, if you should be more composed than myself whilst you are in pos- session of these pleasing hopes ; the only wonder is, how you can possibly entertain any. For, say, my friend, what is there of our constitution that is not utterly subverted .' Look round the republic and tell me (you who so well understand the nature of our government), what part of it remains unbroken or unimpaired ? Most unquestionably there is not one ; as I would prove in detail, if I imagined my own discernment was superior to yours, or were capable (notwithstanding all your powerful admonitions and precepts) to dwell upon so melancholy a subject without being extremely affected. But 1 will bear my domestic misfortunes in the manner you assure me that I ought ; and, as to those of the public, 1 shall support them perhaps with greater equanimity than even my friend. For (to repeat it again) you are not, it seems, without some sort of hopes ; whereas, for myself, I have absolutely none ; and shall, there- fore, in pursuance of your advice, preserve my spirits even in the midst of despair. The pleasing recollection of those actions you recal to my remem- brance, and which, indeed, I performed chiefly by your encouragement and recommendation, will greatly contribute to this end. To say the truth, I have done everything for the service of my coun- try that 1 ought, and more than could have been expected from the courage and counsels of any man. Ton will pardon me, I hope, for speaking in this advantageous manner of my own conduct, but, as you advise mc to alleviate my present unea- siness by a retrospect of my past actions, I will confess, that, in thus commemorating them, I find great consolation. I shall punctually observe your admonitions, by calling off my mind as much as possible from every- thing that may disturb its peace, and fixing it on those speculations which are at once an ornament to prosperity, and the support of adversity. For this purpose, I shall endeavour to spend as much of my time with you as our health and years will mutually permit ; and, if we cannot meet so often as I am sure we both wish, we shall always at least seem present to each other by a sympathy of hearts, and a union in the same philosophical contempla- tions. Farewell. ' Manutius supposes, -^vith great probability, tliat Lue- ceiiis, in the letter to \rhich this is an answer, bad endea- voured to persuade Cicei'O not to despair of better times, by reminding him of what sometimes happened at the gladiatorial shows, where it was not unusual to see a combatant that seemed almost entirely vanquished, un- expectedly recover his ground, and gain the day from his antagonist. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 529 LETTER VL Lticceius to Cicero. T SHALL rejoice to hear ttiat you are well. As to my OT/n health, it is much as usual ; or rather, „„ I think, somewhat worse. I have frequently called at your door, and am much surprised to find that you have not been in Rome since Csesarleft it. What is it that so strongly draws you from hence ? If any of your usual engagements of the literary kind renders you thus enamoured of solitude, I am so far from con- demning your retirement, that I think of it with pleasure. There is no sort of life, indeed, that can be more agreeable, not only in times so disturbed as the present, but even in those of the most de- sirable calm and serenity ; especially to a mind like yours, which may have occasion for repose from its public labours, and which is always capa- ble of producing something that will afford both pleasure to others and honour to yourself. But if you have withdrawn from the world, In order to give a free vent to those tears which you so immoderately indulged when you were here, I shall lament indeed your grief; but (if you will allow me to speak the truth) I never can excuse it. For tell me, my friend, is it possible that a man of your uncommon discernment should not perceive what is obvious to all mankind ? Is it possible you can be ignorant that your perpetual complaints can profit nothing, and only serve to increase those disquietudes which your good sense requires you to subdue ? But,i if arguments cannot prevail, entreaties perhaps may. Let me conjure jou, then, by all the regard you bear me, to dispel this gloom that hangs upon your heart ; to return to that society and to those occupations which were either common to us both or peculiar to yourself. But though I would fain dissuade you from con- tinuing your present way of life, yet I would by no means suffer my zeal to be troublesome. In the difSculty, therefore, of steering between these two inclinations, I will only add my request that you would either comply with my advice, or excuse me for offering it. Farewell. LETTER VIL To Lucius Lucceiut. Etekt part of your last letter glowed with that warmth of friendship, which, though it was by no ^ ^ .(Ig means new to me, I could not but observe with peculiar satisfaction; I would say pleasure, if that were not a word to which I have now for ever bidden adieu. Not merely, however, for the cause you suspect, and for which, under the gentlest and most affectionate terms, you, in fact, very severely reproach me ; but because all that ought in reason to assuage the anguish of so deep a wound is absolutely no more. For whither shaU I fly for consolation? Is it to the liosom of my friends ? But tell me (for we have generally shared the same common amities together), how few of that number are remaining ? how few that have not perished by the sword, or that are not become strangely insensible ? You will say, per- haps, that I might seek my relief in your society ; sad there, indeed, I would willingly seek it The same habitudes and studies, a long intercourse of friendship, — in short, is there any sort of bond, any single circumstance of connexion wanting to unite us together ! Why then are we such stran- gers to one another ? For my own part, I know not ; but this I know, that we have hitherto seldom met, I do not say in Rome, where the forum usu- ally brings everybody together e, but when we were near neighbours at Tusculum and Puteoli. I know not by what ill fate it has happened that, ■> at an age when I might expect to flourish in the greatest credit and dignity, I should find myself in so wretched a situation as to be ashamed that 1 am still in being. Despoiled, indeed, of every honour and every comfort that adorned my public life, or solaced my private, what is it that can now afford me any refiige ? My books, I imagine you will tell me ; and to these indeed I very assidu- ously apply. For, to what else can I possibly have recourse ? Yet even these seem to exclude me from that peaceful port which I fain would reach, and reproach me, as it were, for prolonging that life which only increases my sorrows with my years. Can you wonder then that I absent myself from Rome, where there is nothing under my own roof to afford me any satisfaction, and where I abhor both public men and public measures, both the forum and the senate ? For this reason it is, that I wear away ,my days in a total application to literary pursuits ; not, indeed, as entertaining so vain a hope, that I may find in them a complete cure for my misfortunes, but in order to obtain, at least, some little respite from their bitter remem- brance. If those dangers with which we were daily me- naced, had not formerly prevented both you and myself from reflecting vrith that coolness we ought, we should never have been thus separated. Had that proved to have been the case, we should both of us have spared ourselves much uneasiness : as I should not have indulged so many groundless fears for your health, nor you for the consequences of my grief. Let us repair then this unlucky mistake as well as we may : and as nothing can be more suitable to both of us than the company of each other, I purpose to be with you in a few days. Farewell. LETTER Vin. To Marcus Marcellus. "Notwithstanding that I have nothing new to communicate to you, and am in expectation of a „„ letter from you very shortly, or rather, "■ " ■ indeed, of seeing you in person ; yet I would not suffer Theophilus to go away without sending you a line or two by his hands. Let me entreat you then to return amongst US'" as soon as possible ; and, be assured, you are impatiently expected, not only by myself and the rest of your friends, but by all Rome in general. lam some- B The forum waa a place of general resort for the whole city. It was here that the lawyers pleaded their causes, that the poets recited their works, and that funeral ora- tions were spoken in honour of the dead. It was here, in short, everything was going forward that could engage the active, or amuse the idle.— Her. lib. I. sat. iv, 74, sat. vi. 42. k See letter 19, book ix. p. 500. M M .530 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO times, however, inclined to fear that you will not be extremely forward to hasten your journey : and, indeed, if you were possessed of no other sense but that of seeing, I could easily excuse you if there are some persons whom you would choose to avoid. But as the difference is very inconsider- able between hearing and being a spectator of what one disapproves ; and as I am persuaded it is of great consequence, both in respect to your private affairs as well as upon every other consideration, that you should expedite your return, I thought it incumbent upon me to tell you so. And now, having acquainted you with my sentiments, the rest must be left to your own determination ; but I should be glad to know, however, when we may expect you. Farewell, LETTER IX. To Tiro. Believe me, my dear Tiro, I am greatly anxious for your health ; however, if you persevere in the A u 708 *'""® cautious regimen which you have hitherto observed, you will soon, I trust, be well. As to my library, I beg you would put the books in order, and take a catalogue of them, when your physician shall give you his consent, for it is by his directions you must now be governed. With respect to the gardener, I leave you to adjust matters as you shall judge proper. I think you might come to Rome on the first of next month, in order to see the gladiatorial com- bats, and return the following day, but let this be entirely as is most agreeable to your own inclina- tions. In the mean time, if you have any affection for me, take care of your health. Farewell. LETTER X. Servius Sulpicius to Cicero. The news I am going to acquaint you with, will, - I am sure, prove extremely unwelcome ; ^' ' yet, as you cannot but in some measure be prepared for it, by being sensible that every man's life is subject to casualties, as well as to the gehe- ral laws of nature, I thought proper to send you a circumstantial accountof the unhappy accident that has lately happened. I arrived at Pirseeus, from Epidaurus', on the 23d instant ; where I continued all that day merely to enjoy the company of my colleague, Marcellus '. The next day I took my leave of him, with an intention of going from Athens into Boeotia '', in order to finish the remainder of my circuit ', and I left him in the resolution, as he told me, of sailing to Italy by the way of Malea °. The day following, as I was preparing to set out from Athens, his i A city in the Peloponnesus, now called Pigrada, situ- ated upon the hay of Engia. J It has already been noted, that Marcellus and Sulpicius were colleagues in the consular office. A, U. 702. k A district of Greece, under the jurisdiction of Sulpi- cius, governor of that province. 1 The Roman governors were obliged to visit the principal cities of their province, in order to administer justice and settle other affairs relating to their function. m A promontory in the south-east point of the Pelopon- nesus, now called cape Malis. friend Posthumius came to me about four in the morning, and informed me Marcellus had been stabbed the night before by Magius Cilo, whilst they were sitting together after supper ° ; that he had received two wounds from a dagger, one of which was in his breast, and the other under his ear, but that neither of them, he hoped, was mor- tal. He added, that Magius, after leaving com- mitted this barbarous action, immediately killed himself, and that Marcellus had despatched him in order to give me this account, and likewise to desire that 1 would direct my physicians ° to attend him. This I instantly did, and followed them myself as soon as it was light. But when I had almost reached Pirseeus I met a servant of Acidanus, with a note to acquaint me that our friend expired a little before day-break. Thus did the noble Mar- celliis unworthily fall by the hand of a villanous assassin ; and he whose life his very enemies had spared in reverence to his illustrious vhtues, met with An executioner at last in his own friend ! However, I proceeded to his pavilion, where I found only two of his freedmen and a few slaves, the rest I was told having fled in apprehension of the consequences in which they might be involved by this murder of their master?. I was obliged to place the body of Marcellus in the same sedan that brought me, and to make my chairmen carry it into Athens, where I paid him all the faneral honours that city could supply, which indeed were not iniconsiderable. But I could not prevail with the Athenians to suffer him to be buried within their walls, a privilege they assured me which their religious ordinances would by no means admit. They granted me, however, what was the next honour, and which they had never permitted to any stranger before ; they allowed me to deposit his ashes in any of the Gymnasia I should think proper. Accordingly, I fixed upon a spot belonging to the Academy', one of the noblest colleges in the whole world. In this place I caused a faneral pile to be erected, and afterwards persuaded the Athen- ians to raise a marble monument to his memory, at the public expense. Thus have I paid to my relation and colleague, both during his life and after his death, every friendly office he had a right to expect from me- FarewelL Athens, May 31. n The reason which induced Cilo to murder his friend ia not certainly known. It was suspected by some at Rome that it was at the secret instigation of Cssar ; but the cir- cumstance'of Cilo immediately aftenvards killing himself, renders that suspicion altogether improbable, and seema to determine the motive to some personal and perhaps sudden resentment. — Ad Att. xiii. 10. The ancient physicians practised sur^^ery as well as medicine. p Manutius remarks, that, by the Roman law, where a man was murdered in his own house, hik slaves were punishable with death.— Tacit. Annal. xiv. 42. 1 " This celebrated place took its name from one Aca- demus, an ancient hero, who possessed it in the time of the Tyndaridffi. But, famous as it ^vas, it was purchased afterwards for about 100?., and dedicated to the public for the convenience of walks and exercises for the citizens of Athens, and was gi'adually improved by the rich, who had received bCneiit or pleasure from It, with plantations of groves, stately porticos, and commodious apartments, for the professors of the Academic school."— Middleton's Life of Cicero, p, 302, note '. TO SRVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 631 LETTER XI. To Tiro. I IMPATIENTXY expect a letter from you, upon affairs of many and various kinds ; but it is with muoli greater impatience, however, that I *■."■' ■ expect yourself. In the mean time, endea- vour to gain Demetrius over to my interest, and to obtain whatever other advantage you shall be able. I know your care is not wanting to recover the money which is owing to me from Aufidius ; but I beg you would be as expeditious in that matter as possible. If it is upon that account yott delay your return, I admit it to be a good reason ; if not, fly hither, I charge you, with the utmost speed. To repeat it once more, I expect a letter from you with great impatience. Farewell. LETTER XII. . Vatinius' to Cicero. If you have not renounced your usual custom of defending the cause of your friends, an old client of 708 y"""^ desires to ravage you as his advo- oate ; and, as you formerly protected him in his humiliation °, I dare say you will not now abandon him in his glory. Whose aid, indeed, can I so properly invoke upon the occasion of my victories, as that generous friend's who first taught me how to vanquish'- ? Can I doubt, that he who had the courage to withstand a combination of the most powerful men in Rome, who had conspired my ruin, will not be able to beat down the envious and malignant efforts of a little contemptible party that may endeavour to oppose my hononrs ? If I still, then, retain the share I once enjoyed of your friendship, take me, I entreat you, wholly under your protection, as one whose dignities it is incum- bent upon you both to support and advance. You are sensible that I have many enemies, whose malevolence I have in no sort deserved ; but what avails innocence against so unaccountable a fate .' If these, therefore, should any of them attempt to obstruct the honours I am soliciting, I conjure you to exert your generous offices, as usual, in defence of your absent friend. In the mean time, you will find, at the bottom of this letter, a copy of the despatches I send by this express to the senate, concerning the success of my arms. Being informed that the slave whom you employ as your reader had eloped from you into the country of the Vardtei », I have caused diligent search to be made after him, although I did not receive your ■* I have already had occasion to give an account of the character of Vatinius, in rem. ', p. 366. He was at this time, by the appointment of Cfesar, governor of IlljTicimi, which comprehended part of Austria, Hungary, Sclavonia, Bosnia, and Dalmatifi. He was sent thither with a con- siderable army, to reduce the people of that province to obedience ; and having obtained some success, he wrote the present letter to Cicero, in order to engage him to sup- port his pretensions to the honour of a public thanksgiving. — Pigh. Annal. ii. 4S4. * When Cicero, much to his dishonour, defended Vati- nius against the impeachment of Licinius Calvus. See letter 17, book ii. p. 373. ' Alluding to his haying, by tne assistance of Cicero's eloquence, vanquished his adversaries in the prosecution mentioned in the preceding note. " A people contiguous to Dalmatia. commands for that purpose. I doubt not of reco- vering him, unless he should take refuge in Dalma- tia'; and even in that case, I do not entirely despair. Farewell, and continue to love me. From the camp at Narona^, July the 11th, LETTER XIII. To Tiro. You are not mistaken in supposing me desirous of your company j but. Indeed, I am extremely A V 708 *PP''®l'™8ive of your venturing upon so ■ long a journey. The abstinence you have been obliged to observe, the evacuations you have undergone, together with the violence of your dis- temper itself, have too much impaired your strength for so great a fatigue ; and any negligence after disorders so severe as yours, is generally attended with consequences of the most dangerous kind. You cannot reach Cuma in less than two days, and it will cost you five more to complete your expedi- tion. But I purpose to be with you at Formise towards the end of this month ; and, I hope, my dear Tiro, it will not be your fault if I should not have the satisfaction of finding you perfectly recovered. My studies languish for want of your assistance ; however, the letter you sent by Acastus has some- what enlivened them. Fompeius is now here, and presses me much to read to him some of my com- positions : but I jocosely, though at the same time truly, assure him, that all my muses are silent iii your absence. I hope, therefore, you will prepare to attend them with your usual good offices. Yon may depend upon mine in the article, and at the time I promised ; for as I taught you the etymology of the -viOTi. fides, be assured I shall act up to its full import. Take care, I charge you, to re-esta- blish your health ; mine is perfectly well. Adieu. LETTER XIV. To Varro. To importune the execution of a promise, is a sort of iU-manners, of which the populace them- selves, unless they are particularly insti- *■ " ■ gatedforthatpurpose, areseldomguilty". I cannot, however, forbear, I will not say to demand, but to remind you of a favour, which you long since gave me reason to expect. To this end, I have sent you four admonitors^ ; but admonitors, perhaps, whom you will not look upon as extremely modest. They are certain philosophers, whom I have chosen front among the disciples of the later Academy^; and confidence, you know, is the cha- ' Dalmatia made part of the province of Illyricum, but it was not, at this time, entirely stibdued to the Komait government. ^ In Libumia, now called Croatia, and which formed part of Vatinius's government. ^ This alludes to those promises of public shows, which were frequently made to the p^ple by the magistrates, and others who affected populdrity ; some particular instances of which have been oceasionally produced in the course of the preceding remarks. y These were dialogues entitled " Academica," which appear from hence to have originally consisted of four books, though there is only part of one now remaining. 2 The followers of the Academic philosophy were divided M M2 6S2 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO raoteristic of this sect". I am appretensive, therefore, that you may consider them as so many importunate duns, when my meaning only is, that they should present themselves before you as modest petitioners. >But to drop my metaphor, 1 have long denied myself the satisfaction of address- ing to you some .of my works, in expectation of receiving a compliment of the same kind from yourself. I waited, therefore, in order to make you a return, as nearly as possible, of the same nature. But, as I am vrilling to impute your delaying this favour to the desire of rendering it so much the more perfect, I could no longer refrain from telling the world, in the best manner I was able, that we are united both in our affections and in our studies. With this view, I have drawn up a dialogue which I suppose to have passed between you and myself, in conjunction with Atticus, and have laid the scene in your Cuman villa. The part I have assigned to you, is to defend (what, if 1 mistake not, you approve) the sentiments of Anti- ocbus •> ; as I have chosen myself to maintain the principles of Philo''. You wUl wonder to find, perhaps, in the perusal of this piece, that 1 have represented a conversation, which, in truth, we never had ; but you must remember the privilege which dialogue writers have always assumed. And now, my dear Varro, let me hope that we shall hereafter enjoy together many of these philo- sophical conversations. If we have too long neg- lected them, the public occupations in which we were engaged must be our apology ; but the time is now arrived when we have no such excuse to plead. May we, then, exercise these speculations together, under a fixed and peaceable government, at least, if not under one of the most eligible kind ! Though, indeed, if that were to prove the case, far other employments would engage our honourable labours. But, as affairs are at present situated, what is there else that can render life desirable ? For my own part, it is with difficulty I endure it, even with all the advantages of their powerful assistance ; but, without them, it would be utterly insupportable. But we shall talk farther and frequently upon this subject when we meet; in the mean time, I give you joy of the new habi- tation you have purchased, and highly approve of your removal. Farewell. into two sects, called the Old and the New. The founder uf the former was Plato ; of the latter, Arcesilas. The principal dispute between them, seems to have related to the degree of evidence upon which human knowledge is founded ; the earlier Academics maintaining that some propositions were certain ; the latter, that none were more than probable,— Vide Academ. i. passim. » Alluding to their practice of questioning all opinions, and assenting to none. Ij A philosopher at Athens, whose lectures Varro had formerly attended. He maintained the doctrines of the Old Academy.— Cic. Academ. i. 3. « A Greek philosopher, who professed the sceptical prin- ciples of the Neu) Academy. Antiochus, mentioned in the preceding note, had been bred up under him, though he afterwards became a convert to the opposite sect. Cicero took the sceptical part in this dialogue, not as being agree- able to his own sentiments, but in order to pay Varro the greater compliment of maintaining the more rational opi- nion.— Academ. «W tup.,- Ad Att. xUi. 19, LETTER XV. To Tiro. Why should you not direct your letters to me with the familiar superscription which one friend generally uses to another ? However, if i. u. 708. y^ij ^j.g unwilling to hazard the envy which this privilege may draw upon you, be it as you think proper; though, for my own part, it is a maxim which I have generally pursued witb lespect to myself, to treat envy with the utmost disregard. I rejoice that you found so much benefit by your sudorific ; and should the air of Tusculum be attended with the same happy effect, how infinitely will it increase my fondness for that favourite scene ! If you love me, then, (and if you do not, you are undoubtedly the most suc- cessful of all dissemblers) consecrate your whole time to the care of your health ; which, hitherto, indeed, your assiduous attendance upon myself has but too much prevented. You well know the rules which it is necessary you should observe for this purpose, and I need not tell you that your diet should be light, and your exercises moderate ; that you should keep your body open, and your mind amused. Be it your care, in short, to return to me perfectly recovered, and I shall ever afterwards not only love you, but Tusculum so much the more ardently. I wish you could prevail with your neighbour to take my garden, as it will be the most effectual means of vexing that Tascal Helico. This fellow, although he paid a thousand sesterces'^ for the rent of a piece of cold, barren ground, that had not so much as a wall or a shed upon it, or was sup- plied with a single drop of water, has yet the assurance to laugh at the price I require for mine, notwithstanding all the money I have laid out upon improvements. But let it be your business to spirit the man into our terms, as it shall be mine to make the same artful attack upon Otho. Let me know what you have done with respect to the fountain ; though, possibly, this wet season may now have over-supplied it with water. If the weather should prove fair, I will send the dial, together with the books you desire. But how happened it that you took none with you ? Was it that you were employed in some poetical com- position upon the model of your admired Sophocles ? If so, I hope you vrill soon oblige the world with your performance. Ligurius, Csesar's great favourite, is dead. He was a very worthy man, and much my friend. Let me know when I may expect you ; in the mean time be careful of your heeilth. Farewell. LETTER XVL To Quintus Valerius Orca' I HAVE the strongest attachment to the citizens of Volaterrse', as a body of men, who, having A. u. 708 ™oeived great obligations from me, have abundantly returned them. Their good offices, indeed, have never been wanting in any *• About 8t. of our money. " He was praetor in the year of Home 697, and at the expiration of his office obtained the government of Africa. Upon the breaking out of the civil war, he took possession 9f Sardinia in the name of CsBsi^r, by whom he was at this TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 533 season of my life, whether of adversity or pros- perity. But were I entirely void of all personal connexions with this community, I should, never- theless, merely from my great affection towards yourself, and in return to that which I am sensible you equally bear for me, most earnestly recom- mend them to your protection ; especially as tliey have, in some sort, a more than common claim to your justice. For, in the first place, the gods themselves seem to have- interposed in their behalf, when they so wonderfully escaped from the perse- cutions of SyllaK : and, in the next, the whole body of the Roman people expressed the warmest concern for their interest, when I stood forth as their advo- cate in my consulship. For, when the tribunes were endeavouring to carry a most iniquitous law for the distribution of the lands belonging to this city, I found it extremely easy to persuade the republic to favour the rights of a community which fortune had so remarkably protected. And as Caesar, in the Agrarian law, which he procured during his first consulate'', showed his approbation of the ser- vices I had thus performed for them, by expressly exempting their lands from all future impositions, I cannot suppose that he, who is perpetually dis- playing new instances of his generosity, should intend to resume those which his former bounty has bestowed. As you have followed, then, his party and his power with so much honour to your- self, it should seem agreeable to your usual pru- dence, to follow him likewise in this instance of his generosity, or certainly, at least, to leave this matter entirely to his own decision. One thing I am sure you can by no means doubt ; and that is, whether you should wish to fix so worthy and so illustrious a corporation in your interest, who are distin- guished for their inviolable adherence to their friends. Thus far I have endeavoured to persuade you to take these people under your protection, for your own sake ; but, that you may not imagine I have no other plea to urge in their favour, I will now request it also for mine. You cannot, in truth, confer upon me a more acceptable service, than by proving yourself the friend and guardian of their interests. I recommend, therefore, to your justice and humanity the possessions of a city which have been hitherto preserved by the peculiar providence of the gods, as well as by the particular fiivour of the most distinguished personages in the whole Roman commonwealth. If it were in my power as efiFectually to serve -those who place themselves under my patronage as it once was, there is no good office I would not exert, there is no oppo- sition I would not encounter, in order to assist the Volaterranians. But I flatter myself I have still the same interest with you, that I formerly enjoyed with the world in general. Let me entreat you, then, by all the powerful ties of our friendship, to give the se citizens reason to look upon it as a time appointed one of the commissioners for dividing those estates with which he proposed, upon his return from Spain, to reward the valour and fidelity of his soldiers — Kgh. Annal. ii. 384. f A city in Tuscany. ^ They held out a eiege of two years against the troops of Sylla, who in vain endeavoured to compel them to submit to his edict for the confiscation of their lands. — Quartier. ^ The law alluded to seems to have been a branch of that proposed by Kullus, an account of which has been given in these remarks. See rem. ', p. 367, , providential circumstance, that the person who is appointed to execute this commission, happens to be one with whom their constant patron has the greatest influence. Farewell. I-ETTER XVII. To Lepta. I AM glad that Macula has acted agreeably to the good offices I have a right to expect from him, A. u. 708. ''y offering me the use of his house. I always thought the man's Falernian' was well enough for road-wine, and only doubted whe- ther he had sufficient room to receive my retinue : besides, there is something in the situation of his villa that does not displease me However, I do not give up my design upon Petrinum'. But it has too many charms to be used only as an occasional lodging ; its beauties deserve a much longer stay. Balbus is confined with a very severe fit of the gout, and does not admit any visitors ; so that I have not been able to see him since you left Rome. However, I have talked with Oppius concerning your request to be appointed one of the managers of Cffisar's games". But, in my opinion, it would be most advisable not to undertake this trouble ; as you will by no means find it subservient to the point you have in view : for Caesar is surrounded with such a multitude of pretenders to his friend- ship, that he is more likely to lessen, than increase, the number ; especially where a man has no higher service to recommend him, than what arises from little offices of this kind : a circumstance, too, which Csesar, possibly, may never be acquainted with. But if he shoi^d, he would look upon him- self rather as having conferred, than received, a favour. Nevertheless, I will try if this affair can be managed in such a manner as to give you any reasonable hope that it wUL answer your purpose ; otherwise, I think, you should be so far from de- siring the employment, that you ought by all means to avoid it. I believe I shall stay some time at Astura', as I purpose to wait there the arrival of Csesar". Farewell. LETTER XVIII. To Quintus Valerius Orca\ I AM not displeased to find that the world is apprised of the friendship which subsists between A n 708 "'■ ^'^' ^' '^ '"''' y" """y "^'^ imagine, from any vain ostentation of this kind, that I interrupt you in the honourable discharge of that troublesome and important commission which i This was a favourite -wine among the Romans, which took its name from Falemus, a little hill in Campania, where the grape was produced. J A to^vn in Campania, where Lepta had a villa. " These were games which Caesar proposed to exhibit in the several quarters of Rome, upon his return from Spain, in honour of his victory over the sons of Pompey. — Suet, in Vit. Jul. Cais. 1 A town in the Campagna di Roma, situated near the sea-coast, between Civita Vecchia and Monte Circello, where Cicero had a villa. It was about two years after the date of this letter, that Cicero was murdered near this villa by the order of Antony. m From Spain. n See rem. ' on letter 16 of this book 584 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TDLLIUS CICERO Csesar has entrusted to your care. On the con- trary, notwithstanding that the share T enjoy in your affection is so generally known as to occa- sion many applications to me, yet I would not be tempted, by any popular motives, to break' in upon you in the execution of your office. However, I could not refuse the solicitations of Curtius, as he is one with whom I have been intimately connected from his earliest youth. I took a very consi- derable part in the misfortunes he suffered from the unjust persecution of Sylla ; and when it seemed agreeable to the general sense of the people that my friend, together with the rest of those who in conjunction with himself had been deprived both of their fortunes and their country, should be restored at least to the latter, I assisted him for that purpose to the utmost of my power. Upon his return, hfi invested all that remained to him from this general wreck of his substance, in the purchase of an estate at Volaterrae ; of which, if he should be dispossessed, I know not how he will support the senatorial rank to which Csesar has lately advanced him. It would be an extreme hardship indeed if he should sink in wealth as he rises in honours ; and it seems altogether incon- sistent, that he should lose his estate in conse- quence of Csesar's general order for the distribution of these lands in question ; at the same time, that, by his particular favour, he has gained a seat in tjie senate. But I will not allege all that I well might, for the equity of my friend's cause, lest, by enlarg- ing on the justice, I should seem to derogate from the favour of your compliance with my request. I most earnestly conjure you, then, to consider this affair of Curtius as my own ; to protect his interest as you would mine in the same circum- stances ; and to be assured, that whatever services you shall thus confer upon my friend, I shall esteem as a personal obligation to myself, Fare- well. LETTER XIX. To Fabius Gallus". Instances of your friendship are perpetually meeting me wherever I turn ; and I have lately, in i. u. 708. Particular, had occasion to experience them in regard to my affair with Tigellius P. I perceive by your letter, that it has occasioned you much concern, and I am greatly obliged by this proof of your affection. But let me give you a sj),grt history how the case stands. It was Cipius, I think, that formerly said, " I am not asleep for every mcmi ; " neither am I, my dear GaUus, so meanly complaisant as, to be the humble servant of every minion. The truth of it is, I am the humble servant of none ; and am so far from being under the necessity of submitting to any servile com- » This is the same person to whom the 11th letter o£ the first book is addressed. p Tigelliiis was an exti-ayagant debauchee, who, by his pleasantry, his skill in music, his agreeable voice, together with his other soft and fashionable qualifications, had ex- tremely ingratiated himself with Cassar. 1 Cipius was a complaisant husband, who, upon some occasions, would affect to nod, whilst his wife was awake and more agreeably employed. But a slave coming into the room when he was in one of these obliging slumbers, and attempting to carry off a flagon that stood upon the table, *' Sirrah," gays he, *' noft omnibus dormio.'^ pUancea in order to preserve my friendship with Csesar's favourites, that there is not one of them, except this Tigellius, who does not treat me with greater marks of respect than I ever received, even when I was thought to enjoy the highest popularity and power. But I think myself extremely fortunate in being upon ill terms with a man who is more corrupted than his own native air', and whose character is notorious, I suppose, to the whole world, by the poignant verses of the satiric Calvus". But to let you see upon what slight grounds he has taken ofEence, I had promised, you must know, to plead the cause of his grandfather Phameas, which I undertook, however, merely in friendship to the man himself. Accordingly, Phameas called upon me in order to tell me that the judge had fixed a day for his trial ; which happened to be the very same on which I was obliged to attend as advocate for Sextius. I acquainted him, therefore, that I could not possibly give him my assistEuice at the time he mentioned ; but that if any other had been appointed, I most assuredly would not have failed. Phameas, nevertheless, in the conscious pride no doubt of having a grandson that could pipe and sing to some purpose, left me with an air that seemed to speak indignation. And now, having- thus stated my case, and shown you the injustice of this songster's complaints, may I not properly say with the old proverb, " So many Sardinians, so many rival rogues* ." I beg you would send me your " Cato"," which I am extremely desirous of reading. It is, indeed, some reflection upon us both that I have not yet enjoyed that pleasure. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Cluvius^. In the visit which, agreeably to our friendship and that great respect with which you always treat A. u. 708. ™®' ■^ received from you upon yoiu* setting out for Gaul, we had some general dis- r Tigellius was a native of Sardinia, an island noted for its noxious air. See rem. x, p. 480. • Fate seems 'to have decreed that Tigellius should not want a poet to deliver his character down to posterity : for, although the verses of Calvus are lost, those of Horace remain, in which Tigellius is delineated with all those inimitable strokes of ridicule which distinguish the, mas- terly hand of that polite satirist.— Hor. Sat. i. 2 et 3. ' The literal interpretation of this provefb is, "You have Sardinians to sell, each a greater rogue than the other ;" but a shorter turn has been adopted in the trans- lation, in order to b^■ing it nearer to the conciseness of the proverbial style. This proverb took its rise (as Manutiua observes) from the great number of Sardinian slay^ess with which the markets of Itafer were overstocked, upon the reduction of that island by Titus Sempronius Graqcjius, in the year of Bome 512. 1 The character of Cato was, at this time, the fashion- able topic of declamation at Rome ; and every man that pretended to genius and eloquence furnished the public with an invective or panegyric upon that illustrious Roman, as pai'ty or patriotism directed his pen. In fiiis respect, as well as in all others, Gate's reputation seems to have been attended with every advantage that any man ' who is ambitious of a good name cau desire ; for the next honour to being applauded by the worthy, is to be abused by the worthless. ' Ho was one of the commissioners nominated by Ciesar for settling the division of the lands for the purposes men- TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 6S6 course relating to thpse estates in that province which are held of the city of Atella" j and I then expressed how much I was concerned for the in- terest of that corporation. But in coiiMeupe of the ^gnlar affection you bear me, and iu pecfprm- ance of a di^l^ whiqh it is incunihent upon me to disdjiarge, I thought propesr ^to write to you more fully upon this .^Sair, as it is, indeed, pf the last importance to a cojjununity with which I have the strongest connexions. I am very sensible, at the same time, both of the occasion and extent of your commission, — and .that Caesar has not entrusted you, in the execution of it, with aiiy discretionary power. I limit my request, therefore, by what I inipi^e is no less withi9 the bounds of your authority, than I am persuaded it i* not beyond what you would be willing to do for my sake. In the first plape, ,then, I entreat you to believe, what ip .truly .the faotj tihat lie whole revenues of this corporation arise ^om these .lands in question, and that the heavy impositions wiljh which they are at present burdened, have ljji4 them under the greatest difficulties. But although, in this respect, they may seem to he in no worse condition than many other cities in Italy ; yet, believe me, their case is iimhappily distinguished by several calamitous cir- qSpi^Umces jecuhar to themselves. ^ iforbear, however, to enumerate them, lest, in lamenting the niiger^ep of my friends, I shpi^ld be thought to glance at tjiose persons whom it is by no m^^i>s my design to offend. Indeed, if I hfid not conceived strong hopes that I shall be ^hle to prevail with Caesar iu favour of this city, there woflld be no occasion for my present very earnest appliqatipn ,to you. But as I am well persuaded that .Csesar wiU have regi^rd to the dignity of this illustrious cor- poration, to ,the zeal which tbey ,bear ,for .his interest, and above all to the equity of their c^yse, I ventnre ,tp entreat you to leave the decision of this affair ;entirely to his own determination*. If I could produce no precedent of youriaviiig already comphed with a request of this nature, it is a request which I should nevertheless have made, tut I have so much the stronger hopes that you will not refuse me iu the present instance, as I am informed you have granted the same favour to the citizens of Hegium?. It is true, you have some sort of connexion with that city ; but in justice to your affection towards me, I cannot but hope that what you have yieldedto your own clients you will not deny to mine, especially as it is for these alone that I solicit you, notwithstanding so many others of my friends are in the same situation. •I .d^e say I need not assure you, that it is neither ■ upon any ambitious motives ith^t , I apply to ypii in ' their behalf, nor without having just reason to be their advocate. The fact is, .1 have great obliga- tions to them ; and there has been no season of my life in which they have not given me signal proofs of their affection. As yon are sensible, therefore, that the interest of this corporation, with which! am so strongly cpnneqted, is greatly cpnperned in the success ,pf, my present .request, I conjure you, % al l the powerful ties of our mutual friendship timed in rem. ' on lettei' 16 of this book. The department assigned to him was, Cl^lpino Paul. * A city in Campania, situated between Naples and Oai>uz: it is now cailed Santo Arpino. ^ Cffiear was not yet returned out of Spain. 7 Now called Xegio, a maritime city iu Calabria. and by all the sentiments of your humanity, to comply with liese my intercessions iu their behalf. If, rfter having obtained this favour, I shoujd suc- ceed likewise (as I have reason to hope) in my application to Csesar, I shaU consider all the advantages of that success as owing entirely to yourself. Nor shall I be less obliged to you though I should not succeed, as you wiU have con- tributed all in your power, at least, that I might. In one word, you will by these iheans not only perform a mo^t acceptable service to myself, but for ever attach to the interest bpth of you and your family a most illustrious and grateful city. Fare- well. LETTER XXI. X.o Fabius Gallus. You need be in no pain about your letter. So far from iaving destroyed it, as you imagine, it is A. u. 708. P^'^^'5% safe, and you may call for it whenever you please. Your admonitions are extremely obliging, and i hope you will always continue them with the same freedom. You are apprehensive, I perceive, that if I should render this Tigellius my enemy, he may probably make me merrier than I like, and teach me the Sardinian laugh*. In return to your pro- verb, let me present you vrith another, and advise you to "throw aside the pencil"." For our jjkMier,'' will be Jbere much sooner than was expected ; and I am afraid he should send the man who ventures to paint Cato in such favourable colours, to join the hero of his panegyric in ,the shades bejow. Nothing, my dear Gallus, can be expressed with greater strength and elegance than that part of your letter which begins, " TJie rest aire fallen" &c. But I whisper this applause in your ear.-r- and desire it may be a secret, even to your freed- man Apella. (Nobody, indeed, writes in this manner except ourselves. How far it is to .be defended or not I may consider, perhaps, another time ; but thie, at least, is indisputable, that it is a style entirely our own.' Persevere, then, in these .*^It T^ said, there was.a sea-weed frequently found upon .the coasts CKsar, who was at this time upon his return from Spain. 530 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO compositions, as the best and surest method of forming your eloquence. As for myself, I now employ some part even of my nights in exercises of the same kind. Farewell. LETTER XXII. To Marcus Rutilius '. In the consciousness of that affection I bear you, and from the proofs I have experienced of 708 y""'^' I ^° oo' scruple to ask a favour which a principle of gratitude obliges me to request. To what degree I value Publius Sex- tins'*, is a circumstance with which my own heart is best acquainted ; but how greatly I ought to do so both you and all the world are perfectly well apprised. As he has been informed by some of his friends that you are upon all occasions ex- tremely well disposed to oblige me, he has desired I would write to you in the strongest terms in behalf of Cains Albinius, i person of senatorian rank. Publius Sextius married his daughter, — and he has a son by her, who is a youth of great merit. I mention these circumstances, to let you see that Sextius has no less reason to be concerned for the interest of Albinius than I have for that of Sextius. But to come to the point. Marcus Laberius purchased, under an edict of Caesar, the confiscated estate of Plotius, which he afterwards assigned over to Albinius, in satisfaction of a debt. If I were to say that it is not for the credit of the government to include this estate among those lands which are directed to be divided, I might seem to talk rather in the style of a man who is dictating than of one who is making a request. But as Csesar thought it necessary to ratify the sales and mortgages that had been made of those estates which were confiscated during Sylla's administration, in order to render his own purchasers of the same kind so much the more secure ; if these forfeited lands, which were put up to auction by his particular order, should be in- cluded in the general division he is now making, will it not discourage all future bidders .' I only, hint this, however, for your own judicious consider- ation. In the mean time I most earnestly entreat you not to dispossess Albinius of the farms which Laberius has thus conveyed to him ; and be as- sured, as nothing can be more equitable than this request, so I make it in all the warmth and sincerity of my heart. It will afford me, indeed, not only much satisfaction, but in some sort likewise great honour, if Sextius, to whose friendship I am so deeply indebted, should have an opportunity, through my means, of serving a man to whom he is thus nearly related. Again and again, therefore, 1 entreat your compliance ; and as there is no instance wherejn you can more effectually oblige me, so you may depend upon finding me infinitely sensible of the obligation. Farewell. *= He was employed in a commission of the same kind with that of Orca and Cluvius, to whom the 16th and 20tli Jetters of tliis boolc arc addressed. ^ See rem. ^, p. 367. LETTER XXIII. To Vatiniui. I AM by no means surprised to find that you are sensible of my services'. On the contrary, I perfectly well knew, and have upon all *' " ' occasions declared, that no man ever possessed so grateful a heart. You have, indeed, not only acknowledged, but abundantly returned, my good ofiices : be assured, therefore, you will always experience in me the same friendly zeal in every other article of your concerns. Accordingly, after having received your last letter, wherein you recommend that excellent woman your wife to my protection', I immediately desired our friend Sura to acquaint her, that if in any instance she had occasion for my services I hoped she would let me know, — and that she might depend upon my exe- cuting her requests with the utmost warmth and fidelity. This promise I shall very punctually fulfil ; and if it should prove necessary I will wait upon her myself. In the mean time I beg yon would inform her, by your own hand, that I shall not look upon any office as difficult, or below my character, wherein my assistance can avail her : as, indeed, there is no employment in which I could be engaged upon your account that I should not think both easy and honourable^. I entreat you to settle the affair vrith Dionysius ; and any assurance that you- shall think proper to give him, in my name, 1 will religiously perform. But if he should continue obstinate, you must e'en seize him as a prisoner of war, to grace your triumphal entry. May a thousand curses fall upon these Dalma. tians for giving you so much trouble. However, I join with you in being well persuaded that you vrill soon reduce them to obedience : and as they have always been esteemed a warlike people, their submission will greatly contribute to the glory of your arms. Farewell. « The services here alluded to are, probably, those which VatiniuB solicited in the 12tli letter of this book. Cicero's answer to that letter is lost, as well as Vatinius's reply : hut the present epistle seems to have been written in return to the latter. ' If Vatinius was not a more tender husband than he appears to have been a son, this lady might have had occasion for Cicero's protection, in some instances, which she would not, perhaps, have been very willmg to own : for among other enormities that are laid to the charge of Vatinius, it is said, that he had tlie cruelty, as well as the impiety, to lay violent hands on his mother.— Orat. in Vatm. 7. S Who would imagine that this is the same person of whom Cicero has elsewhere said, that " No one could look upon him without a sigh, or speak of him without execra- tion ; that he was the dread of his neighbours, the disgrace of his kindred, and the utter abhorrence of the public in general." Indeed, when Cicero gave this character of Vati- nius, he was acting as an advocate at the bar, and endea- vouring to destroy his credit as a witness against his friend and client. But whatever allowances maybe made, in general, for rhetorical exaggerations, yet history shoivs that, in the present instance, Cicero's eloquence did not transgress the limits of truth. For Paterculus has painted the character of Vatinius in the same disadvantageous colours, and represented him as the lowest and most worth- less of men.— Orat. in Vatin. 16 ; Veil. Fat. ii. 69. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 53!r LETTER XXIV. To Cormfioius^. It was with great satisfaction I found, by your letter, that you allow me a place in your thoughts : and it is by no means as doubting the con- *' " ■ stancy of your friendship, but merely in compliance with a customary form, that I entreat you to preserve me still in your remembrance. It is reported that some commotions have arisen in Syria : af which I am more alarmed upon your account than our own, as you are placed so much nearer to the consequences. As to affairs at Rome, we are enjoying that sort of repose which I am sure you would be better pleased to hear was interrupted by some vigorous measures for the public welfare. And I hope it shortly wiU : as I find it is Caesar's intention to concert methods for that purpose. Your absence has inspired me with the courage of engaging in some compositions, which otherwise I should scarce have ventured to undertake : though there are some among them which even my judi- cious friend, perhaps, would not disapprove. The last that I have finished is upon a subject, on which I have frequently had occasion to think that your notions were not altogether agreeable to mine : it is an inquiry into the best species of eloquence'. Though I must add, that whenever you have dif- fered from me, it was always with the complaisance of a master artist towards one who is not wholly unskilled in his art. I should be extremely glad that this piece might receive your suffrage : if not for its own sake, at least for its author's. To this end, I shall let your family know, that, if they think proper, they may have it transcribed, in order to send it to you. I imagine, indeed, although you should not approve my sentiments, yet that any- thing which comes from my hand, will be accept- able in your present inactive situation. When you recommend your character and honours to my protection, it is merely, I dare say, for the sake of form, and not as thinking it in the least necessary. Be assured, the affection which, I am persuaded, mutually subsists between us, would be sufficient to render me greatly zealous in your service. But abstractedly from all motives of friendship, were I to consider only the noble pur- poses to which you have applied your exalted talents, and the great probability of your attaining the highest dignity in the commonwealth), there is no man to whom I should give the preference in my good offices, and few that I should place in the same rank with yourself. Farewell. ^ Quintus Comificius, in the year 705, obtained the pro- consulship of niyricum. In the following year he was removed from thence into some other province, the name of which is unknown, but it appears to have been conti- guous to Syria. In this province he resided when the pre- sent and twenty-sixth letter of this book were written to him. He was afterwards appointed governor of Africa, as appears by several letters addressed to him in the next book, and which \vi]l afford a farther occasion of speaking of him. Ho had greatly distinguished himself in the ai't of eloquence, and is supposed to have been the author of those rhetorical pieces which are mentioned by Qnfaitilian as ivritten by a person of this name.— Pigh. Annal. ii. 446, 454, 466 ; Quintil. iii. 1. ' This is, jttobably, the same piece of which an account has been given in rem. q on letter 15, book x. i The consular office. LETTER XXV. Curius ^ to Cicero. I LOOK upon myself as a sort of property, the possession of which belongs, 'tis true, to Atticus ; „ but all the advantage that can be derived from it is whoUy yours. If Atticus, there- fore, were inclined to dispose of his right in mo, I am afraid he could only pass me off in a lot with some more profitable commodity : whereas, if you should have the same inchnation, how greatly would it enhance my value to be proclaimed as one entirely formed into what he is, by your care and kindness ! I entreat you then to continue to protect the work of your own hands, and to recommend me in the strongest terms to the successor of Sulpicius in this province'. This will be the surest means of put- ting it in my power to obey your commands of returning to you in the spring ; as it will facilitate the settling of my affairs in such a manner, that I may be able, by that time, to transport my effects, with safety, into Italy. But I hope, my illustrious friend, you will not communicate this letter to Atti- cus : for as he imagines I am much too honest a fellow to pay the same compliment to you both ; siiffer him, I beseech you, to remain in this favour- able error. Adieu, my dear patron, and salute Tiro in my name. Oct. the 29th. LETTER XXVI. To Cornificias. I SHALL follow the same method in answering your letter which I have observed that you great orators sometimes practise in your replies, A. V. 70S. gjj^ begin with the last article first. You accuse me, then, of being a negligent correspond- ent ; but, believe me, I have never once omitted writing whenever any of your family gave me notice that a courier was setting out to you. I have so high an opinion of your prudence, that I expected you would act in the manner your very obliging letter assures me you intend, and that you would not determine your measures, till you should know where this paltry Bassus"" designed to make an irruption. I entreat you to continue to give me frequent intelligence of all your purposes and- mo- tions, as well as of whatever else is going forward in your part of the world. It was with much regret that I parted with you when you left Italy ; but I comforted myself in the persuasion, that yon were not only going into a scene of profound tranquillity, but leaving one that was threatened with great commotions. The reverse, however, has proved to be the fact, and war has broken out in your quarters, at the same time that it is extinguished in ours. But the peace we enjoy is attended, nevertheless, with many dis- gusting circumstances, and disgusting, too, even to Csesar himself. It is the certain consequence, indeed, of all civil wars, that the vanquished must not only submit to the will of the v ictor, but to the k See rem. «, p. 503. ' Greece. m Csecilius Bassuswas aBoman knight of the Pompeian party, who, after the battle of Pharsalia, fled into Syria j where he was, at this time, raising some very formidaWo commotions against the authority of Ciesar.— Dio, xlvii. p. 342. 538 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO wUl of those also who assisted him in his conquest. But I am now become so totally callous, that I saw Bursa", the other day, at the games which Csesar exhibited, without the least emotion ; and was pre- sent with equal patience at the farces of Publius and Laberius". In short, I am sensible of nothing so much as of the want of a judicious friend with whom I may freely laugh at what is thus passing amongst us. And such a friend I shall find in you, if you will hasten your return hither ; a circum- stance which I look upon to be as much your own interest, as I am sure it is mine. Farewell. LETTER XXVIl. To Dolabella. I REJOICE to find that Baisei" ihas changed its nature, and is become, on a sudden, so wondrous salutaryi. But, perhaps, it is only in *■ "• ™' complaisance to my friend that it thus suspends its usual effects, and will resume its wonted qualities the moment you depart. I shall not be surprised should this prove to be the case ; nor wonder, indeed, if heaven and earth should alter their general tendencies, for the sake of a man who has so much .to recommend him to the favour of both'. I did not imagine, that I had preserved, among n Cicero's inveterate enemy, who had been banished some years before, but had lately been recalled by Cassar. See rem. ", p. IS!. For an aecoxuit of Laberius see rem. », p. 380. Publius Syrus had, likewise, distinguished himself upon the Roman stage m those buffoon pieces which they called their mimes. But although these rival poets and actors were both of them excellent in their wsiy, yet it- appears that their humour was too low and inelegant to suit the just and refined taste of Cicero — Hacrob. Saturn, ii. 7. P See rem. s, p. 478. 1 Dolabella bad probably informed Cicero, in a letter from Baize, of the salutary effects he experienced from the waters of that place ; in answer to which Cicero plays upon the ambiguous meaning of the word salubreSt and applies in a moral sense what BolabeUa had used in a medicinal. >* If no other memoirs of these times remajned,than what might be collected from the letters of Cicero, it is certain they would' greatly mislead us in cm- notions of the prin- cipal actors who now appeared upon the theatre of the Roman republic. Thus, for instance, who would imagine that the person here represented as interesting heaven and earth in his welfare, was, in fact, a monster of .lewdness and inhumanity? But how must .the reader's astonish- ment be raised, when he is informed that it .iSj Cicero ,him- self who tells us so? "Dolabellae — ^ puero .pro deliciis crudelitas fuit, (says our author in one of his Philippic orations,) deinde ea libidinum turpitude ut in hoc sit semper ipse la^tatus, quod ea faoeret quse sibi objici ne ab inimico quidem possent verecmido." If this was a true picture of Dolabella, what shall be said in excuse of Cicero for having disposed of his daughter to him in marriage? Should any too partial advocate of Cicero's moral character endeavour to palliate this unfavourable circumstance, by telling us that be had never inquired into.Dolabella's con- duct, might it not justly be suspected that he meant to banter ? Yet, this is the very reason which Cicero himself assigns in the oration from whence the above passage is cited. "Et hie, dii immortales! ali,quando fuit mens! occulta enim erantvitianonin^mVentz." .Strange! thata man who loved his daughter even to .a degree of extrava- gance, should be so careless in an article wherein lier. hap- piness But I need not finish the rest ; where facts speak for themselves, let me be spared the pain of a comment.^ PhiL XL 14. my papers, the trifling speech which I made in behalf of Deiotarus' ; however, I have found it, and send it to you, agreeably to your request. You will read it as a performance which was by no mean, of consequence enough to deserve much care in the compoation ; and, to say truth, I was willing to make my old friend and host a present of the same indeficate kind with his own. May you ever preserve a virtuous and a generous mind ! that the moderation and integrity of your conduct may prove a living reproach to the vio- lence and injustice of some others amongst our contemporaries I Farewell. LETTEK XXVin. Vatinius to Cicero. I HAVE not been able to do anything to the ^|ir- pose with regard to your librarian, Dionysiui'; and, indeed, my endeavours have hitherto ** ' " proved so much the less effectual, as the sev.ep.ty of the weather, which obliged me to retrejit out of Dalmatia, still detains me here. However, I will nflt desist till I have gotten him into my cus- tody. But surely I am always to find some diffi- culty or other in executing your commands, why else did you write to me, 1 know iiot what, in favour of Catilius",' But avaunt, thou insidious tempter, with thy dangero\is intercessions ! And our friend Servilius, too, (forww my heart prompts me to call him, as well as yours,) is, it seems, a joint petitioner with you in this request. Is it usuid then, I siiould be glad to know, with you orators to be the advocates of such clients, and in §uqh causes ? Is it usual to plead in behalf of the most cruel of the human race .' in defence of a man who has murdered our fellow-citizens, plundered their houses, ravished their wives, and laid whole regions in desolation? This worthless wretch ha^ the insolence, likewise, to take up arms against myself; and he is now, 'tis true, my prisoner. But tell me, my dear Cicero, in what manner can I act in this aff^r ? I would not willingly refuse anythingto ypur request ; and, as far as my own private resentment is concerned, I will, in compliance with your desires, ijemit the punishmept I intended. But what shall I answer to those unhpp,py sufferers wfco require satisfaction for the loss of their effects, and the destruction of their ships .' who call for ven- geance on .^he murderer of their brothers, their children, and their parents ? Believe me, if I had succeeded to the inipudence as well as to the office of Appius', I couid not have the assurance to withstand their cries for justice. Neve rtheless, I " See rem. s, p. 400. « See letter 12 of this.hook. " This man was qusestor in the year 702 ; and , dming the civil war, was intrusted with some naval command ; but it appears, by the present letter, that he had turned pirate, and committed great cruelties and depredations upon the coasts of Illyricum — :PJgh. Anna], ii. 421. ^ Manutius observes, that this is not the same Appius to whom the letters in the od book are addressed ; an'd,refere to a passage in Valerius Maxiuius, to prove that he perished early in the civil wars. But so he undoubtedly might, and nevertheless be the same person here alluded to ; for it by no means appears when or in what, poet it, was, that Vati- nius succeeded to this Appius in question. Impudence, it is certain, was in the number of those qualities which dis- tinguished that Appius to whom the letters abovMBen- iioned are written..^Ad Att. iv. IB. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 539 vrill do everything that Kes n my power to gratify your inclinations. He is to je defended at his trial by Volusius : and, if his prosecutors can be van- quished by eloquence, there isgreat reason to expect that the force of your disciple's rhetoric will put them to flight. I depend upon your being my advocate at Rome, if there shoidd be any occasion. Caesar, indeed, has not yet done me the justice to move for a public thanksgiving, for the success of my arms in Dalmatia : as if, in truth, I were not entitled to more, and might not justly claim the honour of a triumph ! But as there are above threescore cities that have entered into an alliance with the Dalma- tians, besides the twenty of which that country anciently consisted : if I am not to be honoured with a public thanksgiving till I shall have taken every one of these considerable towns, I am by no means upon equal terms with the rest of our generals. Immediately after the senate had appointed the former thanksgivings for my victories'', I marched V There is some difficulty in reconciling what Tatiniiis here says of a supplication having been decreed by the senate, with the complaint he makes above against Cxsar for having delved to move the house for that purpose. Some of the commentators, therefore, have suspected that this is the beginning of a distinct letter ; and-others, that it is a postscript, written a considerable distance of time Into Dalmatia, where I attacked and made myself master of six of their towns. One of these, which was of very considerable strength, I might fairly say that I took four several times ; for it was sur- rounded by a fortification consisting of four differ- ent walls, which were defended by as many forts, through all which I forced my way to the citadel, which I likewise compelled to surrender. But the excessive severity of the cold, together with the deep snows that fell at the same time, obliged me to retreat ; so that I had the mortification, my dear Cicero, to find myself under the necessity of aban- doning my conquests just as I was upon the point of finishing the war. I entreat you, then, if occasion should require, to be my advocate with Caesar, and in every other respect to take my interest under your protection, — in the assurance, that no man possesses a higher degree of affection for you than myself. Narona, Dec. the 15th. from the body of the epistle. But Mi*. Ross has offered, I think, a much better solution, by supposing that the thanksgiving, mentioned in the present pai'agraph, was one which had been deci'eed on account of some former successes of Vatinius in his province ; and that the thanksgiving, concerning which he complains of Cffisar'a neglect, was one that he was now soliciting in honour of thoee successes in Dalmatia of which he Iiere gives an account. BOOK XII. LETTEE I. To Curius^. 'Tis true, I once both advised and exhorted you to return into Italy ; but I am so far from being A. D 709. ^ ^^ same sentiments at piiesent, that, on the contrary, I wish to escape myself. To some blest dime remote.from Felops' race?. My heart, indeed, most severely reproaches me for submitting to be the witness of liheir unwjJrthy deeds. Undoubtedly, my friend, yon long since foresaw our evil days ^proacdhing, when you wisely took your Sight from Uiese unhappy regions ; for though it must needs be painful to hear a relation of what is going forward amongst us, yet far more intolerable it surely is to be ^e sad spectator of «Q wretched a scene. One advantage, at least, you liave certainly gained by your absence; it has spared you the mortification of being present at the late general assembly for the election of qujestors. At seven in the mosning, the tribunal of Quintus Maximus, the consul, as they called him'', was placed in the field of Mars' ; when, news being ' This is an answer to the 25th letter of the foxegoing book. y Alluding to the Caesarian party. See rem, d, p. 503. * Csesar (as Manutius observes) abdicated the consulship upon bis late return from Spain, and arbitrarily appointed Quintus l^ximus, together with Trebonius, consuls for the remaining part of tho year. Masimus, therefore, not being legally elected, Cicero speaks of him as one whose title was acknowledged only by the prevailing faction. ■ Where the poll for the election of niagistratos was OEually taken. It was situated on the banks uf the Tiber, brought of his sudden death, it was immediately removed. But Csesar, notwithstanding he had taken the auspices* as for an assembly of the tribes, converted it into that of the centuries ', and, at one in the afternoon, declared Caninius duly elected consul. Be it recorded, then, that during the consulate of Caninius no man had time to dine, and yet that there was not a single disturbance of any kind committed : for he was a magistrate, you must know, of such wonderful vigilance, that he never once slept throughout his whole administra- tion. The truth of it is, his administration con- tinued only to the end of the year, and both expired the very next morning. But, ridiculous as these transactions may appear to you who are placed at b No assembly of the people could be regularly held, nor any puhlic act performed, till the augurs had declared that the omens were favourable for the purpose in agitation. *= The citizens of. Rome were oaat into three general divisions — into centuries, into curiae, and into tribes. Some account of the two latter has been already given in rem, ^, p. 375, and' rem, 7, p. 428. The former was an institution of Servius Tullius, who distributed the people into 193 centuries, according to the value of their respective pos- sessions. These companies had a vote in all questions that came before the people assembled in this manner, and the majority of voices in each determined the suffrage of that particular century. But, as the patricians and the wealthiest citizens of the republic filled up 98 of these 189 classes, the inferior citizens were consequently de- prived of all weight in the public deliberations. The pra- ters, consuls, and censors, were elected by the people assembled in centuries; but the qusestors, aediles, and tribtmes, were chosen in an assembly of the tribes..— Dion. Hal. iv. 20. iiQ THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO so great a distance from tliem, believe me you could not refrain from tears if you were to see them ia all their true aind odious colours. How would you be affected, then, were I to mention the num- berless instances of the same arbitrary kind which daily occur ! For my own part, they would be utterly insupportable to me, had I not taken refuge in philosophy, and enjoyed, likewise, that friend '^ of ours for the companion of my studies whose pro'peHy, you tell me, you are ''. However, since you assure me at the same time that all the benefit which can arise from you belongs solely to myself, I am perfectly well contented,-;— for what can pro- perty give more ? Acilius, who is sent into Greece at the head of some legions, as successor to Snlpicius, has great obligations to me ; for I successfully defended him in two capital prosecutions, before the commence- ment of our public troubles. He is a man of a very grateful disposition, and one who, upon all occasions, treats me with much regard. Accord- ingly, I herewith send you a letter which I have written to him in your favour, in the strongest terms ; and I desire you will let me know what promises he shall give you in consequence of my recommendation. Farewell. LETTER II. To Auctus', proconsul. In confidence of that share you allow me in your esteem, and of which you gave me so many con- ^^Q vincing proofs, during the times we con- tinued together at BrundisiumB, I claim a sort of right of applying to you upon any occasion wherein I am particularly interested. I take the liberty, therefore, of writing to you in behalf of Marcus Curius, a merchant at Patrse, with whom I am most intimately united. Many are the good offices which have mutually passed between us, — and, what indeed is of the greatest weight, they reciprocally flowed from the most perfect affection. d Atticus. e See the beginning of Ciu-ius's letter to Cicero, p. 537. f The commentators imagine that this person is the same whom Cicero mentions in the foregoing letter to have suc- ceeded to Bulpicius in the government of Greece ; and that, therefore, either instead lof Auctus, the true reading is Acilius, or that he was called Acilius Auctus. But, though it is altogether impossible to determine who the person was to whom this letter is addressed, or in what yeai- it was written, yet it seems highly probable that Acilius and Auctus were diiferent men ; for Cicero, m the preceding epistle, mentions Acilius as one on whom lie had conferred some very important services : whereas, in the present letter, Cicero appeajs to have been the person obliged. Now it is by no means credible that our author, if he had ever done any good offices to Auctus, should have been totally silent upon a circumstance which would have given him a much higher claim to the favour he was requesting, than any which he produces. And the incre- dibility grows still stronger, when it is remembered that Cicero never fails to display his services upon all occasions in which he can with any propriety mention them. But on which side soever of this question the truth may lie, it is a point of such very little consequence, that perhaps it will scarce justify even this short remarlE. g Probably during Cicero's residence in that city, upon his return into Italy, after the battle of Phai-salia, an account of which has been given in the foregoing obser- vations. If, then, you have reason to promise yourself any advantage from my friendship, — if you are inclined to render the obligations you have formerly con- ferred upon me, if possible, even still more valu- able, in a word, if you are persuaded that I hold a place in the esteem of every person in your family, let these considerations induce you to comply with my request in favour of Curius. Ke- ceive him, I conjure yon, under your protection, and preserve both his person and his property from every inj ury and every inconvenience to which they may be exposed. In the mean time, I will venture to assure you myself, (what all your family will, I doubt not, confirm,) that you may depend upon deriving great satisfaction from my friendship, as well as much advantage from the faithful returns of my gratitude. Farewell. LETTER m. To Curius. Your letter affords me a very evident proof that I possess the highest share of your esteem, and »(jg that you are sensible how much you are endeared to me in return, — ^both which I have ever been desirous should be placed beyond a doubt. Since, then, we are thus firmly assured of each other's affection, let us endeavour to vie in our mutual good offices, — a contest in which I am perfectly indifferent on which side the superiority may appear. I am well pleased that you had no occasion to deliver my letter to AciUus''. I find, likewise, that you had not much for the services of Snlpicius ; having made so great a progress, it seems, in your affairs as to have curtailed them (to use your own ludicrous expression) both of head and feet. I wish, however, you had spared the latter, that they might proceed a little faster, and give us an oppor- tunity of one day seeing you again in Rome. We want you, indeed, in order to preserve that good old vein of pleasantry which is now, you may per- ceive, well-nigh worn out amongst us ; insomuch that Atticus may properly enough say, as he often you know used, " if it were not for two or three of ns„my friends, what would become of the ancient glory of Athens ! " Indeed, as the honour of being the chief support of Attic elegance devolved upon Pomponius' when you left Italy, so, in his absence, it has now descended upon me. Hasten your re- turn, then, I beseech you, my friend, lest every spark of wit, as well as of liberty, should be irrecoverably extinguished with the republic. Fare- well. LETTER IV. To Cornificius. I HAVE the satisfaction to find, by your very obliging letter, that my last was safely delivered. ^ P yog 1 doubted not of its affording you plea- sure, and, therefore, was so much the more uneasy lest it should lose its way. You inform me, at the same time, that a war is broken out in Syria J, and that Csesar has given yon the ^ See the latter end of the first letter in this book. i Pomponius Atticus. i See rem. >n on letter 26 of the preceding hook. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 641 government of this province. I wish you much joy of your command, and hope success will attend it ; as, in full coniideuce of your wisdom and vigi- lance, I am well persuaded it will. Nevertheless, I am truly alarmed at what you mention concerning the invasion which, it is suspected, the Parthians are meditating. I find by your letter, that th? numher of your forces is agreeable to what I should have conjectured : I hope, therefore, that these people will not put themselves in motion till the legions, which I hear are ordered to your assist- ance, shall arrive. But if you should not, even with these supplies, find yourself in a condition to face the enemy, I need not remind you to follow the maxim of your predecessor Marcus Bibuljis, who, you know, during the whole time that the Parthians continued in your province, most gal- lantly shut himself up in a strong garrison'**. Yet, after all, circumstances will best determine in what manner it will be proper for you to act : in the mean time, I shall be extremely anxious till I receive an acount of your operations. As I have never omitted any opportunity of writing to you, I hope you will observe the same punctuality vrith respect to me. But above all, let me desire you to represent me in your letters to your friends and family as one who is entirely yours. Farewell. | LETTER V. ; Dedrmts Brutus^ to Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, YoTT will judge by this letter in what posture our aifairs stand. I received a visit yesterday in D 709 ^^® evening from Hirtius"™, who convinced ' me of Antony's extreme perfidy and ill k This seems to be intended as a sneer upon the conduct of Bibulus. Cicero was governor of Cilicia when Bibulus commanded in Syria, and they botli solicited at the same time the honour of a public thanksgiving for the success of their respective arms. Cato gave his suffrage, upon this occasion, in favour of Bibulus, but refused it to Cicero, a preference which extremely exasperated the latter, and which was, probably, the principal cause of that contempt with which he speaks of Bibulus in the present passage. See letter 10, book vi, rem. n. ^ Decimus Brutus, of the same family with Marcus Bru- tus, served under Csesar in the wars in Gaul ; at the end of which, in the year 703, he retmned to Borne, and was chosen one of the city qusestors. It does not appear that he distinguished himself by anything remarkable, till he engaged with Marcus Brutus and Cassius in the conspiracy against his friend and benefactor. This was executed, as all the world knows, by stabbing Cssar in the senate, on the ides or the 15th of March, a few weeks before the pre- sent letter was written. AVhen one considers the charac- ters of those who were the principal actors in this memo- rable tragedy, it is astonishing that they should have looked no farther than merely to the taking away of Cffisar*s life ; as if they imagined that the government must necessarily return into its proper channel as soon as the person who had obstructed its course was removed. They were altogether, therefore, imprepared for those very pro- bable contingencies which they ought to have had in view, and which accordingly ensued. Whatever then may be determined as to the patriotism of the fact itself, it was, unquestionably, conducted, as Cicero frequently and justly complains, by the weakest and most impolitic counsels. Antony, (who was at this time consul,) although he thought proper, at first, to carry a fair appearance towards the conspirators, yet secretly raised such a spirit against Ihem, that they found it expedient to withdraw from intentions towards us. He assured Hirtius, it seems, that he could by no means consent I should take possession of the province to which I have been nominated " ; and that both the army and the populace were so highly incensed against us, that he imagined we could none of us continue with any safety in Rome. You are sensible, I dare say, that both these assertions are as absolutely false, as that it is undoubtedly true what Hirtius added, that Antony is apprehensive, if we should gain the least increase of power, it will be impossible for him and his party to maintain their ground. I thought, under these difficulties, tiie most prudent step I could take, for our common interest, would be to request that an honorary legation" might be decreed to each of us, in order to give some decent colour to our leaving Rome. Accordingly, Hirtius has promised to obtain this grant in our favour ; though I must add, at the same time, such a spirit is raised against us in the senate, that I am by no means clear he vrill be able to perform his engagement. And should he succeed, yet I am persuaded it will not be long ere they declare us public enemies, or at least sentence us to banishment. It appears to me, therefore, our wisest method in the present conjuncture is to submit to Fortune, and withdraw tpR hodes or to some other secure part of the world. 'We may there adjust our measures to public cir- cumstances, and either return to Rome or remain in exile, as affairs shall hereafter appear with a mOre or less inviting aspect : or if the worst should happen, we may have recourse to the last desperate expedientP. Should it be asked, " why not attempt something at present, rather than wait a more dis- tant period ?" my answer is, because I know not where we can hope to make a stand, 'unless we should go either to Sextus Pompeius^ or to Rome, Brutus and Cassius retired to Lanuvium, a villa belonging to the former, about fifteen miles from the city, at which place they probably were when Decimua Brutus, who had not yet left Borne, wrote the following letter. n» Hirtius was warmly attached to Cassar, and extremely regretted his death ; but as he was disgusted with Antony, and perhaps jealous too of his rising power, he seems to have opposed the cause he approved, merely from a spirit of personal pique and envy. — Ad Att. xiv. 22 ; xv. 6. n Caesar* a short time before his death, had nominated Decimus Brutus to the government of Cisalpine Gaul, and Antony to that of Macedonia. But as Gaul lay more con- veniently for Antony's present purposes, his design was to procure the administration of it for himself. The senators could not be long absent from Rome with- out leave of the senate, "When their private affairs, there- fore, required their attendance abroad, it was usual to apply for what they called a legatio libera, which gave a sanction to their absence, and invested them with a sort of travelling title, that procui'ed them the greater respect and honours in the coimtries through which they passed, and in the place where they proposed to reside. P That is, (as the commentators explain it,) by arming the slaves, throwing open the prisons, and raising foreign nations in their defence. 1 Sextus Pompeius, the younger son of Pompey, was in Corduba when his brother Cneius gave battle to Caesar. Cneius attempting to qjake his escape, after the total defeat of his army, was killed by some of the conqueror's soldiers ; but Sextus, upon the enemy's approach, in order to lay siege to Corduba, secretly abandoned that city, and concealed himself till Caesar's return into Italy. The lat- ter had no sooner left Spain, than Sextus collected his broken forces ; and a short time after this letter was writ- ten, he appeared at the head of no less than six legions,— Birt. Pe Bell. Hisp. ; Bio, p. 274. 542 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Caecilius Bassus'. It is probable, indeed, that when the news of Csesar's death shall be spread through their respective provinces, it may much contribute to strengthen their party ; however, it will be soon enough to join them when we shall know the state of their forces. If you and Cassius are desirous I should enter into any engagement on your behalf, I shall very readily be your sponsor : and, indeed, it is a con- dition which Hirtius requires. I desire, therefore, you would acquaint me with your resolution as soon as possible ; for I expect, before ten o'clock, to receive an appointment from Hirtius to meet him upon these affairs. Let me know, at the same time, where I shall find you. As soon as Hirtius shall have given me his final answer, I purpose to apply to the senate that a guard may be appointed to attend us in Rome. I do not suppose they will comply with this request, as our appearing to stand in need of such a protec- tion wiU render them extremely odious. But how successful soever my demands may prove, I shall not be discouraged from making such as I think reasonable. Farewell. LETTER VI. To Tiro. NotWithstandino I wrote this morning by Harpatus, and nothing iiew has since occurred ; A u 709 -*' ^ "^""o' forbear making use of this opportunity of conveying a second letter to you upon the same subject ; not, however, as entertaining the least distrust of your care, but be- cause the business in which I haVe employed you is of the last importance to me'. My whole design, indeed, in parting with you was, that you might thoroughly settle my affairs. I desire, therefore, in the first place, that the demands of Otillius and Aurelius may be satisfied. Your next endeavour must be to obtain part, at least, if you cannot pro- cure the whole, of what is due to me from Flamma ; and particularly insist on his making this payment by the first of January'. With regard to that debt which was assigned over to me, 1 beg you would exert your utmost diligence to recover it ; but, as to the advance-payment of the other not yet due, I leave you to act as you shall judge proper. And this much for my private concerns. As to those of the public, I desire you would send me all the certain intelligence you can collect. Let me know what Octavius" and A ntony are doing ; what is the r An account of him has already Ijeen given in rem, ™ on letter 26 of the. preceding hoolc. s As Cicero was linown to favour the conspirators, he did not think it pd'udent to trust himself in Rome after Bmtus and Cassius had found it necessary to withdraw from thence ; and, accordingly, he soon afterwards followed their example, by retiring into the country. His inten- tion at this time was, to make a tour into Greece for a few montho ; and with that view he had despatched Tiro to Rome, in order to call in the several moneys which were due tc him, and likewise to discbarge some debts which be had himself contracted. t When the new consuls were to enter upon their office, by which time Cicero proposed to return to Rome. « Octavius, who was afterwards known and celebrated by the name of Augustus CKsar, was the son of Attia, Julius Csesar's niece. His uncle, who designed him for the heir, both of bis power and his fortunes, had sent him, about sL^ months before his death, to ApoUonia, a learned general opinion of Rome ; and what tnm you imagine affairs are likely to take. I can scarcely forbear running into the midst of the scene ; but I restrain myself in the expectation of your letter. Your news concerning Balbus proves true ; he was at Aquinum at the time you were told, aid Hirtius followed him thither the next day. I imagine they are both going to the waters of Baiffi : , but let me know what yon can discover of their motions. Do not forget to remind the agents of Dolabella ', nor to insist upon the payment of what is due ftom Papia. Farewell. LETTER vn. To Bitfu/nicus'". I HAVE many reasons to wish that the republic may be restored ; but, believe me, the promise you ». V. 709. S*"® ™® ™ y"*"" l^ttfi'', renders it still more ardently my desire. You assure me, if that happy event should take place, yon will consecrate your whole time to me ; an assurance which I received with the greatest pleasure, as it is perfectly agreeable to the friendslup in which we are united, and to the opinion which that excellent man your father* entertained of me. You have received more considerable services, I confess, from the men who are, orlately were, in power, than any that I have been capable of conferring upon you : but, in all other respects, there is no person whose connexions with you are of a stronger kind than my own. It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that I find you not only preserve our friendship in your remembrance, but are desirous, likewise, of increasing its strength. Farewell. LETTER VIIL To Tiro. If you should have an opportunity, you may register the money you mention ; though, indeed, A. V. 709 *'' ^ ^^ acquisition which it is not abso- lutely requisite to enroll^. However, it may, perhaps, be as well. seminary of great note in Macedonia. In this place he was to prosecute his studies and exercises till Caesar, who proposed he should accompany him in his intended expe- dition against tho Farthians, should call upon him in bis march to that country. But as soon as Octavius was in- formed of l;he death of Caesar, and that he had appointed him his heir, he immediately hastened to Rome ; and the eyes of everybody, but particularly of Cicero, were now attentively turned towards him, in order to discover in what manner he would act in this very critical situation, both of his own affairs and those of the republic— Dio, p. 271 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. ^ It appears by the letters written to Atticua at this time, that Cicero had some considerable demands upon Dolabel- la ; which arose, it is probable, fromi the latter not having yet returned the whole of Tiillia's portion, agreeably to the Roman laws in cases of divorce. ^ This person is supposed by Manutius to be the son of Quintus Pompeius, who obtained the name of Bithynicua, in honour of his conquest of Bltbynia. ^ Cicero mentions him in his treatise of Celebrated Ora- tors, as one with whom he had enjoyed aparticulaxfriend- ship. He attended Pompey in his flight after the battle of Pharsalia, and perished with him in Egypt.— Cic. de Clar. Orat. 240. y The censors every five years numbered the people, at which time each citizen was obliged to give an exact TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 543 I have received a letter from Balbus, wherein he excuses hicQself for not giving me an account of Antony's intentions concerning the law I inquired after ; because he has gotten, it seems, a violent deflnxion upon his eyes. Excellent excuse, it must be owned ! For if a man is not able to write, most certainly, you know, he cannot dictate ! But let the world go as it wiU, so I may sit down quietly here in the country. I have written to Bithynicus. — As to what you mention concerning Servilius, you, who are a young man, may think length of days a desirable circum- stance ) but, for myself, I have no such wish^ Atticns, nevertheless, imagines that I am still as anxious for the preservation of my life as he once knew me ; not observing how firmly I have since fortified my heart with all the strength of philo- sophy. The truth of it is, he is now seized in his turn with a panic himself ; and would endeavour to infect me with the same groundless apprehensions. But it is my intention to preserve that friendship unviolated which I have so long enjoyed with Antony"; and, accordingly, I intend writing to him very soon. I shall defer my letter, however, till your return : but I do not mention this vrith any design of calling you off from the business you are transactirtg', and which, indeed, is much more nearly my concern. 1 expect a visit from Lepta to-morrow, and shall have occasion for all the sweets of your conversa- tion, to temper the bitterness with which his vrill he attended. Farewell. LETTER IX. To Dolabella, Consul". I nESiEE no greater satisfaction,, my dear Dola- bella, than what arises to me from the disinterested « u. 709 P*"* ^ ^^^ ™ *''^ gl<"T y<"i h&ye lately acquired : however, I cannot but acknow- account of his estate. But if, in the interval, a man had made, any new acquisition, he was required to enter it before the praetor. * Servilius Isauricus died about thia time, in an extreme old age ; Manntius conjectures, therefore, and with great probability, that Tiro, in the letter to which the present is an answer, had given Cicero an account of this event, and, at the same time, expressed his wishes of living to the same advanced period. " Both Antony and Cicero seem to have been equally nnwilling, at this time, to come to an open rupture ; hut, as to a real friendship between them, it is highly probable there never had been any. On the part of Antony, at least, there were some very strong family reasons to alien- ate him from Cicero. For Antony's father married the widow of LentuluB, whom Cicero had put to death as an accomplice in Catiline's conspiracy ; and he, himself, was maiTied to Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, Cicero's most inveterate enemy. These alliances must unquestionably have made impressions upon Antony's mind little favour- able to sentiments of amity, and, probably, contributed, among other reasons, to kindle that resentment which terminated in Cicero's destruction : but whatever the true motive of their enmity towards each other might have been, the first coolness seems to have arisen on the side of Antony ; and if Cicero had resented it with greater moder- ation, he would have acted, perhaps, with more prudence in regard to the public mterest, as well as in respect to his owa— Ad Att. xiv. 19. ^ See rem. », p. 542. « Csesar had appointed Dolabella to succeed him in the consulship as soon as he should set out upon his Parthian ledge I am infinitely pleased to find, that the world give? me a share in the merit of your late applauded conduct. I daily meet, in this place, great num- bers of the first rank in Rome, who are assembled here for the benefit of their health, as well as a multitude of my friends from the principal cities in Italy ; and they" all agree in joining their parti- cular thanks to me, with those unbounded praises they bestow upon you. They every one of them, indeed, tell me, that they are persuaded it is owing to your compliance with my counsels and admoni- tions, that you approve yourself so excellent a patriot and so worthy a consul. I might with strict truth assure them, that you are much supe- rior to the want of being advised by any man ; and that your actions are the free and genuine result of your own uninfluenced judgment. But although I do not entirely acquiesce in their compliment, as it would lessen the credit of your conduct if it should be supposed to flow altogether from my suggestions, yet neither do I wholly reject it : for the love of praise is a passion, which I am apt, you know, somewhat too immoderately to indulge. Yet, after all, to, take' counsel of a Nestor, as it was an honour to the character even of that king of kings, Agamemnon himself, it cannot surely be un. becoming the dignity of youra. It is certainly, at least, much to the credit of mine, that while in this early period of your life'', you are thus exercising the supreme magistracy with universal admiration and applause ; you are considered as dii-ected by my guidance and formed by my instructions. I lately paid a visit to Lucius Csesar ", at Naples ; and though I found him extremely indisposed, and full of pain in every part of his body, yet the mo- ment I entered his chamber he raised himself with an air of transport, and without allowing himself time to salute me, " O my dear Cicero," said he, " I give you joy of your influence over Dolabella, and had t the same credit vrith my nephew, our country might now be preserved. But I not only expedition ; and, accordingly, Dolabella. upon the death of Cssar, immediately assumed the administration of that ofiBce. His conduct in this critical conjuncture had ren- dered it somewhat doubtful which side he was most dis- posed to favour: but an accident had lately happened which gave the friends of the republic great hopes that he would support the cause of the conspirators. Some of Cffisar's freed-men had erected a sort of altar upon the spot where his body had been burned, at which the populace daily assembled in the most tumultuous and alarming manner. Dolabella, in the absence of his colleague An- tony, interposed his consular authority in order to suppress this mob ; and having caused the altar to be demolished, he exerted a very seasonable act of severity, by command- ing the principal ringleaders of the riot to be instantly put to death. It was this that produced the following letter froni Cicero, written from some place of public resort, pro- bably from the baths of Baise.— Dio, p. 240, 267 ; Ad Att. xiv. 15. *i Dolabella was, at this time, not more than twenty-five years of age, which was almost twenty years earlier than he could legally have offered himself as a candidate for the consular dignity, the Koman laws having very wisely provided that no man should be capable of exercising this important office till he had attamed the age of forty-two. e He was a distant relation to Julius Caesar, and uncle to Mark Antony. Upon the celebrated coalition of the triimivirate, he was sacrificed by Antony to the resentment of OetavluB, as, in return, Cicero was delivered up to the vengeance of Antony. But Lucius escaped the conse- quence of this proscription by the means of Julia, Antony's mother. — ^Flut. in Tit. Ant. 641 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO congratulate your friend on his worthy conduct, but desire you would return him ray particular acknow- ledgments : as, indeed, he is the single consul who has acted with true spirit since you filled that ofiftce." He then proceeded to enlarge upon your late glorious action, representing it as equal to the most illustrious and important service that ever was rendered to the commonwealth. And in this he only echoed the general voice of the whole republic. Suffer me, then, to take possession of those enco- miums to which I am by no means entitled, and in some sort to participate with you in that general applause you have acquired. To be serious, how- ever, (for you will not imagine that I make this request in good earnest,) I wouldmuch rather resign to you the whole of my own glory, (if there be any, indeed, I can justly claim,) than arrogate to myself the least portion of that which is so unquestionably your due. For as you cannot but be sensible that I have ever loved you, so your late behaviour has raised that affection into the highest possible ardour: as, in truth, there cannot be anything more engagingly fair, more irresistibly amiable, than the patriot virtues. I need not tell you how greatly the exalted talents and polite manners, together with the singular spirit and probity, of Marcus Brutus, had ever endeared him to my heart. Nevertheless, his late glorious achievement on the ides of March, has wonderfully heightened that esteem I bore him : and which I had always looked upon as too exalted to admit of any farther advance. In the same manner, who would have imagined that my friendship towards yourself was capable of in- crease ? yet it actually has increased so very consi- derably, that the former sentiments of my heart seem to have been nothing more than common affection, in comparison of that transcendent passion which I now feel for you. Can it be necessary that I should either exhort you to preserve the glory you have acquired, or, agreeably to the usual style of admonition, set before your view some animating examples of illus- trious merit ? I could mention none for this pur- pose more forcible than your own ; and you have only to endeavour to act up to the .character you have already attained. It is impossible, indeed, after having performed so signal a service to your country, that you should ever deviate from yourself. Instead, therefore, of sending you any unnecessary exhortations, let me rather congratulate you upon this noble display of your patriotism. It is your privilege (and a privilege, perhaps, which no one ever enjoyed before) to have exercised the severest acts of necessary justice, not only without incur- ring any odium, but with the greatest popularity : with the approbation of the lowest, as well as of the best and highest amongst us. If this were a cir- cumstance in which chance had any share, I should congratulate your good fortune : but it was the effect of a noble and undaunted resolution, under the guidance of the strongest and most enlightened judgment. I say this from having read the speech you made upon this occasion to the people ; and never was any harangue more judiciously composed. You open and explain the fact vrith so much address, and gradually rise through the several circumstances in so artful a manner, as to convince all the world that the affair was mature for your animadversion. In a word, you have delivered the commonwealth in general, as well as the city of Rome in particur lar, from the dangers with which they were threat- ened : and not only perfomned a singular service to the present generation, but set forth a most useful example for times to come. You wiU consi- der yourself, then, as the great supporter of the republic ; and remember, she expects that you will not only protect, but distinguish those illustrious persons^ who have laid the foundation for the recovery of our liberties. But I hope soon to have an opportunity of expressing my sentiments to you more fully upon this subject in person. In the mean while, since you are thus our glorious guar- dian and preserver, I conjure you, mydearDola- bella, to take care of yourself for the sake of the whole commonwealth ST. Farewell. LETTER X. To Trebonius^. I HAVE recommended my Ora/or (for that is the title which I have given to the treatise I promised A u 709 ^^ ^^"*^ y°") ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ y*^"^ freedman Sabinus. I was induced to trust it in his charge, from the good opinion I entertain of his countrymen : if, indeed, I may guess at his country by his name*, and he has not, like an art- ful candidate at an election, usurped an appellation f Brutus and Cassius, together with the rest of the con- spirators. s Cicero communicated a copy of this letter to Atticus, who appears to have much disapproved of those encomiums with which it is so extravagantly swelled. The hyper- hole, indeed, seems to have been the prevailing figure in Cicero's rhetoric ; and he generally dealt it out, both to his friends and to his enemies, with more warmth than disorution. In the present instance, at least, he was either very easily imposed upon by appearances, or he changed his opinion of Dolabella's public actions and designs, ac- cording to the colour of his conduct towards himself. Per- haps both these causes might concur, in forming those great and sudden variations which we find in our author's sentiments at this period, with rrapect to the hero of the panegyric before us ; for, in a letter to Atticus, written very shortly after the present, he speaks of Dolabella with high displeasure ; and, in another to the same person a few months later, he exclaims against him with much bitterness, as one who bad not only been bribed by Antony to desert the cause of liberty, but who had endeavoured, as far as in him lay, entirely to ruin it. The accusation seems to have been just ; but ft is observable, however, that in both the letters referred to, part of Cicero's indig- nation arises from some personal ill-treatment which he complains of having received from Dolabella. — ^Ad Att, xiv. 18 ; xvi. 15. ^ Some account has already been given of Trebonius in rem, q, p. 467. Ciesar, upon his return from Spain, in the preceding year, appointed him, consul with Quintus Pabiua Maximus ; but this, and other favours of the same kind, were not sufficient to restrain him from entering into the conspiracy which was soon afterwards formed against Caesar's life. At the same time, therefore, that Brutus and Cassius found it expedient to leave Kome, TreboniUB secretly withdrew into Asia Minor, which had before been allotted to him as his proconsular province ; and he was on his way to that government when the present letter was written.— Die, p. 236, 247 ; Ad Att. xiv. 10. > Cicero supposes that Sabinus was so called as being a native of Sabinia, a country in Italy, the inhabitant of which were celebrated for having long retained an uncor- rupted simplicity of manners. Hanc olim veteres vitajn coluere Sabini is Virgil's conclusion of that charming description which he gives of the pleasing laboiu'a and WDOcent recreations of rural life, GeqrSi n- 53^. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 545 to which he has no rightJ. However, there is such a modesty in his countenance, and such an air of sincerity in his conversation, that I am much de- ceived if he does not possess, in some degree, at least, the true Sabine simplicity. But not to suffer him to take up any more of my paper, I vpill now turn, my dear Trebonius, to yourself. As there were some circumstances attending your departure that increased the aifection I bear towards you, let me entreat you, in order to soothe the uneasi- ness I feel from your absence, to be as frequent a correspondent on your part as you shall certainly • find me on mine. There are two reasons, indeed, why you ought to be more so : the first is, that, as the republic can now no longer be considered as in Rome, but removed with its glorious defenders, we, who remain here, must expect to receive from our provincial friends what we used to transmit to them; an account, I mean, of the common- wealth. The next reason is, because I have many other opportunities in your absence, besides that of writing, to give you proofs of my friendship : whereas, you have none, I think, of testifying yours, but by the frequency of your letters. As to all other articles, I can wait ; but my first and most impatient desire is, to know what sort of journey you have had, where you met Brutus'*, and how long you continued together. When you are ad- vanced farther towards your province, you will acquaint me, I hope, with your military prepara- tions, and with whatever else relates to our public affairs, that I may be able to form some judgment of our situation. I am sure, at least, I shall give no credit to any intelligence but what I receive from your hands. In the mean time, take care of your health, and continue to allow me the same singular share of your affection which I have always enjoyed. Farewell. LETTER XL Trebonius to CiceroK I AKTiiVED at Athens on the 22dof this month, where, agreeably to my wishes, I had the satisfac- ik. u 709 '■'°" of finding your son in the pursuit of the noblest improvements, and in the highest esteem for his modest and ingenuous be- haviour"'. As you perfectly well know the place you possess in my heart, you will judge, without my telling you, how much pleasure this circum- stance afforded me. In conformity, indeed, to the unfeigned friendship wliich has so long been cemented between us, I rejoice in every advantage that can attend you, be it ever so inconsiderable ; much more, therefore, in one so important to your Jit was an artifice sometimes practised by the candidates for offices, in order to recommend themselves to tlie good graces of their constituents, to pretend a kindred to which they had no right, by assmning the name of some favourite and popular family, — Manutius. ^ Bnitus had not left Italy when Trebonius set out for Asia, nor did he leave it till several months afterwards ; so that the inquiry which Cicero here makes must relate to some interview which he supposed that Trebonius might have had with Brutus before the former embarked. —Ad Att. xiv. ]0. ' This letter seems to have been ivritten before the pre- ceding epistle had reached the hands of TrebonitlB. "■ Sec the remarks on letter 37 of this book; happiness. Believe me, my dear Cicero, I do not flatter you when I say, there is not a youth in ail this seminary of learning more ardently devoted to those refined and elevated arts which are so pecu- liarly your passion, or who, in every view of his character, is more truly amiable, than our young man. I call him ours, for be assured, I cannot separate myself from anything with which you are connected. It is with great pleasure, therefore, as well as with strict justice, I congratulate both you and myself, that a youth for whom we ought to have some affection, whatever his disposition might be, is of a character to deserve our highest. As he intimated a desire of seeing Asia, I not only invited, but pressed him to take the opportunity of visiting that province whilst I presided there : and you will not doubt of my supplying your place in every tender office of paternal care. But that you may not be apprehensive this scheme will prove an interruption of those studies, to which, I know, he is continually animated by your exhortations, Cratippus " shall be of our party. Nor shall your son want my earnest incitements to advance daily In those sciences, into which he has already made so successful an entrance. I am wholly ignorant of what is going forward at Rome ; only I hear some uncertain rumours of commotions amongst you. But I hope there is no foundation for this report ; that we may one day sit down in the peaceful possession of our liberties, retired from the noise and bustle of the world : a privilege which hitherto it has not been my fortune to enjoy. However, having had a short relaxation from business during my voyage to this place, I amused myself by putting together a few thoughts, which I always designed as a present to you. In this performance I have inserted that lively observa- tion which you formerly made, so much to my honour, and have pointed out, by a note at the bottom, to whom I am indebted for the compli- ment. If, in some passages of this piece, I should appear to have taken great, liberties, I shall be justified, I persuade myself, by the character of the man at whom my invective is aimed" j and you will, undoubtedly, excuse the just indignation I have expressed against a person of such infamous principles. Why, indeed, may I not be indulged in the same unbounded licence as was allowed to honest Luciliusi" ? He could not be animated with greater abhorrence of the vices, which he has so freely attacked ; and certainly, they were not more worthy of satire than those against which I have inveighed. I hope you will remember your promise, and take the first opportunity of introducing me as a party in some of your future dialogues. I doubt not, if you should write anything upon the subject of Csesar's death, that you will give an instance of your friendship and your justice, by ascribing to me no inconsiderable share of that glorious trans- action. I recommend my mother and family to your good offices, and bid you farewell. Athens, May the 25th. __^_ n See rem. i on letter 37 of this book. o Probably at Antony. r See rem. ^ p. 495. NN 646 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XIL To Matius'i. I KNOW not whether it is with greater pain or pleasure that I reflect on the visit which I lately 709 ''^"^i™'! f™"" o'^'' ^^"7 good friend, the well-natured Trebatius. He called upon me the next morning after my arrival at Tusculum ; and as he was by no means sufficiently recovered from his late indisposition, I could not forbear reproving him for thus hazarding his health. He interrupted me with saying, that nothing was of more importance to him than the business which brought him to my house ; and upon my inquiry if anything new had occurred, he immediately entered into an account of your complaints against me. But before I give them a particular answer, let me begin with a few previous reflections. Amongst all my acquaintance I cannot recollect any man with whom I have longer enjoyed a friendship than with yourself; and, although there are several for whom my affection commenced as early, there are few for whom it has risen so high. The truth of it is, I conceived an esteem for you from the first moment I saw you ; and 1 had rea- son to believe that you thought of me in the same favourable manner. But your long absence from Rome, which immediately succeeded our first acquaintance, together with that active course of life wherein I was engaged, and which was so en- tirely different from yours, did not at that time admit of our improving this mutual disposition by a more frequent intercourse'. Nevertheless, even so long ago as when Csesar was in Gaul, and many years before the commencement of the civil war, I experienced your friendly inclinations towards me. For as you imagined that my union with Csesar would be greatly advantageous on my side, and not altogether unserviceable to himself, you generously recommended me to his favour, and was the cause of his cultivating my friendship. I forbear to mention several instances which occurred at that period, of the unreserved manner in which we both conversed and corresponded together, as they were followed by others of a more important nature. At the opening of the civil war, when you were going to meet Csesar at Brundisium, you paid me a visit in my Formian villa. This single favour, had it been attended with no other, was at such a critical juncture an ample testimony of your affection. But can I ever forget the generous advice you so kindly gave me at the same time,— and of which Trebatius, I remember, was himself a witness ? 1 1t is prinoipaUy owing to tliie and the following letter, that the name and chai-acter of Matius are known to pos- terity, as he is nowhere mentioned by any of the ancient historians of this memorable period. His inviolable and disinterested affection to Csesar, together with the gene- rous courage with which he avowed that attachmentwhen CiEGar was no more, as ^Jiey strongly mark out the virtues of his heart, so they will best appear by his own spirited reply to the present epistle. But Matius was as much distinguished by his genius as his virtues ; and ho was perfectly well accomplished in those ai-ts, which contribute to the innocent pleasure and embeUishmentof human life. Gardening and poetry, in particular, seem to have been his favourite amusements ; in the former of which his countrymen were indebted to him for some useful im- provements, as they likewise were, in the latter, for an elegant translation of the Iliad Columel. xU. 44 ; Aul. Cell, vi, 6 ; ix. 4, Can I ever forget the letter you afterwards wrote to me, when you went to join Csesar in the district, if I mistake not, of Trebula ? It was soon after this, that, either by gratitude, by honour, or per- haps by fate, I was determined to follow Pompey into Greece ; and was there any instance of an obliging zeal which you did not exert in my ab- sence both for me and for my family ? Was there any one, in short, whom either they or I had more reason to esteem our friend .' But I returned to Brundisium ; and can I forget (let me ask once more) with what an obliging expedition you hastened, as soon as you heard of my arrival, to meet me at Tarentum ? How friendly were your visits, — how kind your endeavours to reason me out of that dejection into which the dread of our general calamities had sunk me ? At length, how- ever, I returned to Rome ; where every proof of the greatest intimacy, and upon occasions, too, of the most important kind, mutually passed between us. It was by your directions and advice that I learned to regulate my conduct with respect to Csesar ;, and as to other instances of your friend- ship, where was the man, except Csesar himself, at whose house you more frequently visited, or upon whom you bestowed so many agreeable hours of your conversation? in some of which, you may remember, it was that you encouraged me to engage in my philosophical writings. When Csesar after- wards returned from completing his victories, it was'your first and principal endeavour to establish me again in his friendship ; and it was an endeavour in which you perfectly well succeeded. But to what purpose, you will ask, perhaps, this long detail ? Longer, indeed, I must acknowledge it is than I was myself aware. However, the use I would make of these several circumstances is to show you how much reason I have to be surprised, that you, who well know the truth of them, should ■ believe me capable of having acted inconsistently with such powerful ties. But besides these motives of my attachment to you, — motives known and visible to the whole world, — there are others of a far less conspicuous kind, and which I am at a loss to represent in the terms they deserve. Every part, indeed, of your character I admire ; but when I consider you as the wise, the firm, and the faith- ful friend, — as the polite, the witty, and the learned companion,' — these, I confess, are the striking points amidst your many other illustrious qualifi- cations with which I am particularly charmed. But it is time to return to the complaints you have alleged against ire. Be assured, then, I never once credited the report of your having voted for the law you mentioned to Trebatius ; and, indeed, if I had, I should have been well persuaded that you were induced to concur in promoting it upon some very just and rational motive. ' But as the dignity of your character draws upon you the observation of all the world, the malevolence of mankind will sometimes give severer constructions to your actions than most certainly they merit. If no instances of this kind have ever reached your knowledge, I know not in what manner to proceed in my justification. Believe me, however, I have always defended you upon these occasions with the same warmth and spirit with which I am sensible you are wont to oppose, on your part, the calumnies that are thrown out upoij myself. Thus, with regard to the law I just now mentioned, I TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 547 have always peremptorily denied the truth of the charge ; and as to your having been one of the managers of the late' games, I have constantly insisted that you acted agreeably to those pious offices that are due to the memory of a departed friend. In respect to the latter, however, you cannot be ignorant that if Ceesar was really a tyrant (as I think he was '), your zeal may be con- sidered in two very different views. It may be said (and it is an argument which I never fail to urge in your favour), that you showed a very commendable fidelity in thus displaying your affection to a departed friend. On the other hand, it may be alleged (and, in fact, it is alleged) that the liberties of our country ought to be far prefer- able even to the life itself of those whom we hold most dear. I wish you had been informed of the part I have always taken whenever this question has been started. But there are two circumstances that reflect the brightest lustre upon your character, and which none of your friends more frequently or more warmly commemorate than myself, — I mean your having always most strongly recommended pacific measures to Caesar, and constantly advised him to use his victory with mod3ration ; in both which the whole world is agreed with me in ac- knowledging your merit. I think myself much obliged to our friend Trebatius for having given me this occasion of justifying myself before you. And you will credit the professions I have here made, unless you ima- gine me void of every spark both of gratitude and generosity : an opinion than which nothing can be more injurious to my sentiments or more unworthy of yours. Farewell. LETTER XIII. Matius to Cicero. I RECEIVED great satisfaction from your letter, aa it assured me of my holding that rank in your esteem which I have ever wished and hoped to enjoy. Indeed, I never doubted A. u. 709. ■■ At the time when Caeaar was Mlled, he was preparing, agreeably to a vow which he had mada at the battle of Fbarsalia, to exhibit some games in honour of Venus ; a divinity from whom he affected to be thought a descend- ant Octaviua, soon after his return to Rflme, upon the death of Caesar, celebrated these games at his own expense, and Matius undertook to be one of the managers. As this was a public mark of respect paid to the memory of Caesar, and might tend to inflame the minds of the populace against the conspirators, it gave much disgust to the friends of the republic ; and Cicero, it is probable, was in the num- ber of those who had openly spoken of it with displeasiue. He did so, at least. In a letter to Atticua.— Ad Att. xv. 2 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. ii. 407. ' ** It is with injustice," said the celebrated queen of Sweden, ** that Caesar is accused of being a tyrant : if to govern Rome was the most important service he could have performed to his coimtry," It is certain that the republic was well-nigh reduced to a state of total anarchy when Caasar usm-ped the command ; but it is equally cer- tain that he himself had been the principal author and fomenter of those confusions, which rendered an absolute authority the only possible expedient for reducing the commonwealth into a state of tranquillity and good order. If this be true, it seems no very intricate question to deter- mine what verdict ought to be passed upon Cassar. But surely it is difficult to know by what principles Cicero can be acquitted, who reviled that man when dead, whom he was the fii'st to flatter wien living. of your good opinion ; but the vSlue I set upon it rendered me solicitous of preserving it without the least blemish. Conscious, however, that I had never given just offence to any candid and honest mind, I was the less disposed to believe that you, whose sentiments are exalted by the cultivation of so many generous arts, could hastily credit aiiy reports to my disadvantage, — especially as you were one for whom I had at all times discovered much sincere good-vrill. But as I have the plea- sure to find that you think of me agreeably to my wishes, I will drop this subject in order to vindi- cate myself from those calumnies which you have so often, and with such singular generosity, op- posed. I am perfectly well apprised of the reflec- tions that have been cast upon me since Csesar's death. It has been imputed to me, I know, that I lament the loss of my friend, and think with indignation on the murderers of the man I loved. "The welfare of our country," say my accusers (as if they had already made it appear that the destruction of Csesar was for the benefit of the commonwealth), " the welfare of our country is to be preferred to all considerations of amity." It may be so ; but I will honestly confess that I am by no means arrived at this elevated strain of patriotism. Nevertheless, I took no part with Cassar in our civil dissentions ; but neither did I desert my friend because I disliked his measures. The truth is, I was so far from approving the civil war that I always thought it unjustifiable, and exerted my utmost endeavours to extinguish those sparks by which it was kindled. In conformity to these sentiments, I did not make use of my friend's victory to the gratification of any lucrative or ambitious purposes of my own, as some others most shamefully did whose interest with Caesar was much inferior to mine. Far, in truth, from being a gainer by his success, I suffered greatly in my fortunes by that very law which saved many of those who now exult in his death from the disgrace of being obliged to fly their country'. Let me add, that I recommended the vanquished party to his clemency with the same warmth and zeal as if my own preservation had been concerned. Thus desirous that all my fellow-citizens might enjoy their lives in full security, can I repress the indig- nation of my heart against the assassins of that man from whose generosity this privilege was ob- tained, — especially as the same hands were lifted up to his destruction which Had first drawn upon him all the odium and envy of his administration ? Yet I am threatened, it seems, with their vengeance, for daring to condemn the deed. Unexampled insolence ! that some should glory in the perpetra- tion of those crimes which others should not be permitted even to deplore ! The meanest slave has ever been allowed to indulge, without control, the fears, the sorrows, or the joys of his heart ; but these, our assertors of liberty, as they call themselves, endeavour to extort from me, by their menaces, this common privilege of every creature. Vain and impotent endeavours ! no dangers shall intimidate me from acting up to the generous duties of friendship and humanity ; persuaded, as I have ever been, that death in an honest cause ' The law alluded to is, probably, that which Cajsar enacted for the relief of those who had contracted debts before the commencement of the civil war, of which ae^ rem. t, p. 483. N N ii 548 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO ought never to be shunned, and frequently to be courted. Yet why does it thus move their dis- pleasure, if I only wish that they may repent of what they have perpetrated ? For wish I vfill acknowledge I do, that both they and all the world may regret the death of Csesar. " But as a mem- ber (say they) of the commonwealth, you ought above all things to desire its preservation." Now that I sincerely do so, if the whole tenor of my past conduct, and all the hopes I can reasonably be supposed to entertain will not suiBci^ntly evince, shall not attempt to prove it by my professions. I conjure you, then, to judge of me, not by what others may say, but by the plain tendency of my actions ; and, if you believe I have any interest in the tranquillity of the republic, be assured that I will have no communication with those who would impiously disturb its peace. Shall T renounce, indeed, those patriot principles I steadily pursued in my youth, when warmth and inexperience might have pleaded some excuse for errors ? Shall I, in the sober season of declining age, wantonly unravel at once the whole fair contexture of my better days ? Most assuredly not ; nor shall J ever give any other offence than in bewailing the severe catastrophe of a most intimate and illustrious friend I Were I disposed to act otherwise, I should scorn to deny it ; nor should it be ever said that I covered my crimes by hypocrisy, and feared to avow what I scrupled not to commit. But to proceed to the other articles of the charge against me ; it is farther alleged that 1 presided at those games which the young Octavius exhibited in honour of Cuesar's victories. The charge, I confess, is true ; but what connexion has an act of mere private duty, with the concerns of the republic ? It was an office, not only due from me to the memory of my departed friend, butwhich I could not refuse to that illustrious yonth,his most worthy heir. 1 am reproached, also, with having been frequent in paying my visits of compliment to Antony ; yet yon will find that the very men who impute this as a mark of disaifection to my country, appeared much more frequently at his levee, either to solicit his favours, or to receive them. But, after all, can there be anything, let me ask, more insufferably arrogant than this accusation ? Caesar never op- posed my associating with whomsoever I thought proper, even though it were with persons whom he himself disapproved; and shall the men who have cruelly robbed me of one friend, attempt, likewise, by their malicious insinuations, to alienate me from another .' But the moderation of my con- duct, will, I doubt not, discredit all reports that may hereafter be raised to my disadvantage ; and I am persuaded, that even those who hate me for my attachment to Caesar, would rather choose a friend of my disposition, than of their own. In fine, if my affairs should permit me, it is my resolution to spend the remainder of my days at Rhodes. But, if any accident should render it necessary for me to continue at Rome, my actions shall evince, that I am sincerely desirous of my country's welfare. In the mean time, I am much obliged to Trebatius for_ supplying you with an occasion of so freely laying open to me the amicable sentiments of your heart ; as it affords me an additional reason for cultivating a friendship with one whom I have ever been disposed to esteem. Farewell LETTER XIV. Marcus Brutus and Caius Cassius, Pralors", to Mark Antony, Consul. If we were not persuaded of your honour and friendship, we should not trouble you with the 709 present application ; which, in confidence of both, we doubt not of your receiving ia the most favourable manner. We are informed, that great numbers of the veteran troops are already arrived in Rome, and that many more are expected by the first of June. Our sentiments would be extremely changed, in- deed, if we entertained any fears or suspicions with regard to yourself. However, as we resigned ourselves entirely to your direction, and, in com- pliance with your advice, not only published an edict, but wrote circular letters in order to dismiss our friends who came to our assistance from the municipal towns, we may justly look upon our- selves as worthy of being admitted into a share of your councils ; especially in an article wherein we are particularly concerned. It is our joint request, therefore, that you would explicitly acquaint us with your intentions, and whether you imagine we can possibly be safe amidst such a multitude of veteran troops, who have even some design, we ax'e told, of replacing the altar' which was erected to Caesar ; a design, surely, which no one can wish may meet with your approbation, who has any regard to our credit or security". It has suffi- ciently appeared, that from the beginning of this affair, we have had a view to the public tranquillity, and have aimed at nothing more than the recovery of our common liberties. No man, except your- self, has it in his power to deceive us, because we never have trusted, nor ever will trust, any other : and most certainly you have too much integrity to betray the confidence we have reposed in you. Our friends, however, notwithstanding that they have the same reliance upon your good faith, are greatly alarmed for our safety ; as they think so large a body of veterans may much more easily he instigated to violent measures by ill-designing men, than they can be I'estrained by your influence and authority. We entreat you, therefore, to return us a fall and satisfactory answer. To tell us that you ordered these troops to march to Rome, as intending to move the senate in June next, con- cerning their ^ affairs, is amusing us vrith a very idle and trifling reason ; . for as you are assured that we shall not attempt to obstruct this' design, from " Tliey had Ijeen appointed prastors for the present year by Cfesar. The reader has already been informed, that Brutus and Cassius, finding it necessary, soon after the assassination of Gsesar, to withdraw from Rome, retired to a villa of the former, at Lanuvium, from vfheace this letter was probably written. ' See rem. c, p. 543. " Because the suffering of divine honours to he paid to Cffisar would necessarily impress the highest sentiments of him upon tlie minds of tlie populace ; and, consequent- ly, tend to incense them against tliose who were concerned in taking away his life. * Antony's pretended reason for drawing together this body of veteran troops was, in order to procure a ratiiica' tion from the senate of those grants of lands which had been made to them by Ca3sar, as a reward of their services; but his true reason was, to strengthen his hands .ngainst those who should attempt to oppose his measures. y The conspirators had given public assurnnccs to the TO SEVERAL OP HIS PRIENDS. 649 what other quarter can you possibly suspect that it will be opposed ? In a word, it cannot be thought that we are too anxious for our own preservation^ when it is considered, that no accident can happen to our persons without involving the whole republic in the most dangerous commotions. Farewell LETTER XV. To Caius Cassius. Believe me, my Cassius, the republic is the perpetual subject of my meditations ; or, to express -.„ the same thing in other words, you and Marcus Brutus are never out of my thoughts. It is upon you two, indeed, together with Decimus Brutus, that all our hopes depend. — Mine are somewhat raised by the glorious conduct of Dolabella, in suppressing the late insurrection^ ; which had spread so wide, and gathered every day such additional strength, that it seemed to threaten destruction to the whole city. But this mob is now so totally quelled, that I think we have nothing farther to fear from any future attempt of the same kind. Many other fears, however, and very con- siderable ones too, still remain with us ; and it entirely rests upon you, in conjunction with your illustrious associates, to remove them. Yet where to advise you to begin for that purpose, I must acknowledge myself at a loss. To say truth, it is the tyrant alone, and not the tyranny, from which we seem to be delivered : for although the man, indeed, is destroyed, we still servilely maintain all his despotic ordinances. We do more ; and, under the pretence of carrying his designs into execution, we approve of measures which even he himself would never have pursued* ; and the misfortune is, that I know not where this extravagance wiU end. When I reflect on the laws that are enacted, on the immunities that Are granted, on the immense largesses that are distributed, on the exiles that are recalled, and on the fictitious decrees that are published, the only effect that seems to have been produced by Cassar's death is, that it has ex- tinguished the sense of our servitude, and the abhorrence of that detestable usurper ; as all the disorders into whieh-Jie threw the republic still continue. These are the evils,' therefore, which it is incumbent upon you and your patriot coadjutors to redress : for let not my friends imagine that they have yet completed their work. The obliga- tions, it is true, which the republic has already received from you, are far greater than I could veteran troops, that they would not endeavour to annul the grants which Cajsar had made in their favour.— Dio, p. 257. " See rem. c, p. 543. " A few days after Cssar's death, Antony assembled the Knate in the temple of ToUus, in order to take into con- sideration the state of public affairs. The result of their deliberations was, to decree a general act of oblivion of what was past, and to confirm the several nominations to magistracies, and other grants which had been made by Caesar. This was a very prudent and necessary measure, in order to preserve the public tranquillity ; and it was principally procured by, the authority and eloquence of Cicero. But Antony soon perverted it to his own ambi- tious purposes ; for, being appointed to inspect the papers of Cffisar, he forged some, and modeled others, as best suited his own designs ; disposing of everything as he thought proper, under the authority of this decree.— Dio, f. asc, 2S6. have ventured to hope : still however her demands are not entirely satisfied ; and she promises herself yet higher services from such brave and generous benefactors. You have revenged her injuries, bv the death of her oppressor ; but you have done nothing more. For, tell me, what has she yet recovered of her former dignity and lustre ? Does she not obey the will of that tyrant, now he is dead, whom she could not endure when living? And do we not, instead of repealing his public laws, authenticate even his private memorandums ? You will tell me perhaps (and you may tell me with truth) that I concurred in passing a decree for that purpose. It was in compliance however with public circumstances j a regard to which is of much con- sequence in political deliberations of every kind. But there are some however who have most immo- derately and ungratefully abused the concessions we found it thus necessary to make. I hope very speedily to discuss this and many other points with you in person. In the mean time be persuaded that the affection I have ever borne to my country, as well as my particular friendship to youi'self, renders the advancement of your credit and esteem with the public extremely my concern. Farewell. LETTER XVI. To Oppms\ The sentiments and advice which your letter has so freely given me, in relation to myleaving Italy', a u 709 together with what you said to Atticus, ' in a late conversation upon this subject, have greatly contributed, he can bear me witness, to dispel those doubts that occurred on whichever side I viewed this question. I have ever thought indeed that no man was more capable of forming a right judgment, nor more faithful in communi- cating it, than yourself ; as I am sure I very parti- cularly experienced in the beginning of the late civil wars. For when I consulted you in regard to my following Pompey, or remaining in Italy, your advice I remember was, that " I should act as my honour directed." This suflSciently discovered your opinion ; and I could not but look with admiration on so remarkable an instance of your sincerity. For notwithstanding your strong attach- ment to CiEsar, who, you had reason to think, would have been better pleased if I had pursued a different conduct ; yet you rather chose I should act agreeably to my hbnour, than in conformity to his inclination. My friendship for you, however, did not take its rise from this period ; for I was sensible that I enjoyed a share in your esteem long before the time of which I am speaking. I shall ever remember indeed the generous services you conferred both upon myself and my family, dur- ing the great misfortunes which I suffered in my eale : and the strict intimacy in which we con- versed with each other, after my return, as well as the sentiments which, upon all occasions, I pro- fessed to entertain of you, are circumstances which l" The MSS. vary in the name of the person to whom this letter is addressed, some writing it Appius, and others Oppius. If the latter be the true reading, perhaps he is the same of whom some aeooimt has been given in rem. ", p. 457. « See rem. ', p. 642, 550 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO none who were inclined to observe them could possibly overlook. But you gave me a most dis- tinguishing proof of the good opinion you had conceived of my constancy and fidelity, by the unreserved resignation of your heart to me, after the death of Caesar. I should think myself there- fore a disgrace to human nature, if I did not justify these your favourable sentiments, by every kind of good oflBce in my power, as well as by the return of my warmest affection. Continue yours to me, my dear Oppius, I entreat you ; a request however which I prefer more in compliance with the cus- tomary form, than as thinking it in the least necessary. I recommend all my affairs in general to your protection, and leave it to Atticus to inform you in what particular points I desire your services. When I shall be more at leisure, you may expect a longer letter. In the mean time take care of your health, as the most agreeable instance you can give me of your friendship. Farewell. LETTER XVn. To Trebatius. I AM the more enamoured withthis city'', be- cause I find you are much the favourite of every- A. V 709 ''ody ™ it- ^"' I know not, in truth, where you are otherwise ; and I should rather have told you, that even the absence of your freedman, Rufio, is no less regretted among them than if he were a person of as much consequence as you and I. However, I by no means disapprove of your having called him from hence, in order to superintend the buildings you are carrying on in the Lupercal^ : for, notwithstanding your house at Velia is altogether as agreeable as that which you have in Rome, yet I should prefer the latter to all the possessions you enjoy here. Nevertheless, if you should take the opinion of a man whose advice you seldom reject, you will not part with your patrimony on the banks of the noble Heles, nor forsake a villa which had once the honour of be- longing to Papirius, an intention which the citizens of Velia are in some fear lest you should entertain. But although it be incommoded, indeed, by the great concourse of strangers who visit the adjoin- ing grove ; yet that objection may easily be removed, you know, by cutting down' this impertinent plan- d Cicero, after much debate with himself concerning the voyage which he mentions in the preceding letter, at length fixed his resolution and embarked. He sailed along the westei-n coast of Italy, towards Rhegium, but came ashore every night, in order to lodge at the villa of some friend. He was in this manner pursuing his voyage into Greece when he wrote the present letter from Velia, a sea-port town on the coast of Lucania. e A range of buildings in Kome, so caUed from an ancient temple of the same name, which had been for- merly erected upon that spot to the god Pan.— Dion Hal L24. I Groves were generally consecrated to some divinity, as this seems to have been, by the number of strangers who probably frequented it on a religious account. Instead of hfcum, therefore, which is the reading adopted by Manu- tius, and followed in the translation, some of the com- mentators have thought it should be latum .- because, if it were a consecrated grove, it could not be cut down with- out committing an act of impiety. But this objection is founded upon the mistake that Cicero spoke in a serious sense what he seems plainly to have intended in a ludi- crous one. tation, which will prove a very considerable advan- tage likewise both to your pocket and your pro- spect. To speak seriously, it is a great conve- nience, especially in such distracted times as the present, to be possessed of an estate which affords you a refuge from Rome, in a pleasant and healthy situation, and in a place where you are so univer- sally beloved. To these considerations, I will add, my dear Trebatius, that, perhaps, it may be for my advantage also, that you should not part with this villa. But, whatever you may determine, take care both of yourself and my affairs ; and expect to see me, if the gods permit, before the end of the year. I have purloined from Sextius Fadius, one of Nico's disciples, » treatise which the latter has written concerning the pleasures of the palate. Agreeable physician ! how easily will he make me a convert to his doctrine ! Our friend Bassus was so jealous of this treasure, that he endeavoured to conceal it from me : but I imagine, by the freedom of your table indulgencies, that he has been less reserved in communicating the secrets of it to you. — The wind has just now turned to a favourable point, so that I must bid you farewell. Velia, July the 20th. LETTER XVIII. To the same. Yon see the influence you have over me ; though, indeed, it is not greater than what you are justly en- i. V. 709. t'''^'^ '"• from that equal return of friend- ship you make to mine. I could not, there- fore, be easy in the reflection, I will not say of having absolutely refused, but of not having complied, however, with the request you made me, when we were lately together. Accordingly, as soon as I set sail from VeHa, I employed myself in drawing up the treatise you desired, upon the plan of Aris- totle's Topics e ; as, indeed, I could not look upon a city in which you are so generally beloved, with- out being reminded of my friend. I now send you the produce of my meditations ; which' I have en- deavoured to express with all the perspicuity that a subject of this nature will admit. Nevertheless, if some passages should appear dark, you must do me the justice to remember, that no science can be rendered perfectly intelligible without the assistance of a master to explain and apply its rules. To send you no farther, for an instance, than to your own profession, could a knowledge of the law be acquired merely from books ? Undoubtedly it could not : for although the treatises which have been written upon that subject are extremely numerous, yet they are by no means of themselves sufficient instruc- tors, without the help of some learned guide to enlighten their obscurities. However, with respect to the observations in the present performance, if you give them a frequent and attentive perusal, you will certainly be able to enter into their meaning ; but the ready application of them can only be S The treatise here mentioned is still extant among Cicero's works, and appears to be a sort of epitome of what Aristotle had long before published upon the same sub- ject. The principal design of it is, to point out the several sources from whence arguments upon every question may be derived. TO SEVERAL OP HIS FRIENDS. 551 attained by repeated exercise. And in this exercise I shall not fail to engage you, if I should return safe into Italy, and find the republic in a state of repose. Farewell. Bhegiiunl>, July the 28th. LETTER XIX. Smtus and Cassius, Prietors'', to Anion;/, Consul. The letter we have received from you is altoge- ther agreeable to your late contiimelious and .„ menacing edict, and by no means becom- ing you to have written to iis. We have in no sort, Antony, given you any just provocation; nor could we have imagined, that you would look upon it as anything extraordinary, if, invested as we are with the high authority of praetors, we thought proper, in a public manifesto, to signify our requests to the consul. Biit if it raises your indignation that we presumed to take this liberty as praetors, allow us to lament that you should not indulge us in it at least as friends. We receive it as an instance of your justice, that you deny ever having complained of our levying troops and contributions, and making applications to the armies, both at home and abroad, to rise in oar defence ; a charge which we likewise disavow in eveiy particular. We cannot but wonder, how- ever, since you were silent upon this head, that you should be so little able to command yourself upon another, as to reproach us with the death of We leave it to your own reflections to determine what sentiments it ought to create in us, that the prsEtors of Rome, in order to preserve the tran- quillity and liberties of the commonwealth, cannot publish a manifesto declaring their desire of retiring from the execution of their ofiSce, without being msulted by the consul. 'Tis in vain, however, that you would intimidate us by your arms ; for it would ill become the spirit we have shown to be discouraged by dangers of any kind. As little should Antony attempt to usurp an authority over those to whom he is himself indebted for the liberty he enjoys. To the free and independent, the me- naces of any man are perfectly impotent. Had we a design, tiierefore, of having recourse to arms, your letter would be altogether ineffectual to deter us from our purpose. But, you are well convinced, that no consideration can prevail with us to rekin- dle the flames of a civil war ; and, perhaps, you artfully threw out these menaces in order to per- suade the world that our pacific measures are the effect, not of choice, but timidity. To speak plainly our sentiments, we wish to see you raised to the highest honours ; but to honpurs that are conferred by a free republic. It is our 1* A eea^port upon the western point of Calabria, oppo- site to Sicily ; it is now called Regio. * The prastorg could not legally absent themselves from Itome for above ten days, unless they obtained a special dispensation from the senate for that purpose. Brutus and Cassius, therefore, not thinking it safe to trust them- selves in the city, published a sort of manifesto, directed Jo Antony as consul, requesting him to move the senate for this licence in their favour. Antony, instead of com- plying with their request, seems to have answered it by publishing a manifesto on his part, which was followed, likewise, by a private letter that produced the present epistle. desire, likewise, not to engage with you in any contests ; but we must add, that the possession of our liberties is of far higher value in our esteem than the enjoyment of your friendship. Well con- sider what you undertake, and how far you may be able to carry it into execution ; reflecting, not how many years Csesar was permitted to live, but how short a period he was suffered to reigni. In the mean while, we implore the gods to inspire you with such counsels as may tend to the advantage both of yourself and of the commonwealth. But should they prove otherwise, we wish that the con- sequence may be as little detrimental to your own interest, as shall be consistent with the dignity and safety of the republic. August the 4th. LETTER XX. To Plancus^. I HAD left Rome, and was actually on my voyage to Greece, when I was recalled by the general voice 709. °^ republic' : but the conduct of Marc Antony, ever since my return, has J Caesar did not continue longer than five months in the peaceable enjoyment of his usurpation ; for he returned to Rome, from the conquest of Pompey's sons in Spain, in the month of October 708, and was assassinated in the March following. — Veil. Pat. ii. 56. ^ Some general account of Flancus has already been given in rem. o, p. 475. In the beginning of the present year he was appointed hy Ciesar governor of the farther Gaul, where he now was, at the head of three legions. Ho is said, during his residence in that province, to have founded the city of Lyons. Upon the death of Cassar, to whom he had been warmly attached, Cicero employed all his art to engage him on the side of the senate ; and Plan- cus, after much hesitation, at length declared himself accordingly. But this declaration seems to have been entirely the effect of a belief that the rupture between Antony and the senate was upon the point of being accom- modated : it is certain, at least, that it was not sincere. For Flancus soon afterwards betrayed the cause he had thus professed to support, and went over with his troops to Antony.— Pigh. AnnaL il. 465 ; Seneo. Ep. 91 ; VeU. Pat. ii. 63. See rem. 1 on letter 18 of book xv. ' The principal motive of Cicero's intended voyage into Greece was in order to avoid the danger of taking part in a civil war, which he apprehended would soon break out between Antony and young Pompey, the latter being expected from Spain, at the head of a considerable army. But as his leaving Italy at so critical and important a conjuncture might justly expose him to the censure of un- worthily deserting the republic, he was long and greatly embarrassed between the desire of preserving his character on the one side, and of securing his person on the other, the two points which seem, throijghout his whole life, to have held him in perpetual suspense. However, he at length embarked ; but the no sooner sailed than he re- pented, aa usual, of the step he had taJcen. Nevertheless, he pursued his voyage and arrived in Sicily, from whence he proposed to stretch over into Greece ; but. in attempting thifi passage, he was blown back by contrary winds on the coast of Italy. Upon his going ashore, in order to refresh himself, he was informed by some of the principal inhabi- tants of that pai't of the country, who were just arrived from Rome, that there were great hopes Antony would accommodate affairs to the general satisfaction of all parties. This news was followed by a letter from Atticus,. pressing him to renounce his intended voyage, as also by an interview with Brutus, who likewise expressed his dis- approbation of that scheme. Upon these considerations, therefore, he gave up all farther thoughts of Greece, and S52 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLltJS CICERO not permitted me to enjoy a moment of repose. The ferocity (for to call it pride would be imputing a vice to him which is nothing uncommon) the ferocity of his temper is so excessive, that he can- not bear a word, or even a loolc, which is animated with the least spirit of liberty. It is this that fills my heart with a thousand disquietudes : hut dis- quietudes, in which my own preservation is by no means concerned. No, my friend, I have nothing farther to wish with respect to myself, whether I consider the years to which I am arrived™, the actions that I have performed, or the glory (if that may be mentioned as of any value in the account) with which they have been crowned. All my anxiety is for our country alone ; and the more so, my dear Plancus, as the time appointed for your succession to the consular office" is so remote, that it is rather to be wished than expected, that we should be able to preserve our liberties so long alive. What rational hopes, indeed, can possibly be entertained, where a commonwealth is totally oppressed by the arms of the most violent and out. rageous of men, where neither the senate nor the people have any authority ; where neither laws nor justice prevail ; and, in one word, where there is not the least trace or shadow of civil government remaining? But as you receive, I imagine, the public accounts of what is transacted amongst us, I need not descend into a detail of particulars. Let me rather, in consequence of that affection I bear you, and which has been still increasing from our earliest youth, let me rather remind and exhort you, to turn all your thoughts and cares towards the republic. If it should not be utterly destroyed ere you enter upon the consular office, it may, without difficulty, be steered right. Though I will add, that much vigilance as well as great good fortune must concur, in order to preserve it to that desirable period. But I hope we may see you here, somewhat before that time shall arrive. MeanT.'hile, besides the inducements that arise to me from my regard to the well-being of the republic, you may be assured that, fropj my parti- cular attachment likewise to yourself, I shall exert my utmost efforts for the advancement of your credit andhonours. By these means, I shall have the satisfaction to discharge, at once, the duties I owe both to my country and to my friend ; to that country which is the object of my warmest affec- tions, and to that friend whose amity I would most religiously cultivate. 1 am extremely rejoiced, though by no means surprised, to find that you treat Furnius" agreeably to his rank and merit. Be assured that whatever favours you shall think proper to confer upon him, I shall consider them as so many immediate instances of your regard to myself. Farewell. immediately returned to Kome.— Ad Att. xiv. 13, 22 ; xv. 19, 20, 21,33;xyi. 6, 7. n» Cicero was, at this time, in his 63d year. n Plancus was iii the number of those whom Caesar had named to the consulate, in that general designation of magistrates which he made a short time before his death. But as Plancus stood last in the list, his turn was not to commence till the yeai- 711. o He was lieutenant to Plancus in Gaul, LETTER XXL Decimus Brutus, Consul elecf, to Cicero. If I entertained the least doubt of your inclina- tions to serve me, I should be extremely copious „o in my solicitations for that purpose j but A. u. / . . J. j^^^^ strongly persuaded myself that my interest is already a part of your care. I led my army against the inhabitants of the Alps, not so much from an ambition of being saluted with the title of Imperator'i, as in order to comply with the martial spirit of my troops, and to strengthen their attachment to our cause. In both these views I have, I think, succeeded : as the soldiers have had an opportunity, by this measure, of experiencing the courage and the generosity of their general. I was engaged with the most warlike of these people : and have taken and destroyed great numbers of their forts. In short, I thought the action sufficiently considerable to send an account of it to the senate. I hope, therefore, you will support my pretensions with your suffrage, as it wUl, at the same time, be greatly contributing to the credit of the common cause. Farewell. LETTER XXIL To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. It is of much conseqiience to the success of this epistle, whether it reaches you in an anxious or an A. u 709 ®^^y hour. Accordingly, I have directed the bearer to watch the favourable mo- ment of delivering it into your hands : as there is a. time, my friend, when a lettei-, no less than a visit, may prove extremely unseasonable. But if he should observe the caution I have enjoined him, and this should find you, as I hope it will, in a state of mind perfectly serene and uudisturbed, I doubt not of your ready compliance with the request 1 am going to make. Lucius Lamia offers himself as a candidate at the ensuing election of prsetors. There is no man with whom I live in an equal degree of familiarity, as we are intimately, indeed, united, by a long acquaintance. But what greatiy, likewise, recom- mends him to me is, that nothing affords me more entertainment than his company. To this I must add, the infinite obligations I received from him in my affair with Clodius. He was at that time at the head of the equestrian order j and he entered with so much spirit into my cause, that the consul Ga- binius commanded him to withdraw from Rome ; an indignity never offered before to any citizen of p Decimus Brutus was nominated by Csesar to be col- league with Plancus, of whose appointment to the consnlar office mention has been made in rem. n on the preceding epistle. Soon after the rest of the conspirators found it necessary to leave Rome, Decimus withdrew into Cisalpine Gaul, in order to take possession of that province which had been allotted to him by Ciesar, and to put himself in a posture of defence against the attempts which Antony was meditating. Shortly after his arrival in that province, he employed his troops in an expedition against certain inhabitants of the neighbouring mountains ; and having happily executed this scheme, he wi-ote the following let- ter to request Cicero's suffrage in procuring him those distinctions which the senate usually decreed to their suc- cessful generals. 1 See rem. I', p. 333. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 663 the republic. As the world has not forgotten what he thus suffered upon my account, I am sure it would be the highest reproach upon my character if I did not remember it myself; and, therefore, my dear friend, be well assured that the good or ill success of Lamia, in his present pursuit, will no less sensibly affect me, than if I were personally concerned. Notwithstanding, therefore, the illus- trious character which Lamia bears, together with the great popularity he has acquired by the magni- ficence of the games he exhibited when he was eedile, yet I am labouring with as much assiduity to promote his interest, as if he had none of these advantages to recommend him. If, then, I possess that share in your affection which I am well persuaded I enjoy ; let me entreat you to write to Lupus to secure the votes of those eques- trian centuries over which you bear an unlimited sway. But not to detain you with a multiplicity of words, I will conclude all with most sincerely assuring you, that although there is nothing, my dear Brutus, which I have not reason to expect from your friendship, yet you can, in no instance, more effectually oblige me, than by complying with my present request. Farewell. LETTER XXIIL To the same'. There is none of my friends with whom I live in so strict an intimacy as with Lamia. To say A u. 709 '''*' ^ *"" much indebted to his good ofSces, would not be speaking of them in the terms they deserve ; for the truth is (and it is a truth of which the whole republic is sensible), he has conferred upon me the highest and most generous obligations. Lamia, after having passed through the office of sedile with the greatest splen- dour and magnificence, now offers himself as a can- didate for the prsetorship ; and, it is universally acknowledged, that he wants neither interest nor dignity to support his pretensions. However, the opposition he is likely to meet with from his com- petitors is so strong, that I have many fears for the event; and, therefore, think myself obliged to be his general solicitor upon this occasion. I well know how much it is in your power to serve me in this affair, and I have no doubt of your inclination. Be assured, then, my dear Brutus, that you cannot more sensibly oblige me than by assisting Lamia in his present pursuit : and it is with all the warmth of my heart that I entreat you to exert your utmost interest for that purpose. Farewell. LETTER XXIV. To Caius Cassius. It gives me great pleasure to find that my late speech" has received your approbation. If I could ■• V im """■^ frequently enforce the same senti- ments, the liberties of the republic might ' This letter seems to have been a kind of diiplicate of tlie fonner, as it is ^vritten to the same person, and upon the same occasion. s Upon Cicero's return to Rome [see ran, ', p. 551] he received a summons from Antony to attend a meeting of the senate, which was to be holden the next morning ; but as the business of this meeting was to decree certain divine easily be recovered. But that far more desperate and detestable scoundrel' than he" at whose death you said " the worst of all villains is expired," is watching for a pretence to begin his murderous purposes ; and his single view, io charging me with having advised the killing of Caesar, is merely to excite the veteran soldiers against my life. But this is a danger which I am not afraid to hazard, since he gives me a share with you in the honour of that glorious deed. Hence it is, however, that neither Piso, who first ventured to inveigh against the measures of Antony, nor myself, who made a speech to the same purpose about a month' after- wards, nor Publius Servilins, who followed my example, can any of us appear with safety in the senate. For this inhuman gladiator has evidently a design upon our lives : and he hoped to have rendered me the first victim of his cruel vengeance. With this sanguinary view he entered the senate on the 19th of September, having several days before retired to the villa of Metellus, in order to prepare an inflammatory speech against me'". But who shall reconcile the silent meditations of eloquence with the noisy revels of lewdness and debauchery ? Accordingly, it was the opinion of aU his audience (as I have already, I believe, mentioned to you in a former letter) that he could not so properly be said to have delivered a speech, as to have dis- charged, with his usual indecency, the horrid fumes of his scandalous intemperance. You are persuaded, you tell me, that my credit and eloquence will be able to produce some good effect. And some, indeed, they have produced, considering the sad situation of our affairs. Tliey have rendered the people sensible that there are three persons of consular rank, who, because they are in the interest of the republic, and have spoken their sentiments in the senate with freedom, cannot attend that assembly without the danger of being assassinated. And this is all the good you are to expect from my oratory. A certain relation of yours' is so captivated with his new alliance, that he no longer concerns him- self in the success of your games ; but, on the contrary, is mortified to the last degree at those peals of applause with which your brother was distinguished y. Another of your family'' has been softened by some grants which it is pretended that Csesar had designed to confer upon him. This, honours to the memory of Caesar, our author excused him- self from being present. The following day, however, Antony being absent, Cicero ventured to appear in the senate, when he delivered the speech to which he here alludes, and which is the iirst of those that are called his " Philippics." See Life of Cicero, p. 243. t Antony. « CiEsar. ' The speech mentioned in rem. s of this letter. w It was in answer to this speech that Cicero composed his second Philippic, which, however, he did not deliver. For, by the advice of his friends, he absented himself from this meeting of the senate, as they did not think it safe for him to be present.— Manutius. X Lepidus is supposed to be the person here meant, as he was related to Cassius by his own marriage, and had lately married his son to Antony's daughter. y Brutus and Cassius were obliged, as prsctors, to exhibit certain games in honour of Apollo, with which the public were annually entertained on the third of July ; but as they had withdra\vn themselves from Rome, these games were conducted by the brother of Cassius. * It is not known to whom Cicero alludes in this place, nor in the period immediately following. £54: THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO however, might be borne with patience ; but is it not utterly beyond all endurance, that there should be a man who dares openly avow that he supports the measures of that scoundrel, Antony, with the hopes that his son will be chosen consul when you and Brutus are entitled to be candidates for that office ? As to our friend, Lucius Cotta, a fatal despair (for so he terms it himself) has almost entirely driven him from the senate. Lucius Csesar, that firm and excellent patriot, is prevented from coming thither by his iU state of health ; and Servius Sulpicius, who is a true friend to the cause of liberty, and whose authority might be of infinite service in the present conjuncture, is, unhappily, absent from Rome. After having mentioned these, I must take the liberty to say, that I cannot add any others, excepting the consuls elect, who may be justly deemed as weU-wishers to the republic. The truth is, these are the only persons upon whose advice and authority the commonwealth can depend. And small, indeed, would their number be, even in the best of times ; how unequal, then, must their strength be found, to combat against the worst .' All our hopes, therefore, rest entirely upon you and Brutus : I mean, if you have not withdrawn from us with a view only to your own preservation ; for, if that should be the case, we have nothing, alas ! to hope, either from Brutus or from you. But if, on the contrary, you are forming some glorious enterprise worthy of your exalted characters, I doubt not that the republic,' by your assistance, will soon recover her liberties ; and I have only to wish, that I may not be destroyed ere that happy day shall arrive. In the mean time, my best ser- vices neither are, nor shall be, wanting to your family ; and whether they should apply to me for that purpose, or not, I shall never fail to give them proofs of my friendship towards you. Farewell. LETTER XXV To Plancus. Agheeably to the friendship which subsists between us, my services should not have been ji. u. J09. ''Siting to advance your dignities", if I could have been present in the senate, consistently with my honour or my safety. But no man can freely deliver his opinion in that assembly without being exposed to the violences of a military force, that are licensed to commit their outrages with full impunity ; and it would ill become my rank and character to speak upon public affairs in a place where I am more attentively observed, and more closely surrounded, by soldiers than by senators. In any instance of private concerni my best ofiices shaU not be wanting to you ; nor shall they, indeed, even in those of a public nature, whatever hazard I may run, where my appearance is absolutely necessary to promote your- interest. But where it may be equally advanced without my concurrence, suffer me, I entreat you, to pay a proper regard to my own dignity and preservation. Farewell. " The occasion on which Plancus had applied to Cicero for his services in the senate does not appear. LETTER XXVL To Caius Cassius. The malignant spirit of your friend'' breaks out every day with greater and more open violence. To instance, in the first place, the statue A. u. 709. ^jjjgjj ^g jjas lately erected near the rostrum, to Csesar, under which he has inscribed. To THE EXCELLENT FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY ; intimating that you and your heroic associates are to be considered, not only as assassins, but parri- cides. In which number I am, likewise, included ; for this outrageous man represents me as the prin- cipal adviser and promoter of your most glorious enterprise. Would to heaven the charge were true ! for had I been a party in your councils, I should have put it out of his power thus to perplex and embarrass our affairs". But this was a point which depended upon yourselves to determine; and, since the opportunity is now over, I can only wish that I were capable of giving you any effectuid advice. But the truth is, I am utterly at a loss in what manner to act myself : for to what purpose is resistance, where one cannot oppose force by force ? It is evidently the intent of Csesar's party to revenge his death. And, accordingly, Antony being on the 2d of October last presented to the people by Canutius'*, mentioned the generous de- liverers of our country in terms that traitors alone deserve. He scrupled not to assert, likewise, that you had acted entirely by my advice, and that Canutius, also, was under the same influence. He had the mortification, however, to leave the rostrum with great disgrace. In a word, you may judge what are the designs of this faction by their having seized the appointments of your lieutenant^ ; for does not their conduct, in this instance, sufficiently declare, that they considered this money as going to be remitted to a public enemy ? Wretched con- dition, indeed ! that ,we, who scorned to submit to a master, should more ignobly crouch to one of our fellow slaves ! Nevertheless, I am still incUned to flatter myself, that we are not quite deprived of aU hopes of being delivered by your heroic efforts. But where then, let me ask, are your troops ? And with this question I will conclude my letter ; as I had rather leave the rest to be suggested by your own reflections, than by mine. Farewell. ^ Antony. c Cicero frequently reproaches the conspirators with having committed a capital mistake in sparing Antony when they destroyed Ctesai-, an error which our author would have prevented, it seems, had they admitted him into their councils. But it may be affirmed, (and upon the authority of Cicero himself,) that nothing could have been more unjustifiable than to have rendered Antony a joint victim with CBPsar. 'Tis true, there was an ancient law subsistmg, by which every one was authorised to lift up his sword against the man who should discover any designs of invading the public liberties. But Antony was so far from havmg given indications of this tind at Cffisar's death, that Cicero, in a letter written to Atticus, soon afterwards, tells him he loolted upon Antony as a man too much devoted to the indulgences of a luxurious life to be inclined to form any schemes destructive of the public repose: " quem quidem ego (says he) epularum magia arbitror rationem habere, quam qnidquam mail cogitare." —Pint, in Vit Publicol. ; Ad Att. vi. 3. ^ He was one of the tribunes for the present year. ^ As proconsul of Syria, to which province Cassius was, probably, on his way when this letter was written. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 565 LETTER XXVII. Tq Comificius. Stratorius has given me an ample account of the sad situation of affairs in yonr province^ Oh, A u 709 ™y friend, what insuiferable outrages are committed in every part of the Roman dominions ! But those which have been offered to yourself are so much the less to be borne, as they are aggravated by the superior veneration which is due to your illustrious rank and character. Not- withstanding, therefore, that your great and gener- ous spirit may incline you to look upon these insults with calmness, and, perhaps, with indiffer- ence, yet you ought by no means to suffer them to pass unchastised. The news of Rome, I well know, is regularly transmitted to you, otherwise I would take upon myself to be your informer, and particularly of the late attempt of OctaviusB. The fact laid to his charge is considered by the populace as a mere fiction of Antony, in order to gain a pretence to seize upon the young man's estate. But the more penetrating and better sort, not only credit the report, but highly approve the design. Indeed, the hopes of the republic are greatly turned towards Octavius ; as there is nothing which his generous thirst of glory, 'tis believed, will not animate him to perform. My friend Antony, at the same time, is so sensible of his being generally detested, that although he discovered the assassins in his house, yet he would not venture to make the affair public. He set out for Brundisium on the 9th of October, in order to meet the four legions'' that are return- ing from Macedonia ; he hopes, by bribing them over to his interest, to conduct them to Rome, and with their assistance to fix the yoke upon our necks. Thus you see the situation of the republic ! if a republic, indeed, it may with any propriety be called, where all is in a state of intestine war. I frequently lament your fortune, in having been born so late, as never to have tasted the happiness of living in a sound and well-regulated common- wealth. You remember the time, however, when there was a prospect, at least, of better days, but now that prospect is no more ! How in truth should it any longer subsist, after Antony dared to declare, in a general assembly of the people, that " Canutius affected to rank himself with those' ' Of Afi-ica. See rem. \ p. 637. s " Octavius, in order to maintain by stratagem what he could not gain hy force, formed a' design against Antony's life, and actually provided certain Blaves to assassinate Mm, who were discovered and seized with their poniards in Antony's house." Thus far Dr. Middleton, who might have added (as a learned critic has remarked) that Cicero hunself, together with his nephew Quintus, were charged by Antony with being accomplices in this plot, and that the charge appears to have been'true. For though, in the present letter, indeed, Cicero talks of this affair as if he was no otherwise acquainted with it than hy common report ; yet, in a speech which he afterwards made in the senate, when Antony had retired into Gaul, taking notice of the above-mentioned accusation, he avows and glories in the charge. — Life of Cicero, p. 245 ; Tnnstal's Observ. on the Letters between Cic. and Brut p. 142 ; Phil. iii. 7,8. '' These were part of that army which Caesar intended to lead against the Parthians, and which he had sent before him into Macedonia, to wait his arrival for that purpose. ' The conspirators. who could never appear in Rome, so long as he preserved his life and authority?" But thanks to philosophy for having taught me to endure this and every other mortification which human nature can possibly suffer ; and, indeed, it has not only cured me of all my disquietudes, but. armed my breast against every future assault of fortune. And let me advise you to fortify yourself with the same resolution, in the full persuasion that nothing but guilt deserves to be considered as a real evil. But these are reflections which you know much better how to make, than I can instruct you. Stratorius has always been highly in my esteem ; but he has rendered himself more particularly so by the great diligence, fidelity, and judgment he discovers in the management of your a&airs. Take care of your health, as the most pleasing instance you can give me of your friendship. Farewell. LETTER XXVm. To the same. Mt very intimate and most accomplished friend, Caius Anicius, has obtained a titular legation J into -Qjj Africa, in order to transact some business relating to his private concerns in that province. Let me, therefore, entreat your best offices to him upon all occasions, and that you would give him your assistance for the more easy and expeditious despatch of his affairs. But above all (as it is superior to all in my friend's estima- tion) I recommend the dignity of his rank and character to your peculiar regard ; and accordingly I make it my request, that you would appoint lictors to attend him. This is a compliment which I always spontaneously paid, during my own pro- consulate, to those of senatorial rank, who came into my province, and which I have ever, likewise, myself received upon the same occasions ; as, in- deed, it is what I have both heard and observed to have been generally practised by proconsuls of the greatest distinction. You will act, then, in the same 'manner, my dear Comificius, in the present instance, if I have any share in your affection, and in all other respects will consult the honour and interest of my friend, assuring yourself that you cannot confer upon me a more acceptable service. Farewell. LETTER XXIX. To Tiro. I SEE into your scheme ; you have a design that jfOMr letters, as well as mine', should make their A n 70a appearance in public. But, tell me, how happened it, that you, who are wont to be the supreme judge and critic of my writings, should be guilty of so inaccurate an expression as J See rem. °,p. 341. ^ It appears, from an epistle to Atticus, that Cicei-o had formed a design, about this time, of publishing a collection of his letters. It is probable, however, that the greater part of those which are now extant were sent into the world at different times, and by different hands, after his decease, as there are many of them which one can scarce suppose that either himself, or any friend who had a regaid to his memory, would have suffered to come abroad.— Ad Att. xvl. 5. S56 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO to desire me "faithfully^ to preserve my health?" That adverb surely can have no business there, as its proper employment is to attend upon some vpord that imports a moral obligation. In figura- tive language, its use, indeed, is various, as it may be applied even to inanimate and intellectual ob- jects, provided (as Theophrastus observes) the metaphor be not too bold and unnatural. But we will reserve this for a conversation when we meet. Demetrius has been here ; but I had the address to avoid both him and his retinue. Doubtless, you will regret that you lost the opportunity of seeing him. It is an opportunity, however, which you may still recover ; for he returns, it seems, to- morrow. Accordingly, I purpose to leave this place the next morning. I am extremely uneasy about your health, and entreat you not to omit any means that may con- tribute to its re-establishment. It is thus that you will render me insensible of your absence, and abundantly discharge all the services I require at your hands. I am obliged to your good offices towards Cus- pius, for I greatly interest myself in the success of his affairs. Adieu. LETTER XXX. To Comijicius. QuiiMTUs TuRius, who was an African merchant of great probity, as well as of an honourable family, u '09 '^ lately dead. He has appointed Cneius ■ ■ ' ' Saturninus, Sextus Aufidius, and Cains Anneius, together with Gluintus Cbnsidius Gallus, Lucius ServiUus Posthumus, and Caius Rubellius, all of them men of the same worthy character as himself, his joint heirs. I find you have already treated them in so generous a manner, that they have more occasion for my acknowledgments to you than my recommendation ; and, indeed, the favours they gratefully profess to liave received from your hands, are more considerable than I should have ventured, perhaps, to request. Never- theless, as I perfectly well know the regard you pay to my recommendation, I will take courage, and entreat you to add to those services which you have already, without my solicitation, so liberally conferred upon them. But what I am particularly to desire is, that you would not suffer Eros Turios, the testator's freedman, to continue to embezzle his late patron's efiects. In every other instance, also, I recommend their interest to your protection, assuring you that you will receive much satisfaction from the regard and attachment of these my illus- trious friends. Again and again, therefore, I very earnestly recommend them to your good offices. Farewell. 1 It is impossible, perliaps, to determine, precisely, wherein the impropriety of this expression consisted, as it does not appear from the original whether Tu-o spoke of his own health or of Cicero's. In the translation, however, it is applied to the latter, as it seems to render the expres- sion less critically just. For as Tiro was Cicero's slave, the care of his health was a duty which the former owed to the latter, as a necessary means of enabling him to perform those services to which Cicero had a right. Ac- cordingly, therefore, to our author's own remark concern- ing the literal use of the word fidelis, Tiro might very properly have applied it in the sense here mentioned. But there was no such duty owing from the master to the LETTER XXXI. To Decimus Brutus, Consul elect. When our friend Lupus arrived with your des- patches, I had retired from Rome'" to a place where I thought I could be most secure A. u. 709. ^^^^ dajieer. For this reason, notvrith- standing he took care that your letter" should be delivered into my hands, and continued some days in the city, yet he returned without receiving my answer. However, I came back hither on the 9tli of this month", when I immediately, as my first and principal concern, paid a visit to Pansaf, from whom I had the satisfaction of hearing such an account of you as was most agreeable to my wishes. As you wanted not any exhortations to engage you in the noblest enterprise 1 that stands recorded in history, so I am persuaded they are altogether un- necessary in the present conjuncture. It may not be improper, nevertheless, just to intimate that the whole expectations of the Roman people, and all their hopes of liberty, are entirely fixed upon you. If you constantly bear in mind (what I well know is ever in your thoughts) the glorious part you have already achieved, most undoubtedly you can never forget how much there still remains for you to perform. In fact, should that man to whom I always declared myself a friend, till he openly and forwardly took up arms against the republic; should Antony possess himself of your province', I see not the least possibility of our preservation. I join my earnest intercessions, therefore, with those of the whole republic, that you would Snish what you have so happily begun, and deliver us foi ever from the tyranny of a despotic government. This patriot task belongs particularly to yourself; and Rome, or, to speak more properly, every nation throughout the world, not only expects, but requires their deliverance at your hands. But I am sen- sible (as 1 have already said) that you need no exhortations to animate you for this purpose. I will spare my admonitions, therefore, and rather assure jou (what, indeed, is more properly my part) that my most zealous and active services shall always be exerted for your interest. Be well per- suaded, then, that, not only for the sake of the republic, which is dearer to me than my life, but from my particular regard likewise to yourself, I shall omit no opportunity of forwarding your glorious designs, and of promoting those honours you so justly deserve. Farewell. slave ; and, consequently. Tiro could not, in strict pro- priety, have applied it to Cicero. m Soon after Cicero's late return to Rome, [see rem. ', P- 95t,3 he came to an open rupture with Antony. He found it necessary, therefore, for his security, to remove from the city to some of his villas near Naples. — Life of Cicero, p. 244. " The same, probably, which stands the ilA in the pre- sent hook, p. 552. December. Antony had just before left Rome, in order to mai-ch his army into Cisalpine Gaul. .Upon the news of this retroiit, Cicero immediately returned to the city.— Life of Cicero, l>. 247. P Consul elect for the ensuing j-oar. 1 The killing of CiEsar. •■ Cisalpine Gaul. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 657 LETTER XXXII. To Cornificms, There is no man that cultivates my friendship with greater marks of esteem than Sextus Aufi- A o 709 ^''^^ ' "'"' '* tlifi''^ *"y °f equestrian rank who bears a more distinguished character. The strictness of his morals is so happily tempered with the sweetness of his disposition, that he nnites the severest virtue with the easiest and most engaging address. I recommend his affairs in Africa to you, with the utmost warmth and sin- cerity of my heart. You will extremely oblige me, therefore, by showing hiiji that you pay the highest regard to my recommendation ; and I very earnestly entreat you, my dear Cornificius, to comply with this request. Farewell. LETTER XXXIII. To Decimus Brutus, Consul-elect. Marcus Seius has, I suppose, informed you what my sentiments were at the conference which Lupus held at my house with Libo, your ■ relation Servilius, and myself ; as he was present daring the consultation. And, though Greceius immediately followed him, he can give you an account of all that passed after Seius set out'. The grand and capital point, which I could wish you to be well convinced of, and ever to bear in your mirid, is, that in acting for the security of our common liberties, you ought, by no means, to wait the sanction of the senate ; as that assembly is not yet sufficiently free and uncontrolled in its delibe- rations. To conduct yourself by a contrary prin- ciple, would be to condemn the first glorious steps you took for the deliverance of the commonwealth, and which were so much the more illustrious, as they were unsupported by the formal suflrage of public authority. It would be to declare, that the measures of young Cijesar are rash and ill-consi- dered ; who, in the same unauthorised manner, has undertaken the important cause of the com- monwealth". In a word, it would be to show the world that you thought those brave and worthy veterans your fellow-soldiers, together with the fourth and martial legions ", had judged and acted ■ The principal intent of this consultation seems to have lieen to determine, whether Decimus Brutus should ven- ture, ivithout the express sanction of the senate, to act offensively against Antony, who was, at this time, on his march to dispossess Brutus of Cisalpine Gaul. " When Antony set out for Brundisium, in order to meet the legions which were returning from Ma'""''> t""' more particularly on yours, as he painted you so strongly to my mind that I could not but' fancy, during the whole con- versation, that you were actually present. He represented to me the heroism you display in the military affairs of your province, the equity of your civil administration, — the prudence which dis- tinguishes every part of your conduct in general, — together with what I was by no means indeed a stranger to before, the charms of your social and friendly qualities. To this he did not forget to add, likewise, the singular generosity which you have shown in your behaviour towards himself. Every one of these articles I heard with pleasure ; and, for the last, I am much obliged to you*. The friendship I enjoy with your family, my dear Plancus, commenced somewhat before you were born ; and, as the affection which I conceived for you begun from your childhood, so, in your more mature years, it was mutually improved into the strictest intimacy. These are considerations which strongly engage me to favour your interests ; which I look upon, indeed, as my own. Merit, in conjunction witli fortune, have crowned you, even thus early in your life, with the highest dis- tinctions ; as the diligent exertion of your superior • CffiBar. t Antony. " The senate did not suspend their preparations for war notwithstanding the deputation they had sent to Antony. On the contrary, Hirtius and Octavius marclied into Gaul at the head of a considerable army, while Pansa remained in Italy, in order to complete the additional troops with which he purposed to join them Life of Cicero, p. 252. ^ See 7-cm. ^, p. 551. ^ He was one of the lieutenants of Plancus. " Funiius had been particularly recommended by Cicero to the favour of Plancus. See letter 30 of the preccling book. talents has frustrated the opposition of those many envious antagonists who vainly endeavoured to obstruct your way. And now, if you will be in- fluenced by the advice of a man who greatly loves you, and who, from a long connexion with you, has an equal claim to your regard with the oldest of your friends, yon will receive all the future honours of your life from the republic in its best and most constitutional form. There was a season, you know (for nothing surely could have escaped your discernment), there was a season? when the world thought you too compliant with the prevail- ing faction of the times ; and I should have thought so too if 1 had imagined that your approbation was to be measured by your submission. But as I knew the sentiments of your heart, I was persuaded you had prudently considered the extent of your power. Public affairs, however, are at present in a far different situation ; and you may now freely act in every point as your judgment shall direct. The time is shortly approaching when, in conse- quence of your present designation, you will enter upon the consular office^,' — and you will enter upon it, my friend, in the prime of your years, with the advantage of possessing the noblest and most commanding eloquence, and at a period, too, when there is the utmost scarcity of such illustrious citizens as yourself. Let me conjure you then, by the immortal gods, most earnestly to pursue those measures that will ensure the highest glory to your character. Now there is but one possible method of acting towards the republic with this advantage to your reputation ; at least, there is but one in the present conjimcture, as the commonwealth has for so many years" been disturbed by our intestine commotions. When I write to you in this strain, it is rather in compliance with the dictates of my affection than as supposing that you stand in need either of precepts or admonitions. I am sensible that you are sufficiently supplied with reflections of this nature from the same source whence I derive them myself: it is time, therefore, to put an end to what I designed, not as an ostentation of my wisdom, but merely as an instance of my friendship. I will only add, that you may depend upon the most zealous of my services upon every occasion wherein I shall imagine your credit and character is concerned. Farewell. LETTER IV. Plancus to Cicero. I AM exceedingly obliged to you for your letter'' ; a favour for which I am indebted, I perceive, to yjji the account that Furnius gave of me in the conversation you mention. If I have not written to you sooner, you must impute it to my being informed that you were set out upon your expedition into Greece ; and I was not ap- prised of your return till a very short time before I learned it from yotir letter. I mention this because 1 should think myself deserving of the highest reproach if I were intentionally guilty of an omission even in the slightest office of friendship y During Cjesar's usurpation. ^ See rem. «, p. 552, " i'ile civil wars had now continued about seven years. t The precCflinj; cpit>tlo. O O 562 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO towards you. The intimacy, indeed, which was contracted between you and my father, the early esteem I conceived of your merit, together with those instances of affection I have received from you, supply me with many powerful reasons for not failing in the regards I owe you. Be assured, therefore, my dear Cicero, there is no man whom I am so much disposed to revere as yourself ; as, indeed, the great disparity of our ages may well justify me in looking up to you vrith all the sacred respect of filial veneration. I received your ad- monitions, therefore, as so many dictates of the most consummate wisdom ; at the same time that I considered them as instances, likewise, of your unfeigned sincerity, — for in this respect, I judge of your heart by what I feel in my own, li I had any doubt, then, what measures to pursue, or were inclined to adopt others than those you recommend, I should most certainly be deter- mined by your judgment, or restrained by your advice : but in my present situation can there possibly be an inducement to draw me from those paths you point out ? The truth is, that whatever honourable distinctions I have acquired, either by my own industry or by the favours of fortune, though far inferior to what your affection represents them, yet they want no other lustre, perhaps, but that of having been attained with the general ap- probation of the commonwealth ; and this even the most inveterate of my enemies acknowledge. Be assured, then, that the whole of my power, my prudence, and my authority, shall ever be exerted in the service of the republic. As I am no stranger to your sentiments, I am well persuaded that mine would never disagree with yours if I had the happi- ness of having you so near me as to be able to consult them. But though I cannot enjoy this very desirable advantage, yet I trust you will never have occasion to condemn my conduct. I am extremely impatient to learn what is trans- acting in the nearer Gaul', as well as what effect the present month'' may produce in regard to affairs at Rome. In the mean time, I am earnestly la- bouring to prevent the people of this province from pvtrsuing the example of their neighbours, by taking advantage of the public disturbances to throw off their allegiance. And shoxdd my endeavours be attended with the success they deserve, I doubt not of being approved, not only by every friend of liberty in general, but, what I am most ambitious of, by yourself in particular. Farewell, my dear Cicero, and love me with an equal return of that affection I bear you. LETTER V. To Plancus. The duplicate you sent me of your letter" was an instance of your obliging care lest I should be disappointed of what I so impatiently *■ " ■ wished to receive. The contents afforded c Where Decimus Brutus commanded, who at this time was actually besieged in Modena by Mark Antony : a circumstance to which Plancus, 'tis probable, was no stranger, though he thought proper to affect ignorance. *1 January, when the now consuls always entered upon their office. The consuls for the present year were Hirtius and Pansa. * The foregoing. me a double satisfaction ; and I am at a loss to determine whether the friendship you profess for myself, or the zeal you discover for the republic rendered it most truly acceptable. To speak my own opinion, indeed, the public affections are alto- gether noble and sublime; but surely there is something more amiably sweet in those of the private kind. Accordingly, that part of your letter where you remind me of the intimacy in which I lived with your father, of the early disposition you ' found in yourself to love me, together with other passages to the same friendly purpose, filled my heart with the most exquisite pleasure, as the sentiments you profess with regard to the common- wealth raised in me the highest satisfaction : and, to say truth, I was so much the more pleased with the latter, as they were accompanied, at the same time, with the former. To repeat what I said in the letter to which you have returned so obliging an answer, let me not only exhort, but entreat you, my dear Plancus, to exert your utmost powers in the service of the commonwealth. There is nothing that can more contribute to the advancement of your glory ; for amongst all human honours, none most certainly is superior to that of deserving well of one's country. Your great good sense and good-nature will suffer me, I know, to speak my sentiments to you with the same freedom that I have hitherto used. Let me again observe then, that the honours you have already acquired, though you could not indeed have attained to them without merit, yet they have principally been owing to fortune, in conjunction with the particular circumstances of the times. But whatever services you shall per- form for the republic in this very critical conjunc- ture, will reflect a lustre upon your character, that will derive all its splendour from yourself alone. It is incredible how odious Antony is become to all sorts of people, except those only of the same dis- honest views with himself; but the great hopes and expectations of the republic are fixed upon you and the army you command. Let me conjure you then, in the most solemn manner, not to lose so impor- tant an opportunity of establishing yourself in the esteem and favour of your fellow-citizens, or, in other words, of gathering immortal praise. Believe me, it is with all the tenderness of a father that I thus admonish you ; that I enter into your interests with as much warmth as if they were my own, and that my exhortations proceed from the zeal I hear for the glory of my friend and the welfare of my country. Adieu. LETTER VL To Caius Cassitis. Oh, that you had invited me to that glorious feast you exhibited on the ides of March ! Be A. D. 710. assured, I would have suffered none of it to havegone off untouched'. Whereasthe part you unhappily spared, occasions me, above all others, more trouble than you can well imagine. I must acknowledge, at the same time, that we have two most excellent consuls s : but as to those of ' Alluding to the conspirators having spared Antony when they destroyed Cffisar. See rem. c, p. 554. S Hirtius and Pansa. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 6G3 consular rank, there is not one of them who does not merit the highest reproach. The senate in general, however, exert themselves with spirit, as the lower order of magistrates distinguish themselves by their singular resolution and zeal. In a word, it is im- possible to show a better or more vigorous disposi- tion than appears in the populace, not only of Rome, but throughout all Italy. But Fhilippus and Piso; on the contrary, whom the senate deputed with peremptory orders to Antony'', have executed their commission in a manner that raises our highest indignation. For notwithstanding that Antony refused to comply with every single article of the senate's injunctions, yet these unworthy deputies bad the meanness to charge themselves with bringing back the most insolent demands'. This behaviour of theirs has occasioned all the world to have recourse to my assistance^ and I am become extremely popular in a way wherein popu- larity is seldom acquired, I mean, by supporting a good cause. I am altogether ignorant in what part of the world you are at present, as well as of what schemes you are either executing or meditating. A report prevails that you are gone into Syria, but for this we have no certain authority. We can a little more depend upon the accounts we receive of Brutus, as his distance from us is less remote'. It has been remarked here by men of some pleasantry, and much indignation against Dola- bella, that he has shown himself in too great haste to be your successor, as he is most uncivilly set out to take possession of your government when yon have enjoyed it scarce a single month''. The case is clear, therefore, say they, that Cassius should by no means give him admittance. But to be serious ; both you and Brutus are mentioned with the highest applause, as it is generally sup- posed that each of you has drawn together an army far beyond our expectations. I would add more, if I knew with certainty the situation of yourself and your affairs ; but I hazard this letter merely upon the doubtful credit of common fame. It is with great impatience, therefore, that I wait for better intelligence from your own hand. Farewell. *> See rem. p on letter 1 of this book. ' '* The purport of them was, that the senate should assign lands and rewards to all his troops, and confirm all the other grants which he and Dolabella had made in their coDHulsbip ; that all his decrees from Cxsar's books and papers should be confirmed ; that no aocount should be demanded of the money taken from the temple of Opis, &c. On these terms he ofl'ered to give up Cisalpine Gaul, provided, that he might have the greater Gaul in ex- change for five years, with an army of six legions, to be completed out of the troops of Decimus Bi^tus." — ^I,ife of Cicero, p, 253. i Marcus Brutus, when he found it necessary to leave Italy, withdrew into Macedonia, where he was, at this time, employed in raising forces in support of the republi- can cause. ^ The province of Syria had been intended by Caesar for Cassius; but Mark Antony, after the death of C«sar, had artfully procured it to be allotted to Dolabella. Accord- ingly, the latter left Rome a short time before the expi- ration of his consulship the last year, in order to be beforehand with Cassius in getting possession of this government ; and it is in allusion to this circumstance that the humour of the present passage, such as it is, consists. LETTER VII. To Trebomus^. Would to heaven you had invited me to that noble feast which you made on the ides of March 4 A n 710. '"' >'B<°°3°t^> most assuredly,' should have been left behind". Whereas the part you unluckily spared gives ns so much per- plexity, that we find something to regret, even in the godlike service which you and your illustrious associates have lately rendered to the republics To say the truth, when I reileet that it is owing ta the favour of so worthy a man as yourself, that Antijny now lives to be our general bane, I am sometiraas inclined to be a little angry mth you for taking him aside when Csesar fell", as by this mean you have occasioned more trouble to myself in particu- lar than to all the rest of the whole community From the very first moment, indeed, that Antony's ignominious departure from Rome° had left the senate unoontrolled in its deliberations, I resumed the spirit which you and that inflexible patriot, your father, were wont to esteem and applaud. Accordingly, the tribunes of the people 'having summoned the senate to meet on the 20th of De- cember, upon other matters, I seized that oppor- tunity of taking the whole state of the republic into consideration >■ ; and more by the zeal than the eloquence of my speech, I revived the drooping spirits of that oppressed assembly, and awakened in them all their former vigour. It was owing to the ardour with which I thus contended in the debates of this day, that the people of Rome first conceived, a hope of recovering their liberties ; and to this great point all my thoughts and all my actions have ever since been perpetually directed. Thus important, however, as my occupations are, I would enter into a full detail of our proceedings, if I did not imagine that public transactions of every kind are transmitted to you by other hands. From them, therefore, you will receive a more particular information, whilst I content myself with giving you a short and general sketch of our present circumstances and situation. I must inform you, then, we have a senate that acts with spirit ; but that as to those of consular dignity, part of them ' He was, at this time, in Asia Minor, of which province he was governor. See rem. \ p. 544. m See rem. ' on the preceding letter. " As it had been resolved in a council of the conspira- tors, that Antony's life should be spared, they did not choose he should be present when they executed their design upon Caesar, probably lest he should attempt to assist his friend, and by that means occasion them to spill more blood than they intended. For this reason Trebonius held Antony in discourse, at the entrance into the senate, till the rest of the conspirators had finished their work — Dio, p. 249 ; Piut. in Vlt. Brut. o Upon the news that two of the four legions from Brun- disium [see rem. ^, p. 655] had actually declared for Octa- vius, and posted themselves in the neighbourhood of Rome, Antony left the city with great precipitation, and putting himself at the head of his army, marched directly in order to wrest Cisalpine Gaul out of the hands of Decimus Brutus, Cicero, who was at this time in the country, took the opportunity of Antony's absence to return to Rome ; where he arrived on the 9th of December, in the preceding year, about a month or two, 'tis probable, before he wrote the present letter ^Life of Cicero, p. 247. P It was upon tliis occasion that Cicero spoke his third Fhilippio. 002 564 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO want the courage to exert themselves in the manner they ought, and the rest are ill-affected to the repuhlic. The death of Serviusi is a great loss to us. Lucius Caesar^ though he is altogether in the inte- rest of liberty, yet in tenderness to his nephew^, does not concur in any very "vigorous measure. The consuls', in the mean time, deserve the highest commendations ; I must mention Decimus Brutus, likewise, with much applause. The conduct of young Caesar also is equally laudable, and I per- suade myself that we have reason to hope he will j<^mplete the work he has begun. This, at least, ti^l^certain, that if he had not been so extremely , ,^.,wpeditious ia raising the veteran forces", and if V**'f,two legions had not deserted to him from Antony's army, there is nothing so cruel or so flagitious which the latter would not have committed. But as these are articles which I suppose you are already apprised of, I only just mention them in order to confirm them. You shall hear farther from me whenever I can find a more leisure moment. Farewell. LETTER VIIL To Cuius Cas&ius, It is owing, 1 imagine, to the difficulty of for- warding any despatches during the winter season , «, V. 710. "**' ""^ '^^'^ y^' received no certain intelligence of what you are doing, nor even know in what part of the world you are placed. It is universally reported, however, (though more, I believe, from what people wish, than from what they have sufficient grounds to assert,) that you have raised an army, and are actually in Syria ; a report which the more easily gains credit, as it appears to be extremely probable. Our friend Brutus has acquired great honour by his late glorious and unexpected achievements'; not only as being in themselves extremely desirable to the friends of liberty, but from the wonderful expedition, likewise, with which he performed thetu. If it be true, therefore, that you are in pos- session of those provinces we imagine, the republic is very powerfully supported ; as that whole tract of country which extends from the nearest coast of Greece as far as Egypt is, upon this supposition, in the hands of two of the most faithful friends of-^ the commonwealth. Nevertheless, if my judgment does not deceive me, the event of this war depends entirely upon Decimus.Brutus ; for if he should be able to force his way out of Mutina, (as we have reason to hope,) it will, in all probability, be totally at an end. There are now, indeed, but few troops employed in carrying on that siege, as Antony has 1 Servius Sulpicius, to whom several letters in the fore- going part of this coUeotion arc addreBseS. He was one, and the most considerable, of the three consulars whoni the senate had lately deputed to Antony ; but, very un- fortunately for that embassy, he died just as he arrived m Antony's camp.— Philip, ix. 1. ' See ran. «, p. 543. ■ Antony. * Hirtius and Pansa. « See rem, *, p, 557. » lie had lately sent an account to the senate of his suc- cess against Cains, the brother of Mark Antony, having forced him to retire with a few cohorts to Apollonia, and secured Macedonia, Ulyricum, and Greece, together with the several armies in those countries, to the interest of the republic— Philipp. x, sent a large detachment to keep possession of Bononia". In the mean while, our friend Hirtius is posted at Clatema", and Caesar at Forum Cor- neliiy, each of them at the head of a very consider- able army ; at the same time that Pansa is raising at Rome a large body of Italian troops. But the season of the year has hitherto prevented their entering upon action ; and, indeed, Hirtius appears, by the several letters I have received from him, to be determined to take all his measures with the utmost, precaution. Both the Gauls, excepting only the cities of Bononia, Rhegium, and Parma, are zealously af. fected to the republic, as are also your clients on the other side the Po. The senate, likewise, is firm in the cause of liberty ; but when I say the senate, I must exclude all of consular rank, except Lucius Csesar, who, indeed, is faithfully attached to the interest of the commonwealth. The death of Servius Sulpicius has deprived us of a very powerful associate. As for the rest of the consulars, part of them are ill affected to the republic, others want spirit to support its cause, and some there are who look with envy on those patriot citizens whose conduct they see distinguished by the pubhc applause. The populace, however, both in Rome and throughout all Italy, are wonderfully unaai- mous in the common cause. I have nothing farther, I think, to add, but my wishes that your heroic virtues may shine out upon us from yon eastern regions, in all their enlivening warmth and lustre. Farewell. LETTER IX. To Lucius Papirius Pectus'. I HAVE received a second letter from you con- cerning your friend Rufus : and since you interest yourself thus warmly in his behalf, you might depend upon my utmost assistance, even if he had done me an injury. But I am per- fectly sensible, from those letters of his, which you communicated to me, as well as from your own, how much my welfare has been his concern. I cannot, th'eretbre, refuse him my friendly offices, not only in regard to your recommendation, which has all the weight with me it ought, but in compli- ance also with my own inclinations. I must acknow- ledge that it was his and your letters, my dear Pse- tus, which first put me upon my guard against the designs that were formed to destroy me". I afterwards, indeed, received intelligence from seve- ral other hands to the same effect, and particularly of the consultations that were held concerning me both at Aquinium and Fabrateria'', of which meet- ings, I find, you were likewise apprised. One would imagine that this party had foreseen how much I should embarrass their schemes, by tiie in- »■ Bologna. >: Quaderna. y Imola, z See rem. o, p. 432. " This probably alludes to some design of the veteran soldiers against Cicero's life ; as it appears, from a letter to Atticus, written soon after Caesar's death, that our author had been cautioned not to trust himself in Rome, on ac- count of the danger to which he would be exposed from the insolence of those troops.— Ad Att. xv. 5. ^ These towns were situated in Latium, or what is uow called the Campagna di Roma. They still subsist, under the names of A(iuino and Fabraiera. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 665 dustry they employed in order to compass my de- struction : and, as I had not the least suspicion of their purposes, I might incautiously have fallen into their snares, if it had not been for the admonitions you sent me, in consequence of the information you had received from Rufus. Tour friend, therefore, wants no advocate with me for my good offices ; and I wish the republic may be in so happy a situ- ation, as to afford me an opportunity of giving him the most substantial proofs of my gratitude. But, to dismiss this subject, I am sorry you no longer frequent the festive tables of your friends ; as you cannot renounce these parties of good cheer without depriving yourself of a very exquisite gra- tification. And, to tell you the truth, I am sorry, likewise, upon another account, as I am afraid you will lose the little knowledge you had acquired in the art of cookery, and be absolutely at a loss how to set forth a tolerable supper. For as you made no very considerable improvements in this fashion- able science, even when you had many curious mo- dels for your imitation, what strange awkward things must your entertainments prove now that you en- joy no longer the same advantages ! .When I in- formed Spurinna*^ of this wonderful revolution in the system of your affairs, he shook his prophetic bead, and declared that it portended some terrible disaster to the commonwealth ; unless, said he, this extraordinary phsenomenon be occasioned by the present cold -weather, and your friend should return with the zephyrs to his accustomed train of life. But, without a joke, my dear Psetus, 1 would advise you to spend your time in the cheerful society of a set of worthy and agreeable friends ; as there is nothing, in my estimation, that more effectually contributes to the happiness of human Ufe. When I say this, I do not mean with respect to the sensual gratifications of the palate, but with regard to that pleasing relaxation of the mind which is best produced by the freedom of social convei-se, and which is always most agreeable at the hour of meals. For tliis reason, the Latin language is much happier, I think, than the Greek, in the term it employs to express assemblies of this sort. In the latter they are called by a word which sig- nifies compotations ; whereas, in ours, they are more emphatically styled convivial meetings ; in- timating that it is in a communication of this na- ture that life is most truly enjoyed. You see I am endeavouring to bring philosophy to my assistance, in recalling you to the tables of your friends ; and, indeed, I prescribe them as the best recipe for the re-establishment of your health. Do not imagine, my friend, from my writing in this strain of pleasantry, that I have renounced my cares for the republic. Be assured, on the contrary, that it is the sole and unintermitted business of my life to secure to my fellow-citizens the full posses- sion of their liberties, to which end my admoni- tions, my labours, and the utmost powers of my mind, are, upon all occasions, unweariedly employed. In a word, it is my firm persuasion, that, if I should die a martyr to these patriot endeavours, I shall finish my days in the most glorious manner. Again and again I bid you farewell. * A celebrated diviner, who is aaid to have forewarned CsEsar of the ides of March.— Suet, in Vit. Jul. Css. 81. LETTER X. Caius Cassius, Proconsul, to Cicero. I AM to inform you of my arrival in Syria, where I have joined the generals Lucius Murcus and A V 710 Q"i°.'';sCrispus''. These brave and wor- ■ thy citizens, having been made acquainted with what has lately passed in Rome, immediately resigned their armies to my command, and with great zeal and spirit co-operate with me in the service of the republic. Aulus Allienus has deli- vered to me the four legions which he brought from Egypt " J the legion which was commanded by Caeci- lius Bassus' has likewise joined me. And now it is unnecessary, I am persuaded, that I should exhort you to defend the interest both of myself and of the commonwealth, to the utmost of your abilities : but it may animate your zeal and your hopes, to be assured that a powerful army is not wanting to support the senate and its friends in the cause of liberty. For the rest, I refer you to Lucius Car- teius, wjiom I have directed to confer with you upon my affairs. Farewell. From my camp at Taiiclieae, March the 7th, LETTER XL Asitiius Pollio^ to Cicero. You must not wonder that you have heard, nothing from me, in relation to public affairs, since the breaking out of the war. Our cou- riers have always found it difficult to pass unmolested through the forest of Castulo ', but it is now more than ever infested with robbers. These banditti, however, are by no means the principal obstruction to our intercourse with Rome, as the mails are perpetually searched and detained by the <1 " They bad been prsetors, A. U. 7»>8. Caesar sent tlie former into Syria and the latter into Bitbynia, with pro- consular authority." — Dio, xlvii. ; Appian, iii. ; Hobs. e " Allienus was lieutenant to Dolabella, by wlioni ho was sent into Egypt in order to conduct those legions into Syria. He accordingly executed his commission ; but, instead of delivering these troops to Dolabella, he went over with them to Cassius." — Quartier. f See rem, "», p. 5.37. e Situated upon the lake of Genesai'et in Galilee. h Asinius Poliio was, in every respect, one of the most accomplished persons among his contemporaries. His extensive genius was equal to all the nobler branches of polite literature, and he gave the most applauded proofs of his talents as a poet, an orator, and an historian. He united the most lively and pleasing vein of wit and plea- santry- ^vith all that strength and solidity of understanding which is necpssary to render a man of weight in the more serious and important occasions of life ; in allusion to which uncommon assemblage of qualities it was said of him, that he was a man omnium Itorarum. It is to be regretted that a character so truly brilliant on the intellectual side, should shine with less lustre in a moral view. 'Tis evi- dent, however, from the present epistle, that in taking part with Cajsar against Pompey, private considerations were of more force with him than public utility, and de- termined him to support a cause which his heart con- demned. This letter was written from the farther Spain, of which provuice Ca!sar, a short time before his death, had appointed Poliio governor, ' A city anciently of great note ; at present it is only a small village called Cazorla, in the province of New Cas- tile, in Spain, THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO soldiers that are posted for that purpose, by both parties, in every quarter of the country. Accord- ingly, if I had not received letters by a ship which lately arrived in this riveri, I should have been utterly ignorant of vphat has been transacted in your part of the world. But now that a communi- cation by sea is thus opened between us, I shall frequently, and with great pleasure, embrace the opportunity of corresponding with you. Believe me, there is no danger of my being influenced by the persuasions of the person you mention''. As much as the world abhors him, he is far from being detested to that degree which I know he deserves ; and I have so strong an aversion to the man, that I would upon no consideration bear a part in any measures wherein he is con- cerned'. Inclined both by my temper and my studies to be the friend of tranquillity and freedom, I frequently and bitterly lamented our late unhappy civil wars. But, as the formidable enemies which I had among both parties, rendered it altogether unsafe for me to remain neuter, so I would not take up arms on that side where I knew I should be perpetually exposed to the insidious arts of my capital adversary"". But though my inclinations were not with the party I joined, my spirit however would not suffer me to stand undistinguished among them : in consequence of which, I was forward to engage in all the dangers of the cause I had ^ espoused. With respect to Csesar liimself, I will confess that I loved him with the highest and most inviolable affection, — and indeed I had reason. For, notwithstanding his acquaintance with me commenced so late as when he was in the height of his power, yet he admitted me into the same share of his friendship, as if I had been in the number of those with whom he had lived in the longest inti- macy. Nevertheless, as often as I was at liberty to follow my own sentiments, 1 endeavoured that my conduct should be such as every honest man must approve ; and whenever I was obliged to ex- ecute the orders I received, it was in a manner that evidently discovered how much my actions were at variance with my heart. The unjust odium how- ever that I incurred by these unavoidable compli- ances, might well teach me the true value of liberty, and how wretched a condition it is to live under the government of a despotic power. If any at- tempts, therefore, are carrying on to reduce us a second time under the dominion of a single person, whoever that single person may be, I declare my- self his irreconcilable enemy. The truth is, there is no danger so great that I would not cheerfully hazard for the support of our common liberties. But the consuls have not thought proper to signify to me, either by any decree of the senate, or by their private letters, in what manner I ^ould act J Xhe Guadalquivir, upon which the city of Ck)rduba, from whence this letter is dated, was situated. ^ Antony, as Manutius conjectures, though some of the commentators, with greater probahility, suppose that ho means Lepidus — Ep. Fam. x. 11 et 15. 1 Nothing could be more insincere, it should seem, than these professions, as it is probable that Pollio was at this time determined to join Antony. It is certain, at least, that he did so soon afterwards, and carried with him the troops under his command. — Yell. Pat. ii. 63, ™ The person hinted at is, perhaps, Cato, as Pollio had early distinguished his enmity towards that most illus- trious of Romans, by a publio impeachment. — Dial, de Cau& Corrupt. Eloquent. 34. in tne present conjuncture. I have received, indeed, only one letter from Pansa since the ides of March; by which he advised me to assure the senate, that I was ready to employ the forces under my command in any service they should require. But this would have been a very imprudent declaration at a time when Lepidus had professed, in his public speeches, as well as in the letters-he wrote to all his friends, that he concurred in Antony's measures. For could I possibly, without the consent of the former, find means to subsist my army in their march through his provinces ? But, granting that I could have surmounted this difficulty, I must have con- quered another and a still greater, — as nothing less than a pair of wings could have rendered it practicable for me to have crossed the Alps, whilst every pass was guarded by the troops of Lepidus. Add to this that I could by no means convey any despatches to Rome, as the couriers were not only exposed in a thousand different places to the danger of being plundered, but were detained, likewise, by the express orders of Lepidus". It is well known, however, that I publicly declared at Cordaba, that it was my r^olution not to resign this province into any other hands than those which the senate should appoint : not to mention how strenuously 1 withstood all the applications that were made to me for parting with the thirtieth legion. I could not, indeed, have given it up, without depriving myself of a very considerable strength for the defence of the republic, as there are no troops in the whole world that are animated with a braver or more martial spirit than those of which this legion is com- posed. Upon the whole, I hope you will do me the justice to believe, in the first place, that I am ex- tremely desirous of preserving the public tranquillity, as there is nothing I more sincerely wish than the safety of all my fellow-citizens ; and, in the next place, that I am determined to vindicate my own and my country's rights. It gives me greater satisfaction than you can well imagine, that you admit my friend into a share of your intimacy. Shall I own, nevertheless, that I cannot think of him as the companion of your walks, and as bearing a part in the pleasantry of your conversation, without feeling some emotions of envy ! This is a privilege, believe me, which I. infinitely value, as you shall most assuredly expe- rience, by my devoting the whole of my time to your company, if ever we should live to see peace restored to the republic. I am much surprised that you did not mention in your letter whether it would be most satisfactory to the senate that I should remain in this province, or march into Italy. If I were to consider only my own ease and safety, I should certainly con- tinue here ; but as, in the present conjuncture, the republic has more occasion for legions than for provinces, (especially as the loss of the latter may with great ease be recovered,) I have deter- mined to move towards Italy with my troops. For the rest, I refer you to the letter I have written to Pansa, a copy of which I herewith transmit to you. Farewell. Corduba, March the 16th. " Lepidus was governor of that part of Spain which lay nearest to Italy. See rem. « on lettei- 14 of this book. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 567 LETTER XII. To Caius Cassius, You will receive a full account of the present situation of affairs from Tidius Strabo, a person of .,„ great merit, and extremely well-affected to the republic. Need I add how strong his attachment likewise is to yourself, when it thus evidently appears by his leaving his family and his fortunes in order to follow you? For the same reason I forbear to solicit your good offices in bis behalf, as I am persuaded you will think his coming to yon a sufficient recommendation to your favour. If any misfortune should attend our arms, be assured that the friends of the republic have no other resource left than in you and Marcus Brutus. We are at this juncture indeed in the most im- minent danger : as it is with great difficulty that Decimus Brutus still holds out at Mutina. How- ever, if he should be speedily relieved, we may look upon victory as our own ; if not, let me repeat it again, every friend of liberty will fly for refuge to Brutus and to you. May you stand ready, then, with all that spirit which is necessary for the full and complete deliverance of our distressed country ! Farewell. LETTER XIIL To Planeus. The account that Furnius gave us of your dis- position towards the republic, afforded the highest „. satisfaction both to the senate and the people. But your letter, which was after- wards read in the senate, seemed by no means to comport with those sentiments our friend had thus represented you as entertaining. At the very time indeed when your illustrious colleague is sustaining a siege from the lawless crew of the most worthless villains, you do not scruple to advise us to peace. But if peace is their sincere desire, let them imme- diately lay down their arms, and sue for it in a proper manner, otherwise they must expect to obtain it, not by treaty, be assured, but by the sword alone. But I leave it to Furnius and your worthy brother, to acquaint you with the reception which your letter upon this subject, as well as that of Lepidus, met with from the senate. Meanwhile, notwithstanding you are well qualified to be your own adviser, and that it will soon be in your power likewise to have recourse to the faithful and friendly counsels of Furnius and your brother j yet, in com- pliance with that affection to which you have so many powerful claims, I cannot forbear sending you a few admonitions. Believe me, then, my dear Planeus, whatever honours you have hitherto acquired, (and you have acquired in truth the highest,) they will be considered as so many vain and empty titles, unless you dignify them by joining in the defence both of the liberties of the people and the authority of the senate. Let me conjure you therefore to separate yourself from those asso- ciates with whom you have hitherto been rmited, not by choice indeed, but by the general attraction of a prevailing party. It has been the fortune of many, as it will probably be yours, to exercise the supreme magistracy during times of public com- motions ; but not one of this number ever derived to himself that esteem and veneration which na- turally flow from the consular dignity, who had not distinguished his administration by an active and zealous regard for the interests of the common- wealth. To this end it is necessary that you renounce the society of those impious citizens, whose principles are far different from your own ; that you show yourself the friend, the guide, and the protector of all those who are faithfully attached to our constitution ; and in fine that you be well persuaded that the re-establishment of the public tranquillity consists, not merely in laying down our arms, but in being secure from all reasonable ap- prehension of their ever being resumed to enslave us again. Thus to think and thus to act, will render your character, both as a consul and a consular, most truly illustrious : but if you should steer yourself by other maxims and by other measures, you will possess those exalted distinctions, not only without honour, but with the utmost disgrace. And now, if I have expressed my sentiments with somewhat more than ordinary seriousness, impute it to the zeal of my affection towards you ; assuring yourself, at the same time, that you will, undoubt- edly, find my advice is founded on truth, if you make the experiment in a manner worthy of your character. Farewell. March the 20th. LETTER XIV. To Lepidus". The singular regard I bear you, renders it greatly my concern that you should be distin- Vio S"'s'^^'i ^'"^ "^^ highest dignities of the republic. I cannot, therefore, but regret, o Marcus ^milius Lepidus waa descended from one of the noblest and most ancient families in Rome, and he was himself distinguished with some of the most honour- able posts in the republic. He stood high in the confidence and friendship of Julius Caesar, who, when he was dicta- tor, named him for the master of the horse ; when he was consul, in the year 707, declared him his colleague ; and who, a short time before his death , appointed him governor of the nearer Spain. One of the most elegant of the Roman historians has represented Lepidus as void of all military virtues, and in every view of his chai'acter as altogether unworthy of that high station to which fortune had exalted him. Accordingly he is described by Shak* speare, in the tragedy of Julius Cssar, as . a Blight unmeritable man. Meet to be sent on errands. v But though the poet has been strictly true to history, it may be questioned, perhaps, whether the historian has been equally faithful to truth. For when one coniiiders the great trust which Gsesar reposed in Lepidus, his address in prevailing with young Pompey, who had made himself master almost of all Spain, to renoimce his conquests ; together with the share he had in forming that celebrated league*between Antony, Octavius, and himself, which gave him a third part in the division of the whole Roman dominions ; is it credible that his talents were destitute of lustre ? History, perhaps, may be more reasonably relied upon in what it has delivered concerning his moral cha- racter ; and it is probable that Lepidus was strongly infected with avarice, ambition, and vanity. This at least is certain, that he acted towards the senate in the present conjuncture with great dissimulation and treachery. At the time when this letter was written, he was at the head of a very considerable army in the Narbonensian Giuil, which Caesar had annexed to the province of Spam, m favour of Lepidus.— Pigh. Anna), ii. 431 ; Veil, Tat. ii. 63, 80 ; Dio. xlv 875. 568 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO that you omitted to pay your acknowledgments to tlie senate for those extraordinary honours they lately conferred upon youP. I am glad you are desirous of composing those unhappy dissentions that destroy the tranquillity of our country : and if you can effect this good work, consistently with the enjoyment of our liberties, it will be greatly to your own credit, as well as to the advantage of the commonwealth. But if the peace you propose is to re-establish a most oppressive tyranny, be well assured there is not a man in his senses who will not rather renounce his hfe than thus suffer himself to be made a slave. I should think, therefore, that your wisest way would be to avoid engaging as the mediator of a peace which is neither approved by the senate or the people, nor indeed by any lover of his'countiy in the whole republic. But as this is a truth which you will undoubtedly learn from others, I will only add, that I hope you will consider, with your usual prudence, in what manner it will be best and most advisable for you to act. Farewell. LETTER XV. To Caius Cassius, I WILL not teU you with how much zeal 1 lately stood forth, both in the senate and before the ^,« people, an advocate for the advancement ofyour honours'; as it is a circumstance which I had rather you should learn from the letters of your family, than from my own hand. I should easily have carried my point in the former, if I had not met with a strenuous opposition from Pansa. Nevertheless, after having enforced my sentiments in the senate, I made a speech, to the same purpose, in an assembly of the people ; to which I was introduced by Marcus Senrilius, the tribune. I urged upon this occasion (and with a warmth 'and vehemence suitable to a popular audience) all that I most justly might in your favour : and my speech was received with a louder and more universal applause than ever was known before. I hope you will pardon me that I took these steps contrary to the persuasions of your mother-in-law ; who was apprehensive they might give offence to Pansa. He did not, indeed, forget to avail himself of these fears : and he assured the people, that even your own family were averse to my making this motion. I was by no means, I confess, governed by their sentiments in the case : as I acted entirely with a view to an interest which I have always endeavoured to promote ; the interest I mean of the republic in general, as well p The senate bad lately decreed, that the statue of Le- pidus should he erected in the fonim, ^vith an inscription, in honour of the services he had performed to his country hy prevailing with young Pompey to lay do>vn his arms. — Philipp. xvi. 4. <1 Dolahella having entered into Asia Minor, and com- mitted great outrages and hostilities in that province, was declared, .by a general vote of the senate, a public enemy ; in consequence of which a debate arose concerning the person to whom the war to bo carried on against Dolahella should be intrusted. Cicero moved that a comKiission should be granted to Cassius for that purpose, with the most honourable and extensive powers. But his motion was overruled by the superior interest of Pansa, who seems to have been secretly desirous of obtaining this coni- maud for himself.— Philipp. xi. as with a regard to the advancement of your glory in particular. There is one article upon which I very largely expatiated in the senate, as I afterwards repeated it likewise in my speech to the people : and I hope your conduct will fully justify what I then said. I undertook to assure the public, that you would not wait for the sanction of our decrees ; but, agreeably to your usual spirit, would, upon your own single authority, take such measures as should appear expedient to you for the defence of the commonwealth. I went even farther, and almost ventured to affirm, that you had already acted in this manner, r The truth of it is, although I was not at that time certainly informed either in what part of the world you were, or what number of troops you were furnished with ; yet I was con- fident, I said, that every legion in Asia' had sub- mitted to your command, and that you had recovered that province to the republic. I have only to add my wishes, that in every enterprise you shall under- take, you may still rise above yourself with superior glory. Farewell. LETTER XVL Planeus to Cicero. I SHOULD employ this letter in giving you a full explanation of my measures, if I had no other A u ""10 ™^">'"i of convincing you, that I have in every respect conducted myself towards the republic agreeably to my own promises, and to your persuasions. J have ever been ambitious, indeed, of obtaining your esteem, as well as your friendship : and if I have wished to secure you for my advocate where I have acted wrong. I have been no less desirous of giving you occasion to applaud me for acting right. But I was going to say, that I shorten this letter for two reasons ; the first is, because I have entered into an ample.detail of everything in my public manifesto ' ; and the next, because you will receive a circumstantial account of all that relates to me from Marcus Varisidius, a Roman knight, and my particular friend, whom I have directed to wait upon yon. In the mean time, let me protest, that it was not without much concern that I saw others. anticipate me in the good opinion of the republic : but I forbore to declare myself, till I should be in a condition to effect something worthy of those expectations the senate has conceived of me, and of that high office' I shall shortly bear. And should fortune second my endeavours, I hope to render such considerable services to the republic, that not only the present age shall feel the advan- tage of my assistance, but that it shall be remem- bered likewise in titnes to come. Meanwhile, that I may pursue these endeavours with the greater alacrity, let me entreat your suffrage in procuring me those honours which your letter sets before my view as incitements of my patriotism ; and your interest for this purpose is equal, I well know, to your inclination. Take care of your health, and give me your friendship in the same degree that 1 sincerely give you mine. ' Asia Minor. s gee the next letter. * The consulate, upon which PJaucus was to enter the following year. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 509 LETTER XVII. Flaneus, Consul elect, to the Consuls, the Prwtors, the Tribunes, the Senate, and the Commons of Rome. Before I make any professions with respect to my future conduct, I deem it necessary to justify myself to those who may think that I have *■ "' ' ■ held the republic too long in suspense concerning my designs". For I would by no means have it imagined that I am atoning for my past behaviour, when, in fact, I am only seizing the first favourable opportunity of publicly declaring a resolution which I have long formed. I was in no sort ignorant, however, that, at a time of such general and alarming confusions, a less deliberate discovery of my intentions would have proved most to my own private advantage : as I was sensible that several of my fellow-citizens had been distin- guished with great honours, by a more hasty expli- cation of their purposes. But as fortune had placed me in such a situation, that I could not be earlier in testifying mine without prejudicing that cause which I could better serve by concealing them, I was willing to suffer for a season in the good opinion of the world; as I preferred the interest of the public to that of my own reputation. That this was the genuine motive of my proceed- ings, cannot reasonably, I trust, be questioned. For, can it be supposed that a man in my prosper- ous circumstances, and of my well-known course of life, whose utmost hopes too were upon the very point of being crowned", could be capable either of meanly submitting to the destructive ambition of another, or impiously cherishing any dangerous schemes of his own ? But it required some time, as well as much pains and expense, to render my- self able to perform those assurances I purposed to give to the republic, and to every friend of her cause ; that I might not approach with mere empty professions to the assistance of my country, but with the power of performing an effectual service. To this end, as the army under ray command had been strongly and frequently solicited to revolt, it was necessary to pei'suade them that a moderate reward, conferred by the general voice of the com- monwealth, was far preferable to an infinitely greater from any single hand. My next labour was to convince those many cities which had been gained the last year by largesses and other dona- tions, that these were obligations of no validity, and that they should endeavour to obtain the same benefactions from a better and more honourable quarter. I had still the farther task to prevail with those who commanded in the neighbouring provinces, to join with the more numerous party in a general association for the defence of our common liberties, rather than unite with the smaller number, in hopes of dividing the spoils of a victory that must prove fatal to the whole world. Add to this, that I was obliged to augment my own troops, and those of my auxiliaries, that I might have nothing to fear, whenever I should think proper, contrary to the inclination of some about me, openly to avow the cause which it was my resolution to defend. Now, I shall never be " Sec rem. ^, ji. hh\. " Alluding to Ills being to enter the next year on the consular offiee. ashamed to acknowledge, that, in order to bring these several schemes to bear, I submitted, though very unwillingly, indeed, to the mortification of dissembling the intentions I really had, and of counterfeiting those which I certainly had not ; as the fate of my colleague'^ had taught me how dan- gerous it is for a man who means well to his country, to divulge his resolutions ere he is suflR- ciently prepared to carry them into execution. For this reason it was that I directed my brave and worthy lieutenant, Cains Furnius, to represent to you, more fully than I thought prudent to explain in my despatches, those measures which seemed necessary for the preservation both of this province and of the repubhc in general, as being the more concealed method of conveying my sentiments to you upon that subject, as well as the safer with respect to myself. It appears, then, that I have long been secretly attentive to the defence of the commonwealth. But now that, by the bounty of the gods, I am in every respect better prepared for that purpose, I desire to give the world, not only reason to hope well of my intentions, but clear and undoubted proofs of their sincerity. I have five legions in readiness to march ; all of them zealously attached to the republic, and dis- posed, by my liberalities, to pay an entire obedience to my orders. The same disposition appears in every city throughout this province ; and they earnestly vie with each other in giving me the strongest marks of their duty. Accordingly, they have furnished me with as considerable a body of auxiliary forces, both horse and foot, as they could possibly have raised for the support of their own national liberties. As for myself, I am ready either to remain here, in order to protect this province, or to march wheresoever else the republic shall demand my services. I will , offer yet another alternative ; and either resign my troops and go- vernment into any hands that shall be appointed, or draw upon myself the whole weight of the war ; if by these means I may be able to establish the tranquillity of my country, or even retard those calamities with which it is threatened. If, at the time that I am making these declara- tions, our public disturbances should happily be composed, I shall rejoice in an event so advan- tageous to the commonwealth, notwithstanding the honour I shall lose by being too late in the tender of my semces*. But, on the contrary, if I am early enough in my offers to bear a full part in all the dangers of the war, let me recommend it to every man of justice and candour to vindicate me agkinst the malevolence of those whom envy may prompt to asperse my character. In my own particular, I desire no greater reward for my services than the satisfaction of having con- tributed to the security of the republic. But I think myself bound to recomme nd those brave and w Decimus Brutus. To what paiticular circumstance of his conduct Plancus alludes, the history of these times docs not discover. Perhaps he. may only mean, in general, that Decimus had imprudently drawn upon himself the siege of Modena hefore ho had made the proper dispositions against an attack. * This passage sufficiently discovers the true motive of Plancus's present declarations ; as they appear evidently to have flowed from some reason ho had to believe, that the contest between Antony and the senate was liltely to bo adjusted in an amicable manner. 570 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO worthy men to your especial favour, who, partly in compliance with my persuasion, bat much more in confidence of your good faith, would not suffer themselves to be prevailed upon by all the appli- cations that have been made, both to their hopes and their fears, to depart from their duty to the commonwealth. LETTER XVIII. To Plancus. Although I had received a very full account from our friend Furnius of your disposition with „ ,,„ regard to the republic, and of the mea- sures you were meditatmg m its defence, yet the perusal of your letter y afforded me a still clearer view into the whole plan of your patriot purposes. Notwithstanding, then, that you should not have an opportunity of executing your projected services, as the fate of the commonwealth, which depends upon a single battle, will probably be decided ere this reaches your hands j yet you have acquired, nevertheless, great and universal applause from what the world has been informed of your general good intentions. Accordingly, had either of the consuls been in Rome « when your despatches arrived, the senate would have declared, and in terms I am persuaded extremely to your advan- tage, the sense it entertains of your zealous and acceptable preparations in their cause. The proper season, however, for your being rewarded vrith honours of this kind, is, in my opinion at least, so far from being elapsed, that, on the contrary, it seems to be scarce fully anived : as those distinc- tions alone appear to me to deserve the name of honours that are conferred by our country, not in expectation of services to come, but in just retri- butionto thosff that have effectually been performed. Believe me, if any form of government shall subsist amongst us where merit can hope to be distin- guished, you will shine out with all the most illus- trious dignities it can bestow. But nothing of this kind (let me repeat it again) can justly be called an honour, but what is given, not as the incentive of an occasional service, but as the recompense of a constant and uniform course of patriotism. Be it then your earnest endeavour, my dear Plancus, to acquire these well-merited rewards, by advancing to the relief of your colleague ^ ; by improving that wonderful unanimity which appears in every pro- vince for the support of the common cause, and by giving aU possible succour to your country in general. Be persuaded that I shall always be ready to assist your schemes with my best advice, and to promote your honours with my utmost interest : in a word, that I shall act, upon every occasion wherein you are concerned as one who is most sincerely and most warmly your friend. I am so, indeed, not only from that intercourse of affec- tionate good offices by which we have been long mutually united, but from the love I bear likewise to my country ; in tenderness to which I am more anxious for your life than for my own. Farewell. March the 3Uth. r The foregoing letter to the senate. ^ " The two consuls, HirtiuB and Pansa, were both in Gaul, and waiting to attempt a decisive battle with An- tony, in order to deliver Decimue Bnitus from the danger he was in at Modena.".— Boss. a Decimus Brutus. LETTER XIX. To Cornificius. I AGKBE with you in thinking that those who were concerned in the design upon Lilybaeum'' y, . deserved to have been executed upon the *' " ■ spot. But you spared them, it seems, in the apprehension that the world would condemn you as too freely indulging a vindictive spirit ; yet, as well might you have been apprehensive, my friend, that the world would condemn you for acting too agreeably to your patriot character. I very gladly embrace your overtures of renew- ing that association with you, for the defence of the republic, in which I was formerly engaged with your father ; and I am persuaded it is an associa- tion, my dear Cornificius, in which we shall ever be united. It is with much pleasure, likewise, that I find you esteem it unnecessary to send me any ceremonious acknowledgments of my services : formalities, indeed, would ill agree with that inti- macy which subsists between us. If the senate were ever holden in the absence of the consuls, unless upon some very sudden and extraordinary occasion, it would have been more frequently summoned in order to concert proper measures for the support of your authority. But as neither Hirtius nor Pansa is in Rome, no decree can at present be procured, in relation to the several sums of two millions^, and of seventy mil- lions'' of sesterces which you mention. I think, however, that you are sufficiently authorised to raise this money by way of loan, in virtue of that general decree of the senate by which you were confirmed in your government. I imagine you are informed of the state of our affairs, by those to whom it properly belongs to send you the intelligence. As for myself, I con- ceive great hopes that things will take a favourable turn. I am not wanting, at least, in my utmost vigilance and efforts for that purpose : and I am resolutely waging war against every foe to the re- public. The recovery of our liberties does not seem, indeed, even now, to be a matter of great difficulty : I am sure it would have been perfectly easy, if some persons had acted in the manner they ought. Farewell. LETTER XX. To Plancus. It is principally for the sake of my country that I ought to rejoice in the very powerful succours _ with which you have strengthened the republic, at a junctm'e when it is well- nigh reduced to the last extremity. I protest, however, by all my hopes of congratulating you on the victorious deliverance of the commonwealth, that a considerable part of the joy which I feel upon this occasion, arises from the share^I take in your glory. Great, indeed, is the reputation you have already acquired, and great I am persuaded will be the honours that will hereafter be conferred upon you : for assure yourself, nothing could make ^ A city in Sicily, opposite to the coast of Libya in Africa. The particulars of the affair alluded to, as well as the per- sons concerned in it, ai*e imlaiown. i: About 16,000i. of our money. "i About S60,(l«0i. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 671 a stronger impression upon the senate than your late letter' to that assembly. It did so, both with respect to those very important services which it brought us an account that you had performed, and nith regard to that strength of sentiment and expression with which it was drawn up. It con- tained nothing, however, that was in the least unexpected to myself; as I was not only perfectly well acquainted with your heart, and had not for- gotten the promises you had given me in your letters, but as I had received from Fumius a full information of all your designs. These, indeed, appeared to the senate much beyond what they had allowed themselves to hope : not that they ever entertained the least doubt of your disposition, but because they were by no means sufficiently apprised either of what you were in a condition to effect, or whither you purposed to march. It was with infi- nite pleasure, therefore, that I read the letter which Marcus Varisidius delivered to me on your part. I received it on the 7th of this month, in the morn- ing, amidst a large circle of very worthy citizens, who were attending in order to conduct me from my house : and I immediately gave them a share in my joy. Whilst we were mutually congratulat- ing each other upon this happy occurrence, Muna- tius came to pay me his usud. morning visit : to whom I likewise communicated your letter. It was the first notice he had received of an express being arrived from you : as Varisidius, in pursuance of your directions, did not deliver any of his de- spatches till he had first waited upon me. A short time, however, after Munatius had left me, he returned with your letter to himself, together also with that which you wrote to the senate. We thought proper to carry the latter immediately to Cornutus ; who, as prsetor of the city, supplies the office of the consuls in their absence, agreeably, you know, to an ancient and established custom. The senate was instantly summoned ; and the expectation that was raised by the general report of an express being arrived from you, brought toge- ther a very full assembly. As soon as your letter was read, it was objected that Cornutus had not taken the auspices in a proper maimer ; and this scruple was confirmed by the general sentiments of our college '. In consequence of this, the senate was adjourned to the following day ; when I had a very warm contest with Servilius, who strenuously opposed the passing of any decree to your honour. For this purpose he had the interest to procure his own motion to be first proposed to the senate s ; which being rejected, however, by a great majority, mine was next taken into consideration. But when the senate had unanimously agreed to it, Publius Titins '', at the instigation of Servilius, interposed his negative. The farther deliberation upon this affair was postponed, therefore, to the next day : when Servilius came prepared to support an oppo- ' The letter here mentiii)iied seems to have been a sub- sequent one to that which stands the 17ih in the present book. * See rem. a, p. 391; S The senate could not enter into any debate unless the subject of it was proposed to them in form by some of the niagistrates, who had the sole privilege of referring any question to a vote, or of dividing the house upon it.— Mid- dleton on the Horn. Sen. p. 155. ^ One of the tribunes. Ithasalreadybeenobserved, that those magistrates had a power of putting a stop to the pro- ceedings of the senate by their single negative. sition, which, in some sort, might be considered as injurious to the honour even of Jupiter himself ; as it was in the Capitol' that the senate, upon this occasion, was assembled. I leave it to your other friends to inform you in what manner 1 mortified Servilius, and with how much warmth I exposed the contemptible interposition of Titius. But this I will myself assure you, that the senate could not possibly act with greater dignity and spirit, or show a stronger disposition to advance your honours, than it discovered upon this occasion. Nor are you less in favour with the whole city in general : as, indeed, all orders and degrees of men amongst us remarkably concur in the same common zeal for the deliverance of the republic. Persevere then, my friend, in the glorious course upon which you have entered : and let nothing less than immortal fame be the object of your well-directed ambition. De- spise the false splendour of all those empty honours that are short-lived, transitory, and perishable. True glory is founded upon virtue alone ; which is never so illustriously distinguished as when it dis- plays Itself by important services to our country. You have at this time a most favourable opportu- nity for that purpose ; which, as you have already embraced, let it not slip out of your hands till you shall have employed it to full advantage ; lest it be said, that you are more obliged to the republic than the republic is obliged to you. As, for my own part, you will always find me ready to contribute to the advancement as well as to the support of your dignities : indeed, it is what I owe not only to our friendship, but to the commonwealth, which is far dearer to me than life itself. Whilst I was employing my best services for the promotion of your houonrs, I received great plea- sure in observing the prudence and fidelity which Titus Munatius exerted for the same purpose. I had experienced those qualities in him upon other occasions : but the incredible diligence and affec- tion with which he acted for your interest in this affair, showed them to me in a still stronger and more conspicuous point of view. Farewell. April the nth. * The Capitol was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, and the most considerable structure of the sacred kind in all Rome. The ruins of this celebrated edifice are still to be seen. None of the commentators have taken notice of the indi- rect compliment which Cicero here pays to Plancus, which seems, however, to deserve a particular explanation. The Capitol was held in singular veneration, as being built upon the spot which Jupiter was supposed to have chosen for the visible manifestation of his person. In consequence of this popular superstition, both Horace and Virgil often speak of the prosperity and duration of the Capitol as a circumstance upon which the fortune of the whole empire depended :— Stet Capitoliiun Fulgens, triumphatisque possit Roma ferox dare jura Medis. — Hor. Od. iii. 3, 42. Dum domus jEuei Capitoli immobile saxum Accolet, impcriumque Pater Romanus habebit. Ma. ix. 448. Cicero, therefore, by a very artful piece of flattery, insi- nuates, that the opposition Servilius made to the honours which the senate intended to have paid to Plancus, waa, in effect, an affront to that supreme and guardian divinity in whose temple the transaction passed, as being contrary to the interest of a republic which was distinguished by Jupiter himself with his imme.diate presence. — Vide .^u. THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XXI. To Cornificius, My friendship with Lucius Lamia is well known, I am persnaded, not only to yourself, who are J acquainted with all the circumstances of my life, but to every Roman in general. It most conspicuously appeared, indeed, to the whole world, when he was banished by the consul GabiniusJ, for having, with so remarkable a spirit of freedom and fortitude, risen up in my defence'*. Our friendship, however, did not commence from that period : it was from an affection of a much earlier date, that he was induced thus generously to expose himself to every danger in my cause. To these his meritorious services, I must add, that there is no man whose company affords me a more true and exquisite entertainment. After what I have thus said, you will think it needless, surely, that I should use much rhetoric in recommending him to your favour. You see the just reason I have for giving him so large a share of my affection : whatever terms, therefore, the strongest friendship can require upon an occasion of this nature, let your imagination supply for me in the present. I will only assure you, that your good offices to the agents, the servants, and tbe family of Lamia, in every article wherein his affairs in your province shall require them, will be a more acceptable in- stance of your generosity than any you could con- fer iu my own personal concerns. I am persuaded, indeed, from your great penetration into the cha- racters of men, that without my recommendation you would be perfectly well disposed to give him your best assistance. I must confess, at the same time, I have heard that you suspect him of having signed some decree of the senate injurious to your honour. But I must assure you, in the first place, that he never signed any during the administration of those consuls ' ; and, in the next, that almost all the decrees which were pretended to be passed at that time, were absolutely forged. The truth is, you might just as reasonably suppose I was con- cerned in that decree to which my name was sub- scribed, relating to Sempronlus ; though, in fact, I was then absent from Rome, and complained, I remember, of the injury that had been done me, in a letter which I wrote to you upon the occasion. But not to enter farther into this subject ; I most earnestly entreat you, my dear Cornificius, to con- sider the interest of Lamia, in all respects, as mine, and to let him see that my recommendation has proved of singular advantage to his affairs ; assuring yourself that you cannot, in any instance, more effectually oblige me. Farewell. LETTER XXII. To the same, CoRNiKicius delivered your letter to me on the 17th of March, about three weeks, as he told me, after he had received it from your hands. The senate did not assemble either on «. u. 710. J See revi. q, p. .369. •* When Cicero was persecuted by Clodius. 1 It is altogether uncertain to what consuls Cicero alludes : MauutiuB supposes, to Antony and Dolabella. that day or the next ; however, on the 9th they met, when I defended your cause in a very fall house, and with no unpropitious regards from Mi- nerva". I may with peculiar propriety say so, as the statue of that guardian goddess of Rome, which I formerly erected in the Capitol", and which had lately been thrown down by a high wind, was at the same time decreed to be replaced. Your let- ter, which Pansa read to the senate, was much approved, and afforded great satisfaction to the whole assembly. It fired them, at the same time, with general indignation against the impudent attempts of the horrid Minotaur, for so I may well call those combined adversaries of yours, Cal- visius and Taurus ". It was proposed, therefore, that the censure of the senate should pass upon them ; but that motion was overruled by the more merciful Pansa, However, a decree was voted upon this occasion extremely to your honour. As for my own good offices in your favour, be assured, my dear Cornificius, they have not been wanting from the first moment I conceived a hope of recovering our liberties. Accordingly, when I laid a foundation, for that purpose, on the 20th of December last i", while the rest of those who ought to have been equally forward in that work, stood timidly hesitating in what manner to act, I had a particular view to the preserving you in your pre- sent post ; and to this end I prevailed with the senate to agree to my motion concerning the continuance of the proconsuls in their respective provinces. But my zeal in your cause did not terminate here, "and I still continued my attacks upon that person, who, in contempt of the senate, as well as most injuriously to you, had, even whilst he himself was absent from Rome, procured your government to be allotted to him. My frequent, or, to speak more properly, my incessant, remon- strances against his proceedings, forced him, much against his inclinations, to enter Rome, where he found himself obliged to relinquish the hopes of an honour which he thought himself no less sure of than if it had been in his actual possession. It gives me great pleasure that these my just and honest invectives against your adversary, iu con- junction with your own exalted merit, have secured you in your government, as I rejoice extremely, likewise, in the distinguished honours you have there received. I very readily admit of your excuse in regard to Sempronius, well knowing that your conduct upon that occasion may justly be imputed to those errors ™ It was a sort of proverljial expression among tho Romans, when they spoke of any successful undertaking, to say that it was earned on *• not wlthoutthe approbation of Minerva." " •* Cicero, a little before his retreat into banishment, took a small statue of Minerva, which had long been revereneed in his family as a kiud of tutelar deity, and carrying it to the Capitol, placed it iu the temple of Jupiter, under tho title of Minerva, the guardian of the City."— Life of Cicero, p. 92. o The Minotaur was a fabulotis monster which the poets describe as half man half bull. Cicero, therefore, in .allu- sion to the name of Tam-us, who had joined with Calvisius in- some combination against Cornificius, jocosely gives them, the appellation of the Minotaur. P When he spoke his third and fourth Philippic orations, wherein Cicero endeavoured, amongst other articles, to animate the senate and the people to vigorous measures against Antony. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 573 to which we were all equally liable, whilst we trod the dark and dubious paths of bondage. I myself, indeed, the grave inspirer of your counsels, and the firm defender of your dignities, even I, my friend, was injudiciously hurried away by my indignation at the times, when, too hastily despair- ing of liberty, I attempted to retire into Greece^. But the Etesian winds, like so many patriot citi- zens, refused to waft me from the commonwealth, whilst Auster, conspiring in their designs, collected his whole force, and drove me back again to Rhe- gium. From thence I returned to Rome, with all the expedition that sails and oars could speed me, and, the very next day after my arrival, I showed the world that I was the only man, amidst a race of the most abject slaves, that dared to assert his freedom and independency"^. I inveighed, indeed, against the measures of Antony with so much spirit and indignation, that he lost all manner of patience ; and pointing the whole rage of his bacchanalian fury at my devoted head, he at first endeavoured to gain a pretence of assassinating me in the senate ; but that project not succeeding, his next resource was to lay wait for my life in private. But I extricated myself from his insidious snares, and drove him, all reeking with the fumes of his nauseous intemperance, into the toils of Octavius^ That excellent youth drew together a body of troops, in the first place, for his own and my par- vith great civility, and many compliments mutually passed between them. With these Dolabella appeared satisfied, and pretending to pursue his march, proceeded towards Ephesus ; but he returned in the night, and making himself master of the city by surprise, seized Trebonius in his bed. Cicero, in one of his PhilippioB, expatiates upon the cruelties which Dolabella exercised on this his unfortunate but illustrious prisoner. He kept him two days under tortiu-e, to extort a discovery of thfl public money in his custody, insulting him at the same time with the most opprobrious language ; he then ordered his head to be cut off and exhibited to the populace on the point of a spear, his body to he dragged through the principal streets of Smyrna, and afterwards to be thrown into the sea. See rem. h, p. 544 ; Appian. De BelL Civ. iit p. S4ii ; Phil. li. 2, 3. TO SEVERAL OF lllS FRIENDS. 579 against those infamous invaders of our liberties ; if I have not only raised an army for the defence of the commonwealth, but have even snatched it from most cruel and oppressive hands ; let these consi- derations recommend my interests to your care and protection. Had Dolabella, indeed, possessed him- self of these forces, the expectation of such an additional body of troops, even before they had actually joined Antony, would greatly have con- firmed and strengthened his party. If, upon this account, therefore, you think these soldiers deserve highly of the republic, let them experience the benefit of your patronage, nor suffer them to haye reason to regret, that tbey preferred their duty to the commonwealth, to aU the powerfiil temptations of plunder and rapine. I must also recommend it to your care, that due honours be paid to the generals, Marcus and Crispus°. As to Bassus, be obstinately refused to deliver up the legion under his command : and had they not, without his con- sent, deputed some of their officers to treat with me, he would have shut the gates of Apamea, and forced me to have entered the town by assault. I make these requests, then, as well in the name of our friendship, which, I trust, will have much weight with you ; as in that of Uie republic, which has ever, I know, been the object of your wannest affection. Believe me, the army under my com- mand is zealously attached not only to the senate, and to every friend of our country, but particularly to yourself. The frequent accounts, indeed, they hear of your patriot disposition, have extremely endeared you to them, and should they find their interests to be a part of your concern, they will consider yon, in all respects, as their first and greatest benefactor. Since I wrote the above, I have received intelli- gence that Dolabella is marched into Cilicia, whither I purpose immediately to follow him. I will give you early notice of the event of this expe- dition, and may I so prove successful, as I shall endeavour to deserve well of the republic. Take care of your health, and continue your friendship to me. Farewell. From my camp. May the 7th, . V. 710. LETTER XI. To Decimus BrutTis, Consul elect. The message you commissioned Galba and Volumnius to deliver to the senate, sufficiently intimates the nature of those fears and suspicions which you imagine we have reason to entertain. But I must confess, that the apprehensions you would thus infuse into us, seem by no means worthy of that glorious victory you have obtained over the enemies of the common- wealth. Believe me, my dear Brutus, both the senate, and the generals that support its cause, are animated with an undaunted resolution ; we are sorry, therefore, that you, whom we esteem the bravest captain that ever the republic employed, should think us capable of any timidity. Is it possible, indeed, after having confidently reposed our hopes on yonr courage and conduct, when you were invested by Antony in all the fulness of his < Some account of these persons, as well as of Bassus, inentioned in the next sentence, has been given in the preceding remark. strength and power, that any of us should harbour the least fear now that the siege is raised, and the enemy's army entirely overthrown ? Nor have we anything, surely, to apprehend from Lepidus. For who can imagine him so utterly void of all rational conduct, as to have professed himself an advocate for peace, when we were engaged in a most neces- sary and important war, and yet to take up arms against the republic the moment that most desir- able peace is restored ? You are far too sagacious, I doubt not, to entertain such a thought '*. Never- theless, the fears you have renewed amongst us, at a time when every temple throughout Home is resounding with our thanksgivings for your deli- verance, have cast a very considerable damp upon our joy. May the fact prove, then, (what, indeed, I am inclined to beUeve as well as hope) that Antony is completely vanquished. But should he happen to recover some degree of strength, he will most assuredly find that neither the senate is destitute of wisdom nor the people of courage ; I will add, too, nor the republic of a general, so long as you shall be alive to lead forth her armies. FarewelL May the 19th. LETTER XII. Plancus to Cicero. Antony arrived at Forum-Julii, with the van of his army, on the 15th of May, and Yentidius is »,j only two days' march behind him. Lepi- dus writes me word, that he proposes to wait for me at Forum-Voconii', where he is at present encamped, a place about four-and-twenty miles distant from Forum-Julii. If he and Fortune do not deceive my expectations, the senate may depend upon my speedily terminating this business to their full satisfaction. I mentioned to you in a former letter, that the great fatigues which my brother had undergone, by his continual marches, had extremely impaired his constitution. Howeter, as soon as he was suffi- ciently recovered to get abroad, he considered his health as au acquisition which he had gained as much for the service of the republic as for himself, and was the first therefore to engage in every hazardous expedition. But I have recommended it to him, and indeed insisted, that he should return to Rome, as he would be much more likely to wear himself away by continuing in the caoip, than be able to give me any assistance. Besides, I imagined, now that the republic was most unhap- pily deprived of both the consuls, that the presence of so worthy a magistrate would be absolutely necessary at Rome. But if any of you should think otherwise, let me be censured for my imprudent ad- vice ; but let not my brother he condemned as fail- ing in his duty. Lepidus, agreeably to my request, has delivered Apella into my hands, as a hostage for the faith- ful execution of his engagements to co-operate with me in the defence of the commonwealth. Lucius Gellius has given me proofs bf his zeal, as "* It will appear in the progress of these letters, that if Cicero was really in earnest in what he here says concerd- ing Lepidus, it was he himself, and not Brutus, who wanted sagacity. « Now called Le Luc: in Provence. PP3 580 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO he has also acted in the affair of the three brathers; to the satisfaction of Sextus Gavianus. I have lately employed the latter in some negotiations between Lepidus and myself, and I have found him firmly attached to the interest of the republic. It is with great pleasure I give this testimony in his favour, a tribute which I shall always be ready to pay where- ever it is deserved. Take care of your health, and allow me the same share of your heart which you most assuredly pos- sess of mine, I recommend my dignities, likewise, to your protection ; and I hope, if I can plead any merit, you will continue your good offices to me with the same singular affection you have hitherto discovered. Farewell. LETTER XIIL To Cornificius. You recommend a friend of my own, when you desire my good offices to Lucceius : be assured I „ shall faithfully support his interest by ■*■''* every mean in my power. We have lost our colleagues ', Hirtius and Pansa : and the death of these excellent consuls, who dis- charged their office with great advantage to the republic, has happened at a very unseasonable con- juncture. For though we are at present delivered from the oppressions of Antony, we are not wholly free from all apprehensions of danger. But, if I may be permitted, I shall continue myusual endea- vours to preserve the commonwealth from ruin ; though, I must confess, I am full weary of the work. No lassitude, however, ought to obstruct the duties we owe to our country. — But I forbear to enter farther into this subject, as I had rather you should hear of my actions from others than from myself. The account I receive of yours is entirely agreeable to my wishes ; but it is far other- wise with respect to the reports concerning Minu- cius. They are, indeed, very unfavourable to his character, notwithstanding all the fine things you said of him in one of your letters. I should be glad to know the truth of the case, and to be informed of eveiything else which is transacting in your province. Farewell. LETTER XIV. To Vecimus Brutus, Consul elect. It is with infinite satisfaction, my dear Brutus, that I find you approve of my conduct in the senate. *. V. 710. ^^^ respect both to the decemvirs*, and to the honours decreed to our young' man. Yet, after all, whathave my labours availed .' Be- lieve me, my friend, (and you know I am not apt to boast,) the senate was the grand engme of my power : but all those springs which I used so suc- cessfully to manage, have utterly lost their force f In the college of augurs. B These decemvirs were probably the ten persons whom the senate, in the first transports of their supposed com- plete victory before the walls of Modena, had appointed to inquire into the conduct of Antony during his administra- tion of the consular office — ^Appian. De BoU. Civ. iii. 578. I" Octavius. The honours here mentioned were, perhaps, the ovation, (a kind of inferior and less splendid triumph,) which, by the influence of Cicero, was decreed to young Cicsar for his services at the siege of Modena,-^Lifc of Cicero, p. 274. and I can no longer direct its motions. The truth of it is, the news of your glorious sally from the garrison of Mutina, of Antony's flight, and of his army being entirely cut to pieces, had inspired such confident hopes of a complete victory, that the disappointment has cast a general damp upon the spirit I had raised against our enemies ; and all my ardent invectives seem at last to have proved just as insignificant as if I had been combating with my own shadow. But to the purpose of youi letter. — ^Those who are acquainted with the disposi- tions of the fourth and the martial legions, assure me they will never be prevailed on to serve undet you. As to the supply of money which you desire, some measures may, and most assuredly shall, be taken in order to raise it. I am wholly in your sentiments with regard to the calling Brutus' out of Greece, and retaining Csssar here for the protec- tion of Italy. I agree with you, likewise, my dear Brutus, that you have enemies ; and though I find it no very difficult matter to sustain their attacks, yet still, however, they somewhat embarrass my schemes in your favour. The legions from Africa^ are daily expected. In the mean time, the world is greatly astonished to find that the war is broke out againin your province. Nothing, in truth, ever happened so unexpectedly ; as we had promised ourselves, from the account of the victory which was brought to us on your birth- day, that the peace of the republic was established for many generations. But now all our fears are revived with as much strength as ever. You mentioned in your letter, dated the I5th of May, that you were just informed, by an express from Plancus, that Lepidus had refused to receive Antony. Should this prove to be fact, our busi- ness will be so much the easier ; if not, we shall have a very difficult struggle to maintain, and it depends upon you to ease me of my great appre- hensions for the event. As for my own part, I have exhausted all my powers, and I am utterly incapable of doing more than I have already per- formed. It is far otherwise, however, with ray friend ; and I not only wish but expect to see you the greatest and most distinguished of Romans. Farewell. LETTER XV. To Plancus. Nothing, my dear Plancus, could be more glori- ous to yourself,normore acceptableto the senate than i. D. 710. *''* letter you lately addressed to that as- sembly : I will add too, nothing could be more opportune than the particularjunctureinnhich it was delivered. Cornutus received it in the presence of a very full house, just as he had communicated to us a cold and irresolute letter from Lepidus. Yours was read immediately afterwards, and it was heard with the loudest acclamations of applause. It was highly pleasing indeed to the senate, not only from the importance of its contents, and those zealous services to the republic of which it gave us an account, but from that strength and elegance of expression with which it, was animated. The senate was extremely urgent that it might Imme- i Marcus Bnitus, i Those Were sohip of the veterjin. legions that had served under Juliiis Cresar, feec rem. i--> on letter 18 of this bodk. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 581 diately be taken into consideration : but Cornutus thought proper to decline their request. However, the whoft assembly expressing great indignation at his refusal, the question was put by five of the tri- bunes of the people. When Servilius was called upon for his opinion, he moved that the debate might be adjourned. What my sentiments were (and I was supported in them by the unanimous concurrence of the whole house) you will see by the decree that passed upon this occasion. 1 am sensible that your own superior judgment is abundantly sufficient to direct you in all emer- gencies ; yet I cannot forbear advising you not to wait for the sanction of the senate in so critical a conjuncture as the present, and which undoubtedly must often demand immediate action. Be a senate, my friend, to yourself; and, without any other authority, scruple not to pursue such measures as the interest of the republic shall require. In one word, let your actions anticipate our expectations, and give ns the pleasure • of hearing that you have executed some glorious exploit, ere we are so much as apprised that you even had it in your intention. I will venture to assure you, that the senate will most certainlyapprove both your zeal and your judg- mentinwhatevervoushallthus undertake. Farewell. LETTER XVI. To Decimus Brutus, Consul elecL I AM indebted to you for your short letter by Flaccus Volumnius, as well as for two others more o 710 fnl^oneof which was brought bythe cou- rier of Titils Vibius, the other was for- warded to me by Lupus ; and all of them came to my hands on the same day. I find, by your own ac- count, as well as by that which Graeceiushas given me, that the wait, far from being extinguished, seems to be breaking out again with greater violence. You are sensible, if Antony should gain any strength, that all your illustrious services to the republic will be utterly frustrated. The first accounts we received here, and which, indeed, were universally credited, represented him as hav- ing run away in great consternation, attended only with a few frightened and disarmed soldiers. But if the truth, after all, should be (what Grseceius assures me) that Antony is, in fact, so strong as to render it unsafe to give him battle, he does not seem so much to have fled from Mutina, as to have changed the seat of war. This unexpected news has given all Rome another countenance, and a general air of disappointment appears in every face. There are even some amongst us who complain of your not' having immediately pursued Antony ; for they ima^ne, if no time had been lost, that he must inevitably have been destroyed. But it is usual with the people in all governments, and espe- cially in ours, to be particularly disposed to abuse their liberty, by licentious reflections on those to whom they are indebted for the enjoyment of it. However, one should be careful not to give them any just cause for their censures, To sayall in one word, whoever destroys Antony will have the glory of terminating the war : a hint which I had rather leave to your own reflections, than enter myself into a more open explanation''. Farewell. k .See rem. ■, 25. .976. LETTER XVn. Decimus Brutus to Cicero, I WILL no longer attempt to make any formal acknowledgments of the repeated instances I re- A H 710 "^"^ °^ y"""^ friendship : mere words are a very inadequate return to those obliga- tions which my best services can but ill repay. If you will look back upon my former letters, you cannot be at a loss to discover the reasons that prevented me from pursuing Antony immediately after the battle of Mutina. The truth, my dear Cicero, is, that I was not only unprovided both with cavalry and baggage-horses, but not having at that time had an interview with Ceesar, I could not depend on his assistance : and I was wholly ignorant, likewise, that Hirtius was killed. This will account for my not having pursued Antony on the day of the engagement. The day following I received an express from Fansa, to attend him at Bononia ; but, in my way thither, being informed of his death, I immediately returned back to join my little corps. I may justly call them so, indeed, as my forces are extremely diminished, and in a very bad condition, from the great hardships they suffered during the siege. It was by these means that Antony got two days' advance of me ; and, as he marched in disorder, he could retire much faster than it was in my power to pursue. He increased his forces likewise by pressing the inhabitants, and throwing open the prisons in every town through which he passed : and in this manner he continued his march till he arrived in the fens of Sabata. This is a place with which I must bring you acquainted. It is situated between the Alps and the Apennines, and the roads that lie about it are scarce practicable. When I had reached within thirty miles of Antony, I was informed that he had been joined by Yentidius, and had made a speech at the head of their combined troops, to persuade tliem to follow him over the Alps ; assuring them that Lepidus had agreed to support him. Nevertheless, not only his own soldiers (which, indeed, are a very inconsiderable number,) but those likewise of Ventidius, repeatedly and unanimously declared that they were determined either to conquer, or perish in Italy ; and at the same time desired that they might be conducted to Pollentia'. Antony found it in vain to oppose them ; however, he defened his march till the ensuing day. As soon as I received this intelligence, I detached five cohorts to FoUentia ; and am now following them with the remainder of my troops. This detach- ment threw themselves into that city an hour before Trebellius arrived with his cavalry ; a circumstance which gives me great satisfaction, as it is a point, I think, upon which our whole success depends. When the enemy found that their designs were thus frustrated, they conceived hopes of crossing the Alps into Gaul ; as they supposed the four legions commanded by Flancus would not be able to withstand their united forces, and that an army firom Italy could not overtake them soon enough to prevent their passage. — However, the AUo- broges, together with my detachment, have hitherto been sufficient to prevent their design ; which, I 1 Some remains of this city still subsist, under the name of Polmza. It iS' situated at the confluence of the Stura and the Tanaro, in Piedmont. 682 THB LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO trust, they will find still more difficult to effect, when I shall come up with the reStof my forces. But should they happen, in the mean time, to p.ass the Isara, I shall exert my utmost endeavours that this circumstance may not be attended with any ill consequences to the commonwealth. Let it raise the spirits and the hopes of the stoate, to observe that Plancus and myself, toge- ther with our respective armies, act in perfect concert with each other, and are ready to hazard every danger in support of the common cause. However, whilst you thus confidently rely on our zeal and diligence, you will remit nothing, I hope, of your own, but employ your utmost care to send us a reinforcement, as well as every other necessary supply, that may render us in a condition to defend your liberties against those who have infamously ^dnspired their ruin. One cannot, indeed, but look upon these our enemies with so much the greater indignation, as they have acted with the vilest hypocrisy, and suddenly turned those troops against their country, which they long pretended to have raised for its defence. Farewell. LETTER XVIIL Decimus Brutus to Cicero, I WISH you would peruse the letter I have addressed to the senate, and make what alterations i n 710 7*"^ shall.judge proper. You will find by * it, that I am under an absolute necessity of thus applying to them. Whilst I imagined that I should be joined by the \fourth and martial legions", agreeably to the decree of the senate which passed for that purpose on the motion of Paulus and Drusus, I was less solicitous about the rest ; but now that I have only some new-raised regiments, and those too extremely ill-accoutred, I cannot but be apprehensive upon your accounts, as well as upon my own. The citizens of Vicentia" have always distin- guished Marcus Brutus and myself by their parti- cular regard. I entreat you, therefore, to endeavour that justice be done them by the senate, in the affair concerning the slaves. They, are, indeed, entitled to your favour, Ijoth by the equity of their cause, and the fidelity with which they have, upon all occasions, persevered in their allegiance to the republic : whereas their adversaries, on the con- trary, are a most seditious and faithless people. Farewell. Vercellaj °, May the 21st. LETTER Xrx. Marcus Lepidus^ to Cicero. Havins received advice that Antony was ad- vancing with his troops towards my province, and A. u. 710. ^^^ ^^^ before hiin a detachment of his cavalry under the command o^ his brother " These were veteran legiona which had served under CaGBlir. But, notwith&tandmg that they entered into the army of the late consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, they could by no means be prevailed with to join Decimus Brutus, in resentment, *tis probable, of the pajt he bore in the conspiracy against their favourite geueral.^Ep. Fam xi. 14. " Vicenza, a maritime city :in the territories of the Venetians. " VerceUi, in the duchy of Milan. _ P See rem. "t'p. S67. Lucius, I moved with my army from the coiifluence of the Rhone and the Arar', in order tb oppose their passage. I continued my march without halting, till I arrived at Forum Voconii, and am now encamped somewhat beyond that town, on the river Argenteus', opposite to Antony. Teu- tidius has joined him with his three legions, and has formed his camp a little above mine. Antony, before this conjunction, had the second legion en- tire, together with a considerable number of men, though indeed wholly unarmed, who escaped from the general slaughter of his other legions : he is extremely strong in cavalry ; for, as none of those troops suffered in the late action, he has no less than ***' horse. Great numbers of his soldiers, both horse and foot, are continually deserting to my camp ; so that his troops diminish every day. Both Silanus' and Culeo" have left his army, and are returned to mine. But notwithstanding I was greatly offended by their going to Antony, con- trary to my inclination, yet, in regard to the con. nexions that subsist between us, and in compliance with my usual clemency, I have thought proper to pardon them. However, I do not, upon any occa. sion, employ their services, nor, indeed, suffer them to remain in the camp. As to what concerns my conduct in this war, you may depend upon it I shall not be wanting in my duty either to the senate or the republic ; and whatever farther measures I shall take to this end, I shall not fail to communicate them to you. The friendship between us has upon all occasions been inviolably preserved on both sides, and we have mutually vied in our best good offices to each other. Biit I doubt not that, since this great and sudden commotion has been raised in the common- wealth, some false and injurious reports have been spread of me by my enemies, which, in the zeal of your heart for the interest of the republic, have given you much uneasiness. I have the satisfac- tion, however, to be informed by my agents at Rome, that you are by no means disposed easily to credit these idle rumours ; for which I think myself, as I justly ought, extremely obliged to you. I am so, likewise, for the former instances of yora: friendship, in promoting my public honours, the grateful remembrance of which, be assured, is in- delibly impressed upon my heart. Let me conjure you, my dear Cicero, if you are sensible that my public conduct has upon all occa sions been worthy of the name I bear, to be per suaded that I shall continue to act with equal, or, if possible, even with superior zeal'. Let me hope, too, that the greater the favours are which you have conferred upon me, the more you will think yourself engaged to support my credit and character. Farewell. From my camp, at I'ons Argenteus, May the 22d. 1 The Saom, which falls into the Bhone at Lyons. ' The Argms, in Provence : it empties itself inW the Mediterranean, a few miles below Frejus. ' The number is omitted in all the ancient MSS. * See rem. ^ p. ,574. " He had been sent by Lepidus with a body of men, under the pretence of guarding the passes of the Alps, ^ut most probably with secret instructions to favour the march of Antony over those mountains, in his way to the camp of Lepidus ; for he suffered Antony to pass them without the least obstruction.— Appian . De Bell. Civ. iii. p. 679. ' Tlierc was so little of truth in these professions, that TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. £83 LETTER XX, Plancus to Cicero. Yon have been apprised, no doubt, by Lsevus and Nerva, as well as by the letter they delivered A. u. 710. '" y" "^ ""y part, of the design I was meditating when they left me ; as, indeed, they have constantly borne a share in all my councils and measures of every kind. It has happened, however, to me, what happens not unfrequently I suppose to every man who is tender of his reputation, and desirous of approving his conduct to> and ', p. 565-66, received from him being written (as you will per- ceive by the copies I herewith transmit) in the same spirit with those speeches which, it is said, he made to his army at Narbo ^, 1 found it neces- sary to act with some sort of artifice towards him, if I hoped to obtain leave to march my troops through his province. I was apprehensive, hke- wise, if an engagement should happen before I could execute my designs, that the known friend- ship I had with Antony (though not superior, indeed, to that which Plancus entertained for him) would give my enemies an occasion of misrepresent- ing my intentions. For these reasons I despatched two couriers from Gades % in the month of April, by two different ships, with letters, not only to you, and to Octavius, but to the consuls also, requesting to be informed in what manner my services might most avail the republic. But, if I am right in my calculation, these ships did not sail till the very day on which the battle was fought between Pansa and Antony; as that was the soonest, I think, since the winter, that these seas were navigable. To these reasons for not marching, I must add, that I had so little apprehension of this civil war, that I settled the winter-quarters of my troops in the very remotest parts of Lusitania''. Both armies, it should seem, were as eager to come to an action, as if their greatest fears on each side were, lest some less destructive expedient might be found of composing our disturbances. However, if circum- stances required so much precipitation, I must do Hirtius the justice to acknowledge, that he con- ducted himself with all the skill and courage of a consummate general. I am informed, by my letters from that part of Gaul which is under the command of Lepidus, that Pansa's whole army is cut to pieces, and that he himself is since dead of his wounds. They ^dd, that the martial legion is entirely destroyed, and that Lucius Fabatus, Caius Peducseus, and Deci- mns Carfiilenus, are among the number of the slain. My intelligence farther assures me, that, in the subsequent attack by Hirtius, both he and Antony lost all their legions; that the fourth legion, after having taken Antony's camp, was engaged and defeated by the iifth, with terrible slaughter ; that Hirtius, together vrith Pontius Aquila, and, as it is reported, Octavius likewise, were killed in the action. If this should prove true, (which the gods forbid,) I shall he very greaUy concerned. My advices farther import, tiiat An- tony has, with great disgrace, abandoned the siege of Mutina; however, that he has ***' complete regiments of horse still remaining, together with one which belongs to Publius Bagiennus, as also a considerable number of disarmed soldiers ; that Ventidius has joined him with the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth legions ; and that Antony is determined, if there should be no hopes of gaining Lepidus, to have recourse to the last expedient, and arm not only the provincials, but even the ^ Narbonne, in I^rovence. » Cadiz. b Portugal. « The number is omitted in the MSS. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS 691 slaTes ; in fine, tliat Lucius Antonins, after having plundered the city of Farina, has posted himself upon the Alps. If these several particulars are true, there is no time to be lost ; and every man who wishes that the republic, or even the name of the Roman people, may subsist, should imme- diately, without waiting for the express orders of the senate, contribute his utmost assistance to extinguish these dreadful flames. I bear that Dedmus Brutus is at the head of only seventeen cohorts, together with two incomplete legions of new-raised troops, which had been levied by An- tony. I doubt not, however, that the remains of the forces commanded by Hirtins will join him. I hope so at least ; as there is little, I think, to be expected from any new recruits that may be raised ; especially since nothing can be more dangerous than to give Antony time to recover strength. My next letters from Italy will determine the plan of my operations ; and, as the com is now cut down, and partly carried in, I shall be more at liberty to execute them without obstruction from the season of the year. In the mean time, let me assure yon, that I will neither desert, nor survive'', the republic. It is a misfortmie, however, that my distance from the scene of action is so great, and the roads so infested, that it is often six weeks, and sometimes more, ere I can be informed of any event that has happened. Farewell. LETTER in. Decimus Brutus to Cicero. It affords me some consolation, in the midst of my great concern "f that the world is at length convinced that my fears were not without just foundation '. I have sent, by this express, a full account of the whole affair to the senate. And now let them deliberate, if they please, whether they shall call home their troops from Africa and Sardinia, whether they shall send for Marcus Brutus, and whether they shall order the payment of my forces. But of this you may be well assured, that unless they act, with regard to these several articles, in the manner I have pointed out in my letter, we shall all of us be exposed to the utmost danger. I entreat you to be extremely cautious whom the senate shall employ to conduct the troops that are to reinforce me ; as it is a trust which requires great fidelity and expedition. Farewell. From my camp, June 3d. ^ NotwithEtanding Pollio's pious resolutions of expiring with the republic, he was contented to live on long after its total destruction, and died in a good old age in the court and favour of Augustus. It was not many months, indeed, from the date of this letter, that he united with the enemies of his country, by joining his troops with those of Antony and Lepidns.— Anct. Dial, de Cans. Corrupt. Eloquent. « Occasioned by the treachery of Lepidns, in having deserted the cause of the republic and joined himself to Antony. This letter appears to have been'written a few days ^ter that event, being dated the 3d of June ; and the junction between the two armies of Lepidus and Antony having been effected on the 29th of May. ' See the 11th letter of the preceding book, to which this seems to allude. LETTER IV. To Decimus Brutus 2. Mat every god confound that most infamous of all human beings, the execrable Segulius ! For do you imagine, my friend, that he has i. D. 7 . jgjij jjjjg jjj^ ^g jq none but Csesar, or to you ? Be assured he has related it to every mortal that would give him the hearing. I am much obliged to you, however, for informing me of this contemptible report ; as it is a very strong instance, my dear Brutus, of the share you allow me inyottr friendship. As to what he mentioned concerning the com- plaints of the veterans, that you and Ceesar are left out of the commission for dividing the lands, I sin- cerely wish I had, likewise, been excluded from so troublesome an office. But it is by no means to be imputed to me, that you were not both nomi- nated ; on the contrary, I moved that all our gene- rals should be included. But the clamours of those who always endeavoured to obstruct your honours, carried it against me ; and you were both excepted, in opposition to my warmest efforts. Unheeded then by me, let Segulius propagate his impotent calumnies ! For all that the man means is nothing more than to repair his broken fortunes. Not that he can be charged with having dissipated his patrimony ; for patrimony he never had. He has only squandered in luxury what he acquired by infamy. You may be perfectly at ease, my dear and ex- cellent Brutus, with regard to those fears which you so generously entertain upon my account, at the same time that you feel none, you tell me, upon your own Be assured I shall expose myself to no dangers which prudence can prevent ; and, as to those against which no precaution can avail, I am little solicitous. High, indeed, would my presump- tion be, were I to desire to he privileged beyond the common lot of human nature. The advice you give me not to suffer my fears to lead me into greater dangers than those they would avoid, supplies me at once with a proof both of your judgment and your friendship ; but the caution is altogether unnecessary. The truth of it is, dis- tinguished as you are by a fortitude of mind which renders yon incapable of fear upon any occasion, yet there is no man who approaches nearer to you in that quality than myself. Nevertheless, I shall always he upon my guard, though I shall never be afraid. Indeed, if I should have any reason, will it not be wholly owing, my dear Brutus, to your- self ? For were 1 of a disposition apt to take alarm, yet I should be perfectly composed, in the confidence of that protection I shall receive from your approaching consulate ; especially as the world is no less sensible than I am of the singular share I enjoy of your affection. I agree entirely with your opinion concerning the four legions, as also that both you and Csesar should have the distribution of those estates you mention. This is an office on which some of my colleagues had cast a very wistful eye ; however, I have disappointed their longing, by reserving it I This letter is an answer to the 23d of the foregoing book, and was written before any of the letters which give an account of Antony's being received by Lepidus had come to Cicero's hands. 502 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO wholly for you and Caesar. In the mean time, if any occurrence should arise that requires particu- lar secrecy, I shall observe your directions, and communicate it to you by one of my own domestics. Farewell. LETTER V. Plancus to Cicero. I SHALL never regret to undergo the gi-eatest dangers in the cause of my country, provided, my 710 ^^^^ Cicero, that whatever happens to myself, I may not justly be accused of temerity. But I should not scruple to confess that I had been guilty of an imprudence, if I had ever acted in reliance upon the sincerity of Lepidus. Too easy a disposition to give credit to fair pre- tences, cannot so properly be called a fault as an error : but an error into which the noblest minds are generally most liable to fall. It was not, how- ever, from a mistake of this nature that I had lately well-nigh been deceived : for the character of Lepidus 1 perfectly well knew. It was entirely owing to a certain sensibility of what my detractors might say: a quality, I will freely acknowledge, particularly prejudicial in the affair of war. I was apprehensive, if I remained in my camp, that those who are inclined to misconstrue my actions, might represent me as the occasion of the war being protracted, by obstinately indulging my resentment against Lepidus : and, therefore, I ad- vanced almost within sight of him and Antony. I encamped, indeed, at no greater distance from them than forty miles, that I might be able, as circumstances should require, either speedily to join the army of Lepidus, or safely to retreat with my own. In marking out my camp, I chose a spot of ground that gave me the advantage of having a large river in my front, which would take up some time in passing, and that lay con- tiguous, likewise, to the country of the Vocontii'': who, I was sure, would favour my retreat. When Lepidus found himself disappointed of what he so much wished, and that there was no hopes of my approaching nearer, he immediately threw off the mask ; and on the 29th of May he joined Antony. The combined armies moved the same day in order to invest my camp ; and they had actually advanced within twenty miles before I received advice of their junction. However, I sti-uck my tents with so much expedition, that, by the favour of the gods, I had the happiness to escape them. My retreat was conducted with so much good order, that no part of my baggage, nor even a single man, was either left behind or intercepted by these incensed villains. On the 4th of this month I repassed the Isara with my whole army : after which I broke down the bridge I had thrown across that river. I took this precaution, that my troops might have time to refresh themselves, as well as to give my colleague' an opportunity of coming up to me : which I imagine he will be able to effect in three days from the date of this letter. I must always acknowledge the zeal and fidelity 1' A people of Narbonen&ian Gaul. 1 iJecimus Brutus. which Laterensis has shown to the repu"blic, in his negotiations between Lepidus and myself : Ijut it is certain that his great partiality towards Lepidus prevented him from discerning the dangers into which I have been led. However, as soon as he discovered how grossly he had been imposed upon, he attempted to turn that sword against his own breast, which with much more justice had been plunged in the heart of Lepidus. But he was pre- vented from completing his purpose : and it is said (though I by no means mention it as a cer- tainty) that the wound he has given himself is not mortal'. My escape from these traitors has proved an extreme mortification to them ; as they marched to attack me with the same unrelenting fury which instigates them against their country. Some late circumstances particularly contributed to inflame their resentment. I had frequently and warmly urged Lepidus to extinguish this civil war : I had disapproved of the conferences that were holden with the enemy : I had refused to see the lieute- nants whom Antony deputed to me under the passports of Lepidus : and had intercepted Catius Vestinus, whom the former had sent express to the latter. But it is with pleasure I reflect, that the more earnestly they wished to get me into their hands, the more they suffer in the disappointment. Continue, my dear Cicero, to employ the same vigorous efforts you have hitherto exerted, that we who are in arms, for the defence of the repubUc, may have suitable honours paid to our services. In the mean time, I wish that Csesar would join us with those brave troops he commands ; or, if his affairs will not permit him, that, at least, they might be sent under the conduct of some other general ; for most certainly his own personal interest is at stake''. The whole force of the dis- affected party is united against our country : and shall we not put forth our utmost strength in its defence ? As for what concerns myself, I will venture to assure you, that if you at Rome are not wanting on your parts, I will abundantly perforin everything that can be expected on mine. The obligations I am continually receiving from your hands, endear you to me every day more and more ; at the same time that they animate me to act in such a manner as not to forfeit, in any degree, your esteem and affection. I will only add my wishes, that I were able in person to give you such proofs of my gratitude as might afford you greater reason to rejoice in the good offices you have conferred upon me. Farewell. Ciilaro, on the frontiers of the -\Uobrogesl, June the Cth. , J It proved otherwise, and the senate, in honour of his patriotism, not only decreed him a public fimeral, but ordered a statue to be erected to his memory. — Dio, p. 324. ^ Octavius was at this time secretly carrying on a treaty with Lepidus and Antony, which shortly after ended in an alliajice, which every reader is acquainted with, under the name of the Triumvirate. 1 A people of the Nai'bonensian Gaul, in which Cularo, now called Grenohle» was situated. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 693 LETTER VL To Decimus Brutus. To tell you the truth™, I was once inclined to be somewhat angry at the shortness of your letters : A V 7J0 '"'' ^ '"''' "'"' ^° ^^^ reconciled to your concise manner, that I condemn my own as downright loquacity, and shall make your epis- tles the models of mine. How short, yet how expressive are you when you tell me, that " all things go well with you, and that you shall endea- vour to render them still better ; that Lepidus seems favourably disposed ; and that we have everything to expect from our three armies"!" Were I ever so full of fears, these significant sen- tences would banish them all. But 1 exert the spirit you recommend ; and, indeed, if, at the time when you were closely blocked up in Mutina, my hopes, nevertheless, were fixed entirely upon you, how much higher, think you, must they be raised now ? I should be glad, my dear Brutus, to resign to you my post of observation, if I might do so without incurring the censure of deserting it. As to what you mentioned of continuing in Italy till you should hear from me, I do not disapprove of it, if the motions of the enemy should not call you elsewhere ; as there are' many points upon the carpet at Rome, which may render it prudent for you not to remove to a farther distance. But, at all events, if your presence here may prove a mean of terminating the war, it is undoubtedly the first and principal scheme you should have in view. The senate has decreed the first money that could be raised for the payment of your troops. Servius is extremely your friend; and you may always depend upon me. Farewell. June the Btb. LETTER VIL Asinius Pollio to Cicero. Balbus", my quaestor, has withdrawn from Gades with very considerable effects in his hands, . which he had received ofthe public taxes P, consisting of a large quantity of uncoined gold, a much larger of silveri, together with a great sum of ready money ; and what adds to his iniquity is, that he has not discharged even the pay of the troops'. In his flight he was detained three days, by contrary winds, at Calpe', — from whence, how- ever, he sailed on the 1st of this month, and has ™ When Cicei'O wrote this letter, which is an answer to the 24th of the preceding hook, [see p. 586,] he had not yet received the news of Antony's junction with Lepidus. " n Tliose of Decimus Brutus, Planous, and Octavius. " He was nephew to Lucius Cornelius Balbus, the gi'eat friend and favourite of Caesar, and of whom frequent men- tion has been made in the preceding letters. P Tlie quaestor was receiver-general of the provincial taxes. 1 The province of Spain abounded in valuable mines of every sort, particularly in those of silver and gold, the proprietors of which paid a certain proportion, to tho government, of the pure ore which these mines produced. — Strab. iil. : Burman. de Vectigal. Pop. Bom, Dissert, p. 107. *■ The payment of the forces was a part of the business Delonging to the provincial qiisstots, * Gibraltar. transported himself, together with his treasure, into the dominions of Bogud, king of Mauritania*. But whether the present prevailing reports" will bring him back to Gades or cariy him to' Rome I know not ; for I hear that his resolutions vary with every different express that arrives. But, besides the robberies and the extortions he has committed in this province, and the cruelties he has exercised towards our allies, he affected, in several instances, to imitate (as he himself used to boast) the actions of Ceesar. Accordingly, on the last day of the games which he exhibited at Gades, he presented Herennius Gallus, a comedian, with the golden ring, and conducted him to one of the fourteen benches of the theatre which he had appropriated to those of the equestrian order. He likewise continued himself in the supreme magistracy of Gades by his own single authority, and at two immediately successive assemblies of the people he nominated for the two next following years such of his creatures whom he thought proper to succeed him in the government of that city. He also re- called from exile, not indeed those unfortunate men who were banished on account of the present com- motions, but those infamous rebels who were con- cerned in the sedition which was raised in Gades during the proconsulate of Sextus Yarrus', and in which aU the members of their council were either assassinated or expelled. Thus far he had Caesar for his model ; but, in the instances I am going to mention, he exceeded even Csesar himself. He caused a play to be acted at the public games upon the subject of his embassy to Lucius Lentulus", the proconsul ; and the good man was so affected with the remembrance of those transactions which the scenes of this drama recalled to his mind, that he melted into tears. At the gladiatorial games, he gave a specimen of his cruelty with regard to one Fadius, who had served in Pompey's army. This man had twice, it seems, voluntarily entered the lists in combats of this kind ; but upon the present occasion he refused to fight, though peremptorily required by Balbus, and accordingly threw himself upon the protection of the populace. But the * One of the most considerable kingdoms in ancient Africa, comprehending those of Fez and Morocco, together with part of Algiers and Billedulgerid. Bogud, the prince of this country, had, in the late civil wars, favoured and assisted Ciesar, by whom he had been greatly distin- guished, as he aftenvards supported Antony in the war between him and Octavius. It is probable, therefore, that Balbus withdrew with these treasures, not in order to convert them to his private use, but to employ them in the cause of Antony.— Hirt. De Bell, Alex, 59 ; De Boll, Afrio, m. " Concerning the junction of Lepidus with Antony. V It does not appear who this person was, nor at what time he presided as governor of Spain. ' w He was consul in the year 704, when the civil war broke out, in which he took part with Pompey. He aocompanied that general in his retreat to Brundisiura, and from thence passed over with him into Greece, But before Lentulus left Italy Balbus was employed by Caesar (as Manutius observes) to prevail with him to return to Rome, Balbus afterwards (as appears by a passage which the same commentator cites from Paterculus) executed a much more difficult commission of this kind, at the siego of Dyrrachium, where he undertook to carry some farther overtures from Cassar to Lentulus, who was in that garri- son, and which he executed with equal address and intre- pidity. It was this adventure, it is probable, that formed the subject of the play which Pollio here mentions,— Ad Att. viii. 11 ; Veil. Pat, ii, hi. £!)* THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TDLLIUS CICERO mob having pelted Balbus with stones when he attempted to recover him out of their hands, he let loose upon them a party of his Gallic horse. Balbus having by these means got the unfortunate Fadius into his possession, ordered him to be fixed in a pit which was dug for that purpose in the place where the games were exhibited, and caused him in this manner to be burned alive. This was performed soon after Balbus had dined", who was present during the whole execution, walking about bare-footed, with his hands behind him and his tunic loose, in the most unconcerned and indecent manner ; and while the unhappy sufferer cried out that he was a Roman citizen, " Why do you not run now (said the insulting and relentless Balbus) to implore the protection of the people.'" But this was not the single cruelty he exercised. He exposed, likewise, several Roman citizens to wild beasts ; particularly a certain noted auctioneer in the city of Hispalis?,' — and this for no other reason but because the poor man was excessively deformed. Such is the monster with whom I had the misfor- tune to be connected ! But more of him when we meet. In the mean time (to turn to a point of much greater importance) I should be glad the senate would determine in what manner they would have me act. I am at the head of three brave legions, one of which Antony took great pains to draw over to his interest at the commencement of the war. For this purpose he caused it to be sig- nified to them, that the very first day they should enter into his camp every soldier should receive five hundred denarii', besides which, he also as- sured them that if he obtained the victory they should receive an equal share of the spoils with his own troops ; a reward which all the world knows would have been without end or measure. These promises made a deep impression upon them ; and it was with great difficulty I kept them from desert- ing. I should not, indeed, have been able to have effected this if I had not cantoned them in distant quarters, — as some of the cohorts, notwithstanding they were thus separated, had the insolence to mutiny. Antony endeavoured, likewise, to gain the rest of the legions by immense offers. Nor was Lepidus less importunate with me to send him the thirtieth legion, which he solicited both by his own letters and by those which he caused Antony to write. The senate will do me the justice, there- fore, to believe, as no advantages could tempt me to sell my troops, nor any dangers which I had reason to apprehend if Antony and Lepidus should prove conquerors, could prevail with me to diminish " There geems to have been some peculiar indecorum in this circumstance, though it is not very easy to determine »Tierein it precisely consisted. It may lie that public executions, at this time of the day, were thought indecent ; it is certain, at least, that it was deemed improper to hold courts of judicature for the trial of criminal matters in an afternoon. For Plutarch talces notice that the younger Cato was accused of this practice during bis prstorship, and thinks it necessary, for the credit of that illustrious Roman, to deny the truth of the charge ; or, perhaps, PoUio might point out this circumstance as a mark of uncommon cruelty of disposition in Balbus, who could rise from table with a temper of mind so diflferent from that which pleasures of this sort are naturally apt to inspire, and turn from a cheerful mejil to a scene of the utmost horror and barbarity.— Phit. in Vit. Caton. Uticen. T The city of Seville, in Spain. " About 14?. sterling. their number, that I was thus tenacious of my army for no other purpose but to employ it in the service of the republic". And let the readiness with which 1 have obeyed all the orders I received from the senate be a proof that I would have com- plied in the same manner with every other they should have thought proper to have sent me. I have preserved the tranquillity of this province, I have maintained my authority over the army, and have never once moved beyond the limits of my own jurisdiction. I must add, likewise, that I have never employed any soldier, either of my own troops or those of my auxiliaries, in carrying any despatches whatsoever ; and I have constantly punished such of my cavalry whom I have fonnd at any time attempting to desert. I shall think these cares suiRciently rewarded in seeing the peace and security of the republic restored. But if the majority of the senate, and the commonwealth indeed in general, had known me for what I am, I should have been- able to have rendered them much more important services. I have sent you a copy of the letter which I wrote to Balbus just before he left this province; and if you have any curiosity to read his play, which I mentioned above, it is in the hands of my friend Gallus Cornelius, to whom you may apply for it. Farewell. Corduba, June the 8th. LETTER VIII. To Plancus. All our hopes are entirely fixed (and fixed, too, with the approbation of the gods themselves) upon ji.D.7io. y"* *°'* y°'"' coUeigue''- The perfect unanimity, therefore, that, appears, by your several letters to the senate, to subsist between you, affords great satisfaction, not only to that assembly in particular, but to the whole city in general. As to what you wrote to me concerning the commission for dividing the lands, if that afi'air had been brought before the senate I should have been the first to have proposed the most honourable decree in your favour. But the slowness of their deliberations in the business which was then under their consideration, together with other obstruc* tions which attended their debate8,having prevented them from coming to any resolution, both your brother and myselfwere of opinion that it was most advisable to proceed upon the former decree ; and I take it for granted that he has acquainted you to whom it is owing that it was not drawn up in the manner we proposed. But if, in this in- stance or in any other, your inclinations should not be entirely gratified, be well persuaded, how- ever, that you are in such high esteem with all the friends of the republic that there is no sort of honours they are not disposed to confer upon you. I wait with great impatience for an express from you, as I expect it will bring us the news I most wish. Farewell. • See rem. d, p. 691. *> Becimiis Brutus. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 696 LETTER IX. To Comificius'. Is it really eo, my friend ; and have I never written to you but when I had occasion to recom- . ^ «]„ mend the cause of some litigious suitor .' I confess I have frequently troubled you with letters of this kind ; but must you not thank your own obliging partiality towards me, if the world is persuaded that no recommendation has so much weight with you as mine ? Tell me, however, when did I omit writing, if your family gave me notice of an opportunity ? In fact, nothing affords me greater satisfaction, now that I cannot converse with you in person, than this intercourse of letters. I only lament that my public occupations prevent me from corresponding with you as frequently as I wish. If I had more leisure, indeed, I should not only provoke you to enter with me into a com- merce of this epistolary kind, but I should chal- lenge you with whole volumes of my works ; a diallenge which I ought to have received from you, as your engagements, X imagine, are not altogether so numerous as mine. But if I am mistaken in this supposition, how shall I acquit you of being a little unreasonable, in expecting fteqUenl letters on my part, when you have so seldom leisure to send me any on yours ? If I have hitherto been engaged in the most important occupations, as holding myself bound to exert all my cares in the defence of the republic, I may still more strongly urge that plea at present. For as a relapse is always more dangerous than a first attack, so the rekindling of this war, after it was almost totally extinguished, demands a double portion of my labour and vigilance. But, not to enter farther into this subject, believe me, my dear Cpmificius, I should think myself most inexcusably indolent, not to say iU-mannered, were I capable of suffering you to gain the superiority over me in any instance of friendship. That I enjoy yours, is a point of which I never once had the least doubt : but the conversation I have lately had with Cherip- pus, has rendered it still more evident. As agree- able as he always was to my taste, I could not but look upon him, in his last visit, with more than ordinary pleasure, as he not only acquainted me with the sentiments of your heart, in the message he deUvered to me, but, as he represented, at the same time, a lively image of your very air and countenance. You had no reason then to be ap- prehensive that I should be displeased at your having sent me the same common letter which you addressed to all your friends in general. If I de- sired a more particular memorial, it was merely from the affection of my heart, and by no means as a point upon which I insisted. The loss of both our consuls"', together with the incredible scarcity of money in the treasury, puts it out of my power to ease you of your great and continual expense in your military preparations. We are trying all expedients in order to raise sup- plies for discharging those donatives we promised to the troops that behaved well : and I imagine that we shall at last be obliged to have recourse to a tax«. * See rem. *>, p. 537. ^ Hirtius and Panea. • ** This was a sort of capitation tax, proportioned to I am persuaded there is no truth in the report concerning Attius Dionysius : as Stratorins has . not mentioned a word to me upon that subject. With regard to Publius Lucceius : be well per- suaded that his interest is no less my concern thali it is yours : for, indeed, he is extremely my friend. I could not, however, prevail with the managers of the auction to adjourn the sale ; their engage- ments and their oath oblige them, they assure me, to the contrary. I would by all means, therefore, advise him to hasten into Italy : and if the sum- mons I sent him some time since had any weight, he will be at Rome when you read this letter. As to the affairs you mention, and particularly the money, I find you were not apprised of Pansa's death when you wrote your letter, by the hopes you express that, through my interest, he would comply with your request. And most undoubtedly he would, had he been living ; for he held you in great esteem. But as he is dead, I do not see that anything can now be done in this matter. I approve, in general, of your measures with respect to Venullius, Latinus, and Horatius : and particularly, that you have deprived them of their lictoi's. But I am not altogether so well pleased, that, in order to render this circumstance the less uneasy to them, you have taken away these attend- ants likewise from your own lieutenants. Those who deserve the highest honours ouglit not to have been thus levelled with a set of men, who certainly merit the utmost disgrace : and if they will not depart from your province, in obedience to the decree of the senate, I think you should use com- pulsory methods for that purpose. I have nothing farther to add in answer to your last letter (of which I received a duplicate) but that I hope yovi will be persuaded, your credit and reputation are no less sacred to me than my own'. Farewell. LETTER X. To Decimus Brutus. Though I always receive your letters vrith the highest satisfaction, yet I am much better pleased V 710 *''*'' ^°^ employed your colleague Plancus to make an excuse to me, than if you had interrupted your very important occupations by writing yourself. He has executed your commission very fully ; and nothing can render your character more truly amiable to me, than the account he gives of your zeal and diligence. The junction of your forces with those of Plan- cus, and the harmony with which you act together, as appears by your common letter to the senate, was extreihely agreeable, both to that assembly, and to the people in general. What remains then. each man's substance, but had wholly been disused in Rome from the conquest of Macedonia by Paulus Jfemilius, which fui-nished money andrents sufficient to ease the city ever after of thatburthen, till the necessity of the present times obliged them to renew it."— Val. Max. iv. 3 ; Life of Cicero, p. 283. f This letter doses the correspondence between Cicero and ComificiuB. The latter, not long afterwards, lost his life in bravely defending his province against the troops of Sextius, who claimed it in the name of OotaviUs, by virtue of the general division of the Roman dominions that had. been agreed upoii between the triumvirs. — Appian, Dg BeU, Civ. p. 620. QQ!1 fi9D THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO my dear Brutus, but to conjure you to persevere in the same unanimity, and to endeavour, I will not say to excel others, hut (what is far worthier of your ambition) to rise above yourself ? I need add no more : especially as I am writing to one whose epistolary conciseness I purpose to imitate. I wait with impatience for your next despatches, as I imagine they will bring us such accounts as are agreeable to onr wishes. Farewell. LETTER XI. To Furnius e. When your letter assured me that it was abso- lutely necessary either to slight Narbonensian Gaul'', or to attack the enemy with great *■ "■ ' disadvantage, I was glad to find that the former had been chosen : as I much more dreaded the consequences of coming to an engagement upon unequal terms. What you mentioned likewise con- cerning the harmony between Plancus and Brutus, afforded me great pleasure ; for it is a circum- stance upon which I found my principal hopes of our success. Notwithstanding you modestly refer it to time to inform me to whom we owe that general zeal which appears in your province' ; be assured it is a point of which I am already perfectly well apprised. I could not, therefore, but read the latter part of your letter, which, in all other respects, was ex- tremely agreeable to me, with some concern. You there tell me, that if the election for sediles is fixed for the month of August, you will soon be at Rome ; but if it is already over, you will be there much sooner : " for wherefore," you ask, " should you weakly continue to hazard your life, without the prospect of any recompense ?" O ! my friend, is it possible that you, who judge so well concerning the interests of others, should be thus a stranger to your own ? But, as I am sensible of the strong impulse of your heart towards true glory, I cannot believe that these are its genuine sentiments ; at least, if they be, I must condemn my own judg- ment as well as yours, for being so greatly deceived in your character. Shall the ambition of antici- pating a slight and common honour, (for so I must call the office you have in view, if obtained in the manner by which so many others have risen to it before you,) induce you to withdraw from a theatre where you are acting with such universal and well- merited applause ? Shall it be a question with you, whether to offer yourself as a candidate now, or at the next election for praetors ; and is it none, how you shall deserve every illustrious distinction which the commonwealth can bestow ? Are you a stranger to the exalted reputation you have ac- quired .' Or do you consider it as of no value, thus to rise in the esteem of your country ? If you are ignorant, indeed, of the high credit in which you stand with the public, it is an ignorance for which we, who are your friends, are undoubt- edly to be blamed. But if you already know it, tell me, my Furnius, can any preetorship afford you a satisfaction superior to what you feel In dis- charging the duty you owe to your country, and in e See rem. 7, p. 584. h In which province were the combined armies of Antony and Lepidus. i Transalpine Gaul, in which province Furnius was lieutenant to Flancus. reaping immortal glory? an acquisition which, though few indeed endeavour to deserve, yet every man most certainly wishes to enjoy. Calvisius, who is much your friend, and a man of great judgment also, frequently joins with me in complaining of you upon this article. However, since you are so desirous to attain this office, I shall endeavour that the election may be deferred till the month of January ; as this adjournment will, upon many accounts I think, prove for the advantage likewise of the republic. Farewell: and may victory attend you ! LETTER XU. To Cams Cassius. I IMAGINE you are informed, by the public journals, which I know are duly transmitted to ^,(. you, of the infamous conduct of that most light and inconstant man, your relation Lepidusi. We are again, therefore, involved in a war, which we flattered ourselves was entirely over ; and all our hopes are now placed upon Decimus'' and Plancus; or, to speak more truly indeed, upon Brutus' and upon you. For it is from you two that we expect, not only a present assistance, in case any misfortune (which the gods avert !) should attend our arms, but a firm and lasting re-establishment of our liberties. The reports in regard to Dolabella'", are, in all respects, agreeable to our wishes, excepting only that they want confirmation. In the mean time, be assured, that the opinion and expectations of the world concerning you, are such as evidently show that they look upon you as a truly great man. Let this animate you to the noblest achieve- ments, in the full persuasion that there is nothing so considerable which your country does not hope to obtain by your courage and conduct. Farewell a. D. 710. , LETTER Xin. To the same. I TAKE example from the conciseness of your letters, to shorten mine : though, to say truth, nothing occurs at present that can tempt me to lengthen them. For, as to our transactions, I well know you are acquainted with them by the public journals ; and we are perfectiy ignorant of everything that concerns yours. One would imagine, indeed, that all communication were cut off between us and Asia : for we have received no intelligence from thence, excepting only some uncertain, though indeed repeated, rumours in relation to the defeat of Dolabella. We imagined that the flames of this civil war were entirely extinguished ; but, in the midst of this pleasing persuasion, we were suddenly and greatly alarmed by the conduct of your relation Lepidus. Be assured, therefore, that the hopes of the republic are wholly fixed upon you and your army. We have, it is true, a very powerful body of troops in this part of the world ; nevertheless, your presence here is extremely necessary, to give our affairs all the success we wish. I will not say i Lepidus and Cassius were married to the two sisters of Marcus Brutus. ■* Brutus. 1 Marcus. '" That he was defeated by Cassiiisf. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 697 that we have no hopes of recovering our liberties ; but I must say our hopes are small. Such as they are, however, they are entirely founded upon your future consulate". Farewell. LETTER XIV. Cassius', Qucestor, to Cicero. The preservation of the republic, by the victory we have lately obtained, gives me inexpressible joy, as the honours that have been paid my ■ friendP afford me likewise a very sen- sible pleasure. I cannot sufficiently indulge my admiration, when I consider you as thus rising above yourself in glory, and that the consular' should shine forth even with more lustre than the consul. Some uncommon privilege of fate most certainly attends your patriot virtues, as we have often I am sure experienced. How else should your single eloquence be of more avail than the arms of all our generals? You have a second time, indeed, rescued the well-nigh vanquished republic from the hands of our enemies, and once more re- stored her to us again. From this period,, there- fore, I date the return of our liberties, and I shall now be honoured with the public applause of the most distinguished of patriots. Yes, my friend, you will now declare, (what you promised to con- ceal till the recovery of our freedom should render it to my advantage to be known,) you will now de- clare to the whole world those instaucesyou received of my tender attachment both to you and to the republic, during the dark and dangerous season of our servitude. I am much less solicitous, however, that you should publish my praises, than that you should be persuaded I deserve them ; and I had rather stand approved by your silent judgment, than, without that internal verdict in my favour, to enjoy, by your recommendation, the good opinion of the whole world. It is my great ambition, in- deed, that you should esteem my late conduct to have been, not the effect of a sudden and irregular impulse, but the natural result of the same uni- n Cassius and Brutus were prsetors the last year, and the laws entitled a man to sue for the consulate two years after he had served the office of prstor. o It is altogether uncertain whether the author of this letter was Lucius Cassius, the hrother of Caius Cassius, or another Cassius, distinguished hy the addition of Parmen- sU, ivovn. Parma, the place of his nativity. There is no- thing indeed in the history of these two Cassii, or in the letter itself, that can render it more reasonahle to suppose it to have been written by the one rather than the other ; for they were both in the number of the conspirators against Cassar, and both afterwards acted with Brutus and Cassius in Asia. This epistle appears to have been written from the island of Cyprus soon after the news of Antony's defeat at the battle of Mutina had reached that part of the world. — Casaubon. ad Suet. Jul. 8U ; Appian. Be Bell. Civ. p. 671. P This seems to allude to the honours that wore paid to Cicero by the populace, upon the news that Antony had been forced to abandon the siege of Mutina. ** The whole body of the people (to give the relation of this fact in the words of Dr. Middleton) assembled about Cicero's house, and canied him in a Icind of triumph to the capitol i where, on their return, they placed him in the rostra, to give them an account of the victory, and then conducted him home with infinite acclamations." — Philipp. xiv. 5 ; Life of Cicero, p. 271. 4 Those who had passed through the office of consul were styled coneulai's. form principles of which you have been a witMss : in a word, that you should think of me, as of one from whom the republic has so much to expect, as may well justify every honour to which I shall be advanced. I am sensible, my dear Cicero, that your own family, as they are well worthy of the relation they bear to you, deserve your first and most tender regard. But those surely have a right to the next place in your affection who endeavour to imitate your patriot virtues : and I shall be glad to find that their number is considerable. I ima- gine, however, that it is not so great as to exclude me from a share in your good offices, and prevent you from procuring any public distinctions in my favour which shall be agreeable to your inclination and your judgment. That I am not unworthy of them, with respect to the disposition of ray heart, 1 have already, perhaps, sufficiently convinced you : and, as to my talents, whatever ijiey may he, the general oppression under which our country so long laboured, would not suffer them to appear in their full advantage. I drew together, out of the ports of this Asiatic province, and of the neighbouring islands, all the ships of war I could possibly collect : and, consider- ing the great opposition I met with from the seve- ral cities, I manned them with tolerable expedition. With this fleet I pursued that of Dolabella, com- manded by Lucilius ; who, after having frequently made a show of coming over to me, but still, how- ever, continuing to retreat, sailed, at length, into the portof Corycus'; where he blocked himself up. I did not think proper to follow him thither; not only as judging it most advisable to join our land forces, but as Turulius the qusestor lay behind me with a squadron which TuUius Cimber fitted out the last year from Bithynia. I put in, therefore, at Cyprus ; from whence I take this first opportu- nity of acquainting you with the intelligence I have here received. I am to inform you then, that the city of Laodicea (in pursuance of the example of our faithless allies the Tarsenses^, though, indeed, with a greater degree of folly) have voluntarily called in Dolabella. From those two cities he has composed an army (as far as numbers can make an army) of Greek soldiers, and is encamped before Laodicea ; having thrown down part of the walls, in order to join his camp with the town. On the other hand, Cassius ' is encamped, about twenty miles distant from him, at Paltos. His army con- sists of ten legions, and twenty auxiliary cohorts, together with four thousand horse. He imagines that he shall be able to oblige the enemy to surren- der, without hazarding a battle; as wheat is so scarce in Dolabella's camp, that it is sold for twelve drachmse. The enemy must necessarily, indeed, be destroyed by famine, if they are not soon sup- plied by the ships that belong to Laodicea. This, however, we shall with great ease prevent ; for, besides the three squadrons under Turulius, Fatis- cus, and myself, Cassius has a considerable fleet in these seas commanded by Sextilius Rufus. Let me encourage you, then, to hope, that we shall soon vindicate our liberties with the same success" in this part of the world, as has attended your army in Italy. Farewell. Cromyaeris, in Cyprus, June the 13th. r In Cilicia. t Caius Cassius. s The citizens of Tarsus, « See rem. o, p. 587^ 608 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XV. To JOecimus Brutus. I WAS expecting every day to hear from yon, when our friend Lnpus gave me notice that he was A n 710 J"^' ^^"i^S <"'' *° y.°^' *°^ desired to know if I had anything to write. But though I have nothing worth communicating more than what you are furnished with by the public journals, and that you are no friend I am told to letters of mere empty form, yet I cannot forbear following yoilr example, and sending you two or three short words. Be assured, then, that all our hopes rest upon you and your colleague'. As to Brutus"', I am not able to give you any certain account of him : I can only say, that, in pursuance of your advice, I endeavour to persuade him, in all my letters, to come over into Italy, and to take a part in this general war'. I much wish he were now here, as his presence would render me less apprehensive of the consequences of these intestine commotions? which prevail in Rome ; and which are by no means indeed inconsiderable. — But I forget that I proposed to imitate your laconic bre- vity, and am running on in a second page. Fare- well then, and may success attend your arms^ June 18th. LETTER XVL To Cams Cassias. YouK relation and my friend, the worthy Lepi- dus, together with all his adherents, were, by a unanimous decree of the senate, which A, u. 7 0. pj^gjg j p^ jjjg 3otji of June last, declared public enemies to their country : but at the same T Plancus. w Marcus Brutus. ' The conduct of Marcus Brutus^ as far as can be judged of it at this great disumce. appears altogether unaccount- able. Before the battle of Mutina he had drawn down all his forces 'to the coast, in order to embark for Italy, if any accident should make his assistance necessary. But, upon the news of Antony's defeat, he retired to the remotest parts of Greece and Macedonia, to oppose the attempts of Dolabella ; and from that time (as Dr. Middleton observes) seemed deaf to the call of the senate, and to all Cicero's letters, which urged him so strongly to come to their relief. But had Br,utus and Cassias (as the same inge- nious historian remarks) marched with their armies to- wards Italy, at the time when Cicero first pressed it, before the desertion of Plancus and the death of IJecimus, it seems reasonable to believe that the immediate ruin of the republic might have been prevented. — Life of Cicero, p. 282. 7 The disturbances to which Cicero alludes were, probar bly, those that were occasioned by the violent measures of Octavius, in order to obtain the consulate, — See rem. i on letter 18 of this book. z Decimus Brutus, soon after the date of this letter, was most treacherously deserted by Plancus, who drew off his troops from those of his colleague, and went over with them to the camp of Antony and Lepidus. "Decimus Brutus being thus abandoned, and left to shift for himself, with a needy mutinous army, eager to desert, and ready to give him up to his enemies, had no other way to save himself than by Sying to Marcus Brutus in Macedonia. But the distance was so great, and the country so guarded, that he waA often forced to change his road for fear of being taken ; till, having dismissed all his attendants, and wandered for some time alone in disguise and distress, he committed himself to the protection of an old acquaintance and host, whom he had formerly obliged, where, either through treachery or accident, he was surpiised by An- tony's soldiers, who immediately killed him, and returned time a full pardon was offered to such as shall re- turn to their allegiance before the first of Septeot ber. The senate acts with great spirit ; but it is the expectation of being sflpported by your asmy, that chiefly animates them in their vigorous mea- sures. I fear, indeed, that we shall have occasion for all your assistance, as the war is now become extremely formidable by the villany of Lepidus. The accounts which daily arrive concefaiing Dolabella are altogether agreeable to our wishes ; but, at present, they are nothing more than mere rumours. However, your letter addressed to the senate, dated from the camp on the 9th of May, has raised a general persuasion in Rome, that he is actually defeated. Accordingly, it is imagined, that you are now upon your march into Italy, with a view, on the one hand, of succouring us with your troops, if any of those accidents so common in war should have rendered our arms unsuccessful; or, on the other hand, of assisting us with your coun- sels and authority, in case we should have proved victorious. You may be assured, in the mean while, that no endeavours of mine shall be wanting to procure the forces under your command all pos- sible honours. However, I must wait a proper season for this purpose, when it shall be known how far they have availed, or are likely to avail, the republic. At present, we have only heard of their endeavours in the cause of liberty ; aud glorious, it must be acknowledged, their endeavours have been. But still some positive services are expected ; and these expectations, I dare be confident, either already are, or soon will be, perfectly answered. No man, indeed, possesses a more patriot or heroic spirit than yourself : and it is for this reason that we wish to see you in Italy as soon as possible. The fact is, if you and Brutus were here, we should look upon the republic as restored. If Lepidus had not received -4.ntony, weak and defenceless as he was, when he fled after the battle of Mutina, we should have obtained a complete victory. This infamous step, therefore, has ren- dered him far more odious in Rome even than An- tony himself ever was : for Antony raised a war at a time when the republic was in the utmost ferment ; whereas Lepidus has kindled the flames in the midst of peace and victory. We have the consuls elect* to lead our armies against him ; but though we greatly depend upon their courage and conduct, stillhowever the uncertain event of war leaves us much to fear. Be assured therefore that our principal reliance is upon you and Brutus, whom we hope soon to see in Italy; and Brutus, indeed, we »pect every day. Should we have defeated our enemies, as I hope we shall, before your arrival, the autho- rity, nevertheless, of two such illustrious citizens will be qf infinite service in reusing up the repubUc, and fixing it upon some tolerable basis. All oui business, indeed, will by no means be over, not- withstanding we should be delivered from the in- famous designs of our enemies, — as there are many other disorders of a different kind, which it will be still necessary to redress. Farewell. with his head to their general, — ^Vell, Pat. ii, 64; Appian. iii, C8B ; Val. Max, ix. 13,"— Life of Cicero, p. 281. a Decimus Brutus and Plancus. TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 599 LETTER XVIL To Ampius ''. YocR family has informed you, I imagine, of my zealous labours to procure your restoration, as A u 710 ^ ^^^^ ^^^ pleasure to be assured that they are abundantly satisfied with my services. Uncommon, indeed, as the affection is which they every one of them bear towards you, yet I cannot allow that they are more sincerely desirous of your welfare than myself. I am sure, at least, their power of assisting you in this conjuncture is by no means equal to mine. I have employed it, and shall continue to employ it, for your benefit : and I have already gained a very considerable point, which wiU much contribute to facilitate your re- turn. Ia the meanwhile, preserve a firm and mainly spirit, and be weE persuaded that my good offices shall not be wanting to you upon any occa- sion. Farewell. LETTER XVIII. ]^. Plancus, Consul elect, to Cicero. I CANNOT forbear to express, upon every occa- sion, the sentiments I entertain of your repeated A V 710 ^^°™^^ ' thoug>i, at the same time, it is with some reserve that I indulge myself in this satis&etioit. The great intimacy, indeed, which yott allow me to enjoy with you, renders all formal acknowledgments of this kind unnecessary ; nor would I make so cheap a return to the many important obligations I owe to you, as that of mere empty professions. I had much rather reserve the proofs^ of my gratitude to some future opportunity of testifying it in person ; and, if I live, I will convince you, by the assiduity of my good offices, and by every instance of respect and esteem, that you have not a friend, nor even a relation, who ii so warmly attached to you as my- self In the mean time, I am at a loss to deter-^ mine, whether the daily pleasure I, receive, or the lasting honour I. shall derive, from your affectionate regard, be greater. i fiad the inteiest of my troops has been a part of your care. It was mot with any intention of ad^vancing my own^ power, that I was desirous they should be distinguished by the senate, as I am conscious of having no views but what regard the welfare of the republic. My reasons were, in the first plage., because I thought they deserved to be rewarded ; and, in the next place) because I was- desirous they might, upon all oeeasioss, be still more attached to the commonwealth. I hoped, Ukewise, by these means, so strongly to fortify them against aU solicitations, that I might be answerable for their continuing, to act with, the same unshaken fidelity wHch they have hitherto preserved. I have kept entirely upon the defensive ; and, though I am well apprised with how much just impatience the public wishes for a decisive action, yet I persuade myself that the senate will approve my conduct. If any misfortune, indeed, should attend our armies in this part of the world, the repubUc would not very soon be in a condition to 1> In some MSS. the superscription of this letter ia to Appius, and in others to Ampius Balbus. The time when this letter was written is no less uncertain than the person to whom it is addressed. oppose any sudden incursion of these rapacious traitors. As to the state of our forces, I imagine you already know that those under my command consist of three veteran legions, together with one new-raised regiment, which last, however, is com- posed of far the best-disciplined troops I ever saw of this sort.H Brutus'' is at the head of ten legions, one of which is veteran, another has been upon the establishment about two years, and. all the rest are lately raised. Thus, yon see, though our army is very numerous, it is not extremely strong. The republic, indeed^ has but too often had occasion to be convinced how little is to be expected from raw and unexperienced farces. However, if we had been joined either by the African legions'', which are composed wholly of veteran troops, or by Csesar's'', we should, without hesitation, have hazarded a general engagement. As the troops of the latter were somewhat nearer than the former, I frequently pressed Caesar, by letters, to advance; and he accordingly promised to join us with aU expedition. But other views, I perceive, have diverted him from these intentions. Nevertheless, I have despatched my lieutenant, Fumius, with another letter to him, if happily it may anything avail. You are sensible, my dear Cicero, that I take an equal part with you in the affection you bear to Octavius, He has a right to my friend- ship, not only from that intimacy which I enjoyed with bis uncle' ; but, in regard also to his own disposition, which, as far I could ever discover, is regulated by principles of great moderation and humanity. It would ill indeed become that dis- tinguished amity, which subsisted between Julius Csesar and myself, not to look upon Octavius with all the tenden^ess- which is due to the son of my friend, after he has been adopted as such by Csesarrs win, and that adoption approved by the senate. What I am going to say, therefore, is more the dictates of concern than resentment ; but it must be, acknowledged, that if Antony still lives, if he has been joined by Lepidusy if their armies are by no means contemptible ; in a word, : all their hopes and all their attempts are singly owing to CsesarK. Not to look farther back than to his promise of joining me : had he fulfilled the assurances he gave me for that purpose, Ihe war would, by this. time, either have been totally at an end, or driven into Spain, where the enemy could not have carried it on without great disadvantage, as that province is utterly averse to them. I am at a loss to conceive, therefore, with what view, or by whose advice, Csesar was diverted from a mea- sure so greatly to his interest and his honour, in order to turn his pursuits towards a consulship of a few months' duration'' : much to the terror, at the, same time, of the republic' ; and with preten- c Decimus. ^ These legions composed part of that army with which Julius Caesar defeated Scipio in Africa, from whence they had lately been recalled by the senate. But soon after their landing they were corrupted by the other soldiers, and,' deserting the senate, they joined themselves to Octa- vius.— Life of Cicero, p. 278. ^ Octavius. ' Julius Cajsai*. B See rem, n, p. 576. ^ To the end of the eun-ent year, of which there remained about five or six months imexpired when Octavius v/as declared consul. i Octavius advanced tov/ards Rome at the head of several legions, in order to demand the coosulate, which threw the 600 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. sions, too, exceedingly ridiculous J. The remon- strances of his friends might be extremely service- able upon this occasion, both to himself and to the commonwealth. But none of them, I am persuaded, would have so much influence over him as yours ^ ; as there is no man who is so much obliged to you except myself: for I shall ever acknowledge that the favours I have received from you are great and innumerable. I have given instructions to Furnius to solicit Csesar upon this subject : and if I should have that authority with him which I am sure I ought, he will hereafter thank me for my advice. In the mean time, we have a very difi&cult part to sustain here : as, on city into the utmost consternation and disorder.— Dio, p. 310 ; Appian. p. 585-6. J Perhaps the absurdity to which Plancus here alluded was, that Octavius, who was but a youth of twenty, and, consequently, who wanted above twenty years of the age prescribed by the laws for being qualified to sue for the consular office, should entertain so extravagant a thought as to aspire to the supreme magistracy. k Plancus chose a very improper man to dissuade Octa- vius from pursuing his design upon the consulate, when he fixed upon Cicero as the most likely person to prevail with him for that purpose. It appears, indeed, that Octavius had artfully ensnared Cicero to enter into his views, by persuading him that he was desirous of having him.for his colleague in the consular of&ce, and promising to leave the sole administration of it to Cicero's superior wisdom and CKperience. The bait was too well adapted to his vanity and ambition, to be thrown out in vain, and Cicero under- took the management of this aifair upon the terms pro- posed. Plutarch, Appian, and Dion Cassius, all concui' in giving testimony to the truth of this fact; but, as it is a fact which proves that Cicero was by no means at this juncture acting the part of a patriot, the polite apologist of his conduct has endeavoured to discredit the evidence of these historians. To this end Dr. Middleton produces the following passage from the letters to Brutus, as an incon- testable proof, ' ' that no man was more shocked at Octa- vius's attempt, or took more pain? to dissuade it, than Cicero."— " Cffisarem — improbissimis Uteris quidam falla- oibusque nunciisimpulerunt in spem certissimam consu- latus. Quod simul atque sensi, neque ego ilium absentem Uteris monere destiti, nee accusare praesentes ejus neces- saries, qui ejus cupiditati suffi-agari videbantur ; nee in senatu, sceleratissimorum consiliorum fontes aperire du- hitavi," [Epist. ad Brut. 10.] Now, there seems to be the strongest reason to question either the authenticity or the veracity of this letter ; because it is most certain, from one of Cicero's Philippics, that he actually did favom* the earliest possible promotion of Octavius to the consulate, '* Quid est enim P. C. (says he) cur eum (Octavium) non quarn primum amplissimos Jtonores capere cupiamus? Legibus enim annalibus ,cum grandiorem aetatem ad con- sulatum constituebant, adolescentiae temeritatem vereban- lur. C. Cffisar ineunte ffitate docuit ab excellenti eximi- aqiie vii'tute, progressum cetatis expectari nan oportere. In hoo spes libertatis posita est ; ab hoc accepta jam salus, huic summi honores et exquiruntur et parati sunt."— fPhilipp. V. 17, 18.] Could Cicero, after this, without being guilty of the wildest and the weakest inconsistency, the one hand, we do not think ourselves altogether strong enouglx to hazard an engagement : and, on the other, must take care not to expose the repub- lic to greater dangers by declining one. However, if Csesar could comply with the dictates of his interest and his honour, or if the African legions should speedily join us, you may depend upon having nothing to fear from this quarter. Let me entreat you to continue your friendship to me, antf-tD be assured that I am entirely yours*. Farewell. From my camp, July the 28th. " admonish Octavius by letter against his designs upon the consulship, reproach those to their face who encouraged him in that ambitious view, and lay open the soui-ce of these traitorous counsels in the senate," {all which the epistle in question affirms that he did,) when he had him- self, in the speech and in the passage above cited, said everything that his wit and eloquence could suggest in favour of Octavius's prematm-e advancement to the consu- lar office ? Either the letters, then, to Brutus are not genuine, or Cicero, to serve a present purpose, pretended that ho had acted a part which he did not. The former of these suppositions is maintained by some very learned and judicious critics, and the latter will by no means be thought improbable, if there is any weight in the several instances of the same kind which have been occasionally produced in the course of these remarks. But whichever of these alternatives be the fact, it equaUy concludes in support of /hat historical evidence for which I have been contending. In farther confirmation of which it may be observed, that Plutarch cites the authority of Octavius himself for what he affirms concerning the private agreement between Octavius and Cicero in regard to the consulate. And it is probable he took this piece of secret history from those memoirs which Octavius wrote of his own life, as it ia certain that both Plutarch and Appian made great use of them in compiling their historiesi^— Plut. in Vit. Cicer. ; Appian. p. 578-9, 385 ; Dio, p. 519 ;' Middlet. on the Epist, to Brut. p. 134, rem. 8 ; TunstaVs Observ. on the Epist. to Brut. p. 222, et Suet, in Vit. Aug. 85. ' Planeus, soon after the date of this letter, abandoned his colleague Decimus Brutus, and went over with his troops to Antony and Lepidus. [See r^m. ^ on letter 15 of this book.] About foiu- months, likewise, from the time when this letter was ivritten, the celebrated coaUtion was formed between Caesar, Antony, and Lepidus, in conse- quence of which Cicero, it is weU kno^vn, was sacrificed to Antony's resentment. In the last moments of his life he behaved with great composure ; and it is the only cir- cumstanco in all his misfortunes that he bore with a becoming fortitude. He had, indeed, ao much the less reason to complain of his fate, as it is certain that he suf- fered nothing more than he would have inflicted, had For- tune put Antony into his power. •' Omnium adversorum (says Livy) nihil ut viro dignum erat, tulit, praeter mor- tem : quEc, vere Kstimanti, minus indigne videri potuit, quod a victore inimico nihil crudeUuspassurus erat, quam quod ejusdem fortune compos ipse fecisset" [Liv. Fragm. apud Senec. Suasor. 6.] This is the judgment which the noblest and most impartial of thelloman historians haa passed upon Cicero, and the truth of it is abundantly con- firmed by the foregoing letters. AM INDEX, REFERRING TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THESE LETTERS STAND IN THE EDITION OF OR^VIDS. (. Book I. Book III, LETTER TII, , LIB. — viii. KP. 8 I.ETTEH LIB. EP. LETTER LIB, EP, Tin. — xiii. — 61 I. . . — V. — 7 I. , , — ii. 1 IX. . — ii. — 9 II. . V. — 1 II. . — Tii. — 11 k, , , — xiii. — 62 III. . V. — 2 III. . . — iii. — 1 XI. , — iii. — 8 IV. . V. , — S -IV. . — xiii. — 2 XII. . — xiii. -^ 63 V. . . V. — 6 V, , . — vii. — 12 XIII. — ii. — 10 VI. . — xiv. — 4 TI, , — ii. — 2 XIV. . _ viii. — 10 VII. . — xiv. — % VII. , — vii. — 13 XV. . — xiii. — 64 Tin. . — xiv. — 1 VIII, — xii. — 20 XVI, , — ii. — 7 IX. . — xiv. — 3 IX, , — vii. — 15 XVII. — xiii. -^ 55 X. . . XI. . V, — vii. , I 4 26- X... . Til. . ■ = ± — 4 XVIII. XIX, , — vii. — xiii. __ 32 9 XII. , — i. — 1 XII. , — ii. — 4 XX. . — xiii. — 65 xm. — xiii. — 6 XIII. — xiii. — 3 XIV. . — i. — 2 XIV. . — ii. — 5 sv. . — i. — 8 XV, . — vii. — 14 Book V. XVI. . — i. — 4 XVI. . — V. _ 17 XVII. XVIII. — i. — i. — 5 5 XVII. XVIII. T, z 6 IB I. . . II, . ^- XV. XT. — 4 5 IIX . — i. — 6 XIX, . — xiii. — 75 Ill, , XT. — 10 XX, . T. — 12 XX. . — vii. — 21 IV. , XT. ^ — i 13 XXI. . — V. — 3 XXI. . — vii. — 2 V. - , — Tiii. — 6 XXII. — vii.' — 22- VI. , — Tiii. — 7 p Book II. XXIII. XXIT. — iii. — iii. — 2 3 VII. , VIII, — iii. XT. — 7 14 XXV. — viii. — 1 IX, , — ii. — 14 1. . . — xiii. — 40 XXVI. — iii. — 4 X. , — xiii. — 59 II. . . . — i. — ■7 XXVII. — xiii. — 1 XI, , — iii. 9 iii> . . ./ TH.^ — 23 XXVIII, — ii. — 8 XII, , — ii. — 11 IV. . . — i. — 8 XXIX, , — viii. — 2 XIII. . — xiii. — 54 V. . . . — « vii. — ]- XXX. . — Tin. — 3 XIV. . — xiii. — 57 VI. . — xiii. — 74 XXXI. — uf. — 5 XV. . — ii. — 13 VII. . . — v. — 8 XXXII. . — viii. — 4 XVI, . , — ii. 18 Tin. . — vii. — 5 XXXIII. — viii. — 5 XTII, — xiii. 58 IX. . . — vii. — 6 XXXIT. . — viii. — 9 XVIII, — xiii, — 47 X. . . . — vii. — 7 XXXV. . XT, — 9 XIX. . — xiii. '■ — 51 XI. . . — vii. — 8 XXXTI. . XV, — 7 zz. , — xiii. — 76 XII. . . — vii. — 17 XXXTJI, XV, — 8 XIII. . . — vii. — 9- XXXTIII. XT. 12 XIV. . — xiii. . — 60 Book VI, XV. . . — vii. — . 10 XVI. . — vii. le Book IV. I, . . . — iii. — 10 XVII. . — i. — 9 II. , — ix. — 25 XVIII. . — xiii. — 42 I, . . , XV, 2 III, . — ii. — 19 XIX. . . — xiii. — 41 II, . . — - xiii. — S3 IV. . — ii. — 12 XX. . . XXI. . . XiJK — vi. 49. 15 III. . . IV. . . — iii, XV. z 6 3 V. . . VI. . — iii. — viii. — 11 11 XXtl. . — xiii, — 73 T. . . . — xiii. — 56 VII. . . — ii. — 1-7 XXIII. . — 1. \ 10 VI. . . XV, — 1 Tin. — viii. — 13 602 INDEX TO THE ORDER OF THE LETTERS, XT. XV. iii. ii, viii. viii. xiv. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. Book TII. XIV. xiv, xvi. xvi. viii. xvi. xvi. xvi. xvi. iv. V. xiv. viii. ix. xiv, xiv, xiv. xiv. xiv., xiv. xiv. \. xiv. xiii. xiv. xiv- xiii. xiv, xiv. xiii. XV. xiii. xiv,, xiv. xiii. xiv. xiv. xiiL XVo xiii. xiii. xiii, xiii. ix:. xiii. EP. — 12 — 6 — 11 — 13 — 15 — 12 — 14 — 5 — 1 . . 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 U 20 14. 18 1,2 8 15 13 14 15. 2,6. 1 16 16 2 19 7 17 9 8 21 6 12 19. 9 17 16 16 30 11 15 31 1,0 13 32 15 33 24. 23 34 22 20 35 21 36 48 37 38 21 39 Book nil. LETTER LIB. . . . . vii. I. . . iv. II. . . vi. VII. . — iv. VIII. . . — xiii. ix. . — xiii. X. . . — - v. XI. . . — xiii. xn. . . — is. XIII. . . — ix. XIV. . . — ix. XV. . . — xiii. XVI. . . — ix. XVII. . .-^ ix. XVIII. , — xiii. xuc. . . -^ ix. XX. . . — ix. XXI. . . — vu. XXII. . — ix. XXIII. . — ix. XXIV. . — ix. jpiv. . , — ix. XXVI. , — ix. XXVII. . ^- vii. BOOK IX. I. . . . iv. 11. . . — xiii. VI. • . — iv. IV. . . — iv. V. . . . — vi. VI. , . — vii. VII. . . — xiii. VIII. . . — vi. IX. . . — xiii. X. . . .. XI. . . XII. . . XIII. . . XIV. . . XV. . . XVI. . . XVII. , XVIII. . XIX. . . XX. . , XXI. . . XXII. . XXIII. . XXIV. . XXV. . . XXVI. . XXVII. . XXVIII, . XXIX. ', XXX. . . XXXI. . XXXII. . xxxiir. . XXXIV., XXXV. . ZXXVI. , XXXTII, LV, — xiii. — XUI, xiii. XUI. iv. IX. VJ. xiii, vii. vi. xiii. vi. vi. vi. xiii, vi. xiii.. vi. xiii. xiii. xiii. EP. 3 14 21 1 20 22 fi 29 78 21 79 3 2 4 45 S 7 46 6 16 33 18 19 17 20 23 4 3 68 13 7 10 27 67 10 43 8 15 12 10 13 11 12 4 13 9. 2 14 26 12 71 28 14 72 I 69 5 70 6 66 77 45 Book X. II. . III. . VII. VIII. XI. . XII. . XIII. XIV. . XV. . XVI. . XVII. XVIII. XIX. . XX. . XXI. . XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. xni. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. xiii. vi. XV. XV. ix, xiii. xiii. xvi. xiii. Book XI. xvu ix. VII. . — V. VIII. . — iv. IX. . — xvi. X. . . — iv. XI. . — xvi. xu. — V. XIII. — xvi. XIT. . — ix. XV. . — xvi. XVI. . — ^ii. xvn. — vi. XVIII. — xiii. XIX. . — vii. XX. . — xiii. XXI. . — vii. XXII. . — xiii. XXIII. — V. XXIV. — xii. XXV. — vii^ XXVI, . — xii-. XXVII. — ix. XKVIIl. — '• Book XII. I. . . — vii. II. . , — xiii. III, . — vir. IV. . . — xii. 1- 17 3 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 18 4 18 10 2 17 16 19 13 15 16 16 52 22 n 5 6 13 14 15 10 20 12 19 10 8 18 4 19 5 24 7 25 8 11 IT 29 1» la 10 30 60 31 19 AS ARRANGED IN GRiEVlUS' EDITION, 603 LETTER LIB. EP. Book XIII. LKTTEIl LIB, EP. 1 . . . — xi. — 1 XII, . — X, 17 TI. . . . — xvi. — 24 LETT£II. . LIB. EP. XIII. . — xii. — 25 VII. . . — vi. — 17 I. . . . — xii. — 24 XIV. . . — xi. — 14 VIII. . . — xvi. — 23 II. , , . — xi. — 8 XV. . — X. — 16 IX. . . — ix. — 14 111. . . — x. — 3 XVI. . — xi. — 12 z. . . . — XV. — 20 tv. . , — X. — 4 XYII. . — xi. — 13 ZI. . . . — xii. — 16 V. , . , — X. — 5 XVIII. — xi. — 19 ZII. . . — xi. — 27 VI, , . — xii. — 4 XIX. . . — A. — 34 XIII. . . — xi. — 28 VII. . — X. — 28 XX. . — . X. — 18 XIV. . . — xi. ■ — 2 VIII. . , — xii. 5 XXI. . . — X. — 21 zv. . . — xii. — 1 IX. , , — >x. — 24 XXII. — X. — 25 XVI. . . — xi. — 29 X, , . , — xii. — U XXIII. — ix. — 20 XVII. . vii. — 20 XI. , , — X. — 31 XXIV. — xi. — 23 XVIII. , — vii. — 1» XII, , — xii. — 6 XXV. . — X. — 20 XIX, . . — xi. — 3 XIII. . — A. — 6 XXVI. — xU; — 14 XX. . . — X. — V XIV. . X. 27 HXVII. — xii. — 15 XXI. . . — xi. — 4 XV. . Xii. — 7 XXVIU. — z. — 3a XXII. . — xi. — 16 XVI. . — s. — 7 XXIII. . XXIV, . — xi. xii. — 17 2 ZVII. XVIII. — X, X, 8 10 Book XV, XXV. . . X. — 2 XIX. . — xii. — 28 I. . . — X. — 19 XXVl. . — xii. — 3 XX. . — X, — 12 u. . . — A. — 33 XXVII. . — xii. — 23 XXI. . — xii. — 29 III. . — XI. — 26 XXVIII. — xii. — 21 XXII. — xi. — 25 IV. . — xi. — 21 XXIX. . — xvi. — 17 v» . . — X. — 2» zxx. . . XXXI, . __ xii. xi. — 26 S Bo<^ XIT. VI. . . VII. . . xi. X. — 24 32 XXXII. . — xii. — 27 I. . . — X, — 30 VIII. . — X. — 22 XXXIII.. — • xi. — 7 II. . z. — 9 IX. . ' — xii; — 30 XXXIV. . — xi. — 6 III. . — xi. — 9 X. . . — xi. — 15 XXXV, , — xii. — 22 IV. — X. — 14 XI. . — X. — 26 XXXVI. . — xvi. — 27 V. . . — X, — 13 XII. . — xii. — 8 XXXVII.. — xvi. — 21 VI. . — xi. — 18. XIII. . — xii. — 9 XXXVIII, — xvi. — 2S VII. . — X. — 11 XIV. . xii. — 13 XXXIX.. — iv. — 16, VIII. . — xi. 11 XV. . -^ xi. — 25 IX. , , — X, — 15 XVI. . — xii. — 10 X, . . — xii. — 12 XTU. — ', *• — 2» XI.. . — xi. — 18 xvm. — X. — 24 INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. i^BDBud, a city ia Thvace, 521^ rem. "^ Acastus, 446 Acccnsoi's, their office, 423, r. "■" AcciuB, wrote tiie tragedy of (Enomaus, 482, r. ^ Acilius, Cicero's letters to, 463, 464, 466, 468, 469 ; conjecture concerning him, 463, r, ^ Actium, a city of Epirus, 446, r. ** Addison, reflection among the tombs of the great, 526, r. ^ Adversity is to friendship, what fire is to gold, 482 ^diles, their office to superintend the markets and magazines of com, 38S, r. ' ; of two kinds, Plebeian and Curulo, 394, r. '^ ; Plebeian, 396, t. ' iCgina, an island between Peloponnesus and Attica, 526, r. ' iElius SextuB, 388 ^milius Paulus loses two sons in one week, 527, r, ^ ^sopus, the actor, account of him, 358, r. ^ ; died worth nearly 200,000^. 358, r. y Afranius, 345, 451 ; murdered by the soldiers, 484, r. ' Affection mutual, characterised, 335 -^Africa, sad situation of affairs there, 555 Agesilaus would not suffer any picture or statue of him to be taken, 350 ; account of him, 350, r. ' Agrarian law explained, 422, r. ' Ague, quartan, salutary, 447, r, ' Alabanda, a city in Asia Minor, 404 Alexander would permit his picture to be drawn only by Apelles, his statue by Lysippus, 350 ; visited the tomb of Achilles, 351 , r. " Alexander (of Egypt) appointed the Roman com- monwealth his general heir, 419, r. • Aliptas were persons who prepared the bodies of com- batants for athletic exercises, 370, r ' Allienus, Cicero's letters to, 476, 478 ; silver coin of, 476, r." Alsium, a town on the western coast of Italy, 481, r. •■ Alysia, a city of Acarnia in Greece, 445, r. y Amanieuses harassed by Cicero, 41 2 Amanus, a mountain that divides Cilicia from Syria. 412 ' ' Ammonius, 344 Amphiaraus, the fable of, 509, t. ' ,Ampius, 456 ; Cicero's letters to him, 502, 598 ; account of him, 502, r. v, 503, r. • ; Cicero obtains the promise of his pardon, 502 Ancharius, Quintus, Cicero's letter to, 352 Anchialus recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 515 Andro,493 Anicius, 343 ; recommended by Cicero to Cornificius, 555 Anneius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Thcr- mu6, 414 Antepasts consisted of provocatives to appetite, 483, 487, r. ' Antiochia, siege of, abandoned, 412 ; in Syria, 589 Antiochus, Idng of Commagene, 403, 404 Antipater, 377 Autistius, Titus, leaves ten-twelfths of his estate' to Ateius Capito, 475 Aatonii, 396 Antonius, 403 Antonius, Caius, 428, r. '" ; Cicero's letter to, 33fi ; uncle to Mark Antony, 336, r. ' ; Pompey insisted that be should be recalled, 337, r. " ; brought to trial, 338, r. ' Antonius, Marcus, put to death by command of Marias, 520, /. k Antony, Mark, 353, r. *', 501, r. ' ; his infamous y intercourse with Curio, 379, r. ™ ; supported by Caesar in his election, 443, r. ^ ; enriches himself by the spoils of his fellow-citizens, 465, r. ^ ; excites the soldiers against Cicero, 553 ; erects a statue to the memory of Caesar, 554; Cicero laments th.it he was spared when Caesar was murdered, 554, 7-. *= ; represents the murderers of Cssar as traitors, 554 ; Octavius and Cicero engage in a plot against his life, 555, r. s ; suspected of per- fidy to Brutus, 54 1 ; reasons for not entering into friendship with Cicero, 543, r, ■ ; suspected of intending to rebuild the altar to Caesar, 543 ; doubts on his drawing together the veteran troops, 546 ; assembles the senate In a few days after Cssar's death, 549, r. " ; Brutus and Casslus' letters to him, 548, 551 ; cannot bear a word or look animated by the spirit of liberty, 552 ; Cicero declares, that whoever destroys him will have the glory of termi- nating the war, 576, 580, 590 ; arrives at the Forum Julil, 579; recovers strength, 581 ; his retreat from Mutina in disorder, 581 ; joined by Ventidius, 581; acts with the vilest hypocrisy, 582 ; forms his camp above Forum Voconil, 582 ; his troops desert to Lepldus, 582 ; reports respecting the battle between him and Hlrtlus, 590 ; offers great rewards to the soldiers who join him, 594 ; would have been over- come had he not been joined by Lepldus, 598 Apamea, a city in Phrygia, 409, r. "■ Apella delivered by Lepldus as a hostage, 579 Apelles, 350; his celebrated picture of Venus, 371, r-^ Apollo, 458 Apollonia, silver coined there for the payment of Pompey's aimy, 475 ; a learned seminary in Mace- donia, 542, r. " ApoUoniuB is desirous of recording the actions of Ciesar In Greek, 524 Applus, 367, 370, r.", 375, 423 Applus, Pulcher, Cicero's letters to him,- 380, 388, 389, 390, 395, 402, 423, 429, 429, 434, 439, 440 ; one of his daughters married to the sod of Poinpey, INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. COS the other to Brutus,380, r. "; addresses his treatise ou Augury to Cicero, 390 ; his credulity in augury, 391, r. ^ ; on his return from Cilicia demanded a triumph, but dropped his claim, 409, r.**; severely plundered Cilicia, 410, ?■/ and* ; impeached of trea- son and bribery, 421; supported by Pompey, 422; accuses Cicero of obstructing the erection of a public monument to him, 423; Cicero^s friendship for him, 427 ; prosecution commenced ngainst him, 429 ; Cicero promises to support him, 429; acquitted, 434; his character by Cicero, 434, and r. '^ ; con- gratulated by Cicero on his acquittal, 439; his in- gratitude, 442 ; becomes a prodigy of reformers, 443 ; plundered the temples of Greece to collect statues for the games, 443^ r. ° ; character of, by Marcus Ccelius, 443 Appius, Claudius Ccecus, the first who supplied Rome with water, 435, r. s Apuleius, Cicero's letter to, 479, 481 Arar, a river near Lyons, now called the Saone, 582, r. *» Archagathus recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 464 Aieopagites, magistrates of Athens, 393, r. ^ ArgenteuE, a river in Provence, 582, ■/'. "■ Ariarathes, 401 Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, 417, 420, 438 ; imploreB the protection of Cicero, 401 ; plot against him discovered, 401 Aristarchus, a critic of Alexandria, 435, r. ^ Ariatippus, 501 ^.^ristocratical party, question respecting, 374, r. p Aristocritus, 341, 342 Ari8tote1es,Licimus recommended by Cicero to Rex, 524 Army, ou the distribution of lands and rewards to the soldiers, 585 Arpinum, a city of the Volsci, the birth-place of Cicero, 459, r, " ; patronised by Cicero, 498 Artunsdes, king of Armenia, 400 Asclapo, the physician, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 514 Aaia, spoken of by classic writers in different senses, 493. r. » Astura, a town in the Campngna di Roma, 533, r. * Atcius, 360, r. ^ ; recommended by Cicero to Lucius Plancus, 475 ; Titius Antestius leaves him ten- twelfths of his estate, 475 Atella, a city in -Campania, now called Santo Arpiuo, recommeuded by Cicero to the protection ofChivius, 535 ' Atel]an'*fai*ces were acted after serious dramatic per- formances, 483, r. *) Athenais, 417 Athonodoru^, 423 Athens, the scat of all the useful and polite arts, 512^ r. ™ Athletic games, account of, 359j ?'. ^ Atilius, 408 Atrium Libertatis erected in honour of Cicero, 366, r.^ AtticuB, 337 ; kept a baud of gladiators, which he let out on public occasions, 358, r. d Attius, ihe essenced, 521 Avarice, an attendant on luxury, 443, r, ° Autitus, Cicero's letter to, 540 ; conjecture concerning him, 540, /.'. ' Aufidius, Sextus, recommended by Cicero to Corni- ficius, 557 Augurs, college of, 391, r. " Ai^ustus, instituted a poetical court of judicatur^f iv^ich was improved by Domitian, 357> r, * ; in- structs bis granrlsons in swimming, 366, n ^ Avianus, 355, 387, 466 Avianus, Marcus ^milius, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 514 Auiclius, his two sons recomnieuded by Cicero to Ancharius, 352 Authors, the vanity of, 426, r. ' ; various kinds of writing characterised, 506 ; difficulty of writing ^witli success when restrained by fear, 506 B. Bacchanals, improper statues for Cicero, 355 Bacilus, 377, r. ^ Baiffi, danger to the fair from frequenting the hot baths there, 478, r. s Balbus, 361, 436, 486 ; Cornelius inviolably attached ■ to Cassar, 399, )'. "* ; withdraws from Gades with considerable effects, 593 ; attempts to make Caesar the model of his actions, 593 ; presents Herennius Gallus, a comedian, with a gold ring, 593 ; account of him, 593, /'. ^^ ; orders Fadius to be put to death for refusing to enter the lists at the gladiatorial games, 594 ; other cruelties^ 594 Bargylos, a city in Cai'ia, 404 Basinus, Cicero's letter to, 377 Bassus, Csecilius, account of, 537, r. % 542 Belllenus, strangles Domitius, 452 Bellona, high priest of, next in power to the king, 417, r. ^ Bibulus, Marcus, 345, 346, 347, 349, v . == ; 541 ; takes possession of Antiochia, 417; treated with contempt by Cajsar, 437, r. ^ ; offended at Cicero, 437, r. "■ ; two of his sons murdered in Alexandria, 438, r. y ^ - Bilienus, 525 f Biography, advantages from the sindf of, 350 » -^ithynia, farmed by the Roman knights, 415, r. ' Bithynicus, Cicero's letter to, 542 ; letter to Ciceroy £60 Bolanus, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 511 Bona Dea, celebration of, 370, /. '^ -bribery, amazing at Rome, 391, ■/- "^ Britain, supposed by the Romans to have abounded with gold and silver, 362, r.'*; progress of, from barbarism to liberty, 362, r. " ^ ,Brundisium, Cicero arrives at, 338, r. ^ Bruttius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 468 BrutuS;, Dccimus, letter to M. Brutus and Cassius, 541; account of him, 541, r. ^; 552, r. P; letters to Cicero, 552, 581, 582, 585,586 ; Cicero's letters to him, 552, 553, 556, 557^ 560, r)78, 530, 5SJ, 595, 398 ;" encouraged by Cicero to act without waiting for sanction of the senate, 557 ; reasons that prevented him pursuing Antony, 581 ; deserted by Plancus, and killed by Antony's soldiers, 598, r. " Brutus, Marcus, married to Junia, sister of Cassius, 425, r. ' ; favourable report of, by Cicero, 435; Cicero's letters to, 496, 498, 499, 501; account of him, 496, r. ^ ; Cicero recommends M. Van-o to him, 496 ; Cicero recommends tlie commissionei-s of Arpinum to bis friendship, 498 ; his conduct on the ides of March praised by Cicero, 544 ; D. Brutus'a . letter to him and Cassius, 54 1 ; and Cassius* letters to Mark Antony, 548, 551 ; his conduct after the battle of Mutina, 598, r. ^ ; state of his army,- 599 Buckingham, D. of, unexpected turn in a speech of his, 4l5,r*<» INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS Bullia, the people of, 376 Bursa inflamee the diBturbances on the assassination of Clodlus, 387, ■/. "; banished, 387, r. *; Cicero entertains a stronger aversion to him than he ever did to Clodius, 388 Buthrotum, a city of Epire, 446 ' C^ciNA, Aulus, Cicero's letters to, 505, 507,508; account of him, 505, r. * ; advised by Cicero to con- tinue in Sicily, 505 ; letter to Cicero, 506 ; suffers for the liberties of his pen, 506 ; his caution in mentioniug Caesar in his work, 506 ; presages of his being recaJiled, 508 ; a native of Etruria, 509, r, *- ; recommended by Cicero to Isauricus, 510 Cfiesar, Julius, supposed to be alluded to, 333, t. ^ 5 and CrassuB solicit Cicero to join their party, 340, r. ' ; purposes either to gain Cicero or ruin him, 341, ■#. ' ; by .aiding the farmers of the public revenues, obtained their support, 367, r, ^ ; Cicero's letters to, 361, 523 ; rather discovered than conquered Biitain, 361, r. '; his scheme to usurp the supreme power, 367, ?". ® ; fixes his winter quar- ters near Italy, 368, r. ^ ; paid Cmio'a debts, 378 ; r. J ; foments confusion at Home, 383, r. '; his scheme of putting the Transpadani on the footing of the municipal towns of Italy, 390, r. " ; endeavours to gain the lowest of the people to his interest, 396, r.'; recalled from Gaul, 407 ; debate on his govern- ment in Gaul, 436, r.^i to be admitted a caniM. date for the consulate, 433 ; his opposition to Pom- pey, 443 ; sends a menacing letter to the senate, 447 ; letter received with indignation, 447, r. * ; takes possession of Arminium and other towns, 451 ; offers conditions to Rome, 451 ; affected to be thought a descendant of Venus, 453, r. ' ; his gene- rosity to Domitius Enoibarbus^ 453, r. ' ; incensed against the senate and tribunes, leaves Rome, 455 ; takes money out of the temple of Saturn; and pro- ceeds against the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain, 455, r. ^ ; distributes preferment without regard to rank or merit, 457, r. <> ; gets a victory of Pompey "~at Pharsalja, 470 ; defeats Scipio in Africa, 478, r. ^; ratunjs victorious from Africa, 481, r,»; less incliued than afraid to have recourse to arms, 481 ; made a collection of apophthegms, 482 ; intends to establish a republican government, 469 ; his gen&- rosity to Cicero, 489 ; his moderation and generos- ity, 492; admits some of the Gauls into the privi- leges of Roman citizens, 494, r. *; takes the name of svperiniendant of manners^ 495 ; makes a law to regulate expenses, 496, r. ™ ; his greatness of mind in pardoning Marcellus, 499 ; the reason why Csecina became the object of his wrath, 506 ; never speaks of Pompey but in terms of the highest ho- nour, 510 ; obtains » complete victory over young Pompey, 518, r. *; his method of rewarding hia — partisans, 520, r. '; conspirators obliged to leave Rome, 541, r. ^ ; appointed Dolabella to succeed him in the consulship, 543, r. «; at the time of his death purposed games in honour of Venus, 547, r.''; act of oblivion passes the senate after his death, 549, r. * ; Rome more a slave to the plans of Casar, ^ after his death, than to himself when living, 549 ; '^Brutus and Cassius reproached by Antony, 551; a statue erected to his memory, 554 ; hia party in- tent to revenge his death, 554 ; his murderers represented by Antony as traitors, 554 ; his mur- der styled by Cicero the noblest enterprise, 556 ; many boasted of being concerned in the conspiracy, who were not, 587, r. p ; Lucius Csesar pardoned by him, and afterwards privately assassinated by his order, 480, r. " Ceesena, an obscure town in Italy, 558 Cffisius, PubliuB, Cicero's letter to, 429 CalduB, CffiliuB, Cicero's letter to, 433 ; his character, 433, r. ' ; Cicero leaves the administration ofOili- ciain his hands, 441 Calenum, a city of Campania, 522 ■Calidius, one of the most ^eeable orators ■of the age, 396, r. " ; lost his election, 396 Callisthenes, 349, r. ^ Calpe, now Gibraltar, 593 Calvus contested the palm of eloquence with Cicero, 468, r.« Camillus, 444 Campania, considerations respecting the lands referred to a full house, 367 ; case of the lands, 367, r.«; Curio attempts to procure a division of the lands, 4^13 Canidius, 399 Caninius, 346, 353, 359, 393 Capena, a city in Italy, 486 ^appadoda, accoimt of the kingdom of, 401 , r. ' ; not furnished with any place of strength, 405 Cassius, 356,412; Cicero'sletters to, 424,465,520,521, ^ 549, 553, 554,562, 564, S68, 596, S98 ; his speech on having saved the life of Caesar, when in dangerof drowning, 365, r. ' ; account of him, 424, r. •* ; deserted with his whole fleet from Pompey to Csesar, 465, r. *; letters to Cicero, 522, 597; D. Brutus* letter to him and M. Brutus, 541 ; and M. Brutus* letter to Antony, 551 ; pursues the fleet of Dola- bella, commanded by Imcilius, 597 ; his army, 597 Catiline, those comiemed in his conspiracy put to deatli / without any process, 336, r. * ; suj^rted by per- sons of desperate fortunes, 33fi, r.^ ^ recommended to Lucius Lucceius to write a histoiy of that con- spiracy, 350 ; capital punishments inflicted on dl concerned in it, 369, r, ° Catilius turns pirate, 336 , Catina, a maritime town in Sicily, 463 Cato, Caius, opposed the restoration of Pompey, 334, r. i, 344, r, J, 348 ; proposes the recal of .Lentulni, 348, r. * Cato, Marcus (the Censor), instructs Ms son in ewim- ming, 365, r. i; thoughts on his own approaching dissolution, occasioned by the death of His son, £27, r. ^ Cato (Uticensis), his speech, 372, r. "^ ; Cicero's letters to, 403, 416, 439 ; his character, 416> r. ^; pro- longed the life of liberty, 416, r. *; settled a cor- respondence through the whole of the provinces, 419, r, '; enters into friendship with Deiotarus, 420, r. ^ ; acts upon the principles of disinterested patriotism, 420, r. B ; letter to Cicero, 420 ; his mannas by no means rough or unpolished, 420, r. * ; supports a thanksgiving to Bibulus, 440, r. " ; opposes a thanksgiving to Cicero, 440, r. " ; Cicero^s thoughts on his death, 485 ; Seneca's eulogy on, 485, r. ^ ; anecdote of his stedfast behaviour at four years of age, 524, r. ^ ; his character a fashionable declamation for both parties at Rome, 534, t, ° Catulus, Q. L. makes the welfare of his country the object of his labours, 495, r. ■" Caunians, refused to pay interest for money after having lodged it in the treasury, 404, r, ^ Caunus, a city in Caria, 404 TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 607 Censor, that office explained, 430, r. '; every five years number the people, 542, r. ^ Cerellia, account of her, 605, r. ^ Chariots of the old Britons, 362, r. ' Chrysippus the philosopher, account of, 384j 479, r. ° Cihyra, a city in Phiygia Major, 397, ''. * Cicero, Quintus, letter to M. T. Cicero, 524 ; in order to obtain the recal of his brother, eh'gagdd to an un- limited resignation to the measures of Pompoy, 368, r. J ; letters to Tiro,\S2, 453, 8£8 ; his cha- racter, 452, r. P Cicero, M. T; letter to Pompey, 333 ; complains of a want of return of friendship in Pompey, and his not congratulating him on his services, 334 i cause of Pompey's coolness towards him, 334, ■/. * ; letter to Quinlus Metellus Celer, 334 ; resolves to receive no honours at the end of his consular oi£ce, 385, r. ^ ; swore that he had preserved Rome and the republic from destruction, 335, r. ° ; his gaod offices to Pompey, 335 ; letter to Caius Antonius, 336 ; " I am informed," the reason for his using that expression, 837, r, • ; letter to Publius Sestius, 337 ; purchases Crassus's house, 337 ; in distress for money, 838 ; sincerity not the virtue of, 338, r. " i letters to Terentia, 338, 339, 340, 341 j his dejection during banishment, 338, 339 ; a philo- sopher only in speculation, 338, r. * ; passes through Brundisium in his way to Greece, 338, 7-. •* ; a law passed that no person should harbour him, 339, r. ' ; his daughter Tallia • married to Pisp, 839, r. " ; promises iireedom to his slaves conditionally, 339 ; a temple erected to Liberty where his bpuse stood, 340, r. » ; solicited to join Ckb^ and Crfs- Bus, 340, r. 1 ; his design of taking up arras against his country examined, 340, 9*. ™ ; deserted by Pompey, 340, r. " ; Csesar offered tP take him into Gaul as his lieutenant, 341, r. ' ; letter to Quiqtus Metellus Nepos, 342 ; the treachery of Clodius to ^hita, 842, r. ^ j recalled from banishment, 343, r. ' ; letters to Publius Lentulus, 343, 346, 347, 348, 352, 356, 366 ; the part he took in placing Ptolemy in his kingdom, 344 ; letter to Quintus YaleriuB Orca, 345 ; recommend^ his African friends, 345 ; Ms friendship tp Lentulus, 347 ; compares the fate of Lentulus with his own, 348 ; letter to Lucius LucceiUS, 349 ; served as a yolpn- teer under the father of Pompey, 349, r. " ; wishes to h^ve his life portrayed by Lucceiu^ in a history of Catiline's conspiracy, 350"^; pi^rposcs to be his own historian, if Lupceius refuses it, 351 ; fiis vanity^ 3^1, r. ^ ; let^^r to him f;-om Quintus Metellus Nepos, 352 ; letter to Quintus Ancbarius, 352 ; his and Pompey's adyice to Lentulus, 353 ; his duplicity in the affejr of Ptolemy, 353, r. '" ; Rometimes represents his approbation and con- demnation of the same ^tions, 353, r. "^ 354, r, ^ ; exhorts Lentulup to a well-regulated ambi- tion, 354 ; makes immoderate and fatal concessipns to the ambitiop pf Ciesar, 354, r.^; letter tp Fabjus Gallus, 3:55, 492, ^34, 535 ; statues purchased for him, 355 ; prefers paintings to statues, 356 ; motives of his attachment tp Ppmpey, 356 ; nipfive^ pf his ambitipp, 356 ; letters to Marcus Marius, 357, 387, 470, 487 i on public shows, 357 ; advantages he derived froin ^sopus, 358, r. >' j dissatisfied in his sitpatipn of public advocate, 359 ! wholly under -4he influence of Pompey and Cicsar, 359, r. >' ; letters te Quintus Phijippps, 359, 377 : Icfter to Marcus Licinius Qrasaus, $60 ; supposed (psinperity of his professed friendship for Crassps, 360, f , ^ ; letters to Julius Caesar, 861, 563; letters to Trebatius, 362, 363, 364, 365, 379, 381, 382, 383, 384, 387, 388, SSO; letter to Munatiue, 364 ; reconciled to Ciesar and Appiua, 366 ; defence of his appearing advocate for Vatinaus, 366 ; traces the motives for his conduct, 366 ; the Atrium Libertatis erected as a mouument for his services, 366, r*^; the inscription ordered to be restored, 366, r. ^ ; bis bouses pillaged and burned by order pf Clodius, 367, r. * j adheres firmly to his political principles, 367 ; the engagements on which Pompey £ivpured his recai, 368, r. ' ; bad no esteem for Pompey, 369, r. *° ; bis motives for uniting with Csesar, 369 ; in compli^cp to the law made against him by Clodius, be appears in mourn- ing, and is joined by 20,000 knights, 369, r, ' ; deserted by some pf his friends, 370 ; his recal pp- posed, 370, r. ' j bis name defaced from his mo- nument, and the name of Clodius inserted, 370 ; inferior to Metellus in hie behaviour during l>ani|h- ment, 371, r. * ; recalled from banishment by Lpptulus, 371 ', cause of his having prompted the honours of Csesar, 372 ; blamed for having joined Pompey and Csesar, 372, r. P ; dp&iids Cato, 37-3 ; provpked to engage in the defence of V^tiniiis, 373 ;blamed for defending AulusG^binips, 373. T-^f at variance with Crassns, 373 ; reconcilpd to Cras- sus, 374 ; his sppport of Csesar »pd Pompey inde- fensible, 374, r. ° ; principles on which h0 acted,^ 374 ; his character as a patriot deprpsjated, 375, r. ', 503, T- ' ) sends three dialogues on Bva.tq^ tp Len- tulus, 375 ; !^elivei!j a poem on his banisl|i;nent, sealed up, to his sop, 3^5,^, ' ; letters to Lucius CuUppliis, 376 ; Jetters tp CuripB, 377, 503, 539, 540 ; letter to Ps^ilius, 377 ; letter to Lnccpius Vajerins, the lawyer, 377 5 Piistokes the meapfng of I^pmpr, ,378, r. ' ; letters tp Cains Curio, ^JS, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 413; letter to Appus Puicher, 380, 388, 389, 390, 395, 408,409, 4?3, 4?5, 429, 434, 439, 440j letters to Caipsi T^m- piius, 381, 384,391; letters to Cpmjfipfps, 382, 537, 64P, 555, 556, 557, 558, 560, 570, 572, 680, 595 ; sends q. lettef ip Greek jto Csesar, 333 ; letter tp Ppblius $extius, 384 ; his decliiratipB of JHendship fpr ^eytius, 385 ; snppprte4 Wjlo )n his p)pctiqn for the cpnsulate, because ^is own (ligpjties depended on it, 385 ; lettpr to Titu? Fadius, 386 ; letters tp Titjis Titius, 387, 462 ; obtains the ba- nishnient of Bursa, 387 ; conceives ^ strppger aversion to Bursa thjn hp erer had against Clodius, 388; letfprs frpm CoiliBs to hipi, 389, 393; 394, 396, 397, 3&8, 4Q&, 41g, 431, 422, 435, 438, 442, 452, 4^4, 4^9; his poetical treatises universally read, 390 ; intiniately unjted with Patro, 392 ; his real sentiments of Patro, 392 ; letters to jVIarpus Cpelius, 393, 408, 411, 4,33, 441, 445 j often ph^^fi1t?'ppinipo', .or a^ least his language, respepting Pompey, 393, r. °j hjs ad- ministratipq pf Cilicia compaended, 393, r. i" ; shares, ^th his sery^t Pl^ilptimus, In the profit made by the purchase .of hip friend l\^ilo's estates, at an under value, 396, r. ^ ; letfprs to Marcus Marcelius, 399, 491, 494, 529 ; letters to C^us iWarcellus, 399, '42O, 440 ; letfer to Caius Mar- celius the ejder, 400 ; letter tp Lucius Paulus, 400, 421 ; lefters to the consuls, the pratprs, Jhe tribunes pf thp people, 8n4 ^^^ senate, 4p0, 404 ; takes Ariobarzanes under his protection, 401 ; letters to Thernius, 402, 403, 414 ; dis- plBMpd with thp coj>4Hfit of Appius, 402; his 608 INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS edict for tbe government of Cilicia very dif- ferent from that of Appius, 403 ; letter to Mar- cus CatOj 403, 416, 439; cannot rely ou the provincial militia, 405 ; voluntary advocate for TncciuB, 406 ; letters to Publiu8.*=^Uiu8, 408, 411, 413, 416, 429 ; congratulates Coek^ ou his aedile- fihip, 408 ; defence of himself against Appius, 409 ; restrains the public expenses in Cilicia, 410 ; declaration of friendship for Appius, 410 ; lowers the interest of money in Cilicia, 410, r. ^ ; entitled to a triumph, 411 ; gains a victory over the Par- tliians, 412 ; his vanity, 412 ; saluted with the title of Imperator, 412 ; his esteem and affection for Nero, 413 ; letter to Volumnius, 414, 484 ; wishes to retain his character of a wit, 415 ; letter to Cras- fiipes, 415 ; his own account of his government of Cilicia, 416; his progress against the Parthians, 417; takes Pindinessum, 418 ; preserved the common- wealth without drawing a sword, 418 ; refused the government of Macedonia, 419 ; represents himself as a stranger to vain-glory, and desire of vulgar admiration, yet ambitious of military honours, 419 ; very attentive to the interests of the commonwealth, 419, 7. K ; calls philosophy for his advocate, 420 ; Marcus Cato'fl letter to him, 420 ; accused by Ap- pius Pulcber of neglect to him, 423 ; prefers merit to distinction of birth, 423 ; looks on Pompey as "the greatest man the world ever produced, 423 ; let- ters to Caius Cassius, 424, 519, 520, 549, 553, 554, 562, 564, 568, 596 ; letters to C. Titius Kufus, 428, 448, 458 ; was a native of Arpinum in Italy, 428, r. % 459, r. " ; letter to Publius Csesius, 429 ; letter to the inhabitants of Fregellae, 429 ; promises to support the honour of Appius Pulcher, 429; in- sincerity of his professions, 430, r. s • his obligations to Pompey, 432 ; not under the obligations to Pom- pey which he pretended, 432, j\ ^ ; observations on his defence of Milo, 432, r, i; letters to Papirius P«tuB,432, 469, 482, 484,486, 487, 494, 501, 564 ; wore out Xenophon's Life of Cyrus with reading it, 432 ; his friendship withMarcusPabiua, 432 ; letter to Ccelius Caldus, 433 ; his expressions of joy on the acquittal of Appius Pulcher, 434 ; his character of Appius Pulcher in a former letter to Atticus, 434, 7-. * ; formed different opinions of Pompey at differ- ent times, 435, r. •» ; friendship for Appius Pulcher, 435 ; difficulty in procuring a thanksgiving, 435 ; —courted both by Pompey and Caesar, 436, r. * ; let- ter to Caninius Sallustius, 437 ; studied oratory at Rhodes under Molo, 437, r. ' ; anxious to leave his province at the expiration of the year, 437 ; intends to deposit a copy of his quaestor's accounts at Apamea, 437; advises the Parthian plunder to be laid out in behalf of the public, 437 ; not on good terms with Bibulus, 438 ; congratulated on his alliance with Dolabella, 438 ; received the account of the death of Hortensius with real concern, 438, r. K ; his thoughts on the marriage of Dolabella with Tullia, 439 ; does not forgive Cato for refusing him a thanksgiving, 440, r. " ; acknowledges himself obliged to Cato, 440 ; acknowledges his obligations to Appius Pulcher, 440 ; his disquietude on the dark prospect of public affairs, 441 ; leaves the ad- ministration of Cilicia to Caldus, 441 ; letters to Tcrentia and Tullia, 444, 450; arrives at Athens, 444 ; laments the death of Prescius, who left him a legacy, 444 ; letters to Tiro, 444, 445, 446, 447, 451, 453, 524, 530, 531, 532, 542, 555; his temper more than commonly warm, 444, r. " ; in hopes of obtaining a triumph, 444, r. " ; detained at Corcyra by contrary winds, 446 ; account of his voyage on his return from his government, 446 ; met by Terentia at Brundisium, 446 ; resolves not to engage in party measures, 447 ; arrives in the suburbs of Rome, 447 ; finds Rome in civil war, 447 ; takes Capua in Italy under his protection, 448 } on the public expenses of his government in Cilicia, 448 ; pays a necessary obedience to the Julian law, 448 ; his lionorary list, 449 ; the money he left in the hands of the farmers of tlie revenues at Ephesus seized for Pompey, 449 ; his wife and daughter leave Rome, 450, r. ^ ; with all tlie friends of the republic abandons Rome, 431 ; follows Pom- pey into Greece, but would not accept a command in Pompey' s armv, 451, r. **; letters to Servius Sulpicius, 454, 457, 488; 513, 514, 515, 516, 527 ; will not take liis seat in the senate without full liberty of speaking his sentiments, 454, r. ^ ; had formed a resolution of following Pompey into Greece, 454, r. '^ ; averse to Porapey*s deserting Rome, 456 ; resumes his intention of following Pompey into Greece, 456, r. ^ ; professes that his aim was to preserve the peace of his country, 456 ; determines to wait the event of Caesar's expedition in Spain, 457, r. *" ; resolves to retire from Rome, 457 ; letters to Terentia, 458,460, 461, 462,463, 464, 466 ; attributes his cure to Apollo and JEacu- lapiuB, 458; joins Pompey in Greece, 458, r.'; his political character stated, 458, r. * ; Dolabella's letter to Cicero, 460 ; Dolabella endeavours to persuade Cicero to quit Pompey's party, 460 ; con- jecture respecting some money which he wishes to have paid, 461, r. ^ ; quits Pompey's party, 461, r. "*; Pompey exasperated against him, 461, r. °;'^ scarcely ever executed an important resolution wthout repenting immediately, 461, r. ° ; his severe anxiety, 461, r. p ; consoles Titius on the loss of his son, 462 ; thoughts on a future state, 462; letters to Acilius, 463, 464, 466, 468, 469; re- proaches himself "nith negligence respecting his daughter Tullia, 463, r. ^ ; letters to Cassius, 465; reasons why he declined a perseverance in the civil war, 465 ; had an interview with Csesar in Italy, 466, r. ° I letters to Trebonius, 467, 496 ; ac- knowledges favours received from Trebonius, 467 ; tbe palm of eloquence contestedby Calvus, 468,r.*; letter to Sextilius Rufus, 468 ; repents that he joined Pompey, 470 ; advised Pompey to propose terms of accommodation to Csesar, 470 ; lays down his arms and returns to Italy, 470 ; motives and defence of his conduct, 471 ; letter to CnejusPlan- cius, 472 ; laments the present and impending calamities, 472; his wife Terentia divorced, 472, r. y; letters to Toranius, 472, 474 ; letters to Marcus Terentius Varro, 473, 478, 479, 480, 481, 531; letter to Domitius, 474 ; advice to Domitius against suicide, 474 ; letters to Lucius Plancus, 474, 551, 554, 561, 562, 567, 570, 574, 576, 580, 586, 590, 594 ; his friendship for Plancus, 476 ; declares that he joined Pompey contrary to his own inclina- tion, iu compliance with the solicitation and autho- rity of others, 476 ; blamed for not standing neuter in the war between Pompey and Csesar, 476, r. * j letters to Allienus, 476, 478 ; letter to Lucius Mes- cinius, 476 ; censures Pompey for his conduct towards him, 477; obliged to associate with the Cid- sareanparty,477; declares thathe never sacrificed the public good to his own private views, 477 ; rejerted the doctrine of the immortality of tlic bouI in his private opinion, 477, r. ^; held different TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. opinious ■ of the same tli'ing at different times, 477, T. *; motives for not quitting Kome, 478; letters to Apuleius, 479, 481 ; his reasons for keep- - ing VaiTo -within his reach, 480, r. ' ; inclined to join the strongest party, 481 ; thinks it hest not to disgust Cxaar or his favourites, 482; institutes a kind of academy for eloquence at his own house, 483, T. ', 484, 485 ; intends a visit to Papirius PflBtns, 483 ; resolves to retire into the secret shades of philosophy, 484 ; his thoughts on Cato's death, 485 ; becomes an absolute Epicurean, 487 ; general sketch of his manner of life, 487, 501 ; laments the desolation of the commonwealth, 488 ; consecrates all Lis time and attention to philosophy, 488 ; letters to Servilius Isauricus, 489, 493, 503, 505, 507, 508, 510; letter to Nigidius Figulus, 489 ; finds himself divested of all his credit, authority, and honours, and thinks it a crime to continue to live, 490 ; wishes to insinuate himself into the friendship. of Csesar, and pretends that modesty keeps him from intimacy, 490 ; disapproved of the manner in which the civil war was carried on, 491 ; could plead the merit of having yielded after he was conquered, 492 ; letters to Trobianusj^ 492, 493 ; letters to Quintus Gallius, 493, 511; letters to Dolabella, 519, 522, 525, 538, 543 ; letters to Marcus Brutus, 496, 498, 499, 501 ; letter to Ligarius, 497 ; zeal- ously patronises the city of Arpinum, 498 ; ad- dresses Csesar on the pardon of Marcellus, 499 ; thought it true wisdom to )'ield to the circumstances of the times, 500 ; Marcus Marcellus's letter to him, 500 ; letter to Ampius, 502 ; not equally solicitous in all his recommendations, 503 ; mixes with the chief of the victorious faction, 503 ; how far a patriot, 503, r. •= ; letter to Ligarius, 504 ; is said to have made Cajsar tremble by his rhetoric, 504, 7'. f; letters to Aulus Caecina, 505, 507, 508; letter to Titus Fuifanius, 505; Cairina's letter to him, 506 ; his skill jn divination, 508 ; could not support the thoughts of deserting Pompey, 509 ; advances daily in the friendship of Csesar, 510; letter to Publius Sulpicius, 511 ; letters to Aulus Torquatus, 511, 513 ; letter to Lepta, 517; in- scribed his Orator to Brutus, 518, r, •*; letter to Aulus Torquatus, 518 ; is appointed to judge between Nicias and Vidius, 519 ; Caius Cassius's letter to him, 522 ; letters to Cassar, 563 ; Quintus Cicero's letter to Iiim, 524 ; gives Tiro his freedom, 524 ; letter 'to Eex, 524 ; laments the death of Tullia, 525, 527, 528; his character detracted by his own nephew, 525, r. p ; Servius Sulpicius's letter to Cicero, lamenting the death of Tullia, ^25 ; thinks Csesar by no means his enemy, 526 ; letfSrs to Lucius Lucceius, 528, 529 ; advantages he derived from the advice of Lucceius, 528 ; Lucceius' letter to Cicero, 529 ; laments how few friends he has left, and the miseries of life, 529 ; Vatinius's letter to Cicero, 531; sends four dialogues called Academica to Varro, 531 ; writes a dialogue between Atticus, Varro and himself, 532 ; letters to Quintus Valerius Orca, 532, 533 ; recommends the citizens of Volaterra to Orca's protection, 532 ; Macula oifers him the use of his house, 533 ; letter to Cluvios, 534 ; recommends the citizens of Atella to the protection of Cluvius, 535 ; letter to Marcus Ilutilius,536; letter to Vatinius, 536 ; Curius'Uet- ter to Cicero, 537 ; blamed for not inquiring into the conduct of Dolabella, 538, t. ' ; letter to Auctus, 540 ; favoured the conspirators gainst Caesar, 542, r.'; sends Tiro to Rome to receive hisdehts, 642 ; let- ter to Bithynicus, 542 ; no real friendship between him and Antony, 543, n °- ; approves of DolabelVs consular conduct, 543 ; praises tbc conduct of Bru- tus on the ides of March, 544 ; letters to Trebonius, 544, 563 ; Treboniua's letter to, 545 ; character of his son, 545 ; letter to Matius, 546 ; friendship for Matins, 546 ; reviled that man [CBesar] when dead, whom he was the first to flatter when living, 547, r. * ; Matius's letter to, 547; his declarations of Iriendship to Brutus and Cassius, 549 ; letter to Oppius, 549 J motive of his intended voyage into Greece, 551, r, ^ ; Decimus Brutus' letters to, 552, 575, hl^, 577 y 581, 582, 585, 586, 591; letters to Decimus Brutus, 552, 553, 556, 557, 560, 579, 580, 581, 591, 593, 595, 598; neglects attending the senate when divine honours were to be voted to Cassar, 553, r. ' ; cannot appear with safety in the senate, 553 ; the occasion of his 1st and 2d Philip- nics, 553, r, ' and ^ ; declines speaking when the senate is surrounded with soldiers, 554 ; reproaches the conspii'ators for sparing Antony, 554 ; laments that he was not one of the conspirators, 554, 562, 563 ; supposed by Antony to have been one of thfl conspirators, 553, 554 ; favoured the design of Oc- . tavius against the life of Antony, 555, r. s ; had a design of publishing his letters, 555, r, ^ ; found it necessary to move from Rome, 556, r, ™ ; the kill- ing of Csesar the noblest enterprise recorded by his- tory, 556 ; encourages D. Brutus to act without waiting for the !>anction of the "senate, 557; the occasion of the 3d and 4th Philippics, 558, r. " ; 563, r. P ; Bythinicus's letter to Cicero, 560 ; his flat- tery of Plancus in order to gain him over to his party, 561, 562 ; Plancus's letters to Cicero, 5G1, 568', 570, 574, 577, 578, 579, 583, 592, 599 ; be- comes popular, 563 ; a design to destroy him, 564 ; Caius Cassius's letters to, 565, 567, 578, 598 ; Asinius Pollio's letters to, 565, 590, 593 ; his ad- vice to Plancus, 567 ; letter to Lepidus, 567 ; is always ready to assist Plancus with his advice and in- terest, 570 ; hopes for a favourable turn in the affaira of the state 570 ; recommends Plancus to persevere, 571; places a statue of Minerva in the temple of Jupiter, 572, r, " ; was the only man who dared to assert his freedom and independency in the senate, 573; his engagements with Octavius, 573, r. '; inveighed against the measures of Antony, 573 ; Galba's letter to, 574 ; Octavius refuses to hearken to his advice, 576 ; his disappointment in Antony not being defeated, 580 ; advises Plancus not to wait for the sanction of the senate, 581 ; Marcus Lcpidus's letter to, 582 ; letters to Purnius, 584, 596 ; dis- pleases Octavius by an ambiguous expression, 585; Lentulu8*s letter to, 586 ; will not expose himself to any danger that prudence can prevent, 591 ; Cassius' (Quasstor) letter to, 597 ; his eloquence of more avail than all the armies of their generals,' 597 ; ho- nours paid him by the populace, 597, r. p ; the ruin of the republic would have been prevented by following his advice, 598, r. * ; letter to Ampius, 598 ; Plancus's letter to, 599 ; artfully ensnared by Octavius, 600, r. ^; conjecture how far he assisted Octavius in obtaining the consulate, 600, r. •* ; was sacrificed to the resentment of Antony, 600, r. ' ; his composure at his death, 600, r. i Cicerd's (the Younger,) letters to Tiro, 559, 560 ; account of him, 559, r. * ; lived with CratippuR both as his son and pupil, 559 ; his studies, 559.; his courage and conduct, 588 Cilicia, extent of that province. 400, r. % 427 ; miU- R R GIO INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS taiy preparations there by Cicero, 401 ; added to the provinces by P. ServiBus, 400, r. ' ; praitors draw lots for the government of, 407 ; prevented by Cicero from sending deputies to thank Appius, 409 ; severely plundered by Appiiia» 410, r. " Cilix, 380 Cilo Magius stabs Marcellus, and then kills himself, 530 Cimber, his treachery to Cajaar, 502, /-. " Cineas, 432, v. ■" Cipius, saying of, 534 Circensian .games consisted of shows of various. liinds, 442, r. ^ Civil war, victory, the supreme evil of, 48 1 Cleopatra, 461, r. » Clodius procures a law that no person shall liavbour Cicero, 338, r. ' ; treachery to Cicero, 343, r. ^; pillages and burns Cicero's houses, 367, J". * ; au enemy to tlie laws and tranquillity of Rome, 368 ; after having driven Cicero from Rome, opposes Pompey and Csesar, 369, r. », 370, r. ' ; his schemes against Cicero, 369, ■(•. ' ; law procured by him, 369, r. ' ; intnjdes on the matrons' mysteries, 370 ; suspected of crim. con. with his three sisters, 370, r. " ; opposes the recal of C cero,^70, t. " ; impeached by Milo as a disturber of the public peace, 370, r. '. ; killed by Milo, 386, /. " ; his funeral pile made of the benches of the senate-house, 387, /. ' Clodius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 406 Clnvius, 403 ; the cities of Mylata and Alabanda inr debted to him, 404 ; has demands on Heraclea Bargylos and Caunus, 404 ; his dispute with the Caunians, 404, r.i ; Cicero's letter to, 534 Cocceius, 479 Coelius, Marcus, letters to Cicero, 389, 393, 394, 396, 397, 398, 405, 412, 421, 422, 435, 438, 442, 452, 454, 459 ; Cicer/i's letters to him, 393, 408, 411, 425, 426, 427. 433, 441, 455 ; account of, 389, r. ^ ; wishes Cicero to address some of his works to him, 395 ; complains of the ingratitude of Appius, 442 ; Lucius Domitius becomes his most bitter enemy, 442 ; Appius endeavours to persuade Ser- vius to impeach him, 442 ; indicted on the Scan- tinian law, 442 ; lodges an information against Appius, 442 ; endeavours to persuade Cioero to join Xlffisar, 454 ; laments his having joined Csesar, 459; encourages Pompey's party at Rome, 459 ; mur- dered by the soldiers of Caesar's faction, 460, t, ^ Cognosce explained, 378, r. * Coloplion, a city of Ionia, 507 Comitial days, 407, r. ^ Commagene, a part of Syria, 403 Confidence frequently passes for skill, 377 Conscript fathers, the council of the republic addressed by that term, 588, r. " Consuls become infamous barterers for, provinces, 369; not under tlie age of forty-two, 543, r. ^ ; miglit not be sued for until two years after having served the office of prater, 597, r. " Consulars, whom, 486, r. ■" Corcvra, an island in the Ionian Sea, now called Corfu, 395, r. I, 472 Corintli, a city of Peloponnesus, 526 Cornelia visits the wife of Cicero, 337 ; her character, 399, r. 1 Cornelian law, 402, t. ^, 431, r.'' Cornelius, 337, 346 Cornificius, 422 ; Cicero s letters to, 382, 537, 540, 555, 556, 557, 558, 560, 580, 5,95 ; account of him, 537, t. ^ ; lost his life in defence of his pro- vince, 695, /•. ' ^ Corporation, or municipal towns, 428, r. Cossinius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Sul- picius, 515 Corycus, in Cilicia, 597 _ Crassipes, 374; married to Tullia, 355; Cicero a letter to, 415 Crassus, Marcus Licinius, Cicero's letter to, 360 ; Xlicero's profession of friendship for him, 360 ; gives ' a general treat on 1 0,000 tables, and three months' provisions of com, 360, r. J; accepts the province of Syria, with a design of making war on the Parthians, 360, r. ^ ; regulated his attachment by his interest, 361, r. '; his son heads a body of knights in sup- port of Cicero, 369, r. ' ; cause of variance between him and Cicero, 373 ; sets off for Syria, 374, r. ' ; account of him, 495, r. ^ Criminals employed on the roads, 358, r. ^ Cromwell, paragram of his, 415, r. " Cromyacris, in Cyprus, 597 Cularo, on the frontiers of the Allobroges, new Gre- noble, 592 Culeo returns to Lepidus, 582 CuUeolus, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 376 Cumse, a city in Campania, 390, r. ^ Curiae, their votes considered as the voice of the people, 375, r. " Curio, Caius, 347, 435 ; Cicero's letters to, 378, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 413 ; liis character, 378, r. J , 381, r. ', 396, t. ' ; his debts paid by Caesar, 378, r. i ; lost his life before the battle of Pharsalia, 378, T. i ; his infamous intercourse with Antony, 379, ». " ; gives public games, 383, r. ' ; theatre, 394 ; gives panthers to Ccelius, 398, 408; prepares to oppose the demands of Caesar, 407 ; joins Cajsar's party, 422 ; becomes a convert to CaBsar, 428 Curius, 433 ; Cicero's letters to, 377, 503, 537, 539, 540 ; account of him, 503, r. •= Curius, Manius, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 513 Curius, Marcus, recommended byCicero to Auctus,5i40 Curtius, 457, 534 Cumle magistrates drawn in a car, 469, »•. " Curvus, Lucius Genucilius, recommended by Cicero to Thermus, 402 Cuspius, Publius, 345 Custidius, Lucius, 428 Cybira, a city of Lycaonia, 514, ■/ . ^ Cybiratae hunt panthers, 398 Cyprus had a peculiar claim on the patronage of Cato, 419, •/ . e ; extremely oppressed under the govern- ment of Ptolemy, 419, r. s Cyzicum, a town in the island of Propontis, 393 D. Dalmatii, Vatinius's victories in, 639 DamasippuSj 355, 356 Death to be wished for, after the loss of liberty in a country, 525 j consolation drawn from the prospect of ruined cities, 526; Addison's reflections amongst the repositories of the dead, 526, r. " ; in an honest cause ought never to be shunned, 547 Decemviri, account of, 580, r. s ; appointed to distri- bute lands to the soldiers, 585, r, ^ Decurio, that office explained, 517, r." Deiotarus, prince of Galatia, 412, 417,418,465.. r.'j TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 611 his ctiaracter, 400, r. ' ; his gieat anny, 405, r. " ; offers to join Cicero ■with liis forces, 417 Demetrius, Magus, on being granted the freedom of Rome, took the name of Publius Cornelius, 468 Demetrius, a celebrated orator, 525, r. * Democritus of Sicyon, 476 Dialogue writers have the privilege of drawing up dia- logues which had never taken place, 532 Dictator, a magistrate invested with supreme and abso- 'lute power, 396, r, " Diodorus, a Greek philosopher, 479, r. "> Diodotus, a Stoic philosopher, 479, r. " Diogenes, Laertius, preserved the will of Epicurus, 392, T. i Dion Cassius, 338, r. », 340, .-. ■», 345, /. "■ Dionysius, 351, r. ^ ; steals books from Cicero's library, 511 Divination attended to by the senate, 347, •/ . " ; derived from the Etruscans, 508, r. ° Dolabella exhibits articles of impeachment against Appius,, 421 ; his wife obtains a divorce, 421 ; un- grateful to his patron, 430 ; marries TuUia, 43S, 439, 441 ; joins Csesai^ 451 ; letter to Cicero, 460 ; his character, '460, r. '', 538, r. ' ; endea- vours to persuade Cicero -to leave Pompey, 460 ; his neglect of Tullia, 463 ; divorce purposed, 464 ; reasons for a divorce, 464, t. *=; employs his power to seditious pui'poses, 4C4, r. * ; attended Caesar in the African war, 480, r."; Cicero's letters to him, 519, 522, 525, 538, 543 ; douhtTwhether the mamage ivith Tullia was dissolved, 525, r. ", 526, r. 1 ; disperses the mob that gathered about Caesar's altar, 543, r. "^ ; saves the commonwealth as w?ll as the city, 544 ; if he should not succeed in Syria, intends to join Antony, 586 ; obliged to abandon the siege of Antiochia, 587 ; puts an end to his life by commanding one of his slaves to be his executioner, 587, r. ° ; in his march from Asia laid waste the country, and seized the public mo- ney, 588 : his iicet destroyed by Lentulus, 589 ; the gates of Antiochia shut against him, and his troops desert him, 589 ; defeated by Cassius, 596, 7". " ; collects his forces at Laodicea, 597 ; price of wheat in his camp, 597 Domitian improved Augustus's poetical court of ju- dicature, 357, r. " Domitii, 436 Domitius, Cicero's letter to, 474 ; account of him, 474, r.J Domitius, Lucius Enobarbus, one of Cxsar's avowed enemies, 390, r. ^ ; disappointed in l]is election, 442 ; seized and strangled by Bellienus, 462 ; treated by Cjesar ynCa generosity, 453, r. " Dyrrachium, a city in Macedonia, now Durazzo, 3i\,r. 1,460, r.' E. Eggs, the first dish at every table, 487, r. " Kgnatius, 359 ; recommended by Cicero to Silius, 429 Ignatius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Apu- leius, 479 Egnatius, Titus, recommended by Cicero to Isauricus, 503 Elephants, tcroble slaughter of, 359 ; supposed to partake, in some degree, of rational faculties, 35,9, r. s ; drawn up in the front of Scipio's army, 481, r.' Elia, a city of Peloponnesus, 516 Elocution, contrast between that of Rome and Britain) 485, r. i Eloquence not venal at Rome, 337, r. '^ ; the power of, 504^ r. ' Epamiuondas, hia,gloriou3 death, 350 Eporedia, a town near Vercellse, 586, r.*= Ephesus, a city in Ionia, 396, r. ' Epicureans, their principles ridiculed, 381 ; their absurd doctrine of ideas, 521, r. ** Epicurus left his school and gardens to the sect of philosophers called by his name, 392, ■/-. ' Epiphanea, a city in Cilicia, 417, r. ^ Epirus contiguous to Greece, 514, r. " Epistolary correspondence, the proper subjects for, 383 Equestrian order, coalition of, with the senate, 477,?". ''J required an estate equal to about 3000/., 523, t. ' Etesian winds, 440, 442 ^ Evander, Caius, 381 .^ Evocati, troops composed of Experienced soldiers 403, r. " liuripides' death occasioned by excessive joy,, 452, r. "^ Euthydemus, 404 Entrapelus, 501 Pabius, Quintus, 389 Pabius, Marcus, 424, 425 ; his friendship with Ci- cero, 433 ; Cicero's character of, 433 ; his brother ■ intends selling an estate at Herculaneum, 433 Fadius, Titus, letter of consolation to, on his banish- ment, 386 ; burned to death by order of Balbus, for refusing to enter the lists at tlie gladiatorial games, 594 Palemian wines, 533, r. ' Parmers of the public revenues, 357, r. ■ ; decree in their favour by Lentulus, 376, r. " Favonius, 398, 436 Feasts of the Romans, 487, r. " , '" , » Feridius, Marcus, recommended by Coelius to Cicero, 398 Flaccus, Avianus, and his two sons, Recommended by Cicero to AUienua, 478 Flaccus, Marcus, 338 Flavius, Caius, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 464 Forum, a place of general resort, 529, r. e Forum Voconii, a town in Provence, now called Le Luc, 579 Fiegellffi, Cicero's letter to the magistrates of, 429 Friendship, private, ought to give way to more exten- sive obligations, 368, r. ^ Fufidins recommended by Cicero to firutus, 498 Furfanius, Cicero's letter to, 505 Fornius, 413,425, 436, 596 ; Cicero's letters to, 684, 596 ; Cicero encourages him to seek glory in the field rather than claim honours at home, 584 Fusiua, Aulus, recommended by Cicero to MemmiuB, 384 Fusius, Quintus, 337 Future state, Cicero's thoughts on, 402, r. ' G. GitiNiDs, Aulns, 341, r. ", 369, r. ' ; character of, by Cicero, 373, r. i ; first opposed and afterwards defended by Cicero, 373, r. J Oades, now Cadia, 590 .R R 2 C12 INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS Gallins, Quintus, Cicero's letters to, 493, 511 Gallusj Fabius, Cicero's letters, to, 343, 355, 492, S34, 535 ; conjecture concerning him, 492, r. " Games, public, are instances of wealth, not of merit, '382 Gaul, Cisalpine, how divided, 390, r. " ; orders and decrees of the senate concerning, 406 Gellius, Lucius, acts for the interest of the republic, 579 Gemellus, Memmius, recommended by Cicero to Sul- picius, 514 Gladiators, when iirst introduced at Rome, 358, r. ^ Gnatho, 373 Gorgias, a statue of solid gold erected to his memory, 502, r. ' Government does not require an absolute perseverance in one system of measures, 374 ; best security in the affections of the people, 401 Gracchus, Sempronius, 354, r. ^ Grauius, account of him, 495, r. ^ Grecians, carelessness their general characteristic, 445 Greek farces, 358, r. ' Groves, consecrated, 550, ■/■. ' H. HAGESARETtJs recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius 515 Hammonius, recommended by Cicero to Sulpicius, 515 Helico, 532 Heraclea, a city in Caria, 404, r. ^ Herculaneum, 433, r. i Hercules, story of Pleasure and Virtue appearing to him, 349, r. - Herennius, 467, r. ' Hcsiod, his writings recommended by Cicero, 518 Hippias, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 468 Hipplus, recommended by Cicero to the magistrates of Fregellaj, 429 Hirrus, 394, 411, 436, 441 ; supported by Pompey, 397 ; character of, 394, r. ^ ; affects to act the pa- triot, 398 Hirtius, 484, 541 ; did not go -with Casar into Africa, 481, r, '^ ; conducted himself as a consummate general, 590 Hispalis, a city of Spain, 594, r. ^ Hispo recommended by Cicero to Silius, 416 Hissing, displeasure shown by, 437, r. ^ Homer, a passage misapplied by Cicero, 378, r. ' Honour, the next, to being applauded by the worthy, is to be abused by the wortliless, 534, r. " Hortensius, 340, r. '', and " ; his death and character, 438, r. 8 Hospitality considered as a primary social duty, 452, r. » Hyberbole, a figure of speech, 415, r. " ; a prevailing figure with Cicero, S44, r. e Hypocrisy, necessity of, for a man to keep well with the world, 431, r. s Hypocrites, proper objects of ridicule, 443, r. P Hypsieus, 345 I. Iambliciis, an Arabian phylarch, 405 Iconium, a city of Cilicia, 395, j\ *> Illyrioum, comprehended Austria, Hungary, Sclavonia, Bosnia, and Dalmatia, 531, r. ^ Imperator, during the times of the republic, explained, 333, T. b Integrity, cannot be given up with a good grace, 368, r. "■ ' Intemelium, a maritime city in Liguria, 452, r. •■ Intercalation, performed by the pontifical college at their discretion, 388, r. "* Intercessor, witticism of Cicero on, 492, r. ^ Interest of money lowered in Cilicia by Cicero, 410, r. " Interrex, that office explained, 379, r. ' Issus, a city on the frontiers of Cilicia and Syria, 412, r. * ; Alexander, having defeated Darius, consecrated three altars there, 418, r. ^ Italy, cause of the war, 349, t. ' ; government of tho corporate towns, 358, r, ^ J. JuBA, account of, and his death, 471, r. * Julia, Cassar's daughter, her death, 364, r, ^ Julian law, 437, r. ' Julius, Lucius, 345 Junius, 355 Laberius, account of, 380, r. ■ Labienus goes over to Pompey's party, 450, 451 Lailii, 396 Lselius, and Scipio Africanus, their friendship, 334, r. * Lsenius, Marcus, recommeiided by Cicero to Silius, 411 Lamia, 408 ; supported by Cicero in his election for prsstor, 552 Laodicea, a city of Phrygia, 395, r. ? Larissa, two cities of that name in Thessaly, 515, r. ^ Laterensis, decreed by the senate a public funeral and a statue to his memory, 592, r. J Latian Festivals, instituted by Tarquin, 422, r. "* Latin language to be used by governoi's of provinces, 427, r. " Tititium, a part of Italy, made free of Rome, 494, r. '' Laudatores, witnesses to the character of persons who were arraigned, 366, r. ' Law profession held in great esteem, 362, ■/-. ' Law, knowledge of, not to be acquired merely by books, 550 Legion, number various at different periods, 517, r. P; how styled, 557, r. " Lentulus, Lucius, murdered by order of Ptolemy, 485, r. e Lentulus, P., 341, 342, r. > ; 344, r. ' ; 345, r. ■» ; 359, r. h ; Cicero's letters to, 343, 346, 347, 348, 352, 356, 366 ; moves for the recal of Cicero, 343, r. ••, 344, r. •> ; thought the obligation to his f ountry superior to every other, 344, r. ' ; proposed and carried a law in favour of Pompey, 345, r. "■ ; his friends, 352 ; Pompey's advice to him, 353 } advised by Cicero to make himself master of Alex- andria and Egypt, 353 ; Pompey his friend, 357 ; recalled Cicero from banishment, 371 ; flattery of Cicero to him, 375 ; gives judgment against the farmers of the revenues, 376, r. '^ ; letter to Cicero, 586 ; takes Dolabella's transports, 586 ; complains of ill treatment from the Rhodians, 586 ; boasts of his services, 587 ; letter to the consuls, senate, &c., 588 ; gives an account of Dolabella and his fleet, 588 TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. '313 Lepidus (lclivci'3 Apclla as a hostage, 579 ; lettcv to Cicero, 582 ; cncampa near ForutD Voconii, 582 ; his professions of loyalty to the senate, 582 ; a few days after joins Antony, 582, r, ^ ; Plancus joins him with his troops, S83 ; his army not to be trusted, 584 ; does not punish a sedition in his army, 584 ; letter to the senate and people, 589 ; joins Antony, 591, T. % 592 ; his siuceiity doubted by Plancus, 592 ; his infamous conduct, 596 ; his adherents declared public enemies' by the senate, 698 Lepta, 423, 445; Cicero's letters to, 517, 533 Letters frequently written by the Romans during their meals, 501, r. f Leucas, a Grecian island, now St. Maure, 444, r. * Liberty, a temple to, erected on the area of Cicero's house, 340, r. '^ Libo, 345 Licinian law. 394, r. ' Lictors, a sort of beadles who attended the consuls, &c., 455, r. e Ligarius, Cicero's letters to, 497, 504 ; account of him, 497, T. ^ ^ Cicero endeavours to obtain his pardon, 504 ; after having obtained a pardon, joins Brutus in his conspiracy against Cajsar, 504, r. n Ligurius, a great favourite of Cajsai', his death, 532 Lilyhffium, a sea-port in Sicily, 466, r. "^ Lions, 500 killed atPompey's hunting matches, 359, r. ' Lollius, 406 Lucan, his character of Curio, 379, r. Lucca, a town of Cisalpine Gaul, 368, r. ^ Lucceius, 376, 449 ; account of him, 349, r. ' ; wrote the history of the Italic and Marian civil wars, 349 ; Cicero's letters to him, 349, 528, 529 ; his firm- ness of mind, 528 ; letcer tb-Ciccro, 529 Luccria, a city in Italy, 465, r. i Lucilius, account of, 495, r. ^ LucuUus, 33:3, r. % 344, 348 ; infidelity of his wife, 391, r. ■= Lupcrcal, a range of buildings at Rome, 550, r. ° Lupus, 345, 346 Iijeia, part of Asia Minor, 586, r. k Lysippus, 350, r. '' Lyso, 445, 46'j ; recommended by Cicero to Sulpicins 514, 515 M. Macul* oflisrs Cicero' the use of his house, 5S3 Ma!tius, 357 Megalesian games, 426, r, " Manilius, 364 Manlius, Marcus, 388 Maulius, Titus, recommended byCiccrotoSulpicius, 515 Manner's, superintcndant of, 495 Marcellinus, 344, 346 MarccUus, Caius, the elder, Cicero's letter to, 400 Mavcellus, Caius, Cicero's letters to, 399, 420, 440 MarceJlus, Marcus, Cicero's letters to, 399, 491, 494, 500, 529 ; letter to Cicero, 500 ; account of, 399, r. " ; warmly opposed by Caesar, 390, r. " ; slow and inactive, 412 ; a proof of his virtue, 491 ; dur- ing his voluntary exile visited by Brutus, 491, r. • ; Cicero endeavours to persuade him to return, 491, 494, 500 ; of one of tlio noblest families in Italy, 494, r. '; obtains a pardon, 498; stabbed by Magins, 539 ; where buried, 530 ; a monu- ment to his memory erected at Athous, at the public expense, 530 Marian civil wars, 349, r .* Mario,^44G Marius, Marcus, 376, »■. v, 457, r. " ; cause of the civil wars, 349, r, »; Cicero's letters to, 357, 387 47.0, 487 ; chaiacterised, 357, r. " ; horrid outrages of his party, 488, r. f Matins, 382 ; Cicero's letter to, 546 ; his character, 546, r. ^ ; gardening and poetry iiis favourite amuse- ment, 546, r. 1 ; letter to Cicero, 547 ; laments tlie death of Caisar, 547 ; reflections cast on him after the death of Cassar, 547 ; his friendship for Cassar, 548 Mate, 433 Matrinius, 442 Mauritania, in Africa, 593, r. ' Maximus, Q. Fabius, his resolution when he »ost hia son, 527, r. ^ Medea, the story of that play, 362, t. ^ Megara, a city near Corinth, 526, )'. ' Memmius, Caius, Cicero's letters to, 381, 384, 391 ; account of the family of, 391, r. *■" ; enters into au infamous association, and turns informer, 391, t. " ; banished, 391, r. '; his character, 391, r. " ; formed to make woman false, 391, r. * Meuander, Ampius, recommended by Cicero, to Isau- ricus, 508 Menocrates, 375 MesciniuB, 445, 447; Cicero's letter to, 476 ; recom- mended by Cicero to Sulpicins, 516, 517 Messala, M. Val. tried and acquitted, 393 ; condemned on a second impeachment, 396 Messienus, Publlus, recommended br Cicero to Caisiut, 429 Metella, 464, r. ' Metellus, 343, r. ", 344, r. '', 356, » . 1, 370, , . ' Metellus, Q, Cajcil.^ienos, attempts to procure the recal of Porapey, ^34] r. ' ; retires in disgust to Pompey, 334, r. * ; censured by the senate, 334, r. ' ; Cicero's letter to, 342 ; letter to Cicero, 362 ; his character, 371,/'. '' ; cause of his exile, 371, 7V~- ^; superior to Cicero in acting consistently, 371, r. * Metellus, Q. Celer, letter to Cicero, 334 ; complain; - of the persecution of his relation Metellus, 334; Cicero's letter to him, 334 ; oliaracter of his wife, 335, r. 1 Metras, 417 Milo, 348, 370, / . ' ; supported by Cicero in his elec- tion to the consulate, 385 ; dissipated three con- siderable estates in shows, 386, 7*. ' ; kills Clodius, 38G, r. '' ; banished, 386, r. '" ; his estates sold, 395, r. *^ ; observations on Cicero's defence of him, 432, r. ' ; suspected of a design against Pompey's life, 432, r. ■» Mind, indications of a low and little, 351, r. "f crimes, and not the injustice of otlicrs, ought to disturb its serenity, 385 Minerva, festival of, observed in a riotous manner, 433 Mithridates, a bravo but cruel prince, overcome by Pompe;?, 333, r. ' Mitylene, capital of Lesbos, 471, r. ",491, r. ' Molo, 437, r.' Money, scarcity of in Cappadocia, 401, r. Mopsuliesta, a city in Cilicia, 411, r. ^ Mueia, married to Pompey, and afterwards divorced, 335, v. » Mucins, 364 Munatius, Cicero's letter to, 364 Munda, a city in Granada, 518, r. ^ Murder ; a master murdered in his own house, the slaves punished with death, 530, r. ■" ei4 INDEX TO CICERO'S LETTERS Mushrooms in great esteeu}, 495, r. ', 520 Mutina, a city of Cisalpine Gaul, S57, r. '" Mylata, a city in Asia Minor, 404, r. N. NiETnjs,351 Narbonne in Provence, 590 Narona in Libumia, now called Croatia, 511, 531 Naso, Otacilius, 466 Nero, 413 ; Cicero's esteem and affection for him, 413 Jfica:a, a city greatly indebted to Titus Pinnius, 408 Nigidius, Figuliis, Cicero's letter to, 489 ; account of him, 489, r. * ; Caesar is inclined to call him from exile, 490 Nobility amongst the Romans, 354, t. ^ Nonianus, Confidius, 45] Numa regulates the public registers, 350, r. ' Numbers, superstitious notions respecting, 446 r. B Nysa, protection for the citizens requested by Nero, 413 O. Obligations, on asMng, 385 OceUa, his amours, 422 Octavius takes the name of Augustus Cassar, 542, r. " ; forms a design against the life of Antony, 555; the design favoured by Cicero, 555, r. s ; complains of the ambiguous e:spressions of Cicero, 585 ; joins the triumvirate, 592, •/ . ^, 600, r. ' ; his conduct complained of by Plancus, 599 ; advances with seve- ral legions, in order to demand theconsulate, 399, r. ' CEnomauE, story of that tragedy, 432 r. " OffiliuB, his opinion on wills, 387 Omens observed by the Romans, 361, r, " Oppius, 359, 457 ; Cicero's letter to, 549 Oppius, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Gallius, 494 Optimates, their irresolution, 436, r. o Orators of Greece and Rome studied both action and diction, 485, r. i Oratory, three dialogues on, sent hv Cicero to Len- tulus, 375 Orca, Q. Val., Cicero's letters to, 345, 532, 533 ; account of him, 532, r, *= Orfius purposed to be made king of Gaul by Casar 361 Oscian farces, account of, 358, r. • Ostia, a town on the mouth of the Tiber, 481, r. "^ Owls sent to Athens, a proverbial expression, 478, r. i, 513 Pacobus, son of Orodes, king of Parthia, encamps at Tyba, 405 Psetus, Lucius Castrinius, 394 ; recommended by _ Cicero to Brutus, 499 Psetus, Papirins, Cicero's lettera to, 432, 469, 482, 484, 486, 487, 494, 501 ; a person of great wit and humour, 432, r. « ; his noble descent, 469 Palasstra, or public building for various exercises 535, r. '■ . Pansa, 381 ; died of his wounds, 590 Panthers, to be procured for Coelius, 394, 397, 398 408, 426 Paphos, a city of Cypnis, 463 "^ Paragram, a species of pun, 415, r, " Parion, a city in Hellespontus, 402 Parthia, now a part of Persia, 397, ■/■.'•; a son of the king of, married to a sister of the king of Armenia, ,403; aimy of, passes the Euphrates, 404, 412; commits hostilities, 411 ; progress of the army, 412 ; invades Syria, 417 ; progress of Cicero against them, 417, 418 ; repulsed by Cassius, and driven out of Syria, 4"J4, r. "^ Patricians, higher and lower order, 469, r. ^ Party, strongest always the best, 443 Patiscus, 398, 426 Patra3, a city of Peloponnesus, 444, r. ^ Patriots, their duty to retire when they can no longer serve the state, 356, r, i Patriot, Cicero undeserving of that character, 375, r. i 503, r.' Patro, Cicero's acquaintance with, 392 ; wishes to be reconciled to Memmius, 392 Paulus, 413, 435, r. i"; Cicero's letters to, 400, 421 Pausanias, 359, r. ^ Peacocks, great value of at Rome, 485, r. ^ Pearl of the value of 8,000^. dissolved and drunk by the son of ^sopus, the actor, 358, r. y Pcducffianus, Curtius, Cicero's letter to, 425 Peducaeas acquitted, 443 Pelops, story of the sons of. 503, r. ^ Pescennius, 339 Pessinus, a city in Phrygia, 433 Petreius, 451 Petrinum, a town in Campania, 533 Ph£edrus, 392 Phaleris, a seaport in Greece, 525, -r. * Phania, 427 Phanias, 380, 395, 402 ; a person of consummate politics, but of infinite cui-iosity, 380 Phamaces makes an excursion into Cappadocia, and \the Lesser Armenia, 465, r. *• Philemon, Metrillius, 383 Philetffirus, 339 Philippus, 346, r. p Philippus, Quintus, Cicero's letters to, 359, 377 ; con- jecture concerning him, 359, r. * Philo, 392, r. E, 433 ; recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 464 Philoctetes, a story of, 4 84, r. » Philomelum, a city of Phrygia Major, 41 0, r. ", 494 Philosophy, one of the noblest blessings of God, 420 Philotes, of Alabanda, assigned his eifects to CluviuB, 404 Philotimus buys Mile's estate at an under value, 395 Philoxenus, Caius Avianus, recommended by Cicero to Acilius, 466 Pilius, 406 Piudenessum, a city of Cilicia, 412 ; surrenders to Cicero, 418 Pinnius, Titus, his son has a considerable demand on the city of Nicsea, 408 Piraeeus, a sea-port near Athens, now Port-Lion, 526 Piso, Caius Frugi, married TuUia, daughtci- of Cicero, 339, i: = ; his character, 342, r. " Piso, Lucius Calphumius. his character, 341, r. ", 4-50, , . f Plancius, 341 ; his generous oiSces to Cicero, 341 , r. Plancus, Cneius, Cicero's letters to, 472, 475, 551, 554, 580, 586, 590, 592, 599 ; account of him, 472, r.', 551, r. >• ; declared himself on the side of tlie senate, but soon went over to Antony, 551, r. * J advised by Cicero to act without waiting for the sanction of the senate, 581 ; purposes to join Lepidus, 583 ; his contempt o^ the army of Antony TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. 615 and Ventidius, 583 ; deceived ia Lepidus, 583 ; liia proceedlngB gainst Antony, 592 ; vrishes Csesar to join him with his army, 592 ; state of his forces, 599 Plancus, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 475 ; account of him, 475, r. « Planius, Marcus, recommended by Cicero to Dola- bella, 422 Pliny requested Tacitus to write his life, 351, r. p Plotian law, 405, r. ' Pola, 442 Pollentia, a city in Piedmont, now called Polenza, 581, r.» Pollex,461 PolHo, 433 Pollio, Asinius, letters to Cicero, 590, 593 ; la- ments the action near Mutina, 590 ; his friend- ship for Antony, 590; wishes to have joined Lepidus, 590 ; says he will neither desert nor survive the republic, 591 ; after this declaration, he, within a few months, joined Antony, and survived the republic many years, 591, r. •* ; his care of his troops, 594 Polypus fish, 483, r. ' Pompeia, 370, r. " Pompeius, Cneius, killed by Caesar's soldiers, 541, r.^ Pompeius, Quintus, recommended by Cicero to Curius, 377 Pompeius, Quintus Bufus, a principal author of the disturbances on the death of Clodius, 390, r. ' Pompeius, Sextus, 641, r. ^ , ^Pompey the Great, Cicero's letter to, 333 ; his suc- cess agaiust Mithridates, 333, r.^\ supposed cause of his coolness to Cicero, 334, r. « ; his recal at- tempted by Metellus Nepos, 334, r, ^ ; insists that Antonius should be recalled from his government, 337, 9*. " ; laws in his favour, 345, r. ™ ; insulted when he spoke in fevdur of Milo, 348 ; artifice of, 353, T. ' ; theatre, 357, r. ' ; killed 500 lions at his hunting matches, 359, r. '; invested with the go- vernment of Spain for five years, but chose to con- tinne in Italy, 361, r. ^ ; set forward on his expedition into Sardinia and Africa, 368 ; his con- versation with the brother of Cicero, 368 ; refuses to protect Cicero against Clodius, 370, r. ' ; foments confusion at Bome, 383, r. * ; made alterations in the method of choosing judges, 388, r. S 393, r. *; seldom spoke his real sentiments, yet had not arti- fice enough to conceal them, 390 ; secretly fomented the tumults, 391, r. <=; animated with the most patriotic sentiments, 393; debate on the payment of Ms forces, 397; married Cornelia, daughter of Scipio, 399, r. l ; questioned respecting Caesar, 407; ^.,„Jpoked on by Cicero as the greatest man in the world, 423 ; Cicero's pretended obligations to him, 432, r. ^ ; bis treachery to Ciceror 432, r, ^ ; his party attempts to divest Cassar of his government in Gaul, 433, r. • ; his character by Cicero at different .^periods, 435, r. •* ; opposes Caesar's being elected consul before he gives up the command of the army, 436 ; senate and judges declare in his favour, 443 ; apprehensive of the power of Csesar, 448 ; receives money for the public use, 449 ; money seized for his use, 449 ; treated CaBsar's design of invading Italy with contempt, 451, r. J; the policy of his leav- ing Borne, and removing the war out of Italy, 456, r. J ; ill-advised declaration when he left Rome, 459, r, " ; after his defeat at Pharsalia, is deserted by Cicero, 461, r. ™; defects in his army, 470; would have overcome Caesar, had his army been commanded by a general who knew how to conquer. 470, r. "; runs away after the battle of Pharsalia with a single attendant, 470 ; would not follow the advice of Cicero, 470 ; resolves to take shelter in Egyptj but is stabbed by order of Ptolemy, 470, r. 1 ; his body burned with the planks of a fishing- boat, and his ashes brought to Rome, 470 r. ^ Pompey (the Younger) draws together a very consider- able array in Spain, 517 ; weakness of his intellects, 522 Pomptinus, the villa of Metrilius Philemon, 383 PontiflFs, their function, 589, r. ^ Pontinius (Ustinguished himself in the affair of Catiline, 430, r. *» Prsecilius,his son recommended by Cicero to Csesar, 523 Pneco, similar to the cryer in a court of justice, 5)7, r, * Praetor, not chosen until two years after having served the office of aedile, 584, r. ^ ; office, 425, r. ^ ; could not absent themselves for more thdn ten days, 551, T, * ; exhibited games in honour of Apollo, 553, r. 7 Praetorian cohort, 41 7, r. ^ ; provinces, why so called, 407, r. e Prawns, in great repute, 520, r. ' . Prescius leaves a legacy to Cicero, 444 Protogenes, 358 Ptolemy, 345, 397, r.«; father of Cleopatra, 344, r ' ; money paid to settle hini on his throne, 344, r. ' ; driven out of Egypt, 344, r. ' ; prophecy found in the Sibylline books against his beii^ assisted by the Romans, 345, r J ; thepart taken by Cicero to replace him in his kingdom, 345 ; debates on restoring, 346 ; Cicero advises Lentiilus to place Ptolemy on his throne, 353 ; his death, 397 ; orders Pompey to be stabbed, 470, r, ^ Publilia married to Cicero, and soon after parted, 472, r. r, Publius, Ms death, 361, r. p Punning, remarks on, 415, r. ^ Pupius, 416 Puteoli, a maritime city in Campania, now Pozzuoli, 431, r.i Puteolanus, Cluvius, 403 Pyramus, a river in Cilicia, 434 Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, a great soldier, 432, ■/ . ^ Q. Qn^sTOR, was receiver-general of the provincial taxes, 337, r. ' ; 593 Quindecimvirs, presiding magistrates at the gaines, and keepers of the Sibylline oracles, 396, r. " R. RAciLirs, Lucius, 352 Bagazonius, 3S2, r. ' Raphael, his paintings in the little Farnese retouched by Maratti, 371, r. 7 Registers, public regulated by Numa, 360, r; ^ Rex, Cicero's letter to, 524 Rhegmm, a maritime city in Calabria, 535 Rhodes, an island in the Mediterranean, 437, r, % 471 , r. ^ ; ill behaviour of the Rhodians to Lentulus, 586, 588 Rhode, 428 Romans, their manner of settling affairs of state, 347, r. ' ; public entertainments, 357 ; magnificence of 616 INDEX TO CIGERO'S LETTERS tlieir Toadfi, 358, r. ' ; progress to ruin, 362, r, ' ; civil war not occasioDed by the enmity of Cajsar and Pompey, but by tbeir former friendsliip, 372, r, • ; divided into curiae, wlioae votes were considered as the voice of the people, 375, r. " ; military functions conferred by the people, 376, 9'« ^^ ; affairs in confusion, occasioned by Pompey and Caesar, 383, r. S 384 ; elections carried by bribery — and mobs, 386, r. ' ; law to prevent commotions at elections, 388, r. I; increase of bribery, 391, r. " ; 393; severe laws against false accusers, 405, r. 1 ; soldiers could not be compelled to serve more than ten years, 407, r. ' ; how divided by Romu- lus, 428, »'. ' ; united under Pompey, 435 ; when first supplied with water, 435, r. B : tendency to a civil war, 444 ; immense wealth acquired by tho governors of the provinces, 449, r. '• ; convention of senators, 454, r. '^; reclined on couches at their meals, 501, r. i; state of patriotism, 511 ; divided into thirty-five tribes, 515, •■. " ; critical state of the republic, 520 ; governors obliged to visit the principal cities in tbeir provinces, 530, r. * ; citizens cast into three general divisions, 539, r. *^ ; centuries explained, 539, r. '^ ; senators could not he long absent without leave, 541, r. o ; capitation-tax, 595, r. • Ross, Mr. nis sentiments of Pompey, 353, r. ' Rufus, Lucius Mescinius, Cicero's letters to, 448, 468 ; his character, 448, r. " ; on, the expenses of Cicero's government in Cilicia, 448, ?. p Bufus, Sempronius, convicted of false accusations, 405 Rufus. Servius Suipicius, 399, r. ° Rufus, Sextilius, Cicero's letter to, 468 Rufus, C. Titius, Cicero's letter to, 428 Rullus, 422, r. « Rupa, 382 Rupilius, Publius, 416 » S. Sabata fens,' account of, 581 Sabinia, a city in Italy, 544, <■• ' Sabinus, 544 Salamis, a city in Cyprus, 404, r. j Sallustius, Caninius, Cicero's letter to, 437 Samarobriva, a oily in Belgic Gaul, 379, 381 Samos, an island on the coast of Ionia, 409 Sardinia, island, 480, r. ", 634, r. ' Sardinian laugh, 535, r, " Sardis, a city in Lydia, 414 Saturninus, his law that the senate should ratify what- ever the people ordained, 371, r. ^ ; prosecution against, 443 SciEVola, Quintus, 376, 388 ; compiled a body of laws in eighteen volumes, 388, r. ' Scaptius besieges the senate-house in Cyprus, 410, r.* Scantinian law explained, 442, r. * b'caurtrij, M. .ffimilius, accused of a tnutorous corres- pondence witli Mithridatcs, 371, r."; his speech before the assembly, 371, r. » Scipio Africanus and Lffilius, their friendship, 334, r. '; his death, 484, r. « Scipio, Metellus, 399, r. ■ Segulius execrated by Cicero, 591 Sejanum, the true reading of, 357, r. " Seius, 381 Selicius, 348, 4S4 ScliuB, 415 Senate, forma of proceedings^ 34 G, r 1 and ' ; power of nomination of caudidates for the magistracies, 372 r. • ; singular custom of lengthening debates, 436,' r. ■ ' Seneca, eulogy on Cato, 485, r. >■ Serranus, 370, r. Servilius (the father), account of, 489, r.' '■ Scrvilius Isauricus, 343, r. S 345, 400, r. ', 406 ; Cicero's letters to, 489, 493, 503, 505, 507, 508, 510 ; why called Isauricus, 489, r. k j his death ' in extreme old age, 543, '/-. Ser,vilius, Marcus, convicted of extortion, 40C Servilius, Strabo, 413 Servius, his opinion on wills, 387 ; tried and convicted, 396 Sestius, 449 Sestius, Publius, Cicero's letter to, 337 Sextius, P. account of, 367, r. ^ ; Cicero's letter to, 384 ; professed friendship of Cicero for, 384 Shakspeare quoted, 365, 391 Sibils, 344 r. i Sibylline oracles regarded by the senntc, 344, 346, 348, 353 Sica, 339 Sicinius, 381, r.' Sicyon, a city of Peloponnesus, 514 Sida, a sea-port of Pamphylia, 402 Silanus returns to Lepidus, 682 Silius, Publius, 387 ; Cicero's letters to, 408, 411, 413, 410, 429 J governor of Bitbynia and Pontus in Asia, 408 Sittius, 394, 397, 437 Sophists, besides the arts and sciences, pretended to a knowledge of the meanest crafts, 502, r. " Sosi?, Lucius Manlius, recommended by Ciceio to Acilius, 463 Soul, Cicero's opinion of the, inquired into, 477, '•• ^pain, government of, renewed to Pompey for five years, 411, r. ^ ; how divided by the Rom:uis, 460, r. e Spectres, or images, 521, 522 Stabio:, a maritime town in Campania, 357, ''. ^ Stage entertainments at Rome, 358 ; the Oscian and Greek farces, 358, r. ° Statues purchased for Cicero not approved of ty him, 355 Strabo, Lucius Titius, 501 Suberinus, Caius, recommended bv Cicero to Dola- bella, 522 Suicide, Cicero's motives against, 474 Sulla, his death, 520, 521 Superstitious ceremonies, credulity in, at Rome, 360, »'.'' Suipicius, Publius, Cicero's letter to, 511 ; had a thanksgiving for his successes in lUyricum, 51 !;»■.'' Suipicius, Servius, Cicero's letters to, 454, 457, 488, 498, 513, 514, 515, 516, 525, 527 ; acconut of him, 454, r. y ; aware that the recal of Caisar would draw on a civil war, 454, r. ^ ; his skill in t!ie laws, 488, r. •* ; accepted of the goverumcnt of Achaia, 498 ; consolation to Cicero on the death of Tullia,' 525 Swimming, a poute exercise at Rome, 365, r. ' Sylla, 333, r. ', 356, r. ' ; law made by him, 376, r. " ; horrid outrages of his party, 488, r. ' ; Cicero intends to purchase his bouse, 496 Syndics, a kind of solicitors of the treasury, 404, r. ^ Synnada, a city of Phyrgia, 409 Syria, a great commotion there, 405 ; canuot be en tered without traversing Mount Amanus, 417; report of a war in, 427 Syrus, Publius, account of, 538, r. " TO SEVERAL OF HIS FRIENDS. S17 Tahcondimotus, api'inoe of Cilicia, 404 Tarentiim, softuess and luxury of the inhabitants, 381, r." Tarquin, games instituteil by-4im, 4.05,y, '; instituted the Latian festivals, 422, r.W Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, 403, r. ^ Terentia, Cicero's letters to, 33*5,339, 458, 4^0, 461 , 462,463, 464, 466 ; and TuUia, Cicero's letters'' to, 444, 450 ; dragged from the temple of Vesta, to the office of Valerius, 339; divorced from Cicero, 472, r.r Tertulla, wife to Crassus, 360, r. ° Thanksgivings, public, on what accounts voted, 418, r. l" •'Themistoeles, account of, 350, ». " Thcrmus, Cicero's letters to, 402, 403, 414, 427, 428 Thessalonica, a city in Macedonia, 340 Thi-aso, 414 Thyreum, a city of Peloponnesus, 445 Tigellius, account of him, S34, ■/■. i" and ', S35 Timaeus. his character as an historian, 349, y. ^ Timoleon, account of, 351, r. ■■ Tiro, Cicero's letters to, 444, 445, 446, 447, 451, 453, 524, 530, S31, 536, 542r'S55i'a favourite slave of Cicero's, account of him, 444, r. " ; Quin- tus Cicero's letters to, 452, 453, 558 ; Cicero's (the Younger), letters to, 559, 560 ; Cicero gives him his freedom, 524 Titiua, Titus, Cicero's letter to, 462 Toranius, Cicero's letters to, 472, 474 Torquatus, Auhis, Cicero's letters to, 511, 513, 518, 520 j account of him, 51 1 , r. •• ; Cicero consoles him on his absence from Roine, 512 ; allowed to return through the intercession of Dolabella, 520, T.i Ti-ahea, the poet, 469 Tralles, a city in Asia Minor, 395 Trebatius, 361, 362, 454; Cicero's letters to, 362, 363, 364, 365, 379. 381, 382, 383; 384, 387, 388, 493, 550 ; Horace -addressed one of his satires to him, 362, r. -^ ; advised tl]e Roman satii-ist to swim across the Tiber, 365, r. ' ; looked on by Ca3sar as a wonderful lawyer, 364 ; turns Epicurean, 381; his arrogance, 381 Trebianus, Cicero's letter to, 492 Trehonius, Aulus, 347 ; Cicero's letters to, 467, 496, 544, 563 ; account of him, 467, r. i and % 544, »•. ' ; letter to Cicero, 545 ; invites Cicero's sou to Asia, 545 Trevirj, a warlike people bordering on Germany, 382, r. '■ Treviri monitales, inspectors of the public coin, 382, rfi Tribunes, their rank, S62, r. " Triumph could not be claimed without having destroyed 5000 of the enemy, 397, r. ", 436, r. > ; persons demanding, remained without the city until it was either granted or rejected, 409, r. " Triumvirate, Octavius treats with Lepidus and Antony, and soon after joins them, 522,r. '■; formed, 600, r.' Trojan Horse, a tragedy, 365, r. ■» Trypho recommended by Cicero to Mnnatius, 364 Tuecius, Marcus, 405 Tullia married to Cams Piso Frugl, 339, r. ' ; marries Crassipes, 355, r. " ; marries Dolabella, 438, 439,441; arrives at Brundisium, 463; neglected by Dolabella, 463, r, ' : divorce purposed, 464 ; her death, 525, r. ° ; conjecture whether she had been divorced from Dolabella, 525, r. „, 526, /■. •< ; Sulpicius's consolation to Cicero on her death, 525 V. Vacebha, his death, 364 Valeria, Paula, divorced, and a treaty of marriage with Decimus Brutus, 422 Valerius, Lucius, Cicero's letter to, 377 Valerius, the lawyer, 380 Vardiei, a people contiguous to Dalmatia, 531, r. " Varius, accuses Scaurus of bribery, 371 , r. " Varro, M. Terentius, Cicero's letters to, 473, 478, 479, 480, 481, 531 ; bis character, 473, r. J, 497 ; recommended by Cicero to Brutus, 496, r. '^ 497 j Vatinius, 352, r. * ; why Cicero became his jidvocate* \ 366, 367 ; character of, 366, r. ", 631, r. ', .5^6, r, ^ ; by the artful examination of iiim by Ci^ro, he exposed the iniquity of his tribunate, 367 ; bribed, 367, •/. ° ; defended by Cicero, 373 ; his letters to Cicero, 531, 638 ; wishes to have a public thanksgiving, 531 Vegetables, luxurious method of dressing, 343 Veil, a city in Italy, 486 Velia, a sea port of Lucania, 550, y. '' Ventidius joins Antony, 581 Venusia, a town in Naples, 46G Vercella;, in the duchy of Milan, 502 Vestorius, 406 Viaiian law threatened by Curio, 422 VibuUius, 368 Vicentia, a maritime city of the Venetians, 582 Vinicianus, 396 Virgil supposed to allude to Curio in vendidit Mo auro patriam, 378, r. ' Ulubrean frogs, 383 Ulysses, story of, referred to, 378 Vocontii, a people of Narbonensian Gaul, 5'92 Volaterraj, a city in Tuscany, recommended to tiie protection of Orcii, 532 Volcatius, 345, 346, 347, 501 ; his noble spirit, 499, r. f Volumnia, 463 Volumnius, Cicero's letters to, 414, 484; aecount of him, 414, r. '" Volusius, 448 Voluptuaries, warm advocates for moral beauty, 522 W.. Wit, the loss of the true old Roman lamented, 494,r.' Xenomenes, 445 X. Zoitus, Lucius, recommended by Cicero to Apuleius, 481 THE LETTEKS MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, IN SIXTEEN BOOKS. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH NOTES, BY WILLIAM HEBERDEN, M.D. F.R.S. TO THE HONORABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND SHUTE BARRINGTON, LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM, &C. &C. My Lord, In availing myself of your Lordship's pei*miseion to inscribe to ynu the following Letters, I shall not offend your modesty by any attempt to proclaim to the world what the world everywhere acknowledges — your Lordship's eminent virtues, I shall be content if I can hide some pai't of my own deficiency in the splendor of so great and good a name. Your Lordship is well acquainted with the originals from which the following translation is drawn. But wliile alL familiar letters must be liable to obscurity in proportion to our ignorance of the persons and circum- stances, often of little notoriety, to which they allude ; much more is it to be expected, that in a correspondence entertained at so remote a period, where there exist no remains of the letters on one side, and not unfrequently no record of the particulars which form their subject, many difficnlties should present themselves, independent of those which are inseparable from customs and language long since gone into disuse. It is therefore no idle task to render documents, at once so curious and instructive, more extensively useful, by making them more generally understood. For whether we consider the matter or the manner of these letters, their author, or the time when they were written, they constitute in every point of view one of the most precious remains of antiquity, Cicero, as your Lordship knows, was not only the greatest orator of Rome ; he was at the same time one of her wisest counsellors, and one of her best citizens. To good natural parts he had added incredible industry, and had made himself master of all the literature and philosophy of the Greeks, then considered as the only source, and, exclusively of revelation, still the brightest source, of good taste and right judgment. But while the learning of the Greek sophiet was often suffered to waste itself in fruitless speculation or self-conceit, Cicero's, on the contrary, appears to have been constantly directed to the purposes of useful life, adding strength and grace to the manly powers of bis mind. It regulated his judgment, and animated his exertions in the forum and in the senate, in the various and important offices which he executed with singular diligence in the republic, and likewise in the discbarge of those gentler duties of courtesy and friendship, to which ho seems never to have been inattentive. For so occupied was his whole life, that it may well excite our wonder how be found time to write, or to read, even a portion of those works which he composed and studied. His conduct in the height of his power, during his consulship, is universally known, as well from contemporary histories as from his own orations, which yet remain an illustrious monument of his prudence, of his diligence, of his eloquence. His administration of a provincial government is not less distinguished, and is collected chiefly from the evidence of these letters. It appears to have been every way judicious and upright, and worthy of his high character. For in a situation where other governors, removed fmra the danger of immediate observation, and unrestrained by the sanctions of a pure religion, had too generally given a loose to rapine, extortion, and violence, and had sacrificed honour, conscience, duty, every ornament and every virtue, at the shrine of ambition and avarice, Cicero stands almost u single instance of unshaken justice, patriotism, and moral excellence. But it would be tedious and impertinent to your Lordship to attempt to enumerate all the particulars that made up the life of this extraordinary man. Our business is with his Letters, And it is difficult to conceive toy memorials more worthy of regard than the genuine letters of such a person, addressed to a most intitnate friend, to whom he opened his bosom upon all occasions without reserve, who, as he says himself, was ** his associate in public affairs, his confidant in all private ones, and admitted to all his conversation and thoughts*. 'f hey present an undisguised account of his own sentiments and ffeelings under a great variety of circumstances, with his opinions upon almost all the great events and great men of his time. How highly they were valued ■ Qui et in publica ro socius, cf in privatia omnibus conscius, et omnium sermonum et consiLiorum pai-ticeps. —Ad Att. i. 18. G22 DEDICATION. by hia countrymen, we learn from the testimony of Cornelius Nepos, wlo mentions " the sixteen hooks of his letters to Atticus, from the time of hia consulship to his death ;" and adds, that " whoever should read them would little need any other history of those times, everything being so clearly described respecting the zeal of parties, the vices of the leading men, and the changes of the republic, that nothing remains anrevealed. And his wisdom," says he, " may well be thought to have something of divine inspiration ; for Cicero not only foretold what took place during his own life, but also what we now experience he announced like a prophet''." To Englishmen they derive an additional interest, from breathing everywhere national love of liberty, and dread of tyranny, called forth by the peculiar crisis in which the republic was placed, when it was about to sink for ever under the yoke of despotism. To Ghristiapa they afford occasion to cherish with more fervent gratitude those consolations and hopes of revelation, that " anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast'," fr"™ want of which we see the wisest of the heathen world become a prey to temporal calamities, and overwhelmed with despair. Besides the contents of these letters, the style of their composition is itself deservedly an object of admiration; a style free from all pedantry and affectation, from all levity and impertinence, perfectly easy and familiar, yet everywhere consistent with dignity and good manners ; or in the words of Cicero himself, Tyhen speaking of Attipus, "the language is chaste, intevopersed with polite wit, and distinguished by marks of affection''." But these very excellences, while they enhance the valuo of the original letters, add in no small degree to the difficulty of a just translation. It has becu my endeavour, in the fii'st place, to give the true sense of the author ; the^ to give it as little altered from the original as the different genius of the languages would permit ; to preserve as much as possible of thq Boman air, without destroying that ease which gives to epistolary correspondence its best grace ; not attempting to modernise terms of civility, or to disguise old customs und^r new liabits, but wis^iing rfither to familiarise the reader with anpient Rome. For I considered that th^e letter ou,ght to appear, not aa if Cicero bad written in this age an(l country, but as if English had been tlie language of Italy in his time, so that the sentiments s^nd manners might still be Roman, the medium only changed through whicl( they are expressed. To tl(e letters I have added notes, which I have studied to make aa few, as short, and as clear aa I could, consisliently with the object of rendering more easily intelligible, not only tQ the English reader, but to the scholar, the frequent allusions, the hi^ta, and broken sentences which occur. 4^4 though they have not beep dra^yp up witl^out consitlerable pains ip perusing and weighing the opinions of " different commeotators, yet I have generally thought it best to give simply my own judgment, without embarrassing the reader with my reasons. I know not if any apology be required for having given the namca of people with their Latin terminatious. For what can be more absurd than a.n attempt to translate a rpere perso;\al designation ? I have not scrupled, therefor?, to write ^pmpeius, Antouius, &c. An(^it may reasonably be expected that the public taste, which is daily improving, will before Ipug adopt this alteration from the present practice. If I have not always followed the same rule in regprd to tl^e namca of phiccs, it is because countries belonging equally to all, tildes seem, not improperly to partake of the same changes whi^h obtain, in the appellations of other common objects. Wljile, therefore, I have preserved \hc names of persons unchanged, I trust I shall not be chargeable with inconsiateQ^y in adopting the English terms of Eouie, \t?ily, and other places familiarly known in modern language. But I have done. I h.ave perhaps alrcai^y trespassed upon, your patience longer than ^ ought, were it not that under the cover of your Lordship's name I considered myself in some measure as addi^asing the public. It only remains that I th.inlc your Lordship for affording me this public opportunity of acknowledging my deep sense of the great and undcviating hindness with whicli you have honoured me from a very early period of rny life, aud which derived originally, among many 9ther blessings, froip my dear and respectecl father, your Lordship h^ permitted to grow up wil;h my growth iiito familiarity and friendship. I liave the honour to be, with great gratitude, esteem, and a.Toction, My Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and faithful servant, Datchet, Qctobevt 1825. yf^ Heberdeh. b Sexdeeim volumina cpistolaram, all eonsulatu ejiis Cicero ea solum, qua; vivo seacoidei-unt, futurapraiaixit; usque ad extremum tempos, ad Atticum scriptarum ; quK sed etiam, qua; mmc >isu vcniimt, ceoinit ut vates.— Cora.' qu?Iegat, non multum desideret historiam contcxtam illo- Nop. in Vit. Attici, 16. rum temporum. Sic enim omnia de studiis principum, c Kpistle to the Hebrews, vi. 19. Titiisducura, ac niutationibus reipubUc.T, peracrijta sunt, <1 Pure Inquuntur, cum humanitatis sparsa; sale, torn ut nihil in hia non appaieat. Ut facile cxistlmairi possit insignes amoHsnotis.— Ad Atl. i. 13. pmdentiam quodammodo esse divinationem ; non en^.^l THE LETTERS MARCUS TULLITJS CICERO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. i% •tO^' BOOK I. LETTER \\ {Being (he fifth in Gravius's edition.) Yor, who know me so well, may easily conceive rhat distress I have felt, and what a severe loss I ave sustained, both in my public and domestic oncems, by the death of my relation' Lucius. For e possessed all the engaging qualities which can rise from kindness and gentleness of manners, ind I doubt not that you partake ^n this affliction, oth from your regard to me, and because you ave yourself lost in him a most accomplished con- exion and friend, who was attached to you as well y his own inclination as by my frequent mention f you. As to what you say about your sister, she hall be my witness how much pains f hs^ve taken 5 reconcile my brother Quintus to her '. For, as ■ It is obvious that the best arrangement of any series t letters must be that of their dates. 1 have therefore ot scmpled to adopt this order in regard to the first leven'letters of this book, which are generally acknow- idgod to have been very early misplaced. At the same ^e, to avoid any inconvenience that might arise from it, have, here and elsewhere, as often as the same liberty as been taken, subjoined tlie number of each letter as it :and6 in Graevius's edition. This first, in the order of me, was written in the 685th year of Borne, correspond- ig to the 68th year before Christ,'when Cicero was thirty- ine years old. b Lueit:^ Cicero was cousln-germaq to Marcus ; the term •flier, like the Greek iiSeX^is, being subject to eonsider- t>lo latitude of signification. @ee book ii. letter 7, note ^ c Quintus Cicero, the yoimger brother of ^arcus^ had larried Pomponia, Atticus* sister. I thought him unreasonably offended, I wrote to him in such a manner as might soothe a brother, and admonish one who was my junior, andreprove one who was in the wrong. And by the letters which I have since frequently received from him, I trust that all is again as it ought to be, and as we wish. With regard to my vrriting, you accuse me without reason : for Pomponia has never acquainted me with; any opportunity of sending a letter ; nei- ther has it happened to me to know of anylpody that was going to Epirus, nor had I even heard that you were yet at Athens. As soon as I came to Rome after your departure, 1 despatched the busi- ness of Acutilius, which you had intrusted to me, but it turned out that there was no need of exertion ; and being persuaded of the su^ciency of your own judgment, I chose that Peduceus, rather than L should give you an opinion by letter. For after having several days heard what Acutilius had to say (with whose manner of prosing J presume you are acquainted), I should hardly have thought much of writing to you upon the subject of his complaints, when I had not scrupled (which was no pleasant task) to listen to tliem. But while you accuse me, remember that I have received but one letter from you ; though you have had so much more leisure for writing, and so many more oppor- tunities of sending your letters. When you tell me that if anybody"* were offended with you, it was my business to appease him ; mind what yoa d This alludes to some offence taken byLucceius, of which more appears in letters G and 7 of this book. 024 THE LET'fKRS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO say : 1 have not neglected that also. But he is strangely irritated. I have not, however, omitted anything that was to he said on your part. But how far it was to be urged, I thought it best to be determined by your wishes ; which, if you will only let me know, you shall tind that I have not chosen to be more forward than you would be yourself, nor shall I be more remiss than you may desire. Tadius has informed me respecting his affair, tliat you had written as if there was now no occasion to be uneasy, because the inheritance was secured by prescription'. I was surprised you should not have known, that in a legal guardianship, under which the girl is said to be placed, no prescription can be established. I am glad you are pleased with your purchase' in Epirus. I should wish, as you men- tion, that, as far as you can without inconvenience, you would attend to the commission 1 gave you? ; and in such a manner as you may judge suitable to my Tusculan villa. For, after all my troubles and fatigues, it is there I find repose, where I am now daily expecting my brother. Terentia^ is aflFected with severe pains in the joints ; she has a great regard for you, and your sister, and mother, and wishes your best health, as does my darling Tullia'. Take care of yourself, and continue to love me, and believe me to love you as a brother. LETTER II. {GrtEv. vi.) I TviLL hereafter give you no occasion of charg- ing me with neglect of writing. Do you only take care that, in your abundant leisure, you are even with me. Rabirius's house at Naples, which you had already measured and completed in your mind, has been purchased by M. Ponteius for 130,000 sestertii (;£]083)J. I wished you to be acquainted e The term of undisputed possession, whicli conferred a prescriptive title among Roman citizens, was ty the XII. TaWes fixed at two yeai-s for landed property, and one year for personal property. f Atticus had purchased an estate near Buthrotum in Epirus, E This commission appears by the subsequent letters to have been directed to the purchase of statues. *» Terentia was Cicero's wife. i Tullia was Cicero's daughter. J In this and other parts of this translation I have re- tained the Latin tei-ms of sestertii and sestertia, because different interpreters might estimate them differently ; at the same time, for the convenience of the English reader, I have subjoined what I suppose to be the amount in pounds sterling. The expression H.S. (((!))) XXX is generally agreed to mean 130,000, in which case the first characters (signifying 100,000) are to be understood of sestertii, while the tens imply 30 sestertia, each contain- ing 1000 sestertii. And these different characters are usually so applied. Thus H.S. ((1)) ((])) CCCC, and H.S. XXCD, which we find in the 3d and 4th letters of this book, are equally expressive of 20,400, the former being sestertii ; the decimal part of the latter, sestertia. The value of Roman money is deduced from the actual value of the denarius, which is to be met with in all col- lections, and is worth about eightpence English. Hence it follows that the sestertius (two asses and a half, or a quarter of the denarius) is equivalent to twopence, and a thousand sestertii to 81. Gs. 8d. In ordei' to reduce the sestertii to English pounds it is only necessary to divide by 120. The characters expressive of their number are usually (1) 1000, ((1)) 10,000, (((!))) with this, in case it should any way affect your plans. My brother Quintus seems to be disposed towards Pomponia, as we could wish, and is now with her at his estate near Arpinun), where he has with him D. Turranius, a man of excellent acquirements. My father died the 24th of Novem- her''. This is the sum of what I had to say to you. If you should be able to meet with any ornaments of the gymnasiac kind', which would suit that place which you know, I should be glad if you would secure them for me. I am so charmed with my Tusculan villa that I feel then only satis- tied with myself when I get there. Let me know all that you do, and all that you intend to do. LETTER in. (Gnuv. vii.) All is well with your mother '', for whom I en- tertain a great regard. I have engaged to pay L Cincius" 20,400 sestertii (£170) on the 13th of February. I should be glad if you jsould take care to let me have the things you have purchased and provided for me as soon as possible. ^\nd I wish 100,000, each additional pair of marks increasing the num- ber tenfold. The same letters H.S. likewise are used to denote sester- tia, to which the figiu:es X, &c. being added, seem to signify not only " decern," &c., but more commonly " decies," &c. the adverb being 100 times the value of the correspond- ing adjective. The following .table exhibits at one view the denomi- nations of the sestertia, and the coiTesponding value la English money. ^ l.d. One thousand sestertii . 8 6 8 H.S.X (10) Dena sestertia ... 83 6 8 H.S. L (50) Uuinquaginta sestertia 416 13 4 H.S. C (100) Centum sestertia . . 833 6 8 H.S.D (500) Cluinquiessestertiflm . . 4,166 13 4 DC, &c. Sexies (600), Septies (700), Octies (800), Novies (900). H.S. X (1000) Decies sestertitim . . 8,333 6 8 XX, &o. Vicies (2000), Tricies (3000), (iuadragies (4000). H.S. L (5000) Quinquagies sestertiikn . 41,666 13 4 LC, &e. Sexagies (6000),Septuagles (7000), Ootogies (8000), Nonagies (9000). H.S. C (10,000) Centies sestertiftm 83,333 6 3 H.S. D (50,800) Quingenties sestertittm 416,666 13 4 H.S. (1) (100,000) Millies seBtert«pil . 833,333 8 ^ This,' which appears abrupt or BpJfeeling, loses that character when we consider that tt' mBi§t probably bare been said either in reply to some inquJsy of AUicus, or as specifying the date of an event prcvidusly knoiyn, or at least expected. ' \ , ' TviJLVaiTMS-h, that is, such statues sad other mi^es as were erected in the gymnasia or public schoill iik - Greece, and would be suitable to Cioero's fiivourite t&^sbA near Tuseulnm, where he had built rooms and galleri^ in imitation of the schools and porticos of Athens, and vhich. , he likewise called by their Attic names of Academtt find ' Gymnasium, and designed for the same piu-poses of phiio- sophieal inquuy. 1 '" That this is spoken of Atticus's mother, not of Cicero's, appeai-s from the frequent mention he makes of the former ; while his silence respecting his oivn mother affords reason to believe she may have died early. Atti- cus's mother lived to be ninety yeai's old.— Com. Nep. in Vit. Attici, 17. " L. Ciucius appears to have been the agent employed in purchasing marbles for Ciceio. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTlCtJS. 625 you would consider, as you promised, how you can complete my library. All hope of the pleasure to which I look forward when I shall have come into retirEment, is placed in you. LETTER IV. (Grwv. viii.) Everything is as we could wish at your house. Your mother and sister are held in the greatest esteem by me and my brother Quintus. I have h^td some conversation with Acutilius. He denies that anything had been written to him by his agent, and is surprised that any dispute should have arisen. The security which he demanded is no longer required from-you. I have understood that Tadius is very thankful, and highly pleased with what you mention of having compromised the affair of his Smily. That friend of mine", who is indeed a good man, and very friendly to me, is seriously angry with you. . When I know how much you regard this, I may be able to judge what pains I should take in it. I have provided for L. Cincius 20,400 sestertii (i£170) for the Megaric statues. The Mercuries of your Pentelic marble with bronze heads, about which you wrote to me, already delight me exceedingly ; and I should be glad if you would send them, and the other statues, and whatever else you may judge suitable to the place, and to my studies, and to your taste, as many, and as soon as possible ; especially what you think proper for my gymnasium and portico ; for I am transported with such a fondness for these sort of thi ngs, that while I request you to assist me, i must expect others to blame me. If Lentulus's ship is not ready, let the things be embarked in any other you please. My darling Tnlliolai' is anxious for your present, and calls upon me as a surety ; but it is safer for me to swSar off than to pay. LETTER V. (Grav. jx.) I HEAR from you too seldom, though you can much easier find people going to Rome than I can to Athens ; and you may be more sure of my being at Rome than I can of your being at Athens. This letter is therefore the,rsKorter, owing to my uncer- tainty ; for, being doubtful where you might be, I was unwilling that this our familiar conversation should fall into strange hands. ■ I am anxiously expecting the Megaric statues ,and Mercuries about which you wrote to me. Whatever of the same kind you may have, which you 'think fit for my Academy, do not hesitate to send it, and trust to my purse. These sort of things are my delight. 1 particularly want snoh as are most suitable to my gymnasium. Lentulus pro- mises the use of his ships. I request your, diligent attention to these matters. Chilius asks you (and I too at his desire) for an account of the national customs of the Eumolpidsei. ° Lucceius. P Such diminutives expressive of endearment are not uncommon in other' languages, especially in Italian. Of all Latin authors, Catullus has made the most frequent use of them, and often with singular heauty. 1 The Eumolpidie were a familyof Thraoian origin, conse- \ LETTER VI. {Greev. x.) While I was in my Tusculanum (this is in return for that of yours — " While I was in the Ceramicus'"); however, while I was there, a ser- vant sent by your sister from Rome gave me the letter which had been brought from you, and said that he was to set out the same afternoon on his return. Hence it is that I determined to write something in answer to your letter, and am com pelled by the shortness of the time to write but a few lines. In the first place, I will engage to appease, or even fully to reconcile our friend' ; which although I did before in some measure, of my own accord, yet I will now set about it with more earnestness, and will urge him more strongly since I perceive by your letter how great a stress you lay upon it. But I would have you under- stand that he is very deeply offended. Still, as I see no serious cause for it, I have great confidence that he will be moved by a sense of what is right, and by my authority. I should be glad to have my statues and Her- meracles ' embarked as soon as you have an oppor- tunity, and anything else you may find proper for the place you know ; especially what you think suitable to my palaestra and gymnasium. For I am sitting there while I write, so that the place itself reminds me. I commission you besides to procure some reliefs, which may be introduced into the ceiling of the ante-room ; and two figured puteals" Take care that you do not engage your library to anybody, however eager a lover of such things you may meet with, for I reserve all my gatherings for crated to the service of the Eleusinian mysteries at Athens, Tov T^v TeXcT^j' ainois KaTaffTTfTafxeirov "EiiniKtrov PapPipav Koi epuKhs 6vtos. [Luoian, Demonax, 34.;] "What may he the exact meaning conveyed by the general term irarpid, it is not easy to say. It may, however, he observed, contrary to the interpretation of some commen- tators, that considering the secrecy always observed in- regard to these mysteries, and that Cicero was himself one" of the initiated, it can hardly be supposed that he would concur in any request to Atticus to reveal them, "■ Ceramicuswas the name of a distojet in the suburbs of Athens, which among other buildifigs contained the Aca- demy, whose maxims were adopted by Cicero. In this and the other letters I have adopted the Latin expressions Tusculanum, Pompeianum, &c., signifying his house near Tusculum and Pompeii. B Lucceius. See letter 7 of this book. * It is not obvious to conceive how the two figures of Mercury and Hercules, or Minerva, indicated by the terms Hermeracles and Hermathena, could be combined in one statue. May it have been a stone case surmounted with a head of Mercury, and containing an image of Hercules or Minerva ? Such are described by Plato in his ^ufiTrScrioVf where Alcibiades compares Socrates to " those figures of Silenus in the sculptors* shops which open in the middle, and exhibit images of the gods," rois ffetK-{ivots To{irois iv Tols kpfwyKv^e'iois KaQtifiivois — oi Si'xaSe Siot- X^evres tpaivovrat ivZoBev d7f{AjiiaTO ij(pvres 6iuv. — Ed. Picin. p. 1202. » Putealia sigillata. These are usually supposed to have been the tops of wells, resembling some marbles still found among the ruins of ancient Italy. But it does not seem very probable that wells should be made a subject of orna- ment, and the real design of these marbles is not clearly made out. Perhaps it should be written pluicalia, .?s it is in some editions, signifying " sculptured cases," to ho^ manuscripts or other library apparatus. SS C26 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO the purpose of providing that resource for my old age. Respecting my brother, I trust that things are as I have always wished, and have studied to make them. There are many reasons to believe it, and not the least is, that your sister is pregnant. As to what regards my comitia^, I both remem- ber that I excused you, and have long since declared this fco our common friends who are expecting you. I shall not only not summon you, but shall forbid you. For I know that it is of much greater importance to you, that you should do what is to be done at this time, than it is to me that you should be present at the comitia. Therefore I would have you make up your mind, as if it were on my business that you were sent into that country. And you will find me towards you, and hear of me, in case of any success, as if it were gained, not only in your presence, but by your means. TuUioIa appoints you a day : she calls upon your surety". LETTER VII. {Grtev. xi.) 1 ACTED first of my own accord, and have since been much excited by your two letters written to the same purpose. In addition to which, Sallus- tius * has been constantly exhorting me to do my utmost with Lucceius towards restoring your ancient friendship. But after all I could do, I have not only not been able to recover that good-will which he used to bear you, but not even to elicit the cause of his altered disposition. Although he speaks of that arbitration of his, and the things which before you left us I understood had given him offence, yet there is something that has sunk deeper in his mind, which neither your letters nor my assurance can so easily erase, as you can remove it in person, not only by conversation, but by your own familiar countenance ; if only you think it worth while, which you certainly will if you take my advice, and act consistently with your natural kindness. You must not be surprised, if I before signified to you by letter that I hoped to find him tractable, and now appear to distrust. But it is incredible how determined his mind seems to be, and fixed in this angry mood. But this will either be .set right when you arrive, or will make him very uneasy, whichever is in fault. As to what you say in your letter, that you sup- pose I am already elected, you must know that nothing at Rome is so vexatious as the iniquitous proceedings against the candidates ; nor is it known when the comitia will take place. But you will hear all about this from Philadelphns. I should be glad if you would send as soon as possible what you have got for my academy. Not only the actual enjoyment, but the very thought of that place delights me wonderfully. Remember not to » Tho comitia here alluded to must have been hsld for the election of praetors, for which office Cioero was at this time a candidate. " These law terms are evidently introduced by Cicero in playful reference to his daughter's expectation of a present, which Atticus had promised to send her. Some would i-ead, " she does not call upon your surety." The difference is of little moment. See letter 4 of this hook. " This Sallustius was a friend of Cicero's, not the histo- rian of the same name. give up your books to anybody ; but keep them, as you say, for me. I entertain the strongest affec- tion for them, as I do now disgust for everything else ; for it is not to be believed in how short a time how much worse you will find things than you left them. LETTER VIIL {Grcev, iii.) Kxow that your grandmother is dead from want of you'', and from fear lest the states * of Latium should not be steady in their duty, and should fail to bring the victims to Mount Albanus. I imagine L. Saufeius * will send to console you upon this event. We are expecting you here in January, either from common report, or from what you may have written to others ; for to me you have written nothing about it. The statues which you have procured for me are landed at Caieta. I have not seen them ; for it has not been in my power to leave Rome. I have sent a person to pay tht freight. I am much obliged to you for having managed this so well, and so reasonably. As to what you have repeatedly said about appeasing our friend, I have done and tried every- thing ; but his mind is wonderfully estranged on account of certain suspicions, which, though I ima- gine you have heard, yet, when you arrive, you shall know from me. Sallustius, who is here, I have not been able to restore to the place he held in his affection. I mention this to you, because he used to accuse me on your account ; but he has found by his own case that he is very inexorable, and that ray attention to you has not been deficient. I have engaged my dear Tullia in marriage to C. Piso, son of Lucius Frugi. LETTER IX. {Grmv. iv.) YoD raise in us perpetual expectations of your arrival. Lately, when I supposed you to be com- ing, we were suddenly put off till July. Now, however, I imagine, as far as you can do it with convenience, you will really come at the time you mention. You will thus be at my brother Quin- tus's comitia*^; we shall meet again after a long interval ; and you will be able to conclude the busi- ness of Acutilius'^. For this purpose Peduceus y By this expression Cicero gently reproaches his friend on account of his long absence. 2 It must be supposed that this relates to some scruples and apprehensions which this old lady had expressed, and which may probably have been a subject of jest between the two friends. The ceremonies alluded to are those of the Latin festival, which used to be celebrated every year in memory of the imion of the dificrent neighbouring states of Latium. By the word Latin(B I understand t/enfes, or civitatcs, not mulicres ; for it does not appear that women had any part to perform there. a This L. Saufeius appears to have been a philosopher of the Epicurean sect, who placed their chief happiness in their case. It is upon this depends the smartness of Cicero's observation, writing to one of the same persua- sion. li Q,uintu8 Cicero was a candidate for the office of (Edile at the ensuing comitia. <= Tt is uncertain what this business was. It is spoken of in the first letter of this^ook. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 627 has also requested me to write to yon ; for we are of opinion that it is desirable you should at length bring this affair to a conclusion. My intercession is, and has long been, prepared. I have concluded the business of C. Macer with great and distinguished applause. And while I have done him every justice, have yet derived much greater advantage from the approbation of the people, upon his condemnation, than I could have done from any return on his part, had he been acquitted. As to what you write to me about the Herma- thena, it is exceedingly grateful to me, and an ornament proper fof my academy ; Mercury being the common emblem of all schools, and Minerva the particular one of that school. I should be glad therefore, as you sayj to have you contribute as many other things as possible to the embellishment of that place. The statues you before sent me I have not yet seen '^ ; they are at Formianum, where I am now intending to go. I shall transport all those things to Tusculanum. Should I ever begin to overflow, I will decorate Caieta '. Keep your books, and do not despair of my being able to make them mine ; which if I accomplish, I shall exceed Crassus in riches, and look down with cQntempt upon the houses and laiids of all the world. LETTER X. {Grcev. i.) Or my canvas, in which! knaw-y/)iLtake a lively -_ interest, this is the state, as far as can yet be fore- seen. PT Galba alone is beginning to solicit votes ; he is refused withoftt ceremony or disguise. Peo- ple think that this premature canvassing is not imfavourable to my cause, for he very generally meets with denials unde^r-^retenoe of persons being under obligation to me. So I hope I may derive some advantage from ^t, as by this means the opi- Dion spreads of my having many supporters. I had intended to begin canvassing in the Campus Martius, at the comitia for electing tribunes, the 1 7th of July, at the very time when I understood from Cincius that your, servant was to set out with this letter. ^^ My cgmpetitors, which seem to be certain, are Galba, and Antonius, and Q. Cornifi- cius. I imagine you will either smile or grieve at this. To enrage you quite, there are. some who even think of Csesonius. I do not apprehend Aquillius will offer ; for he denies it, and has sworn that he is ill, and has objected his judicial supre- macy. Catilina will be a certain competitor, if it be determined that the sun does not shine at mid- day,'. I imagine you do not expect me to take notice of Aufidius and Palicanus. Of those who are in nomination for this next ^ It may be thought singular that Cicero, who had ex- pressed such a strong passion for these marbles, should not have found time to visit them ; but it is probably to be accounted for by his being at this time one of the pra:- tors, whose duties obligedTiim to reside in the city, « Caieta is probably the same as Poi-mianum, under a different name : Caieta being a sea-port, and Pormiae the name of a town at a short distance from it inland. f That is, if it be determined to shut the eyes against his iniquitous proceedings, which are as clear as the meri- dian sun. year, Csesar f is thought secure. The contest is supposed to lie between Thermus and Silanus, who are so poor in friends and ip reputation, that it seems to me not impossible to bring in Curius ; but this opinion is peculiar to myself. It appears most conducive to my cause that Thermus should be returned with Csesar ; for of those who are not the present candidates, there is nobody who seems likely to be a more powerful opponent, if he should withdraw into my year ; because he has the charge of the Flaminian road, which will easily be com- pleted by that time. I should therefore gladly see him now Caesar's colleague •*. Such is the opinion hitherto formed of the can- didates. I shall take care to use the greatest dili- gence in executing every part of a candidate's duty ; and possibly, since the Cisalpine Gaul ', has consi- derable weight in voting, when the forum at Rome is a little cooled ifom its ji\dicial causes, I may run down in September, as a lieutenant to Pisoi, so as to be back in January. Ji When I shall clearly have discovered the disposmou of the nobles, I will write to you. The rest I hope will go smoothly, with only the present city competitors. Take care to engage for me, since you are nearer to them, that troop of our friend Pompeius. Tell him I shall not be angry with him, if he does not come to my election. So much for this business. But there is one subject on which I am very anxious to have your forgiveness. Your uncle CseciUus, having been defrauded of a considerable sum of money by P. Varius, commenced an action against his brother Caniaius Satrius for the pro- pertjt, which lie ssid he had received from Varius by a fraudulent transfer. Other creditors were parties in the same action; amongst whom was LucuUus, and P. Scipio, and L. Pontius, who they supposed would be appointed administrators, if the goods were sold^ But it is absurd now to speak of an administrator. Csecilius requested me. to sup- port him against Satrius. Now, there is scarcely a day Uiat this Satrius does not come to my house. His flrst attention is to L. Domitius ; his next to me. He was of great service to me, and my bro- ther Quintus, in our canvasses. I am very truly embarrassed, both on account of my intimacy with Satrius, and with DOmitius, on whom, above all, my present success depends./j I explained this to Csecilius, and at the same time assured him, that if the dispute lay between them two alone,' I would comply with his wisljes ; but that now, in the gene- ral cause of all the creditors (people especially of the first authority, Who, without Csecilius's appoint, ing anybody in hi^ own name, could easily main- tain their common cause) it was reasonable that he should consider the obligations and circumstances under which I lie. He seemed to receive this more harshly than I could wish, or than gentlemen use to do ; and afterwards he entirely brake ofl the intercourse between us, which had been a few days B^ This Csesar was Lucius Julius Causal', a distant relatio;^ of *• The mighty Julius." •> There is evidently some error in the text. I have given what appears to be the sense intended. i Cisalpine Gaul was the ancient name for Lombatdy : those who had passed through the fii'st magistracies in the towns south of the Po, had a right of voting in the assem- blies of the Roman people. J These lieutenancies appear to have been fictitious offices, under the plea of which the senators of Rome used, to visit the provinces with a certain degree of authority. SS 2 628 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO established. I have to beg that yoti will not take this ill of me, but will consider that I was prevented by common humauity from coming forward in the time of his distress against the high reputation of a friend who had exerted all his efforts and kind offices to serve me. Or if you are disposed to pass a harsh sentence upon me, you will suppose it was my ambitious views that stood in the vpay. But I think, even if it were so, that I should still deserve to be forgiven, considering that this occa- ' sion is no trifling one. For you see in what pro- gress we are, and how important it is not only to retain, but to acquire the good-will of all people. I hope I have proved my case ; I certainly wish it. Your Hermathena deUghts tne exceedingly ; and it is so well placed, that the whole gymnasium derives a lustre from it, as from the sun '', You have my best affections. LETTER XL {Grmv. ii.) In the consulate^ of L. Julius Csesar and C. Marcius Figulus, know that I have a son born, and that Terentia is going on well. No letter from you after so long a time ? I before sent you a parti- cular account of the state of my interests. I am at present thinking to undertake the defence of my competitor Catiiina "•. The judges are such as we could wish, and with the full consent of the ac- cuser ^. I hope, if he should be acquitted, to have him the more friendly in the business of my^an- vass. Should it fall out otherwise, we must bear it with patience. I have great need of your speedy arrival j/for it is the general opinion that some noble" persons of your acquaintance will oppose my success. I foresee that you can be of the greatest use in conciliating their good wiU towards me ; therefore do not fail to be at Rome in January, as you have appointed. [Between the eleventh and twelfth letters of this collection must have intervened a period of more than three years, during which the correspondence is interrupted, owing, as it should seem, to Atticus's having come to Rome to assist Cicero in his election, and remaining there with him through the period of his consulship.'] ^ The original is a little obscure, I have expressed what I conceived to be the true meaning. 1 The Romans designated their years by the names of the consuls. ^ This is the same Catiiina whose conspiracy Cicero afterwards defeated with so much applauso in his consu- late. Catiiina was at this time charged with peculation in Africa. There is no doubt but Cicero's object was to promote his own election by the co-operation of Catilina's connexions, which were numerous, and among the first families of Rome. He hoivever changed his mind, and did not defend him. ° His accuser was Clodius, who appears to have accepted a bribe to betray his own cause. *> None of Cicero's ancestors having been ennobled by holding the higher offices of the state, it is on this accoimt that ho was sometimes taunted with the appellation of a *' new man." The same cause excited the jealousy of the nobles towards him, whom they looked upon as an anibi- tious and popular upstart. LETTER Xll. That Trojan womanP is a slow business ; nor did Cornelius afterwards return to Terentiai, I think we must have recourse to Considius, Anius, Selicius'' , for the nearest relations cannot extract money from Csecilius at less than twelve per cent. » But, to return to my first subject : I have known nothing more shameless, more cunning, more sluggish, than 'her*. " I send one of my freedmeu " — " I have given directions to Titus " — mere pre- texts and delays ! But it may be that fortune orders things better than we ourselves ; for Pom- peius's forerunners tell me that he will openly propose that Antonius should be superseded ; and at the same time the praetor will bring it before the people. It is an affair of that kind, that I cannot honourably defend the man with the good esteem either of the respectable part of society, or of the populace, nor do I choose to do it, which is most of all ; for a circumstance has occuiTed, which I send to you entire, that you may see the nature of it. I have a freed-man, a good-for-nothing fellow, Hilarus I mean, the accomptant, and a client of yours. Of him Valerius the intrepreter" relates the following account, and Chilius writes me word that he has heard the same ; that this fellow is with Antonius, and that Antonius, in medcing his exactions, gives out that a part is demanded for me, and that this freed-man is sent by me to look after the common plunder. I am not a little dis- turbed, though I can hardly believe it ; but there has certainly been some conversation to this effect. Pray investigate the whole : inquire, learn, and, if you can by any means, remove the scoundrel from those parts'^. Valerius mentioned Cnseus P Teucris ilia. The person thus designated is univer- sally agreed to be that C. Antonius who had been colleague with Cicero in his consulate, and whom Cicero had gained by voluntarily resigning to him the valuable province of Macedonia, to which Cicero would otherwise have been appointed upon going out of office. "Various conjectures have been formed about the term here applied to liim, which, as it probably relates to some private xmderstanding between Cicero and Atticus, must ever remain obscure. It seems to be a contemptuous expression, used in imi- tation of the Greek feminines, which were sometimes applied to men, and which Pope has thus rendered in his Homer — •' O, women of Achaia, men no more." So afterwards [letter U of this book] we find Cicero usmg the term " filiola Curionis," meaning " the effeminate son of Curio." q Terentia, we Icnow, was Cicero's wife Cornelius was quffistor to Antonius, and by what follows seems to have been employed by him to deceive Terentia with false pro- mises of repaying some money perhaps advanced by Cicero. Is this the reason of the term lentum negotiumf ' These may probably be the names of usurers. s Centesimis. The Latin indicates one per cent. ; but it is to be remembered that the Romans calculated tbeir interest not by the yeai-, but by the month. The calends and ides, that is, the beginning and middle of each month, being the usual times of payment, t 1 have thought it right still to preserve the original expression in the feminine, as it relates to Antonius under the character of the Trojan woman. « The Romans thought it a point of dignity in their pub- lic capacity always to speak in their own language, and to hear foreigners t}irough an interpreter. ' ' Macedonia, near to which Atticus resided. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 829 Flancius as his authority for this report I ear- nestly beg you will see what all this is. It appears that Pompeins is very friendly to me ; his divorce of Mucia" is much approved. I imagine you have heard that P. Clodius, the son of Appius, was detected in women's clothes at the house of Caius Caesar, while the religious ceremonies for the peo- ple » were going on, and that he was saved, and conducted out by the hands of a servant-girl ; that it is an affair of great scandal, which I know you will be sorry for. I have nothing more to tell you. A.nd in truth I have been a good deal distressed, for Sositheus, my reader, a pleasing youth, is lately dead, which has disturbed me more than the death of a slave ought to have done. I hope you will often write to me : if you have nothing to say, say what comes uppermost. The first of January, in the consulship of M. Messala and M. Fiso'^. LETTER XIII. I HAVE now received three letters from you, one through M. Cornelius, which I imagine you de- livered to him at the Tres Tabernje'' ; another, which your Canusian* host brought me ; the third, which as you mention you gave from the vessel after the anchor was weighed : which were all let- ters of a master : they speak in a chaste style, are interspersed with pleasant humour, and distinguish- ed by marks of affection. These letters might well excite me to write in return ; but I have been the more dilatory from want of a trusty messenger ; for how few are there who can carry a letter of any weight, without lightening it by a perusal^ ! Besides this I do not always know when any one goes to Epirus ; and I conceive that, having slain your victims before Amalthsea ■=, you would immediately go to lay siege to Sicyon. Nor am I by any means certain when you go to Antonius, or how long you mean to stay in Epirus ; so that I do not care to trust letters of a confidential kind either to Greeks'* w Mucia had been married to Pompeius, and was now divorced, as it is said, on suspicion of adultery with Cspsar. I This alludes to the secret ceremonies held annually in honour of the Bona Dea, or Good Goddess, for the safety of the Roman people. • 7 The consuls entered upon their office on the kalends, or first day, of January ; and by their names the years were afterwards distinguished. z Tres TabernsB, or the Three Taverns, a place near Home, on the Appian road, familiar to Christians by being mentioned in St. Paul's journey to Rome, Acts xxviii. Id. <^ Oanusium was a town on the road to Brundisium, by which Atticus passed to his estate at Buthrotum in Epirus. b As the English language permitted, 1 have thought it right to preserve this humble jest, which may find a place in a familiar letter. c Amalthea. This is the name given to the goat fabu- lously supposed to have nourished Jupiter, and whose horn was afterwards made the emblem of plenty. From the latter cu'cumstance, the word Amaltheum was adopted by Cicero to designate the library of Atticus in Epirus, rich in variety of learning. Here Cicero uses the origiual word, as if the sacred goat was the divinity of the place ; and he means to say, that after enjoying himself amidst his books, he conceives Atticus would go to Sicyon, perhaps to claim some money due to him as renter of the tributes. See let- ter 19 of this book. ^ After Greece became subject to the Romans, it was or to Epirots. Since your departure some things have occurred deserving of notice, but not to be exposed to the risk of my letter's being either lost, or opened, or intercepted. You must know then in the first place, that I was not the first called upon for my opinion', and that the peace-maker of the AUobroges' was put before me, which was done amidst the mur- murs of the senate, but without any reluctance on my part ; for I am thus freed from all obligation towards a perverse manf j and at liberty to main- tain my own dignity in the state in spite of his wishes. And this second place of delivering my sentiments, carries with it nearly the same authority as the first, while it leaves the judgment unfettered by any obligation towards the consul. The third is Catullus ; the fourth (if you wish to know that too) Hortensius. But the consul himself is of a narrow and poor spirit, an ill-natured snarler of that sort which even without raillery is laughed at ; ridiculous rather from his features, than his wif": concurring in nothing with the state; se- parated from all the principal people ; from whom one can expect no good to the state, because he wishes it no good ; and from whom one need fear no harm, because he dares not commit it. His colleague' is very attentive to me, and a follower and supporter of the best parties. There is be- sides some little disagreement between them : but I fear lest that which is diseased in the state may spread further ; for I suppose you have heard that, while the sacred ceremonies for the people were performing at Caesar's house, a man came there in female dress ; and when the vestal virgins had re- newed the sacrifice, mention was made of it in the senate by Q. Cornificius. He was the first, that you may not suspect any of us. Afterwards the afi'air was, by a decree of the senate, referred to the pontiffs, and it was determined by them to be sacrilege. The consuls then, by another decree of tie senate, published an indictment, and Csesar sent his wife a bill of divorce. In this cause Piso, induced by his friendship with P. Clodius, uses his divided into two provinces of Acbaia and Macedonia, of which the former included the whole of Greece proper. It appears from Cicero's Familiar Letters, [letters 4, 5, Slq,^ that Ser. Sulpicius, as governor of Acbaia, liad jurisdiction over the Peloponnesus, Attica, Bceotia, Thessaly, and Epirus : therefore Pliuius calls it " Achaiam, illam veram et meram Grasciam." And Pau- s-onias says, KoAoytri Se ou^* *EXAoSos, dA\' 'A^afas Tfyeftj&va ol 'Pa/iaioi^ Bi&Tt ex^ip^ff^vTo "EWTjvas 5*' 'Axaluv, Ttfre rov *E\K7]viKod 'irpo^aTriK6rtav. [Lib. vii.] And this extended sense is to be given to the word 'Axaiat when it occurs in the New Testament, as in Acts xviii. 12 ; and again, ch. xix. 21 ; also, 1 Cor. xvi. 15. c It seems to have been the custom for the consul, upon first entering into office, to call upon the consular senators for their opinion in what order he thought proper ; which order was observed during the remainder of the year. f By this expression is to be understood Caius Piso, who had presided over the province of Gallia Narbonensis, in which the AUobroges dwelt. g Marcus Piso, a relation of the former, and one of the new consuls. h In the original there is a play upon the words /acie and facetiis, which, as it is impossible to preserve in the trans- lation, so neither would it be desirable, unless for the purpose of exhibiting a juster character of Cicero's manner towards his intimate friend. > M. Messala. 630 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO endeavours that this indictment, which he himself prefers, and prefers by order of the senate, and ifor the sake of religion, may be set aside. Mes- sala is hitherto very strenuous for measures of severity. Good men are kept away by the en- treaties of Clodius ; ruffians are provided ; and I myself, who had been a very Lycurgus at the be- ginning, am daily softened down. Cato is instant and urgent. In short, I am afraid lest these mat- ters, neglected by the good, and supported by the wicked, may he the occasion of serious evils to the republic. But that friend of yours (you know who I mean ^ ; about whom you wrote to me, that when he no longer dared to find fault, he began to commend) makes a show of great regard for me ; salutes me, loves me, openly praises me ; secretly, yet so that it is suificiently manifest, he envies me : there is nothing kind in him, nothing candid, no- << thing disinterested in his politics, nothing illus- trious, nothing brave, nothing liberal. But these things I will detail to you more particularly some other time ; for they are not yet sufficiently known to me ; nor do I care to intrust to this fellow, of whom I know nothing, a letter about things of such importance. The praetors have not yet had their provinces allotted them ; the business is"- in the same state in which you left if*. The geographi- cal position of Misenum and Puteoli, which y6u require, shall have a place in my speech. I had observed that the date of the third of December was wrong. The parts of my speeches which you commend, I assure you pleased me very much; though I did not before venture to say so. But now that they have your approbation , they appear to me more truly Attic'. I have added something to the speech against Metellus™. The book shall be sent to you, since your kind regard for me has given you a taste for oratorical writings. What news shall I send you ? what ? The consul Messala has bought A.utronius's house for 437 sestertia° (£33,600.) What is that to me ? you will say; only that in comparison with this purchase, I must be judged to have laid out my money prudently ; and people have begun to understand that, in buying, it is very allowable to use the assistance of one's * friends, in order to attain some respectability"". That Trojan woman is a slow business ; but, how- ever, there is some hope. Do you 'bring these mat- i Cn. Pompeius is probably the person here intended. ^ Q,. Cicero had been one of the prsetora, which made this circumstance of some interest both to Cicero and to Atticus, the one his brother, the other his brother-in-law. 1 The Attic manner of writing and speaking was always considered as the most perfect model. ™ The tribune Metellns had been active in opposing Cicero, charging him with having put citizens to death without a trial. ° If the text be correct, the amount in English money would be about 36'42i. But there is great reason to suspect some error, such as may easily be made in transcribing iigiires ; for Cicero mentions this purchase as a justification of his own conduct in borrowing money for a house in Home, for which it appears by his Familiar Letters that he gave 3500 sestertia, or near 30,000?. [Ep, Pam. v. C] It seems probable, therefore, that Instead of CCC:0XXXV1I it ought to be written either (1)(1) (1) (1) XXXVII, which would be equivalent to 33,644!., or XXXVII (tricies septies, 3700) equivalent to 30,83M. ° This passage is illustrated by reference to the 39th chapter of the first book of the Offices, where Cicero speaJts of the respect attached to a person's residence — adhibenda commoditatis dignitatisque diligentia. ters to a conclusion. You may expect to hear from me again with more freedom. January 27, in the consulship of M. Messala and M. Fiso. LETTER XIV. 1 1 AM afraid you will be tired of hearing how much I am engaged ; but in truth I have been so busy, that I have scarcely had time for this short letter, and that has been snatched from important X)ccupations. I mentioned in a former letter' Pompeius's first harangue ; that it was not accept- able to the poor, that it appeared spiritless to the wicked, unsatisfactory to the rich, undignified to the good : in short, it was a cold performance. Afterwards, at the instigation of the consul Piso, that inconsiderate tribune Fufius brought Pompeius forth to the assembly of the people. The business was conducted in the Flaminiau Circus i, and the same day, in that very place, was a fair held. He inquired of him whether he approved of the judges being chosen by the prsetor in the affair of Clo- dius's sacrilege ; which judges the same praetor was to use as his council ; as it had already been appointed by the senate. Upon which Pompeius^ spoke quite aristocratically ; replying, that the authority of the senate on all occasions had now, and always, the greatest weight with him ; and this he professed at great lengths Afterwards the consul Messala inquired of Pompeius in the senate, what he thought of the offence to religion, what of the indictment announced. He spoke in such a man- ner in the senate as to commend generally aU the acts of that body ; and said to me, as he sat by me, that he thought his answer contained a suffi- cient reply to the questions proposed to him. Crassus, perceiving that it gained him applause to have it supposed that he was pleased with my con- sulate, rose up, and spoke of my consulate in the handsomest manner, saying, that he owed it to me that he was a senator, that he enjoyed his freedom and his life ; that as often as he saw his wife, his home, his country, so often he saw blessings de- rived from me : in short, all those topics of fire and sword, which I used variously to represent in my speeches (,you, who are my Aristarchns and critic, know those repositories of ornaments), he interwove with great effect. I was sitting next Pompeius, and observed him to be moved ; whe- ther it was that Crassus should have gained the ap- plause which he had missed, or that my deeds should be so esteemed as to obtain the ready con- currence of the senate to the praises besti/wed upon them, especially by one who owed it me the less, because, in all my letters in commendation of Pompeius, he had been lightly spoken of This day much attached me to Crassus : and whatever was given covertly, I willingly acknowledged from him openly. But as for myself, ye gods ! how I exulted before my new hearer, Pompeius ! If periods and infiections, if deductions and arguments, ever availed me, it was then : in short, there were ge- neral cheers : for the subject was, of the dignity p This letter is lost. At the same time I cannot blame your deterliiination, especially after having declined to accept " province myself. \,I shall be content with your epigrams, which.jouhave placed in tUie alltauiH/eSpBcialTy'since ' "'"" me, But having and Archias has written nothing^ already composed a Greek poem in honour of the Luculli, I am afraid he will now turn his attention __t£Lthe story of the Csecilii. I returned thanks to Antonius in your name, and delivered the letter to Manlius. I have hitherto written to you the less ifrpq^ently, because I had no proper person to "whom I could intrust my letters ; nor did I suf- ficiently know what I should intrust to them»; Farew ell. I have nowmade you amatdSji If '""dnciuS^rel^rs to me any busmess of yours, I will readily undertake it ^ but he is just now more occupied in affairs of hJs own, in which I shall not be backward in assisting him. If you are likely to be stationary, you may expect often to hear from me ; but do you also write frequently. I wish yod would describe to me your Amaltheum, how it is situated, how it is fitted up ; and that you would send me any poems, and stories you possess on the subject of Amalthea". I should like to make one at Arpinum. I will send you something of my writ- ing ; at present there is nothing finished. >* Any personal defect was considerec] aa inauspicious. 8 Tbe number of the tribes was thirty-five. t The Latin fabam mimum, if it be correct, is not now i intelligible. 1 have given what I conceive to be the gene-/ ral signification. I-' ^ The diflBculties which Cicero apprehended actually took place, O'lving to his brother's taking ill this refusal, on the part of Atticue, to serve under him in the capacity of lieutenant. ^ Cicero had wished that one of these poets should have written on the subject of his consulship. « See letter 3 of this book, note ". » Amalthca is properly the fabulous name of the fabu- lous goat which was said to have nourished the infant Jupiter : it is, therefore; rightly expressed in this place. But Attious's llbrjiry was denominated Amaltheum. See letter 13 of tins book, note <=. . LETTER XVII. " ^l I PERCEIVE from your letter, atj4|p™ 'lie copies of my brother Quintus's whicJ^MS sent with it, a great alteration in his disposffmi and sentiments towards you ; which afifect§*6e with all that concern which my extreme love fo^ you both might be ex- pected to produce ; and j wonder what can have happened, that should Jccasion to my brother Quintus either such deep/ofience, or such change- ableness of niind. I liadj already observed, what I saw that you also suspefcted at the time of your departure, that some unfavourable impression had arisen, and that he w^s hurt in mind, and harboured certainunfriendly suspicions ; which, though I before often wished to heal, and especially after the allot- ment of his province ; yet I was not aware that the offence he had conceived was so great as your letter- declares ; nor were my endeavours attended with the success that I hoped.) But yet I consoled myself with the consideration, that I did not doubt but he would see you either at Dyrrachium, or somewhere in those parts ; and whenever that happened, I trusted, and persuaded myself, that everything would be amicably settled between you, not only by discourse and explanation, but by the very sight and meeting of ej.ch other»j^JVjr what kindness there is in my brother Qwitus, what cheerfulness, how tender a disposition both to con- ceive and to lay aside offence, it is needless for me to mention to you, who are well acquainted with it. ,But it has happened' very unf ortuj gtsljJbat ynii. have not seen him anywhere. f'Torwhat the male- volence of certain persons has suggested to hiiA, has had more influence than either his duty or his relationship, or the former affection between you, which ought to have great weight : and it is easier to guess, than to declare, where the blame of this ■ misfortune lies \/ for in defending my own rela- tions, I am afraid of appearing harsh towards yoursl. For this is my feeling upon the subject, inat though no wound may have been inflicted by those of his ownhouseholc(^et they certainly might have healed that which was already received* But the fault of this whole affair, which extends even something furtherthan appear^ I can better explain to you when we meet./ Respectuig the letter which he wrote to you from Thessalonioa, and the language which you imagine he held with your friends at Rome, and upon higimiim^PY- ^^lli)^fnnnlr^^ti" " "■" be for it T know Tinlj^ hut all my hope of removing - this vexation rests in your kindness. , For if you consider, that the minds o^ the best men are often . irritable, and at the same time placable ; and that this sensibility, as I may call it, and tenderness of nature, is generally a sign of goodness ; and, what is the chief of all,'that we .ought mutually to bear with the ill humours, or faults, or offences of each other ; these en I found that the equestrian order was much disturbed at it, though they did not openly say so, I reproved the ^ It is to be supposed that Cicero, during his consulship, would not fail to offer his assistance in procuring for Atti- ' cus any appointment he might wish to hold, * The sense I have given to this passage is not agi'eeahle to the usual pnnctUation,1but appears to me most consonant ' to Cicero's ordinary maimer of writing, and most suitable to the context. l' The Roman people were divided into three orders, senators, knights, and plebeians. The business of the knights was chiefly to act as judges, or as farmers of the public revenue. senate, as I thought, with great authority ; and spake forcibly and copiously in not the most honourable cause. Now for another favourite concern of the knights, scarcely to be borne, which, however, I have not only borne, but justi- fied. The farmers of the revenue in Asia ", who had made their agreement with the ceiisors, complained in the senate that they had bee?i deceived by the hope of gain, and had maag"an improvident bargain, and petitioiled that the letting might be set aside. I took the lead among their supporters ; or rather I was the second ; for it was Crassus who encou- raged them to 'present this request. An odious- business, disreputable fietition, and a confession of . imprudence. But there was the greatest reason to apprehend, that, if they gained no redress, they ,fnight be altogether alienated from the senate : This affair also was -principally managed by m^" and it was brought about that they obtained a ve^ full and very friendly senate ; and I said a good deal respecting the dignity and 'onanimity of the two orders, on the first of December and day foUowing. The business is not yet finally settled, but the in- clination of the senate has been Sle|jrly seen. Me- tellus, the consul elect, had alone spoken against it. That hero of ours, Oato, was going to speak, but owing to the shortness of the day it did not come to his turn/ Thus maintaining my proposed line of conduct, Fsupport, as well as I am able, that con- cord I had endeavouied to cement.- But yet, since tliese measures are liable to fail, a certain safe way, as I hope, is fortifying td enatJle me to retain my authority. I cannot sufficiently explain this to you by letter, but I will give "you a little hint. I am jfery familiar With PompCius'. 1 know what you will say. { I will use caution, wherever caution can be used ;' and I will write more fuUy to you some other time about ray intentions in conducting the bi^siness of the republic. Do you know that Lucceius purposes immediately to solicit the con- sulship 3 for there are said to be only two candi- idates. Csesar, with whom he thinks he may unite I through Arriue ; and Bibnlus, ■with whom he sup- 'poses he may be joined through C. Piso'.. Do you laugh ? Believe me, this is no laughing matter. What else shall I tell you? "What? There are many things i but at another time. If you would have us expect you, take care to let me Ifnow-. Now I modestly beg, what I cA'nestly wish, that you will come as soon as you can. The fifth of December. LETTER XVIII, e Theke is nothing of which I now so much feel the want, as of him vrith whom I can Communicate every thing that concerns me ; who loves me, who is prudent, — with whom I can converse without flattery, without dissimulation, without reserve. For my brother, who is aU candour and kindness, is away ; MeteUus is no more to me than the sea- shore, or the -air, a mere desert : but you, who have so often relieved my cares and anxieties by your conversation and counsel, who used to be my companion in public matters, my confidant in all private ones, the partaker of all my words and thoughts, where are y ou ? I am so deserted by c Asian! appear to have been persons from the order of ■ knights, who rented of the censors the collection of the tributes from Asia Minor, as was usual in other provinces, -for five years at a time. 636 THE LETtERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO everybody that I have no other comfort but what is enjoyed with my wife and daughter, and my sweet little Cicero. For those ambitious and out- ward friendships make some show in public, but have no domestic fruit. So that whilst my house is full every morning, — ^whilst I go down to the Forum attended with troops of friends, — out of this crowd I can find nobody with whom I can either jest freely or open my bosom familiarly. Therefore I look for you, I want you, nay I call for you. For there are many things which trouble and distress me, which, could I pour them into your ears, I seem as if I could discharge in the conversation of a single walk. The stings and vexations of my domestic troubles I shall keep to myself, and not trust to this letter and to a strange messenger. And these (for I would not have you think too much of them) are not of great moment ; but yet they hang upon me, and tease me, and have no friendly counsel or conversation to allay them. But in the repubhc, although there is a ready courage, yet the inclination to exert itself does again and again elude every remedy''. Should I but shortly collect together what has been done siiwe your departure, you must needs exclaim, that the state of Rome can no longer subsist. For it was, I believe, after you left us, that the first en- trance was made upon the cause of the Clodian story. Upon which occasion, conceiving that I had an opportunity of cutting down and restraining the licentiousness of the young, I exerted myself with vehemence, and poured forth all the powers of my mind and understanding, — influenced by no hostility towards anybody, but by the hope of correcting the republic and healing the state. Deeply is the republic injured by this corrupt and profligate judgment". See now what has since taken place ; a consul' has been imposed upon us whom nobody that is not as much a philosopher as our- selves can bear to look at without a sigh. How severe a wound is this 1 After a decree of the senate had passed respecting bribery at elections, respecting the conduct of judges, no law was carried through, — the senate was worried out, — the Roman knights alienated. So that year overturned two supports of the state which by me alone had been established ; for the senate both threw away its authority and dissolved the union of the two orders. Now then another fine year has been entered upon 1 Its beginning has been such that the annual rites in honour of the tutelary goddess of Youth were omitted. For Memmius was en- gaged in initiating the wife of M. LucuUus in rites of his ownK. Menelaus', not brooking that, pro- cured a divorce. But whereas that Idsean shepherd' had only abused Menelaus, — this Paris of ours has treated both Menelaus and Agamemnon J with ^ I understand the expression animus and voluntas to apply not to Cicero, but to In republica. « See letter 16 of this book. f This consul is L, Afranius, a[creature of Pompeius, and designated by Cicero as the son of Aulus. See letter 16 of this hook. e It must be supposed that Memmius ought to have pre- sided at the rites of Juventas. It seems that he debauched the wife of M. Lucullus, which is meant by those rites of his own. '» M. Lucullus, called Menelaus, as having been injm'ed by Memmius, whom lie had before called Paris. i Paris. i L. LncuUus, tbe brother of Marcus, so called because scorn. But there is one C. Herennius, a tribune, whom perhaps you have never heard of (though you may have heard of him, for he belongs to your tribe) k ; and Sextus, his father, used to distribute among you the money of the candidates'. This / man wants to translate P. Clodius to the condition/ of a plebeian" ; and the same fellow proposes that the populace at large should vote on this affair of Clodius in the Campus Martins-. I have given him such a reception in the senate as I am accus- tomed to do to such scoundrels ; but nothing can be more insensible than he is. Metellus is an excellent consul, and attached to me ; but it lessens his authority that he has, as a matter of form, pro- mulgated this proposal respecting Clodius. But this son of Aulus", ye gods ! how dull, how spiSHess a soldier ; how well he deserves to lend an ear every day, as he does, to hear himself abused by Palicanus. An Agrarian law has been promul- gated by Flavins, a poor thing, almost the same as that of Plotius. In the mean time there is not a sound statesman, not a phantom of one, to be found. He who might be one, my intimate (for so he is, and I wish you to know it) Pompeius defends that painted robe of hisP by keeping silence. Crassus utters not a word against the favour of the people. The others you are already acquainted with ; who are so stupid that they hope to preserve their luxurious stews' when the republic is lost. The only person who administers any, relief, rather by his firmness and integrity than by his counsel or prudence, is Cato, who now for the third month continues to harass the poor collectors^ who have been very friendly to him. So we are compelled to pass no decree about other .matters till an answer is given to these collectors. I expect therefore that even the business of the embassies will be put off. You see now by what waves we are tossed : and if from what I have said you per- ceive that there is as much more unsaid, yet visit us once more ; and although these parts to which I call you deserve to be shunned, nevertheless let tbe value you set upon our friendship be such, that you may be glad to enjoy it even with these vexa- tions. For, that you may not be registered as an absentee, I will take care to have your return given out and proclaimed everywhere. To be registered just at the lustration = is like a very merchant. Agamemnon was brother to Menelaus. . Memmius, who had thus insulted M. Lucullus, had before injured his brother, in opposing his petition for a triumph. ^ The people of Rome •were distributed into thirty-five tribes. 1 The inferior magisti-ates were elected by the tribes, and probably might distribute money amongst those of their own tribe for this purpose, " Clodius wanted, for factious purposes, to become tri- bune, for which it was necessary he should be a plebeian. He therefore contrived to get adopted into a plebeian family, - The tribunes had the power of calling the comitia tributa in the Campus Martius ; and, in voting by tribes, as every citizen had a voice in his oivn tribe, conseijuently theplebeians had a great majority. y Afranius. V Pompeius continued to wear his coloured robe of triumph. 1 The stewa for fish were among the principal luxuries of the Romans. * These are the farmers of the revenues of Asia Minor . spoken of in letter 17 of this book. » The registry of the censors, which was renewed every TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICDS. 637 Therefore take care that we may see you as soon as possible. The 1st of Febniary, in the consulship of L. Metellus and L. Afranius. LETTER XIX. Not only if I had as much leisure as you have, but also if I was content to send such short letters, I should surpass you, and write much oftener than you do. But, besides my great ana incredibly occupations, I never suffer any letter to go to you without some argument and opinion. First then, as it is proper in writing to such a lover of his country, I will send you an account of what is going forward in the republic ; next, as I know your affection to me, I will tell you what I conceive you may not be unwilling to hear relating to myself. And with respect to the republic, the chief concern at present is the apprehension of a Gallic war. For the Edui, our brethren (as they have been called), are actually fighting ; the Sequani have befen fighting very ill ; and the Helvetii are without doubt in arms, and making incursions into the Roman province. The senate has decreed that the consuls should have the two Gauls allotted to them ; that a levy should be made *, that exemptions should not be admitted ; that ambassadors should be despatched with authority, who should go to the cities of Gaul and take care that they do not join the Helvetii. The ambassadors are Q. Me- tellus Creticus, and L. Flaccus, and (by an ill assortment, like the Greek proverb of pouring precious ointment upon lentils) Lentulus the son of Clodianus. And here I cannot forbear mention- ing, that when, among the consulars, the first lot fell upon me, a full senate with one voice deter- mined that I ought to be retained in the city. After me the same thing happened to Fompeius : so that we two seemed to be kept as pledges of the republic. Why then should I look for the applauses of others when these spring up at home .' Now this is the state of the city affairs. The Agrarian law was vehemently urged by the tribune Flavius, though the author of it was fompeius, and it had nothing popular besides its author. From this law I took out, with the approbation of the assembly, whatever affected the interests of private persons : I exempted the land which had been sold in the consulship of *P. Mucins and L. Calpurnius ; I confirmed the possessions qf Sulla's people ; the Volaterrani and Arretini, whose lands Sulla had declared public, but had not allotted, 1 retained in the enjoyment of their property. One plan I did not object to, that land should be purchased with this adventitious money, which might be derived, for the space of five years, from the tributes of the countries newly conquered'. The senate was adverse to the whole of this Agrarian scheme, sus- pecting that it was designed only to give some new power to Fompeius ; for Fompeius had used great exertions to accomplish his wish of carrying the law through. But, with the full approbation of those who were to occupy the lands, I confirmed the titles of the actual possessors (for our strength, as you know, lies in the rich proprietors), whilst I fifth year, was concluded by a lustration', or aacriiice of purification, addressed to the assembled people. ' These were the eoimtries conquered by Pompeius in the Mithridatic war satisfied the people and Fompeius (for that also I wished to do) by the purchase ; which being care- fully conducted, I hoped the lees of the city might be drawn off, and the waste lands of Italy peopled. But this whole affair has cooled again, having heed interrupted by the war. Metellu? is indeed a good consul, and is much attached to me ; the other is | such a mere cipher, that he does not even know what it is that he has bought". These are the chief things of the republic ; unless you may think it concerns the republic also, that one Herenniua, a tribune of the people, of your tribe, a good-for- nothing and needy fellow, has several times insti- tuted a motion for transferring F. Clodius to the rank of a plebeian : but many have interposed their prohibition. This, I think, is what has been doing in the republic. But for myself, after having once obtained the distinguished and immortal glory of that fifth of December', not without much envy and ill will, I have never ceased to exert the same spirit in the republic, and to support that dignity which I had entered upon and attained. But when I had witnessed, first, in the acquittal of Clodius, the inconstancy and weakness of the judges ; then saw how easily our knights collectors, though they continued friendly to me, were dis- united from the senate ; then again, that certain happy spirits (those luxurious possessors of fish- ponds, I mean, your friends) are undisguisedly envious of me ; 1 considered that it was time to look out for some greater support and stronger securities. Therefore, first I brought Pompeius, who had too long observed a silence upon my transactions, into that disposition, that in the senate, not once, but repeatedly, and at considerable length, he attributed to me the safety of the empire and of the world : which did not so much concern me (for what I did is not so obscure as to stand in need of testimony, or so doubtful as to require commendation) as the republic ; because there were certain ill-disposed people who expected that some contention might arise between me and Pompeius from a disagreement upon those matters. With him I have united myself in such intimacy, that each of us may hence be more fortified in his own line of conduct, and firmer in the republic, from this connexion. A,nd that hostility of the licentious and delicate youth, which had been raised against me, has been so softened by my civiHty, that they all now pay me particular attention. In short, I do nothing harsh towards anybody, — nor, however, any thing popular and unbecoming ; but my whole conduct is so regulated, that I maintain a constancy towards the republic ; and in my pri- vate concerns, on account of the unsteadiness of the good, the unkindness of the malevolent, the hatred of the wicked, towards me, I adopt a certain caution and attention ; and so bear my affections, whilst I am implicated iu these new connexions, that the sly Sicilian Epicharmus often whispers ip my ear that verse of his, — " Be sober and distrust- ful; these are the sinews of the understanding :" and of my management and scheme of life you see, I think, as it were a model. Respecting your business you often write to me; but it is impossible to remedy it,— for the decree of the senate was carried by a gi'eat concurrence of members, w ithout « Meaning that he had bought the consulship. V When he defeated Catiline's conspiracy, and ordered his accomplices to he put to death. 638 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TUELIUS CICERO the authority of any of us consulars. For, as to your seeing that I was present when it was drawn up, you may understand from the decree itself that a different object was at that ticae brought forward ; and this about the free people was added without any occasion,- — and was so done by P. Servilius the son, who gave his opinion among the last. But at this time it cannot be altered ; so that the meetings which were at first held on this subject have long since ceased to be kept up. If, how- ever, by your gentle manners you have squeezed out of the Sicyonians any portion of money, I should be glad to be made acquainted with it. I have sent you the account of my consulate, written in Greek ; in which, if there is anything that appears to an Attic gentleman not to be correct and good Greek, I will not say to you, what I think LucuUus said of his history, that he purposely introduced some barbarisms, that it might be known to be the work of a Roman. In mine if there be anything of that sort, it will be vrithout my know- ledge, and contrary to my inclination. If I com- plete that in Latin, I will send it to you. You may expect the third in verse ^, that 1 may omit no mode of celebrating my own praises. Here take care that you do not quote upon me the Greek proverb, "Who will praise his father?"" For if there is anything better among men let it be praised, and let me be blamed for not rather be- stowing my praises elsewhere ; though what I write is, after all, not praise, but history. My brother Quintus studies to exculpate himself in his letters, and affirms that he never spoke anything against you to anybody : but this must be managed between us with great care and diligence when we meet. Do you only at length visit us again. This Cossinius, to whom I give my letter, seems to me an excellent man, free from levity, and affectionate towards you, and such as your letter represented him. The 15th of March. LETTER Xlt. TJpoM my return to Rome from my Pompei- anumr on the 12th of May, our friend Cincius gave me your letter dated the 13th of February, to which I now reply. And first, I am very glad that you are so perfectly acquainted with my opinion respecting you^ In the next place, it gives me great satisfaction that you should have shown such moderation in those affairs in which I and my family were concerned, not without some appearance of harshness and unkindness > ; which is a proof at once of no small- aifection, and of consummate judgment and prudence. On which w This he afterwards executed. See hook ii. letter 3. ^ Some douhts have heen entertained ahout the applica- tion of this proverb. In the beginning of PlutaieWB life u'f Aratus it is quoted more at length ; and from thence I should understand it here to signify, that as it was con- cluded that one who praised the deeds of his ancestors, had no merit of his own ; so it might he inferred, that if eioero was so vain of his consulship he had little else to boast of. 7 Cicero possessed several villas, one of which was near Pompeii. » This probably alludes to what he had said in letter 17 of this book. » Meaning the disagreement between Quintus and his wife Pomponia. subject as you have written so graciously, so care- fully, so fairly, and candidly, that I not only have nothing further to ask of you, but had no right to expect so much readiness and mildness from you, or from any man ; I think it best to say nothing more about the business. When we meet, fhen, if any occasion occurs, we will confer togethf r by word of mouth. In what you say about the republic, you argue affectionat^y and wisely ; and your opinion is not at variance with the line of conduct I have adopted. I ought neither to recede from the state of my dignity, nor to go without my host into the for- tifications of another man ; and he^ of whom you speak, has nothing noble, nothing exalted, nothing that is not abject and popular. Yet the course I have taken is perhaps not without its advantage to myself in promoting the tranquil- lity of my own times ; but it is still much more advantageous to the republic than to me, that the violence of the wicked against me should be repressed by my having confirmed the wavering opinion of one in the highest fortune, authority, and favour ; and by having converted him from the hopes of bad men to the commeu the storms which he saw approaching, and which he had no power to control. ^ His conduct during his consulship, meritorious as it had been, was now going to be arraigned, which filled his mind with these sentiments. The chief magistrates of the provincial towns were called duumviri. i Vatinius was a factious tribune, who exerted himself this year in opposing the authority of the senate. j These were commissioners appointed to divide the lands of Campania agreeably to the Agrarian law. k I have thought it right to preserve in the translation this little irregularity of the original expression, the En. glish laaguage admitting it with as much propriety as thfl Latin. T T3 044 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Roman money' ; or whether we must be put off with the Pompeian cistophoras. Moreover, settle what is to he done ahout the wall. Is there any- thing else ? yes : let me be Informed when you mean to go from thence. LETTER VII. I WILL think again about the geography. You ask me for two orations : one of which 1 did not care to write out, because I had left it imperfect ; the other, that I might not praise a person I did not like : but I will see about this also. However, there shall be something, that you may not think I have been totally idle. What you tell me about Clodius is highly agreeable to me ; and I hope, when you come, you will bring me a full account ; and that you will let me hear from you in the mean time, if you know, or suspect, anything; especially what he is likely to do about the em- bassy. Before I read your letter I was wishing to get at the fellow", not forsooth that I might put off my engagement with him (for I am eager for the contest) ; but I thought he would lose what- ever popularity he had acquired by being made a plebeian. " For what purpose have you passed over to the people ? that you might go to salute Tigranes ? Tell me ; do the Armenian kings refuse to salute patricians?" In short I was prepared to work him upon this embassy ; which if he slights, and if, as you say, that excites the indignation both of the framers and supporters of the law by which he was disnobled, it will be a fine scene. But, to say the truth, our Publius (Clodius) is treated rather disrespectfully : in the first place, that he who was once the only man in Caesar's house, now should not have been able to be one among twenty: then, that one 'embassy should have been talked of, another should have been given ; that rich one for the purpose of exacting money, is reserved, I suppose, for the Pisaurian Drusus, or the glutton Vatinius : this meagre and dainty banishment is given to him, whose tribunate is reserved to suit the occasions of these gentlemen. Inflame him , I conjure you, as much as possible. The only hope of safety is in the disagreement of these people among themselves, of which I learned some symptoms from Curio. Already Arrius complains that the consulate has been snatched away from him : Megabocchus", and these sanguinary youths, are determined enemies. To this let there be added, yes, let there be added, that contest for the augur- ship. I hope often to send you fine letters upon these subjects. But I want to know what it is that you throw out obscurely ; that already some of the 1 It seems Quintus Cicero wanted to have the expenses o( his government defrayed in Roman money, instead of the Asiatic cistophori, accruing from the plunder of Mith- ridates hy Pompeius. The cistopJiorug was a small coin, so called from bearing the impression of the cigtus^ or chest, used in the mysteries of Ceres. n> This sense appears to me suiiiciently good, without altering the text in opposition to all MSS. Most commen- tators have thought fit to omit the preposition in, and to understand Cicero to say that he had wished Clodius might go to Tigranes. n It is generally supposed that by this term is meant Pompeius, and that he was at varLance with these young incendiaries, the reniivins ttf Catiline's accomplices. nuinqueviri" themselves are beginning to speak out What is this ? for if there is anything in it it must be better than I had imagined. I would have you understand this, not as if I made these inquiries with any view of engaging myself in public affairs. I have long since been weary of steering the state, even when it was permitted me to do so : but now, when I am obliged to quit the ship, not throwing away, but taking in the rudder', I wish from the land to look at the shipwreck of those people; I wish, as says your friend Sophocles, " from under my roof to hear the frequent drip- • ping with a tranquil mind." You will see what is necessary ahout the wall. I will correct the error of Castricius : yet Quintus had written to me 25, 000 1 sestertii ; now to your sister he says 30,000. Terentia salutes you. Cicero desires that you will answer for him to Aristo- demus, in the same manner as you have done for his relation', your sister's son. I shall not neglect your information about Amalthea". Farewell. LETTER VIII. While I was eagerly expecting a letter from you in the evening, as I usually do, I was informed that the servants had arrived from Rome. I call them in, and ask if they have any letters. They say no. What do you say, said I, is there nothing firom Pomponius ? Alarmed at my voice and counte- nance, they confessed that they had received a letter, but had lost i\ on their way. What think you ? I was very much provoked ; for all your letters lately had brought some useful or agreeable nformation. Now, if there was anything deserv- ing to be recorded in the letter you sent the 16th of April, write as soon as possible, that I may not remain in ignorance ; or if there was nothing but good-humour, yet repeat even that. Know that young Curio has been here to visit me. What he said ahout Publius (Clodius) exactly agreed with your letters. He is wonderfully incensed against our haughty kings'. He said that the young men were equally angry, and could not bear this state of things. We are in a good way. If we can depend upon these people, let us, methinks, mind our own affairs". I am engaged in history. At the same time, though you may think me another Saufeius', nothing is more indolent than I am. But let me explain to you my motions, that you may determine where you will come to me. I design to go to Formlanum the middle of April". Then (since yon think I ought to omit that delicate o Who these five commissioners might be, or for what purpose they were appointed, does not appear. p The expression implies that he did not abandon the state in anger, but withdrew his guidance till some more favourable season, when his services might be available. q The text is evidently corrupt. I have supposed that it ought to be written H.S. ((1)) {(1)) 1)). But it is impos- sible to ascertain the truth, and is of little moment. ' In the original it is '* brother." [See book i. letter 1.3 They were really first-cousins. , » See book i. letter 16. ^ Cffisar, Crassus, and Pompeius. " Cease to trouble ourselvea ' A philosopher of great study. "• The Parilia was a festival celebrated on tlw 21st «' April. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 64S basin" at this time) on the first of May I shall leave Formianum, that I maybe at Antium oq the third. For the games of Antium are to take place from the fourth to the sixth of May, and Tiillia wishes to see them. Thence I think of going to Tus- culanum, then to Arpinum, and to be at Rome on the first of June. Let me see you either in Formianum, or at Antium, or in Tusculanum. Replace your former letter, and add something new. LETTER IX. 1 HOFB you are well. Coecilius, the qusestor, having told me that he is going to send a servant, I have written this hastily, that I might elicit your marvellous dialogues with Publius, as well those which you mention, as that which you reserve, saying it is tedious to detail your reply ; also that which has not yet taken place, which that Boopisi' will relate to you upon her return from Solonium. I would have you believe nothing can be more agreeable to me. If the agreement relating to me is not kept I am in heaven'. This our Jeru- salemite", who brings matters before the people, shall know what a fine return he has made for my choicest speeches, of which you may expect a dis- tangnish6d counterpart''. For, as well as I can guess, if that profligate = is in favour with these mighty men', he will not be able to exult, not only over the consular Cynic', but not over those Tritons of the stews. I can never be an object of envy when I am robbed of my power, and of all my senatorian authority. But if he disagrees with them it will be absurd to attack me. However, let him if he will. Believe me, this revolution in the state has been made gaily, and with less noise than I had supposed ; more speedily indeed than seemed possible ; and that, partly through the fault of Cato ; but, besides, through the shameful conduct of those who neglected the auspices, the jElian, the Junian, and Licinian law, the Csecilian, and the Didian ; who threw away all the resources of the constitution ; who gave away kingdoms and estates to tetrarchs ; and to a few persons immense sums of money. I see now to what party envy will pass over, and where it will abide. Think that I have learned nothing either from experience, or from Theophrastus, if you do not shortly see people call out for those our times. For if the authority of the > The place here meant is Bais, situated in the bay of Naples. See hook i. letter }6' y Ginero uses an epithet familiarly applied by Homer to Juno. He means by it to designate Clodia, who, perhaps, might he full-eyed, which the word signifies ; and, besides, resembled Juno in cohabiting, as it was suspected, with her brother Clodius. ' That is, if the conspiracy against Cicero should he broken up, be may be at his ease. • Fompeius, who had captui-ed Jerusalem. He had con- ducted the auspices at the time that Clodius's bill of adop- tion was brought before the people. UaMvahtaVt meaning that Cicero would now speak in accusation of Fompeius, whom he had formerly praised. = Clodius. d Cksot, Crossus, and Fompeius. <^ Cicero calls himself a cynic, as adopting a severe line of conduct, and intimates that the triumvirs would no longer co-operate with Clodius against him, or those patri- cian epicures, when their loss of authority censed to excite envy. senate excited envy, what do you think will be the case, when it is transferred, not to the people, but to three ambitious men ? Therefore let them make whom they will consuls, and tribunes of the peo- ple; nay, let them clothe the evil of Vatinius' with the painted robe of the priesthood, you will shortly see not only those who have committed no offence, but even Cato himself, who is so guilty in their eyes, raised to great honour. As for myself, if your companion Publius permits it, I mean to act the philosopher ; if he designs anything, then only to defend myself; and, as becomes that pro- fession, " I announce that I will repel anyone who first insults me." Only let my country be favourable. It has received from me, though not more than is due, at least more than was demanded. I prefer being ill rowed under the steerage of another, to steering well with such ungrateful rowers. But these things may be discussed better when we meet. Now hear the answer to your inquiry. I intend to go from Formianum to Antium the third of May ; from Antium I wish to go to Tusculanum on the seventh of May. But as soon as I leave Formianum, where I mean to stay till the end of April, I will immediately let you know. Terentia sends her compliments. The young Cicero salutes the Athenian Titus'^. LETTER X''. / (Grav. xii.) List those men' deny, if they can, that Publius has been made a plebeian. It is a mere exercise of sovereignty, and is not to be borne. Let but Publius send persons to attest it, and I will swear that our Cnseus, when he was colleague with Balbus, told me at Antium, that himself had conducted the auspices on the occasion. What two charming letters have been delivered to me from you, both at the same time ! I do not know what remune- ration I can make for them ; but that some is due I freely acknowledge. Observe the concurrence of circumstances. I had just gone from the Antian into the Appian road at the Tres Tabernse, on the festival of Ceres), when my friend Curio, coming from Rome, met me. At the same place presently came the servant from you with letters. Curio asked me if I had heard no news. I said, no. Publius (says he) is canvassing for the place of tribune of the people. What think you? He is very angry with Caesar, and threatens to re- scind all his acts. How does Csesar receive it? < Vatinius had scrofulous swellings in the neck, called in Latin struma, and in English evil. Oiiarlvtoi X^^P^' Slav rhv Tpd^l^O" TcomK^as. — Plutarch's Life of Cicero. B Cicero concfudes with a Greek form of salutation from his son to Atticus, whose praenomen was Titus. Ii This letter is the 12th in Gnevius's edition, but is evidently misplaced, because it is alluded to in that which follows. This was written at four p. m. from the Tres Tabems, after Cicero had left Antium on his way to For- mianum. The next was written at ten o'clock the same night from Appii Porum. The 12th after he was at For- mianum. i The tiiumvirs, between M'hom and Clodius there was now the appearance of disagreement. i The Cereollawere celebrated in the second week of April. The preoise day is vai'iously computed from the 7th to the 12th. 646 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO said I. He denies that he proposed anything about his adoption. Then Curio declared his own hatred'', and that of Memmius and Metellus Nepos. I took my leave of the young man, and hastened to your letters. Where are they, who speak of viva voce information ? How much more fully have I learned from your letters, than from his conversation, what was doing, what were the daily surmises, the intention of Publius, the trumpet of Boopis', the standard-bearer Athenio, the letters sent to Cnseus, the conversation of TheophaneS and of Memmius. Besides, what an expectation have you given me of that licentious feast ! I am dying with curiosity. Yet I shall be satisfied without your writing me an account of that meet- ing, as I wish rather to hear it from your own mouth. As to your exhortation to write some- thing ; the materials indeed increase upon me, as you say; but the whole thing is yet in fermenta- tion, and " during the autumn the wine is thick ;" when it is settled, what I may write will be better digested. But if you cannot have anything at present, at least you shall be the first to have it, and for some time the only one. You do well to like Dicsearchus : he is an honest man, and not a little better citizen than those rulers of iniquity". I have written this letter on the festival of Ceres, at four in the afternoon, the moment I had read yours j but with the intention of despatching it to-morrow by the first person I meet". Terentia is delighted with your letter, and sends her kindest regards ; and Cicero the philosopher" salutes the statesman Titus. LETTER XL . (Grav. X.) Pkay admire my firmness. I do not mean to attend the games at AntiumP ; for it carries with it an appearance of inconsistency, whilp I wish to avoid every suspicion of luxury, suddenly to be seen travelling not only delicately, but unbecom- ingly. I shall therefore wait for you in Formianum till the 7th of May. Let me know what day I may expect to see you. From Appii Forum, 10 p. m. I despatched another letter a little before from the Tres TabemBBl. ^ Hatred of the power assumed by CEesar. t This is meant of Clodia, [see letter 9 of this book,] who was urging her brother to extremities, as it were with a clarion or war-trumpet. The same figure ia coutinued in applying to Athenio the term of standard-bearer of sedi- tion ; Athonio had been the author of an insurrection in Sicily. Under this name Cicero probably means Vatiniua. m In Greek &5tf ampp^oi, which it is impossible to trans- late so as to preserve the opposition to the name Dicrear- ohus ; the latter signifying "a ruler of justice," the former " rulers of iniquity." n Ue was now on the Appian road, which was much frequented, and could not fail of presenting to him some person who would convey his letter to Rome. o This is said in Greek, after the Greek manner, as if Cicero and Atticus had changed conditions ; Cicero now seeking retirement, while Atticus remained In the throng and business of Rome. P See letter 8 of this book. <1 The Appii Forum and Tres Tabemie derive an interest from the mention of these places in St. Paul's journey to Home, Acts aucviii. 15. LETTER XIL (Grffiw. xi.) To tell you the truth, T seem as if I were banished since I have been in Formianum. While 1 was at Antium there was no day on which I did not know better what was doing at Rome, than those who were living there. For your letters acquainted me not only with the state of Rome, but with that of the republic at large; and taught me not only what happened, but also what was going to happen. Now, unless anything is picked up from a casual passenger, 1 can hear nothing. Therefore, though I hope very soon to see you, yet let me have, by the servant, whom I have directed immediately to come back, some long letter, full not only of all that has been done, but likewise of your own opi- nions. Take care to let me know the day when you mean to leave Rome. I intend to remain in Formianum till the sixth of May. If you do not arrive before that day, I shall perhaps see you at Rome. For why should I invite you to Arptnum, " a rugged place (as Ulysses says of Ithaca',) but a good nurse of youths ; than which nothing can in my eyes be more delicious." So much for the present. Farewell. LETTER XIII. A PROVOKING circumstance, that nobody should have delivered the letter' I wrote to you from Tres Tabernse the same hour that I received your most acceptable intelligence. But you must know that the parcel in which it was contained was taken to my house* the same day on which I sent it, and from thence was brought back to me at Formianum. I have ordered this letter again to be taken to you, that you might be assured of the pleasure yours hud given me. When you inform me that nothing is said in Rome", this is what I expected. But, I can tell you, people are not reserved in the country, nor can the country bear your' tyranny. But if you come into this Telepylus Laestrygonia" (Formise I mean), what a noise do people make ! How irritated are their minds ! In what detesta- tion is our friend Magnus*, whose appellation of Great begins to decay with that of the Rich Crassus. Believe me, I have yet met with nobody who could bear this state of things so quietly as I do. There- fore pray let us continue to enjoy our philosophical retirement ; for I can aver upon my oath, that ' The original is taken from Homer's Odyssey, and ia the more appropriate in being applied by Cicero to Arpi- num, with feelings of affection towai-ds his native place, with which Ulysses is represented to have said it of hia own country, Ithaca. » This is the tenth letter of this book. * This must have been his houae at Rome. » That is, nothing was said of the authority usurped by the triumvirato. V By "-your tyranny" is to be understood that \«*ich wos exercised by the triumvirs at Rome, where Atticus was staying. " TriKixuKos JiataTpvyopia, is an expression taken from Homer's Odyssey, the meaning of which is not exactly known. The place so denominated by Homer waa sup- posed to have been near Formiee. « A name given to Pompeius, and signifying Groat. Sea book i. letter 30. Missing Page Missing Page Missing Page TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. C61 seemed at least to be liked by the common people ; and though a cause of trouble to the better sort, yet it did not threaten their ruin. Now it has suddenly become so hateful to every body, that I dread to think where it may burst forth ; for we have already experienced the rage and intemper- ance of those men, who in their anger against Cato' have overturned everything. But then they ' used such gentle poisons, that it seemed as if we might die without agony ; now I fear they will be rendered outrageous by the hisses of the populace, the language of the respectable citizens, the clam- our of Italy. I had hoped, indeed, as I often used to say to you, that the wheel of the republic was so turned, as scarcely to be heard, scarcely to leave a track ; and so it would have been, if people could have waited to let the storm pass over : but after smothering their groans a long time, at last V . all have begun to speak, and to cry aloud ; so that jmy friend', unused to reproach, always conversant "with praise, and surrounded with glory, knows not ■iwhere to turn himself in his present squalid ap- pearance and broken spirit. He sees it dangerous to proceed, weak to retreat ) he has made good people his enemies, and has not even the bad for his friends. See now my tenderness of mind : I could not refrain from tears when I saw him, on the 22nd of July, addressing the people upon the edicts of Bibulus ; him, I say', who formerly used magnificently to exalt himself in that very place, vtiih the greatest affection of the people, and uni- versal applause. How was he then humbled ! how V. dejected I how did he displease not only his audi- ence, but himself also I O spectacle I agreeable to Crassus alone, not so to others. For having descended as it were, from the stars, it seemed a fall, rather than any advance. And as Apelles, ■ if he saw his Venus, or Protogenes his Jalysus, smeared with mud, would, I conceive, feel great* pain : so did I with great pain behold him, whom I had painted and polished with all the colours of art, suddenly disfigured. Though nobody thought I owed him any friendship for his conduct in the Clodian business ; yet such was my regard, that it was not to be exhausted by any act of unkindness. Bibulus's Archilochian edicts against him are so acceptable to the populace, that one cannot pass by the place where they are exhibited, for the throng of people who are reading them : to him they are so hitter, that he pines with vexation: to me they are distressing, because they give too . much uneasiness to one whom I have alwa be afraid. Clodius is my declared enemy. Pom- peius affirms that he will do nothing against me : it is dangerous to believe this ; therefore I prepare myself to resist him. 1 trust I shall have the best wishes of all orders. When the time comes, not only I shall want you, but the circumstances them- selves will call for you : I shall gain a great deal of advice, of courage, and of protection, if I have you with me at that time. Varro gives me satisfaction ; Pompeius talks divinely. I hope I shall certainly be able to come off either with distinguished credit, or without mortification. Let me know what you are doing, how you amuse yourself, and how you have managed with the Sicyonians '. / active with his sword, and so unaccustomed to in suit, should give way to grief and rage with all the force of his mind. What is likely to be the end of Bibulus, I cannot say ; at present he is in surpris- ing glory. Upon his putting off the comitia to the month of October, Caesar imagined that, this heing a measure usually offensive to the people, he should be able, by addressing them, to persuade the assembly itself to go to Bibulus ; but after utter- ing many very seditious expressions, he could not extract from them a single word. What say you .' the triumvirs feel that they have the good-will of no party : so much the more reason have we to •■ Tho stern supporter of old principles. With Gate must, bo supposerl to be included other inflexible poUtioians of the same time. ■ FompeiuB. LETTER XXn. V How I could wish that you had remained in Kome ! you would certainly have remained, if we could have foreseen what has happened ; we could easily restrain our pretty youth", or at least we should be able to know what he was about.f But now, this is the state of the business ; he flies|about, raves, follows no certain course, threatens many, and seemslikely to act as chance may offer. When he sees the odium attached to the present state of affairs, he seems as if he would attack those who have occasioned it ; but when again he recollects their influence, aiid the strength of their army, he directs himself against me ; and t6 me he threatens both violence and prosecution. With him' Pom- peius has discoursed ; and, as he informed me him- self, (for I have no other witness,) discoursed with vehemence, telling him- that he should incur the utmost disgrace of perfidy and wickednes s if any ''""fier ^htivj d be bro u ght i ad bimselF 'inve^ued"'witn arms, when'he suf- fered him to be made a plebeian ; but that he, and Appius, had received his promise on my behalf, and that if he did not observe it, he should resent it so, that the world might know nothing was dearer to him than my friendship. After saying this, and much more to the same purpose, he told me that Clodius first , continued for some time to urge many things on the other side ; but at last gave up, and declared that he would do nothing contrary to Pompeius's wishes. Since then, how- ever, he has not ceased to speak very severely of me ; and if he did not, still I should not trus^_hiii hut should prepare for everything, as I do. much uneasmess to one whom 1 have al ways . . , , '^ ^ „ ' — -- ^ -, , loved; and I am afraid lest one so powerfuirsT ^ '-"!"^i"'^ "'^^?" ^°' ^"^^^ every-3ay my mends and .„f!„. „uv, 1,:. . J .„j = , — .f„™»^ f„ i„_ T influence increase. I ke my influence increase. I keep altogether clear from public concerns, and am busily engaged in causes, and the exertions of the forum. This I perceive is agreeable not only to those who use my assistance, but to the people generally. My house is frequented ; I am saluted ; ,the remembrance of my consulship is renewed. The favour of the peo- ple is manifest ; and I am in such hope, as some- times to think the struggle which hangs over me is not a thing to be declined. I have now need of your advice, your affection, and fidelity ; therefore fly up J every thing will be easy to me, if 1 have but you. Much may be done through our friend Varro ; but it will be strengthened by your support. Much may be got from Publius himself) much may be known, which cannot be kept secret from ' See boolc i. letter 19k n Publius Clodiue, 662 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO you : much also— but it is idle to enumerate each particular ; I shall then want you for everything. Be assured of tliis, that everything will be plain when I see you ; but all depends upon its being before he enters upon his office. While Crassus is urging Pompeius, I imagine ifyou are here (who by means of Biiopis" may learn from Clodius him- self withwhat sincerity they are acting) I shall either be free from trouble, or,.at least, free from error : you do not need my entreaty and exhortation. You see vrfiat my wishes, what the occasion, what the importansfi-oithfi-case. requirea^-J'OftlnrrEputrttE'T "Tiave'nothing to write to you, but the great hatred of all people towards those who have possessed them- selves of everything ; yet no hope of any change. But, as you may easily perceive, Pompeius is tired, and heartily repents. I cannot sufBciently foresee what issue is to be expected ; but these rancours must assuredly burst forth somewhere. I have sent back to you the books of Alexander ; a care- less writer, and no good poet, yet not without his use. I have willingly received Numerius Numes- tius into my friendship, and have found him a sensible and prudent man, and worthy of your recommendation. LETTER XXIII. I BELIEVE you never before received a letter from me that was not written in my own hand. Prom that you may judge how much I am occupied : for having no spar^ tjmc, and yet bein^ obhged to walk about for the sake «of recruiting, my voice, I dictate this as I walk. In the first place then I would have you know, that our friend Sampsicera- mus is heartily sick of his situation, and wishes he could again be restored to that place, from which he has fallen. He imparts to me his uneasiness, and sometimes openly seeks a remedy ; which it is impossible for me to find. Then, all the authors and adherents of that faction are losing their vigour j while there never wj^ a more general' consent in the wishes and expressions of all people. As for myself (for Tknow you will be glad to be informed) , I interfere in no pubUc counsels, and give myself up altogether to the business and labour of the forupi ; by which, as may easily be supposed, I am brought to the frequent relation, and regret, of my former deeds.j^But that kinsman of our Biiopis casts no little Terror, and threatens j and while hp denies it to Sampsiceramus, to others he professes and boasts of it"; therefore if you love me, as in- deed you do, if you are asleep, wake up ; if you are standing, walk ; if you are walking, run ; if run- ning, fly. It is not to be believed how much (which is the most possible) I place in your counsels and prudence,' how much in your affection and fidelity. The greatness of the occasion requires perhaps a long discourse ; but to minds so united as ours, a few words are sufficieat. It is of great importance to me, ifyou cannot be at Home on the comitia, at least that you may be there when he is declared / tribune. Farewell. LETTER XXIV. In the letter I sent by Numestius, I called upon you with an earnestness and vehemence, which nothing could exceed ; to that call add even, if you ^ Clodia. Bee book il. letter 9, note T, can, something more. Do not make yourself un- easy (for I know you, and am aware of the solid- tude and anxiety inseparable from real affection) j but the case, as I hope, is less formidable in fact, than it seems in the relation. Vettius (the same who gave information at the time of my consulship) had promised Caesar, that he would contrive to bring the young Curio into some suspicion of cri- minality. He therefore insinuated himself into the familiarity of the young man i and having, as it appears, frequent meetings with him, he at length brought matters to such a state, that he declared his determination to assault Pompeius with the assistance of his slaves, and to kill him. Informa- tion of this was given by Curio to his father, and by him to Pompeius. The affair was brought be- fore tlie senate. Vettius being introduced, at first denied that he had ever been concerned with Curio j but this did not last long ; for he presently de- manded a public pledge of security upon his giving evidence ; this was not opposed. Then he gave out, that there had been a band of young men under the conduct of Curio ; amongst whom had originally been Paullus, and Q. Caepio Brutus, and Lentulus, the son of the flamen, not without the knowledge of his father ; that afterwards C. Septi- mius, the secretary of Bibulus, had brought him a dagger from Bibulus : which was all absurd ; as if Vettius would have been without a dagger, unless the consul had given him one ! And this was the more scouted, because on the 13th of May Bibu- lus had warned Pompeius that he ought to be upon his guard, and Pompeius had thanked him for it. Young Curio being introduced, deposed in answer to what Vettius had said ; and Vettius was then chiefly convicted by his own assertion, that it had been the advice of the young men to attack Pom- peius in the forum with the gladiators of Gabinius ; and that Paullus was at the head of it ; though it was known that he was at that time in Macedonia. A decree of th? senate was then passed, that Vet- tius should be put in prison for having confessed that he had carried arms ; and that whoever libe- rated him would be an enemy to the republic. The general opinion of this affair was, that it had been designed Vettius and his slaves should have been apprehended in the forum with a dagger and with arms ; and then he should have offered to confess. And this would have been done, if the Curios had not previously given information to Pompeius. The decree of the senate was then read in the assembly of the people ; but the next day Csesar, who for- merly, when he was prsetor, had obliged Q. Catu- lus to speak from below", now brought Vettius forwards on the rostra, and placed him in a situa- tion, to which the consul Bibulus was not permitted to aspire^. Here he said whatever he pleased about the republic ; and having come ready pre- pared, he first omitted any mention of Ctepio, whom he had named with acrimony in the senate ; so that it was manifest the night, and some nightly management, had intervened ; in the next place, he named some, whom in the senate he had not touched with the slightest suspicion ; as Lucullus, from whom he said C. Fannius used to be sent to ^ Private persons were not allowed to ascend the roBtra without the invitation of some magistrate. » Bibulus, who was joint consul with CKSar, was pre- vented from appearing in public by apprehensions of being insulted. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. Iiim ; the same who had set his name to the accu- sation of P, Clodius ; also L. Domitius, whose house had been fixed upon as the place from whence their eruption might be made. He did not name me ; but mentioned that a certain speaker, of con- sular rank, and neighbour to the consuU, had sug- gested to him, that some Ahala Servilius', or Brutus *, must be found. He added at last, upon being called back by Vatinius, after the assembly was dismissed, that he had understood from Curio, that my son-in-law Piso, and M. Laterensis, were privy to these machinations. Vettius was at this time charged before Crassus Dives for violence ; and upon being found guilty, meant to claim the benefit of turning evidence ; which if he had ob- tained, it was probable several trials would have followed. This did not much alarm me, who, how- ever, am not used to disregard anything. Indeed, I had the strongest marks of favour showmne ; but I am quite weary of my life, so fyill are all things of all sorts of miseries. A little while ago we had been apprehensive of a massacre, which the speech of that firm old man Q. Considius'' hud dispelled ; that which we might have apprehended every day, has suddenly sprung up. What think you ? No- thing is more unfortunate than I ; nothing more fortunate than Catulus°, both from the splendour of his life, and from the character of these times. Yet in the midst of these calamities, I preserve a firm and unruffled mind, and maintain my dignity honourably and carefully. Pompeius bids me lay aside all uneasiness on the subject of Clodius ; and on every occasion professes the greatest kindness towards me ; but I want you to direct my counsels, to share my anxieties, and to take part in all my thoughts. Therefore, as I desired Numestius to use his influence with you, so I beg you even more earnestly, if possible, to fiy up to us. I shall get new life if I see you. Y Cicero's house in Rome was not far from Caesar's. 2 Aliala Servilius liad killed Sp. Melius on suspioion of aspiring to Ifingly power. B Brutus, as is well known, had been the cause of Tarquinius'H being driven from the throne, and of the extinction of the regal power. ^ Cffsar had committed some acts of violence, and had filled the assembly with armed men, when the law was to be passed which gave him the government of Gaul for iive years. Many senators absented themselves ; but Consi- dius came forward, saying, that he was too old to fear death. c Q, CatuluB had died the year before. ( 65a LETTER XXV. When I ocmmend one of your friends to you, I like him to know from you, that I have done so. As lately, when I wrote to yon of Varro's atten- tion to me, you said in return that you were very glad of it ; but I would rather you had written to him, to assure him that I was sensible of his kind- ness ; not so much because he actually gave me satisfaction, as that he might continue to do it ; for, as you know, he has wonderfully moderated those involved and unwholesome counsels. But I observe that maxim, that it is necessary to bear the extravagances of those who are in power : while your other friend Hortensius "", vrith how full a hand, how nobly, how eloquently has he raised to the stars my praises, in speaking of the praetor- ship of Flaccus, and that time of the AUobroges ! Believe me, nothing could have been said more kindly, more honourably, or more copiously. I wish you would write to inform him that I have mentioned this to you. But why should you write ? when I imagine you are coming yourself, and are almost here j so much have I urged you in former letters. I very much look for you, very much want you j and not I, more than the cause itself, and the time, call for you. On the present state of affairs what should I write to you, but a repe- tition of the same thing } Nothing can be more hopeless than the condition of the republic ; nothing more hated than those who have occasioned it. So far as belief, and hope, and conjecture go, I am supported by the strongest favour of all people. Fly up, therefore ; you will either extricate me from all uneasiness, or you will share it with me. I am the shorter, because I hope we shall very soon be at liberty personally to converse together as we please. Farewell. ■l In the original it is Hortalus, which was one of the names of Hortensius.; but being less commonly known, I have not thought fit to preserve it in the translation. [/n the interval between this and the following letters, Atticus went up to Rome at hie friend's request. Clodius in the mean time having been appointed tribune of the people, spared no means to gain the populace, and at length promulgated a decree against such as had put to death a Roman citizen without the sentence of the people. This was evidently levelled at Cicero's conduct in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy ; upon which, seeing the disposition of men's minds, he withdrew from theeity.and was presently followed by a decree of banish- menf} jL BOOK III. LETTER I. (GriBi). iii.) I WISH I may ever see tfie day when I shall have reason to thank you for compelling me to preserve my life j hitherto I am very sorry. But I entreat yon to come to me immediately at Vibo, to which place man^ causes have directed me. It you come thither, I shall be able to consult about my whole journey and flight. If you refuse to do this, I shall be surprised ; but I trust you will do it. LETTER II. Tkj: reason of my coming hither was, that there was no place where I could any longer remain unmolested so well as on Sica's estate ; especially while the law for my, banishment had not yet been finally amended. At the same time I knew that I could easily go back to Brundisium, if I had you with me ; but without you I could not continue in those parts, on account of Autronius'. Now, as I '^ By " those parts" Cicero probably means Greece, where Autronius and others of the Catilinarian conspirators re- em THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO mentioned to you before, if you come to me, we will consult upon this whole business. I know the journey is troublesome ; but this great calamity is full of troubles. My spirits are too much broken, and depressed, to admit of my writing more. Fare- well. Dated the 8th of April, from the shores of Lucania. LETTER III. V (Grav, W.) I WOULD have you attribute it to my misfor- tunes, rather than to fickleness, that I have sud- denly left Vibo, whither I had invited you ; for I have received a draft of the law for my ruin ; by which I find that the amendment I had heard ofj, permits me to remain at any place exceeding the distance of four hundred miles. But not being permitted to go' where I had intended', 1 immedi-, ately turned my course towards Brundisium, pre- viously to the passing of the law, lest I mights involve Sica, with whom I was staying, in my ruin ;. and also because I was not suffered to be at Malta. Now make taste to join me, if only I can nieet with any one to take me in. Hitherto I have met with a kind reception '; but I am apprehensive of what is to come. I' repent, my Pomponius, of being yet alive ; in whicli.niatter yon have princi- pally influenced me. Bat of this when we meet : only manage to come. LETTER IV. (Gr Thessalonica, a principal city of Macedonia, the same where St. Paul CBtablished one of tho first Christian churches, and to which be has addressed two epistles. ° ProceedhigB relating to Quintus Cicero's administra- tion of his province of Asia, which comprehended the western part of Asia IVlinor. and have no courage for anything. Now, in answer to your inquiries, I have not seen Trypho Csccilius. Your conversation with Pompeius I have understood from your letter. I do not see so great a commo- tion to hang over the republic, as you either see or represent with a view of comforting me ; for the business of Tigranes having passed over, all diffi- culties seem to be removed". You desire me to return thanks to Varro, which I will do, and like- wise to Hypsffius. I think of following your advice in not going further off till the decrees of May are brought to me, but where I shall remain I am not yet determined ; for I am so uneasy about Quintus that I can resolve upon nothing : but I will im- mediately let you know. From the irresolution apparent in my letters, I imagine you perceive the disturbance of my mind ; which, though I am afflicted with an inconceivable and heavy calamity, is not however so much owing to the greatness of my misfortune as to the recollection of my own fault, — for you now see by whose iniquityi' I have been led on and betrayed. I wish you had per- ceived it sooner, and had not, with me, given up your whole mind to grief. When, therefore, you hear of my being oppressed and worn out with sadness, remember that I am more affected with the penalty of my folly than with the event itself ; that I should have trusted him without suspecting his wickedness. The sense of my misfortunes, and apprehension for my brother, stop my writing. See after and regulate all these matters. Terentia returns you the greatest thanks. 1 have sent you a copy of the letter which I wrote to Pompeius. Dated the 29th of May, at Thessalonica. LETTER IX. Mt brother Quintus having left Asia before the first of May and reached Athens on the fifteenth, was obliged to make great haste, that his absence might not expose him to difficulty, in case there should be anybody not yet satisfied with the sum of my misfortunes. I wished him, therefore, rather to hasten to Rome than to come to me. At the same time (for I will confess the truth, from which you may perceive the greatness of my suffer- ings) I could not bring my mind either to look upon him, who was so tenderly attached to me, under the effect of such affliction, or present before him, and suffer him to behold, my own wretchedness sunk in grief, and my ruined condition. I dieaded also, what would certainly have happened, that he might be unable to quit me. I contemplated the time when he would either be obliged to dismiss his lictorsi, or would be forcibly torn from my embrace. The effect of this bitterness I have avoided by another bitterness, of not seeing my brother. You, who made me preserve my life, have driven me into this situation. I now pay the o Clodius had, in consideration of a large sum of money, contrived to get the son of Tigranes out of Pompeius'a custody, though not without a struggle, in which some lives were lost. This was likely to have caused a division among the triumvirs, Clodius being supported by Caesar. But it seems to have passed over. P Tills is meant of Pompeius, q The provincial governors were allowed to retain their lictors and fasces, the ensigns of their rank, till they re- turned to Rome ; but might he obliged to dismiss them previously, if they used unnecessary delay. 666 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO penalty of my error ; though your letters encourage me, — from which I easily perceive the amount of your own hopes. These indeed afforded me con- solation, till you came to that part, — " after Pompeius, now gain over Hortensius, and people of that description." I beseech you, my Pompo- nius, do you not yet see by whose means, by whose treachery, by whose baseness, I am ruined ? But of this we will talk when we meet. I only say, what I imagine you know, that it is not my enemies, but my enviers, who have undone me. Now, if indeed things are as you hope, I will sup- port myself, and use my best endeavours, with that hope which you bid me entertain. But if, as it appears to me, things are fixed and settled, what I was not permitted to do in the best manner must be done in' one less becoming ^ Terentia often acknowledges her obligations to you. One of my troubles in apprehension is the business of my poor brother. When I know how this will be deter- mined, I shall know what I ought to do. The expectation of letters, and of those advantages which you hold out, keeps me, as you advise, at Thessalonica. If any news arrives, I shall know what is hereafter to be done. If, as you mention, you left Rome on the first of June, we shall very soon meet. I send you the letter which I wrote to Pompeius. Dated the 13th of June, at Thessa- lonica. LETTER X. ' What has taken place, up to the 25th of May, I have learned from your letters ; the rest I waited to hear at Thessalonica, as you advised. When this account arrives, I shall more easily be able to determine where I shall be ; for if there is occasion, if anything is done, if I see any hope, I will either remain where I am, or will go to your house in Epirus. But if, as you say, these prospects should have vanished, I must make some other arrange- ment. Hitherto you show me nothing besides the disagreement of those people", — which, however, relates to everything rather than to me. I do not see, therefore, how this can help me : still as long as you encourage me to hope, I will obey you : for when you charge me so often and so severely, and upbraid me with want of courage, I beseech you, what evil is there which does not enter into my calamity ? who ever fell at once from such a lofty state .' in so good a cause .' with such force of talents, and wisdom, and favour .' such support from all honest men ? Can I forget what I was .' Can I help feeling what I am .' what honour I have lost ? what glory .' what children ? what fortunes ? what a brother ? whom (to teach you a new species of calamity) though I loved him, and have always loved him, more than myself, yet I avoided seeing, that I might neither be witness to his grief and mourning, nor present myself to him in ruin and r Alluding to his death. Suicide was not then held to be either a crime or a disgrace. Cato and Atticus adopted it in perfect conformity with the principles of their respec- tive sects. Cicero here, as elsewhere, plainly exposes one leading principle of the Academics, to whose sect ho be- longed, that when they were unable to do what they con- sidered to be best, they ought to do that which was next best. « The triumvirs, Cssar, Crassus, and Pompeius. affliction, whom he had left in the height of pros- perity. I omit other grievous considerations, — ^for I am prevented by tears. And ought 1 then to be reproached for my sadness .' or rather for having committed so great a fault as not to retain these advantages (which might easily have been done, if plots for my destruction had not been laid within my own walls), or at least not to lose them but with my life .' I have mentioned this, that you might rather relieve me, as you do, than that you should think me deserving of reproach and blame. And I write the less to you, because I am inter- rupted by my sorrows ; and in truth I have more to expect from thence than to say myself. If any intelligence is brought me, I will acquaint you with my determination. I wish you to write to me, as you have hitherto done, about everything, that I may not remain in ignorance on any point. Dated the 18th of June, at Thessalonica. LETTER XL YouK letters and some favourable reports, ' ' though not on the best authority, and the hope of hearing further from you, and your advice, have all kept me at Thessalonica. When I shall have received the letters I expect, if there is indeed that hope which has been encouraged by rumours, I will go to your house ; if it is otherwise, I will take care to inform you what I do. Continue to assist me as you do with your exertions, your advice, and influence. Have done with consolation, and cease to upbraid me. When you do so, I seem to have lost your affection, and to have lost your sympathy; whom I conceive to be so affected with my mis- fortunes, that you are yourself inconsolable. Sup. port my excellent and kind brother Quintus. I beg you to write to me fully everything that may be depended upon. Dated the 28th of June. LETTER XII. 4- Yon argue seriously about what may be hoped, especially through the senate ; and at the same time you add, that the clause of the law (for my banishment) is stuck up ', by which nothing is al- lowed to be said, and accordingly nothing is said. In this state of things do you blame me for being afflicted .' while I am, as you yourself^nosey-inl-' such affliction as nobody ever feltjjIf'Touhold out hopes from the new elections ; but what hope is there with the same tribune of the people ", and a hostile consul elect' ?J|^I am much hurt about the speech '' which has been brought forward. Try if possible to heal this wound.X I wrote it long since in anger, because he had first attacked me ; but I had so suppressed it, that I never imagined it would get abroad. How it should have got out I do not know ; but as it never happened that I had t See letter 15 of this book. •• Quoddam caput legia Clodium in curiae poste fixisse, ne referri, neve dici liceret," <• Cicero apprehended that Clodius might again bo elected tribune for the ensuing year. » CI. Metellus Nepos, who when tribune would not permit Cicero to address the people upon laying down his consulship, "■ Perhaps against Curio. See letter 15 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 037 any dispute with him in person ; and as it seems to , me to be written more carelessly than my other speeches, it may possibly be concluded not to be I mine. I should wish, if you think I can by any means be re-established, that you would do what you can in this business ; but if I must needs be undone, I am less solicitous about it. 1 continue still in the same place, without any power of convers- ing, or thinking. Though, as you mention, I had ex- pressed awish that you might come to me at Dodon'^ ; yet I understand that where you are ', you are of real use to me, and that here you could not relieve me by one word of comfort. I am unable to write more ; nor indeed have I anything to say. I ex- pect rather to hear from you. Dated the I7th of July, at Thessalonica. LETTER XIII. {Gnev. xiv.) From your letters I am full of expectation about Fompeius, what he may intend, or declare con- cerning me ; for I imagine the comltia are over : after which you mention that he wished to have my case considered. If my hopes make me appear foolish to you, I entertain them by your desire, though I am aware that your letters have rather been calculated to check me and my expectations. I should be glad now to hear distinctly what you think. I know that I have fallen into this trou- ble by the many faults I have committed. If any chance should in any degree rectify them, I shall the less regret that I have lived, and continue to live. On account of the constant communication of this road, and my daily expectation of news, I have not yet moved from Thessalonica ; but I am now driven away, not by Flancius ^, (for he would rather keep me,) but by the nature of the place itself, which is ill calculated to bear the pain of such calamities. I did not go into Epirus, as I had mentioned, because lately all accounts and letters had agreed that there was no occasion for my being so near Italy. Therefore, as soon as I hear the event of the elections, I shall go into Asia, though I am not yet certain to what place ; but you shall hear. Dated the 21st of July, at Thessalonica. LETTER XIV. (Grm. xiii.) After seeing my hopes diminish, and at length vanish, I changed my intention, which I had men- tioned to you, of going into Epirus ; nor have I moved from Thessalonica, where I determined to remain till I should hear something from you about what you mentioned in your last letter ; that some- thing would be proposed in the senate on my be- half as soon as the comitia were over ; and that Fompeius had told you so. Wherefore, since the comitia are passed, and you say nothing, I thence consider it the same as if you had written to tell me that nothing was done : nor shall I regret hav- * It is doubtful what this means, or whether there may not be some error in the text. y At Rome. * Cn. Flancius, a fi-ipud of Cicero, waa qusstor under I*. Appideiusi who had the prajtorian governineht of Mace- donia. ing been led by the hope of so near a termination*. But as to the commotion which you said yon fore- saw, and which seemed likely to tiirn to my advan- tage, they who have lately arrived, say there will be none. My remaining hope is in the tribunes elect. If I wait for this, you will have no reason to think me inattentive to my interest, and to the wishes of my friends. When you blame me for bearing my misfortunes so heavily, you ought to excuse me, seeing that I am afflicted as you never saw, or heard any one to be. For as to wh,it you say you hear of my grief having turned my head, my head is sound enough. I wish it had been so in the time of my danger, when I was so unkindly andcruelly treated by those whom I supposed to have been my friends : who, when they saw me begin to waver in my resolution, urged me on in such a manner as to use all their wickedness and perfldi- ousness to my destruction. Now, since I am going to Cyzicum, where I shall have fewer opportunities of receiving letters, I hope you will be the more particular in letting me hear everything which you think I ought to know. Continue to love my bro- ther Quintus. If in my own wretchedness I leave him safe, I shall not esteem myself wholly rained. Dated the 5th of August. LETTER XV. On the 13th of August I received four letters from you : one, in which you reproach me with want of firmness ; another, in which you mention that a freedman of Crassus had told you of my anxiety and emaciation j the third, in which you inform me what has been done in the senate ; the fourth, about what you say Varro had confirmed to you respecting the disposition of Fompeius. To the first I reply, that my grief is so far from affecting my understanding, that it is an additional source of grieftohaveno opportunity, no personwithwhoml may employ thatunderstanding which is miimpaired. For if you cannot without uneasiness lose me alone, what do you suppose I must feel, who lose you and everybody .' And if you, who are living in security, yet want me, how do you suppose I must want that very security itself? I do not care to enu- merate all that has been taken from me ; not only because you are already acquainted with it, but also that I may not aggravate my affliction. This I affirm, that nobody was ever bereft of such great advantages, or ever fell into such miseries. More- over, time does not only not mitigate this distress, but even augments it. Other troubles are softened by age ; this cannot fail daily to increase, J)oth from the sense of actual misery, and from the recollec- tion of my past life : for I want not merely my goods, and my friends, but myself. For what am I .' But I will not be the occasion either of dis- tressing your mind with lamentations, or of hand- ling, oftcner than is necessary, my own wounds. For as to exculpating those whom I mentioned to have injured me, and among the rest, Cato ; I am so far from imagining him to be implicated in that crime, that it is a great source of trouble to me that the pretences of others should have had more weight with me than his honesty. The others whom yon exculpate, ought t o stand excused by » I agree with M. Mongault in understanding this to mean the hope He had clieriBhed of being Soon restored, tr tJ 658 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO me, if they are so by you. But about tliese things we trouble ourselves too late. As for Crassus's freedman, I imagine he is not sincere in anything he has said. 'Xou describe the business to have been well managed in the senate. But what says \Curio .' Has he not read that ^ speech which has /Been brought forward I know not from whence ? Axius, however, giving me an account of the trans- actions of the same day, does not so much com- mend Curio. But he may have omitted something : you have assuredly said nothing beyond the fact. The conversation of Varro affords some hope of Csesar. I vrish Varro may himself engage in my cause ; which I am persuaded he will do, both of his own accord and from your solicitation. Should fortune ever restore me to the possession of you and my country, I shall certainly endeavour to give you, of all my friends, the greatest cause to rejoice at it ; and shall so fulfil the demands of duty and affection, (which have before, I confess, been too lit- tle manifested,) that you shall think me restored to you, no less than to my brother and my children. If I have in anything behaved ill towards you, or rather since I have done so, pray pardon me ; for I have behaved much worse towards myself. I do not write this because I am not fully aware of the part you bear in my great affliction ; but, in truth, if 'the regard you have and have had for me, had been deserved on my part, you never would have suf- fered me to. remain in want of that prudence in which you abound ; nor would you have suffered me to be persuaded that it was to my advantage to have the law concerning the companies ° carried through. But you administered to my grief no- thing but tears, the effect of your love; as I did myself. Whatever might have been effected, had I possessed claims upon you to consider day and night what I ought'to do ; that has been omitted, not through your fault, but mine. But if not merely you, but anybody, when I took alarm at the ungenerous reply of Pompeius **, had called me back from that disgraceful counsel ", which yo]i of all people was most able to do, I should either have fallen with honour, or should now live victorious. You must forgive me what I say ; for I accuse my- self much the most : next I accuse you as another self, and at the same time an associate in my fault. If I am restored, I shall think myself even less to blame ; and shall certainly possess your affection through your own kindness, since it will be inde- pendent of any received from me. Concerning the conversation which you men- tion to have had with Culeo on the invalidity of a private law'; there may be something in it; but it is much better to have it abrogated. For if nobody prevents it, what can be more secure? Or if anybody should not allow it to be carried, the same decree of the senate will still operate to invalidate it. Nor is there need of any- thing else besides the abrogation ; for the former of Clodius's two laws did not affect me s. And if at the b See letter 12 of this book. c These companies, which were instituted for purposes of police, were abused to foment cabals and violences. ^ That he could do nothing without the consent of ' Of quitting the city. f Laws relating to individuals were prohibited by the Twelve Tables. s Glndius had proposed, and carried a law, against putting to death Roman citizens untried. His second law time of its promulgation, I had either thought fit to approve it, or, as it deserved, to disregard it, it could have done me no harm. Here first my judg- ment failed, or rather injured me. I was blind, I say ; blind in changing my habit, and supplicating the people ; which, unless I should have been at- tacked by name, was prejudicial to me. But I am going back to things that are past. It is however with this view, that if anything is done in this business, you may not meddle with that law which contains many popular enactments. But it is fool- ish in me to prescribe what you should do, or how. I only wish something maybe done ; on which sub- ject your letter is rather reserved, lest, I suppose, I should feel my disappointment too severely. For what do you see possible to be done ? or by what means ? By the senate .' But you have told me yourself that Clodius had fixed upon the door-post of the senate-house that clause in the law which makes it illegal to reconsider it, or to speak of it. How then is it that Domitius has said he would move for its reconsideration ? or hpw is it thaj: Clodius should have been silent, while some, as you mention, were speaking of that affair, and dehiand- ing its reconsideration ? But if anything is to be done by the people, can they act -without the con- currenee of all the tribunes of the people 1 What of my goods ? what of my house ? Can that be restored ? or if not, how am I myself restored ? Unless you see some means of solving these diffi- culties, what is the hope to which you call me ? And if there is no hope, what is life itself ? I shall therefore wait at Thessalonica for an accouijt of the transactions pf the 1st of August, from which I may determine whether I shall take refuge in your grounds, (that I may both avoid seeing people, whom I do not like, and may, as you say, see you, and hs nearer at hand in case anything is done,) and this I understand you and my brother Quintus to advise, or whether I shall go to Cyzicum. Now then, my Pomponius, since you haves exerted no portion of your prudence for my safety ; either be- cause you supposed that I was sufficiently capable of judging for myself; or that you owed me nothing more than merely to be ready on my behalf; and" since I have been betrayed, prevailed upon, seduced to neglect aU my supports ; have disap- pointed and deserted all Italy, ready to rise in my defence ; have given up myself, my friends, into the power of my enemies ; while you looked on in silence, who if your judgment was not better than mine, at least had less to fear, raise up, if you can, my afflicted friends, and in this yet assist me. But if all means are obstructed, let me be informed even of that : and cease at length either to chide me, or civilly to offer me consolation. If I meant to ac- cuse your want of faithfulness, 1 should not trust myself in preference to your roof. No, I accuse my own folly, in supposing that your love for me was equal to my wishes. Had this been the case, you would have shown the same fidelity, but greater care ; and certainly would have held me back when I was hastening to my ruin ; nor would you have encountered those troubles which you now sustain in my shipwreck. Take care then to let me know everything clearly and distinctly ; and help me, as you do, to be again somebody, since I can no lon- ger be what 1 was, and what I might have been. appears to have applied this general principle to Cicero's particular ca^e. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 659 And believe that it is not yon, but myself, that I accuse in this letter. If there are any, to whom you think letters should be sent ii) my name, I should be glad if you would write, and take care to have them delivered. Dated the 19th of August. ^ LETTER XVI. All my motions are rendered uncertain from nothing else but the expectation of your letter of the 1st of August. If it affords any hope, I shall go into Epirus ; if not, to Cyzicum, or some other place. The oftener I read over your letters, the more my hopes decline; for the reading them weakens the hope they were meant to excite : so that it is very evident you are actuated by a regard both to my consolation and to truth. I, therefore, beg you distinctly to tell me what you know, as it really is; what you think, as you really think. Dated the 21st of August. LETTER XVII, / The accounts I had received about my brother Quintus had been unfavourable, and without varia- tion, frcim the 4th of .^une to the 31st of August. On that day livineius, the A°eed-man of Regulus, came to me from his master : he reported that no mention of my brother's administration had been made ; but that there had been some talk about the son of Caius Clodius'' He also brought me a letter from njy brother. The next day Sestius' servant arrived with your letter, not so free from apprehension as the verbal communication of Livi- neius. In truth, I am very anxious in the midst of my own great distress, and the more so, because the question will come before Appius. The other matters which yon mention in the same letter, relating to my hopes, seem to be less flattering than what I hear from other people. But, since the time is not far distant when the business must be determined, I shall either go to your house", or shall still remain in this neighbourhood. My brother tells me that you alone are the support of all his concerns. Why, then, should I exhort you to do what you do already ? or why should I return my thanks, which you do not desire .' I only wish that fortune may enable us again to enjoy our mutual affection in security. I am always particularly anxious for your letters. You need be under no apprehension that your minute- ness can be troublesome to me, or your candour disagreeable. Dated the 4th of September. LETTER XVin. You had raised in me no little expectation, when you mentioned that Varro had told you in confidence, that Fopipeius would certainly under- take my cause ; and that as soon as he should have heard from Caesar, which he was expecting, he would get somebody to propose it. Was there ^ P. Clodius had two brothers, Caius and Appius. The former had died, leaving two song ; the latter is the same who is afterwards spoken of in this letter. » The Latin is '* ad te." Many instances might he pro- duced to justify this translation. It is similar to what occm-s in the Acts, xvL 40, irpis i\v AvUa^f meaning " Lydia's house." nothing in this? or has Csesar's letter proved imfavourable ? Is there anything to be hoped ? You mentioned also that he had said something would be done at the time of the comitiaJ. Let me, if you see in what straits I am, and if you think it becomes your kindness, let me be informed of the whole matter. For my brother Quintus, an excellent man, who is so much attached to me, sends accounts full of hope, fearing, I suppose, my want of courage. But your letters are various ; for you would not have me to despair, nor too hastily to hope. I entreat you to let me know everything that you are able to discover. LETTER XIX. / As long as I continued to receive from you such accounts as gave me reason to expect anything further, I was detained at Thessalonica by hope and anxiety: but when all the business of this year seemed to be finished, I did not care to go into Asia, both because company is disagreeable tp me, and if anything should be done by the new magistrates, I should be sorry to be out of the way. I have, therefore, determined to go to your place ■ in Epirus ; not that the nature of the place was of any consequence to me, who altogether shun the light ; but I should go with pecuhar pleasure from your port to my restoration ; or, if that is cut off, I can nowhere more easily support this wretched life, or, what is far better, throw it up, I shall have only a few people with me, and shall dismiss the great body of them. Your letters have never raised my hopes so much as those of some other friends ; yet have my hopes always been less even than your letters. Nevertheless, since a begin- ning has been made, however it has been done, or from whatever cause, I will not disappoint the sad and mournful requests of mj excellent and only brother, nor the promises of Sestius'' and others, nor the hope of that afflicted wnman Terentia, nor the entreaties of the poor dear Tullia, and those of your faithful letters. Epirus will afford me either a passage to restoration, or what I have mentioned above'. I beg and beseech you, my Fomponius, as you see me spoiled of all my splendid, cherished, and enjoyable possessions, by the perfidy of certain people ; as you see me betrayed and cast forth by my counsellors ; and know that I am compelled to ruin myself, and all that belong to me ; that you will assist me with your compassion, and support my brother Quintus, who may yet be saved; that you will protect Terentia and my children ; that you will wait for me, if you think there is any chance of seeing me there" ; other- wise, that yon will come to visit me, if possible, and will assign me so much of your land as my body can occupy"; and that you wiU send me servants with letters as soon as possible, and as often as you can. Dated the 16th of September. J See letters 13 and 14 of this book. ^ Sestius was a tribune elect, and had promised to pro- mote Cicero's recall. ' Alluding to his determination to kill himself. See letter 9 of this book, note '. m That Attious should wait for Cicero at Rome, if he saw any chance of his recall ; otherwise that he should go to see him in Epirus before he executed uis resolution of killing himsel£ 1* For his burial. VV3 600 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO v LETTER XX. Cicero salutes Q. Csecilius, the son of Quintus, Pomponianus Atticus". That this should be so, and that your uncle should have discharged this duty to you, I exceedingly approve : I would say that I rejoiced at it, if I could use this word. Alas ! how would everything he according to my mind, had it not been for want of courage, of pru- dence, of honesty, in those whom I trusted : which I care not to recollect, lest I add to my regret But I am sure you must remember the life I led ; how many delights it contained, how much dignity. To recover this, I beseech you by your fortunes!", strive as you do; and enable me to spend the birth-day of my return with you and with my relations in your delicious house. I wished to have stayed at your place in Epirus for this hope and expectation, which is held out to me ; but the letters I receive make me think it more convenient to remain where I am. Respecting my honse, and Curio's speech, it is as you say. The general restoration, if only that be granted, will contain everything. But there is nothing about which I am more anxious than my house. However, I mention nothing to you in particular ; I commend myself wholly to your affection and fidelity. It is very gratifying to me, that in so great an inherit- ance' you should have been able to extricate yourself from all trouble. When you promise your services on my behalf, that on every occasion I may derive assistance from you, rather than from anybody else, i am very sensible how great a support this is ; and I know that you undertake, and are able to sustain, many kind offices for my preservation; and that you need not be entreated to do so. When you forbid me to suspect that I had either done or neglected to do anything towards you, which could give you offence ; I will comply with your request, and free myself from that source of uneasiness : nevertheless, I am indebted to you so much the more, in proportion to the excess of your kindness towards me, over mine towards you. I beg you to tell me what you see, what you hear, what is done ; and to exhort all your friends to assist me. The proposed law of Sestius is deficient both in dignity and caution : for it ought expressly to name me, and to mention more particularly my effects ; and 1 should be glad if you would attend to this circumstance. Dated the 4th of October, at Thessalonica. LETTER XXn. Thodgh my brother Quintus and Piso had acquainted me with the state of affairs; yet I wished that your engagements had not prevented you from writing, as usual, about what was doing, and what conclusions you drew from it. The hos- pitality of Plancius has hitherto retamed me, when I have several times attempted to. go into Epirus. He has entertained the hope, which I cannot say I have, that we might be able to go away together ; which he expects may do him honour. But now that soldiers are said to be coming, it will he neces- sary for me to leave him. When I go, I will immediately write to inform you where I am. Lentulus by his kindness towards me, which his actions, his promises, and his letters declare, affords some hope of the good disposition of Pom- peius. For you have often told me in your letters, that he was entirely under Pompeius's influence. My brother has written to me about Metellus, how much he hoped had been effected through you. My dear Pomponius, exert yourself that I may again be permitted to live vrith you and with my friends ; and write to me everything. I am op- pressed not only with grief, but with the want of all that was dearer to me than myself. Farewell'. As I knew if I went through Thessaly into Epirus I should be a long while without intelli- gence, and as I have friends at Dyrrachium, I have come to thejn, after writing the former part of my letter af Thessalonica. When 1 set. out again for your place, I will let you know ; and I trust you will send me an exact account of every- thing, of whatever kind it may be. I now look for the thing itself, or lose all hope. 'i6th of November, at Dyrrachium. Dated the -^ / LETTER XXr. The day on which I write this, is the thirtieth since I have received any letter from you. It had been my intention, as I before mentioned to you, to go into Epirus, and there wait for whatever might happen. 1 beg you, if you see anything either way, that you will distinctly inform me ; and that you will write in my name, as you pro- pose, any letters which you may think necessary. Dated the 28th of October. o AttieuB having been adopted by his uncle Q. Cfficilius, and made his heir, is addressed by this new designation conformable to the custom of his country. p A form of a^uration used particularly by persons in distress. ' Com. KepoB states the amount to be centiesHtSi, equi- valent to «3,333i. LETTER XXIIL On the 27th of November I received three letters from you ; one dated the 25th of October, in which you encourage me to wait with firmness for the month of January", and say everything that can lead to hope ; such as the zeal of Len- tulus, the good-will of Metellus, and the wholci design of Pompeius. In another letter, contrary to your custom, you do not mention the date ; though you sufficiently mark the time by saying that you write on the same day on which the law was promulgated by the eight tribunes' ; that is, the 29th of October ; and you add what advantage you conceive that promulgation to have produced. From which, if my restoration is become desperate by the fate of this law, I should hope, for your love of me, you vrill esteem this fruitless diligence of" mine rather unhappy than absurd; but if there be indeed any hope, that yon will use your endeavour to make the new magistrates hereafter exert themselves with greater diligence in my sup- port. For that proposed law of the old tribunes r This is the conclusion of the letter, to which what follows is a postscript : the letter having been written at Thessalonica, the postscript at Uyrrachiiun. 8 \Vhen the new magistrates entered into office. t Eight of the ten tribunes proposed the repeal of Cicero's banishment, but it was necessary that they should all be unanimous. " He means the pains hfe was taking in this letter. TO TITUS POMPON.IUS ATTICUS. 661 comprised three heads ; one for my return, which was incautiously drawn up ; for by it nothing is restored besides my citizenship and my rank ; which, considering my condition, is a great deal ; but what ought to have been secured, and'in what manner, cannot have escaped you'. The next head is copied from the ordinary form of indemnity, in case anything should be enacted in support of this law, which was contrary to other existing laws. As for the third head, observe, my Pompo- nius, with what design, and by whom, it was inserted. For you know that Clodius added such sanctions to his law as. should put it almost, or altogether, out of the power either of the senate, or of the people, to invalidate it. But you know also that the sanctions of laws which are abrogated, are never regarded. Were it othei-wise, scarcely any could be abrogated ; for there is none which is not fenced round by some obstacle to its repeal. But when a law is repealed, that very clause is repealed, which was meant for its security. Notwithstand- ing this is so, and has always been so held and observed, our eight tribunes have inserted this clause: " If there be anything contained in this law, which by any laws or decrees, that is, which by the Clodian law, it is not, and shall not be, strictly lawful to promulgate, abrogate, diminish, or supersede ; or which subjects to a penalty, or fine thereupon, whosoever hath promulgated, abro- gated, diminished, or superseded it; nothing of such kind is enacted by this law." -\nd this could not affect those tribunes ; for they were not bound by the enactment of their own body : which affords the greater suspicion of some malice, that they should have inserted what was immaterial to them- selves, but prejudicial to me; that the new tribunes of the people, if they were at all timid, might think it still more necessary to use the same clause. Nor has that been overlooked by Clodius : for he said in the assembly on the 3rd of November, that under this head was prescribed to the tribunes elect what was the extent of their authority. But you are aware that no law has any clause of this kind ; which, if it were necessary, all would have, that go to abrogate a former law. I wish you could find out how this should have escaped Nin- nius and the other tribunes, and who introduced it ; and how it happened that eight tribunes of the people should not have hesitated to bring my cause before the senate. Or can it be thaf they, who thought this clause might be disregarded, should at the same time be so cautious in abrogating it, as to be afraid of that, when they were free from the law, which need hot be observed by those who were bound by the law ? This clause I certainly ^onld not wish the new tribunes to propose : but let them enact what they will ; the clause which recalls me, provided the thing be accomplished, will satisfy me. I am already ashamed of having written so much about it : for, 1 fear, by the time you read it, the thing will be past hope, so that my concern may appear to you pitiful, to others ridiculous. But if there is anything to be hoped, look at the law which Visellius drew up for T. Fadius, which pleases me exceedingly : for I do ' Alluding to his house and property. ^ There is confessedly some error in the text. I propose to read " Sive sitne qui." The alteration of " qui" for "quod," is very little, and seems to me to make the sense of the whole passage clear and consistent. not like that of our friend Sestius", which you say you approved. The third letter is dated on the 13th of November, in which you explain sensibly and accurately what it is that seems to delay my business ; about Crassus, Pompeius, and the re^t. I beg you, therefore, if there is any hope that it can be accomplished by the wishes, the authority, the collected numbers of honest men, that a gene- ral push may be made ; attend to this, and excite others. But if, as I too plainly see, both by your suspicions and my own, that there is really no hope ; I pray and beseech you to love my brother Quintus, whom I have wretchedly ruined; and not to suffer him to adopt any measures which may be inexpedient for your sister's son. As for my ' poor Cicero, to whom I leave nothing but ill-will and disgrace, protect him as well as you can', and support by your kind attention Terentia, of all women the most afflicted. I shall go into Epirus as soon as I have received the intelligence of the first day's proceedings. I hope yon will inform me in your next letter how the beginning passed off. Dated the 30th of November. LETTER XXIV, When you mentioned to me before, that the provinces of the consuls had been appointed with your approbation' ; though I was afraid how this might turn out, yet I hoped your better.judgment might have seen some reason fur it. But since I have heard, both by word of mouth and by letter, that this proposal of yours is very much blamed, I have been deeply concerned ; inasmuch as that little hope, which remained, seems to be taken away. For if the tribunes of the people are offended, what hope can there be ? And they may with reason be offended, when they, who had undertaken my cause, have been left out of con- sideration, and by our concession have lost the exercise of their just rights : especially when they declare that they wished for my sake to have the power of making out the appointments of the con- suls ; not that they might throw any impediment in the way, but that they might attach them to my cause ; but that now, if the consuls are ill disposed towards me, they may show it without constraint ; or if they should be inclined to support me, still they can do nothing without the concurrence of the tribunes. For as to what you say, that unless my friends had consented, they would have atttained the same purpose through the people' ; this could not be done against the sense of the tribunes' ; so that I fear we may have lost the good-will of the tribunes ; or, if that still remains, that the bond of union with the consuls may have been lost. Another no small disadvantage attached to this is, that the > See letter 20 of this hook. y This seems to have heen said under the idea of destroy- ing himself. z Atticus had no other concern in it than as being one of Cicero's principal friends and agents at Rome, It seems that the appointment of the provinces was a check upon the conduct of the consuls, which was exercised in great measure hy the tribunes. By having the appointment previous to their entering upon their of&ce, the tribunes lost this control, and the consuls became independent. ■ This had been done in the case of Cffisar. ^ Any one of the tribunes might interpose to stop the progress of a law in the popular assembly. 632 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO solemn resolution, as it was represented to me, that the senate would pass no act before my cause was determined, has been broken ; and that, on an occasion which was not only unnecessary, but quite unusual and novel. For 1 do not believe that the provinces were ever before appointed for the con- suls elect. Hence that firmness, which was shown in my behalf, having been once infringed, there is nothing now which may not be decreed. It is not surprising that this should have pleased those friends to whom it- was referred : for it would be difficult to find anybody who would openly give an opinion in opposition to such advantages of the two consuls. It was impossible not to favour either so friendly a man as Lentulus, or Metellus, who so kindly laid aside his resentment. But yet I fear whether we may be able to keep these, and may not have lost the tribunes of the people. How this has turned out, and what is the state of the whole business, I wish you to inform me ; and with your usual frankness. For the truth itself, though it may not be agree- able, is yet acceptable to me. Dated the 10th of December, LETTER XXV. Sdbsequent to your departure", I have received letters from Rome, by which I perceive that I must pine away in this sad condition. For (you will pardon me) if any hope of my re-estabfishmeut had remained, such is your affection, that you would not have gone away at this time. But that I may not seem ungrateful, or willing that every- thing should be sacrificed along wftlTme* I Safittf = From Rome. It is generally agreed by commentator? that the worda " a me" ought to be omitted. If they are retained, I should still understand it to mean " since you left my affairs at Rome." For the tenor of these letters forbids the supposition of Atticua's having been with Cicero. ' <* It is probable that Atticua might have ^vi-itten to say that some business called him away from Rome at this time ; to which Cicero replies, that he would not be more upon the subject. This I beg of you, that you wiU endeavour, as you Pffr '*! Ztnf may be, to stop your progress before the first ot January. LETTER XXVI. I HAVE received a letter from my brother Quintus with the decree of the senate concerning me. It is my intention to wait for the passing of the law' ; and if there is any malignant oppositiouj I will avail myself of the authority of the senate, and will rather lose my life, than my country. Pray make haste to come to me. LETTER XXVII. I SEE by your letters, and by the case itself, that I am utterly lost. I beg that in any concerns in which my family may stand in need of your assistance, you will have compassion upon my wretchedness. I hope, as you say, that I shall shortly see you. IThe late for Cicero^s recall was for some time obstructed by the tribune Serranus, who had been gained over bp Clodius. At length, however, it passed on the 4th of Au- gust, Cicero having already embarked for Italy, and arrived at Brundisium, where, three days afterwards, he received intelligence of the law having been ratified with great zeal and unanimity by all the centuries.'] thought to wish that Atticus should sacrifice everything for his sake. e The decrees of .the senate had not the force of a law till they were confirmed by the people. But the law of Cicero's banishment having been carried by illegal means, the senate had on this occasion passed a vote, " that if, through any violence, or obstruction, the law for his re- call was not suffered to pass, within the five next legal days of assembly, Cicero should be at liberty to return, without any further authority."— Life of Cicero, p. 109. BOOK IV. LETTER L Xs soon as I came to Rome, find met with any- body to whom I could properly entrust a letter to yoUj I thought nothing deserved my earlier atten- tion, than sending to congratulate with you upon my return. For I had found, to tell you the truth, that in giving me advice, you were as much in want of fortitude and prudence, as myself; and con- sidering my former attachment to you, that you had not been 6ver diligent in protecting my safety. Yet you, who had at first partaken of my error, or rather madness, and had been the companion of my false alarm, bare our separation with much uneasiness, and spared no pains, no exertion, diligence, or trouble, to bring about my resto- ration. And I may tQily affirm, that amidst the greatest joy, and most wished-for congratulations, ' The explanation of this and the following sentences is found in letter 15, book iii. the only tiling wanting to complete my satisfaction, is to see, or rather to embrace you ; whom once possessed, I hope never again to leave. If I do not make amends also for all the neglected fruits of your kindness s in the time that is gone by, I shall verily think myself undeserving of this return of fortune. I have already obtained, what I conceived most difficult to be recovered in my situation, that dis- tinction in the forum, that authority in the senate, and favour among good men, in a greater degree than I could have hoped. But in regard to my property, which, as you know, has been violated, dissipated, and plundered, I am in great difficulty ; and I stand in need, not so much of your money) which I look upon as my own, but of your advice, in gathering up and securing the rema ins of it. B This likewise derives explanation from book iii., letter IS, where Cicero declares that his future attentions to Atticus shall make up for any past deficiencies. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 663 Now, though I imagine that everything has been either related to you by your friends, or hrought by messengers and common report ; yet I will shortly describe what I think you will most wish to be informed of by my own letters. I left Dyrrachium the 4th of August, on the very day when the law passed for my recall. On the.Sth I came to Brun- disium, where my dear TuUia was ready to receive me on her hirth-day, which happened also to he the anniversary of the foundation oftheBrundisian colony, and of the temple of Publit Safety in your neighbourhood. This was noticed by the_ mij nirWiimtrd Tfitf fr fi''^^^ TWf''''"liif ^^ ^^^ August, while I was at Bnmdisium, I heard from my brother Quintus, that the law had been confirmed in the assembly of centuries'*, with an astonishing zeal among all ranks and age%, and an incredible concurrence of all Italy. Thence, having been honoured by the principal people of Brundi- sium, as I pursued my journey I was met by mes- sengers of congratulation from aU parts. On approaching the city there was nobody of any order of citizens known to my nomenclator', who did not come to meet me, excepting those enemies, who could not either dissemble^ or deny their hostility. When 1 arrived at the Capenan gateJ, the steps of the temples were filled with the lower classes of people, ^ho signified their congratu- lations with the loudest applause ; and a similar throng and applause attended' me quite to < the Capitol : and in the forum, and hi the capitol itself, the numbers were prodigious. > The day following, which was the.5tfa of September, I returned thanks to the senate, j These two days the price of pro- visions being vej'y high, the people collected tnmultuously,. by the instigation of Clodius, first at the theatre, then at the senate, crying out that I had occasioned the dearth of comr' At the same time, the senate having met upon the subject of the supplies, and PompMus being called upon by the voice, not only of the ])ppulace, but of the better sort, to provide fSr it, and being himself desirous of it, and the people calling upon me by name to propose a decree for that purpose, I did so, and explained fully my sentiments, in the absence of others of consular rank, who said they could not *ith safety declare their opinions, ex- cepting Messala and Afranius. A decree of the senate was accordingly passed agreeably to my proposal, that Pompeius should be engaged to undertake the business, aijd that a law should be brought in. Upon the recital of this decree, when the populace, according to this silly and new custom, had given their applause,- repeating my name, I harangued the assembly by the permission of all the magistrates preserit, exce pting one pr aetor and tjjaJjibn nes of |^)ie peon|p-J'l'liWe.-aEfia^nd, agreeably to the resolution of the senate, the'consnls will estimate the value of the buildings : if it is otherwise, they will pull down what is now there, will contract for a house in their own names, and will make an estimate of the whole amount. Such is the situa- tion of my affairs ; hazardous for a state of pros- perity ; for a state of adversity, good. % In my income, as you know, I am much emhairassed; and have besides some domestic troubles, which I do not care to commit to writing. I have all that, affection, which I ought to have, towards my brother duintus, endowed as he is with distin- guished loyalty, virtue, and fidelity. I am looking for you, and beg you to hasten your coming ; and, to come in such a disposition of mind, as not to suffer me to remain in want of your counsel. I am entering upon the beginning of another life. Already some, who defended me in my absence, begin to be secretly angry with me upon my return, and openly to envy me. I greatly want you. LETTER 11. If it happens that you hear from me less fre- quently than from some others, I beg you will not attribute it to my neglect, nor even to my occupa- tions ; which, great as they are, yet can never interrupt the course of my affection and duty. But since I came to Rome, it is now only the second time that I have known of any body to whom I could entrust a letter ; consequently this is the second I have sent. In the former I described to you the manner of my return, and what was my situation, and the condition of all my affairs, ha- zardous for a state of prosperity, for a state of adversity good enough. After the date of that letter, there followed a great contest about my house. I spake before the pontifices the last day of September. The-cause was diligently debated by me, so that if ever I made a figure in speaking, or if ever else, then at least the sense of my injuries, and the importance of the issue, added new force lo my language. I could not, therefore, withhold the speech from our young friends ; and, though you do not ask for it, yet I shall shortly send it to you. The sentence of the pontifices was to this effect — " If he who said he had made a dedication ' Clodius, when he destroyed Cicero's house in Home, consecrated part of the area on which it stood, and erected a temple there to the goddess Liberty. The remaining part Clodius had planted, and appropriated to his o^vn use. Honce it is that Cicero goes on to saiy, if the conse- cration of tho area be set aside, he shall have a noble space for a new house ; or if it should not be set aside, that the consuls were at least to clear the ground, and contract for the building of a house for him on the unconsecrated port. 664 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO had not been specially appointed to tliat purpose by any order of the people, either in their centuries or tribes ; then that part of the area appeared capable of being restored to me without any religious im- pediment." Upon this I was immediately congra- tulated ; for nobody doubted but the house was adjudged to me. But presently that fellow ' mounts the rostra, by permission of Appius", and tells the people that the pontifices had given sentence in his favour, but that I, was attempting to get possession by force ; and he exhorts them to support him and Appius, and to defend their own liberties. Upon this, while even among that lowest rabble some wondered, some smiled at the fellow's madness, I had determined not to come forward till the consuls, by the decree of the senate, should first have con- tracted for the rebuilding of Catulus's portico". On the first of October was held a full senate, at which all those pontifices, who were senators, were present. Marcellinus, who was much attached to me, being first called upon to speak, inquired of them what they had intended by their sentence. Upon which M. Lucullus, in the name of all his colleagues, replied, that the pontifices were the judges of religion, the senate of the law : that he and his colleagues had given their opinion upon the point of religion ; that they would speak of the law in the senate. Each of them then being asked his opinion in turn, argued at length in my favour. When it came to Clodius to speak, he wished to wear out the day" ; nor was there any end to it, till after having spoken for nearly three hours, he was at length compelled, by the disapprobation and clamour of the senate, to bring his discourse to a conclusion. A decree of the senate being then made agreeably to the proposal of Marcellinus, with only one dissentient voice, Serranus inter- cededP. Immediately both consuls referred it to the senate to take this intercession into considera- tion ; and the most dignified opinions were pro- nounced, that it was the pleasure of the senate that my house should be restored to me ; that Catulus's portico should be rebuilt ; that the reso- lution of the senate 1 should be supported by aU the magistrates ; that if any violence was offered, the senate would consider it to have been done by his means who had interposed his negative. Ser- ranus took fright, and Cornicinus had recourse to his old farce ; and having cast off his upper gar- ment, he threw himself at the feet of his son-in- law'. He asked to have the night to consider of it, which they were not disposed to grant, for they had not forgotten the first of January '. With some difficulty, however, this was acceded to by my 1 Clodius. ■" Appius was at this time prator. " This adjoined to the ai"ea of Cicero's house, and had partly been destroyed to make way for Clodius's temple of Liberty, o This was sometimes practised for the purpose of im- peding the progress of any decree of the senate. p Any one of the tribunes of the people had the power of stopping the decrees of the senate, which was called interceding. . 1 The acts of the senate, when they were not suffered to pass on to a decree, were called auctoritales. r Cornicinus was father-in-law to Serranus. 8 It was on the first of January, upon occasion of the debate on Cicero's recall, that Serranus and Cornicinus had done the same thing before ; but at that time Serranus persisted in his opposition. consent. The next day the decree of the senate was made, which I sent you. Then the consuls con- tracted for the restoring of Catulus s po^co. What Clodius had done was immediately denao- lished by the contractors, with universal approba- tion. The consuls, by the opinion of their council' valued what had been erected npon the ground at 2000 sestertia(16,000?.)''; the other things very illiberaUy. My Tusculanum at 500 sestertia (40000. The Formianum at 250 sestertia (2000i). This valuation was very much censured, not only by all the best people, but even by the common sort. You win naturally ask, then, what was the cause of it. They say it was my modesty, in neither objecting, nor strenuously urging my claims. But that is not the case, for this might indeed have been of advantage to me ; but these same people, my Titos Pomponius, I say these very people, whom you know well enough, who have clipped my wings, are unwilling to let them grow again ; but I hope they are already growing. Do you only come to me, which I am afraid of your not doing till late, owing to the arrival of yonr and my friend Varro. Having put you in possession of what has been done, let me inform you of my further designs. I have engaged myself to Pompeius in such a man- ner, as in no degree to be prevented from being at liberty, if I should wish it, either to offer myself for the censorship, should the next consuls hold the comitia for that purpose, or to take n votive legation' of almost all the shrines and groves ; for so my affairs required". And I wished to have it in my power either to canvass, or at the beginning of the summer to go from Rome : and in the mean time I thought it desirable to keep in the sight of the citizens who had shown me such great kind- ness. These are my views with regard to the public, but my domestic concerns are greatly embroiled. The building of my house at Rome is going on. You know with what expense, and what trouble, I am restoring my Formianum, which I am neither able to relinquish, nor to see. My Tusculanum I have advertised for sale. I cannot easily do with- out a villa near the city. The kindness of my friends has been exhausted in that business, which has produced nothing but disgrace ; which you felt at a distance, I in fact^. By their favour and assistance I should easily have obtained everything, if my own defenders had permitted it. But I have now great trouble from this source. The other things which vex me are of a more secret nature ?. I enjoy the affection of my brother and of my daughter. I am expecting you. ' It appears that the magistrates were accustomed to have the opinion of a council in conducting business of importance that was entrusted to them. ^ Cicero had paid for it 29,000i, ' The senators not being permitted by law to absent themselves from Rome without leave, used the subterfuge of an honorary lieutenancy, or expiation of a vow, to set themselves at liberty. See boolTii., letter 18. " The disorder into which his affairs had been thrown in different parts of Italy, made it, I suppose, either a real, or a pretended reason, for having these votive legations in so many places. ^ The text is obscure, and perhaps faulty. 7 Probably alluding to the ill-humour of Terentia, which occasioned increasing vexation, and drove him at last to a divor->c TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 665 LETTER III. I KNOW you will be glad to be idformed of what is doing here, and in what concerns me, to hear it from myself ; not that such matters, which are done in the face of the world, can be more certain from my pen, than from anybody else who may write to you, or tell you about them j but that you may perceive from my style how I am affected by them, and what is the present feeling of my mind, and condition of my life. On the third of November, the workmen were violently driven from my ground by armed men ; the portico of Catulus, which was rebuilding by contract entered into by the consuls, agreeably to the decree of the senate, and which had already reached the roof, was thrown down. My brother Quintus's house was first injured by stones thrown from my area, then set on fire by order of Clodius, in sight of the whole city, with lighted materials, to the great grief and lamen- tation, I say not of all good people, for I know not if there are any, but fairly of all people. He rushed on impetuously ; and, after this outrage, seemed to think of nothing but the slaughter of his enemies ; went round from stj'eet to street, and openly invited the slaves to revolts Before, when he avoided" a trial, he had indeed a difficult case, and strong evidence against him; but yet he had a case, he might deny the fact, 'i® might lay it upon others, he might even defend some of the charges as war- ranted by law. After this ruin, fire, plunder, he is deserted by his friends, and scarcely retains Deci- mus the marshal, or Gellius : he uses the counsel of slaves ; he sees that if he should kill all whom he wished, his cause upon trial could not be worse than it is already. Therefore as I was going down the Sacred Street on the 3d of November, he pur- sued me with his mob ; shouts, stones, sticks, swords, all unforeseen. I retreated into the vesti- bule of Tertius Oamion ; they who were with me easily prevented these rioters from entering. He might himself have been killed. But I begin to use'' dieting; I am tired of manual operations. When he saw that he was driven by the general voice not to trial, but to punishment, he afterwards imitated all the Catilines and Acidini. For on the 12th of November he was so determined to destroy and bum Milo's house on Mount Germalus, that openly at eleven o'clock in the morning he brought men with shields and drawn swords, and others with lighted torches. He had taken possession of the house of P. Sulla as his camp, to conduct the siege. At that time Q. Flaccus brought out from Milo's Annian house' some determined men, killed the most notorious of the Clodian mob, and wished to kill him, but he took refuge in the inner part of the building. On the 14th SuUa came to the senate, Clodius staid at home, Marcellinus was admirable, everybody was exasperated. Metellus * The sei'vants of the ancient Romans were all slaves, of which they kept a prodigious number. ■ On this occasion he had been accused by Milo for the violences committed while he was tribune. The consul Metellus contrived to prevent the prosecution. - ^ Perhaps it ought to be written "Diaeta curare incipio." As it stands, the sense is, that ' ' 1 begin to have my aifairs protected by gentle methods." In the other case it would mean, that " 1 begin to treat Clodius by gentle methods." <= Many of the opulent citizens bad more than one house at Home ; frequently by adoption or bequest. wasted the time of speaking by cavilling, in which he was assisted by Oppius**, and even by your friend', of whose firmness and excellence your letters have spoken so truly'. Sestius was out- rageous ; Clodius, if his election s were not suffered to take place, threatened the city. Upon the pro- posal of Marcellinus's motion, which he delivered from a written paper, so as to include the whole of my case, the area, the burning, my personal dan- ger, and made them all to precede the comitia'' ; one declared' that he would observe the heavens' on all the comitia days. Then followed factious speeches from Metellus, rash ones from Appius, furious ones from Publius. This, however, is the sum ; unless Milo had declared his observation of the heavens in the Campus Martins, the comitia would have taken place. On the 20th of Novem- ber Milo came into the Campus Martins in the middle of the night with a great attendance. Clodius, though he had' a chosen band of runaway slaves, dared not come into the field. Milo re- mained till noon with great honour, and to the great joy of the people. The struggle of the three brothers'" was disgraceful, their strength broken, their fury contemptible. Metellus challenges a prohibition in the forum the next day ; that there was no occasion to come into the Campus Martins by night ; that he should be in the forum at seven d Mauutius has not without reason conjectured that it ought to be written Appius, who was Clodius's brother, and was praetor, and was in the senate. t: It is generally supposed that Cicero here means Hor- tensius. ' This is said ironically, Cicero having had some reason to suspect that Hortensius acted towards him ungene- rously. s He was at this time candidate for the office of asdile. His election would prevent all judicial proceedings against him till the expu-ation of his year. h The comitia for the election of sdiles. i Proscripsit. It has been doubted what was the nomi- native to this verb. I believe it to be used indeiinitely, and without a nominative. That this is sometimes done by ancient authors, has been observed by Bentley on the construction of the word "inquit," Hor. I Serm. iv. 78. Bishop Pearce has extended this observation to some other words in his note upon 1 Cor. vi. 16. Many other examples of the same kind might be produced both in sacred and profane writinga Of the former I would instance the word &jroKa\-^7rreTaif 1 Cor. iii. 13, which has given some trou- ble to commentators, and among the rest to Pearce himself. I apprehend it to be used absolutely or indeiinitely, and without any nominative — " it is revealed," or " revelation is made." It is used in the same manner again, c. xiv. 30. So 2 Cor. iii. 16, ^i/frea 5' tiv kiturTp^r) — " whenever any one turn." 1 Cor. xiv. 6 and 13, StepfirjVe^ir] — " one interpret," or '* it be interpreted.". So Luke xvi. 9, Sf^avrat ifids — " that you may be received," Among profane authors we find the same construction, as ivSex^' rat, Arr. Bpict. i. 22, *• Does any one admit ?" rhv ^6Soy SpitoiiTai wpoaSoKtav KOKoD,Ariscot,Eth. iii 6, "People define." And in Latin, Ordinis hsc virtus erit et venuj, aut ego fallor, Ut jam nunc dicat, &c. — *' that one should say," Hor. Ars Poet. 42, So again, v. 282, Trimetris accrescerejusaitnomenlambaeis — "it was ordained," And similar to these is *' putant," Cic. Nat, Deor, ii. 16—" it is supposed," J The magistrates only were allowed to observe the hea- vens for the purpose of divination; and when they did so, no comitia could be held, ^ Clodius, Appius, and Metellus: the latter was not. properly a brother, but a cousin. This use of the Latin word *' frater " has before been taken notice of. 666 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO in the morning. Therefore, on the 21st Milo came before sun-rise into the forum. Metellus at the first dawn was hastening secretly to the Campus Martins through by-ways ; Milo comes up to him between the groves' ; forbids the comitia : he with- drew under the severe and opprobrious scoffs of Q. Flaccus. The 22d was market day". On that day, and the day following, there was no meeting. It is on the 24th that I am writing, at three o'clock in the morning : Milo is already in possession! of the Campus Martius. Marcellus the candidate " is snoring, so that I, who am his neigh- bour, might hear him. Clodius's vestibule, I am told, is deserted, there being but a few ragged fellows, without even a lantern. Their party com- plained that it was all my doing, little knowing the spirit and the ability of that hero". His courage is admirable. I send you rare news. But this is the sum of the whole : I do not think the comitia will be held, and I do think that Publius, if he is not first killed, will be brought to trial by Milo. If he come in his way, I foresee that he will be killed by Milo ; he does not hesitate to do it ; he openly professes it ; my fate? does not intimidate him, for he has had no envious and faithless counsellor, V nor does he mean to trust to any inactive great' man. My mind alone is in full vigour, even more so than when I was in power ; in my property I am wasted ; yet I contrive to repay the liberality of my brother Quintus against his will, from the resources of my friends rather than my own, lest I should be quite exhausted. In your absence I am at a loss what measures to take respecting the general state of my affairs ; therefore hasten up. LETTER IV. On the 30th of January, before it was light, Cincius made himself most agreeable to me by informing me that you were in Italy, and that he was going to send a, servant to you, whom I would not suffer to go without a letter from me ; not that I have anything particular to tell yon, especially being now so near ; but that I might assure you that your arrival is most grateful to iUe, and what I have been most anxiously expecting. Therefore, fly up, in order to gratify your own affection, and to feel the effects of mine. We will settle other matters when we meet. I write this in haste. As soon as you arrive, come with your attendants to my house ; I shall be delighted to receive you. You will find a noble arrangement of Tyrannio for the library of my books, the remains of which are much better than I had supposed. I should be glad also if you would send me two of your library clerks, whom Tyrannio may employ in repairing my books, and other offices, and that you would direct them to bring some parchment to make 1 A part of the city so called, where it is to be supposed there were, or had been, groves of trees. ™ The nundints, which were held every ninth day, and were holidays, when the comitia could not be held. ^ Candidate for the office of fedile with Clodius. What is here said of him may probably allude partly to his being prone to sleep, and partly to his giving up all idea of the comitia being held that day. ■' Milo. P The charge against Cicero when he was banished was, that he had put Itoman citizens to death without a trial. indexes, which I thins you Greeks caU syUabusM. But this according to your convenience. But do you at all events come, if you can stay in this part of the country % and can bring Pilia"-, for this is reasonable, and TuUia wishes it. In good truth you h«Ve bought a splendid situation. I understand yout gladiators fight admirably. If you had chosen to contract for thera, you might have saved your- self these two charges'. But of these things hereafter. Only mind to come ; and, if you have any regard for me, remember about the librarians. LETTER V. "What say you ? Do you suppose that I should wish my compositions to be read and approved by anybody, rather than by you ? Why then have I sent them first to anybody else ? I was pressed by him* to whom I sent them, and had no other copy. What ? Besides (for I have some time been nibbUng at what must be swallowed at last) a recantation of my sentiments seemed to be rather disreputable. But farewell to upright, and true, and honourable counsels ! It is not to be believed what perfidy there is in those chiefs ", as they wish to be ; and as they would be, if they had any honesty, f have understood and known them, having been invited, deserted, cast off by them ; yet it had been my in- tention to co-operate with them in the republic. They are the Same that they were : I have at length by your instruction grown wiser. You will say that you advised, and persuaded me what to do ; but not to write also. But I chose to lay myself under an obligation to maintain this new connexion; and to prevent my relapsing to those, who, when they ought to pity, do not cease to envy me. How- ever I have, as I wrote you word, bgen very tem- perate in my subject. I shall become more exuberant, if both he receives it kindly, and these people show their vexation ; who ill endure that I should possess a villa which had belonged to Catulus, and do not consider that I bought it of Vettius "^ ; who say that it did not become me to build a house ; that I ought rather to sell one. But what more ? If in the public expression of my sentiments I have spoken anything which they might approve ; yet their joy is, that I should have spoken contrary to the wish of Pompeius. But there is now an end of this ; and since those, who have no power, do not choose to behave kindly to me, let me try to be kindly received by those who have. You will say, " I wished it long ago." I know that you vrished it ; and that I was a very 1 At Antium. f Pilia was betrothed to Atticus, but not yet married ; unless we suppose with M. Mongault that this letter should be divided into two, the first wTitten from Rome, the other from Antium, after Atticus's marriage, B Purchasing gladiators, and purchasing a place for them to exhibit: so I imderstand this passage, which is not very clear. These gladiators are supposed to have been in honour of Cffioilius. See book iii. letter 20. * This seems to have been Caesar, to whom Cicero had sent a complimentary poem. « He probably means those who, while they professed to support the republic, were actuated by jealousy towards Cicero, as he frequently insinuates in other letttos. ' There were several of this name, all of them people of obscurity, and thereby forming a contrast to the family Bf Catulu& TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 867 a8s._ But it is now time that 1 snould have regard to myself, since I can by no means have the regard of these people. I am much obliged to you for your frequent visits to my house. Crassipes " runs away with my means. You may come from the direct road into the grounds ; this seems more convenient. You will return home the next day, for what does it signify to you .' But I will see about it '. Your people have highly decorated my library by their arrangement and coverings. I should be glad if you would commend them for it. LETTER VI. Kespecting Lentulus, I bear it as I ought. We have lost a good, and a great man, and one who tempered a noble spirit with much kindness. It is some consolation, though a poor one, that I by no means lament his fate like Saufeius, and the rest of your sect '. For he so loved his country, that indeed I may consider him to have been snatched from its ruin by some favour of the gods. For what can be more disgraceful than our life ? mine especially ? As for you, though you have all the endowments of a statesman, you have addicted yourself to no party, but feel a common interest in all ; while I, if I speak of the republic as I ought, am thought mad ; if, as I am obliged to do, a slave ; if 1 say nothing, oppressed and fettered. How much cause then have 1 for grief ? which is also aggravated by this circumstance, that I cannot even express it for fear of appearing ungrateful. What if I should retire, and shelter myself in some port of rest .' It is in vain. Rather let me rush into war, and take the field. Shall I then submit to be a follower, who have refused to be a leader ? So it must be ; for so I see it pleases you, whom I wish I had always minded. What remains is (ac- cording to the proverb) " Sparta is your lot, make the best of it. In good truth I cannot ; and I approve the conduct of PhiloxenuS, who chose rather to be conducted back to prison^. But I study in this place to discard these sentiiiients^; and you, when we meet, shaU confirm my purpose. X perceive that you sent me several letters, which 1 received all at the same time ; and this even add^d to my sorrow ; for by accident I first reid three, in which it was stated that Lentulus was rather better ; then came this thunderstroke in the fourth. V Tullia becoming a widow by tho deatb of her husband L, Piao, was lately married to Crassipes, to whom Cicero had to poy her dower. ^ These expressions are attended with that obscurity which must always be found in familiar letters, from their relation to clromnstances that arc unknown to the reader. It seoms to me most probable that they may refer to some letter of Atticus's inviting Cicero to come to him at Rome. For that Atticus was at Rome, appears from his frequent visits to Cicero's house while it was rebuilding ; and that Cicero was himself at Antiom, may be concluded from the mention of his library, which is known to have been at his villa near that place. y Of the sect of tho Epicureans, who placed all their happiness in present enjoyment. See book i. letter 8, note \ ' Rather than commend the verses of Dionysius the Tyrant. ■ The sense of this passage appears to me to have been misapprehended, by not adverting to the force of the word iWa, which 1 conceive to mean "such sentiments as he bad hitherto held." But, as I said, it is not he that is to be pitied ; but we, who are slaves. Respecting the Hortensiana'', which you advise me to write ; I am engaged in other subjects, yet am not unmindful of your injunction. But in truth at the very outset I relinquished it, that I might not appear foolishly to have been offended with the unkindness of a friend ; then again foolishly to proclaim it by writing. I was at the same time apprehensive lest the Aeptb of my abasement, which has appeared in my actions, might become still more conspicuous if I should write anything ; and that offering satisfaction might seem to partake of levity, but I will consider of it. Do you only let me hear something from you as often as possible. Desire Lucceius to show you the letter which I have just sent him, in which I ask him to write the account of my transactions ; I hope you will be pleased with it '. Encourage him to set abott the work ; and thank him for hav- ing agreed to undertake it. Look after my house'' as far as you can. Say something proper to Ves- torius, who is very liberal towards me. LETTER Vn. Nothing could be rciore seasonable than your letter, which relieved my mind from great uneasi- ness, on account of our dear boy Quintus ', Cha- rippus had come hither two hours before, and had quite frightened me. As to what you say of Apol- lonius ; what evil spirit has possessed him, a fellow from Greece, to suppose he might throw his affairs into disorder, like the Roman knights ? for Tereutius might plead his right '. With respect to Metelliis, peace to the dead ; but, however, for many yeirs there has not died a citizen, who . I will be answerable for your money. For what need you fear, whomsoever he has made his heir ? unless it is Publius. But he has not done improperly, although he was himself f. Therefore, on his aftcouut, you will not have occasion to open your coffers. In what concerns the others ■>, you must be more cautious. You will have the goodness to attend to my requests about my house ' ; you will set a guard ; you will warn MUo. The people of Arpinum are clamorous on the subject of Laterium' ? What say ybu .' I for my part am sorry. But (as ^ The Hortensiana seems to have been some work either to be dedicated to Hortensins, or complimentary and con- ciliatory towards him. c This letter is still extont.-^Ep. Fam. book v. letter 12. *i Which was rebuilding at Rome. See letter 3, of this book. ^ The son of Q. Cicero, the same v/hom he afterwards calls the young Cicei'O. ' Terentius was a Roman knigat. It is probable that Atticus may have had some money dealings with him, and with ApoUonius, and that tbe^ were both defaulters. e These breaks are evidently indicative of some reproach- ful oxpressions, of which Cicoro checked the utteranco out of respect to the dead. ^ This refers to ApoUonhis and Terentius. 1 Cicoro had likewise in aformer letter begged his friend to look after it. Indeed it seems to have been necessary, not only for the sake of encouraging and directing the workmen, but also to protect it from the violence of Clo- dius. See letter 3 of this book. i Laterium was a possession of Q. Cicero in the neigh- bourhood of Arpinum. By some alterations he seems to have given offence to the people there. 668 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TtJLLIUS CICERO Homer sings) " he disregards their words. " It only remains to beg that you will continue to nurse and to love the young Cicero, as you do. LETTER VIII. Many passages in your letter delighted me, and nothingmore than your " dish of potted cheese''." As to what you say about my debts being reduced " to a shred," I reply by the proverb, "call no- body great before you see his end >." I iind nothing for you ready built in the country ; there is some- thing in the town ■" ; but it is uncertain whether it is to be sold. This is close to my house. Be assured that Antium is the Buthrotum " of Rome, as that of yours is of Corcyra. Nothing can be quieter, nothing more retired, nothing pleasanter. "However despicable, our home is still dear »." But since Tyrannio has arranged my boolcs, a new spirit seems to animate my house ; and in accom- plishing this, Dionysius and your Menophilus have been of wonderful assistance. Nothing can be more elegant than your shelves, now that the books are so highly distinguised by their covers. I should be glad to hear from you of the success of the gladiators p ; but it is on the presumption that they conducted themselves well ; if otherwise, I do not ask about them '. Apenas was scarcely gone, when your letter arrived. What say you ? Do you think he will not propose' the law ? Speak louder, I beseech you ; for I seem scarcely to have heard it. But let me know presently, if it is not troublesome to you. As a day has been added to the holidays, I can the better spend that day here with Dionysius. I am quite of your mind about Trebonius. With respect to Domitius ^, *'no fig, I swear, was ever so like another," as his situation is to mine ; either because it happens through the same people, or because it is beyond all expectation, or because 'there are no honest men left. In one respect it is unlike ; that he deserves it. But with respect to the misfortune itself, I do not know if mine were not the lesser ; for what cEin be worse than this, that he who has been all his life looked upon as consul elect ', should at last be unable to obtain the ^ Several parts of this letter refer to some expressions previously addressed to Cicero by Atticus. Cicero having been living in retirement, seems to have given occasion to Atticus to banter him on his spare living, from which he concludes that he must have reduced his debts to a mere trifle. The word iyrotariclmm is met with again, book xiv. letter 16. Raudusculum occurs, boot; vi. letter 8. book vii. letter 2, and book xiv. letter 14. 1 Cicero replies by a Greek proverb, the meaning of which is, that he must not presume upon the extinction of his embarrassments before it took place. "1 The town of Antium, from whence Cicero writes. n The place of Atticus's residence in Epirus, opposite to Corcyra. The original is obscure, and probably mutilated, p See letter 4 of this book. 1 This seems to have been the conclusion of a letter despatched by a slave of the name of Apenas. The rest should be considered either as a separate letter, or a post- script written after recalling his messenger. r It is uncertain to what law this alludes. " L. DomitiuB .^nobarbus. * He was of a noble family, and had obtained all the previous offices in the state as soon aa he was of ah 'age to hold them ; but was kept from the consulship by means of consulate ? esoeciaUy when he stood alone, or at most had only one competitor. But if it be, which I do not pretend to know, that he has m the memo- randums of his calendar as long a list of consuls to come, as of those already made, what can be more wretched than he ? unless it be the republic, in which there is no hope even of any amendment. The first inteUigence I had of Natta was from your letter. I dislike the man. You ask about my poem. What if it should endeavour to make its escape"? Would you consent ? With regard to Fabius Luscus, which I had been going to mention, he was always very frienclly to me, nor had 1 ever borne him any ill will; forlhewas a sensible, modest, well behaved man. As I did not happen to see him, I supposed he had been absent ; till I heard from this Gavins of Firmum, that he was in Rome, and had been there all along. Caa such a trifling cause, you will say, have offended him ? He had given me much information about the Firmian brothers. Wliat may be the reason of his anger against me, if he is angry, I am quite ignorant. Respecting the advice you give me, to conduct myself like a good politician, and keep my ovm counsel ; I shall do so. But I stand in need of greater prudence ; for which I shall apply to you, as I use to do. I wish, if you have any access to Fabius, that you would smell out, and just taste that guest of yours ' ; and send me daily accounts of these, and all other matters. When you have nothing to tell me, tell me even that. Farewell. LETTER IX. {Gnev. X.) It is strongly reported at Pnteoli that Ptole- mseus is restored to his kingdom"'. If you have any certain information, I should be glad to know it. I am here feeding on Faustus's library. You might suppose perhaps that it was on the exquisite productions of Puteoli and Lucrinum. There is no want of these ; but, to say the truth, in the present state of the republic, I have lost my re- lish for other enjoyments and pleasures ; and find support and refreshment from books alone: and would rather occupy that little seat of yours under the statue of Aristotle", than the curule chair of these people ; and rather walk with you at your house, than with himJ", with whom I see I must walk. But about this walk chance must determine, unless there be some god who has a regard to us. With respect to my gallery, and my stove, and all that Cyras ^ is engaged to do, I should be glad if, as far as you can, you would look after them ; and press Philotimus to despatch j that I may have it in my power to make you some return in this kind*. Pompeius came to Cumanum the 23rd of Pompeius and Crassus, at the instigation of Caesar, whom he had foolishly provoked. « What if I should think of publishing it ? This must be the poem to CEesar mentioned in letter 5 of this book. ' Supposed to mean Saufeius. ^ PtolemjEus was restored by Gabinius, who was governor of Syria, but was not authorised to re-establish Ptolemaeos in Egypt. ^ In Atticus's library. y Pompeius. - An architect. See book ii. letter 3. * By receiving Atticus in his library, as he had been received in that of Atticus. TO TITUS POiMPONIUS ATTICUS. 6G9 April. He immediately sent a message of compli- ment to me. It is the following morning that I write this, and am going to him. LETTER X. {Grav. ix.) I SHOULD be glad to know if the tribunes really prevent the census by vitiating the days for hold- ing it ; ' such is the report here ; likewise what they are doing, or what is their design generally respect- ing the censurate. I have been here with Pom- peius. He talked a good deal about the repub- lic ; and was dissatisfied with himself, " as he said." For so we must speak of this man. He despised the province of Syria, and extolled that of Spain. Here again we must subjoin — " as he said." And I imagine, whenever we speak of him, we should add this ; as Phocylides does in the beginning of his poems — " This also is by ■ Phocylides." He expressed his thanks to you for having undertaken to place the statues ° for him : and towards me he showed particular kindness. He also came to me at Cumanum from his own villa. He appeared to me to desire nothing less than that Messala should stand for the consulship. If you know anything about it, I should wish to be informed. I am much obliged to you for say- ing that you will commend my fame to Lucceius •*, and that you frequently visit my house. My bro- ther Quintus writes me word, that^)»ving now his dear Cicero with JSiSJ^e should go to you the 7th of May. I left Cumanum the 27th of April : and the same day I was at Naples with Lietus. The 28th of April, early in the morning, I have written this, setting off to Pompeianum. LETTER XL I AM delighted with your letters, two of which I received together on the last day of the month. Go on to tell me the rest. I am anxious to know the whole business. Find out too, if you can, how this is : you may do it through Demetrius. Pom- peius said that he expected Crassus in Albanum on the 2Stb, and that as soon as he arrived, they should go immediately to Rome, to examine the accounts of the public renters. I asked if they would do it during the exhibition of the gla- diators ? He replied, before they came on. How this is, if you either know at present, or else when he is come to Rome, I wish you would send me word. Here I am devouring books with a wonder- ful man, (so in truth I esteem him,) Dionysius, who sends his compliments to you, and all your fiunily. " Nothing is more delicious than univer- sal information." Therefore, as to a man of cu- riosity, write to me distinctly what takes place the first day, what the second, what the censors do, what Appius, what that popular Apuleia '. Lastly b We have before Been inBtances of thia practice of the magistrates, who observed the heavens in ordei' to prevent the public business, « These statues were for the ornament of the theatre which Pompeius waa now erecting. * By encouraging him to write the history of Cicero's csonaiilship. See book iv. letter G. ' B; this term Cicero is supposed to mean Clodius I wish you to inform me what you are doing your- self. For, to say the ti'uth, I am not so much de- lighted with the news, as with your letters. I have brought nobody with me besides Dionysius : yet I am not afraid of being without your con- versation. I am charmed with the work'. You will give my book to Lucceius. I send you that of Demetrius Magnes, that you may have a per- son ready to bring me back a letter from you. LETTER Xn. Egnatius« is at Rome. But I spoke to him stDongly upon Halimetus's business at Antium, and he promised to exert his influence with Aqui- lius. You will be able to see him therefore if you wish it. I scarcely think I can offer my assistance to Macro ; for on the 15th I see there is to be an. auction at Larinum, which will last three days. I hope, therefore, though you interest yourself so much about him, that you will excuse me. But, as you love me, come with Pilia to dine i" at my house the 2d of next month : in short you must do it. On the 1st I mean to dine in the gardens of Crassipes, by way of an inn. I shall elude the order of the senate ' and shall get home after din- ner, that I may be ready the next morning for Milo. I shall there see you, and remind you of your engagement. All my family join in kind regards. LETTER Xm, I SEE that you are apprised of my having como to Tusculanum the loth of November ; there I met Dionysius. We wish to be at Rome the 15th of next month. What do I say ? we wish ? nay, but we must be there. Milo's marriage is to be cele- brated ; and there is some expectation of the comitia being held K If this is confirmed, I am | not sorry to have been absent during the alterca- \ tions, which I understand have taken place in the ) senate *. For I must either have supported what [ I could not approve ; or must have been wanting in attention, where I ought not. But I hope you will describe to me, as distinctly as possible, these matters, and the present state of the republic, and how the consuls ' bear this rude treatment. Apuleius was the name of a seditious tribune in Murius's time, who had di-iven into banishment Metellus Numidi- cus. The feminine termination is added in contempt, to mark his effeminacy and degeneracy. ' This probably alludes to something contained in Atticus's letters, and which must necessarily remain obscure. S A banker. See book vii. letter 18. h The Latin cajm, which is usually translated supper, nearly corresponds to our dinner : it was commonly served about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The pran- dium of the Romans resembled our luncheon. 1 This order required every senator in Rome to attend at the meetings of the senate. i The comitia for the election of the next year's consuls, which had been factiously interrupted. ^ These altercations probably relate to the proposal of confirming the governments of Gaul, Spain, and Syria, to Cssar, Fompeius, and Crassus, for five years. ' Domitius jEnoharbus and Appius Claudius Pulohor were elected almost at the end of the year, the election having been prevented from taking place at the ordinary time. 65-0 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO I am quite thirsty for news : and if you ask me, I must say that I have sad misgivings. They say that our Crassus went out in his military dress not quite with the same dignity as his coSval formerly L. PauUus, then a second time consul. O the wiclced man" ! I have finished the oratorical books with care : they have occupied much of my time and attention : you may get them transcribed. I have also to beg this of you, that you will make me an accurate representation of the present state of things, that I may not come thither quite a stranger. LETTER XIV. OcR friend Vestorius has informed me by letter, that he believes you left Rome op the 10th of May, later than he had mentipped, because yoij had not been quite well. I shall be very glad to hear that you are better. I wish you yrould write home to your people to let me have access tp your books, in the same manner as if you were there. Amongst others, I particularly want Varro's works". For I must take some things from thence for the books which I have in hand, and which X hope you will approve. I should be glad, if you have any news, especially from my brother Quintus", next from C. Cffisar, and if you can tell me any- thing of the comitia, or the republic, (for you commonly soon smell out these matters,) that you would let me know. If you have nothing to tell me, yet let me hear from you ; for your letters can never be unseasonable, or unwelcome. But, above all, I beg you to come back to us as soon as you have finished your business, and completed your journey ' to your mind. Make my compliments to Dionysius. Farewell. LETTER XV. (Grcsv. xvi.) You may judge how busy I am, by receiving this letter'! in the hand-wrjting of a clerk. On the frequency of your letters I have nothing to accuse you : but most of them only let me know where you were, as coming from you ; or, besides, informed me that you were well. I was particu- larly glad to receive two letters of this l' are so matched, that Domitius is strongly supported by his friends, and derives some advantage from his public shows, which, however, were not very well received ; Memmius is recommended by Caesar's soldiers, and relies upon Pompeius's influence in the north of Italy. If he does not prevail with these helps, it is sup- posed that somebody will be found to put oflF the comitia tiU Csesar's arrival ; especially now that C. Cato has been acquitted ^- On the 24th of October I received letters from my brother Quintus and from Csesar, dated from the shores of Britannia, the latest on the 26th of September, — at which time the war was finished and hostages had been received ; there was no plunder, but a sum of money was imposed. They were going to transport the army back from Britannia. Q. tilius had already set out to join Csesar. Now if you have any regard for me and your connexions, or if you have any faith or prudence, and think of enjoying your own comforts, you ought to make haste and come to us. In truth I cannot patiently bear to be without you. What wonder that I should long for you, when 1 so much long for Dionysius .'' whom both I and my Cicero shall beg from you when the time comes. The last letter" I received from you was dated the 9th of August from Ephesus. LETTER XVIII. I SUPPOSE you think that I have forgot my custom and purpose, and that I write to you sel- domer than I used to do ; ^ut the truth is, that seeing the uncertainty of your actual situation and of your movements, I have not directed letters to Epirus, nor to Athens, nor to Asia, nor intrusted them to anybody that was not going to you. For my letters are of such a kind that if they should not be delivered it might occasion me a good deal ^ Spoken ironically in comparing the corrupt state of Rome with the model proposed in his treatise on Govern- ment. y It was necessary to have one of the consuls of a ple- beian faraily- ^ C. Cato had factiously prevented the elections on a former occasion. a This, if it is in its proper place, miist mean the last letter previous to that which announoed Atticu8*s arrival in Italy. of trouble,— often containing secrets which I do not care to trust even to my own clerks. It is amusing to guess the issue : the consuls are in great disgrace, owing to C. Memmius the candidate having declared in the senate the contract which he and his competitor Domitius'' had made with the consuls, — that if through their influence they should get to be made consuls, they both bound themselves in the sum of 400,000 sestertii (3700/.) to produce three augurs, who would assert that they had been present at the passing of a law for giving military command to the consuls in the provinces they desired, though no such law had ever passed ; and two consular senators who would say they had been present at the signing of the decree for the consular provinces, though in fact there had not been even any sehate assembled. This contract, which was declared to have been made not verbally, but by names and entries in several tablets, was actually produced by Memmius, at the recommendation of Pompeius, with the names inserted. Hereupon Appius " was unaltered ; he lost nothing. The other consul ''was confounded, aud, I may say, completely prostrate. But Mem- mius, having broken ofl* the engagement against the wish of Calvinus, had entirely cooled again', and was the more inclined now to tliink of a dicta- tor, and to favour the suspension of public business and the general licentiousness. Observe the even- ness and freedom of my mind, and my contempt of the Seleucian proviiice ', and indeed my agreeable connexion with Ceesar ; for this plank alone affords me pleasure in the general shipwreck. Ye gods ! with what honour, dignity, and favour, does he treat my, and your, Quintus ! 1 could do no more if I had the command myself. He tells me that Csesar has kindly given him the choice of a winter legions. Should you not love this man .'' Who of those others deserve as well of us ? But did I tell you that I was lieutenant to Pompeius, and that I was to be out of the city from thft 13th of January? This appeared to me convenient for many reasons. But I shall say no more. The rest I must keep till we meet, that you may still look for some news. Remember me kindly to Dionysius, for whom I have not merely reserved, but have even built, an apartment. For to the supreme pleasure I take in your return, I derive a great accession irom his arrival. The day you come to me I entreat you, by the love you bear me, to remain with your attendants at my house. b Cn. Domitius Calvinus, the same who is afterwards called Calvinus. c Appius Claudius Fulcher, one of the consuls. d L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the other consul. ' Caesar having shown his displeasure at the disclosure made by Memmius, the latter ceased to prosecute the business fiu-ther. * The province of Cilicia, which Appius coveted, and to which Cicero might expect to be appointed. e Where he would choose to have his winter quarters. [^Between this and Vie following hooh there appears to have intervened a period of more than two ifear*,'} TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 075 BOOK V. LETTER I. T PERCEIVED your feelings, and am very con- scious of my own, at our separation ; which should make you take the more pains to prevent any fresh decree for the prolongation of my government '', that this our want of each other may not last be- yond a year. About Annins Saturninus you have managed very judiciously. As for the securities, I request that, as long as you remain in Rome, you will provide them ; and there are some securities required upon taking possession', among which are those on the Memmian and Atilian estates. About Oppius you have done as I wished ; especially by speaking to him of the 800 sestertia (6660^.), which I should be glad to discharge even by bor- rowing (if necessary) for that purpose, without waiting for the final settlement of my accounts. I come now to that cross line at the end of your letter, in which you remind me about your sister. The state is this.: when I came to Arpinum, as soon as my brother arrived, we first talked, and for some time, about you ; from which I deviated into what I and you had said to each other in Tusculanum upon the subject of your sister. I never saw anything so gentle and placid as my brother was at that time towards her ; so that if for any reason offence had been taken, it did not appear. So it passed that day. The day following we left Arpinum ; and, it being a festival, Quintus was obliged to stop at Arcanum ' ; I slept at Aquinum, but took some refreshment at Arcanum. You are acquainted with that estate. As soon as we got there, Quintus said in the kindest manner, " Pomponia, do you invite the ladies ; I will send for the boys'." Nothing could be more gentle, as it seemed to me, not only in words, but also in his intention and countenance. But she, in my hearing, replied, " I am only a stranger here my- self:" which, I imagine, alluded to Statius having gone before to prepare things for us. Then said Quintus to me, " See what I have to bear every day." You will say, " What was all this .'" It is a great deal, and has given me much concern, — so absurdly and harshly did she answer in words and looks. I kept it to myself in sorrow. We all sat down, except her ; to whom Quintus sent ^ Cicero was appointed to the government of Cilicia, in- cluding a considerable part of Asia Minor. Tliose wlio had been consuls and praetors were usually rewarded with these governments, from which they drew enormous sums of money. Cicero always disliked the ofiSce, as foreign to his liabits, and was anxious for the time when he might lay it down. 1 It is always difficult to understand the money transac- tions of a foreign country ; and it is not surprising that this difficulty should be much increased by the intervention of somany ages, in which the customs, as Well as therecords of particular cases, have been lost. The interpretation here offered, if it be not the exact sense of the original, is probably sufficiently near to it for all modern pm-poses. i This was a place near Arpinum, where Quintus hav- ing an estate, thought it proper to assist at some local ceremonies. ' These ladies here mentioned were probably Cicero's wife and daughter, who might be coming to take leave of him ; the boys were the sons of Cicero and of Quintus. soinething from the table, which she rejected. In short, nothing could be milder than my brothfer, nothing ruder than your sister. I pass over many circumstances, which at the time were more offen- sive to me than to Quintus himself. Thence I proceeded to Aquinum. Quintus remained at Ar- canum ; but came to me at Aquinum the next morning, and told me that she had refused to sleep with him, — and that when she went away she con- tinued just in the same humour in which I had seen her. In a word, you may tell her this, if you please, that I thought there was a great want of courtesy in her behaviour that day. I have written to you perhaps more at length then was necessary,^ that you might perceive there was occasion on your side, likewise, for advice and admonition. Further, I have only to beg that you will execute my commissions before you leave Rome ; that you will send me word of all that happens ; that you will drive out Pontinius' ; and that you will take care to let me know as soon as you go. Be assured nothing is dearer or sweeter to me than yourself. I took leave of A. Torquatus with great affection at Minturnffl : he is an excellent man. I wish you would tell him in the course of conversation, that I mentioned him in my letter to you. LETTER II. I TVBiTE this on the 10th of May, being on the point of leaving Pbmpeianum so as to sleep to- night with Pontius in Trebulanum. From thence I mean to proceed by regular journeys without any delay. While I was at Cumanum, Hortensius came to see me, which I took very kindly. Upon his asldng if I had any commands, I gave him a general answer in other respects ; but this I par- ticularly requested, that, as far as lay in his power, he would not suffer my government to be prolonged. In which I should be glad if you would confirm him ; and assure him that I was very much gratified by his visit, and by his promise of doing this or anything else I might want. In the same cause I have engaged my friend Purnius also, who I saw would be tribune of the people for the year. I had almost a little Rome in my Cuman villa, so great was the concourse in that neighbourhood ; whilst my friend Rufio, seeing that he was watched by Vestorius, played a trick upon him ; for he never called upon me. Indeed ? when Hortensius came, both unwell, and so far ; Hortensius too "' ; when a vast number besides ; did not he come .' No, I say. Did you not see him then ? you will say. How could I help seeing him, when I passed through the town of Puteoli .' where I bowed to him while he was engaged, I believe, in some business ; after- wards I just bid him farewell, when he came on purpose " from his villa to ask if I had any com- 1 Pontinius had been appointed one of Cicero's lieu- tenants. m If the repetition of Hortensius's name be correct, it must in this second place mean *' one of such distinction, and so circumstanced with regard to me." n If the word expense be retained, I conceive this to be its proper interpretation. XX 2 676 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO mands. Ought one to think him unkind? or ought one not rather to think him in that very circumstance deserving of commendation, that he should not have pressed to be heard ° ? But to return. Do not imagine that I have any other consolation in this great plague than that I hope it will not last more than a year. Many, judging from the custom of others, do not believe me really to wish this ; you, who know me, will use aU dili- gence when the time comes for its being settled. When you return from Epirus I beg you to write to me on the subject of the republic if there is anything likely to happen. For we have not yet received satisfactory information how Caesar bare the vote of the senate respecting his authority p. There was a report, too, about the people beyond the Po, that they were ordered to elegt four magis- trates '. If this be so, I am afraid of great commotions ; but I shall learn something from Fompeius '. LETTER III. On the 10th of May I came to Pontius in Tre- bulanum. There your two letters were delivered to me the third day after they had been written. The same day I delivered to Philotimus a letter for you from Pansa's Pompeian villa. At present I have nothing particular to tell you. Pray let me know what are the reports about the republic ; for I perceive great apprehensions in the towns here, though much of it is no doubt groundless. But I should be glad to be informed what you think likely to happen, and when. I do not know what letter you wish me to answer ; for I have yet re- ceived none besides the two, which were delivered to me together in Trebulanum, — one of which contained P. Licinius's proclamation, and was dated the 7th of May — the other was in answer to mine from Minturnae. I am afraid there may have been something of importance in that which I have not received, to which you wish me to reply. I will put you into favour with Lentulus. I am much pleased with Dionysius. Your servant Nicanor is of great use to me. I have now nothing more to say, and the day already breaks. I intend getting to Beneventum to-day. By my moderation and diligence, I trust I shall give satisfaction. From Pontius' house at Trebulanum, the 11th of May. LETTER IV. I CAME to Beneventum the 11th of May, where I received the letter to which you alluded in one that reached me before, and which I answered the same day from Trebulanum by L. Pontius '. In- It 18 probable Rufio and Vestorius might have had some dispute, which was to be referred to Cicero's decision, p I am not ignorant of the term autoritas being applied to such votes of the senate as were prevented from passing into a law. Still it appears to me that the best sense of this passage is by understanding the word to refer to Cffisar's authority, which was at this time attacked by the consul MarccUus, who proposed a decree for shortening the period of his command in Gaul, and preventing one who was not present from being elected consul. 1 The election of fourmagistratesconstituted afree town, and gave the right of voting in the Roman assemblies. ' Cicero was afterwards to see Pompeius, who was at Tarentura. See letter 6 of this book. • Cicero having written this letter at Pontius'a house. deed I have received two at Beneventum ; one of which was brought me early in the morning by Funisulanus ; the other by my secretary TuUius. The attention you pay to my first and principal commission' is exceedingly grateful to me; but your departure weakens my hope. He brought me to this", not because I was altogether satisfied, but because the want of anything better obliged me to consent. Respecting the other, whom you seem to think not unsuitable, I doubt whether my daughter could be brought to admit him, and it would be difficult for your ladies to find out. On my part I have no objection. But you will he gone, and the business must be settled in my ab- sence. You will consider my situation. For if either of us were there, something might be done by means of Servilius to the satisfaction of Servius : as it is, if this should now be approved, I hardly see how it can be managed. I now come to the letter I received by TuUius, and feel much obliged by your attention about Marcellus. If therefore a decree of the senate should be passed, you will let me know : or if not, you will neverthe- less accomplish the business', — for it must of necessity be granted to me, and to Bibulus. But I do not doubt that the decree of the senate has already been despatched, especially as the popu- lace have their advantage in it. You have done well about Torquatus. It will be time enough to think of Maso and Ligur when they arrive. As to what Chserippus says", since here also you with- hold your opinion ; O this province ! and must he too be satisfied .' He must so far be satisfied, that nothing may come before the senate. Consider what is to be done, or pay down the money ; for about the others I do not care. It happens how- ever fortunately that you should have talked with Scrofa. What you say about Pontinius is very just. For so it is, that if he comes to Brundisium before the 1st of June, there will be less occasion to press M. Annius and TuUius. I like what you heard from Sicinius *, provided the exception does not affect anybody to whom I am under obligations. But I will consider of it : for I approve the thing itself. What I may determine about my journey, and what Pompeius will do about the five prefects'", when I have learned from him, I will let you know. Respecting Oppius, you have done right to assure him of the payment of the 800 sestertia (6660/.) : and now that you have Philotimus with you, bring it is to be supposed that when Cicoro proceeded to Bene- ventum, Pontius at the same time went up to Rome. ' This probably refers to the re-marriago of his daughter, who appears to have been separated from Crassipes by a divorce. It must not be forgotten that divorces at that time were exceedingly common. » It is not certain of whom Cicero is speaking ; it appears to have been some person who had proposed to marry Tul- lia, and who had induced Cicero to listen to his offer. She did in fact marry P. Cornelius Dolabella. ^ The object of Cicero was probably to get a decree authorising him to raise a supply of troops, which he considers necessary for himself and Bibulus, on account of the hostility of the Parthians who bordered on their provinoes. ^^" He fteems to have brought up some demand against Cicero, the nature of which is not known. ^ It was usual to issue a proclamation upon entering on a provincial government. Cicero had been inquiring what others had done on similar occasions, and it is tn this that SiciniuB's exception must be supposed to allude. ? See aftei-wsrds in letter 7 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 677 the business to an end, and make up the account. And, as you love me before you go away, enable me again to go on ^. You will have relieved me from a great source of uneasiness. 1 have now replied to all the contents of your letters : though I had almost omitted your want of paper ». This is my concern, if your deficiency obliges you to write less. Take then 200 sestertii (IZ. 16s.), in order to supply yourself, though the smallness of this sheet shows my own parsimony in this respect ; while it demands from you an account of all that is done or talked of. If you have any certain in- telligence of Csesar, I hope to hear from you ; and again more particularly by Pontinius about every- thing. LETTER V. I HAVE positively nothing to say : for I have nei- ther anything to desire of you, considering there has been nothing omitted, nor anything to tell you, for I know nothing, and have no room for joking — so many things press upon me. Know this however, that I send this on the morning of the 15th of May, just setting out from Venusia. On this day it is probable that something will be done in the senate. Let therefore your letters follow me, by which I may not only be made acquainted with all facts, but likewise with the current reports. I shall be glad to receive them at Brundisium, for there I design to wait for Pontinius till the day which you mentioned. I will give you a particular account of the conversations 1 may have at Tarentum with Pompeius on the subject of the republic : though I wish to know how long I may properly write to you,^ — that is, how long you are likely to remain in Rome, that I may know to whom I ought hereafter to deliver my letters, and may not deliver them in vain. But before you go, at all events let that business be settled of the 20 and the 800 ses- tertia (166^. and 6660/.). I wish you would con- sider this as a thing of the very first importance and necessity ; that what I have begun to entertain'' by your recommendation, I may complete by your assistance. LETTER VL I CAME to Tarentum the 18th of May. Having determined to wait for Pontinius, I thought it best to pass the intermediate time with Pompeius, till he should arrive : especially as I found that Pom- peius wished it, and even begged me to be with him, and at his house every day : to which I readily agreed, — for I shall get from him many good conversations on the subject of the republic ; and shall besides be furnished with instructions suitable for my new office. But I begin now to be ' This appears to rae to be the best interpretation of this passage, and most consistent with the context. a This badinage probahly refers to some expression in Atticus's letter, or, it may be, to the cross line spoken of in letter 1 of this book. This letter contains an unusual number of broken sentences, and short allusions, which involve in them considerable doubt of the true meaning. 1> He speaks of the friendship he had begun to have with CEEsar. The sums stated here and elsewhere, as ne- gotiated between him and Oppius, were apparently due to CEBsar. shorter in writing to you, from my uncertainty whether you are at Rome or already set out. As long as I remain in this ignorance, I will still write a few lines, rather than suffer an opportunity of send- ing to you to pass without a letter. At the same time I have now nothing to ask of you, or to tell you. I have made all my requests, which you will execute as you promised ; when I have any news, I will tell you. One thing however I shall not cease to urge as long as I suppose you to remain in Rome, that you would leave that business com- pleted respecting the acooimt with Csesar. I look eagerly for your letters ; especially that I may know the time of your departure. LETTER VIL I SEND you a letter every day, or rather each day, shorter; for I become every day more appre- hensive that you may have set out for Epirus. However, that you may see I have attended to your request, Pompeius says he shall present five new prefects as before, with exemption of service, and with the authority of magistrates'. After spending three days with Pompeius in his own house, I am going to Brundisium this 20th of May. I leave him an excellent citizen, and fully prepared to repel the evils which are apprehended. I shall hope to get a letter from you, that I may know both what you are doing, and where you are. LETTER Vin. It is now twelve days that I have been detained at Brundisium, partly by indisposition ; from which however I am now recovered, having been free from fever ; partly by the expectation of Pon- tinius's arrival, of which I have not yet received any intimation. But I am expecting to sail. If you are at Rome, which I scarcely suppose, but if you are, I should exceedingly wish you to attend to the following cii'cumstance. 1 received infor- mation from Rome that my friend Milo complained in his letters of my unkindness, because Philoti- mus was a party in the purchase of his goods '". This I desu-ed to be done by the advice of C. Duro- nius, whom I knew to be much attached to Milo, and such a one as you esteem him. His inten- tions and mine were, first, that the property might thus come under my control, and that no ill-dis- posed purchaser might rob him of his slaves, of whom he has a great many with him ; then, that the security he had wished to provide for Fausta = c Different conjectures have been formed respecting the text and the meaning of this sentence. It seems to me most probable, that Pompeius was allowed to nominate to Cicero's prefectures, which were often honorary, and while they gave authority, admitted of exemption from service. Cicero only insisted on excluding all persons concerned in trafSo. [See letter 11 of this book.] The proper busi- ness of the prefect appears to have been to determine causes in such places where there were no authorised magistrates. <1 Philcitimus was a freed-man of Terenlia, Cicero's wife. Milo had been found guilty of the death of Clodius, and in consequence went into a voluntary exile at Mar- seilles : and his debts being very great, his estate was sold by public auction for the satisfaction of his creditors. e Fausta was MUo's wife. C78 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO might be ratified ; added to which, if anything could be saved, that I might the more easily save it. Now I should be glad if you would examine into the whole affair, — for accounts are often exaggerated. But if he complains, if he writes to his friends, if Fausta is of the same mind, do not let Philotimus continue to have any concern in the property, con- trary to Milo's wishes ; for so I told him in person, and he engaged to do. It was no great object to me. But if what I have heard is undeserving of notice, you will judge what is right. Speak to Duronius. I have written also to Camillus, and to Lamia ; and the rather, because I could not depend upon your being in Rome. In short, you will determine what you think most consistent with my honour, my reputation, and my interest. LETTER IX. I ABB.IVED at Actium ' the 15th of June, hav- ing feasted like the Salii s at Corcyra, and Sybotis, upon the presents which Arcus and my friend Eu- tychides •■ had splendidly and kindly provided for me. I preferred going from Actium by land, after having had a very unpleasant voyage. The dou- bling of Leucate too seemed, to be attended with difficult; ; and I did not think it becoming to pro- ceed to Patrse in a small vessel without my equi- page. I daily study my self, and direct my attendants, to carry into effect my determination (in which you often encouraged my speed), to discharge this office, which is out of the common * course, with the utmost moderation, and the utmost forbearance. I hope that the Parthians will be quiet, and that for- tune wiU favour me : I shall do my part. Pray take care to let me know what you are doing, where you will be at successive times, how you left my affairs at Rome, and above all about the twenty and the eight hundred' sestertia (166/. and 6660/. ). This you will accomplish in one letter carefully despatched, so that it may reach me. But (though you are now absent, while the business of the pro- vinces is not under consideration, yet will, as yon wrote me word, be present at the time) remember to provide through your own influence, and through all my friends, especially through Hortensius, that my year of service may remain in its present state, and that no addition may be decreed. I am so earnest in this request, that I doubt if I should not even beg you to contend against any intercalation''. f On the coast of Acarnania in Greece. The same place that was afterwards distinguishecl by the engagement between Augustus and M. Antonius, which decided the empire of the world. S The Salii were priests of Mars, who, at the conclusion of their solemn processions, used to partake of a splendid entertainment ; from whence Balearic feasts derived their name. ^ Arcus and Eutychides were freed-men belonging to Atticus, whose house at Buthrotum was near to Corcyra and Sybotis, through which Cicero passed after he had crossed the Adriatic. Eutyc«idcs is mentioned before, book iv. letter 15. i It was usual for the consuls to take a government imme- diately upon resigning their office. Cicero having declined this at the time, was now appointed out of the regular course. J Mentioned above in letter 5 of this book. ^ This is said jestingly. The irregularities of the year, previous to Cffisar's refonnation of the calendar, used to be rectified by the occasional insertion of a month, consist- But I must not impose every burden upon you. At least however be firm upon the subject of the year. My affectionate and dear boy Cicero sends his compliments to you. I have always, as yon know, had a regard for Dionysius ; but I esteem him more and more every day, and particularly because he loves you, and is continually talking about you. LETTER X. Having reached Athens the 26th of June, I have been now three days expecting Pontinius, but have yet heard nothing certain about his arrival. I assure you my thoughts have been entirely en- gaged upon you : and though I was naturally led to this by my own feelings, yet these have been the more lively from the recollection that I was tread- ing in your steps. In short, our whole conversa- tion is about you. But you perhaps wish rather to hear something about me. I have to tell you, then, that hitherto there has been no expense incurred, either pubhcly or privately upon me, or any of my train. Nothing is received under the sanction of the Julian law' ; nothing from those with whom we lodge. My attendants are all resolved to support my reputation. So far all is well. This being ob- served, has called forth much discourse and com- mendation among the Greeks. In what remains to be done, I study to conduct myself, as I under- ^ stood you to approve. But it will be time to take ? credit for these matters when we arrive at the pero- 1 ration and conclusion of the whole. The rest of / my concerns are of such a nature that I often re- \ proach myself for not having devised some means of escaping from this employment. How little is it adapted to my habits ! How true is that saying — " Every one to his own trade !" You will say — " What has already happened ? you have not yet entered upon business." I know not, but I ap- prehend there is worse to come, — though I bear this, as I hope and believe, to all appearance admi- rably ; but I am worried in my inward feelings, by the many things which are every day arrogantly said or concealed in anger and petulance, and every kind of foolish weakness, which I do not specify, — not from any wish to hide them from you, but because they are irremediable. When I am returned safe, you shall admire my patience : it is a virtue I am^deeply studying. But enough of this. Though I had Uttle else to write about, not being able to guess even what you are doing or where you are. Nor was I ever so long in igno- rance of my own affairs ; what has been done about Caesar's business, what about Milo's ; and I have not only seen nobody, but have not so much as heard any report to inform me of what is going on in the republic. If therefore you know anything about these matters, with which you think I should like to be acquainted, you will confer a great kind- ness upon me by letting me hear it. What is there besides ? Nothing truly but this, that I am highly delighted with Athens, with the city itself, and the ing of more or fewer days, at the discretion of the pontifices, between the 23d and 24th of February. This was called an intercalary month, ' By the Julian law the public officers of Rome were entitled to certain articles of provision in the towns through which they parsed. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 679 ornaments of tlie city ; with the aSeRtion of the people towards you, and their kindness also to me ; but especially with the philosophical spirit which everywhere prevails ". If there is any good, it is to be found in Aristus, with whom I lodge, — for I gave up your, or rather my Xeno, to Quintus ; but the houses are so near, that we pass whole days together. As soon as you can, let me hear your plans, that I may know what you do, where you are, and, above all, when you will be in Rome. LETTER XI. How is this ? so often to send letters to Rome, yet none for you ? Hereafter, however, I will rather write in vain, than suffer an opportunity to pass without writing to you. I entreat you by your fortunes "", while you are there, to secure by all possible means, that the period of my government may not be prolonged. I cannot tell you how ardently I wish for the city ; how ill I bear the impertinences of my present situation. Marcellus has acted shamefully about this citizen of Como°. If he had not held a magistracy, at least he belonged to one of the colonies on the Po ' : so that the offence given to our friend Fompeius, appears to me to be no less than that to Caesar. But this is his concern. I thought also, as you say Varro asserts, that Fompeius was certainly going into Spain. I was sorry for it ; and easily persuaded Theophanes that nothing was more to be wished, than that he should not go away anywhere. The Greek ^ therefore will try what he can do ; and his authority has the greatest weight with him. 1 send this on the 6th of July, the day of my leaving Athens, after having been there ten whole days. Pontinius is arrived ; and at the same time Cn. Volusius : the quEestor ' is here ; and your Tullius alone absent. I have some open boats belonging to the Rhodians, and some double-oared vessels of the Mitylenseans, and others. I hear nothing of the Parthians. For the rest, I trust to the gods. Hitherto I have made my journey through Greece with great applause ; nor have I yet any complaint to make of my people ; they seem to know me, and my purpose, and the conditions of their service ; and are entirely subservient to my good estimation. Henceforth, if that proverb be true, " Like master, like man," they will assuredly continue in the same disposition : for they shall see nothing in me »» This appears to me to be the true sense of this dis- puted passage. Had &yQi Karw related to the ambiguity of the Academio phUosopby, I apprehend it would have bad the article Tf prefixed. ^ A form of adjuration elsewhere occurring in Cicero's letters. However unusual it maybe in England, it seemed right to preserve this character of the original in the trans- lation. It seemed to be out of enmity to Cssar that the consul Marcellus had ordered a person of Como. to which plaee Cssar had extended the rights of citizenship, to be publicly beaten. P Pompeius's father bad before got the same privileges to be given generally to the colonies bordering on the Po. How irregular it was to inflict such a punishment on a Roman citizen may be inferred from the history of St. Paul. Acts xxii. 25. 1 Theophanes was probably a freed-man of Fompeius, and a Ureek, ' ITie business of the provincial qusstor piincipally re- garded the supplies of the army. to justify their delinquency. But if this be found insufficient, I shall adopt severer measures ; for hitherto I have been gentle and lenient ; and, as I hope, not without some effect. But, as some say, I have calculated upon this forbearance only for one year : take care then that I do not lose my character by any prolongation of my government. I now come back to what you desire of me. With regard to the prefects, there shall be an exemption of service for any you ' please ; only name them : I shall not hesitate, as I did in the case of Apuleius. I love Xeno as much as you do, and am confident that he is sensible- of it. I have put you in the highest favour with Patron, and the rest of these effeminate philosophers ' ; and have done no more than you deserved ; for he told me that you had thrice w rit ten to him, to assure him that in consequence of his letter I would take care of that business " ; which he took very kindly. But upon Patron's applying to me, to request that your Areopagus would cancel the decree they had made in the prsetorship of Poly- charmus, it appeared both to Xeno, and afterwards to Patron himself, more proper that I should write to Memmius, who had gone to Mitylene the very day before I arrived at Athens, in order that he might signify to his friends his consent to the mea- sure. For Xeno was persuaded that the Areopagus would never grant it against the will of Memmius. But Memmius had already given up all thoughts of building : he was, however, displeased with Patron ; which made me write particularly to him a letter, of which I send you a copy. I wish you to com- fort Pilia for my sake': for I will tell you ; you need not mention it to her ; I received a packet, in which was Pilia's letter : I took it, opened it, read it. It was written with great feeling. The letters you received from Brundisium, without any from me, were despatched at a time when I was not well. For I would not have you put off with that servile excuse ^'' of business. Take care to let me hear everything ; but especially take care of your own health. LETTER XIL A SEA voyage is a serious thing, even in July. We were five days coming from Athens to Delus. On the 6th of Jiiy we proceeded from the Piraeus * B Itdoesnot appear that the governors of provinces were limited in their appointment of prefects. Cicero only excluded such as carried on any traffic. QSee above, let- ter 7 of this bools.] The translation here ofTered is new, but is most consonant to the words of the original thus pointed, " in praefectis, excusatio lis quos voles : deferto." t The Epicureans. • See letter 5 of this book. ' See above, letter 12 of this hook. m See letter 12 of this book. I conceive this andtUe former clause to make two distinct sentenoes. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 681 All my people have now joined me except your friend TuUiHS. I purpose going directly to the army, to appropriate the remaining summer months to military business, the winter months to civil concerns. I trust that, if you know me to be no less anxious than yourself about the repubhc, you will send me word of everything that happens, or will happen. You cannot gratify me more ; unless by the execution of what 1 begged you to do, especially that inmost concern ", which I have so much at heart. I write in haste, and in dust. My fiiture letters shall be more particular. sending to me by the messengers of the public renters, through the collectors of the revenue and customs within my district. LETTER XV. I c.\MB to Laodicea the Slst of July. From this day you will begin th'e reckoning of my year. Nothing could be more desired, nothing more atfectionately entertained, than my arrival. But it is not to be believed how sick I am of this business. The activity of my mind, with which you are so well acquainted, has not a sufficient field to exert .^itself, and the notable effect of my industry is lost. Is it for me to administer justice at Laodicea, and A. Plotius at Rome ? And while our friend is commanding so large an army, for me to have the name only, of two meagre legions .' In short, I want not these things ; I want the splendour, the forum, the city, my own home, and you. But I will bear it as I can, provided it be but for one year. If my government is prolonged, it is all over with me ; but it may very easily be prevented if only you remain at Rome. You ask what I do here. I shall continue to live, as I do, at a great expense. I am wonderfully pleased with the plan I have adopted. I observe a strict self-denial", agreeably to your advice ; so that I doubt whether it win not be necessary to raise money in order to pay off what I have borrowed of you. I do not exasperate the wounds of AppiusP, but they appear and cannot be concealed. I write this on the 3d of August, on my way from Laodicea to the camp in Lycaonia. Thence I mean to proceed to Mount Taurus, that I may contend in arras with Meera- genes, and, if I can, may decide the affair of your slave''. The panniers, as they say, have been put on the wrong beast'. It is confessedly a burden that does not belong to me, but I will bear it, only, as you love me, let it not exceed the year. Mind to be present in time, that you may solicit the whole senate. I am exceedingly anxious, because it is now a long while that 1 have remained in ig- norance of all that is doing. Therefore, as I. have before said to you, make me acquainted, besides other things, with the state itself. Should I write more by a tardy messenger .' but I deliver this to a familiar and friendly man, C. Andronicus of Puteoli. You will have frequent opportunities of " Probably alluding to the marriage of his daughter. By self-denial is to be understood Cicero's abstinence from all extortion, such as was made a groat source of revenue to Itie provincial governors. P Appius had preceded Cicero in the government of Cilicia ; the wounds he had inflicted wei-e those of ex' tortion. 1 Mxragencs was the captiiin of a lawless band, to whom a Slav? of Atticus's had run away. ' A proverbial expression, signifying something unsuit- able. LETTER XVI. While 1 am on my journey, and actually on the road, the messengers of the public renters are setting out ; yet I have thought it right to steal a little time, that you may not think me regardless of your injunction. Accordingly, I have stopped in the road to send you shortly this information, which should have occupied a larger space. My arrival, which was eagerly expected in this miserable and utterly ruined province, took place the last day of July. During three days that I staid at Laodicea, three at Apamea, and three at Synnade, I heard of nothing but the inability of the people to pay the head money imposed upon them ; the universal sale of goods ; the groans and lamenta- tions of the cities, the fatal traces, not of a man, but of some savage beast. In short, I am sick of everything, even of my life. The wretched cities, however, find some relief in being free from any expense either on my account or that of my lieute- nants, quaestors, or anybody else. For I decline to accept not only forage, and what is allowed by the Julian law, but even my fire-wood ; nor does any- body receive a single thing besides four beds, and a roof to cover them ; in many places, not so much as that, for we more commonly remain under a tent. Hence we have a surprising concourse from the country, from the villages, and from every house. Indeed they revive again at my approach, at the justice, the moderation, the clemency of your Cicero ; so that he has exceeded the expecta- tions of all people. Appius', upon hearing that I was coming, went into the remotest part of the province, as far as Tarsus, where he holds a session. I hear nothing of the Parthians ; but some, who are lately arrived, relate that our cavalry have been defeated by the barbarians'. Bibulus does not even yet think of going into his province" ; which peo- ple' attribute to this, that he wishes to remain there as late as he can. 1 am hastening to join the army^ which is two days distant. LETTER XVIL I HAVE received from Rome a packet of letters without one from you ; which, if only you were there, and were well, I attribute to the fault of Philotimus, not to you. I dictate this sitting in my carriage, on my way to the camp, from which I am distant two days' journey. In a few days I shall have sure persons to whom I can deliver my letters, therefore I reserve myself for thac. How- ever, though 1 would rather yoa should hear it from others, I conduct myself in the province with such moderation, that not a penny is spent upon any of my people. This is accomplished also by the attention of the lieutenants, and tribunes, and prefects, for they are all zealous for my honour. 9 Appius wiis Cicero's predecessor in the province of Cilicia. ■ t This is spuken, in the Greek manner, of people unac- quainted with the Koin.in customs and discipline, " Syria. 682 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Our friend Lepta is admirable'. But I must be quick. I will tell you everything fully in a few days. The younger Deiotarus, who has received from the senate the title of king, has taken oar Cioeros" with him into his kingdom. While I am in my summer quarters, I considered it to be the best place for the boys. Sestius has informed me of the conversation he had with you on the subject of my domestic and greatest concern', and what was your opinion. I beseech you, pay every atten- tion to that business ; and let me know what can be done, and what you think. Sestius likewise said that Hortensius had mentioned something about extending the term of my government. He had distinctly promised me in Cumanum that he would support my release at the end of twelve months. If you have any regard for me, fortify this . posf. It cannot be told how unwillingly I am kept \ away from you. Besides, I expect that this honour, I which I derive from my moderation, will be the 'more distinguished, if I soon retire, as it happened to Scsevola, who presided in Asia only nine months. Appius, when he understood that I was approaching, removed from Laodicea as far as Tarsus. There he holds a session, while I am in the province ; but I shall not quarrel with him for this wrong, for I have enough upon my bands in healing the wounds which have been inflicted on the province, which I endeavour to do with the least censure upon him. But I wish yoii would tell our friend Brutus that Appius has not behaved handsomely in going away as far as be could upon my approach. LETTER XVIIL How I wish you were in Rome, if it happens that you are not there, for I have no certain infor- mation, excepting that I have received two letters from you dated the 19th of July, in which it was mentioned that you were going into Epirus about the beginning of August. But whether you are in Rome or in Epirus, the Parthians have passed the Euphrates under the conduct of Pacorus, son of Orodes, king of the Parthians, with almost all his forces. There is yet no news of Bibulus's arrival in Syria. Cassius is in the city of Antioch with his whole army. I am with my army at Cybistra, in Cappadocia, at the foot of Mount Taurus. The enemy is in the Cyrrhestica, which is the part of Syria nearest to my province. I have written to the senate an account of this state of affairs". If you are at Rome, you wiU see if you think my letter should be delivered ; and many things, nay, everything which require your kind attention, the sum of which is, that between the slaying and the offering ', as they say, no additional time or burden ^ He was what may be called the chief engineer, and had the direction of the workmen — prffifectus fabrum.< Ep. Fam. iii. 7- ^ The sons of Marcus and of Quintus Cicero. » Kespectinff the marriage of his daughter. y It may be supposed that Cicero uses this metaphor iu consideration of his military character. 2 This letter is preserved in the beginning of the 16th book of the Familiar Epistles. a The meaning seems to be, that nothing may occur, at some unseasonable moment, to frustrate my designs, and prevent my hopes, of quitting the province at the expira- tion of the year. may be laid upon me. For in this weak state of the army, and deficiency of allies, at least such as can be depended upon, my best security is the winter. If that season arrives without the enemy's having passed into my province, the only thing I fear is that the senate, under the apprehension of domestic disturbances, may be unwilling to let Pompeius go away. But if they send somebody else in the spring, I do not care, provided no addi- tion be made to my time. So much then, if you are in Rome. But if you are gone, or indeed if you remain there, this is the state of my affairs : I have no distrust ; and following, as I beheve, prudent counsels — and possessing, I hope, a good body of men, I feel to be in a safe position, abounding in corn, almost looking down upon Cilicia, and con- venient for moving. My army is small, but, I trust, unanimous in affection towards me, and likely to be doubled by the arrival of Deiotarus with all his forces. I have much more faithful aUies than anybody else has had, being struck with my kind- ness and forbearance. I am making a levy of Roman citizens, and transporting corn from the fields into places of safety. If it is necessary, we shall defend ourselves by arms ; if not, by the nature of the country. Therefore be of good courage ; for I see you, and am as sensible of your friendly sympathy as if you were actually present. But I beg of you, should the consideration of my case be put off till the first of January, that you would, if possible, be in Rome at that time. I shall feel quite secure if you are there. The consuls are my friends, and the tribune of the people, Furnius; still I have need of your assiduity, prudence, and influence. It is a most important time ; but I am ashamed of using many words with you. Our young Ciceros are with Deiotarus, but if necessary they shall be removed to Rhodes. If you are in Rome, write to me with your usual exactness ; if in Epirus, yet send me one of your messengers, that both you may know what I am doing, and I what you do, and mean to do. I attend to the concerns of your friend Brutus in a manner that he would not do for himself. But I now bring forth my ward"", without defending him, for it is a slow and fruitless business. Yet I wiU endeavour to give satisfaction, even to you, which is harder than to Brutus himself ; but I will assuredly satisfy both. LETTER XIX. I HAD just sealed the letter which I imagine you have read, written with my own hand, and con- taining an account of everything, when Appius's messenger hastily delivered to me your letter of the 21st of September, the forty-seventh day from his leaving Rome. Ah, what a distance I By that I make no doubt you waited for Pompeius's return from Ariminum, and are now gone to Epirus ; and I fear you will be not less, but, as you say, more anxious in Epiru s than I am here. I have written l" This ward was Ariobarzanes, a king of Cappadooia, whose person and government the senate had reoom- mended to the care of Cicero. He had been driven out of his kingdom by Mithridates, and his affairs were in great disorder. Cicero, while he offered to support him in his kmgdom, did not undertake to defend him against the claims of his creditors, one of whom appears to have been Brutus. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, 6B3 to Philotimus about the Atellian debt, desiring him not to call upon Messala. I am pleased that the reputation of my progress should have reached you, and I shall be still more pleased if you hear the rest. I am glad you take such delight in the daughter whom you have left in Rome ; and though I have never seen her, yet I love her, and am sure she must be amiable. Farewell again and again, patron, and your fellow disciples'^. I am glad you are pleased with what I have effected in the army respecting the Tarentine light cavalry ■■. When you say that you are not sorry he« should have met with arepulse, who contended with your nephew's uncle i^; it is a mark of great affection ; and by it yon have put me in mind that I ought to rejoice also, for it had not occurred to me. " I cannot believe that," you say. As you please ; but yet I rejoice ; for being indignant, you know, is very different from being envious E. LETTER XX. On the morning of the Saturnalia (December 17) the Findenissians surrendered themselves to me, the forty-seventh day after I had begun to besiege them. "Who the plague are these Fin- denissians ? who are they V you will say ; " I never heard the name." What can I do i Could I convert Cilicia into jEtolia or Macedonia ? You must know this, however, that with such an army as I have here, no very great affairs could have been achieved. What has been done I will shortly explain to you ; for so, in your last letter, you give me leave to do. You know of my arrival at Ephesus, for you con- gratulated me on that day's celebrity, than which nothing ever pleased me more. From thence I was honourably received in all the towns where I went, and arrived at Laodicea the last day of July. There I staid two days in great reputation ; and by liberal expressions eradicated all former injuries. I did the same at Apamea, where I staid five days ; at Synnade, where I was three days ; at Fhilo- melum five days ; and ten days at Iconium. My jurisdiction was exercised with the greatest equity, the greatest lenity, and the greatest dignity. Thence I came into the camp the 26th of August, and on the 30th I reviewed the army near Iconium. From this station, having received pressing mes- sages about the Parthians, I proceeded into Cilicia through a part of Cappadocia which borders on c That is, farewell to the Epicureans, if you so far forget their love of indifference as to become fond of your chil- dren. See hook vii. letter 2. ^ There is reason to believe that the Tarentines were a Bpeciee of light cavalry. I have thought It right, therefore, to insert this illustration, -without which it must be unin- telligible to an English reader. ' This is supposed to relate to Hirrus.who had formerly opposed Cicero for the angurship, and had lately been rejected in his canvass for the oflSce of ffidile in opposition to Caslius. The obscurity of this, as of many other passages, arises entirely from our ignorance of Atticus's letter, to which it alludes. ' A humorous periphrasis for Cicero himself, perhaps taken from Atticus's own expression. It occurs again, Cbook vi. letter 8,] in relation to the same event. s The expression, which in the original is in Greek, seems to he taken from Aristotle. His meaning is, that he may innocently rejoice through indignation against an unwor- thy candidate, though it would be wrong to reijoice through envy at another's want of euccesi. the province, with the design of making the Armenian Artavasdes, and the Farthians them- selves conceive that they were excluded from Cappadocia. After being encamped five days at Cybistra in Cappadocia, I was informed that the Parthians were at a long distance from that passage of Cappadocia, and were rather threatening Cilicia. Therefore I immediately made my way into Cilicia through the passes of Mount Taurus. I came to Tarsus the 5th of October ; thence I went to Mount Amanus, which divides Syria from Cilicia by the opposite course of the waters'". These mountains were full of eternal enemies. Here, on the 13th of October, we killed a great number of them ; and Fontinus having advanced by night, and myself the next morning, we took and burned the forts, which were strongly guarded. I was saluted Imperator '. I occupied for a few days the very same position, at Issus, which, in his expedition against Darius, had been held by Alexander, not a little better general than either you or me. There I remained five days ; and having spoiled and laid waste the Amanus, I departed. For you know that as there are certain things called panics, so there are also the empty rumours of war. The rumour of our approach both encouraged Cassius, who was shut up in Antioch, and alarmed the Farthians ; so that Cas- sius pursued them with advantage as they retreated from the city. In this retreat Osaces, one of the Parthian generals of great authority, received a wound, of which he died a few days after. My name was respected in Syria. In the mean time Eibulus arrived. I imagine he wanted to be equal with me in this empty title. He began to seek for laurels in the Amanus, as if they were strewed upon a cakeJ. But he lost the whole of his first cohort, and the centurion of the first division, a man distinguished in his situation, Asinius Dento, and the other officers of the cohort, and Sextus Lucilius, a military tribune, son to T. Gsevius Csepio, a rich and splendid man. In truth he sus- tained an ugly blow, both in itself and in the time when it happened. I invested Pindenissus with a ditch and rampart : it was a strong place belong- ing to the free Cilicians, and had time out of mind been in arms against us. The people were a fierce and barbarous race, prepared with all the means of defence. We accomplished the business by a large mound, fascines, a lofty tower, great quantity of machines'', a numerous body of archers, great fatigue and equipage, and many wounds received, but the army safe. The Saturnalia were truly joyous. I gave up the spoil, excepting the horses, to the soldiers. The slaves were sold on the third day of the Saturnalia. While I write this in the tribunal', the sum amounts to 12,000 sestertia (96,000^.) I shall leave the command of the army to my brothe r Quintus, to be taken from hence ^ That is, at the part of the mountains whence the streams descend in opposite directions. > This title, as is well known, used to he conferred by the acclamation of the soldiers upon any signal success ; the fasces were at the same time crowned with laurel. The general retained the title till he returned to Rome. J The word in the original signifies a kind of cake, which • was covered with laurel leaves, and from which conse- quently they were easily gathered. '' These were various instruments for offence, such as continued in use till the introduction of fire-arms. 1 A raised platform, on which the persona in authority were seated. G84 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO into winter quarters in a part of the country that is ill pacified, and am going myself to Laodicea. So much for this. But let me revert to what I have omitted. When you particularly advise me ; and which is more than all, in what you labour with so much earnestness ; that I should satisfy even this Ligririan scoffer™; may I die, if any- thing could be said more elegantly. But [ do not call this forbearance, for that seems to imply a virtue opposed to pleasure, while in my life I never felt so great a pleasure as I do from this integrity of conduct. Nor is it the reputation (which is very great), but the thing itself that delights me. In short, such has been its value, I did not know myself, nor was I aware what I could do in this Uind. I am justly proud. Nothing can be more honourable. In the mean time, it is something splendid that Ariobarzanes should live and I'eign by ray assistance. I have preserved the king and the kingdom, as it were, in passing, by prudence and authority, and making myself inaccessible to his enemies, not merely shut against their presents. At the same time, not the smallest thing has been received from Cappadocia ; and I even hope that during the whole year of my government not a farthing of expense will be incurred in the pro- vince. Brutus, who was desponding", I have cheered as much as I could. I love him no less than thou : I had almost said, than thee. This is all I had to tell you. I am now preparing to send a public account to Rome, which will be more full than if I had sent from the Amanus. But am I to understand that you will not be in Rome ? Everything depends upon the first of March". For I ara apprehensive that when the business of the province is taken into consideration, if any resist- ance is made on the part of Ceesar'', I may be continued. If you were there to attend to this, I should have no fears. I come now to the affairs of the city, with which, after a long ignorance, I have at length been made acquainted by your most acceptable letter of the 28th of December. Your freed-man Philogenes took great care to send it by a circuitous and not very safe route. For that, which you say was delivered to Lenius's servant, I had not received''. I was pleased with what you say of Csesar respecting both the decree of the senate' and your own hopes. If he submits to this, I am safe. That Leius should have scorched him- self in this Plsetorian conflagration, I am not so much concerned^. I want to know why Lucceius should have been so vehement about Q. Cassius, ™ Thig expression is probably borrowed from a letter of Atticus. It is supposed to mean Cato ; but the reason of the appellation is not kno^vn. " About the recovery of his money. When the new consuls were to bring before the senate the consideration of the provinces. P If Ca3sai''s friends resist the appointment of anybody to succeed him in Gaul ; in that case the senate may deem it necessary to keep Pompeius at home, and to renew my government of Cilicia. For it was expected that Pompeius might be sent to put an end to the Parthian war. Seo let- ter 13 of this book. 1 It must be supposed that Philogenes had previously pointed out the same route to this slave of Lenius. r The senate had decreed to entertain the question of Banding a successor to Caesar. • This is supposed to mean not a real fire, but a sentence of condemnation against Plaitorius, in which Leius was involved. and what has been done. As soon as I get to Laodicea, I am desired to present your nephew Quintus with his robe • of manhood. I shall endea- vour carefully to regulate his conduct. He, from whom I have derived such great assistance ", was to come to me at Laodicea, as he said, with the young Ciceros. I am expecting a letter from Epirus, to bring me an account, not only of your ocoupationSj but also of your retirement. Nicanor is in office, and liberally treated by me. I think of sending him to Rome with the public despatches, both for their more careful conveyance, and at the same time that lie may bring me back certain intelli- gence of you, and from you. I am obliged to Alexis^' for his repeated salutations ; but why does he not by his own letters follow the example of my Alexis "■ to you ? I am looking out for a horn « for Phemius. But it is time to stop. Take care of yourself, and let me know when you think of re- turning to Rome. Again and again, farewell. When I was at Ephesus, I carefully recommended your affairs and yom' friends to Thermns; and I now do the same by letter ; and I hare understood that he is of himself very desirous of serving you. I should be glad if you would use your influence about Pammenus's house, as I before mentioned to you, that what the boy has, through your and myassist- ance, may not by any means be disturbed. I con- sider this as a point of honour to both of us, and it will, besides, be particularly acceptable to me. LETTER XXI. I WAS very glad to hear that you had arrived safe in Epirus, and had, as you say, an agreeable passage. I am rather concerned that you will not be in Rome at a period so important to me ; but I comfort myself with thinking that you will not hke to winter there, aud unnecessarily to be out of the way?. Cassius, the brother of your friend Q. Cas- sius, had sent the letter, of which you ask me the meaning, in a more modest style than that which he sent afterwards, where he pretends to have put an end to the Parthian war. They had indeed retreated from Antioch before the arrival of Bibu- lus ; but not in consequence of any success on our part. They are now in winter quai'ters in the Cyrrhestica, and threaten us with a great war. For the son of Orodes, the Parthian king, is in our province"; and Deiotarus, whose sou is engaged to the daughter of Artavasdes", from whom it might * Young men at the age of seventeen used to change the bordered robe of youth for the plain one of rpanhood. ^ Deiotarus. This periphrasis is probably taken from Atticus's letter ^ The freed-man and amanuensis of Atticus. w Tiro, who held the same situation with Cicero. ^ This horn was for a musical instrument ; and it hafl been' with good reason conjectured, that the person for whom it was designed might have been a freed-man of Atticus, who had cultivated a taste for music, and had received the name of Phemius, from a musician mentioned in the Odyssey, i. 154. That Atticus was himself fond of music maybe conjectured from book iv. letter 16 : "Ex quibus (Britannicis mancipiis) nuUos puto te literis aut musicis erudites expectare." y Expecting that for these reasons Atticus might proba- bly change his intentions. » Not Cicero's pi-oviuce of CUicia, but the Roman pro- vince of Syria. Book vi, letter 1. "» Artavasdes was kiua of Armenia. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. G85 be known, has no doubt but the king himself will pass the Euphrates with all his forces in the begin- ning of summer. And the very day that Cassius's victorious letter was read in the senate, which was the 7th of October, mine brought an account of some disturbance. Our friend Axius says that mine carried with it great authority, while no credit was given to the other. Bibulus's had not then been received. I am confident it must have been full of alarm. I am afraid of this consequence from it ; that whilst Pompeius is kept at home under the apprehension of seditious commotions, and Csesar is denied any honour from the senate ; while this knot is disentangling, the senate may think I ought not to leave my government before a successor arrives ; and that in such a disturbed state of affairs, it is not enough to have single lieutenants preside over such large provinces. Hence I dread some prolongation of my time, which not even the intercession of a tribune can stop J and the more so, because of your absence, who by your opinion, influence, and zeal, might obviate many difficulties. But you will say that I am raising troubles out of my own brain. 1 can- not help it : and wish it were so. But I am full ■-'f fears ; though I admired the conclusion of the letter you sent from Buthrotum before you had recovered from your sea-sickness, in which you say — ** As far as I see, and hope, you will meet with no impediment to your departure.** I should have liked it better, " as I see," without that " hope." I received another, by a very quick passage, at Iconium, through the messengers of the public renters, dated the day of Lentulus's triumph. In this you repeat the same mixture of bitter and sweet, telling me first that I shall have no hin- drance ; then adding, if it should be otherwise, that you will come to me. Your hesitations sting me. You see by this what letters I have received. For that which you say you gave to Camula, the slave of the centurion Hermon, has never reached me. You repeatedly told me that you had sent one by Leuius's servant. This, which was dated the 22d of September, Lenius at length delivered to me at Laodicea, upon my arrival there the llth of Febru- ary. Your recommendations I acknowledged to Lenius immediately in words, and shall do so in deed as long as I stay. The only new subject in this letter related to the Cybiratian pant5iers''. I am much obliged to you for answering M. Octavius, that you did not believe I meant to send any. In future, what you do not know to be certain, you may certaiidy deny. For, my own resolution being inflamed by your opinion, i have exceeded every- body, as you will find, in forbearance, and also in justice, easiness of access, and clemency. There is not anything excites so much surprise, as that no farthing of expense should have been incurred since I obtained the province, either for the state, or for any of my people, excepting L. TuUius the lieutenant. He, who is otherwise abstemious, yet on his journey availed himself of the Julian law. It was only once in the day ; not as others had done, in all the villages he passed tlirough ; besides him nobody received anything even once ; this obliges me to except him, when I assert that no farthing of expense was incurred. Besides him ^ It had been usual for the governors of provinces to dbnuuid wild beasts to be sent up for the sbowa of their frieads in Rome. nobody received anything. For tliis pollution ' I am indebted to Q. Titinius. The campaign being ended, I gave the command of the winter quarters and of CiUcia to my brother Quintus. I sent into Cyprus, Q. Volusius, the son-in-law of your friend Tiberius, a steady man, and besides wonderfully abstemious, to remain there a few days, lest the few Roman citizens, who carry on business in those parts, should think that justice was denied them ; for it is illegal to summon the Cypriots out of the island. I went myself on the 5th of January from Tarsus into Asia '' ; I cannot tell you with wliat admiration of the cities of Cilicia, and above all of the Tarsians. And when I had passed the range of the Taurus, a prodigious expectation was raised in the distrii:ts of Asia under my jurisdiction, which in six months of my government had received no letter*^ from rae, and had seen no guests For, before me, that time had always been employed in a species of traffic, by which the opulent cities gave great sums of money to be excused having soldiers quartered upon tliem in the winter. The Cypriots gave as much as two hundred Attic talents (nearly 10,000?.) ; from which island (I speak not hyper- bolically, but truly) no money whatever will be exacted under my government. In return for these benefits, at which they express their astonish- ment, I do not permit them to decree any honours to me, except in words j I forbid all statues, tem- ples, chariots ; nor am I burdensome to the cities in any other way — but perhaps I am to you, while I proclaim all this about myself. Bear with me, however, if you love me ; for it is you who desired me to do it. In short, I have made my progress through Asia in such a manner, that even famine, than'which nothing is more wretched, and which was felt at this time in my part of Asia, owing to the entire failure of the crops, might seem a thing to he wished for by mes. Wherever I have been, I have employed no force, no legal process, no insult J but have by authority and exhortation, prevailed upon those Greeks' and Roman citizens, who had corn in store, to promise a large supply to the people. February the 13th, on which day I am writing, I have appointed to hold a session at Laodicea for the affairs of Cybi[a ; the 15th of March for those of Apamea ; and at the same time I mean to hold one for Synnade, Pamphylia, (when I shall look out for a horn forPhemius') LycaoniaJ, and Isauria. The middle of May I shall return into Cilicia, to spend there the month of June, I hope unmolested by the Parthians. If things go as I c In the original it is sordes, '* iilth," which gives a propriety to St. Paul's expressions, 1 Cor. iv. 13, where he applies to the apostles the terms " filth " and " offscouring ;'" for they must be supposed to have been familiar to the lan- guage of the Romans, at least at that time, however strange to our own. It is evident that Cicero here means Tulliua, and that he so designates him on account of hismiaconduct, d Certain districts of the country, which lay in the province of Asia, but were attached to Cicero's government. e Letters demanding supplies. f No person who was to live upon them. B As it proved an additional subject of glory. ^ By Greeks he means the natives ; so afterwards in speaking of the Cypriots. i This Is mentioned likewise in the preceding letter. J I adopt jM. Mongault's conjecture, that Aonium, as it stands in our copies, ought to be Lyeaonium, that being the only one not otherwise mentioned of the six Asiatic districts attached to Cicero's government. 68G THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO wish, I sliall employ July in passing again through the province on my return ; for I arrived vpithin the province at Laodicea, in the consul- ship of Sulpicius and Marcellus, the 31st of July. I must set out on my departure the 29th of July, having first obtained my brother Quintua's consent to his being left in command ; which will be very much against both his inclination and mine ; but It cannot with propriety be avoided ; especially as I cannot even now detain that excellent man Pon- tinius ; for Posthumius, perhaps also Posthumia, snatches him away to Rome. You have here my plans. Now hear what relates to Brutus. Brutus is well acquainted with certain creditors of the Sala- minians of Cyprus, M. Scaptius, and P. Matinius, whom he has particularly recommended to me. Matinius I do not know. Scaptius came to me in the camp. I promised that I would take care, for Brutus' sake, that the Salaminians should pay him the money that was owing to him. He thanked me ; and at the same time asked to be made a prefect. I said I made it a rule never to appoint anybody engaged in traffic, as I had before told you. When Cn. Pompeius asked me, I gave to him the same answer ; likewise to Torquatus, on his application for M. Lenius, your friend ; and to several others. If he wished to be made a prefect for the sake of his bond, I would take care he should recover it. He thanked me, and took his leave. Appius had formerly given a few troops of horse to this Scaptius, for the sake of repressing the Salaminians ; and had made him a prefect. But he harassed the people of Salamis ; and I ordered the horse to remove from Cyprus, which Scaptius took very ill. However, that I might keep my promise to him, when the Salaminians came to me at Tarsus, and Scaptius with them, I ordered them to pay the money. They said a great deal about the bond, and about the ill-usage they had received from Scaptius. I said I could not listen to it. I exhorted ; I begged, in return for the kindness I had shown towards their city, that they would con- clude the business ; at last I said I should compel them. Upon this they not only did not refuse, but they added, that they would pay then out of me. For as I had not accepted what they had been used to give to their governors, tliey in some mea- sure gave it from my revenue ; indeed the amount of Scaptius's debt was less than the preetorian tri- bute. I commended them. Right, says Scaptius, but let us reckon up the amount. In the mean time, while I had declared in my opening proclama- tion, composed from different models'", that I should maintain the interest of one per cent, per month, together with what accrued at the end of the year, he by the terms of his bond demanded four per cent. " What do you mean," said I ; " can 1 act contrary to my proclamation ? " He then produced a decree of the senate in the consulship of Lentulus and Philippus, that whoever obtained the province of Cilicia, should pronounce judgment according to that bond. I was at first struck with horror ; for it would have been the ruin of the city. But I find two decrees of the senate in the same year respecting this bond. The Salaminians, when they were desirous of raising money at Rome, were prevented by the Gabinian law. Upon which these friends of Brutus, relying upon his influence, li See letter 4 of this book. oftered to advance the money at four percent, per month, if it could be authorised by a decree of the senate. Through the favour of Brutus, a decree was passed, " that no detriment should arise to the Salaminians, nor to those who furnished the money." They accordingly paid the money. But it afterwards occurred to them, that the de- cree would be of no use to them, since the Gabi- niaii law prohibited the establishing a right upon the terms of a bond. Thereupon another decree of the senate was passed, " that this bond should have the same validity as others." But to return : while I was explaining this, Scaptius drew me aside, saying that he did not mean to oppose my judg- ment ; but that they believed they owed him two hundred talents (about 10,000/.), and this sum he was willing to accept ; that they really owed him something less ; but he wished me to bring them to this agreement. Very well, said I. So I called them to me, after Scaptius had retired, and asked them what they offered, and what was the amount of their debt. They replied, one hundred and six talents, (about 5100/.). I reported this to Scap- tius. The man began to clamour. "What is the use of this ? " said I. " Compare your accounts." They sat down, and made their computation, which agreed to a sixpence. They said they were ready to pay it, and pressed him to take it. Here Scap. tins again called me aside, and begged that I would leave the matter as it stood. I gave way to his shameless request ; and when the Greeks com. plained, and desired leave to deposit the money in some temple ', I did not grant it. Everybody pre- sent exclaimed that nothing could be more shame- less than Scaptius, who was not satisfied with one per cent, per month, with the annual compound interest ; some said nothing could be more fooHsh. But to me he appeared more impudent than foolish. For thus he either satisfied himself with good secu- rity at one per cent. , or took his chance for four per cent, on security which was not good. This is the statement of my case ; which must be approved by Brutus, or he will no longer deserve our regard. It will assuredly be approved by his uncle " , espe- cially as a decree of the senate was lately passed, I believe after your departure, on the subject of creditors, that one per cent, should constantly be taken without cOtapound interest. What differ- ence this makes, if I rightly know your fingers", you have certainly computed. On this subject, by- the-bye, Lucceius complains to me by letter that there is great danger lest these decrees should lead, by the fault of the senate, to cancelling the old accounts. He refers 'to the mischief, which C. Julius formerly occasioned by the procrastination of a single day" ; the state never was in greater jeopardy. But to return to the business: consider my case against Brutus ; if this may be called a case, where nothing can vrith honour be said in opposition ; especially as I have left the whole affair open. What I have to say besides, relates to my private concerns. O n that secret business >■ I 1 When the money was deposited in a temple, the interest upon it ceased to accumulate. >n Cato. n On which you may reckon it. o To what particular transaction this alludes is not Jmown ; but the state had repeatedly been convulsed by the conduct of usurers. P That this relates to his daughter's marriage may be inferred from letter 4 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 687 quite agree with you. We should think of Posthu- mia's son, since Pontidia's £eems to be trifling with us. But I wish you were there. You must not expect to hear anything from my brother Qnintus at this time of the year ; for the Taurus, on account of the snow, is impassable before the month of June. 1 continue to refresh ' Thermus by frequent q To remind him of your friends. Letter 13 of this book. letters, as you desire. King Deiotarus protests that P. Valerius has nothing, and that he supports him. As soon -as you know whether there is any intercalation at Rome, I should be glad if you would inform me on what day the mysteries ■■ will take place. I am in less expectation of hearing from you, than if you were in Rome ; but yet I expect it. ' See note at the concluBion of letter I of book vi. BOOK VI. LETTER I. I BECEIVED your letter at Laodicea on the fifth day before the festival of the Terminalia', and read it with the greatest pleasure ; for it was full of affection, of kindness, of attention, and diligence. To this therefore I will reply, as you desire ; and shall not follow my own arrangement, but the order which you have adopted. You say that you have very recently got my letter from Cybistra, dated the '22nd of September j and you wish to know what letters of yours I have received. Almost all that you mention, except those which you say you sent by Lentulus' servant from Equotuticum and Brundisium. So that your pains have not been thrown away, as you apprehend ; but have been admirably laid out ; provided it was your pm'pose to gratify me : for nothing gives me greater plea- sure. I am particularly glad that you approve of my reserve towards Appius, and my freedom towards Brutus. I had thought it might have been otherwise. For Appius had written to me two or three letters on his journey, complaining that I had rescinded some of his regulations. As if, when a patient changes his physician, he that was first in attendance should quarrel with his successor for deviating from the treatment which he had adopted. Just so Appius : having treated his province by depletion, having let it blood, and used every sort of evacuation, and delivered it up to me quite exhausted, now does not like to see it / recruited under my care ; but sometimes finds fault, while at other times he returns thanks ; for I have avoided any personal reflection upon him. ' The dissimilarity alone of my conduct offends him. What indeed can be so dissimilar, as that the pro- vince, under hife government, should have been drained with expenses and losses ; and that from the time I have held it, there should have been no charge of a single penny, either privately or pub- licly? to say nothing of his prefects, his attendants, I aad lieutenants ; his plunderings also, his licen- ' tiousness, and insults : whereas now there is no private house managed with such prudence, such regolarity, such moderation, as the whole of my province. This some friends of Appius absurdly misrepresent, as if I was studious of applause at his expense ; and did my duty not for the sake of my own reputation, but of his discredit. But if Appius, agreeably to Brutus's letter which I have • Tile Roman custom of dating by the number of days previous to any festival is well known. In this instance the fifth day before the Terminalia must be about the middle of February. sent you, expresses his thanks to me, I do not trouble myself about it : nevertheless, on the.very day that 1 am writing before it is light, I think of abolishing many of his unjust aots and regulations. I come now to Brutus, whose interests I have embraced with the greatest warmth, at your desire j and for whom I had begun to entertain affection ; but — shall I speak it .' I check myself from fear of offending you. Do not, however, imagine that I have anything more at heart than to do as he directs ; or that there is anything about which I have taken more pains. He gave me a list of instructions ; and you had already conferred with me upon the same subjects ; all of which I have prosecuted with the greatest diligence. In the first place, I have laboured to make Ariobar- zanes pay him the talents he promised to give me. As long as the king remained with me, the trans- action went on very well : afterwards he began to be pressed hard by a multitude of Pompeius's agents : and Pompeius has alone more authority than all other people ; because, in addition to other reasons, it is thought he will come to the Parthian war. He is now paid by instalments of thirty-three Attic talents (6000/.) every month ; and that is scarcely sufiScient for the monthly interest. But our friend Cnseus' bears this patiently. He is without his principal ; and is satisfied with the interest, though it is incomplete. Ariobarzanes pays nobody else, nor can he pay ; for his treasury is exhausted, and he has no revenue. By Appius's ordinance, he demands tributes ; but these hardly furnish the interest due to Pompeius. The king has two or three very rich friends ; but they keep what belongs to them with as much care as I or you. On my part, however, I do not cease by letter, to entreat, to persuade, to upbraid the king. Deiotarus has, likewise, told me that he has sent messengers to him about Brutus's business ; who brought him back word that the king has nothing. In truth, I believe nothing can be more plundered than that kingdom, nothing more indigent than the king: so that I think either of renouncing my wardship ; or, like Scsevola in the case of Glabrio, of refusing to pay the interest and charges upon his debts. However, to M. Scaptius" and L. Gavius, who managed Brutus's business in the kingdom, I have given the prefectures which I promised Brutus through yon, as they did not trade within my province : for you remember my * Foinpeius. « This M. Soaptius must be a different person from him who is afterwards joined with P. Matinius. See letter IX t!8y THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO conditions, tliat he should take what prefectures he pleased, provided it was not for one engaged in traffic. I had, therefore, given him two besides. But the persons for whom he had asked had left the province. Now let me explain to you the affair of the Salaminians^, which 1 perceive is as new to you as it was to me : for I never under- stood from Brutus that the money belonged to him. Indeed I have his own memorandum, in which it is said, " The Salaminians owe money to M. Scaptius and P. Matinius, my intimate friends." These he recommends to me ; and adds, as a sort of spur, that he was himself surety for them to a large amount. I had arranged that the Salami- nians should repay it at twelve per cent, for six years, with an accruing interest at the end of each year. But Scaptius demanded forty-eight per cent. 1 was afraid, if he had obtained this, that you would yourself cease to love me. For I should have receded from my own proclamation ; and should have utterly ruined a city placed under the protection of Cato, and of Brutus himself, and distinguished by my benefits". At this very time Scaptius suddenly produces a letter of Brutus, saying that the affair was at his own risk ; which he had never mentioned either to me or you ; and, at the same time, requesting that I would make Scaptius a prefect. But 1 had, through you, made this exception, that it must not be a person engaged in traffic. Or if I did appoint anybody, least of all could I appoint him ; because he had been a prefect under Appius, and having some troops of horse, had actually besieged the senate in their house of assembly at Salamis, in consequence of which five senators had been starved to death. As soon as I received information of this from certain Cypriots, who were sent to meet me at Ephesus, 1 wrote the very day I reached the pro- vince, to remove the troops out of the island. On this account I imagine Scaptius must have written unfavourably of me to Brutus. This, however, is my feeling upon the subject : if Brutus should think that I ought to have awarded the foi'ty-eight per cent., after having maintained the interest of twelve per cent, through the whole province, and declared it in my proclamation, and even had the concurrence of the severest usurers ; or if he should complain of my refusing a prefecture to one engaged in trade, which 1 have refused to Torquatus, in the case of your friend Lenius, and to Pompeius himself, in the ease of Sex. Statins, and have received their approbation of my conduct; or if he should be offended at my withdrawing the troops ; I shall be sorry indeed to have incurred his displeasure, but much more so to find him a different man from what I had supposed. This, however, Scaptius must acknowledge, that he was enabled to receive all the money according to the- terms of my decree. I may add, too, what I doubt if you will yourself approve : for the interest ought to have stood as it was in the decree ; and the Salaminians wished accordingly to deposit it * : but I prevailed upon them to forbear. They gave way to me indeed ; but what is to become of them if PauUus should succeed to the province.' All V The same that is detailed book v. letter 21. w The island of Cyprus had been taken from the king of Egypt, and reduced to the form of a Roman province under the direction of Cato and Brutus. " See book V. letter 21, note '. this I did for Brutus' sake, who has written to you very kindly about me : but to me, even when he is asking a favour, he writes in a dogmatical, haughty, uncivil manner. I wish you would write to him upon these matters, that I may know how he takes it: for yon will inform me. 1 had indeed particularly mentioned this subject to you in a former letter? ; but I would have you distinctly understand that I had not forgot what you said in some of your letters, that if 1 brought back from this province nothing else besides his favour, it was sufficient. Be it so, since you desire it : but with this condition I presume that I incur uo guilt. Accordingly I decreed the payment of Scaptius's debt without delay. How properly the decree was formed I leave you to judge. I shall not appeal even' to Cato. But do not suppose I have thrown aside your exhortations, which are imprinted in my bosom. With tears in your eyes you commended to me my reputation. What letter of yours is there in which you do not advert to it ? Let then who will be angry ; I shall be content with having right on my side ; especially as I have bound myself by six books'', as it were so many pledges, with which I am rejoiced to find you so well pleased. In these you doubt about one historical fact, relating to CniEus the son of M . Flavins. But he did not live before the time of the decemviri : for he was curule-sedile ; which was an office instituted many years after the decemviri. What then was the use of his pub- lishing the table of the festivals ? It is supposed to have been at some time concealed, with the view of making it necessary to consult the few upon the proper days for transacting business. And many authors assert, that Cn. Flavins the scribe pub- lished the list of festivals, and composed the for- mularies of legal process ; that you may not suppose it to be my invention, or, rather that of Africanus, for it is he that speaks. What is said about the gesture of a player has not escaped you. You entertain a wicked suspicion " ; I wrote it in perfect simplicity. You say that you heard of my being saluted imperator through Philotimus. But I take for granted, since you have been in Epirus, you have received from me two letters, with a full account of everything ; one from Pindenissus pre- sently after its capture, the other from Laodicea, both delivered to your servants. Upon the same subject 1 sent public despatches to Rome by two different messengers, for fear of the accidents of a sea voyage. About my daughter TuUia I agree with you ; and have written to her, and to Teren- tia, to express my concurrence. For you had before said — " and I could wish you had gone back to your own flock''." The correction of the letter brought by Memmius was a matter of no difficulty ; for I greatly prefer him from Pontidia" t6 the other from Servilia ; therefore you may get the assistance of Aufius, vfho has always been very friendly to me ; and now may be expected to be still more so, as he ought to succeed to his brother Appius's"" affection towards me, along with the y Book v. letter 21. z De Republica. ^ By supposing it glanced at the action of Ilortensius, which was thought to be too artificial. ^ By his own flock, Atticus meant his own equestrian rank, from whence to take a husband for his d:aughter. c Mentioned before, book v. letter 21. * This Appius was not the same Appius Claudius, of TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 689 rest of his inheritance. He often declared how much he esteemed me ; and showed it in the affair of Bursa ^. You will relieve me from a great source of anxiety^ I am not pleased with Furnius's exceptions ; for the only time that I dread is the one which he excepts. I should write more to you upon this subject if you were at Rome. I am sot surprised that you place all hope of peace in Fompeius. So it is : and I think that the charge of dissimulation'* must be removed. If the arrange- ment of ray letter is confused, you must attribute it to yourself; for I follow you ia your sudden transitions. The young Ciceros are attached to each other, and pursue their studies and exercises together ; but, as Isocrates said of Ephorus and Theopompus', one wants a bridle, the other a spur. I mean to present Quintus with his gown J of man- hood on the festival of Bacchus (March 18), as his father desired. I shall observe the day, on the presumption of there being no intercalation. 3 am very much pleased with Dionysius. The boys say that he is very passionate ; but there can be nobody of more learning, or better morals, or more attached to you and me. It is with justice that you hear the commendations of Thermus and Silius : they conduct themselves most honourably. A.dd also M. Nonius, Bibulus, me, if you will. I wish Scrofa bad an opportunity of distinguishing himself ; for it is a situation of splendour^. The others discredit the administration of Cato. I am much obliged to you for having recommended my cause' to Hortensius. Dionysius thinks there is no hope about Amianus. I have been able to obtain no trace of Terentius. Mseragenes" must certainly be dead. I have passed through his pro- perty, on which there was not a living creature remaining. I did not know this at the time I spoke to your freed-man Democritus, I have ordered the Ehosiac" vases. But, pray what are you thinking of ? In wrought dishes and splendid covers you use to entertain me with a dinner of herbs : what then can I suppose you will serve up in earthenware ? Directions have been given to search out a horn for Phemius ° : it will no doubt ■whom Cicero elsewhere speaks as bis predecessor in the government of Cilicia- e Cicero had formerly arraigned T. Munatius PlaneuB Bursa, on which occasion it is probable this Appius might have shown some civility to him, ' On the subject of TuUia's marriage. e Fumius appears to have proposed a decree to permit the governors of Syria and Cilicia to resign their provinces at the expiration of their year, except the Parthians should advance before the month of July. h See book iv. letter 10. ' Two writers of history, brought up under Isocrates. J See hook v. letter 20, note *, ^ This is supposed to allude to some government of which Scrofa was desirous, and for which the other candi- dates were unfit. The subsequent mention of Cato's ad- ministration probably relates to some expression used by Atticus on this occasion. 1 The cause here mentioned must mean his leave to return home. • ™ This is the person to whom Atticus' slave had fled. [See book v. letter 15.] Those mentioned before were pro- bably debtors of Atticus. " Rhosus was the name of a to^vn on the confines of Syria and Cilicia, and might perhaps have been distin- guished for its pottery ; but I find no mention of it in Plinius or elsewhere. " This is before mentioned, book v; letter 20i be found. I trust he will perform something worthy of it. We are threatened with a Parthian war. Cassius has sent a foolish letter 1". Bibulus's has not yet been received ; when it 'is read, I ima- gine the senate will at length be roused. For my own part, I am in great perplexity. If, as I hope, the term of my service is not extended, I have still fears about June and July. Yet, suppose any irruption to be made, Bibulus will surely be able to hold out for two months. But what will be the situation of him whom I leave there ; especially if it be my brother .' or what will be my own, if I do not take my departure so soon ? This is a great difficulty. I have, however, agreed with Deio- tarus, that he is to join my camp with all his forces. He has thirty cohorts of 400 men each, armed in our manner ; and 2000 horse. He will support us till Pompeius arrives ; who, by the letters I have received from him, gives me to under- stand that the business will be left to him. The Farthians have taken up their winter quarters in the Roman provincei. Orodes*^ himself is ex- pected. In short, there is some stir. I have made no deviation from Bibulus's proclamation, besides that exception about which you wrote to me, as containing a reflection upon our order'. I have adopted what is equivalent, but more guarded, from the Asiatic proclamation of Q. Mucins, son to Publius, "that covenants should be performed with good faith, excepting when the transaction was of such a nature that it could not properly be observed." I have also followed many parts of Scaevola's ; among the i-est, that which the Greeks consider as the restoration of their freedom ; that, in settling their disputes with each other, they should use their own laws. The proclamation is a short one, because of my having divided it under two distinct heads : one of them provincial ; in which is contained what relates to the public accounts of the cities, to debts, interest of money, contracts, likewise all the concerns of the public renters : the other embraces what could not con- veniently be determined without a proclamation, the entering upon inheritances and property, the appointment of commissioners and sales of effects ; which are usually demanded and executed under a decree of the governor. A third head, concerning the determination of all other causes, I left un- written, professing to regulate my decrees of this sort by those of Rome. Thus I endeavour, and hitherto succeed 'in giving general satisfaction. The Greeks are delighted with having judges of their own nation. Poor ones, you will say. What does it signify ? at least they think they have obtained their freedom by it. For your people' truly have dignified judges in the persons of Turpio the cobbler, and Vettius the broker. You wish to know what I mean to do with the renters. I make much of them, I humour them, I commend them in words, and pay them honours ; but take care they shall not be vexatious to anybody. What is most extraordinary, even Servilius abided by the interest of money, as it had been ratified in their contracts. But I manage thus : 1 appoint a day at a considerable distance, before which if they P Book V. letter SI. 1 Cicero, when he calls it "our province," means not bis own but a Roman province. ' The Parthian king. ' The order of Roman knights; I * Thfe people of Epirus. Y t 690 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO pay what is due, I give notice that I shall estimate the interest at twelve per cent. ; but if they do not pay, then I leave them to their contract. By these means both the Greeks pay at a reasonable interest, and the renters get an arrangement which is very acceptable. Such is the present state of things ; they have verbal honour in full measure, and frequent invitations. In short, they are all so well with me, that everybody thinks himself to be the most so. But withal, " there is nothing "" — you know the rest. About the statue of Africanus (how unconnected the subjects ! but this very cir- ' cumstance delights me in your letter ;) what say you .' Does not this Scipio Metellus know that his own ancestor was never censor .'' Yet on the statue, which you had placed in that elevated situa- tion in the temple of Ops, there was inscribed nothing but '■' Consul." Likewise on that which is in the temple of Pollux there is inscribed " Consul:" and, that it was of this same Africa- nus, the attitude, the dress, the ring, the likeness itself declares : in fact, when in that crowd of gilt knights, which this Metellus placed in the capitol, 1 observed the statue of Africanus with the inscrip- tion of Serapion, I supposed it to be an error of the workman ; but now I see it was Metellus's. What a disgraceful ignorance ! Respecting Fla- vins, and the festivals, if it is a mistake, at least it is a general one ; and you have very properly doubted ; and I was near following the common opinion ; as is done in many of the circumstances related by the Greek historians. For who has not asserted that the Eupolis of the ancient comedy was thrown into the sea by Alcibiades as he was sailing to Sicily .' Yet Eratosthenes has confuted it, by adducing plays which he wrote after that time. But is Duris of Samos, therefore, an histo- rian of great research, to be reviled because he has made the same mistake as many others ? Who has not said that Zaleucus composed laws for the Locrians ? And is Theophrastus then to be scorned, because the circumstance is contradicted by your favourite Timseus ? But not to know that his own ancestor had not been censor, is disgraceful : especially as, during the remainder of his life after his consulship, no Cornelius whatever had been censor. As to what you say of Philotimus, and the payment of the 20,600 sestertii (165?.), I un- derstand that Philotimus came to the Chersone- sus' about the begimiing of January; but I have yet received nothing from him. Camillus sends me word that he has received the residue which belonged to me ; what that is I know not, and should be glad to know. But of these matters hereafter. Perhaps they can best be settled when we meet. One thing, my Atticus, towards the conclusion of your letter disturbed me : for you write thus — " What morei' "■ Then you go on to entreat me in the most friendly manner, " not to relax in my vigilance, and to take care what is done." Have you then heard anything wrong of anybody ? Though assuredly there is nothing of the kind ; fa? from it. For it would not have escaped me, nor will it. Yet that admonition of yours, so particular, seems to indicate something. n In the original there are only two Greek words, the beginning of some sentence familiar to Atticus, hut not known at this time ; of course the sense is matter of con- jecture, in which state I have thought it best to leave it. » To collect debts. See book vi. letter 5, Respecting M. Ootavins, I now reply to you a second time, that you have given him' a very proper answer. I wish you had done it a little more confidently. For Cselius sent his freed-man to me with a very civil letter ; but spake of the panthers, and of the cities*, most foully. I wrote word back that, in the first place, I was sorry I should be so little known in this obscurity, as to have it yet unheard in Rome that no expenses were imposed upon the people of my province, but for the payment of debts : and I informed him that it was neither lawful for me to procure the money he wanted, nor for him to receive it : and I admonished him, whom I really love, that having been himself the accuser of others ?, he should conduct himself more cautiously. In the next place, I gave him to understand that it was incon- sistent with my honour, to make the Cybiritans have a public hunting by my command. Lepta is in raptures vrith your letter ; for it is beautifully written, and has put me in high favour vrith him. I am much obliged to your daughter for having expressly desired you to send me her good wishes ; I am obliged to Pilia also : but the former has been more forward in her kindness, by greeting me, whom she has yet never seen. Do you, therefore, in return make my compliments to both of them. A passage of your letter dated the 31st of Decem- ber contained a grateful recollection of the cele- brated oath^, which I had not forgotten : for on that day I was great in my robe of honour. You have my reply to all the subjects of your letters ; not, as you ask me, gold for brass" ; but like for like. But there is another little letter, which I must not leave unanswered. Lucceius might indeed very well give up his Tiisculanum'' ; unless, perhaps, that he likes to retire there with his piper. I should be glad to know what is the real state of his affairs. I hear, too, that our friend Lentulns has offered for sale his Tusculanum on account of his debts. I wish to see them both free ; and likewise Sestius, and add, if you please, Cselius : to all of whom may be applied that verse of Homer, " They were ashamed to refuse, and afraid to accept"." I imagine you have heard of Curio's intention of proposing the recall of Mem- mius. About the security of Egnatius Sidicinus'', I have yet some hope, though not much. Pina- rius, whom you commend to me, is very unwell ; but Deiotarus takes great care of him in his sick- ness. I have now replied also to your little letter. I hope you will let; me frequently hear from you " Book v. letter 21. ^ Wanting Cicero to use his authority for Curio's service, by demanding panthers and levying contributions from certain towns in his province. y It was he who had accused C. Antonius of corruption. z When upon resigning the consulship on the 31st of December, Cicero having been invidiously forbid to ha- rangue the people, adroitly altered the usual oath, and instead of swearing that he had faithfully discharged his duty, he swore that the republic and city of Home had been saved by his means. » Alluding to Diomed's exchanging his brazen armour for Glaucus's of gold, mentioned in Homer. ^ I suspect Cieero may have used the word Tusculanum only in reference to his own villa of that name. c The application is a little uncertain, but is generally supposed to signify, that these persons were ashamed of refusing the offers held out to them by Caesar in tneir necessities, yet afraid of accepting them. <• Probably some creditor of Cicero. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 691 while I remain at Laodicea, that is, till the 15th of May ; and when you come to Athens (for by that time we shall know about the city business, and about the provinces, which are all deferred to the month of March), send me a special messenger. But is it true that you have, through Herodes, already got from Ccesar fifty A.ttic talents (9000/.) ? by which, as I hear, you have greatly incurred the displeasure of Pompeius ; for he thinks you have devoured what belonged to him ; and that Caesar will become the more active in building at the Grove'. I heard this from P. Vedius, a great prodigal, but well acquainted with Pompeius. This Vedius met me with two light carriages, and a larger one suitably equipped, and a litter, and a great retinue ; for which, if Curio's law should have passed', be will be obliged to pay a hundred sestertia (800^). He had besides a dog-headed monkey in the carriage, and some wild asses. I never saw a more extravagant fellow. But hear the conclusion. He lodged at Laodicea with Pom- peius VinduUus, and there he left his equipage when he came to me. Presently Vindullus dies, which event it is thought will concern Pompeius Magnuss. C. Vennonius comes to Vindullus' s house ; and as he was sealing the effects, he lights upon the things belonging to Vedius. Among these were found five lagunculee '' of married women, one of the sister of a friend of yours, a brutish' man, who associates with him, and wife of that merry Lepidus, who bears these things so care- lessly. I wished to send you this history by-the- bye ; for we are both of us very curious. There is one thing besides I would have you consider. I am told that Appius is erecting a portico at Eleusis. Should I be foolish, if I were to erect one at the Academy' ? I think so, you will say. Then you must give it me in writing. I am very fond of Athens, and should like to leave some memorial, while I hate false inscriptions on other persons' statues. But as it shall please you. You will also inform me on what day the Boman mys- teries fall'* ; and how you pass the winter. Take care of your health. The seven hundred and sixty- fifth day after the battle of Leuctra'. e Caesar built a splendid house at Aricium, by the sacred grove of Diana. ' A sumptuary law. e From the name of Pompeius preiixed to Vindullus, it appears probable that the latter might be a freed-man of Pompeius ; in which case, if he died intestate and without children, Pompeius would succeed to one half of his property. ^ I have left the Latin word as it stands in Grjevius's edition, without attempting to suggest either an alteration or explanation. Whatever be its proper signification, whether an image, as some have supposed, or some article of female use, it seems at least to have contained an im- press or name, by which its o^vner might be known. i A joking expression for Brutus, admissible only in such joking relations. The word Lepidus is afterwards introduced in a similar manner. J The Academy at Athens, the original seat of that system of philosophy which Cicero followed. ^ It was before observed, that previously to Caasar's correction of the calendar, the year was regulated by the intercalation of more or fewer days between the 23d and 24th of February, at the discretion of the pontificcs ; and till this was proclaimed, the time of the subsequent festi- vals was not kno^vn. ' That is, after the memorable affray in which Clodius was killed, and which Cicero hiunorously compares to the battle of Leuctra, famous in Grecian history. LETTER 11. Your freed-man, Philogenes, having called to pay his respects to me at Laodicea, saying that he was going to cross the sea to you immediately, I send this letter by him in answer to that which I received through Brutus's courier ; and I shall reply first to your last page, which has given me great uneasiness, owing to what Cincius has writ- ten about Statius's conversation, in which it is very vexatious that Statius should say I approved that design ■». I approve it I Upon this subject, I have only to say, that it is my wish to have as many bonds of connexion with you as possible, — though the strongest of all are still those of affection ; so far am I from wishing to loosen any of those by which we are united. But that he ° is apt to speak too harshly about these matters I have often expe- rienced, and have often appeased his anger, as I believe you know. And in this excursion or campaign of mine, I have repeatedly seen him in- flamed with rage and calmed again. What he may have written to Statius, I know not. But, what- ever he meant to do in an affair of that kind, at least he ought not to have detailed it to his freed- man. I will, however, use my utmost endeavours that nothing may be done contrary to our wishes, and to his duty ; for it is not enough in such a case, for every one merely to attend to his own conduct. The boy, or now the young man, Cicero ', has especially Ins part in this duty ; of which, indeed, I often remind him : and he seems to me to bear great affection, as he ought, towards bis mother, and remarkably so towards you. He is a boy of good parts, but unsteady ; in regulating which I have enough to do. Having now in my first page answered your last, I shall return to the beginning of your letter. In applying the term maritime ^ to all the cities of the Peloponnesus, I have followed the synopsis of Dicsearchus, no in- considerable author, but one approved even by your judgment. In relating Chseron's ' account of Tro- phonius's cave, he finds great fault with the Greeks for having so adhered to the sea-coast, and does not accept any place in the Peloponnesus. Though I was pleased with the author, (for he was well versed in history, and hadlived in the Peloponhesus, ) yet I was surprised ; and communicated my doubts to Dionysius. He was at first struck with it ; but having as good an opinion of Dicsearchus, as you can have of C. Vestorius, or I of M. Cluvius, he thought I might safely trust him. He reckoned a certain place called Leprion to be a maritime town of Arcadia j and considered Tene and Aliphera and Tritia as recently built, which he confirmed by Homer's catalogue of the ships, in which there is no mention made of them. And I transcribed that passage from Dicsearchus in so many words. I knew that the Phliasians were so called; and would have you put it in your copy : I have it so. But at first T was misled by analogy ; Phlius, Opus, Sipus, from wh ence are derived Opunrii, Sipuntii ; n> Q,uintus having thought of getting divorced from Pomponia, Atticus' sister. n Quintus. ° ftuintus' son. P This alludes to some observations of Atticus upon Cicero's treatise " De Republica."' <1 Chasron seems to have been one of the speakers intro- duced in a work of Dicasarchus, upon the descent into Trophonina's cave. YY2 692 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS tULLIUS CICERO but I presently corrected it. I understand you are pleased with my moderation and forbearance. You would be more so if you were here. In tliis court, which I hold at Laodicea from the middle of February to the end of April for all the departments except Cilicia, I have been able to effect wonders ; so many cities have been set 'free from all debt, so many greatly relieved, and all, by being allowed to use their own laws and judicature, have revived as if they had gained their freedom. There are two ways by which I have enabled them to discharge, or at least to diminish, their debts. One, by putting them to no expense within my government : when I say none, I am not speaking hyperbolicaUy, but mean literally none, not a farthing. From this alone it is incredible how the cities have been relieved. Another was, that there were surprising impositions practised by the Greeks themselves, in the persons of their magistrates. I instituted an inquiry myself, respecting those who had held magistracies within the last ten years, and they openly confessed. Therefore, without any public disgrace, they were left to restore to the people their money. And the people, who in this present lustrum ' had paid nothing, have without murmur- ing discharged even what was due of the lustrum preceding. So that I am in favour with the rent- ers ; a grateful set of peoplcj you will say. I am sensible of it. The rest of my administration has been mild and courteous, and not inconsiderate. The access to me has been by no means such as is usual in the provincial governments. There has been no intriguing with the chamberlain. I am up and walking before it is light, as I used to do when I was a candidate. This is great, and well received ; and is not laborious to me, from the habit of that ancient service. On the 7th of May I think of going into Cilicia ; and after spending tlie month of June there (I wish it may be in peace, for we are threatened with a great war from the Parthians,) to employ July on my return. For my year of office expires the 30th of July, and I am in great hope that no extension of the time will be made. I have the city registers to the 7th of March, by which I find that, by the perseverance of my friend Curio, everything is likely to be passed rather than the business of the provinces'. I hope, therefore, that I shall very soon see you. I come now to your friend, nay, my friend Brutus, for so you will have it. I have done everything that I could do in my province, or that I could attempt in the kingdom '. I have exerted myself with the king in every way, and continue to do so daily by letter. For I had him three or four days with me in a disturbed state of his affairs, from which I have extricated him. And both personally, and afterwards by reiterated letters, I have not ceased to beg and entreat him for my sake, and to advise and per- suade him for his own. I have been able to do a good deal ; but how much I do not exactly know, owing to my great distance from him. The Sala- minians, however, (for these I could force,) I have brought to express their readiness to pay the whole r The censors were chosen every five years, which inter- val was called a lustrum. The revenues of the republic were let by the censors for this space of time. 9 If no new regulation were made, Cicero's government would of course tenninate with the year for which he was appointed. t The kingdom of Ai'iobarzanos, in Capp^idocia account to Scaptius, on condition of paying inter- est at twelve per cent, reckoned from the last con- tract, and not merely twelve per cent, throughout, but with the interest added to the principal at the end of each year. The money was paid down ; but , Scaptius refused to take it. And do you say then 1 that Brutus is content to sustain some loss ? It ' was forty-eight per cent, in the contract. The thing was impossible ; nor if it had been possible could I have suffered it. I hear now that Scaptius repents. For what he affirmed to be by a decree of the senate, that the contract should be good in law, was done from this consideration, that the Salaminians had raised money contrary to the Gabinian law. For the law of Aulus Gabinius for- bids the cognizance .of such bonds. The senate therefore decreed, that the bond should be cogniz- able. It consequently possesses just the same authority as others, and nothing more. This state- ment of what has passed, I think Brutus himself must approve. How you" may approve it I can- not say ; Cato certainly will. But to return to you; can you, my Atticus, who praise so highly my in- tegrity and politeness, can you from your own mouth, as Ennius says, ask me to send troops to Scaptius, for the purpose of extortion ? Would you if you were with me, who sometimes say that you are vexed at not being so, would yoit Buffer me to do it if I wished it? " Not more," you say, " than fifty men." There were at lirst not so many with Spartacus ^. And what mischief would they not have done in so exposed an island ? But would they not have done it ? Nay, what did they not do before my arrival ? They kept the senate of the Salaminians shut up in their meeting-room so many days, that some of them perished with hunger. For Scaptius was a prefect under Appius, and had some troops from him. Do you then, whose image is presented to my mind as often as I think of anything honourable and praiseworthy, — do you, I say, ask me to make Scaptius a prefect? I had formerly made a resolution to appoint nobody engaged in traffic, and Brutus approved of it. Should he have cavalry ? why rather than infantry? Scaptius I suppose is grown prodigal of his money. The principal people you say wish it. I know how much they wish it : for they came as far as Ephe- sus to meet me, and with tears related the infamous conduct of the cavalry, and their own miseries. In consequence, I immediately despatched letters to have the troops removed from Cypnis before a cer- tain day ; and for this, among other reasons, the Salaminians applaud me to the skies in their decrees. But what need of troops now ? For the Salaminians already pay, — unless indeed I wished to compel them by force of arms to reckon the in- terest at forty-eight per cent. And if I were to do such a thing, should I ever dare to read or look into those books " which you commend ? In this business, my sweet Atticus, you have shown too much, yes, too much regard to Brutus : I fear I may have shown too little. I have acknowledged, in a letter to Brutus, that you mentioned these par- ticulars to me. Now let me turn to something else. I shall here do all I can for Appius *, con- u This appears to he said in joke. T Spartaeus had been the leader of a formidable rebellion of the Roman slaves. w His treatise on Government. » He had been accused of peculation in the government of Cilicia, in which he had been Cicero's predecessor. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. C03 sistently however with my honour, but most i-eadily ; for I bear him no ill-will, and have o great regard to Brutus s, and Pompeius wonderfully presses it, whom in truth I love more and more every day. You have heard that C. Cselius is coming hither as quaestor. I do not know how it is but that Pammenian business does not please me ^. I hope to be at Athens in the month of September. I should be glad to know the times of your move- ments. I was acquainted with the simplicity of Sempronius Rufus, by your letter from Corcyra. What think you ? I envy the superiority of Vesto- rius ". I should like still to prattle on, but the day breaks : the throng increases ; and Philogenes is hastening to depart. I must therefore bid you farewell, and beg that you will make my compli- ments to Pilia and to our little Ceecilia, when yon write. My son Cicero sends his kind regards. LETTER HI. Though I have no news to tell you of anything that has happened since I wrote to you by your freed-man Philogenes, yet as I am going to send Philotimus to Rome, I will not let him go without a few lines to you ; and first, what particularly concerns me, (not that you can at all help me, for the business does not admit of delay, and you are a long way off, and, as it is said, " the wind rolls many waves of the wide sea between us",) the day as you see creeps on ; for I leave the province the 30th of July, and there is yet no successor ap- pointed. Whom shall I leave to take the command of the province ? Reason and general expectation call for my brother ; in the first place, because it is esteemed an honour, and therefore nobody is more proper ; in the next place, because he is the only person I have of prsetmian rank. For Ponti- nius by the terms of his agreement, (having come out upon that condition,) has already left me. No- body thinks my quaestor'' of suificient dignity, — for he is volatile, licentious, and touchy. But with regard to my brother, the first consideratidn is, that I imagine he would not easily be prevailed upon, for he dislikes the province, and in truth nothing can be more disagreeable or more trouble- some. Then, supposing he should not choose to refuse me, what ought I to do ? For, at a time when there is thought to be a great war in Syria, and that likely to force its way into this province, while there is here no defence, and supplies voted only for the year that is expiring, — what affection does it argue to leave my brother ? or what atten- tion to my duty to leave a mere trifler .' You see, therefore, under what difficulties I labour, and how much I stand in need of advice. In short, I did not wish to have anything to do with this whole business = . How much preferable is your province'' ! You can leave it when you please, (unless perhaps you may have left it already,) and you may appoint over Thesprotia and' Chaonia whomsoever you y Appiuswas a relation and friend of Brutus. « See tlie conclusion of the 20th letter of the fifth took. " Book v. letter 2. ^ Mescinius. See letter 4 of this took, c Compare this sentence, which is rather otscui'e, with " rem totam odiosam I " See letter 4 of this book. 'I Atticus's own estate in Epims. c Districts of Epirus, in the vicinity of Bnthrotum. think fit. However, 1 have not yet seen Quintus, to know whether, if I wished it, he could be brought to agree to it ; nor, if he could, am I sure what 1 should wish. So much then for this. The rest is hitherto full of praise and thanks, and not unworthy of those books which you are pleased to commend. Cities have been preserved ; the rent- ers have been abundantly satisfied ; nobody has been hurt by any insult, very few by the severe justice of my decrees, and nobody so that he dare complain. Deeds have been accomplished that would justify a triumph ; about which I shall do nothing in a hurry, and nothing at all without your advice. The only difficulty is in delivering up the province ; and this some god must determine. Respecting the affairs of the city, you know more than I ; you have more frequent and more certain intelligence. Indeed I am concerned that I should not myself have received information from your let- ters, for there were unpleasant reports here about Curio and Paullus '. Not that I apprehend any danger while Pompeius stands or even sitss by us; let him but have his health. But yet I lament the condition of Curio and Paullus, with whom I am well acquainted. If therefore you are now in Rome, or whenever you are there, I should wish you to send me a sketch of the whole state, which may meet me, and by which I may fashion myself, and consider beforehand in what disposition of mind I should approach the city. For it is something not to be quite a stranger and uninformed upon my arrival. I had almost forgot to add, that for your friend Brutus' sake, as I have repeatedly written to you, I have done everything I could. The Cy- priots paid down the money, but Scaptius was not satisfied with the interest of twelve per cent, accu- mulating at the end of each year. Pompeius has not been able to get more from Ariobarzanes through his own influence, than Brutus has got through mine, though it was impossible for me to ensure him. For the king was very poor ; and I was so far off that I could only act by letters, with which I have not ceased to press him. The result is, that in proportion to the amount, Brutus comes off better than Pompeius : for about one hundred talents (20,000?.) have been procured for Brutus in the course of the year ; and in six months two hundred (40,000?.) have been promised to Pom- peius. But in the affair of Appius, it can hardly be told what consideration I have had for Brutus. Why then should I vex myself ? His friends are mere trifles, Matinius, and Scaptius ; who because he could not get from me a troop of horse to harass the Cypriots, as he had done before, is perhaps angry ; or because he is not a prefect, which I have granted to nobody engaged in traffic ; not to C. Vennonius, my own famUiar acquaintance ; nor to yours, M. Lenius. This I told you in Rome that I meant to observe ; and I have persevered in it. But what reason can he have to complain, who refused to take the money when it was offered him ? The other Scaptius who was in Cappadocia is, I imagine, satisfied. Upon receiving from me the appointment of tribune, which 1 offered him at the request of Brutus, he afterwards wrote to me to say that he did not wish to accept it. There is a per- son by the name of Gavius, whom I also made ' They had been bought over by Caesar at a great price, S Sits idle and inactive. am TtlK LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO prefect by Brutus's desire ; but he tiiougHt fit to say and to do many things against me, mixed with abuse, — a very spaniel of P. Clodius. This fellow neither escorted me on my way to Apamea ; nor afterwards, when he had come to the camp and was returning again, did he ask if I had any commands ; and he was, I know not why, manifestly unfriendly. If I had employed such a man as prefect, what would you think of me ? I, who as you know could never bear the insolence of the moat power- ful men, should I bear it in this hireling ? though it is something more than bearing it, to bestow a place of emolument and honour. This Gavins then, seeing me lately at Apamea on his way to Rome, addressed me thus : (I should hardly ven- ture to address CuUeolus'' in such a manner:) " Whence," says he, " am I to get my allowances as prefect ?" I replied, with more gentleness than those who were present thought I ought to have done, " that I was not used to give allowances to those whose services were not wanted." He went away in a passion. If Brutus can be moved with the anger of such a worthless fellow, you may love him by yourself, I shall not be your rival. But I think Brutus will show himself to be what he ought. I wished however that you might be ac- quainted with the real state of the case ; and I have sent an exact account of it to Brutus himself. Be- tween ourselves, Brutus positively sends me no let- ters, not even lately about Appius, in which there is not something haughty and unfriendly. It is a saying often in your mouth, that " Granius did not undervalue himself, and hated proud kings';" in which however he rather excites my smile than my anger ; but he is in trath too regardless of what he writes or to whom. Q. Cicero the son has I sup- pose, nay, certainly, read the letter addressed to his father. For he is in the habit of opening them, and that by my advice, in case there should be any- thing of importance to be known. In that letter was the same notice about your sister which you mentioned to me. I saw the young man wonder- fully moved, and he uttered his grief to me in tears. In short, I observed a great degree of filial affec- tion, of sweetness, and kindness ; from which I entertain the greater hope that nothing will be done hastily'. This I wished you to be acquainted with. I am sorry to add that young Hortensius has been conducting himself in a very unbecoming and disgraceful manner at the exhibition of gladia- tors at Laodicea. I invited him to dinner for his ftither's sake the day he arrived ; and for the same father's sake I have done nothing more '^. He told me that he should wait for me at Athens, that we might return home together. " Very well," said I ; for what could I say ? In fact I imagine what he said is nothing at all. . I should certainly be sorry from fear of offending the father, for whom I have a great regard. If he should go with me, I will so manage him as not to give offence where I should be very sorry to do it. I have nothing t By Culleolus it is evident that Cicero means some low person, but whom it is not known. The original is taken from Ennius. I appreliend it to have been familiarly applied to Brutus by his friend Atticus. i This no doubt refers to the report of Qutotus's divoroei mentioned in letter 2 of this book. ^ Hortensius had quarrelled with his son, who seems to ave been an ill-conditioned young man. more to say, but that I should be glad if you would send me Q. Celer's speech against M. Servilms. Let me hear from you soon. If there is no news, at least let me hear by your messenger that there is none. My regards to Pilia and your daughter. Farewell. LETTER IV. ■) I AKRivED at Tarsus the Sth of June, where met with several things which gave me uneasiness. There is a great war in Syria, great depredations in Cilicia, and any plan of administration is ren- dered difficult by reason of the short time that remains of my yearly office. But above all, my greatest difficulty is, that I am obKged by the de- cree of the senate to leave somebody in charge of the government Nothing could be more unfit than the qusestorMescinius' ; andof Caelius" I yet hear nothing. It seems most proper to leave my bro- ther with the command ; but in this there are some unpleasant circumstances, such as my own depar- ture, the danger of a war, the irregularities of the soldiers, and six hundred things besides. How hateful is the whole business ! But this I must leave to fortune, since there is little opportunity for the exercise of prudence. When you are come safely, as I hope, to Rome, you will with your accustomed kindness see about everything which you think concerns me; and, in the first place, about my dear TuUia, respecting whose establish- ment I have written my opinion to Terentia, while you were in Greece. The next thing to be consi- dered is my honour. For in your absence I fear there has hardly been sufficient attention paid in the senate to my letters. I shaU besides write a few words to you more mysteriously, which your sagacity will be able to unravel. My wife's freed- man (you know whom I mean") has seemed to me lately, by what he has incautiously let out, to have confused the calculations arising from the sale of the goods of the Crotonian tyrannicide". And I fear — Do you understand me ? Looking then yourself alone into this, secure the residue''. I cannot write all that I fear. Contrive that your letters may fly to meet me. I have written this hastily on my journey, and surrounded by troops. You will make my compliments to Pilia, and to the pretty little Cfficiliai. 1 His character is given in letter 3 of this book. The quffistors were not usually appointed by the commanders, >" See letter 2 of this book. n PhUotimus. See book v. letter 8, o Milo, of the same name as a celebrated prize-fighter of Crotona, The addition of tyrannicide, it is almost needless to add, relates to his having killed Clodius. p It seems probable that Cicero's fears might arise from some suspicion of his wife's having availed herself of her authority over her f reed-man Philotimus to appropriate to her use part of the money obtained from the sale of Mile's goods. ^See book v. letter 8 ; book xi. letters 16 and 22 ; and book xi. letter 2, note ▼.] She appears to have been an improvident woman, and to have involved Cicero in debts. [Life of Cicero, p. 195.] "What I have rendered " secm-e the residue," I suppose to allude to what is said in letter 1 of this book, towards the end — " Camillus sends me word that he has received the residue." The same thing is repeated in letter 5 of this book. '* See after the xesidue." q Attious's daughter, called also Attica. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, 695 LETTER V. By this time I presume you are in Rome, where, if it is so, I congratulate you upon your safe arrival. As long as you were away, you seemed to be further from me than if you were at home, for I was more a stranger to the state, both of the pubUo affairs, and of my own. Therefore, although I hope that I shall already have made some pro- gress on my way by the time you read this, yet I should wish you to let me hear frequently from you, with every particular, upon all subjects ; espe- cially upon what I before mentioned to you, that my wife's freed-man has appeared to me, by his frequent hesitation and shuffling, in different meet- ings and conversations, to have admitted some incorrectness into his computation of the Croto- nian's property. Be so good as to inquire into this with your usual kindness, but especially this : " From the walls of the city on the seven hills he delivered to Camillus' an account of debts to the 1 amount of 24 and 48 minae (761. and 163/.) ; that — rTie owed 24 minse from the Crotonian property ; I and from that of the Chersonesus" 48 minse ; and ' having entered upon a succession of 1280 minse- (4096/.), he had not paid a farthing, though the whole was due the first of February : his own freed- man, a namesake of Conon's father", had been wholly inattentive." In the first place, therefore, take care that the principal may he all secured ; then, that the interest from the fore-mentioned day may not be overlooked. I had great fears whilst I suffered him to be here ; for he came to make ob- servations, not without some hopes. But failing in this, he went away abruptly, saying, " I give up ;" at the same time quoting a verse of Homer, that it is discreditable to remain long and return empty". And he reproached me with the old saying, " "What is given," &c'. See after the residue" ; and as far as possible let me clearly understand it. Though 1 have now almost served my yearly term, for there are only thirty-three days remaining, yet I am greatly harassed by the anxious state of the pro- vince. For while Syria is blazing with arms, and Bibulus in the midst of his sad affliction" sustains the chief burden of the war ; and his lieutenants, and qusestor, and friends, are sending to me to come to their assistance ; though my army is butweak, yet, having good auxiliaries of the Galatians, Fisidians, and Lydians, which constitute its strength, I have thought it my duty to keep them as near as possible to the enemy, so long as the decree of the senate authorises me to preside over the province. But, what gives me great satisfaction, Bibulus is not importunate with me, but rather writes to inform me of everything. In the mean time the day of my departure creeps on unobserved. As soon as it ^ See book vi. letter 1, towards the end. ' In the same place it is said that Fhilotimus went to the ChersoneBUS the beginning of January. t Timotheus. Not only freed-meu, but even slaves had their peculiares, or vlcarii. « I have inserted a translation of the conclusion of this Verse of Homer, without which the English would be unin- telligible, though it was familiar to Atticus. ^ *' What is given must satisfy us." ' w That is, the balance of his accounts mentioned in the preceding letter, and probably alluding to the money received by Camillus over and above what Fhilotimus kept in his own possession. See letter 1, book vi ' Bibulus had recently lost two sons by treachery, arrives, it will be another question whom I shall leave in the command ; unless Caldus Cselius, the new qusestor, should be come, of whom I have yet heard nothing certain. I intended to have written a longer letter, but I have nothing more to say, and am too full of care to trifle and joke. Farewell, therefore, aud make my compliments to the dear little Attica, and to my friend Filia. LETTER VLJ (Grtev. vii.) Young Quintus has, with all duty, reconciled the mind of his father to your sister. It is true that I encouraged him, but when he was already in his course. Your letter, too, was a great incite- ment. In short, I trust the affair will terminate as we wish. I have already written to you two letters about my private concerns, if only they have been delivered. They were in Greek, and in purposed ambiguity. But there is no occasion to do any- thing, besides simply asking about Milo's account, and exhorting him to use despatch as he promised me : you may thus be of some service. I have desired the qusestor Mescinius to wait at Laodicea, that I may get the accounts made out agreeably to the Julian law, and left in two of the provincial cities. I design to go to Rhodes for the sake of the boys, and thence as soon as possible to Athens, though the winds are very much against us j but I want to reach home during the year of the present magistrates, whose good-will I have experienced in the decree for a supplication''. But let me hear from you on my way, whether you think I ought to take more time, out of respect to the republic. I should have written by Tiro, but have left him very ill at Issus. They send me word, however, that he is better ; but I am much concerned for him. For nothing can be more modest, or more attentive, than that young man. LETTER Vn. (Grfflu. vi.) Whilst in everything I support Appius's ho« nour in the province, I am on a sudden become father-in-law to his accuser^. "May it turn out [ happily ! " you say. I hope it may, and I am sure ^ that you wish it. But, believe me, I thought of , nothing less, and had sent some confidential per- H sons to the ladies about Tiberius Nero, who had applied to me on the subject.- When they came to Rome the contract was already made. I hope this may be a more desirable party. I understand the ladies are exceedingly delighted with the young man's courtesy and complaisance. You must not try to pick out defects. But how is this ? Do you distribute bread to the populace at Athens .' Do you think this right ? Though my treatise'' does y See the following letter, note d, 2 A public thanksgiving, which used to be voted upon any signal success, and which might lead to his obtaining a triumph. » P. C. DolabeUa. ^ His treatise on Government, In which it is to be presumed the author objected to such bounties as might prociu-e an undue infiuence to the donor among his fellow- citizens. 690 THE LETTERS OF iMARCUS TULLIUS CICERO not forbid it ; for this is no bribe amongst fellow- citizens, bat a liberal acknowledgment of hospital- ity. You still adiise me to think of the portico for the Academy •=, though Appius no longer thinks of that at Eleusis. I am sure you must be sorry for Horteusius''. I am myself deeply concerned ; for I had looked forwards to Hving with him in great \ familiarity. I have appointed Cselius to the charge of the province. " A mere boy," you will say, " and perhaps giddy, and undignified, and intemperate." I acknowledge it, but it could not be otherwise ; for I was struck with the letter I had received from you some time since, in which you said that you doubted what I ought to do about resigning the command. I saw what was the cause of your doubt, and was sensible of the difficulty ; that I was deli- \venng it to a hoy : but it was not desirable to deliver it to my brother ; and, besides my brother, there was nobody whom I could with propriety .advance before the qusestor, especially as he was a person of noble birth. However, so long as the Parthians seemed to threaten us, I had determined either to leave my brother in the command, or even, for the sake of the republic, to remain my- self, contrary to the decree of the senate. But since by a most unexpected good fortune they have retired, my doubt has been removed. I fore- saw what would be said : " So, has he resigned to his brother ? 'Is this holding the government for not more than a year ? What avails it that the senate wished the provinces to devolve upon such as had not before had a command ; while this^ man has commanded for three years together .'"' This then is what I say in public^ But what shall I say to you? I should never be free from anxiety, lest he should do something angrily, or disrespectfully, or carelessly, for such is the condition of mankind. What if his son should be guilty of some impru- dence, a boy of great self-confidence ? What vexation would it give me ! For his father would not send him away, and was not pleased that you should advise it. But as for Caelius, I do not say that I care not what he does j but however I care much less. Add to this, that Pompeius, a man of that weight and experience, appointed Q.. Cassius ; and Cjesar, Antonius, without the form of a bal- lotff; should I offend one who is given me by ballot ? and thereby induce him to pry into the conduct of the person whom I had left ? What I have done is preferable, and is warranted by many precedents, and is more suited to my age**. But, . c See letter 1 of this book. ^ d Hortensius was lately dead , It appeal's from the pre- face to Cicero's treatise **De Claris Oratoribus," that ho heard of this event at Rhodes on his return from Cilicia. And it is on this account that I have transposed the order of this and the preceding letter, which it is evident was written previous to his arrival at Rhodes. e Q. Cicero had held the provincial govemment of Asia three yeai's. f The meaning is, that this anticipation of what might be objected to him, is the reason be professes for not ap- pointing his brother. To Atticiis he subjoins the real reason, which is bis fear of some misconduct from his brother's hasty disposition. s The quaestors seem to have been usually appointed by the government at home after a ballot. Ceissius and An- tonius, though irregularly appointed, were left in the command, one of Spain, the other of Gaul, at us early an age as Cslius. b An age when it became deelr&ble to avoid contcntionsi ye gods ! in what favour have I put you with him, by reading to him, I do not say your letter, but that of your secretary. The letters of my friends invite me to demand a triumph, a thing, as I think, not to be despised in this regeneration^ of my for- tunes. Therefore, my Atticus, do you also begla to wish it, that I may not be discountenanced. LETTER VIII. As 1 was going to write to you, and had actually taken up my pen, Batonius came directly from the ship to the house in which I was at Ephesus, and delivered to me your letter of September 30. I re- joice at your favourable passage, your meeting with Pilia, and, not least, at her conversation about the marriage of my daughter Tullia. But Batonius has brought me strange alarms respecting Caesar : to Lepta he has spoken yet more at large. I hope his news may not be true ; it is certainly dreadful : that he wilt on no account dismiss his army ; and that the prsetors elect, and Cassius the tribune of the people, and the consul Lentulus, support him, while Pompeius thinks of retiring from the city. But how is this ? Are you at all troubled for him, who sets himself before the uncle of your sister's sonJ ? And who are they that have defeated him? But to my purpose. The Etesian winds have greatly retarded me; and this undecked vessel of the Rhodians has made me lose twenty days. Whilst I am on the point of embarking from Ephesus, I deliver this letter to L. Tarquitius, who leaves the port at the same time, but will sail quicker. For in these open vessels, and other long boats of the Rhodians, we must watch for fair weather. I have, however, made as much haste as I could. I am pleased with what you say of the Puteolan crumbs''. Now I should wish you care- fully to consider the state of the Roman a^airs, and see what you think should be determined about demanding a triumph, to which my friends invite me. I should be quite easy about it, if Bibulus was not trying for it ; who, as long as there was one enemy' in Syria, no more put his foot out of the gate than he had formerly done out of his house™. But now it is disgraceful to be silent. However, consider the whole matter, that as soon such as might be excited against him, if he offended his quaestor. i Having begun, as it were, a new life, after his resto- ration from banishment, a life which required the sup- port of new honours : for, before that event, the fame of his consulship had been such, as to make him disregard thom . J The same expression is used in reference to the same event, book v. letter 19, and is no doubt taken from some- thing said upon that occasion. The pei-son alluded to ia generally acknowledged to be Hirrus. k The word in the original, raudusculum, or ruduscu him, is probably derived from rudus, " rubbish," and thence is used for the " sweepings," " crumbs," or " little remains" of a debt. It is used in the same sense, book iv. letter 8. 1 In the text it is Jwspes, "straugor:"' but I have thought it better to adopt the very easy alteration of ho5tis, agree- ably to book vii. letter 2. n» Bibulus, when he was joint consul with Casai, had been insulted and violently driven from the forum; in consequence of which he afterwards shut himself up in his house, and acted only by the Dublioation of edicts, ^ee book ii, letter 21. TO TittJS I*OMPONItJS ATTICUS. 697 as we meet, I may be able to malce my determina- tion. But I am writing more than enough ; for I ha?e no time to spare, and am sending by one who will either arrive with me or not much before. Cicero" presents his compliments. You will pre- sent those of both of us to Pilia and to your daughter. LETTER IX. Immediately upon my landing in the Pirseus" the 14th of October, I received from my. servant Acastus your letter, which I had long expected ; but before I unsealed it, I took notice of its short- ness ; when I had opened it, I was struck with the unevenness of the letters, which you generally form very correctly and distinctly. In short, I perceived fi'om thence, what you mention to be the case, that you came to Rome the 20th of September with a fever. Being greatly concerned, though not more than I ought, I immediately inquired of Acastus. He assured me that both you and he thought you were quite well, and that he had the same account from your own people ; at the same time that he acknowledged, conformably to the conclusion of your letter, that you had some degree of fever at the time you wrote. I am very sensible of your kindness, yet surprised that you should nevertheless have written with your own hand. But enough of this ; for I hope from your prudence and temper- ance, nay, as Acastus bids me, I trust, that you are, as I wish you, already well. I am glad you received the letter I sent you by Turannius. Watch, specially, if you love me, the greediness p of this " The son. *> The port of Athens. P In the original is a Greek word, derived from Philo- tiraus, which marlcs the meaning of the author. The term " confounder " refers to the confusion which Philo- confonnder. Take care that he do not touch this Prtecian inheritance, how little soever it may be. It gives me much concern, for I had a great regard for the man. Say that I have need of money for the splendour of my triumph ; in regard to which, as you advise, you shall tind me neither vain in demanding it, nor insensible in rejecting it. I understand by your letter, that Turannius told you 1 had consigned the province to my brother. Do you think I should so ill interpret your guarded expression, when you say you doubted'? What need was there of doubt, if there was any reason for wishingmy brother to beleft,andsuch a brother? It was to my mind a prohibition , not a doubt. You advise me by no means to leave the young Quintus Cicero. That is the very exposition of my own sentiments. We have seen everything in the same light as if we bad conversed together. It could not be done otherwise ; and your continued doubt freed me from all doubt. But I imagine you have received a letter written more fully upon this sub- ject. I mean to send my messenger to-morrow, who will probably arrive before our friend Saufeius j yet it was hardly right to let him go to you without a letter from me. Write to me as you promise, about my dear TuUia, that is, about Dolabella; about the republic, which I foresee is in great danger ; about the censors, especially what is done about statues and pictures, whether any proposi- tion is made'. I send this letter on the ISth of October, the day on which, as you say, Csesar is to bring four legions to Placentia. What, I beseech you, is to become of us ? I enjoy my present station in the citadel at Athens. timus had admitted into his accounts. See letters 4 and 6 of this book. «- See letter 6 of this hook. >■ It was probably expected that the censors might intro- duce some regulations upon these articles, with the view of repressing the luxury of the age. BOOK VII. LETTER I. I SENT a letter by L. Saufeius, and to you alone* ; for though I had hardly time to write, yet I did not like that one so intimate should go to you with- out a Ibtter from me. But, considering the rate that philosophers travel, I imagine this will reach you first. If, however, you have received that, you will know that I came to Athens the 14th of October ; and that upon landing in the Piraeus, I received your letter from my friend Acastus, not without uneasiness at your having arrived at Rome with a fever. I was, however, relieved by hearing from Acastus that you were as much better as I could wish. But I quite shudder at the infor- mation which your letter brought about Caesar's legions. I also begged you to take care that the greediness (or, as the Greeks call it, the philotimia) of you know whom', might not injure me ; about which I had written to you some time ago. Tu- rannius had misinformed you at Brundisii^m, as I learned by a letter from that excellent man Xeno. B This 16 the last letter of the preceding book. * This is evidently said in allusion to Fhilotiniue. I explained shortly why I had not left my brothef in charge of the province. This was the substance of that letter. Now hear the rest. I entreat you by your fortunes, to employ all the affection with which you embrace me, and all your prudence, which I always admire, in taking into consideration the whole of my situation. For I seem to see such a contest ; unless the same Providence, which delivered me from the Parthian war, better than I dared to hope, should have compassion upon the republic ; such I say as never was before. But this calamity is common to me with everybody else ; upon this I do not require your advice. That which is my own affair I beg you to undertake. Do you perceive how, at your instance, I have attached myself to both parties ? And I wish I had from the first attended to your friendly admo- nition. " But," as Homer says, " your persuasions did not reach my heart ; for nothing is sweeter than one's country. ' ' At length, however, you did persuade me to embrace the one, because he had been so kind to me ; the other, because he was so powerful. I have done it, therefore, and done it with all readiness, so that nobody is more esteemed 698 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO by either of them. For I considered that my con- nexion with Pompeius did not oblige me to trans- gress against the republic ; nor, because I agreed with Csesar, was I to fight against Pompeius ; such was their union. Now, as you show, and as I plainly see, the utmost contention between them is to be apprehended. And each reckons me of his side, unless one of them feigns. For Pompeius does not doubt (and he judges rightly) of my highly approving his present sentiments with regard to the republic. I have received letters to this effect fi-om both of them, at the same time that you received yours ; as if neither esteemed anybody more than me. What should I do then .' I do not mean when they come to extremities ; for if it is to be decided by arms, I am clear that it is better to be conquered with the one, than to conquer with the other ; but I speak of the questions which will be agitated at the period of my arrival ; whether one, who is absent, be eligible ; whether he should not dismiss his army. " Speak, Marcus Tullius." What shall I say ? Wait, I beseech you, till I can see Atticus. There is no room for trifling. Shall 1 oppose Csesar? Where then is our" strict attach- ment ? For, I helped to procure him this permis- sion by applying to Cselius the tribune of the people at the request of Pompeius himself* at Ravenna. " Of Pompeius ?" Even of our Cneeus, in that famous third consulate. Should I now change my sentiments? " I have too much respect (not only for Pompeius, but) for the Trojan men and women. Polydamus will be the first to re- proach me "." Who ? You yourself, who are used to commend both my actions and my writings. I have escaped this blow during the two preceding consulates of the Marcelli, when Cffisar's province was taken into consideration. Now I fall into the very crisis. There let any blockhead give his opinion first ; I am mightily pleased to be engaged about my triumph, and to have so good an excuse for remaining without the city. Yet people will try to elicit my sentiments. You will perhaps laugh at what I am going to say. How I sbould wish even now to be staying in mj province ! It was clearly desirable if this was hanging over us, though nothing could be more disagreeable. For, by-the-bye, I would have you know, that all those first appearances, which in your letters you com- mended to the skies, have dissolved away. The practice of virtue itself is not an easy thing ; but how difficult is a continual pretence of it ! For when I thought it right and honourable, ont of the yearly sums which had been voted for my expenses, to leave a yearly sum for the quaestor C. Ceelius, and to bring into the treasury a thousand sestertia (8000/.) ; my attendants murmured, thinking it ought all to have been divided amongst them ; as if I should be more attentive to tlie treasuries of the Phrygians and Cilicians, than to our own. But they did not move me : for my own applause has the greatest weight with me. Yet there is nothing that could be done for the honour of any person, which I have omitted. But this, as Thucydides says, is an excursion from the subject, not without <^ So I understand this, which baa usually been otherwise interpreted. ▼ It is most consonant with what followa to understand this of Pompeius. 1' This is quoted from Homer. The same verses are found in letter 5, hookii. its use. But pray, consider my situation ; how, in the first place, I may retain the favour of Csesar ; then about my triumph ; which, unless the times of the republic prevent it, I conceive to be easily attainable. I judge so both from the letters of my friends, and from the supplication, when he, who did not vote for it, voted more than if he had decreed the greatest triumph'. With him Favonius, my familiar friend, was one who concurred in opinion ; another was Hirrus, who was angry withX me. Yet Cato was present at the drawing up of the decree, and wrote to me most pleasantly upon the subject of his voteC But Caesar, in congratulat- ing with me about the supplication, exults upon the opinion delivered by Cato ; but mentions nothing of what Cato said upon the occasion j only that he voted against the supplication. I conie\ back to Hirrus. You had begun to reconcile himV^ to me : go on with it. You have Scrofa, you have] Silius to assist you. I have already written to them and to Hirrus himself. For he had kindly informed them, that he could have stopped it, but did not choose to do so : but that he had concurred with Cato my pai-ticular friend, when he made such honourable mention of me ; and that 1 had not written to him, though I wrote to everybody else. He said truly ; for to him alone, and to Crassipes, I had not written. So much then for public affairs. Let us return home. I wish to separate myselt from that man''. He has strangely perplexed my accounts, a very Lartidius^; " but let us leave what is already done, however we may regret it." Let us despatch the rest ; and this first, in which I have some care added to my affliction ; but this Prsecian affair', whatever it is, I should be sorry to have confounded with those accounts of mine which he has in bis hands. I have written to Terentia', and likewise to him, that I should put together in your hands whatever money I could collect, for the equipment of my expected triumph. This, I con- ceive, must be unobjectionable. But as they please. Take upon you this care also", how we may en- deavour to accomplish what you propose. This both you have pointed out in some letter, (from Epirns was it ? or from Athens ?) and I vrill assist you in it. LETTER n. I ARRIVED at Brundisium the 24th of November, after as favourable a voyage as your own ; so charm- ingly did a gentle gale waft us from Epirus. The words have run into a verse, which, if you please, you may impose upon some young man for your own. I am much concerned at your illness ; for your letters show that you are very far from well ; and I, who know your fortitude, suspect it must be something serious that obliges you to give way, ' Cato resisted the application for Cicero's supplication; but at the same time spake of him in the most honourable terms. y Philotimus. z It is not known who this is. ' See book vL letter 9, b Philotimus was Terentia's freed-man, and perhaps involved with her in embarrassing Cicero's accounts. " I conceive the conclusion of this letter to relate aJtogether to some new subject mentioned previously by Atticus, and not improbably concerning ft. Cicero, or Pomponia, whose disagi-eement is mentioned, book vi. letter 2. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 699 and almost overpowers you ; though your servant Pamphilus assured me that the quartan fits of your ague had left you, and that another milder form had succeeded j and Terentia, who came to the gate of Brundisium at the same time that I entered the harbour, and who met me in the forum, said that L. Pontius had informed her inTrebulanum, that this also had left you : which, if it be so, is what I exceedingly wish, and hope indeed that your pru- dence and temperance may have effected. I come now to your letters, of which I have received six hundred'' at once, each more acceptable than the former, and all in your own hand. I used to love Alexis's handwriting, because it bare so near a resemblance to your own ; yet I loved it not, as showing that you were not well. The mention of his name brings to my mind Tiro", whom I have left sick at PatrsB ; a young man, as you know ; and add, if you please, an honest one ; I know nothing better. Therefore I miss him sadly ; and though he did not think himself dangerously ill, yet I can- not help being anxious about him, and place my greatest hope in the attention of M. Curius', which Tiro has signified to me by letter, and many persons have mentioned. Curius himself is sensible how much you wish him to be in my esteem : and indeed I am highly pleased with him ; for he possesses a natural urbanity of manners which is very amiable. He has a will sealed with the seals of the Ciceros B and those of the prsetorian'' cohort, in which he has openly bequeathed to you a pound, to me a half-penny'. I was sumptuously entertained by AlexionJ at Actium in Corcyra''. There was no resisting Cicero's wish of seeing Thyamis'. I am rejoiced that you take pleasure in your little girl, and that the afiection of parents towards their children is proved to you to be natural™. For without this there can be no natural union between man and man ; and if this is taken away, the very intercourse of life is destroyed. May it turn out well, said Cameades grossly ; yet more modestly than our friend Lucius °, and Patron ; who in referring everything to their own gratiflcAtion, do <* It has been repeatedly seen in former letters that this was a familiar expression for any great number. * Tiro was Cicero's amanuensis, as Alexis was Atticus's. In book vi. letter 6, we find him left sick at Issue. It is to be supposed that he afterwards proceeded as far as Fatrte in the Peloponnesus, ajid was there again laid up under the core of Cm'ius. ^ M. Curius is said to have been quffistor and tribune at Rome, and afterwards to have settled as a merchant at Patrs. — Ep. Fam. iv. 5, et xiii. 50. 8 The sons of Marcus and Quintus. '' This seems to have been a sort of guard of honour. ' This passage is attended with great obscurity, owin'g apparently to its being a jest, which is no longer intelli- gible. I suspect the point of it may consist in some pro- vincial misapplication of the terms libella and terunciuSf instead of as and triens, whereby Cicero and Atticus might become entitled to a mere trifle, instead of inheriting the estate. And if the text de Toriorio be correct, it may bo an intended blunder of the same kind. i Alexion was a physician. See book xv. letter 1. ^ The place called Actium of Corcyra was different from that afterwards distinguished by the naval action between Augustus and Antonius. ' Tbyamis was a river of Epirus, where Atticus's pro- perty was situated. ■" This is said in opposition to the tenets of Atticus's philosophy, which referred everything to pleasure. " Lucius Torquatus. He and Patron were both Bpicu- reans. not" think any thing whatever should be done foi the sake of another ; and when they say that the reason why a man ought to be good, is that he may escape harm, not because it is naturally right ; they do not perceive that they are describing a crafty man instead of a good man. But this I believe is in those books p, which you encourage me by prais- ing. I return to my subject. I was eagerly expecting the letter, which you had sent by Philo- xenus ; for you had mentioned that it contained an account of your conversation with Pompeius at Naples ; this Patron delivered to me at Brundisium. I believe he had received it at Corcyra. Nothing could be more acceptable. For it related to the republic ; to the opinion which he entertained of my integrity ; to the kindness which he showed in his discourse about the triumph. But what pleased me most of all was, that I understood you had visited him for the purpose of discover- ing his disposition towards me : this, I say, was the circumstance most agreeable to me. With respect to the triumph, however, I never had any wish for it before that barefaced letter of Bibulus, which was followed by so full a supplication. Had he really done what he described, I should rejoice, and favour his pretensions. But now, that he, who never set his foot beyond the gate so long as the enemy was on this side the Euphrates, should be loaded with honours ; and that I, on whose troops his army placed their whole reliance, should not attain the same ; this is a disgrace to us ; to us, I say, including you. I shall therefore make every exertion, and hope I shall succeed. If you were well, I might already have had some particulars investigated : but I trust you will soon be well. I love you for this Numerian remnant •!. I want to know what is become of Hortensius ' ; what Cato is doing, who has in truth been shamefully hostile towards me. He gave me his testimony for in- tegrity, justice, clemency, fidelity, which I did not ask ; what I did ask, he refused. How therefore does Csesar, in the same letter in which he con- gratulates me and promises every thing, exult in the injury I have received from Cato's ingratitude .' Yet this very man voted to Bibulus a supplication of 20 days. Pardon me ; I cannot bear this, nor will I. I wish to reply to all your letters ; but there is no occasion, since I shall see you so soon. But as to that business of Chrysippus (for about the other, a mere mechanic, I was less surprised, though nothing could be worse than his conduct) ; but for Chrysippus, whom on account of some little proficiency in learning I entertained with kindness, and had in esteem ; that he should leave the boy without my knowledge ! I omit many other things which I hear of him ; I omit his thefts ; but his running away I cannot bear ; there is nothing that I think more wicked. I have accordingly followed the old principle, as it is said, of the praetor Drusus, in the case of one who would not swear to observe the same conditions after he had obtained his liberty ; I 'have not pronounced them free : espe- cially as there was nobody present by whom their Both the sense and the subsequent member of the sen- tence require that it should bo read non putenL P Cicero's treatise " De Republica." q The same expression is used book iv. letter 8, and book vi. letter 8. r This must be understood of the sou, for the father was already dead. Sea book vi. letters 3 and 7. 700 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO liberation could properly be asserted. You will receive this as you sball think fit. I assent to your judgment. To one most eloquent letter of yours I have not replied, in which you speak of the dangers of the republic. What should I reply? I was exceedingly disturbed. But the Parthians do nothing to occasion me much alarm, and have suddenly left Bibulus half alive. LETTER IIL The sixth of December I came to Herculanum' and there read your letter, which Philotimus de- livered to me. The moment I saw it I had the satisfaction of recognising your own hand- writing ; afterwards I was exceedingly delighted with the accurate information it contained. With respect to the first point, in which you say you differ from DicsearchusS though I had earnestly requested (and that with your concurrence) that I might not be obliged to remain in the province longer than one year ; yet this was not accomplished by our endeavours. For you must know that not a word was mentioned in the senate about any of us, who held provincial governments, remaining beyond the time appointed by the decree of the senate. So that I cannot justly be charged with any blame for having left the province earlier than might, per- haps, have been desirable. But what if it be better as it is ? This has often appeared to be the case on other occasions as well as on this. For whether things can be brought to an agreement, or to the discomfiture of the evil-disposed, in either case I should be glad to give my assistance, or at least not to be out of the way. But if the good are overpowered, wherever I might be, I should be overpowered with them. Therefore, the quickness of my return ought not to be regretted. And if the idea of a triumph had not been thrown in my way, which you also approve, truly you should not now much want that character, which is drawn in my sixth book '. For what should I do to satisfy you, who have devoured those books ? I should not even now hesitate to lay aside this object", great as it is, if it be more proper to do so. But it is impossible to pursue both at the same time, and while I serve my ambitious views in a triumph, to exert a fi'ee spirit in the cause of the republic. Do not, however, doubt, but that whichever is the more honourable, that will be to me the more desirable. For what you seem to recommend, that I should continue to hold my command, and remain out of the city^, both as being safer for myself, and as affording the means of rendering service to the republic, how this is we will consider when we meet. It is a thing that admits of deliberation, though in great measure I agree with you. You do well in not doubting of my affection towards the republic ; and you judge rightly that he^ has by no means acted liberally towards me, considering my services and his profusion to other people ; and you justly explain the reason of this, which entirely agrees with what you say has been done in the case 3 Dica'ai'chus maintained the duty of active exertion. See book ii. letter 16. t Of his treatise " De Republica." " His triumph. * The continuing out of the city was necessary so long ae he retained his command. w Ca>Bai'. of Fabius and Caninius. But if this were not so, and he had devoted himself wholly to me, yet that guardian '^ divinity of the city which you mention would compel me to remember its noble inscription, and would not permit me to imitate Volcacius or Servius, with whom you are satisfied, but would call upon me to feel and to act as became me. And this I would readily do, if it might be done in a different manner from what is now required. For at this time people are contending for their own power, at the risk of the state. If it is in defence of the republic, why was it not defended at the time when this very man was consul ? And the year following why was not I defended, with whose cause the safety of the republic was identi- fied ? Why was his command prolonged .' or why in that manner ? Why was such a struggle made that the ten tribunes of the people should propose the decree for his eligibility In his absence .' By these means he is become so powerful, that now it is left to a single ? citizen to resist him ; who I wish had never given him such power, instead of now opposing him, when he is so strong. But since afl'airs are brought to this situation, I shall not, as you say, " look out for the vessel of the Atridse^:" the only vessel for me shall be that which is steered by Pompeius. When you ask, what must be done if I am called upon — " Speak, M. TuUius, concisely." I assent to Cn. Pompeius. Yet privately I shall exhort Pompeius to peace. For I am convinced that affairs are in the greatest danger. You, who are in the city, know more. But this I see, that we have to do with a man of the boldest and readiest spirit ; that all convicts, all disgraced persons, and all that deserve to be convicted and disgraced, incline to that party ; almost all the youth, all the city rabble, the power- ful tribunes, with the addition of C. Cassius ; all who are oppressed with debt, whom I understand to be more than I had supposed. That cause wants nothing but a good cause ; it has everything else in abundance. In such a state everybody ought to exert himself to prevent a decision by arms, the event of which is always uncertain, but in the present case rather to be dreaded in favour of one party". Bibulus has left his province, and deputed the command on Veiento. He will not, as I hear, hurry himself in his departure. Cato, when he got him his honours, declared that the only persons towards whom he bare no jealousy were those whose infiuence could receive little or no increase. I come now to my private concerns ; for I have mostly repUed to your letter on the sub- ject of the republic, and to that from your villa, and to that which you wrote afterwards. •! come to my private concerns. One word, also, about Cselius. He is so far from shaking my opinion, that I think he will himself repent of having changed his own. But how is it that Luoceius's buildings should have been adjudged to him ? I am surprised that you should have omitted to mention it. About Philotimus I will do as you » This is generally supposed to allude to an image of Minerva, deposited in the capitol by Cicero previous to his exile, and bearing an inscription " The Guardian of the City." y Pompeius. » In which he might sail with most security. The ori- ginal is part of a Greek verse. * CsEsar's party. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. roi advise. I did not, howerer, expect from him at this time the accounts which he gave you ; but the remainder which he desired me in Tuscnlanum to enter into my book with my own hand, and of which he also gave me a memorandum in Asia, written with his hand. If he made this good, he would himself owe me as much, or more, than what he there declares to be the amount of my debt. , But hereafter, if only the condition of the republic permit, I will not subject myself to accu- sations of this kind : not, indeed, that I had before been negligent ; but I was occupied with the multitude of my friends. I shall be glad, there- fore, to avail myself of your assistance and advice, as you promise, and hope I shall not be giving you much trouble. Respecting those clogs '' of my cohort, there is no cause for uneasiness j for they corrected themselves on observing my integrity. But nobody vexed me more than one whom you least suspect. His behaviour was at first excellent, and is so now ; but at the moment of my departure he intimated that he had hoped to receive some- thing ; and he did not restrain that covetousness which had gradually influenced his mind. But he soon recovered himself; and overcome by my honourable services towards him, he esteemed them of more value than any sum of money. I have received from Cnrius a will', which I carry with me. I have been informed of Hortensius's lega- cies''. I now want to know what sort of a man the son° is, and what it is that he intends to sell by auction. For if Cselius has got possession of the house at the Flumentan gate, I know not why I may not take for myself that at Puteoli. I come now to the word Piraeea, in which I am more repre- hensible, that being a Roman, I should haT.e writ- ten Pirseea ', not Piraeeus (as all our people call it), than that I should have added the preposition inlo ; for I have not considered it as the name of a town, but of a districts. Yet our friend Diony- sius, who is with me, and Nicias the Coan, did not think Pirseea to be a town. But I will see about it. My error, if it be one, consists in my having spoken of it not as a town, but as a district. And I have followed, I do not say Ctecilius, " In the morning when 1 went out of the port into Pirseeus ;' ' for he is no authority for Latinity ; but Terentius, whose comedies, on account of the elegance of their language, were supposed to be written by C. Lselius : " Yesterday, I and some other young men went together into Pirseeus." And again : " The merchant added this, that she had been taken out of Sunium." For if we choose to call districts towns, Sunium is as much a town as Pirseeus. But as you are a grammarian, if you can solve this question, you will relieve me from much embar- rassment. Caesar writes in a kind manner to me : Balbus does the same in his name. My resolution is, never to stir an inch from the path of honour. l* Serperaetra are described to be instruments for keeping straight the legs of children who are disposed to be crooked. The word may be adopted from AtticuB, and applied to certain persons who bad proved a clog and embarrassment to Cicero in his administration. « See the preceding letter. >> This must mean the legacies of the elder Hortensius, which the son had to pay by the will of his father. e See book vi. letter 3. ' See book vi. letter 9. i: It is well known that the Romans did not insert the prepositions in speaking of going to or from any to^vn, though they did express them when speaking of a country. But you know how much remains due to himi". Do you think, then, it is to be feared that anybody should object that debt to me, if I seem to act feebly ? or that he should demand it, if I act firmly ? What do you find in answer to this ? Let us pay it, you say. Well, then, I will borrow from Caelius'. Yet I would have you consider this well ; for I imagine if ever I should speak with energy in the senate in behalf of the republic, that Tartessian friend of yoursJ will call to me as I go out, '*Pray direct the money to be provided." Have I any- thing more to say ? Yes, my son-in-law is agree- able to me, to TuUia, to Terentia. He has as much wit and kindness as you could wish. As to other things, to which you are no stranger, we must bear them. For you know about whom we inquired'*; who all, except him with whom I negotiated through you, think to make me respon- sible : for nobody will trust them. But of these matters when we meet ; for they require a long talk. My hope of Tiro's recovery rests in M. Curius, to whom I have written that such service would be particularly acceptable to you. Dated the 9th of December, from Pontius's house at Tre- bulanum. LETTER IV. DiONYSius is impatient to see you. I have accordingly sent him, not with a very good grace ; but there was no refusing it. I have found him learned, which I knew before ; and besides, of cor- rect behaviour, ready to oblige, studious of my reputation, careful, and (that I may not seem to be giving the character of a freed-man) in short an excellent man. I saw Pompeius the 10th of December. We were together perhaps two hours. He seemed to be much pleased at my arrival. He encouraged me in the affair of my triumph, and promised to do his part ; advising me not to go to the senate till I should have finished this business, from fear of alienating any of the tribunes by the sentiments that might be delivered. In short, as far as words, nothing could be fuller of kindness. On the subject of the republic, he talked to me as if a war was inevitable. There appeared to be no hope of accommodation. His opinion of Csesar's hostility had lately been confirmed by the arrival of Hirtius from Csesar, with whom he was very intimate : for he had not called upon Pompeius ; but having arrived on the evehing of December 6tb , and Balbus having engaged to go to Scipio before it was light upon this whole business, he returned late at night to Csesar. This he considered as a plain sign of hostility. In short, nothing else affords me comfort, but that I cannot suppose he, to whom even his enemies had given a second con- sulate, to whom fortune had given the greatest power, would be so mad, as to bring these advan- tages to the hazard of a contest. But if he venture to rush on, I confess I am full of fears, which I dare not commit to paper. As things now are, I think of getting to Rome the 5th of January. *» Csesar. * Probably some money-scrivener. J Balbus, a native of Tartessus in Spain, k See book v. letter 4, respecting their fitness for hus- bands to his daughter. 702 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER V. I HAVE received several of your letters at the same time ; and though I had later intelligen'ce from people who came to meet me, yet they were veryacceptable, as they showed your attention and kindness. I am concerned at your illness ; and perceive that you suffer still greater uneasiness from Pilia's being attacked in a similar manner. Apply yourselves, both of you, to your recovery. I see the interest you take about Tiro. But, though he is of wonderful service to me, when he is well, in every species either of business or of study, yet I am more anxious for his recovery on account of his own kind and modest disposition, than for any advantage towards myself. Philogenes has never said anything to me about Luscienus. Dionysius will inform you of other matters. I am surprised that your sister should not have come to Arcanum *. I am not sorry that you approve of my determina- tion respecting Chrysippus*". I have no intention of going to Tusculanum at thiB time. It is out of the way for those who might come to meet me, and has some other inconveniences. But I mean to proceed from Formianum to Terracina the 31st of December ; thence to the extremity of the Pon- tine marsh ; thence to Pompeius's viUa at Albanum ; and so to Rome the 3d of January, my birth-day. I daily become more alarmed about the republic. For even the good, as it is supposed, are not agreed. How many knights, how many senators have I seen, who severely blame, among other things, this journey of Pompeius ! We have great need of peace. From a victory must arise many evils, and most assuredly that of a tyrant. But these things we shall very soon have an opportunity of discuss- ing in person. There is now absolutely nothing that I can write about. Not about the republic, because our information is the same : and our domestic affairs are known to both. It only re- mains to joke, if this man" permit. For my part 1 should think it wiser to grant him what he asks, than to meet in arms. It is too late now to resist one whom we have for ten years fostered against ourselves. What do you advise then .' you will say. Nothing but with your concurrence ; nor indeed anything before my business" is either con- cluded, or laid aside. Take care then to get well ; and shake off at length this ague with the diligence you so highly possess. LETTER VL I HAVE absolutely nothing to say to you. You are acquainted with everything ; nor have I any- thing to expect from you. Let me then only keep up my custom of not suffering anybody to go to you without a letter. I am in great fear about the republic ; and have hitherto scarcely found any- body who did not think it better to grant Caesar what he demanded, than to go to war. His de- mands are indeed greater than was supposed. But why should we now first resist him ? For this is not a greater evil than when we prolonged his government for five years ; or when we introduced ' A place belonging to Q. Cicero. m See letter 2 of this book. " CsEsar. o Hie triumph. the law permitting him to be a candidate for the consulship in his absence. Unless forsooth we then gave him these arms, that we might now fight with him well prepared. You will say, " What then will be your opinion ?" Not what I shall say. For I shall think that everything ought to be done to avoid a battle ; I shall say the same as Pompeius. Nor shall I do this with an abject spirit ; but this again is a very great evil to the state, and in some measure peculiarly improper for me, that I should appear to differ from Pompeius in so im- portant a cause. LETTER VII. " Dionysius, an excellent man, as I have also found him, and very learned, and full of affection towards you, arrived in Rome the 18th of Decem- ber, and delivered to me your letter." These are the very expressions contained in your letter about Dionysius. You do not add — " and he returns thanks to you." But he certainly ought : and such is your kindness that, if he had done so, you would have mentioned it. I do not however recant the testimony given, of him in my former letter. Let him therefore he called an excellent man. For even this is well done, that he should have given me this means of thoroughly knowing him. Philogenes has informed you truly. He had pro- vided what he ought P ; and I desired him to make use of the money till it should be wanted. He has accordingly had the use of it thirteen months. I hope Pontinius is well ; but from what you men- tion of his having entered the city, I am fearful what may be the matter ■!. For he would not have done so, but for some important reason. As the 2d of January is the day of the Compitalia "■, I do not care to go to Albanura =* that day, from fear of being troublesome to the family ; I shall therefore go on the third ; and thence to the city on the fourth. I do not know on what day your fit re- curs ; but I should be sorry to have you disturbed under the inconvenience of your illness. Respect- ing the honour of my triumph, unless Csesar em- ploy any secret measures through his tribunes, everything else seems to be tranquil. Most tran- quil certainly is my own mind, which looks upon the whole with indifference ; and the more so, be- cause I hear from many persons that Pompeius and his council have determined to send me into Sicily, as holding a command. This is worthy of Abdera'. For the senate has passed no decree, and the people no law, for my having a command in Sicily. ]3ut if the republic gives this authority to Pompeius, why should he send me, rather than any private person ? If therefore this command is likely to give me trouble, I shall avail myself of the first gate I see ". For as to what you say of there being a wonderful expectation of my arrival, though at the same time none of the good, or mo- P See book v. letter 13. 1 Pontinius was one of Cicero's lieutenants ; and it was to be expected that he would have remained out of the city to attend Cicero in his triumph. ' This was a Roman festival, and holiday for the slaves. It is mentioned before. See book li. letter 3. 8 The estate of Pompeius. See letter 5 of this book. « The laud of fools. » Shall enter Rome immediately, and thereby abdicate my command. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 703 derately good, entertain any doubt of my senti- ments : I do not understand whom you call good: for my ovm part I know none, at least if we look for whole orders of men, for undoubtedly there are individuals who are good. But in civil dissentions we ought to look for ranks and orders of good men. Do you think then the senate is good, which has ieft the provinces without commanders? For Curio could never have maintained his purpose' if any attempt had been made to resist him. But the senate would not follow that advice ; from whence it happened that no successor to Csesar was appointed. Or the public renters 1 Who were never steady, but now are quite in Csesar's interests. Or , the bankers? Or farmers? Who have most reason to wish for peace ; unless you suppose those people to be afraid of living under kingly government who have never objected to it, provided they could live in peace. What then ? Must we admit the pretensions of one absent ", who still keeps his army after the day appointed by law is past ? T say at once, of nobody absent. For if this is granted, the other follows of course. Do we admit a government of ten years ? and so ample ? Then we must admit also my banishment, and the loss of the Campanian territory^, and the adoption of a patrician y by a plebeian, of a man of Cadiz " by one of Mitylene ; and we must admit the wealth of Labienus and Mamurra, and the gardens and Tusculan villa of Balbus. The source of all these is the same. He should have been resisted while he was weak, and the thing was easy. Now there are eleven legions, as many ca- valry as he pleases, people beyond the Po, people from the city, so many tribunes of the people, such an abandoned body of young men, a leader of such authority, such boldness ; this is the man with whom we must fight, or admit his pretensions, which are also sanctioned by the law. " Fight," you say, "rather than be a slave." For what object .' That if you are conquered, you may be proscribed .■' If you conquer, that you may still be a slave ? What then, say you, will you do ? The same as cattle, which being scattered about follow the herds of theirown species. As one ox follows the others, so shall I follow the good, or those who have the reputation of good, though they rush on to their destruction. I see clearly what is best* in our sad straits. For nobody can say when we come to arms what will be the issue ; but everybody knows that if the good are beaten, this man wiU neither be more sparing of the blood of the principal citizens, than Cinna was ; nor more moderate than Sulla, in plundering the rich. I have been a long time talking politics with you, and should continue if my lamp were not going out. To be short, — " speak, Marcus Tullius." I side with Pompeius ; that is, with T. Pomponius. Pray make my compliments to that nice boy Alexis, unless perhaps in my absence he is become a young man, — for he seemed to be growing up very fast. V This Curio was a tribune, and creature of Csesar, and therefore stopped the appointment of the new governors to secure Cxsar from a successor, w That CjBsar, though ahsent, might yet be eligible to the consulship ; for, had he come up to Rome, be must have resigned his command. ^ See hock ii. letter 6. 7 As in the case of Clodius. 2 Balbus was a native of Tartessus near Cadi«, and had been adopted by Theophanes of Mitylene. * Namely, peace. See letter 3 of this book. LETTER VIII. What need of such strong affirmation on the subject of Dionysius ? Would not a mere nod from you secure my belief ? But your silence gave me the greater suspicion, both because you gene- rally employ your testimony to consolidate friend- ships, and I heard that he had spoken differently of me to other people. But I am perfectly satis- fied that it is as you say. I therefore continue to regard liim as you would have me. I had also marked the day of your ague from one of your letters written as the fit was coming on, and I cal- culated that you might, if there was occasion, come to me in Albanum without inconvenience the 3d of January. But pray do nothing that is in- consistent with your health. For what signifies one or two days ? I understand that, by Livia's will, Dolabella with two co-heirs succeeds to a third part of her property, but on the condition of changing his name. It is a question of propriety whether it be right for a young man of noble birth to change his name for a lady's will. But we shall be able to determine this more philosophically, when we know to about how much this third of the third part of her property amounts. What you thought would be the case, that I should see Pompeius before I got to Rome, has accordingly happened. For on the 27th of December he came up to me at Lavernium. We came together to Formise, and conversed privately from two in the afternoon till dusk. In answer to your inquiry, if there is any hope of accommodation, so far as I have learned from Pompeius's full and accurate discourse, there is not even any inclination towards it. For his opinion is, that if Csesar should be made consul, even with the dismissal of his army, the government wUl be overturned. He even thinks, that when he is acquainted with the active preparations against him, he will neglect the con- sulate this year, and prefer keeping his army and his province. But if he should be driven to mad- ness, he held him in great contempt, and relied upon his own forces and those of the republic. In truth, though that saying often occurred to me, that the fortune of war was common ; yet it was some alleviation of my solicitude, to hear a brave and experienced man, and one of the greatest au- thority, politically expose the dangers of a false peace. We had in our possession Antonius's speech pronounced the 23d of December, which contained an accusation of Pompeius from the time of his entering into public life, complaining of those who had been condemned, and of the ter- ror of his arms. Upon which he observed, "What think you that Caesar himself wiU do, if he should obtain the government of the state, when his weak and needy qusestor dares to utter such expres- sions?" In short, he appearednot onlynot to wish for such a peace, but even to dread it. Yet the ap- prehension of abandoning the city shakes, as I conceive, this resolution ''. It is a great vexation to me, that I must pay off my debt to Csesar, and transfer to that quarter the materials of my tri- umph. For it is unseemly to be indebted to one of an opposite party. But of this, and many other things, when we meet. b The text is obscure, and perhaps faulty. ?04 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER IX. " Am I," say ycm, " to receive a letter from you every day?'' Yes, if I find anybody to whom I can give it. " But you are on the point of being here yourself." It will then be time enough to stop when I arrive. I find there is one of your letters which has never reached me, owing to my friend L. Quintius, who was bringing it, being rob- bed and wounded at Basilas's monument. Consider therefore, if it contained anything of importance for me to know. At the same time resolve me this political problem. Since one of these things must take place : either 1st, that Caesar should be deemed eligible, while he still retains his army through the senate, or through the tribunes of the people ; or '2A\y, that Csesar must be persuaded to give up his province and his army, in order to become consul ; or Sdly, if this cannot be done, that the comitia may be held without any consideration of him, yet with his suf- fering it, and retaining his province ; or, 4thly, if through the interference of the tribunes he doesnot suffer the comitia to proceed, but yet remains quiet, that the business icay be brought to an interreg- num ; or, 5tu.'- if iu order to enforce his claims, he should bring up his army, that we must then contend in arms ; and 6thly, that he may either begin the contest immediately, before we are sufficiently prepared ; or, 7thly, after his friends have preferred at the comitia their request for his eligibility, and have been refused ; he may also. Stilly, proceed to arms either for that single reason, that his claims are not admitted ; or 9thly, for an additional reason if it happen that any tri- bune, in his attempt to interrupt the senate, or to excite the populace, should be marked or circum- vented by a decree of the senate, or removed, or expelled, or should flee to him under pretence of being expelled : again, when war is actually begun, we must either, lOthly, remain in possession of the city, — or 1 1 thly, we must leave it, in order to inter- cept his supplies of provisions and troops. Tell methen of these evils, to one of which we must cer- tainly submit, which you think the least. You will say, " that he should be persuaded to deliver up his army in order to be made consul." It is indeed a measure of such a kind, that if he consents no- thing can be said against it ; and if he does not obtain the admission of his claims, I shall be sur- prised if he does not do it. Yet there are some persons who think nothing is more to be dreaded than that he should be consul. " But so," you will say, " is better than with his army." Certainly. But this very so may well make one exclaim, O what a great calamity! and it admits of no remedy ; we must submit at his discretion. Think of him a second time consul, whom you re- member in his former consulate. At that time, in his weakness, he out-matched, you say, the whole republic ; what do you expect now ? And when he is consul, Pompeius is resolved to be in Spain. This is a sad state, that the very thing which is most to be deprecated, cannot be refused ; and if he does it, he will presently attain the highest favour amongst all good men. But setting aside this, to which they say he can never be brought, of the remaining evils which is the worst ? To yield to what PompeiiAS calls his most impudent demands.'' For what can be more impudent ? You have held the province for ten years, granted you not by the senate, but oy yourself, through violence and fac. tion. The period has elapsed, not of the law, but of your self-will ; but suppose it to be of the law, a decree is passed for appointing a successor, you stop it, and say," Have consideration for me." Have you for us .' Would you keep your army longer than the people granted it ? and against the will of the senate .' " You must fight then, unless you agree to it." With a good hope, as Pompeius says, either of conquering or of dying in liberty. If now we must fight, the time depends upon acci- dents ; the manner, on future events : on this sub. ject therefore I do not call upon you. If you have an/thing to offer in reply to what I have said, let mehearit. I am tortured with anxiety day andnight. LETTER X. I HAVE suddenly come to the resolution of setting out before light, to avoid observation and discourse, especially as my lictors come with their laurels'. For the rest, truly I neither know what I am doing, or what I shall do ; so much am I disturbed with the rash determination^ of our general, who seems to have lost his senses. How can I advise you, who am myself waiting for your advice ? What has been Cnffius's object, or what is now his object, I cannot tell, cramped as he is within the towns, and appearing stupified. If he remains in Italy, we shall all be together ; but if he retires, our conduct must be a subject of con- sideration. Hitherto certainly, if I have any under- standing, everything has been done foolishly and incautiously. Pray write to me very often, what- ever comes into your mind. LETTER XI. What, I beseech you, is all this ? or what are people about ? For I am quite in the dark. " We have got possession," you say, " of Cingulum ; we have lost Anconis ; Labienus has deserted from Csesar." Are we speaking of a Roman general, or of Hannibal ? O wretched man, and void of under- standing°, who has never known even a shadow of what is truly honourable ! Yet he professes to do all this for honour's sake. But how can there be honour, where there is not rectitude ? Or is it right then to have an army without any public appointment ? To occupy the towns of Roman citizens, in order to get a readier access to his own country ? To cancel debts, to recall exiles, to institute six hundred other wicked practices, " in order to obtain (as Eteocles says') the greatest kingdom of the gods ? " I envy him not his fortune. I would assuredly prefer a single basking^ with you in your Lucretine sun, before all kingdoms of such a kind ; or rather I would die a thousand times, before I would suffer such a thought to enter my mind. " What if you should wish it," *= The fiiBcee borne by the lictors, or Serjeants, attending one who had been sainted emperor, were bound with laurel till they entered the city. See book v. letter 20. ^ Pompeius hastily left Eome, and retired towards Brundisium. e Caesar. f In the " Plicenisss" of Euripides. t The ancient Romans used to have places appropriated to walking or conversation, which were open to the sun, and screened from cold vnnds. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 705 you say ? " Foi' everybody is at liberty to wish.'' But I consider this very wish a thing more wretched than being crucified. The only thing that is worse, is to get wliat you so wish. But enough of this ; for I am too ready to dwell upon these troubles with you : let us return to our own general. Tell me then, what think you of tliis resolution of Fompeius ? I mean his leaving the city. I am quite at a loss : nothing seems more absurd. That you should leave the city ? Would you then do the same if the Gauls should come"" ? The republic, he says, does not consist in its walls, but in all that we hold dear. Themistbcles did the same". For a single city was unable to withstand the united flood of foreign nations. But Pericles did not so, iifty years afterwards, when besides the walls he kept nothing. And our own people formerly, when the rest of the city was captured, still kept possession of the citadel : " so have we heard the deeds of anc'ent heroes." Yet by the grief of the towns, and the conversation of those I meet, this reso- lution seems likely to produce some effect. There is a wonderful complaint (I know not if it is made there ; but you will tell me) that the city should be without magistrates, without a senate. In short, Fompeius by his flight creates a strong sensation. What think you ? The case is quite altered, and now it is thought that nothing should be granted to Cffisar. Explain to me how all this is. I have a charge attended with little trouble : for Fompeius wishes me to have the superintendence of all this district of Campania, and the sea-coast ; so that the levies of troops, and all business of importance, may be referred to me. I therefore expect to be unsettled. I imagine by this time you see what is Caesar's impetuosity, what is the disposition of the people, what is the state of the whole business : about all these things I should be glad if you would write to me, and (as they are liable to change) as often as you can. For I feel some comfort both whilst I am writing to you, and whilst I am reading your letters. LETTER XII. I HAVE hitherto received but one letter from you, dated the 20thJ, in which it is mentioned that you had previously despatched another, which I have not received. But I beg you will write as often as possible, not only if you have learned, or heard anything, but even if you suspect it ; espe- cially what you think I ought or ought not to do. As to what you ask me, that I should take care to inform you what Fompeius is doing; I do not believe he knows himself, and certainly nobody else does. I saw the consul Lentulus at Formise the 22d, and saw Libo. Everything is full of alarm and confusion. Fompeius is gone to Lari- num ; for there the troops are, and at Luceria, and Theanum, and other parts of Apulia. Thence it is uncertain whether he means to stop anywhere, or to cross the sea. If he remains, I doubt whether he can rely upon his army ; if he goes away, what I should do, whither I should go, or where I should stay, I know not. For I apprehend he, whose *i Th'S evidently alludes to the city of Rome having for- merly been taken by the Gauls. ' Upon the inv.nsion of the Persians, i Probably the 20th of January, tyi-anny you dread, will act most sadly. Neither the adjournment of public business, nor the flight of the senate and magistrates, nor the secret'" treasury, will stop him. But this, as you say, we shall soon see. In the mean time yon must excuse me for writing to you so much, and so often. For I feel some consolation from it, and besides am/ desirous of eliciting your letters in return, espe- cially your advice, what I should do, or how I should conduct myself, and whether I should give myself up wholly to the party. I am not deterred by danger ; but am distracted with grief. That everything should be conducted with such want of judgment, or so contrary to my own judgment ! Or should I hesitate, and turn back, and join those who are in possession, and enjoy the smiles of fortune? " I have too much respect for the Trojans','' and am prevented by the duty not only of a citizen, but of a friend. But then I am un- manned by commiseration for the children. Write therefore something to me in my trouble, notwith- standing you feel the same distress ; but especially if Fompeius should retire out of Italy, tell me what you think I ought to do. Manius Lepidus indeed (for we were together) has resolved to go no further than that ; L. Torquatus says the same. I have many circumstances, and among the rest my lictors, to embarrass me. I never met with anything less capable of being disentangled. Therefore I ask for nothing certain, but only for what you think ; and, in short, I wish to know your very doubtings. It is pretty certain that Labienus has left Csesar. If it had happened that on coming to Rome he could have found the magistrates and the senate there, it might have been of great service to our cause ; as by it he would appear to pass sentence upon a friend for the sake of the republic. This appears indeed now, but is of less service ; for there is nobody to serve ; and I imagine he already repents of the step he has taken ; unless perhaps the very circumstance of his having left him be false : I had it however for a truth. Now though, as you say, you confine yourself within your own boundaries, yet I wish you to explain to me the actual state of the city ; whether there is expressed any wish for Fompeius ; any dislike towards Csesar ; also what you think about Terentia and TuUia, whether they .should continue at Rome, or be with me, or retire to some place of safety. All this, and anything else that occurs, I should be glad to hear from you, and the oftener the better. LETTER Xin. I AGREE with you about the Vennoniau business. I look upon Labienus as a hero. There has been for a long time no deed more distinguished amongst our citizens. If no other good arise from it, there is this at least, that it has given pain to Cccsar. But I think moreover that it has some effect in advancing the general cause. I love Piso too, whose judgment of his son-in-law" must, I think, 1* The treasury was within the temple of Saturn, und there anpears to have been one part of it reserved for the extraorainary exigencies of the state. [Livius, xxvii. 10.] This is what is probably intended in this place. See letter 21 of this book, 1 This quotation from Homer occurs before. See book ii, letter 5, n> Crcsar hrwl married Calpurnia, Pico's daughter; 1. Z 706 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO have weight. Though you see the nature of this contest. It is a civil war of such a kind, as does not arise from divisions among the members of the state, but from the audacity of one abandoned citizen. He is powerful from his army ; he retains many by hopes and promises ; but really aims at possessing everything belonging to everybody. To this man has the city been delivered up, fuU of supplies, and without a garrison. What is there that you may not dread from one who regards those temples and houses not as his country, but as his prey ? What he designs to do however, or by what means, I know not, without a senate, and without magistrates : he cannot so much as pretend to any pubUc motive. But where shall we be able to raise ourselves up again ? or when ? having, as you must perceive, a most ungeneral-like com- mander, who did not even know the circumstances ofPicenum". Howunadvisedhe is, the state of affairs testifies; for,tosaynothingoftheerrorsofthelastten years, what condition is not preferable to this flight? Nor do I now understand what are his intentions ; and I do not cease in my letters to inquire. It is plain that nothing can be more timid, nothing more confused : so that I see no protection, for the sake of which he was kept near the city ; nor any place or situation for protection. All hope is placed in two legions that are invidiously retained"*, and iU- affected. For the new recruits are hitherto raised against their inclination, and determined not to fight. The time for making conditions is lost. What is likely to happen I do not see. It has been committed by us, or at least by our leader, to go out of harbour without our rudders, and give our- selves up to the storm. I am in doubt what I should do with our young Ciceros : I have some- times thought of sending them into Greece. And with respect to TuUia and Terentia, when the approach of so many foreign troops comes across my mind, I dread everything : then again when I recollect Dolabella, I a little revive. I should wish you to consider what you think I ought to do ; in the first place, for security ; (for a different con- sideration is due to them and to myself;) then for my reputation, that I may not be blamed for choosing to let them be in Rome at a time when aU honest people are leaving it. You also, and Peduceus, who has written to me, must take care what you do ; for such is your reputation, that as much is required of you as of the greatest citizens. But about this you will see ; as I wish you to con- sider about myself, and my concerns. It remains for me to beg that you will find out, as well as you are able, what is doing, and will write me word : also what you can ascertain by conjecture, which I particularly look for from you. For, while every- body relates what is done, from you I expect what is going to be done. " The best prophet is one who guesses wellP." Pardon my loquaciousness ; which both affords me some relief while I am writing to you, and calls forth your letters i. I could not at first understand the enigma of ihe Oppii of Velia ' ; for it is more obscure than n That the town of Picenum should have heen garrisoned to prevent the approach of Casax to Rome. ■* o They had heen raised for the Parthian war. P The original is quoted from Euripides. <1 There is every appearance of thie being the conclusion of one letter, and what follows, the beginning of another. J The Oppii were probahly scriveners and money agents Plato's doctrine of numbers'. But I now under- stand your meaning ; for you call the Oppii the Juices' of Velia. This puzzled me a long time. But this being made out, the rest was clear, and agreed vrith Terentia's account. I saw L. Csesar at Minturnse the morning of the 25th of January with most extravagant instructions ; a mere man of straw ; so that he seems to me to have done it in mockery, to deliver to him instructions of such importance. Unless perhaps he did not deliver them, and this man caught hold of some expres. sions, which he pretended were instructions. Labienus, whom I look upon as a great man, came to Theanum the 23d ; there he met Pompeius and the consuls. When I know certainly what was said and done, I will inform you. Pompeius went from Theanum towards Larinum the 24 th. That day he remained at Venafrum. Labienus seems to have brought us a little encouragement. Bat I have nothing yet to tell you from this quarter. I rather wait to hear what news is brought thither; how he bears this conduct of Labienus ; what Domitius is doing among the Marsi, or Thermus at Iguvium, or P. Attius at Cingulum" ; how the people in the city are disposed ; and what is your opinion of the future. Upon these subjects I should wish often to hear from you, and what you think best to be done about the ladies, and what you mean to do yourself. If I were writing with my own hand, I should send you a longer letter j but I employ an amanuensis on account of a weak- ness in my eyes. LETTER XIV. I SEND this on the 27th of January, on my way from Cales to Capua, having still a slight inflam- mation of the eyes. L. Caesar delivered Csesar's despatch to Pompeius on the 25th, while he was with the consuls at Theanum. The terms were approved, with this reserve, that he should with- draw his garrisons from those places which he had occupied beyond the limits of his province. If he did this, it was replied that we would return to the city, and conclude the business through the senate. I hope that we are at peace even at this present For he begins to repent of his madness, and our general of his forces'. Pompeius wished me to go to Capua, and to forward the levies ; in which the Campanian settlers are not very ready to engage. Pompeius has very conveniently distributed Caesar's gladiators, which are at Capua, and about whom I had before sent yon a wrong account from Tor- quatus's letters. Two are sent to each family. There were 600 of them in the schools. It was said they were going to make an insurrection : so that in this respect the republic has been well pro- residing in that part of Rome known by the name cf VeUa. "This doctrine of numbers was derived from Pytbagoraa, and is indeed most obscure. Plato has introduced it inhis " Timffius," and in some other parts of his works. * I have thought it best to give this, which I conceive to be the meaning of the Latin succones, derived from ottiJs, " SUCCU8,'* or "juice." There is an instanceof a similar enigma on the name of Philotimus. [See book vL letter 9.] Of the Oppii see book vili. letter 7, note ™. " These were all of them of Pompeias's party. ' Pompeius begins to repent of having placed his reliance on such doubtful troops. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 707 Tided for. Respecting our ladies, amongst whom is yonr sister, pray consider how far it is reputable for us that they should remain at Rome, when all other ladies of any respect have left it. I have before written to you, and have written to them about it. I should wish you to encourage their departure ; especially as I have estates on the sea- coast, where I preside, in which they may be accom- modated as occasion offers. For if offence is taken at my conduct, it arises from my son-in-law ; for which I ought not to be responsible : but this is something more, that our ladies should have con- tinued at Rome after all the others. I should be glad to know what you yourself, and Sextus, think about going away ; and what is your opinion of the whole state of affairs. For my own part, I do not cease to recommend peace ; which, even if it be unequitable, is preferable to the most equitable war. But this as fortune shall ordain. LETTER XV. Since my departure from the city, I have suf- fered no day to pass without writing something to you ; not that I had much to say, but that I might talk with you in my absence. For, when I cannot do this in person, nothing is more agreeable to me. Upon my arrival at Capua on the 27th, the day previous to my writing this, I met the consuls and many of our order " ; all of whom wished that Csesar might withdraw his garrisons, and abide by the terms he had offered. Favonius alone objected to our admitting any conditions imposed by him ; but he was not attended to in the council. Even Cato thinks it now better to submit than to fight. He says however that he wishes to be pre- sent in the senate, when the terms are debated, if Caesar should be induced to withdraw his garrisons. Therefore he does not care to go into Sicily, 'where his presence is greatly wanted ; but is desirous of being in the senate, which I fear may be prejudicial. Postumus also, whom the senate appointed by name to go immediately into Sicily to succeed Fuffanus, refuses to go without Cato, and conceives that his own assistance and weight in the senate is of great importance. Thus the business devolves upon Fannius, who is sent before with a command into Sicily. There is a great difference of opinion in our consultations. Most think that Caesar will not adhere to the conditions, and that these requi- sitions were interposed by him only to interrupt our necessary preparations for war. But I expect that he will withdraw his garrisons : for if he is made consul, he will gain his purpose, and wiU gain it with less guilt than that with which he began. But a severe blow must be sustained ; for we are shamefully unprepared both in men and money. The whole of which, whether belonging to individuals in the city, or to the public in the treasury, is left for him. Pompeius is gone to join the troops of Attius, and has taken Labienus with him. I want your opinion upon these matters. I design to retire immediately to Formiae. " Of the senators. LETTER XVL I IMAGINE I have received all your letters ; the first irregularly, the rest in the order in which Terentia sent them. About Caesar's proposals and Labienus's arrival, and the replies of the con '■ suls and of Pompeius, I have written to you in a letter from Capua of the 28th, and have besides thrown together several things in the same letter. We have now two subjects of expectation ; one, what Caesar will determine when he has received the answer delivered to L. Caesar ; the other, what Pompeius is doing, who sends me word that in a few days he shall have an army on which he can depend ; and he holds out the hope that, if he gets into the country of Picenum, we may return again to Rome. He has with him Labienus, who speaks confidently of the weakness of Caesar's forces. His arrival is a great source of encouragement to our Cnsens. I have been desired by the consuls to be at Capua the 5th of February. I set out from Capua to go to Formise the 30th of January ; and the same day having received your letter at Cales about three in the afternoon, I have immediately set down to answer it. I agree with you about Terentia and Tullia, to whom I had written referring them to you. If they are not already set out, there is no occasion for their removing till we see what the situation of things may be. LETTER XVII. Your letter is most acceptable and agreeable to me. I thought of transporting the boys into Greece, at a time when the quitting Italy seemed necessary : for if I should go to Spain this would not be equally suitable for them. I think you and Sextus may even now very well remain in Rome ; for you have no reason to be friends with our Pompeius, — since nobody ever withdrew so much from the city garrison. You see that I can still joke^' with you. You must already be acquainted with the answer which L. Csesar brings back from Pompeius, and the letter he bears from him to Csesar ; for it is written and delivered with the view of being made public. I have in my own mind found fault with Pompeius, who, though he writes so well, should have left to Sestius an affair of such consequence, which was to go into every- body's hands. Accordingly, I never read anything more Sestian?. It may, however, be seen by Pompeius's letter, that nothing is refused to Csesar ', but everything that he can demand is abundantly granted, — which he must be mad if he does not accept, especially as the demand is most unreason- able : for who are you that say, " if Pompeius goes into Spain," and " if he dismisses his garri- sons ? " Yet this is granted ; though not so honourably now, when the republic has been violated and invaded by arms, as if he had formerly obtained the acknowledgment of his eligibility. Yet I doubt if even this vrill satisfy him. For when he had delivered his proposals to L. Csesar, he should have waited more quietly for the answer; instead of which he is reported to be particularly * The joke consists in giving the name of garrifion to the senators and others who quitted Rome. 7 More indicative of Sestiue's had style. ZZ2 T08 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO active. Trebatius sends me word, that he wag desired by Caesar to write to me the 22d of Janu- aiy, requesting me to come to Rome, and saying that I could not do him a greater favour. Upon all this he largely dilated. I understood, by reckoning up the days, that as soon as Caesar had heard of my departure he began to be uneasy, from the appreh'ension that we" might all be absent. 1 do not doubt, therefore, of his having written likewise to Piso, and to Servius. I am rather surprised that he should not have written to me himself, or should not have applied to me through Dolabella or Ca;lius ; not that I have any objection to Trebatius's writing, of whose affection I am well persuaded. I wrote word back to Trebatius (for I did not care to write to Caesar, as he had not written to me), that it could not very well be done at this time, — but that I was at one of my farms, and had taken no part in raising troops or any other business : and I intend to maintain this posture as long as any hope remains. But if war breaks out, I shall not be wanting to my duty or to my dignity, having first sent the boys into Greece. For I perceive that every part of Italy will be in- volved in the contest, — so great is the mischief excited partly by wicked, partly by jealous citizens. But in a few days it will be understood, from the. manner in which he receives our answer, how things are likely to go. Then, if we are to have war, I will write to you more at length ; but if even a truce is agreed upon, I shall hope to see you myself. This 2d of February, on which day I write in Formianum, being just returned from Capua, I am expecting the ladies, though I had written to them by your advice to desire they would remain in Rome ; but I hear there has been a great alarm in the city. I mean to be at Capua the 5th of February, as the consuls desired. What- ever inteUigence is brought hither from Pompeius I will immediately write to inform you ; and I shall expect to hear from you upon these affairs. LETTER XVIIL On the 2d of February the ladies arrived at Formiae, and brought an account of your attention and great kindness to them. I have thought it best that they should remain in Formianum along with the young Ciceros, till I knew whether we were to have a disgraceful peace or a wretched war. I am going with my brother to the consuls at Capua the 3d of February, on which day I write ; for we were desired to be there the 5th. Pompeius's answer is said to be liked by the people, and ap- proved by the assembly. I had supposed it would be so. If he" rejects this, he will lose his esti- mation; if he accepts it, — '"Which then," you will say, " do you prefer?" I would answer you if I knew how well we were prepared. It was reported here that Cassius had been diiven from Ancon, and that the place was in the possession of our people. If a war takes place, this may be an advantageous circumstance. They say that Caesar, ^ The senators. * Cffisar. b I have left this break as it is in the original. The tsense no doubt i3, that if CiEsar agrees to Pompeius's terms, wo Bhall be ieft iu a very bad contlition. at the very time when Lucius Caesar was sent with proposals of peace, was nevertheless eagerly raising recruits, occupying different posts, and securing himself with garrisons. O the wicked robber I disgrace to the republic, scarcely to be compensated by any peace. But let ns cease to complain, and bend to the times, and go with Pompeius into Spain. This is what I wish for in this sad state ; since we have, without any pretence, refused to let the republic see him a second time consul •=. But enough of this. I forgot before to write to you about Dionysius ; but it was my determination to wait for Caesar's answer, — that in case I should return to the city he might wait for me there, or if that should be put off then I might send for him. I say nothing of what he ought to do in the event of my flight, or what becomes a learned and friendly man, especially when he had been asked. But this I must not require too rigidly from Greeks. You will take care, however, if it is necessary to summon him (which I should be sorry for) that I may not trouble him against his inclination. My brother Quintus is anxious to pay what he owes you through Egnatius ; and there is no want of inclination on Egnatius's part, nor any want of funds : but the times being such that Q. Titinias, who has been a great deal with me, has not enough to defray his expenses on the road, and has informed bis debtors that they must continue the same in- terest''; that L. Ligus also is said to have done the same ; and that Quintus has at present no money in his house, and can neither get any from Egnatius nor borrow anywhere : he is surprised that you should have no regard for this general embarrassment. And I, whilst I observe that precept falsely attributed to Hesiod (for so it is supposed), to pronounce no judgment till you have heard both sides, especially against you, whom I never knew to do anything unadvisedly ; yet I am moved by his complaint : at all events I wished you to be acquainted with it. LETTER XIX. I HAVE nothing to tell you : nay, a letter which I had written I have not sent, — for it was full of good hopes ; as I had been informed of the dispo- sition of the assembly, and imagined that Csesav would abide by the terms, especially as they were his own. Behold then on the morning of the 4th of February I received your letter, and that of Philotimus, of Furnius, and of Curio to Fumins, in which he ridicules L. Caesar's embassy. I feel quite overwhelmed, and know not what resolution t9 form. Yet it is not for myself that I care ; but I am at a loss what to do about the boys. I write this, however, on my way to Capua, that I may more readily learn the state of Pompeius's affairs. LETTER XX. The time itself makes me little disposed to say much ; for I despair of peace, and our friends make no provision for war. You can imagine « Cipsar's eligibility having been sanctioned by law, there was no longer any pretence to oppose it. d It was usual to pay the interest of money the middle of every month, and probably some intimation w:iB given in case the interest was to continue unaltered. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATI [CUS 709 nothing weaker than these consuls ; by whose directions I came to Capua yesterday in a violent rain, with the hope of hearing what tliey had to propose, and of learning the state of our prepara- tions. They had not then arrived, but were coming empty and unprepared. Cnsus was said to be at Luceria, where he was to join some cohorts of the Attian legion, not very steady. But Caesar, they say, is rushing on and almost at hand ; not with the view of fighting, — for with whom should he fight ? but to intercept our flight. For myself, I am ready to die with the rest in Italy ; about which I do not consult you. But if they go out of Italy what should I do .' The winter, the lictors which attend me', the improvidence and negligence of our leaders, all tend to make me stay : the mo- tives to flight are, my friendship with Cnseus, the common cause of all honest men, the baseness of joining with a tyrant, who whether he will imitate Fhalaris, or {"isistratus', is uncertain. I should be glad if you could resolve these difficulties, and assist me with your counsel, — though I imagine you must yourself be already in perplexity where you are, — but yet as far as you may be able. If I learn anything new here to-day, you shall know it ; for the consuls will presently be here, as they appointed. I hope to hear from you every day. You will answer this as soon as you can. I left the ladies and the young Ciceros in Formianum. LETTER XXI. Or our calamities you have earlier intelligence than I, for they take their course from thence ; and there is nothing good to be expected from hence. I came to Capua the 5th of February, agreeably to the order of the consuls. Lentulus arrived late in the day ; the other consul had not yet arrived on the 7th : for on that day I left Capua and staid at Cales, from whence I send this the following day before it is light. I learned so much at Capua, — that the consuls are quite inefficient, and that no troops are raised. Those employed on the recruit- ing service dare not show their faces, as Csesar is at hand ; while our commander is nowhere, and does nothing ; so that the people will not enlist, — not from want of inclination, but from want of encouragement. But our Cnseus (O wretched and incredible state !), how is he quite sunk ! He has DC spirit, no counsel, no forces, no exertion ; to say nothing of his shameful flight from the city, his timid harangues in the towns, his ignorance not only of his adversary's forces, but of his own. What is the meaning of this ? On the 7th of February, C. Cassius, tribune of the people, came to Capua with instructions from Pompeius to the consuls that they should go to Rome and take away the money from the sacred treasury^, and immediately quit the city. Return to Rome ? under what guard ? Then that they should go out again ? with whose permission .' The consul wrote word back, that Pompeius himself must first ' Cicero had not yet laid down his command since his return from Cilicia. f PhaJaris was distinguished by his cruelty j Fisistratus by Ills Iiumanity ; botli of them tyrants. s This seems to have been a sacred deposit reserved for extraordinary emergencies. See above, letter 12 of this iKJIlk. occupy Picenum''. But that was already lost ; which I knew, and nobody else, from Dolabe.lla's letters. I ha'd no doubt but that Caesar would presently be in Apulia, and that our Cnseus would be on board a ship. It is a great question what I should do. I should have no difficulty, if every- thing had not been conducted most disgracefully, while I was never consulted. But yet I would do what becomes me. Caesar himself invites me to peace j but his letter is previous to his present impetuous career. Dolabella and Caelius assure me that my conduct is satisfactory to him. I am distracted with wonderful irresolution. Help me, if you can, with your advice ; and at the same time, as far as you are able, provide for what may hap- pen. In such a confused state of affairs I can write about nothing. I am expecting to hear from you. LETTER XXII. I PERCEIVE there is not a foot of ground in Italy that is not in Ceesar's power. Of Pompeius I know nothing; atid unless he gets on board a ship, 1 fear he will be taken. What incredible speed ! But as for this our general Yet I cannot without pain find fault with one for whom I am grieved and distressed. It is not without reason that you apprehend a slaughter ; not that anything could be less calculated to secure the victory and authority of Caesar ; but I see by whose counsels he will act. May it turn out well ! I apprehend it will be necessary to retire from these towns. I am at a loss what steps to take. You will do what you think best. Speak with Philotimus ; and yon will have Terentia on the 13th. What should I do .' In what land, or what-sea, should I follow Mm, whom I know not where to find ? But how is it possible by land .' And in what sea ! Shall I then deliver myself up to Cassar .' Suppose I could do it with safety (and many people advise it) , could I also do it with honour .' Certainly not. What then .' I want your advice, as usual. It is a difficulty which cannot be cleared up: yet tell me what occurs to you, and what you mean to do yourself. LETTER XXm. On the 9th of February in the evening I received a letter from Philotimus informing me that Domi- tius had an army to be depended upon ; and that it had been joined by the troops from Picenum under the conduct of Lentulus and Thermus ; that Caesar might be intercepted, and that he was afraid of it : that the spirits of honest men in Rome were raised ; that the wicked were almost thunderstruck. I am afraid that this is but a dream : but, however, Philotimus's letter has quite revived M. Lepidus, L. Torquatus, and C. Cassius the tribune of the people, who are with me in the neighbourhood of Formiae". I wish it may not be more true, that we are all nearly prisoners ; and that Pompeius is retiring from Italy ; of whom (O bitter chance !) Caesar is said to be in pursuit. Caesar in pursuit ■» This Pompeius had professed to do ; which if ho had done, it would h.ive cut off Ctesar's approach to the city, > See book vili. letter 6. 710 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO of Pompeius ? What ? to kill him ? O sad ! And do we not all make a rampart of our bodies to oppose Mm ? In this you also take an interest. But what can we do ? We are completely con- quered, overwhelmed, and taken. However, upon reading Philotimus's letter I have changed my resolution about the ladies, whom, as I told you, I was going to send back to Rome. But it occurred to me that it might occasion a good deal of talk, if I should seem already to have formed my judg- ment of the public cause : in despair of which the ladies went back as a step to my own return. Re- specting myself, I agree with you, that I should not expose myself to a doubtful and hazardous flight, by which I can do no good to the republic, none to Pompeius, for whom I am willing to die with all devotion and readiness. I will therefore remain ; though to live — J. You ask what people are doing here. All Capua, and all recruiting, is sunk in despair : the cause is considered as lost ; every- body is running away ; unless there be any pro- spect of Pompeius uniting those troops of Domitius with his own. But I suppose we shall know everything in two or three days. I have sent you a copy of Caesar's letter, as you desired. Many persons have assured me of his being very well pleased with the part I have taken. I am not sorry for this ; whilst I shall continue, as I have hitherto done, to avoid anything inconsistent with my honour. LETTER XXIV. PniLOTiMns's letter gave wonderful encourage- ment, not .to me, but to those who were with me. The next day comes a letter to Cassius from his friend Lucretius at Capua, saying that Nigidius had arrived at Capua from Domitius, and reported that Vibullius was fleeing out of Picenum with a few soldiers to Cnseus, and that Csesar was imme- diately following him, while Domitius could not muster 3000 men. He added that the consuls had left Capua. I doubt not but Cnseus is trying to make his escape, if only he can effect it. I have, as you advise, no thought of fleeing away. LETTER XXV. After I had despatched my letter to you full of sad news, but I fear too true, on the subject of Lucretius's letter to Cassius from Capua ; Cepha. lio arrived, and brought from you a more cheerful letter, yet not written with your usual confidence. I can believe anything sooner than what you say, that Pompeius is at the head of an army. Nobody brings any intelhgence of the kind hither, but i I understand this to allude to his destroying himself, if he could not live with credit, like what is repeatedly said, hook iii. letters 9, 19, 23, under the affliction of his banishment ; and there also it id rather implied than expressed, prohably to avoid the ill omen of an open decla- ration in direct terms. everything that is unpleasant. It is a wretched state. He has always been successful in a bad cause : in the best of causes he has failed. What can be said, but that he understood the one, which was easy enough, and did not understand the other? For the right administration of the repub- lic is a diflScult art. But I shall very soon know everything, and will immediately write to you. LETTER XXVI. I CANNOT say, as you do, "how often do I revive ? " For it is only now that I a little revive, especially by the intelligence that is brought from Rome about Domitius, and the troops of the Ficentians. These last two days everything has become more favourable, so that the preparations for flight are put off. Caesar's declaration, "if I find you here two days hence''," is discredited. The accounts of Domitius are good ; those of A&a- nius excellent. Your friendly advice of keeping myself free from either party as long as I can, is very agreeable to me. When you add, that I must avoid the appearance of being inclined to a bad cause, I certainly may appear so ; for I refused to take a lead in the civU contest while peace was in agitation i not that it was not right, but because that which was much more right had brought upon me the imputation of wrong '. I certainly did not wish to make an enemy of him" to whom Pom- peius would offer a second consulate and a triumph: and in what terms? "for his most distinguished conduct." I know whom I should fear, and why. But if a war breaks out, as I see it will, I shall not be backward in taking my side. Terentia has written to you about the 20,000 sestertii (1661,). While I thought I should be moving about, I did not care to be troublesome to Dionysius ; and I made no reply to your repeated assurance of his attachment, because I expected from day to day to be able to determine what was to be done. Now, as far as I see, the boys are likely to pass the winter in Formianum. Whether I shall be there too, I do not know j for if we go to war, I am resolved to join Pompeius. When I hear any- thing certain, I will take care to inform you. For my part I apprehend the foulest war ; unless, as you know, some accident should occur on the side of Parthia". ^ This is not to he supposed Cssar's actual declaration- It appears to be a line out of some poem, and probably means no more than to express the apprehensions enter- tained of Caesar's unlimited power. 1 This alludes to the persecution and banishment which he Buifered in consequence of his exertions in suppresfljng the Catilinariau conspiracy. " Caesar. ° The Romans having sustained a signal defeat by the Parthians, at the time of Crassus's death, became pecu- liarly alive to any danger that might arrive, and had already appointed Pompeius to go thither, [book vi. let- ter t,] from whence it was hoped, that, in case of alann from that quarter, the necessity of his absence might pre- vent a civU war from breaking out. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. rii BOOK vm. LETTER I. Presently after I had sent my letter to you, I received one from Pompeius. It mostly related to the transactions in Picenum, of which YibulHus had sent him an account ; and to the troops raised by Domitius ; all which is known to you. It did not, however, represent things in so favourable a light as Philotimus's letter. I would have sent you the letter itself, but that my brother's servant is in a hurry to set off. I will send it therefore to-morrow". But at the end of the letter is added in Fompeius's own hand : " I think you should come to Luceria : you can nowhere be safer." I understood this to signify, that he looked upon these towns, and maritime coast'', as given up. And I was not surprised that he, who had given up the head' itself, should not spare the other members. I immediately wrote him word back by a confidential attendant, that I did not consider where I could be most in safety ; but that if he wished me to go to Luceria on his own account, or that of the republic, I would immediately go : and I advised him to preserve the sea-coast, if he hoped to be supplied with grain from the provinces. I knew that I was saying this to no purpose ; but as in the case of retaining the city formerly, so now in the case of not relinquishing Italy, I wished to declare my opinion. For I perceive that pre- parations are making to concentrate all the troops at Luceria, not because that place is tenable, but that from thence, if we are pressed, we may have a ready escape. Tfou must not therefore be sur- prised, if I am unwilling to embark in a cause which has for its object neither peace nor victory, but only a disgraceful and calamitous flight. I must go ; that, whatever issue chance may produce, I may rather submit to it vrith those who are called good than appear to dissent from the good. Though I see that the city will presently be fuU of good people in one sense, that is, of the luxu- rious and wealthy ; and if these distant towns are deserted, it will overflow. I should be among their number, if I were not encumbered with these lictors. Nor should I be sorry to have Manius Lepidus, L. Volcatius, and Sergius Sulpitius, for my companions ; of whom none exceeds L. Domi- tius in foUy, or Appius Claudius in inconstancy'. Pompeius alone affects me, not by his authority, but by his kindness. For what authority can he have in this cause ? who professed his fondness for Ceesar at a time when we were all afraid of him ; and since he is become afraid himself, thinks that everybody ought to be Caesar's enemy. I shall, however, go to l^uceria ; though he will not per- haps be much pleased with my arrival; for I cannot conceal my dislike of what has hitherto been done. If it were possible for me to sleep, I should not molest you with such long letters : if you are under the influence of the same cause, I wish you would make the same return. • The letter itself will be found after lettei' 11 of thia book, P The south coast, from whence Cicero writes. 1 Rome. ' He should be as well countenanced by the example of those who wore going to Rome, as by that of those who, without being a whit better, staid away. LETTER n. I AM obliged to you on every account ; both for telling me what you had heard ; and for not giving credit to what was inconsistent with my, usual cor- rectness ; and for giving me your own opinion. I wrote one letter to Caesar from Capua, in reply to what he had said to me about his gladiators". It was short, but expressive of kindness.; not only without reproach, but even with great praise, of Pompeius. For so that purpose of my letter re- quired, wherein I exhorted him to a reconciliation. If he has communicated this, he is welcome to publish it. I have written a second letter, the same day that I write this. I could not do other- wise, considering that he had himself written to me, and likewise Balbus. I send you a copy of my letter, and believe you will find in it nothing to blame : if there should be anything, show me how I could avoid it. " Do not write at all," you will say. How will this enable one to escape those who shall please to invent.' However, I will do so as far as possible. When you recall me to the recollection of what I have done, and said, and written, you act indeed a friendly part, for which I thank you ; but you seem to me to judge differently from myself what is honourable and becoming for me in this cause. For, in my opinion, nothing was ever done, in any country, by any leader and head of a state, more disgrace- fully than by our friend ; whose condition I sin- cerely lament. He has deserted the city, that is, his country, for which, and in which, it had been glorious to die. You appear to me not to see the magnitude of this calamity; for you remain still in your own house. But you cannot remain there without the leave of the most abandoned men. Can anything be more wretched, more disgraceful than this ? We wander about like beggars with our wives and children. We have placed all our hopes in the life of one man, who is every year dangerously ill; and are not driven, but called, out of our country ; which we have left, not to be preserved till our return, but to be plundered and burned ; so many are there in the same situation with myself, not in their villas, not in their gardens, not even in the city ; or if they are now, they will not be there long. In the mean time I must not remain even at Capua, but at Luceria. And we must now relinquish the sea-coast, and wait for Afranius and Petreius' ; for Labienus has lost his dignity". Here you vrill apply to me the proverb, *' What you give, that you must bear'." I say nothing of myself; I leave that to others. But s See book vii. letter 14. ( These were lieutenants of Pompeius in Spain. « He had lost his consideration since his defection from Ciesar to Pompeius. See book vii. letter 12. V This I conceive to be the true interpretation of this broken sentence. m THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO wliat dignity is there here ? You, and all respect- able people, are, and will continue, at your own homes. But before, who did not present himself to me? And now, who comes to this war"'? for so it must now be called. VibulUus has already done great things. You will know what this is from Pompeius's letter ; in which observe the place that is scored. You will see what VibuUius's own opinion is of our Cnseus. But whither does this discourse lead ? I am ready to sacrifice my life for Pompeius ; there is nobody for whom I have a greater regard : yet not so, that I think all hope of saving the repubUc depends upon him alone ; for you give me to understand, something differently from what you used to do, that even if he should retire from Italy, you think I ought to retire witli him : which seems to me advisable nei- ther for the republic nor for my children, and, moreover, neither right nor honourable. *' What then .' Will you be able to support the sight of a tyrant?" As if it signified whether I saw him, or only heard of him ; or as if I could look for a higher authority than Socrates ; who, when there were thirty tyrants, did not set his foot beyond the gate ". But I Iiave besides a special reason for staying ; about which I shall hope at some time to talk to youf. I write this, the 17th of February, by the same lamp with which I have burned your letter ^ ; and am going immediately from Formise to Pompeius : if it were to treat of peace, I might be of some consideration ; if of war, what part can I take ? LETTER III. In the anxiety occasioned by this critical and wretched state of affairs, while I have no means of consulting with you in person, yet I wish to avail myself of your judgment. The whole question is this : if Pompeius should quit Italy, as I imagine he will, what you think I ought to do ; and that you may the more easily give me your opinion, I will shortly explain what occurs to me on both sides. My great obligations to Pompeius in promoting my restoration, the intimacy between us, and the cause of the republic itself, induce me to think that I ought to unite with him, whether in counsel or in fortune. Added to which, if I remain, and desert that assemblage of the best and most distin- guished citizens, I must fall under the dominion of one man ; who, though in many respects he shows himself to be friendly to me, (and that he might be so I have, as you know, long since pro- vided, in apprehension of this storm which hangs over us,) yet we must take into consideration both the degree of credit that is to be given to his pro- fessions, and, if it should be clear that he will indeed be friendly to me, whether it becomes a brave man, and a good citizen, to remain in that city, in which he has enjoyed the highest honours and appointments, has conducted the greatest w They who now content themselves with staying at home, formerly professed their readiness to support tlie cause of the republic. ^ Lysander liaving made himself master of Atliens, piaced the government in the hands of thirty tyi-ants. J' This probably alludes to the conduct of Terentiu. ^ There is reason to believe that Attieus, out of his gi-eat caution, bad desired Cicero to destroy his letters, or in the mean time to keep them secured. Sec book iz., letter 10. affairs, and held the sovereign priesthood, without being any longer his own master, and with the pos- sibility of incurring danger, and perhaps some dis- grace, if ever Pompeius should restore the republic. This is what may be said on one side. See now what may be said on the other. Nothing has been done by our Pompeius wisely, nothing nobly, and, 1 may add, nothing but what was contrary to my own opinion and authority. I omit those old errors of cherishing, raising, and arming Csesar against the republic ; that it was he who got laws to be passed by violence, and contrary to the auspices ; he that added the further Gaul to his command ; he that is the son-in-law ; he that was augur at the adoption of P. Clodius ; he that was more ear- nest in my recall than in preventing my exile ; he that extended the period of Csesar's government ; he that was on every occasion the advocate of Caesar in his absence ; and even in his third consu- late, after he began to be the protector of the republic, exerted himself to obtain the consent of the ten tribunes to his eligibility dming his absence ; which he afterwards ratified by a certain law of his own ; and on the 1st of March opposed the consul Marcus Marcellus, who would have put an end to the Gallic provinces'. But, to say nothing of these matters , what can be more disgraceful, what more inconsiderate, than this retreat from the city, or rather this base flight ? What conditions were not preferable to the desertion of one^s country? The conditions were bad, I grant ; but could any- thing be worse than this ? " But he will recover the republic." When ? Or what preparations are there to encourage such a hope .' Is not the country of Picenum lost? Is not the road left open to the city ? Is not all the wealth of the metropolis, both public and private, surrendered to the adversaiy ? In short, there is no party, no power, no place, where those may rally who wish well to the repubUc. Apulia is chosen, the most uninhabited part of Italy, and the most remote from the irruption of this war : flight, and convenience of the sea-coast, appear to be the first objects in this despondency. I took charge of Capua against my wiU ; not that I dis- liked that office, but because there was no party to- act with, none that showed any public sorrow, or any declared private sorrow : there was some among good men, but this was in a quiet- way, as usual, and as I might have felt myself ; the mob and all the weaker sort were inclined to the other side, and many were desirous of some change. I told Pompeius that I could undertake nothing without troops, and without money. I have therefore had notlung at all to do ; for I saw from the first, that nothing was aimed at besides escape. ■ If I now pursue this object, whither should I go ? Certainly not with him : for when I had set out to join him, I understood that Csesar was in those parts, so that I could not safely get to (juceria. I must sail then by the Mediterranean sea, with no certain course, and in the depth of winter. Besides, should I go with my brother, or without him ? or with my son ? or how ? Either way I shall have great difficulty, and great anxiety. And what violence will he commit against me and my fortunes in my absence ! Greater than against those of other people ; because he may think that in his attacks ^ That is, wanted to put an end to Cassar'a admiuistr^- ticu iu Gaul, TO TITOS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 718 upon me he will be supported by some degree of popularity. Besides, how troublesome is it to carry with me these fetters, these laurelled fasces I mean, out of Italy ! And supposing the sea to be tran- quil, what place would be safe for me, before I could reach him ? I neither know what road I should take, nor whither I should go. But if I remain, and there be any place for me in these parts, I shall do no more than Philippns, than L. Flaccus, than Q. Mucins, did at the time of Cinna's domination, however it turned out to the last of them I" ; who used nevertheless to say that he fore- saw what must be the consequence ; but that he preferred this, to coming up in arras against his country. Thrasybulus " judged otherwise, and per- haps better. But there is some reason in the conduct and sentiments of Mucins, as well as in tliose of Thrasybulus ; both in bending to the times, when it is necessary, and not letting slip an oppor- tunity when it is offered. . But in this very consideration these same fasces create an embar- rassment. For supposing him to be friendly towards me, which is uncertain ; but supposing it, he will offer me a triumph ''. Would it be more dangei'ous not to accept it ; or more invidious to accept it ? This, you say, is a difficult and inex- plicable point. Yet explained it must be. " But how can it be done ? '' Now, that you may not suppose 1 incline to remain, because 1 have dwelt longer on that side ; it may be, as it happens in many cases, that there is more pleading on one side, more truth on the other. Therefore I should be glad if you would give me your opinion, as upon a point of great moment, on which I would exer- cise an unbiassed judgment. I have a vessel ready for me, both at Caieta and at Brundisium. Whilst I am writing this account of my own concerns by night in the neighbourhood of Cales, there have arrived messengers with letters stating that Caesar is on his way to Cortinium, and that Do" , and to recommend Tiro to Curius, that he may advance to him, as I have requested, what may be necessary for his expenses. LETTER VL After I had sealed the letter which I intended to send in the night, (as in fact I did, for I wrote it in the evening,) C. Sosius, the prsetor, came to Formianum to my neighbour M. Lepidus, to whom he had been qusestor ; and brought him a copy of Pompeius's letter to the consul, as follows. " I have received a letter from L. Domitius dated the 17th of February, of which I inclose a copy. Now, though I should not write, yet I am sure you see of your own accord, of what import- ance it is to the republic, that all the forces should be collected as soon as possible into one place. If therefore you think well of it, you will take care to join me as soon as you can s leaving at Capua what you consider will be a sufficient guard." Then he subjoined the copy of Domitius's letter, which I sent you yesterday. Good gods ! What horror do I feel ! How anxious am I about the issue ? I hope however that the name of Pompeius will be considerable, and considerable also the terror of his approach. I hope also, as nothing has yet hurt us, * * •' I have just heard that your ague has left you. May I die if I am not as much pleased as if it had been my own case. TeU Pilia that it is not right for her to keep hers any longer J ; and that it is unbecoming the usual harmony between you. 1 hear that my Tiro has been freed from another illness of the same kind. I find he has borrowed elsewhere for his expenses K But I had requested Curius, in case he should want anything. I hope it is Tiro's modesty, rather than Curius's want of liberality, that is in fault. LETTER VIL The only thing remaining to complete the dis- grace of our friend is, that he should refuse to assist Domitius. Nobody doubts but he will come to his relief. For my own part, I think he will not. ' ' Will he desert then such a citizen, and those who, you know, are with him ? Especially when he is at the head of thirty cohorts ? " Unless I am totally mistaken, he will desert them. He is incon- ceivably alarmed, and thinks of nothing but escaping. He it is (for I see what is your opinion) whom you think I ought to accompany. But while I have somebody to avoid, I have nobody to foUow. For when you praise and extol my pro- fession of choosing rather to be conquered with s See letter 3 of this book. ^ This is the person under whose care Cicero had left Tiro at Patrffi. See book vii. letter 2. ' The original is mutilated in this part eo as to baffle all reasonable interpretation, i It appeared by a former letter that Pilia had been seized by an illness of the same kind as her husband. See book viL letter 5. '' See before, letter S of this book. Pompeius, than to conquer with the opposite party, I do indeed choose it ; but it is with Pompeius such as he then was, or such as I believed him to be : but with him, who runs away before he knows whom he has to fear, or which way he should go j who has betrayed our cause, left Ms country, and is going to leave Italy ; with him if I chose rather to be conquered, it has happened already, I am conquered. As to what remains, I cannot bear to look at a state of things which I never apprehended ; nor indeed to look at him^, on whose account I must lose not only my friends, but my very self. I have writte;i to Philotimus to procure the money for my journey, either from the mint (for nobody pays), or from the Oppii, your partners". I shall leave to you the care of what else is requisite ". LETTER Vin. O SHAMEFUL business ! and therefore misera- ble ! For I hold that whatever is base, that, or rather that only, is miserable. He had fostered Ceesar ; he had suddenly begun to fear him ; he had agreed to no condition of peace ; had made no preparation for war ; had deserted the city ; had lost Picenum by his negligence ; had thrust him- self into Apulia ; was going into Greece ; was leaving us aU without speaking to us, or consulting us upon so important and extraordinary a resolu- tion. Then presently comes Demetrius's letter to him, his to the consuls. A sense of honour seemed to flash before his eyes, and I supposed him to have exclaimed withbecoming manliness, " In this, which is my duty, let people attempt and plot what they will against me ; for right is on my side °." But he, bidding a long farewell to honour, goes on to Brundisium. It is reported, that Domitius, and they who were with him, when they heard it, sur- rendered. O grievous affair ! I am prevented by anguishfrom writing more to you. I look anxiously for a letter from you. LETTER IXP. I LIKE exceedingly your advice, which is both honourable and suitable to the caution required in these times. Lepidus indeed (for we almost live together, which is very grateful to him) never approved of leaving Italy : TuUusi still less. For his letters are frequently brought to me from other people. But their opinion has less weight with me. They had never given so many pledges to the republic'. Your authority greatly influences 1 Caesar. It seems Cicero was preparing to retreat from Cassar and Italy, though without joining Pompeius. ™ So I venture to translate the word contubcrnales ; for the Oppii being, as it appears, money^ealers, and living in one of Attious's houses, may well be believed to have been connected in busiaess with Caecilius, to whose pro- perty Atticus had succeeded. See book x. letter 16. » This probably relates to his proposed journey. » The original is taken from Aristophanes. P What usually stands as the former part of this letter, will be found after book ix. letter 1 1 , to which it obviously alludes, 1 This is probably the same L. Volcatiup Tullus of whom mention is made, together with Lepidus, in the first letter of this book. ■• They had not been engaged in the service of the repub- lic, like Cicero. TO TITOS POMPONIUS ATTICDS. 715 me. For it holds out the means both of recovering the time that remains, and of securing the presents But what, I beseech you, can be more wretched than this ? that the one should gain applause in a most foul cause ; the other, odium in the very best : that the one should be esteemed the preserver of his enemies ; the other, the deserter of his friends. And in truth, however I may love my friend Cncens, as I do and ought, yet in this respect I cannot commend him, that he should not have come to the support of such people. If this is through fear, what can be more disgraceful? or if, as some suppose, he thought that his own cause would be advanced by their destruction, what can be more iniquitous ? But let us have done with this ; for we augment our sorrow by repeating it. On the 24th in the evening the younger Balbus called upon me on his way to the consul Lentulus ; to whom he was hastening through by-ways, by com- mand of Caesar, with a letter, with instructions, with the promise of a provincial government if he would return to Rome. I do not thinlc it possible to persuade him, unless they should have a per- sonal interview. He said that Csesar wished for nothing more, than to get up to Pompeius, which I believe ; and to resume his friendship with him, which I do not believe. I even fear that all this clemency may be directed against that one object of cruelty'. The elder Balbus indeed informs me, that Cffisar wishes nothing more than to live in security, while Pompeius retains his authority. 1 suppose you believe tliis ! But while I am writing, Pompeius may already have reached Brundisium, for he went lightly armed from Luceria before the legions. But this meteor" has dreadful vigilance, swiftness, and diligence. What will be the issue I cannot guess* LETTER X. DioNYSiTis having come to me contrary to my expectation, I spake to him with all civility, ex- plained the peculiarity of the times, and desired him to let me know what were his intentions j that I did not require anything of him against his will. He replied that he was in uncertainty about his accounts ; that some people did not pay ; that from others the money was not yet due; with some- thing else about his slaves : for which reasons he could not be with us. I let him have his way, and dismissed him ; as tutor to the young Ciceros, not willingly ; as an ungrateful man, not unwill- ingly. I wished you to know mv opinion of his conduct. LETTER XL Respecting the great agitation of mind with which you suppose me to be affected ; it is true, indeed, yet not so great as you may perhaps imagine. For every care becomes less, when either the resolution is fixed, or when all consideration is fruitless. We may still grieve ; and that 1 do all day long : but while it is ineffectual, I fear I may " By remaining to secure himself now, and to make himself useful hereafter, t To accompUBh the death of Pompeius. " Cxsar. even disgrace my studies and learning. I waste therefore all my time in considering the excellence" of that character which you thought I had accu- rately expressed in my treatise". Do you remem- ber then that moderator of the state, to which I would refer everything ? For it is thus, if I am not mistaken, that Scipio speaks in the fifth book : " For as the proper aim of the pilot is a favourable course ; that of the physician, health ; that of a general, victory : so is the happiness of his country- men, of this moderator of the state : that they may live secure in wealth, rich in forces, abundant in glory, honourable in virtue : for I would have him the person to accomplish this greatest and best of works," This has at no time been duly considered by our Cnseus, and least of aU on the present occasion. It is dominion that has been sought by both paiiiies ; not any endeavour to render the state happy and virtuous. NOr has he left the city because he was unable to defend it ; nor Italy because he was driven out of it : but this was his purpose from the beginning, to move all lands and seas, to call up distant kings, to intro- duce savage nations armed against Italy, to raise the greatest armies. A dominion like that of Sylla has long since been his object, and many who are with him desire it. Think you that no agreement, no convention, could be made between them ? Even yet it might : but it is not the aim of either to make us happy ; both of them wish to oppose it. I have shortly exposed these matters at your request ; for you wished me to give you my opinion of these calamities. I forewarn you therefore, my Atticus, not with the prophetic spirit of her" whom nobody believed ; but anticipating by conjecture ; " already in the great ocean?," &c. Nearly in the same strain, I say, I may prophesy ; so great a weight of evils hangs over us. And in one re- spect the condition of us, who remain at home, is worse than theirs who have passed over with Pompeius ; inasmuch as they have only one to fear, whilst we have both. Why then did I stay behind .' you will say. It may be either in obedience to you ; or because I could not get up to him ; or because this was more proper. I say, next summer you will see the wretched Italy trampled under foot, and shaken by the violence of both parties, who will collect together the slaves of every de- scription. Nor is a proscription (which was the general subject of conversation at Luceria) so much to be dreaded, as the ruin of the whole country ; so great will be the forces of both in this contest. I send you my opinion. But you expected perhaps some source of consolation : I can find none. Nothing can be' more wretched, nothing more deplorable, nothing more disgraceful. You ask what Csesar has written to me. What he has frequently said ; tliat he was much pleased vrith my remaining quiet ; and he begs me to continue so. The' younger Balbus brings the same injunc- tions. He was on his way to the consul Lentulus with Caesar's letter, and the promise of rewards, if he would return to Rome. But upon reckoning » I have taken the liherty of supposing that viri in the text ought to be virtug, " His piece on a Bepublic. I Cassandra, who foretold the destruction of Troy, hut was disregarded. 7 This is the introduction of Cassandra's prophecy, from some unknown author. 716 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO up the days, I think he will pass over before a meeting can take place. 1 wish you to be made acquainted with the meagreness of two letters which I have received from Pompeius, and my own full replies. I send you a copy of thera. I am expecting the issue of this rapid march of Cassar through Apulia to Brundisium. I wish it were anything like the Parthian incursions ^ As soon as I hear anything, I will write to you. I should be glad if you would tell me what good people say. There are reported to be a great many in Rome. I am aware that you do not go into ?ublic ; but you must necessarily hear a great deal, remember your receiving a book, sent you by Demetrius Magnes, upon Concord. I should be glad if you would lend it to me. You see what subject I am considering. Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Cicero, Imperator. Q. Fabujs came to me the 29th of January. He brings information that L. Domitius witb bis own eleven cohorts, and fourteen cohorts which Vibullius has brought up, is on his way to join me : that he had intended to leave Corfinium the 13th of February ; and that C. Hirrus witb five cohorts would follow. I am of opinion you should come to me at Luceria ; for here I think you will be in the greatest safety. M. Cicero, Imperator, to Cn. Magnus, Proconsul. I RECEIVED your letter at Formiae the 15th of February, by which I understood that the transac- tions in Picenum were much more favourable than had been represented to me ; and it was with plea- sure that I recognised the courage and diligence of Vibullius. On the coast, over which I have been placed, I have hitherto thought it right to have a ship in readiness ; for what 1 hear, and what 1 apprehend, is of such a nature, as to make me think it my duty to follow whatever plan you should advise. Now, since by your authority and counsel I am in better hope, if you think it possible to maintain Tarracina and the sea-coast, 1 will continue there, although there are no garrisons iu the towns. For there is nobody of condition in these parts, except M. Eppius, whom 1 have de- sired to remain at Minturnse. He is an active and careful man. But L, Torquatus, who is a brave man, and in authority, is not at Formise : I imagine he is gone to you. I came to Capua, agreeably to your last instructions, the very day on which you left Teauum Sidicinum ; for you bad desired me, together with M. Considius the propraetor, to take care of the affairs in that part. When I came thither, I found that T. Ampius was raising troops with great diligence, which were transferred to Libo, who had also great Zealand authority in the colouy. I remained at Capua as long as the con- suls ; and came thither again the 5th of February, as the consuls had appointed. After being there three days, 1 came back to Formise. At present I am uncertain what is your intention, or what is your plan of conducting the war. If you think this coast should be maintained, as I think it may, there must be somebody to take the com- mand : it possesses great convenience and respect- ability, and has in it many distinguished citizens. But if all our forces are to bo collected into one z That is, soon over. place, I sliall not hesitate to join you immediately ; which I shall be very glad to do, as I told you the day I left the city. If I appear to anybody to have been backward in this business, I do not regard it provided I do not appear so to you : yet if, as I perceive, war must be waged, I trust I shall easily satisfy everybody. I send to you M. Tullius, my confidential freed-man, by whom, if you think fit, you may write to me. Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to M. Cicero, Imperator. I HOPE you are well. I read your letter with great satisfaction, and recognised also your former spirit in support of the common safety. The con- suls have joined the army which I have had in Apulia. I earnestly exhort you, by your distin- guished and unceasing i-egard for the republic, to come to us, that we may by our united counsels afford help and assistance to this afflicted state. I think you should travel by the Appian road, and reach Brundisium quickly, M. Cicero, Imperator, to Cn, Magnusj Proconsul, When I wrote the letter which was delivered to you at Canusium, I had no suspicion that you would cross the sea for the service of the republic ; butVas in great hope that we might in Italy either establish some agreement, which seemed to me very desirable, or with the highest dignity defeud the republic. In the mean time, before my letter could have reached you, understanding from the instructions which you sent to the consuls by D. Lselius what was your intention, I did not wait till I should hear from you, but immediately set out, with my brother Quintus and our children, to join you in Apulia. When I came to Teauum Sidicinum, C. Messius your friend, and several others, informed me that Caesar was on his way to Capua, and would stop at Esernia that very day. I was tmly concerned, because if it were so, 1 con- sidered not only that my road was intercepted, but that 1 was myself quite cut off from you. I there- fore proceeded at that time to Cales, where I might remain till I should receive some certain information from Esernia about what I had heard. While I was at Cales there was brought to me a copy of the letter which you sent to the consul Lentulus, saying that you had received one from L. Domitius, the 17th of February, of which you subjoined a copy ; and that it was of great importance to the republic, that all the forces should be collected into one place as soon as possible ; and directing him to leave a sufficient guai-d at Capua. Upon reading this letter I was of the same opinion as everybody else, that you would proceed with all your forces to Corfinium. But as Cicsar had encamped before the town, I did not think it safe for me to go thither. While we remained in anxious expectation of the issue, we heard at one and the same time both what had happened at Corfinium , and that you had begun to make your way to Brundisium : and when I and my brother had determined to go to Brandisium, we were warned by mdny people, who came from Samuium and Apulia, to take care that we were not surprised by Cffisar ; for that he had set out for the same place to which we were going, and would reach his destination quicker than we could. Upon which neither I, nor my brother, nor any of our friends, TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 717 thought it right to run the risk of injuring not merely ourselves, but the republic, by our rashness ; especially as we had little doubt but that, if even the road were safe, yet we should not now be able to overtake you. In the mean time I received your letter of the 20th of February from Canusium, in which you beg that we would come quickly to Bnindisium. This I received on the 27th, when I did not doubt but you would already have arrived at Brundisium. The road seemed to be quite closed against us ; and ourselves to be taken as completely as those who had gone to Corfinium : for I consider as taken, not only those who have fallen into the hands of armed people, but those likewise who are excluded from certain districts, and have come within the garrisons and posts of their enemies. In this state my first wish was, that I had always been with you, as I mentioned to you when I wanted to decline the command of Capua ; which I did, not for the sake of avoiding the trouble, but because T saw that the city was incapable of being kept without an army, and I was unwilling to expose myself to the same accident, which I lament in the case of our brave friends'". But when I was prevented from being with you, I wish I could have been made acquainted with your designs : for it was impossible for me to guess them ; as I should sooner have thought anything, than that this cause of the republic could not be maintained in Italy under your direction. I do not mean however to find fault with your determi- nation ; but I mourn over the fortune of the re- public ; nor do I the less believe you to have acted with good reason because I am unacquainted with your purpose. I am persuaded you remember what was always my opinion, first, respecting the maintaining peace, even upon unequal conditions ; then respecting the city ; for on the subject of Italy you never opened yourself to me. But I do not assume to myself that my opinion ought to have prevailed : I adopted yours. And I did this, not for the republic's sake, about which I despaired, rent as it now is, and incapable of being raised up without a ruinous civil war ; but I sought you, and wished to be with you, and will not omit an opportunity of it, should any present. In all this business I was well aware that I should not give satisfaction to such as were eager for fighting : for, in the first place, I professed that I wished nothing more than peace : not but I feared the same con- sequences as they did, but I esteemed even those to be more tolerable than a civil war. Then again, after the war was begun, when I found that con- ditions of peace were offered to you, and that you made an honourable and full reply to them, I formed my own determination, which I trusted, according to your usual kindness towards me, I should easily explain to your satisfaction. 1 recol- lected that I was one who, for my distinguished services to the republic, had been subjected to the saddest and most cruel sufferings ; that I was one who, if I had offended him ^, to whom even while we were in arms there was granted a second consulate, and a most ample triumph, I should be again exposed to the same persecution ; since the attacks of wicked men on my person seemed always to have something of popularity. And this I was not forward to suspect, till it was openly threatened. a Who were obliged to surrender themselves to Ca?f5ar. •> 0«9ar. Nor did I so much dread it, if it were necessary ; as I thought it prudent to avoid it, if it could be done with honour. You see shortly the motives by which I was actuated as long as there was any hope of peace. Circumstances have removed all power of doing anything further. But I have a ready answer for those who are dissatisfied with me : for I have been no more a friend to C. Csesar'^ than they ; nor have they been more attached to the republic than I. The difference between us consists in this ; that while they are excellent citizens, and I am not deficient in the same reputation, I pre- ferred settling these disputes by treaty, which I understood to be your wish also ; they by arras. And since this opinion has prevailed, I shall take care that neither the republic may lose the affection of a citizen, nor you that of a friend. LETTER XII. The weakness of my eyes is become more troublesome even than it was before ; I determined, however, to dictate this rather than send no letter at all by Gallus Fabius, who is so much attached to us both. Yesterday I wrote myself, as well as I was able, with a prophecy, which I wish may prove false. The occasion of this letter is, not only that I may let no day pass without writing to you, but, what is a juster reason, that I may beg you to employ a little portion of your time (and it will not cost you much) to let me thoroughly un- derstand your sentiments. I am still at liberty to choose what course I should adopt. Nothing has been neglected which does not admit, not merely of a plausible, but a satisfactory excuse. For surely I have not done wrong in wishing to decline the proffered administration of Capua, that I might avoid any suspicion either of backwardness in rais- ing troops or of treachery ; nor, after the conditions of peace brought by L. Csesar and Fabatus, in taking care not to offend him, to whom Porapeius, while they were both in arms, had offered the con- sulate and a triumph. Neither can anybody justly blame these last measures of not crossing the sea, which, though it was matter of consideration, yet it was not in my power to accomplish ; nor ought I to have suspected such a step, especially as from Porapeius's own letter I concluded (and I perceive that you were of the same opinion) that he would go to support Domitius. And in truth I wanted a longer time to determine what was right, and what I ought to do. In the first place theii, though you have given me generally your opinion on this sub- ject, yet I should be glad if you would write to me more particularly. In the next place I wish you to look a little into futurity, and fancy to yourself the character I ought to support, and how you think I can be of most use to the republic, — ^whe- ther there is any room for a pacific personage, or whether everything rests with the military. I, who measure everything by duty'', recollect, how- ever, your advice", whi ch if 1 had followed 1 <: Cains Julius CiBsar, the latter of which names are more familiar to the English reader. ■i This alludes to tho principleB of the Academic' sect, which Cicero follo\rt3<3. e Atticus, in conformity with his oivn pitncipIcE, as an Epicurean, having recommended Cicero not to provoke hostility at the time of Clodius's machinations, which ended in Cicero's hanisbment. 718 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO should not have felt the miseries of those times. I remember what you then recommended through Theophanes and Culeo, and I often recollected it with regret. Now then at least let me revert to that estimation of things which I formerly rejected, and consider not only what is glorious but a little also what is expedient. But I prescribe nothing ; , I wish you to give me exactly your own opinion. I should be glad also if you would find out as cor- rectly as you can (and you wiE meet with persons through whom you may do it) what our friend Lentulus, what Domitius, is doing, or what he means to do ; how they conduct themselves, — whether they accuse or are angry with anybody. With anybody, do I say ? With Pompeius. Pom- peius throws all the blame upon Domitius, as appears by his letter, of which I send you a copy. You will see after these matters ; and, as I men- tioned to you before, I should be obliged to you to send me the book which Demetrius Magnes pre- sented to you upon Concord. Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to C. Marcellus ' and L. Lentulus, Consuls. As I considered that, while our troops were dispersed, we could neither render any service to the republic nor defend ourselves, — therefore I wrote to L. Domitius first to come to me himself with his whole force, or if he doubted about him- self, to send me the nineteen cohorts which were on their way to me from Picenum. What I feared has happened, — that Domitius was hemmed in, without being strong enough to form an encamp- ment, because he had my nineteen cohorts and his own twelve distributed in three dififerent towns, having placed part at Alba and part at Sulmo, — nor could he disengage them if he would. I am now, therefore, in the greatest anxiety. For I wish to relieve so many valuable men from the hazard of a siege, and am unable to go to their assistance, — for I do not think it safe to let these two legions be conducted thither, — out of which I have not been able to collect more than fourteen ^ cohorts, having sent a garrison to Brundisiura, and not thinking that Canusium ought to be left un- protected in my absence. I sent word to D. Lselius that I hoped to have an increase of force, so that if you thought well of it one of you might join me ; the other might go into Sicily with such troops as you have obtained at Capua and in the neighbourhood, together with those which have been raised by Faustus ; that Domitius with his twelve cohorts should proceed to the same destina- tion ; that all the remaining forces should be col- lected at Briindisium, and from thence should be transported in ships to Dyrrachium. Now, since at this time I am no more able than you to go to the assistance of Domitius, I must leave him to extricate'' himself through the mountains. I cannot suffer the enemy to attack these fourteen cohorts, which I have in a doubtful disposition, or f In the text it is M. Marcellus ; but, as there can be little doubt of this being a mistake, I have taken the liberty of altering it. g The complete legions contained ten cohorts, each cohort being divided into three manipuli, and each manipulus into two centuries. Had the numbere therefore been com- plete, which they seldom were, the legion would have contained 6000 men. 1^ The passage in the original is defective. I have given what I suppose to be the true meaning. to come up with me in my march : on which account I have thought it right (and I find that Marcellus, and the rest of our order' who are here, are of the same opinion) to conduct the force I have with me to Brundisium. I beg you to collect whatever soldiers you can, and to come to the same place as soon as possible. I think you may dis- tribute among the men which you have with you the arms you were going to send me. You will confer a great service on the republic by transport- ing the supernumerary arms on beasts of burden to Brundisium. I should be glad if you would give notice to my people upon this subject. I have sent to the praetors P. Lupus and C. Coponius to join me, and to conduct to you what troops they Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul, I AM surprised that you have not written to me, and that all information about the republic should come to me from others rather than from you. While our troops are dispersed it is impossible for us to be equsd to our adversaries. With our forces united I hope we may be of service to the republic and to the common safety. When, there- fore, you had determined, as Vibullius wrote me word, to leave Corfinium the 9th of February with the army, and to come to me, I wohder what should have caused you to change your mind. For the reason which VibuUius mentions is of little weight, that you had heard of Csesar's having left Firmum, and being arrived at CastrumTruentinum ; for the nearer the enemy approached, the more expeditiously ought you to have acted, in order to join me before Csesar could obstruct your road or cut oflF the communication between us : therefore, I beg and entreat you again and again, as I have not ceased to do in my former letters, to come to Luceria on the earliest day, before Caesar can bring together into one place the forces which he pur- posed to collect, and separate us from each other : or if you meet with impediments from some who would save their own troops, at least it is reasonable that I should desire you would send me those cohorts which are come from Picenum and Cama- rinum, and have left their own fortunes. Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul. M. Calenius brought me your letter the 1 8th of February, in which you say that you mean to observe Csesar's motions, and if he should attempt to come towards me by the sea-coast that you will immediately join me in Samnium, — or if he should loiter about those parts that you are disposed to resist him, whenever he comes within your reach. I have a just sense of your spirit and courage in this determination ; but we must take great care that our forces are not so divided as to render us unequal to our adversary, who has already a great many troops, and will shortly have more. For with your usual prudence you ought to consider not only how many cohorts Caesar can at present bring against you, hut what numbers of cavalry and infantry he will in a short time collect. This is confirmed by a letter which I have received from Bu^senius, in which he says, what I have heard also from others), that Curio is collecting the i The order of senators. J 1 have translated this as if it were written aliU, instead ' of illis; for this, I doubt not, is the proper readiag. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 719 garrisons from Umbria and Tuscany, and proceed- ing to join Caesar. If these forces should unite, and part should be sent to Alba, part should come against you, — without fighting, but only defending themselves in their quarters, you will be embar- rassed, and unable alone to resist such numbers with your present force, so as to admit of your foragiug. For these reasons I strongly advise you to come hither as soon as possible with your whole force. The consuls have determined to do the same. I sent you advice by Metuscilius, that it was necessary to prevent my two legions from being brought to face Caesar without the Picentine cohorts. You must not, therefore, be uneasy if you should hear of my retreating, in case Caesar comes towards me, — as I think it right to provide against the embarrassment of being surrounded ; for I can neither form a camp, owing to the season of the year and the disposition of the soldibrs, nor can I safely bring together the troops out of all the towns for fear of having my retreat cut off. I have therefore collected at Luceria not more than four- teen cohorts. The consuls will either bring all the garrisons, or will go into Sicily : for it is expedient either to have a strong army with which we may rely upon breaking through the enemy, or else to get possession of such countries in which we can defend ourselves, — neither of which is at present the case ; for Caesar is already master of a great part of Italy, and his army is superior both in appointments and numbers to mine. We must, therefore, take care to pay the utmost attention to the republic. I beg you again and again to come to me as soon as possible with all your forces. We may yet raise up the republic if we unite our counsels in conducting the business j but if we are disunited we must be weak. Such is my ultimate opinion. Since writing this, Sica has brought me your letter and instructions. Respecting your wish that I should go to you, I do not consider it possible for me to do it, because I have no great confidence in these legions. Cn. Magnus, Proconsul, to Domitius, Proconsul. I RECEIVED your letter the 17th of February, in which you inform me that Caesar has pitched Ms camp before Corfinium. What I supposed, and forewarned you, has happened, — that he does not wish at present to engage in battle with you ; but that he will collect together all his forces and hamper you so as to prevent your joining me, and uniting those troops of the best citizens with these legions, whose disposition is doubtful, — which makes me the more concerned at your account. For I cannot sufficiently rely upon the disposition of the soldiers whom I have with me to risk the whole fortune of the repubUc ; nor have those joined who have been enrolled by the consuls out of the levies. Therefore try if by any means yon can even now manage to extricate yourself, that you may come hither as soon as possible before all the adversary's forces are united. For men cannot very quickly arrive here from the levies, — and if they did, it does not escape you how little they can be trusted against veteran legions while they are not so much as known to each other. LETTER XIII. The hand-writing of a clerk will show you that my eyes are not yet well ; and the same cause will make me short ; though at present I have nothing to tell you. My only expectation is in the news from Brundisium. If Caesar should have come up with our friend Cnaeus, the hope of peace is very doubtful ; but if he should have passed over first, there is danger of a destructive war. But do you perceive with what a man the republic has to do ? how acute ! how vigilant ! how ready ! If forsooth he puts nobody to death, and pWuders nobody, he will be most loved by the very people who were most afraid of him. I have a good deal of conver- sation with the towns-people, and with those from the counti-y ; they care absolutely about nothing but their fields, and their pleasure-houses, and their pelf. See how things are changed. Him ^, on whom they once relied, they fear ; and they love this man', whom they used to dread. I cannot without grief reflect upon the errors and misconduct of our party, through which this has happened. I told you what dangers I apprehended. I am in expectation of hearing from you. LETTER XIV. I AM afraid my daily letters must be troublesome to you, especially as I can send yon no news, nor iudeed find any new subject to write upon. And if I were expressly to send messengers to you about nothing at all, I should act absurdly ; but when people are going, particularly my own servants, I cannot suffer them to go without writing something to you. Besides, believe me, I feel some relief in these miseries while I talk, as it were, with you ; and still more when I read your letters. I think indeed there has been no time since this flight and trepidation, when tliis intercourse of letters could with more propriety be interrupted; as nothing new is heard at Rome ; nor in these parts, which are two or three days nearer to Brundisium than you are. It is at Brundisium that all the struggle of this first season passes. I am distracted with anxiety about the event. But I shall know all before you ; for I find that Caesar set out from Corfinium on the afternoon of the same day on which PompeiuB set out in the morning from Canusium, that is the 21st of February. But such is the manner of Caesar's march, and with such allowances does he urge the speed of his soldiers, that I dread his getting to Brundisium sooner than is to be vrished. You will say, "What good is there in anticipating the distress of such an event, which in three days you will know ?" There is none indeed. But, as I said beforte, I love to converse with you. Besides, you must know that I begin to waver in my opinion, which seemed to be already fixed. For the authorities'", which you approve, are not- satisfactory to me. For what have they ever done to distinguish themselves in the republic .' or who expects from them anything praise-worthy ? not that I mean to applaud those who have crossed the sea for the purpose of increas- k PompeiuB. ' Caesar, m M. LepldoB, L. Volcatius Tullus. See book viii. let- ters 1 and 9. '720 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO ing the preparations for war ; however intolerable may be the present state of affairs ; for I see how great and how ruinous tlie war must be. But I am influenced by regard for an individual, to whom it seems due that I should be a companion in his flight, and an assistant in restoring the repubUc. " So often then do you change your mind?" I converse with you as with myself; and who is there but in a case of such moment argues variously with himself? at the same time I wish to elicit your opinion ; that if it is still the same, I may be the more determined ; if it is changed, that I may assent to it. It is of importance to the subject of my doubt, to know what Domilius will do, and what our friend Lentulas. AVe have various reports about Domitius ; sometimes, that he is at Tibertum, or at Lepidus's house j or that Lepidus is gone with him to the city ; which I find is not true ; for Lepidus says that it is uncertain where he is gone, and that he does not know whether his object be to conceal himself, or to reach the sea. He is equally ignorant about his son. He adds, what is distressing, that a lai'ge sum of money, which Domitius had at Coriinium, has never been delivered to him. We hear nothing of Lentulus. I should be glad if you could find out these things, and let me know. LETTER XV. On the 3d of March, jEgypta delivered to me two letters from you ; one an old one, dated February 26, which you mention to have given to Pinarius, whom I have not seen. In this you express your anxiety to know what has been done by Vibullius, who was sent on° before. But Cffisar has not so much as seen him. In another letter I perceive that you are aware of this. You desire also to know how I receive Caesar on his return : but I mean to avoid him altogether. You mention besides, that you meditate a Hajmonian flight", and a change of your life ; which I think you must adopt : also that you are uncertain whether Domitius has his fasces'" with him ; but as soon as you know, you will inform me. You have my reply to your first letter. There are two subsequent ones, both dated the 28th of February, which have plucked me from my former resolution*!, in which, as I before wrote to you, I was already wavering. What you say, " that Jupiter himself forbids if," has no weight with me. For there is danger in displeasing either party : and the superiority is still uncertain, though the worst cause has the appear- n Vibullius was of Pompeius's party, was taken by Cassar at Corfinium, and thence despatched to Pompeius with proposals of peace, which the latter disregarding never sent back Vibullius at all. o Tire text is probably corrupt. It appears to be copied from Atticus's "own expression in allusion to some story that has been lost. It may be believed that he meant to Hignify a design of retiring into Epirus. p Domitius had boen nominated to succeed Ciesar in Caul. If he had the fasces carried before him, it would be a mark of his assuming the authority in opposition to Cffisar. His example would be valuable to Cicero, who was likewise encumbered mth his lictors. See letter 1 of this book. 'I Persuading him now to leave Italy, contrary to the determination he had once formed. ^ These words are, no doubt, copied from Atticus's own expression: the meaning probably is,' that the cause of the republic seemed to he abandoned by the godsj ance of being best provided. I am not moved either by the consuls, who are themselves more easily moved than a leaf or a feather. It is the consideration of my duty that distracts me, and has done from the beginning. It is certainly safer to remain ; but is thought more honourable to cross the sea. At the same time I would rather many should think I had acted imprudently, than a few dishonourably. As to what you'ask about Lepidus and Tullus ; it is not doubted " but they will present themselves to Caesar, and will go into the senate. Your last letter is dated the first of March, in which you wish for a meeting', and do not despair of peace. But while I write this, I neither beheve they will meet ; nor, if they did, that Pompeius would agree to any terms. You seem to entertain no doubt of what I ought to do, provided the consuls should cross the sea : they certainly cross it, or as things are now, have already crossed. But observe, that, except Appius, there is scarcely anybody who has not a right to do so". For they either have some command, as Pompeius, as Scipio, Setenas, Fannius,Voconius, Sestius,andthe consuls themselves, who have by ancient custom the privilege of vi-siting all the provinces ; or they are lieutenants under these. But I do not wish to argue the point. I see what is your opinion, and am pretty well satisfied on the subject of my duty. I would write more, if I could do it mysplf * ; I j shall be better able two days hence. I send you a I copy of Balbus Cornelius's letter, which 1 received the same day as yours, that you may pity my con- dition when you see me thus mocked ^''. Balbus to Cicero, Imperator, Undertake, I entreat you, Cicero, the care and consideration most becoming your high character, of bringing back again to their former harmony Csesar and Pompeius, who have been torn asunder by the perfidy of certain persons. Believe me, Caesar will not only put himself in your power, but will esteem it a great favour conferred upon him, if you apply yourself to this business. I should be glad if Pompeius would do the same ; though I rather wish, than expect, that he can be brought to any terms at such a time. But when he has stopped his flight, and laid aside his fears, I shall begin not to despair of the influence your authority may have with him. Caesar is pleased, and I am most particularly so, with your wishing my friend Len- tulus the consul to remain here. For I have that regard for him, that I do not love Csesar better. If he had suffered me to talk with him as 1 used to do, and had not wholly rejected my con- versation, I should be less uneasy than I am. Do not imagine that at this time anybody is raorevexed, s I have interpreted this sentence as if the words mn dubitant were independent of /7//, which latter word I con- ceive to bo connected with fiihiri sint. "People do not doubt but they will join Cajsar." For this interpretation of dubitant, see book iv. letter 3, note». Otherwise it appears very harsh to say that they did not themselver doubt but they should join him, &c. 'Between Csesar and Pompeius. See letter 9 of this book. "The senators were not at liberty to quit Italy but upoi some public duty. ' He was probably provonlod by the infirmity of his eyes, which he hoped a few days would now entirely remove. " Flattered with mock respect. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 121 than I, when I see him, whom I love more than myself, conducting himself in his consulate like any thing rather than a consul. But if he will be ruled by you, and will take my word about Caesar, and spend the remaining part of his consulate in Rome ; I shall begin to entertain hope, that by the recommendation even of the senate, upon your authority and at his motion, Pompeius and Csesar may be united. If this is accomplished, I shall think I have lived long enough. I am sure you must approve of Caesar's whole eonduct respecting Corfininm ; as in such a business it could not terminate more favourably, than by being effected without bloodshed. I am glad you were pleased with the arrival of mine and your friend Balbus*. All that he has told you about Csesar, or that Csesar has written, I am persuaded, whatever turn his affairs may take, he will prove to you by his conduct that he has written in great sincerity. LETTER XVI. Everything is ready for me, excepting a road to conduct me in secrecy and safety to the Adriatic sea. For I cannot take advantage of the sea here?, at this season of the year. But how shall I get thither, where my inclination leads me, and circum- stances call me ? For it is necessary to set out speedily, that I may not meet with some obstacle to stop me. Yet my inducement to go is not he^ whom one might suppose ; whom I have long known to be a bad politician, and now find to be also a bad general. It is not he therefore that influences me ; but the talk of the world, of which I am informed by Fhilotimus. He sa^s that I am * Balbus the younger, [see letter 9 of this book,] nephew to him who writes this letter. 7 The Mediterranean waslung the southern coast of Italy, from whence Cicero writes. ' Pompeius. reproached by all the principal people. Ye gods . by what principal people ? By those who arc running to meet, and to sell themselves to Caesar ? The towns salute him as a god. And they do not dissemble, as when they put up vows for Pompeius in his sickness : but whatever this Pisistratus* has not inflicted, is as much a subject of gratitude, as if he had prevented some other person from inflict- ing it. This man '' they hope to propitiate ; the other" they think exasperated. What greetings do you think are made from the towns .' What hon- ours ? "They are afraid," you will say. Ibelieve it ; but they are more afraid of the other '*. They are delighted with Caesar's insidious clemency : they dread Pompeius's anger. The 850 judges', who were particularly attached to our Cnseus, some of whom I see every day, dread certain threats of his at Luceria^ I ask again then, who are these principal people, who would drive me out, while they remain themselves at home ? Nevertheless, whoever they are, " I respect the Trojansff." At the same time I know what I have to hope ; and go to join one, who is better prepared to lay waste Italy than to conquer it ; in short, whom 1 expect — ^indeed while I am writing this, March 2d, I am expecting to hear something from Brundisium. What something ? How shamefully he'' has run away from thence ; and by what road this con- queror' returns, and whither. Which when I have ascertained, if he comes by the Appian road, I think of going to Arpinum. " Caesar. b Csesar. c Pompeius. d Pompeius. e The number of judges varied at different times. They were chosen annually from the three different orders of citizens, and corresponded more nearly to our jm-ymen than to our judges. ' The apprehension of a proscription. See letter 11 of this book. K See book vii. letter 12, and book ii. letter 5. ** Pompeius. > Csesar. BOOK IX. LETTER L Before you read this, I imagine I shall know what has been done at Brundisium ; for Cnaeus set out from Canusium the 22d of February, and I am writing the 6th of March, the 13th day afterwards'. In the mean time I am distracted with the expectation of every hour ; and am sur- prised that no rumour even should yet have reached us. This silence is quite wonderful. But it is perhaps idle to vex oneself about what must soon be known. I am uneasy at not yet having been able to find out where our friend Lentulus, where Bomitius is. And I want to know, that I may the more readily understand what they mean to do ; whether they will join Pompeius ; and, if so, by what way, or when they will go. I understand the city is alre ady full of the principal citizens, i In the original it is the 14th day, because the Romans, in their computation of time, were accustomed to include both the first and the last day; and that Sosius and Lupus *=, whom our Cnaeus expected to be at Brundisium before him, are trying causes. From these parts numbers are going up. Even M. Lepidus, with whom I used to spend my day, thinks of going to-morrow. I shall however remain in Formianum, that I may receive the earlier intelligence j I then design to go to Arpinum ; and thence to the Adriatic sea by the most unfrequented road, having first set aside or wholly dismissed my lictors. For I hear that many respectable people, who on this and former- occasions have rendered good service to the re- public, disapprove of my delay, and make many severe observations upon me in their convivial meetings. Let us give way then, and in order to show that we are good citizens, let us make war upon Italy by sea i and land : and let us once more light up against us the enmity of wicked men, ^ The two praters. 1 This is evidently said with a mixture of irony, 3 A 722 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO which was just extinguished ; and let us follow the counsels of Lucceius and Theophanes ". For Scipio either goes into Syria by his lot, or honour- ably attends his son-in-law", or avoids the anger of Caesar : the Marcelli, if they were not afraid of Caesar's sword, would stay behind : Appius is influenced by the same apprehension, and some recent causes of enmity : besides him, and C. Cassius, the others are lieutenants ; Faustus is ppoqusestor : I am the only person at liberty to choose the course I shall take **. My brother will go with me ; though it is not reasonable that he should share my fortunes on this occasion, which will more particularly expose him to Caesar's dis- pleasure ; 'but I cannot prevail upon him to stay. We shall thus give to Pompeius what we owe him. Indeed nobody else moves me ; neither the talk of good men, of whom there are none, nor the cause itself, which has been conducted timidly, and will he prosecuted wickedly p. To him, to him alone I give this, while he does not even ask it, bnt sup- ports (as he says i) not his own cause, but that of the public. I shall be glad to know what you think ab(i&t going to Epirus. LETTER n. Though I am expecting a longer letter from you on the 7th of March, which I think is your well day, yet I have thought it right to reply to that short one which you despatched on the £th, when the fit was going ofR You say you are glad that I have staid ; and tell me that you continue in your opinion. But in your former letters you seemed to me not to doubt but that I ought to go, provided Cnaelis should embark with a respectable attendance, and the consuls should pass over. Have you then forgot this .' or did I not rightly understand you ? or have you changed your opi- nion ? But either in the letter which I am expecting I shall see distinctly what you think, or I shall solicit another. Nothing has yet been heard from Brundisium. What a difficult and hopeless state ! How in reasoning upon it you leave nothing unsaid ! Yet in conclusion, how you explain nothing of your real sentiments ! You are glad that I am not with Pompeius ; and yet you state how disgracefiil it would be for me to be present' while anything is said against him, and. how impossible to approve it. I must certainly, then oppose it. " God forbid," you say. What therefore is to be done, if in the one case there is guilt, in the other punishment .' " Obtain," you say, " from Caesar leave to absent yourself, and to remain quiet." Must I then descend to supplication ? O sad ! and what if it is denied me ? And respecting my triumph, you say that I shall be at liberty to do as I please. But what if Caesar should press it upon me ? Should I accept it .' What csn be more disgraceful ? Should I m Lucoeius and Theophanes were Pompeius's advisers in this war. D Pompeius. To choose whether he should stay in Italy, or cross the sea to FompeiUB. p By making war upon our country. 1 That is, what he professes, though untruly. See hook iv. letter 10. ' In the senate. refuse ? He will think that he is wholly spumed; more so than in the affair of the twenty commis- sioners ' : and he is accustomed, in exculpating himself, to throw upon .me all the blame of those times ; that I am so hostile to him, that I will not even recei'i'e honour at his hands. How much more unkindly will he bear this ! jnst so much as the honour itself is greater, and he is morepoweifal. For as to what you say ^ that you doubt not but Pompeius is greatiy offended with me at this time ; I see no reason why he should be so at this time. Can he, who never acquainted me vrith his inten - tion, till Corfinium had been lost ; can he complain that I did not go to Brundisium, when Caesar was between me and it .' Besides, he knows that his complaining on that account is unjustifiable : he supposes me to have been better informed than himself about the weakness of the towns, about the levies, about peace, about the state of the city, about the treasury, about the occupation of Pice- num. But if I would not go when it was in my power, then indeed he might be angry. Which I do not regard from fear of his doing me any harm ; (for what can he do ? " Who is a slaved that is not afraid to die ' .'") but because I abhor the im- putation of ingratitude. I trust therefore that my going to him, at whatever time it should be, would, as you say ?, be acceptable. As to what you say, that if Caesar acted with more moderation, you could give a more deliberate opinion ; how is it possible that he should not act ruinously? His life, his manners, his former actions, the plan of his undertaking, his com|>anions, the strength of the good, or even their firmness, demand it. I had scarcely read your letter, when Postumus Cur- tius came to me on his way to Cssar, talking of nothing but fleets and armies : he was seizing Spain ; occupying Asia, Sicilia, Africa, Sardinia, and presently pursuing Pompeius into Greece. 1 must go therefore, that I may be his companion, not so much in .war as in flight ; for 1 cannot bear the scoffs of those people, whoever they are. They assuredly are not, as they are called, good j yet I wish to know what it is they say ; and I earnestly beg you to find out, and to inform me. Hitherto I am quite ignorant of what has been done at Brundisium. When 1 know, I shall take counsel from circumstances and opportunity, bnt shall be regulated by you. LETTER in. DoMiTius's son passed through Formise on the 8th, hastening to his mother at Naples j and upon my servant Dionysius asking particularly about his father, he desired I might be told that he was in the city. But I had heard that he was gone either to Pompeius, or into Spain. I should be glad to know how this is ; for it is of consequence to the subject of my present deliberation ; that if he is certainly not gone anywhere, Cnaeus may understand the difficulty of my leaving Italy, while it is all occupied by troops and garrisons, espe- cially in vrinter. If it were a more favourable » 'When it was offered to Cicero to fill the place of Cos- oonius, who died. See book ii. letter 19. ' The original is a verse of Euripides, « In the original is a Greek word, no doubt taken from AtticuB's own expression. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. ^23 time of year, it would be possible to go by the Southern sea : now nothing can pass but by the Adriatic, the road to which is intercepted. You will inquire therefore about Doroitius, and about Len- tulus. No report has yet arrived from Brundisium, and this is the 9th of March, on which day, or the day before, 1 imagine Ctesar would reach Brundi- sium ; for on the first he stopped at A.rpi. If you would hearken to Postumus, he will pursue Cnaeus ; for, by conjecture from state of the weather and the number of days, he supposed him already to have passed over. For my own part, I do not think Cffisar will be able to get sailors ; he is himself very confident, and the more so, because the liberality of the man is known to the people soncemed in the boats. But it is impossible I can much longer remain in ignorance of this whole Brundisian business. LETTER rv. Thottgh I feel sorie repose so long as I am writing to you, or reading your letters ; yet I want myself a subject to write about, and am persuaded you do so too. For that familiar communication, which passes between us, while our minds are at ease, is excluded in these times ; and what is ap- propriate to the times, is already exhausted. But, that 1 may not resign myself wholly to sadness, I have taken up certain subjects of a political nature, and suited to the times ; that I may both withdraw my mind from complaints, and may exercise myself in matters of present concern. Such are the fol- lowing. If it be right to remain in one's country after it is subjected to a tyrant. Being so subjected, if every means should be employed to dissolve the tyranny, even at the risk of ruining the city. If care must be taken, that the person who executes this be not himself exalted. If it be right to succour one's country, under a tyrant, by oppor- tunity and reasoning, rather than by war. If, when one's country is subjected to a tyrant, it be consistent with the duty of a good citizen to be quiet, and retire. If every danger ought to be hazarded for the sake of freedom. If war and siege ought to be brought upon one's country when oppressed by tyranny. If one, who does not at- tempt to put down a tyranny, may yet be reckoned among the number of good citizens. If we ought to support our benefactors and friends in political struggles, even when we think them to have acted imprudently. If one who has rendered signal service to his country, and on that very account lias incurred troubles and envy, should voluntarily expose himself for his country's sake. If it be permitted him to make provision for himself and his family, and to leave state affairs to those in power. Exercising myself in these questions, and writing on both sides in Greek and in Latin, I divert my attention a little from uneasiness, and contemplate something of real interest. But I fear I may address you unseasonably ; for if the person who brought your letter came straight hither, it will fall upon your sick day. LETTER V. Ton wrote to me on your birthday a letter fiill of advice, and at once expressive of the greatest kindness, and the greatest good sense. Fhilotimus delivered it to me the day after he had received it from you. The circumstances you mention are very difficult to arrange ; the way to the Adriatic ; the voyage by the Mediterranean ; the departure to Arpinum, as if to avoid Csesar ; the remaining at Formiae, as if on purpose to congratulate him. But nothing is more wretched than to see what presently, presently I say, must be seen. I have had Postumus ' with me : I told you how conse- quential he was. Q. Fusius likewise called upon me ; with what an air I vrith what insolence ! He was hastening to Brundisium ; charging Pompeius with vrickedness, the senate with fickleness and folly. Shall I, who cannot bear this in my villafbe able to bear Curtius in the senate ? Or suppose me to bear it with ever so good a stomach ; what must be the issue when I am called upon ; " Speak, M. " Tullius .'" I say nothing of the republic, which I consider as lost both by the wounds it has received, and by the remedies which are prepared for it. But what shall I do about Pompeius P with whom (for why should I deny it?) I am quite angry. For the causes of events always affect us more than the events themselves. When I con- sider therefore these miseries (and what can be worse?) or rather when I reflect that they have been brought on by his means and his fault, I am more irritated against him than against Csesar himself: in the same manner as our forefatliers marked the day of the battle of the Allia*, as sadder than that of the taking the city ; because the latter calamity was the consequence of the other : therefore the one is still held sacred, the other not even known to the common people. Thus am I angry while I recollect the errors of ten years past (among which was that year of affliction to me, when he, to say nothing worse, did not defend me), and perceive the rashness, the baseness, the negligence of the present time. But these things are now erased from my mind. I think of the benefits I have received from him, and think also of his own dignity. I understand, later indeed than I could wish, by reason of Balbus's letters and conversation ; but I see plainly that nothing else is aimed at, nothing else has beeen aimed at from the beginning, but his death. Shall I then, (if Achilles, according to Homer, when his mother goddess told him that his fate would presently follow that of Hector, replied, " Would that I might die immediately, since I could not prevent the death of my friend ;" what if not only a friend, but i^so a benefactor ; such a man too, and engaged in such a cause ? And shall I then) think these duties to be trafficked away for the sake of life ' ? I place no reliance on your principal people, and now no more defer to them. I see how they give themselves, and will give them- selves, to this man. Do you think those decrees of the towns for Pompeius's health bear any com- parison with these congratulations of victory? " They are afraid," you will say. Themselves say they were afraid before. But let us see what has been done at Brundisium. From that perhaps will arise my determination, and another letter. » Postumus Curtius. See letter 2 of this took. ^ The Gauls defeated the Bomans at the river Allia, previous to their taking the city. I The context appears to me to reijuire an interrogation in this place. 3 A 2 r2i THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER VI. I HAVE yet heard nothing from Bmndisiam, Balbus has written from Rome, saying that he supposes the consul Lentulus to have crossed the sea, without being met by the younger Balbus ; who had already heard this at Canusium, from whence he wrote to his uncle. And he added that the six cohorts, which had been at Alba, had gone over to Curius by the Minucian road ; that Csesar had written to inform him of it, and would shortly be at Rome. I shall follow your advice, and shall not hide myself at Arpinum at this time ; though I wished to invest my son with the toga of man- hood at Arpinum >■, and had intended to leave this as my excuse to Csesar. But he might perhaps be offended at that very circumstance, that I should not rather do it at Rome. If, however, it is right to meet him, it is best here. We will then con- sider the rest ; whither I should go, and by what road, and when. Domitius, as I hear, is in the neighbourhood of Cosa^ ; and, as they say, is pre- pared to sail. If to Spain, I do not approve it ; if to Cnseus, I commend him : but anywhere rather than to see Curtius ', whom even I, that have been his patron, cannot bear to look at. What then ? Must I bear others *> .' But I must be quiet, that I may not aggravate my own fault : for through my affection to the city, that is, to my country, and hoping that affairs might be compromised, I have managed so as to be completely intercepted and taken. Since writing the above I have received a letter from Capua to this effect : Pompeius has crossed the sea with all the troops that he had with him, amounting to 30,000 men, besides the two consuls, and those tribunes of the people and senators, who were with him, all with their wives and children. He is said to have embarked the 4th of March, from which day the vrinds have been northerly. They say that he either cut in two, or burned, all the vessels which he did not use. The letter containing this account was brought to L. Metellus, the tribune of the people, at Capua, from his mother-in-law, Clodia, who herself passed over. I was before solicitous and anxious, as indeed the circumstances required, while I could bring my mind to no conclusion : but now, since Pompeius and the consuls have left Italy, I am no longer anxious, but burn with grief ; and, as Homer says, " Neither is my mind sound, but I am distracted." Believe me, I am not master of myself, so great is the disgrace I seem to have incurred. In the first place, by not having been with Pompeius, whatever plan he adopted ; then, in not having been with the good, however ill their cause was conducted. Especially when the very persons for whose sake I was more timid in exposing myself to the risks of fortune, my wife, my daughter, the young Ciceros, wished me to follow that course; and considered this to be base y It was usual to assume the toga viriiis on the festival of Bacchus, March 1 8th , at the age of seventeen, with some ceremony, 2 Cosa is a place on the sea-coast of Etruria. » Perhaps Postumus Curtiua, of whom he had spoken in letter 2 of this book, and for whom he had formerly soli- cited the office of tribune. 1* I apprehend it ought to he in the original Quid ? alios 9 Otherwise it is not easy to see upon what the word alios depends. ana unworthy of me. My brother Quintus, indeed, said he should be satisfied vrith whatever I chose ; and he followed it with perfect complacency. I now read over your letters from the beginnii^ ; and they afford me some comfort. The first advise and beg me not to throw myself away ; the next show that you are glad I have remained. When I read these, I think myself less blameable ; but it is only while I am reading them : afterwards my regret again bursts forth, and, as it is said, " I am haunted with shame." I beseech you, therefore, my Titus, pluck out from me this trouble, or at least diminish it either by consolation, or advice, or any way you can. But what can you do .' or what can any man ? Hardly any god. I am con- sidering (as you advise, and hope may be effected) how I can get Caesar's permission to absent myself when anything is agitated in the senate against Cnaeus : but I fear I may not obtain it. Purnius has arrived from him ; and, that you may know whose example I follow, he brings word that Q. Titinius' son is with Csesar. He sends me greater thanks than I could wish. What he asks of me, in few words indeed, but energetically, you shall see by his own letter. How unfortunate that you should have been unwell ! Had we been together, there surely would have been no want of counsel — "And going two in company"^," &c. But, let us not act over the past ; let us provide for what remains. These two things have hitherto deceived me ; at first, the hope of accommodation ; upon which taking place I had wished to pass my old age free from anxiety and popular strife*; after- wards, the understanding that Pompeius had actu- ally engaged in a cruel and deadly warfare. In truth 1 thought it argued a better citizen, and a better man, rather to undergo any punishment, than not only to take the lead, but to take any part in such cruelty. It appears preferable even to die than to be leagued with such men. Think of these matters, my Atticus, or rather resolve. I can bear any event better than my present anguish- Casar, ImperatOTj to Cicero^ Imperafor. Having but just seen our friend Fumius, with- out being able conveniently either to speak to him or hear him, being in a hurry, and actually on my road, with my troops already sent on before; I could not, however, let pass the opportunity of writing to you, and sending him to thank you. If I have frequently done this, yet I am likely to do it still more frequently ; so greatly am I obliged to you. Especially I have to beg of you, as I trust I shaE soon arrive in Rome, to let me see you there, that I may be able to avail myself of your advice, influence, dignity, and assistance in everything. I must end as I began, and request you to excuse my haste, and the shortness of my letter. You will hear the rest from Furnius. c The original is part of a verse from Homer, well known to hoth Cicero and Atticus, expressive of Diomedes's wish to have a companion in his night expedition to the Trojan camp. ^ Several conjectures have been offered hy commentators in explanation of this passage, which however appears to be sufficiently clear, if we only admit the slight alteration of et in the place of uti. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. T25 LETTER VII. I HAD -written a letter to you, which should have been sent the 12th of March ; but the person to whom I meant to entrust it did not go that day. But the very same day, came that swift-foot, as Salvius called him, and brought me your very satis- factory letter, which again instilled into me some little life. Restored I cannot call myself : but what is next to this you have done. Trust me, I now no longer think of a prosperous termination : for I see that as long as these two, or this one, is living, we shall never have a republic. Therefore I now lay aside all hope of retirement, and am prepared for every severity. My only fear was that of doing, or, I may say, of having done anything discredit- able. Let me assure you then that your letter is very valuable to me ; and not only that longer one, than which nothing can be more explicit, nothing more complete ; but also the shorter one, in which it was particularly agreeable to me to understand that my sentiments and conduct were approved by Sextns. You have done me a great kindness ; for I know that he loves me, and that he understands what Is right. Your longer letter has relieved not me only, but all my family, from anxiety. I shall accordingly adopt your advice, and stay in Formi- anum ; lest either my going to meet him in Rome may create observation ; or if I neither see him here nor there, he may think that I try to avoid him. As to what you advise, that X should ask him to let me pay the same regard to Pompeius which I pay to him, you will see by the letter of Balbus and Oppius, of which I send you a copy, that I have already done so. I send also Caesar's letter to them, written with great temper, for such a distempered state. If Csesar does not grant me this, I perceive that you approve of my under- taking a negotiation for peace ; in which I do not regard the hazard that attends it. For when so many dangers threaten us, why should I not com- pound for the most honourable ? But 1 appre- hend I shall bring some embarrassment upon Pompeius, and that he will be inclined to turn upon me " the appalling horror of the Gorgon's head "." For our friend Cnseus has been strangely ambitious of a sovereignty like that of Sulla. I say it with confidence. He never was less ' secret. "Would you then," you say, "join such a man .' " I follow him, believe me, from a sense of the benefits I have received, not from a love of his cause, as in the case of Milo ; as in — but enough of this. " Is not then his cause a good one?" Yes, the very best: but it will be con- ducted, mind you, most foully. The first object is, to starve the city and all Italy by famine ; then to lay waste and burn the countiy, and not to spare the property of the opulent. But, as I apprehend all the same calamities from this party; if there were not on the other side a sense of benefits received, I should think It more proper to bear at home whatever might happen. But I consider " The original is a verse of Homer. The meaning here is,thathemighthave to encounter the frown of Pompeius, who was averse from any compromise. It is possible that some severity of countenance spoken of by Flutaxch, as TO yepapby Ka) t& ^atn\iK6vf may have given occasion to the application of this line to him. f He was formerly spoken of as wanting openness. See book iv. letters 9 and 15. myself under such obligations to him, that I dare not expose myself to the charge of ingratitude, however just an excuse for it you point out. About my triumph I agree with you, and easily and will- ingly give up all thoughts of it. I am uncommonly pleased with the hope that in the midst of our arrangements the season for sailing may creep on unobserved. " If only," as you say, " Pompeius is strong enough." He is stronger even than I thought. But whatever hope you may entertain of him, I engage that, if he prevails, he will leave no tile in Italy unbrokens. " And will you then be his associate .'" Against indeed my own judg- ment: and against the authority of all antiquity''. I wish to get away, not so much to promote what is done there, as that I may not witness what is done here. For do not suppose that the madness of these people can be supportable, or confined to one kind : though nothing of this has escaped your penetration. "When the laws, the judicial proceed- ings, and the senate, are taken away ; neither private property nor the republic will be able to support the licentiousness, the boldness, the extravagance, the needs of so many needy men. Let ns away then by any passage, though I submit this to your judgment ; but by all means let us away. We shall soon know that which you wait for ; what has been done at Brundisium. It gives me great pleasure, if indeed there is now any room for pleasure, that you say my conduct hitherto is approved by the good, at the same time that they know I have not left the country. I will endea- vour to find out more particularly about Lentulus : I have entrusted this to Philotimus, a bold man, and more than enough attached to the senatorian party. In conclusion, you may perhaps be at a loss for a subject to write upon ; for it is impos- sible at this time to write about anything else ; and about this what more can now be said .' But as both your wit supplies you (I speak forsooth as I think), and your affection, by which my wit likewise is sharpened; continue as you do, and write as much as you can. I am half angry that you do not invite me to Epirus, where I should not be a troublesome companion. But farewell. For as you must exercise and anoint yourself, so I must sleep ; which your letter enables me to do'. Balbus and Oppius to M. Cicero. The counsels, not only of inconsiderable people, as we are, but even of the greatest men, are apt to be interpreted by the event, not by the intention. Yet relying on your goodness, we give you the best opinion we can upon the subject about which you wrote to us. And if it be not wise, at least it pro- ceeds from honest minds, and the kindest regards. Unless we were assured from himself that Csesar would do what in our judgment he ought to do ; that as soon as he comes to Rome he will enter upon measures of reconciliation with Pompeius ; we should cease to exhort you to take a part in this affair, in order that the whole may be effected sr That is, he will destroy everything. ^ Which leads to remaining at Rome, instead of desert- ing one's country. > This alludes to the treatment of his quartan fever, for which Celflus likewise recommends walking and othef exerciser and anointings. *' Ambulationibusuti oportet, aliisque exercitationibus, et imctionibus.'- — Lib. iii. 14. J Meaning that his mind had before been too much df^ composed to allow him to sleep. 726 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO more easily, and with more dignity, through you, who are connected with both parties. On the other hand, if we thought that Csesar would not do so, but was desirous of engaging in war with Pompeius ; we never would persuade you to bear arms against one who has shown you the greatest kindness ; as we have always entreated you not to fight against Csesar. But still, since we are rather able to guess than to know what Csesar will do, we can only say, that it does not appear suitable to your dignity and known probity, being so attached to both, to bear arms against either ; and we have no doubt but Csesar will highly approve this, agreeably to his accustomed humanity. But, if you wish it, we will write to Csesar, in order to ascertain more certainly what he wUl do in this affair J: from whom if we receive an answer, we will immediately let you know our opinion ; and promise you, that we will advise what seems to us most becoming your dignity, not what may be most beneficial to Caesar's cause : and this, we believe, Csesar will approve, according to his indulgence towards his friends. Balbus to Cicero, Imperator, I HOPE you are well. After I had despatched to you the joint letter with Oppius, I received one from Csesar, of which I inclose a copy. From thence you may perceive how desirous he is of peace and of reconciliation with Pompeius ; and how far he is from all cruelty ; and I sincerely rejoice, as I ought, that he entertains such sen- timents. With respect to yourself, and your integrity, and duty, I think, my Cicero, as you do, that it is impossible your reputation and attach- ment can permit you to bear arms against one from whom you profess to have received such kindness. That Csesar will approve this I am confident, from his distinguished humanity ; and I know for certain that he will be abundantly satis- fied with you, provided you take no part in the war against him, and do not join his adversaries. And he will not only deem this suiiScient in one of your high character; but, of his own accord, he has given me leave to absent myself from the army, that might have to act against Lentnlus or Pom- peius, to whom I am under great obligation^ : and he said, that he should be satisfied if, when I was called upon, I would undertake for him the busi- ness relating to the city ; and that I was at liberty to do the same for them"*. Accordingly I am at this time conducting and supporting Lentulus's affairs at Rome ; and I maintain towards them my duty, fidelity and gratitude. But, in truth, I con- sider the hope of agreement to be now again cast off, not entirely desperate ; since Csesar's disposi- tion is such as we ought to desire. In this case I think, if it meets with your approbation, that you should write to him, and request from him a guard ; as you did from Pompeius, with my approbation, at the time of Milo's trial. I wiU engage, if I know anything of Csesar, that he will sooner con- sider your dignity than his own advantage. How prudently I may advise you 1 know not ; but this I know, that whatever I write to you, I write from the purest affection and regard: for, so may 1 die without prejudice to Csesar^, as I esteem few J Of reconciliation with Pompeius. ^ For Iientulus and Pompeius. 1 Tliis ia a foi-m of abjuration which became common mider the emperors. equally dear to me as yourself. When you have come to any determination about this business", I wish you would write to me : for I am not a little earnest that you should be able, as you desire, to show your kindness towards both". And this I trust you will do. Farewell. Ctesar to Oppius and Cornelius'. I AM very glad that you express in your letter how much you approve of what has been done at Corfinium. I shall willingly adopt your advice; and the more so, because of my own accord I had resolved to show every lenity, and to use my en- deavours to conciliate Pompeius. Let us (iy by thgse means if we can regain the affections of all people, and render our victory lasting. Others, from their cruelty, have not been able to avoid the hatred of mankind, nor long to retain their victory ; except L. Sulla alone, whom I do not mean to imitate. Let this be a new method of conquering, to fortify ourselves with kindness and Hberality. How this may be done, some things occur to my own mind, and many others may be found. To thw subject I request your attention. I have taken Cn. Magius, Pompeius's prsefect. I accordingly put in practice my own principle, and immediately released him. Already two of Pompeius's prsefects of engineers have fallen into my power, and have been released. If they are disposed to be gratefal, they should exhort Pompeius to prefer my friend- ship to that of these people, who have always been the worst enemies to him and to me ; by whose artifices it has happened that the republic has come into this condition. LETTER Vin. While 1 was at dinner on the 14th, and it was late, Statins brought me a short letter from you. Respecting the inquiry you make about L. Torqua- tus, not only Lucius, but Aulus also, is gouef, the former several days ago. I am concerned for what you mention about the assemblies of the Reatini, that there should be any seeds of proscription in the Sabine country. I had heard likewise i that many senators were at Rome. Can you tell why they ever left it^.^ It is the general opinion in these parts, rather from conjecture than from any mes- sage, or letter, that Caesar will be at Formiae the 22d of March. Here now should I like to have that Minerva of Homer, who took the form of Mentor, to whom I might say, " Mentor, how shall I go ; or how shall I accost him » ?" Nothing more difficult ever occurred to me. I think of it, however ; and at least shall not, as sometimes hap- pens, be taken by surprise. But take care of your health, — for I think yesterday was your bad day. ™ About entering upon negotiations for peace. ° Csesar and Pompeius. o Cornelius Balbnl. P Gone to join Pompeius. 1 The expression " likewise " probably refers to aprevious letter from Atticus, and means that Cicero had heard this before he received Atticus'a account. ' Insinuating that they went out to pay court to Caasar on his return from Brundisimn. " The original is a verse taken from the begiiuiing oS the 3d book of the Odyssey. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. ni LETTER IX, I RECEivBD three letters from you on the 16th. They were dated the 12th, 13th, and 14th. I shall, therefore, reply to them in their order. I agree with you, that it is best to remain in Formi- anum ; also about the passage by the Ajlriatic sea ; and, as I mentioned to you before, I wiU try if I can get his consent to my caking no part in public affairs. What you approve, that I told you I for- get the precious conduct and errors of our friend, it is even so. Nay, I remember not those very circumstances which you mention of his miscon- duct towards me. So much'do I desire that my gratitude for his kindness may overpower all sense of his ill-treatment. Let us do then as you advise, and recollect ourselves. For I philosophise as soon as I get into the country ; and in my walks I do not cease to meditate upon the subjects I mentioned to you *. But some of them are very difficult to determine. Respecting the principal citizens, be it as you please ; but you know that saying, *' Dionysius in Corinth "." Titinius' son is with Ceesar. But what you seem to fear, that your ad- vice may displease me ; this is so far from being the ease, that your opinion and your letters are the only thing that give me pleasure. Therefore con- tinue, as you profess, to write to me whatever comes into your mind. Nothing can be more acceptable to me. I come now to the next letter. You are not rightly informed about the number of Pompeius' soldiers. Clodia mentioned more by one half. The story too about the ships that were destroyed, is not true. When you commend the consuls, I also commend their intentions, though 1 blame their conduct : for owing to their dispersion, the negotiation for peace is prevented, which I was meditating. Accordingly, I have sent back to you by Philotimus the treatise of Demetrius upon Con- cord. 1 cannot doubt but a most destructive war hangs over us, the first operation of which will be felt in the want of provisions. Yet I am vexed that I have no part in this war, not- withstanding such a load of wickedness will attend it ; for, whereas the not supporting a parent is criminal; our chiefs design to destroy that most venerable and sacred parent, their coun- try, by famine. And this I fear, not from conjec- ture, but from the conversations at which I have been preseitt. All this fleet from Alexandria, Col- chis, Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Cyprus, Famphylia, Lycia, Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium, Lesbus, Smyrna, Miletus, Cos, is collected for the purpose of inter- cepting the supplies of Italy, and of occupying the provinces from whence they are drawn. Then, in what wrath will he" come ! especially against those who wish best to their country ; as if he had been deserted by those people whom in fact he deserted. In my doubt therefore what I ought to do, my gra- titude towards him has great weight. Were it not for this, I should think it better to perish within my country, than in saving my country to ruin it. Respecting the northern parts ", I think with you ; ' See the 4th letter of this hook. ^ DionysiuB, from being an absolute monarch in Syra- cUBe, became a schoolmaater at Corinth, Hence this ex- preaeion seems to mean, that those who were once great are liable to be strangely humbled. V Fompoiufi, V The northern parts of Greece seem here to be in- and fear that Epirus may suffer. But what place in Greece do you suppose will escape being plun- dered ? For he professes oppiily, and holds out to his soldiers, that even in his bounties he will show himself the superior. You very justly advise me, when I see Caesar, not to address him with over civility, but rather to maintain my dignity. And so I shall certainly do. After our meeting, I think of going to Arpiuum ; for I would not be absent when he comes; nor should I like to be running backwards and forwards on so wretched a road. I hear, as you mention, that Bibulus arrived, and returned again the 14th. In the third letter you say that you were expecting Philo- timus. He left me on the I'oth. This was the reason that the answer, which I wrote immediately upon the receipt of your letter, was later in reach- ing you. Respecting Domitius, I imagine, as you say, that he is in Cossanum, and that his intention is not known. That base and sordid man^, who says thatthe consular comitiamay be held bytheprsetor, is the same that he always was in the republic. This is the real meaning of what Csesar writes in the letter of which I sent you a copy '', that he wishes to avail himself of my advice : well, suppose this to be a general expression, mp influence, — this is absurd ; but I imagine he pretends this with regard to some opinions of the senators : my dignity, meaning perhaps the opinion of one of consular rank : at last comes my assistance in everything, I began to suspect from your letter, that his inten- tion was what I have hinted, or not very different. For it is of great consequence to him that the business should not come to an interregnum '■- If the consuls are created by the praetor, he gains his point. But in our augural books we read not only that the consuls, but even the praetors, cannot law- fully be created by a praetor, and that it never has been done. In the case of consuls it is not allowed, because a higher command cannot be instituted by an inferior one : and in the case of praetors, because they are elected as assistants to theconsuls, who are of superior authority. He will be very likely to refer this to me, and not to rest satisfied with the opinion of Galba, Scaevola, Cassius, An- tonius'. "Then may the wide earth gape to receive me '." You see what a storm bangs over me. I will send you the names of the senators who have passed over, when I have ascertained them. You are quite right about the supplies of corn, which cannot possibly be managed without subsidies ' ; nor is it without reason that you fear those who are about him, full of demands ; and tended, among which was situated Atticus's property in Epirus. 2 It is not known who is here meant. Some suppose it to be Lepidus, who was at that time praetor. The whole of this letter being in reply to those received from Atticua, may naturally be expected to be obscure, by alluding to persons and things there mentioned. 7 Inserted after letter 6 of this book. ■ In the absence of the consuls an interregnum used to be created to hold the comitia. In this case Casar would not be secure of the consnlship, which he hoped to obtain, ' It is to be supposed that these were augurs as well as Cicero, and in Csesar's interests. It belonged to the augura to determine such cases. ^ Taken from Homer. c it would be necessary for Pompeius to raiae money by any meana ; and hia followers would be clamorous for plunder. 728 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO dread an iniquitous war. I sliould be glad to see our friend Trebatius, though, as you say, he has no hope of anything good. Press him to make haste : for it will be convenient that he should come before Caesar's arrival. Respecting Lanuinum, as soon as I heard that Phameas was dead, I wished, if there should ever be a republic, that one of my friends might buy it. But of you, who are most especially mine, I never thought. For I knew that you used to inquire at how many years' purchase, and what is the productiveness of the soil ; and had seen your book of accounts '^ not only at Rome, but atDelos. However, though it is very pretty, yet I should value it lower than it was valued in the consulship of Marcellinus, when I thought, on account of the bouse which I then had at Antium, that those gar- dens would be pleasanter to me, and less expensive, than the refitting my villa at Tusculum. I offered 500 sestertia (4000/. ), through a surety to whom he might surrender it, when it was to be sold at Antium : but he would not accept it. Now how- ever I imagine everything of that kind is lowered on account of the scarcity of money. It will be most convenient for me, or rather for us, if you purchase it. Take care not to undervalue his ab- surdities ^ The place is exceedingly beautiful : though I look upon all these things as already devoted to destruction. I have answered your three letters ; but am expecting others. For hitherto it is your letters that have supported me. Dated on the Liberalia '. LETTER X. I HAVE nothing to tell you ; for I have heard no news, and I answered all your letters yesterday. But while my anxiety not only deprives me of sleep, butdoesnot even suffer me to be awake without great uneasiness, I have determined to write I know not what, upon no particular subject, that I may, as it were, converse with you ; in which alone I find consolation. I seem to have lost my reason from the beginning ; and this one consideration vexes me, that while Pompeius was sinking, or rather rushing to destruction, I should not in all events have accompanied him, like one of his troop. I saw him on the 19th of January full of alarm ; and from that day I perceived what course he would take. He has never pleased me since, nor has he ever ceased to commit one error after another. In the mean time he has never written to me ; and has thought of nothing hut flight. In short, as in affairs of love we are disgusted by a want of clean- liness, of sense, or of delicacy j so the baseness of his flight, and his neglect, turned away my affec- tion : for his conduct has been void of all merit, that should induce me to join him. But now my affection again rises up ; now I cannot bear to be withouthim ; now neither books, nor study, nor phi- losophy, afford me any relief; so that, like Plato's bird 8, I look upon the sea day and night, and long d In the original is digamma, the signification of which is uncertain ; but the context leads to the interpretation I have given. e That is, the extravagant alterations which Phameas had made. f The festival of Bacchus, which was celebrated the 18th of March. i Plato, wishing to get away from Dionysius the tyrant to take my flight. I pay, I pay the penalty of my folly : yet what folly have I committed .' What have I not done vrith due deliberation ? For, had I no object besides flight, I might have fled with all readiness ; but I shuddered at the idea of a cruel and extensive war, of which people do not yet see the wretchedness. What threats are held out to the towns ! and to good men by name ! and in short to all who stay behind ! How often does he repeat, "Sulla was able, shall not I be able?" Besides, this stuck with me : Tarquinius acted ill, who excited Porsena and Octavius Mamilius against his country : Coriolanus most undutifiilly, who solicited succour from the Volsci: Themis- tocles nobly, who chose rather to die : and Hip- pias, the son of Pisistratus, was branded with infamy, who fell in the battle of Marathon bearing arms against nis country. But Sulla, but Marius, but Ciuna, did well, perhaps even rightly; yet what could be more cruel, more destructive, than their victory .' A war of this kind I wished to avoid ; and the more so, because 1 saw that still greater cruelties were devised and prepared. Should I , whom some have called the preserver, the father of that city, bring against it the forces of the Getse, and Armenians, and Colchians ? Should I bring famine upon my fellow-citizens, ruin upon Italy .' I considered that this '' man in the first place was mortal ; then, that he might be destroyed in many ways : but I thought the city, and people, ought, as far as in us lies, to be. preserved to immortality. At the same time a certain hope presented itself to me, that something might be agreed upon, rather than that either the one should admit such a degree of wickedness, or the other such a degree of profligacy. Now the general concern is altered, and my particular concern is altered with it. To me, as it is expressed in one of your letters, it seems as if the sun had fallen out of the world. As they say of the sick, that while there is life, there is hope ; so I, as long as Pompeius was in Italy, did not cease to hope. This, tins it was that deceived me ; and, to speak the truth, my age already declining from continual labours towards a state of repose, soothed me with the charm of domestic life. Now, though the attempt be attended with danger, I certainly will attempt to fly away from hence. I ought perhaps to have done it sooner ; but the circumstances I have men- tioned delayed me, and above all your authority. For when I got to this place I opened the bundle of your letters, which I have under my seal, and keep with the greatest care. In one, that was dated January 23, I find it thus : " But let us see what Cnseus does, and in what direction his designs flow. If he should leave Italy, he will act altogether wrong, and in my judgment inadvisedly j and in of Syracuse, compai-ed himself to a bird longing to make its escape. h This is generally understood of CBesar ; I rather under- stand it of Pompeius : the sense being, that Cicero was not so to support Pompeius, who might die at any time, as to ruin his country, which ought to be preserved for ever. And this he gives as a reason for not immediately joining Pompeius. He besides still cherished hopes of peace ; and that neither Pompeius would be so wicked as to destroy his country, nor Caesar so profligate as to enslave it. But now that they had thrown off the mask, and shown their real intentions, and extinguished all idea of accommoda^ tion, the whole state of affairs was changed, and Cicero's duty changed likewise. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 729 that case our plans must be changed." This you write four days after I left the city. Again, on the 25th of January: " Provided our Cnseus does not relinquish Italy as inadvisedly as he has relin- quished the city." The same day you send a second letter, in which you distinctly reply to my questions. It is thus: " I come now to your consultation. If Cnseus leaves Italy, I think you should return to the city : for what end is there of travelling about ?" This struck me forcibly, — and I now see it to be even so, that a boundless war is united with a wretched flight ; which you represent as a travelling. ■ There follows an oracular opinion on the 27th of January : " If Pompeius remains in Italy, and no agreement is made, 1 think there win be a protracted war ; but if he leaves Italy, I apprehend that a war is prepared, which will here- after be interminable." In this war I am obliged to be a partaker, a companion, and an assistant ; a war interminable, and with fellow-citizens ! Then on the 7th of February, when you began already to hear more of Pompeius's design, you conclude one of your letters in this manner : " I do not indeed ad. vise, if Pompeius leaves Italy, that you should also run away ; for you will do it with great risk, and will not benefit the republic ; which you may bene - fit hereafter, if you remain." Who that had any love for his country, or any public spirit, would not be moved by such adrice, upon the authority of a prudent man and a friend ? Further, on the 11th of February, you again reply to my inquiries thus : ** What you ask me, whether I think pre- ferable, a flight in which I preserve my fidelity, or a stay which must be relinquished ? I certainly think at present that a sudden departure and pre- cipitate journey would be useless to Cnseus himself, and hazardous to you : and I think it better that your friends should be dispersed, and in places of obser- vation : and in truth I think it disgraceful for us to entertain any design of flight." This disgracefal thing our friend Cneeus meditated two years ago ; so long has his mind dwelt upon Sulla, and upon proscriptions. Afterwards when, as I imagine, you had written to me something in a more gene- rous strain, and I had supposed some expressions to mean that I should quit Italy ', you distinctly reprobate this on the 14th of February : " I as- sure you I never meant in any letter to express that if Cnseus went out of Italy, you should go with him ; or if I expressed it, I must have been, I do not say an inconsistent man, but a mad man." In another part of the same letter : " Nothing is left for him but flight ; but I by no means think, or have ever thought, that it was your duty to accom- pany him." But this whole consideration you un- fold more particularly in a letter dated the 12th of February: " If M. Lepidus and L. Volcatius remain, I think you ought to remain ; yet so, that if Pompeius is in safety and makes a stand any- where, you may leave this ghastly troop), and rather suffer yourself to be defeated in battle with Pompeius, than reign with Csesar among that rab- ble, to which it is evident they will be reduced." You then use many arguments in support of this opinion; and in conclusion you say, " What if Lepidus and Volcatius go away .' I am completely at a loss : and whatever happens therefore, and whatever you do, I shall think that w e ought to be * See book viii, letter 2. i Caesar's profligate adherents. See letter 18 of tliis book* satisfied with it." If you then doubted, now at least you do not doubt, as they remain. Then, at the very time of his flight, February 25 : " In the mean time I do not doubt but you will remain in Formianum ; for you can there with most conve- nience wait for what may happen." On the 1 st of March, when he had already been four days at Brundisium: "We shall then be able to deliberate, while the cause is not indeed whole and entire, but certainly less infringed, than if you threw yourself away with him." Again, March 4, when your ague was coming on, in consequence of which you wrote very briefly, you add however : " To-morrow I will write more, and reply to all your observa- tions : so much however I will say, that I do not repent of the advice I gave about your stay ; and, though it must be attended with great anxiety, yet as I think it less objectionable than your going, I continue in the same opinion, and am glad that you have remained." But when I was uneasy, and afraid lest I might have acted unbecomingly ; on the 3d of March you say, ' ' Nevertheless, I am not sorry that you are not with Pompeius. Hereafter, if there is occasion, it will not be difficult ; and when- ever it is done, it will be very gratifying to him. But I must add, that if Cffisar goes on to act, as he has begun, with candour, moderation, and prudence, I shall think again, and consider more deliberately what is best to be done." On the 9th of March you write also that our friend Peduceus approves of my remaining quiet ; and his opinion has great weight with me. With these letters of yours I comfort myself by thinking that hitherto I have not done wrong. Do you only defend your own opinion. With regard to myself it is unnecessary ; but I want to have others know it. If only I have not erred, I will take care of the rest. Let me have your encouragement, and assist me altogether with your judgment. Here nothing is yet heard about Csesar's return. So much at least I have gained by this letter, that I have read over all yours, and in so doing have found consolation. LETTER XL You know our friend Lentulus is at Puteoli. Upon hearing this from a passenger, who said that he recognised him on the Appian road, where he was travelling in a litter partly opened ; however improbable it might be, yet I sent a servant to Pu- teoli to ascertain the fact, and sent a letter to him. He found him just secluding himself in his villa, from whence he wrote back to me full of gratitude to Csesar, and saying that he had delivered to C. Csecius instructions for me about his future plans : him I expect to-day, that is, the 20th of March. Matins also came to me the 19th, — a man, as he has appeared to me, temperate and prudent ; and has always been supposed to be in favour of peace. How much he seemed to disapprove these proceed- ings ! How much to dread that ghastly troop, as you call them ! In a long conversation which I had with him, I showed him Csesar's letter to me, of which I before sent you a copy, and asked him to explain to me what it was he meant by saying that he wished to avail himself of my advice, my influence, my dignity, my assistance in everything'. ^ See letter 9 of this book. 730 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO He replied, that he had nodoubthewantedmy assist- ance and influence to promote an accommodation. Would that it were possible for me to eifect, or help forward, any measure of public utility in this wretched state of the country ! Matins likewise was persuaded thathewas sodisposed, and promised that he would himself advise it. Yesterday Cras- sipes was with me, who said that he had come from Brundisium the 6th of March, and had left Pom- peius there ; which was the report also of those who had come from thence on the 8th. And all agreed (amongst whom was Crassipes also, who would listen with more prudence ^) that they used threatening language, unfriendly towards the prin- cipal citizens, hostile to the towns, mere proscrip- tions, mere SuUaa" : that Lucceius, that all Greece, that Theophanes also, talked in this manner. Yet in these people is all our hope of safety j and I watch in my mind, and take no rest, and in order to avoid the calamities at home, am wishing to be with persons most unlike myself. For what excess do you suppose Scipio, and Faustus, and Libo °, will not commit ; whose creditors are said to be meeting ° ? And, if they are successful, how will they harass the citizens ! But what dis- tant views do they relate of our Cnceus 1 that he thinks of going to Egypt, and Arabia, and Meso- potamia, and has laid aside all idea of Spain. Such stories are monstrous ; but perhaps they are not true. Assuredly things are both ruinous here, and there by no means well disposed. I am already wishing to hear from you. Since my retreat from the city, there has never been on my part any interruption of our correspondence. I send you a copy of my letter to Csesar, by which I hope to produce some effect. Cicero, Imperator, to Ccssar, Jmperator. Upon reading your letter^, which I received by my friend Furaius, relative to my being in the city, I was not so much surprised at your wishing to avail yourself of my advice, and dignity ; but I asked myself what you meant hy my in/Zuerace and assist- ance. And I was led by my hopes to this conclu- sion ; that agreeably to your admirable and singular prudence, I supposed you might wish some steps to be taken for the tranquillity, the peace, the union of the citizens : and for that purpose I thought my character and person sufficiently suited. Which if it be so, and if you are touched with any regard for protecting myfriend Pompeius, and reconciling him with yourself and the repubhc, you will indeed find nobody more ready than I am in such a cause ; having always been to him, and to the senate, as soon as I could, the counsellor of peace. Nor have I by taking up arms had any part in the war ; but have thought that you were injured in it, and that unfriendly and envious per- sons were resisting the honour ■! which had been 1 There is some otscurity, and perhaps some error, in the text. ™ This is represented as the disposition of Pompeius's party, of whom Lucceius and Theophanes were principal advisers, ' n These were of Pompeius's party. •> To make a sale of their goods. P The letter alluded to is subjoined to letter 6 of this hook. 1 The power of being eligible to the consulship without coming to Rome and laying down his command. granted you by the favour of the Roman people. But as at that time I not only supported your dignity, but also got others to assist you ; so now am I greatly interested for the dignity of Pompdus. It is now some years since I selected you two, whom I might particularly cultivate, and ■with whom I might be, as I am, in the strictest friend, ship. I therefore request of you, or rather I beg and entreat you with all earnestness, that among your great cares you wduld allot some time also to this consideration, that! by your favour I may be enabled to sustain the part of a good man, grateful and dutiful in the remembrance of. the greatest benefits '. If this concerned myself only, I should nevertheless hope to obtain it from you 4 but, as I conceive, it concerns both your own plighted faith, and the republic, that out of a few I should be reserved by your means, as one particularly suited to renew the harmony of you two, and of the citizens. Though I have before thanked you on account of Lentulus, whom you have saved,' as he did me; yet upon reading the letter, which he wrote to me full of gratitude for your liberality and kindness', I considered myself to have received from you the same benefit you have"' con- ferred upon him. If then you perceive that I am grateful towards him, give me the power of being so likevrise towards Pompeius '. LETTER XI" I AM not sorry for what you say about my letter * being made public ; and have even myse^ allowed several people to take copies of it. For after what has happened, and still threatens us, I should be well pleased to have my sentiments recorded concerning a peace. But in recommend- ing this, especially to such a man, I thought there was no readier means of moving him, than by affirming that the measure, to which I exhorted him, was worthy of his prudence. And if I have spoken of his prudence in terms of admiration while I was calling upon him to save his country, I am not afraid of appearing to flatter a man, at whose feet I would willingly have thrown myself in such a cause. But where it is said, that you would allot some time ; this is not that he should consider about peace ; but about me, and my duty ". For when 1 affirm that I have not engaged in the war, although it is evident from the fact, yet I added it for the purpose of giving weight to my per- suasion. And it is with the same view that I approve his cause. But why is this brought for- ward now .' Would that any good had followed ! Nay, I should be glad to have my letter read in the public assembly; since Pompeius himself made public his own letter to him, in which he says,/!!)" your most disti nguished conducts More distin- "■ Pompeius and Lentulus, of whom he speaks soon after, were instrumental in procuring Cicero's reeal from banishment. » Lentulus had been captured at Corfinlum, and imme- diately liberated by Csesar. ' By not being obliged to assist in any measures against him. « This, which ought obviously to foUow Cicero's lettal to Casar, is taken from the beginning of book viii. letter 9. » To Caesar. The preceding letter of this edition. ^ The duty he owed to Pompeius. X See hook vii. letter 2e, TO TITOS POMPQNIUS ATTICUS, 731 guished than his own ? than that of Africanus ? Such was the current of the times. Even you two ?, so respected, go to meet him at the fifth mile-stone. What ? to meet him on his return from whence ?. doing what ? or purposing to do what ? With what additional spirit will he trust in his cause, when he sees you, and others like you, greeting him not only wilji their numbers, but with cheerKil looks ? Are we then to blame ^ ? I do not mean at all to accuse you : but the marks which should dis- tinguish real good-will from mere pretence are strangely confounded. But what decrees of the senate do I foresee ? I am speaking however more openly than I had intended. I mean to be at Arpi- num the last day of the mouth, and thence to visit my several villas, which I despair of seeing after- wards. LETTER Xn. While I was reading your letter on the 20th of March, I received one from Lepta, informing me that Fompeius was surrounded, and that even the passage out of the harbour was occupied with rafts. I cannot bear to think or write the rest for weep- ing. I send you a copy of it. Wretched as we are 1 why did we not all follow his destiny ? The same intelligence is brought from Matins and Tre- batius, who met with Csesar's messengers at Min- turnse. I am distracted with grief, and already envy the fate of Mucins *. But how honourable, how clear are your counsels ! how well considered, respecting my journey by land, my passage by sea, my meeting and conversation with Caesar ! All is at once honourable and cautious. And how kind, how generous, how brotherly, is your invitation to Epirus ! I am surprised about Dionysius, who was treated by me with inore honour than Fanse- tius was by Scipio, and yet has most foully insulted this present state of my fortune. I hate the man, and will hate him, and wish I could punish him ; but his own humour will punish him sufficiently. Now especially I beg you to consider what I ought to do. An army of the Roman people invests On. Fompeius ! keeps him inclosed with a trench and rampart ! prevents his escape ! Do I live ' And is the city standing .' Do the preetors continue to pronounce judgment .' Do the sediles prepare the public games ? Do substantial men continue to register their interest ? And i" do I myself sit idle ? Should I madly endeavour to go thither, to implore the faith of the towns ? The honest will not fol- low me; the inconsiderate will laugh at me; and those who are eager for a change, especially being armed and victorious, will use violence, and lay hands upon me. What think you then.' Have you any counsel for the remains of this wretched life .' I am grieved, and vexed ; while some think me prudent, or fortunate, in not having gone with him. But I think otherwise. For though I never 7 Perhaps Atticus ajid Bext. Feduceus. See book vii. letter 13. * This appears to be asked as by Atticus and Feduceus. ^ Q. Maciua ficGevola was killed in a former civil war by order of Mariua. This is before alluded to. See book viii. letters. ^ That is, do tilings go on as usual ? or are not all orders of men eager to vindicate the coimtry from such mon- strous proceedings ? Not unlike to this is that of Catullus, " Quid est CatuUe, quid moraris emori i " wished to be his companion in victory, I should desire to be so in adversity. Why should I now request your letters, your prudence, or kindness ? The thing is over. Nothing can now help me, who have not even anything left to wish for, but that he may be delivered by some compassion of the enemy'. I suspect that the account of the rafts is not true. Else what is it that Dolabella means in this letter, which he sent from Brundisium the 1 3tb of March, calling it the good fortune of Csesar, that Fompeius should be on his flight ; and that he would sail with the first wind ? which is very different from those letters, of which I before sent you copies. Here they talk of mere cruelties. But there is no later or better authority than that of Dolabella. LETTER Xin. I RECEIVED your letter on the 22d, in which you defer aU counsel to that time when we shall have learned what has been done. In truth so it must be ; nor in the interval can anything be determined, or even planned ; although the recent letter of Dolabella encourages me to resume my former considerations : for, on the 18th there was a favour- able wind, of which I suppose he would take ad- vantage. The collection of youri* opinions was not brought together for the sake of lamentation, but rather for my consolation. For I was not so much distressed with these calamities, as with the suspicion of my own fault, or folly : these thoughts I now dismiss, since my conduct and counsels have the sanction of your judgment. When you say that my being under such great obligations to him, is more a matter of acknowledgement on my part than of desert on his ; it is so. I have always extolled to the utmost what he did ; and the more, that he might not suppose I harboured the remem- brance of what had passed before '. Which how- ever well I may remember, yet now it becomes me to follow the pattern of his conduct at that time '. He gave me no assistance when it was in his power ; and afterward he became friendly, indeed extremely so, from what reason I know not. I will therefore do the same to him. Moreover, this is alike in both of us, that we have been led into error by the very same people e. I only wish I were able to assist him as much as he was able to assist me. What he did however is most grate- ful to me. But I neither know in what manner I can now help him ; nor, if I could, should I think it right to do so while he is preparing such a deadly war. I would only avoid giving him offence by staying here. I can neither bear to see what you may already anticipate in your mind, nor to c 'Cicero probably received Dolabella's letter subsequently to his writing the above. This may, perhaps, be intimated by the eicpression his Uteris, which I have therefore en- deavoured to preserve in the translation : the letter, or a copy of it, might have been inclosed, <1 See letter !0 of this book. e When Fompeius did not exert himself as he might, to prevent Cicero's banishment. ' When, after neglecting Cicero's interests in the first instance, he afterwards was active in his recal, as he goes on to explain. g Meaning probably Bibul us, Lucceina, and others, who had formerly been envious and jealous of Cicero, [see book iv. letter S,] and had more recently led on Fompeius to his present fortune, and then deserted him. m THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO take a part in those calamities. I have been the slower in removing, because it is difficult to make up one's mind to a voluntary departure without any hope of returning. For I perceive that Csesar is so well provided with infantry, with cavalry, with fleets, with auxiliaries from Gaul ; which lat- ter Matius, a little ostentatiously I suspect, but certainly, estimated at 10,000 foot and 6000 horse, to be furnished at their own expense for ten years : but, supposing this to be an exaggeration, he has certainly great forces ; and he will have for their support, not subsidies, like Pompeius'', but the property of the citizens. Add to this the con- fidence of the man ; add the weakness of all those attached to the republic ; who, because they think Pompeius may with reason be angry with them, therefore hate the game, as you call it ; would it were such ! You say too that one had observed, •'That fellow sits idle,*' because he had professed more than he performed ' ; and generally those who once loved him, love him no longer ; but the towns and country people are afraid of hira, and hitherto are fond of Caesar : from all this, I say, he is so well provided, that even if he should not be able to conquer, yet how he can himself be conquered I do not see. But T fear no fascination^ from this man so much as the persuasion of necessity. " For you must know," says Plato, " that the re- quests of tyrants are blended with necessity." T see yon do not approve of those places which have no harbom' ; and indeed they did not please me ; but I could be there without observation, and with a trusty attendance ; which if I could have at Brun- disium, I should like it better. But there it is impossible to be concealed. But, as you say, when we shall have learned**. I am not anxious to exculpate myself to your good men. For what dinners does Sextus inform me they are giving and receiving ! How luxurious ! How joyous ! But be these people as good as they may, they are not better than ourselves : they might move me if they had more courage '. I was mistaken about Pha- meas's Lanuinum " ; I was dreaming of his Tro- jannm. It was for that I offered 500 sestertia (4000/.) But the other is worth more. I should wish however that you might buy it, if I saw any hope of enjoying it. What strange things are daily reported, you will know from the note " in- closed in my letter. Our friend Lentulus is at Puteoli pining with grief, as Csecius relates. What should he do ? He dreads a repetition of the dis- grace of Corfinium : he now thinks he has done enough for Pompeius, and is moved by Csesar's kindness; but yet is more moved by the actual state of affairs. Can you b ear this ? Everything ■I> See letter 9 of this book. > I give this translation of an obscure, and perhaps faulty, passage, not without great hesitation. I propose to point the liatin thus : " Oderunt, ut tu scribis, ludmn ; ac vel- lem I Soribis quisnam hie signiflcasset, Sedet iste ; quia plus ostenderat, quam fecit." i Cicero here employs a Greek word, which is probably copied from an expression of Atticus, to which this is meant as a reply. ^ This refers to what is said in the beginning of this letter. 1 If they showed more courage in support of the re- public. ■» See letter 9 of this book. " Perhaps this may mean Lepta's report, which Cicero had sent to Atticus with the preceding letter. is wretched, but nothing more wretched than this i that Pompeius has sent M. Magius to propose con- ditions of peace, and is yet besieged, -which I did not at first believe ; but I have received a letter from Balbus, of which I send you a copy. Read it, I beseech you, and that paragraph of Balbus himself, the excellent Balbus " ! to whom our friend Cnseus gave a piece of ground to erect a villa; whom he often distinguished by a preference to any of us. ' So, he is' sadly distressed! But that you may not have to read the same thing twice, I refer you to the letter itself. As to any hope of peace, I have none. Dolabella, in his letter of March 15, speaks of nothing but war. I must remain then in that same wretched and desperate determination p, since nothing can be more wretched than this "i. Balbus to Cicero, Imperator. I HAVE received a short letter from Caesar, of which I subjoin a copy. By the shortness of it you may judge how greatly he is occupied, who writes so briefly upon so important a subject. If there should be any further news, I will immedi- ately write to you. " Ccesar to Oppius, and to Cornelius'. " I ARRIVED at Brundisium the 9th of March. I pitched my camp close to the wall. Pompeius is in Brundisium. He has sent M. Magius to me to treat of peace. I made such reply as seemed proper. This I wished you immediately to know. When I entertain hope of accomplishing anythmg towards an agreement, I will immediately inform yon.'' How do you imagine, my Cicero, that I am now distressed, after being again brought to have some hope of peace, lest anything should prevent their agreement ? For, in my absence all I can do is to wish. If I were there, I might perhaps seem to be of some use. Now I am in a cruel state of ex- pectation. LETTER XIV. I SENT you on the 24th a copy of Balbus's let- ter to me, and of Csesar's to bim ; and the very same day I received one from Q. Pedius at Capua, informing me that Caesar had written to him the 14th of March In the following terms. " Pompeioi keeps vrithin the town. We are encamped before the gates. We are attempting a great work, which must occupy many days on account of the depth of the sea ; but there is nothing better to be done : we are constructing piers from each extremity of the port, so as either to oblige him to transport immediately the forces he has at Brundisium, or to prevent him from getting out." Where is the peace, about which Balbus professed himself to be so distressed ? Can anything be more bitter ? anything more cruel .' And some confidently relate that he talks of avenging the suflFerings of Cn. Carbo, and M. Brutus % and of all those who had felt the cruelty of Sulla while Pompeius was his o This is said ironically. p To pass over to Pompeius. "1 The remaining in Italy a witness to the ruin of the state, and to the pretences of false friends. •^ Cornelius Balbus. ' They had been put to death by Pompeius. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 133 aesociate : that Curio under hrs command did nothing which Pompeius had not done under the command of Sulla : that to serve his own views he had recalled those only, who by the former laws ' were not liable to banishment ; but that Pompeius had recalled from exile the very traitoi-s to their country : that he complained of Milo's being driven out by violence " : that, however, he should punish nobody but those who were found in arms. This was contradicted by one Bsebius who came from Curio on the 13th, a man not without some eloquence ; but who may not say so to anybody ' ? I am quite at a loss what to do. I imagine Cnaeus is now gone from thence. What is really the case, we must know in two days' time. I have heard nothing from you, nor is Anteros^ arrived, who might bring a letter from you. But it is no won- der ; for what can we write ? Nevertheless I omit no day. After I had finished my letter, I received one, before it was light, fromLepta at Capua, informing me that Pompeius had embarked from Brundisium the 15th of March ; and that Caesar was to be at Capua the 26th. LETTER XV. After I had sent my letter to inform you that Ceesar was to be at Capua on the 26th, I received one from Capua, saying that he would be with Curio in Albanum the 28th. As soon as I have seen him I shall go to Arpinum. If he grants me the per- mission I ask, I shall accede to his terms ; if not, I shall make terms for myself. He has, as he wrote to me, placed single legions at Brundisium, Ta- rentum, and Sipontum. He seems to be closing up the passages by sea ; and yet himself to look rather to Greece than to Spain. But these are more distant considerations. At present 1 am worried with the idea of meeting him ; for he is just here, and I dread his 6rst steps. For I imagine he will want a decree of the senate, he will want a warrant of the augurs (and I shall be hurried away ?, or shall be exposed to great vexation if I absent myself), either for the praetor to propose the consuls, or to nominate a dictator ; neither of which is consistent with law. But if Sulla could procure his own appointment to the dictatorship by an interrex, wjiy may not Caesar ? I cannot resolve the difficulty, unless by suffering under the one the punishment of Q. Mucins, or under the other that of L. Scipio '. By the time you read this, our interview will perhaps have taken place — " Bear up, my heart, you have borne a severer t Previous to those made by Pompeius. See book x. letter 4. 11 At the time of Milo's trial the forum had been occu- pied by armed men under the direction of Pompeius. T This seeme to be the most obvious interpretiLtion of the text, which has been variously understood, w One of Atticus's freed-men. X The meaning is, that if Caesar did not accede to the proposal of Cicero's absenting himself when any business was agitated against Pompeius, he should, without leave* retire from Italy. 7 Shall be obliged to go to Rome, as a senator and augur to assist at these measures. ' In the time of the former civil wars, Q. Mucius had been put to death by Marius, L. Scipio proscribed by Bulla. trial"." No, not that which was peculiarly mf own. For then there was hope of an early return ; there was a general complaint : now I am anxious to get away, and any idea of returning never enters my mind. Besides, there is not only no complaint among the provincial towns, and country people ; but on the contrary they fear Pompeius, as cruel and exasperated. Yet nothing is to me a greater source of sorrow than that I should have remained; nor anything which I more desire, than to fly away ; not so much to be the companion of his warfare, as of his flight. You deferred giving any opinion till such time as we should know what had been done at Brundisium. Now then we know, never- theless my doubts continue. For I can scarcely hope that he will grant me the permission I want, though I produce many just reasons for it. But I will immediately send you an exact account of all that passes between us. Do you strive with all affection to assist me with your care and prudence. He comes so soon, that I shall not be able even to see Trebatius '', as I had appointed. Everything must be done without preparation. But as Mentor says to Telemaohus, — " You would provide one thing, but the Deity provides another." Whatever I do, you shall immediately know it. As for any despatches from Caesar to the consuls and to Pom- peius, about which you ask, I have none. What iEgypta brought, I sent to you before on my way hither ; from which I think the despatches may be understood. PhiUppus is at Naples, Lentulus at Puteoli ; respecting Domitius continue to inquire, as you do, where he is, and what are his inten- tions. When you say that I have expressed my- self about Dionysius with more asperity than is consistent with my disposition, you must know that 1 am one of the old school, and imagined you would feel this insult with more indignation than myself. For besides that I thought you ought to be moved at the ill-treatment I might have re- ceived from anybody, this man has in some mea- sure injured you also by his misconduct towards me. But how much you value this I leave to your own judgment ; nor in this do I wish to impose any burden upon you. For my own part, I always thought him a little crazy ; but now I also think him disingenuous, and wicked ; yet not more as enemy to me than to himself. You have been properly careful towards Philargyrus ; you cer- tainly had a just and good cause ; that I was myself deserted, rather than that I deserted him ". After I had delivered my letter, on the 25th, the servant, whom I had sent to Trebatius also, as well as to Matius, brought back a letter, of which the fol- lowing is a copy. Matins and Trebatius to Cicero, Imperaior. After we had left Capua, we heard on our road that Pompeius had gone from Brundisium the 1 7th of March with all his troops; that Caesar had a The original is taken from Homer. Cicero applies it to his former sufferings in his banishment. >• So I read it, agreeably to letter 9 of this book, wherein Cicero expressed his wish to see Trebatius before Cffisai's arrival. c This probably means Dionysius, on whose subject Atticua might have spoken to Philargyrus in exculpation of Cicero's conduct towards him. It is uncertain if this I Dionysius be the same that is represented to have l-un oil •734: THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLItJS CICERO entered into the town the day following, and, having harangued the people, had proceeded from thence towards Rome, and hoped to be in the city before the first of April, and then, after staying there a few days, to set out for Spain. We have thought it advisable, having for certain this account of Csesar's motions, to send your servant back, that you might know it as soon as possible. We will attend to your instructions, and execute them as occasion requires. Trebatius Scsevola hopes to be ■with you in time''. Since writing our letter we have been told that Caesar means to pass the 25th of March at Bene- ventum, the 26th at Capua, the 27th at Sinuessa. We believe this may be depended upon. LETTER XVI. Though I have nothing particular to tell yon, yet, not to omit any day, I send this letter. They say that Csesar will stop on the 27th at Sinuessa. 1 received a letter from him the 26th, in which he now expects everi/ kind of assistance from me, not simply my assistance, as in his former letter. Upon my writing to commend his clemency in the affair of Corfinium, he replied in the following terms ; — Ctesar, Imperaior, to Cicero, Imperaior. YoTJ rightly conceive of me (for I am well known to you) that nothing can be further from my dis- position than cruelty. And while I have great pleasure in the transaction itself, I rejoice with triumph that what I have done meets with your approbation. Nor does it disturb me that those whom I have set at liberty are said to have gone away in order again to make war upon me ; for I wish nothing more than that I should be like my- self, and they like themselves. I should be glad to have you in the city, that on all occasions I may avail myself of your advice and every kind of assistance, as I have been used to do. Let me assure you that notliing can be more agreeable to me than your Dolabella. To him accordingly I shall owe this favour * ; for he cannot do otherwise, such is his kindness, his feeling, and his affection towards me. LETTER XVIL I WRITE this on the 28th, on which day I expect Trebatius. From his report, and from Matins' s letter, I shall consider how I am to regulate my conversation with him '. O sad time ! And I have no doubt but he will press me to go to the city ; for he has ordered it to be publicly announced even at Formise, that he wishes to have a full attendance of the senate on the first of April. Must I then refuse him ? But why anticipate ? I will imme- diately write you an account of everything. From what passes between us I shall determine whether I should go to Arpinum or elsewhere. I wish to invest my young Cicero with the manly robe s, and with some valuable books from Cloero'a library. Ep. Fam. xiii. 77. d Sofore Cassar'a arrival. > Of persuading Cicero to go to Borne. ' CiEsar. S This was usually done at the age of seventeen. I think of doing it there. Consider, I beg yon, what course I should take afterwards ; for anxiety has made me stupid. I should be glad to know it you have received from Curius any account of Tiro*. For Tiro himself has written to me in such a manner as makes me fearful how he may be ; and those who come from thence only say so much, that he is going on well '. In the midst of great cares this also troubles me ; for in this state of things his assistance and fidelity would be extremely useful. LETTER XVin. I HAVE done both according to your advice; having ordered my discourse so that he should rather think well of me than thank me'; and having adhered to my intention of not going to the city. I was mistaken in supposing that he would easily be persuaded : I never knew anybody less so. He said that he stood condemned by my resolution ; and that others would be slower to comply, if I refused to attend. I replied, that their case was different from mine''. After a good deal of discussion, " Come, then," said he, " and propose terms of peace." "At my own discretion," said I. " Have I," said he, " any right to pre- scribe to you?" "This," I replied, "iswhati shall propose: that it is not agreeable to the senate that troops should be sent to Spain, or that an army should be transported into Greece ; and I shall lament at some length the situation of Pompeius." Then he — " But I do not like that to he said." "So I supposed," said I ; "and for that reason I wish to absent myself; because I must either say this, and much more which it will be impossible for me to withhold if I am there ; or else I must stay away." The conclusion was, that, as if he wished to get rid of the subject, he desired I would consider of it. This I could not refuse. So we parted. I imagine he was not much pleaded with me ; but I am pleased with my- self, which I have not been for some time past. As for the rest, O gods, what an attendance ! Or, as you used to say, what a ghastly troop ! Among whom was the Eros' of Celer. O ruinous state ! O desperate forces ! What think you of Servius' son .' and Titinius's ? How many have been in that very camp, by which Pompeius was besieged ! Six legions ! He is himself extremely vigilant and daring. I see no end of evil. Now at least you must deliver your opinion. What I have mentioned was the last thing that passed between us ; yet his winding up, which I had almost omitted, was ungracious ; that if he was not permitted to use my advice, he should use whose he could, and should think nothing beneath him. You see the man then, as you expressed it. " Were you grieved.'" Undoubtedly. " Pray what followed .>" li Cicero had left bim sick at Patra:. See book vii letter 2. i The text is perhaps faulty. It may, however, bo under- stood according to the above interpretation by pointing it thuB— id modo nuntiant ,- Sane. In magnis, &o. 1 Rather esteem me for my attachment to Pompeius, than thank me for compliance with his own wishes. ^ Others were not under the same obligations to Pom- peius. ' Supposed to be some freed-man. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. rs5 He went directly to Pedanum, I to Arpinviin. Thence I look for your warbler". "Plague on it," you will say, " do not act over again what is past ; even he whom we follow" has been much disappointed." But I expect your letter : for nothing is now as it was before, when you pro- posed that we should see first how this would turn out. The last subject of doubt related to our interview ; in which I question not that I have given Csesar some offence. This is a reason for determining the quicker. Pray let me have a letter from you, and a political one. I am very anxious to hear from you. LETTER XIX. I HAVE given my young Cicero the plain toga" at Arpinum', in preference to any other place, as there was no going to Rome : and this was kindly received by my fellow-countrymen : though I saw the people there, and wherever I passed, afflicted" and downcast ; so sad and so dreadful is the con- templation of this great calamity. Levies are making, and troops taking up their winter-quarters. And if these measures, even when^ adopted by good citizens, in prosecution of a just war, and conducted with moderation] are yet in themselves grievous ; how harsh do you suppose they now are, when they are adopted by desperate men, in a profligate civil war, and with all insolence ! For you may be assured there is not an abandoned man in Italy who is not among them. I saw myself the whole body at Formise ; and in truth never thought they deserved the name of men. I knew them all ; but had never seen them together. Let me away, then, whither I may, and relinquish all I possess. Let me go to him, who will be more glad to see me than if I had originally been of his company. For then we had the greatest hope ; now, I at least have none : yet, besides myself, nobody has left Italy, who did not believe Csesar to be his enemy. And >° Tbia is probably taken from some expreSBion need by AtticuB, and meant to denote the harbinger of spring, at which season Cicero would sail. n •< "Whom we follow," I imagine to be said by Cicero in his own person, thereby meaning Fompeius, though the sentence in which this stands is put into the mouth of Atticus. o The toga worn in mature age was without the purple border, which distinguished the prtstexta of youth, and was therefore called the plain toga, or manly toga. P Arpinum was the place of Cicero's birth, where he continued to have a family seat. I do this not for the sake of the republic, which I look upon as utterly extinguished j but that nobody may think me ungrateful towards him, who raised me out of the difficulties which he had brought upon me ; and, at the same time, that I may not witness what is doing, or at least what will be done. Indeed, I imagine that some decrees of the senate have already been passed : I wish it may be in favour of Voloatius's opinion i. Yet what does it signify? for all are of one mind. But Servius will be the most to blame, who sent his son to destroy Cn. Pompeius, or at least to take him prisoner', with Pontius Titinianus'. This latter was actuated by fear' ; but the former — But let us cease to rail, and at length come to some conclusion ; though I have nothing new but this, which I wish were the shortest possible, that there is life remaining". The Adriatic Sea being closely guarded, I shall sail by the Tyrrhenian ; and if the passage from Puteoli be difficult, I shall make my way to Croton, or Thurii ; and, good citizens as we are, and attached to our country, shall go to infest the sea^. I see no other manner of conducting this war. We go to bury ourselves in Egypf. We cannot be a match for Csesar vrith our army ; and there is no reliance on peace. But all this has been abundantly deplored. I should be glad if you would deliver to Cephalion' a letter about every- thing that is done, even about the conversation of people, unless they are quite dumbfounded. I have followed your advice, especially by maintain- ing in our interview the dignity I ought, and per- sisting in not going up to the city. It only remains to beg you will inform me as distinctly as possible (for there is no time to lose) what you approve, and what you think : though there is no longer any doubt. Yet if anything, or rather whatever occurs to your mind, pray let me know it. 1 To propose terms of peace. r The object of Csesar's army at Bnmdisium could be nothing but either to destroy Pompeius, or to make him prisoner. " This must be the same as Titinius* son, mentioned before. See letter 18 of this book. * The fear of being ruined by Caesar, if he had not joined him. « The text is obscure, and very probably corrupt, so that 1 offer this translation without any confidence. T That is, shall go to join Fompeius, even though hia present purpose be to intercept the supplies of his country ; for at that time Italy was furnished with corn byimporta> tion chiefly from Sicily and Egypt. w See letter 11 of this book. X The bearer, it is to be supposed, of Cicero's letter. 136 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO BOOK X. LETTER I. On the 3d of April, having come to my brother's house at Laterium^, I received your letter, and was a little revived ; which had not been the case since this ruination. For I most highly value your approbation of my firmness^, and conduct. And when you tell me that Sextus also approves it, I am as much pleased as if I thought I had the commendation of his father, for whose judgment I always entertained the greatest respect : who for- merly said to me, what I often recollect, on that Sth of December", when I asked him, " Sextus, what then do you advise ?" " Let me not die," said he in the words of Homer, " indolently and ignobly ; but after some great deed, which may be heard by generations to come." His authority therefore lives with me ; and his son, who is like him, has the same weight with me which the father had. I beg you to make my kindest com- pliments to him. Though you defer giving your opinion to no distant period ; (for I imagine that hired peace-maker ^ has already summed up ; already something has been done in that assembly of senators ; for I do not esteem it a senate ;) yet by that you keep me in suspense ; the less so how- ever, because I cannot doubt of your opinion about vphat I ought to do". Why else should you men- tion Flavius's having a legion and the province of Sicily, and that this is already carried into effect ? What crimes, think you, are partly in preparation, and now contriving ; partly on the point of being executed ? And should I disregard that law of Solon, your fellow-citizen'', as I esteem it, and mine too, who made it a capital crime to join neither party in a civil commotion ? Unless you are of a different opinion, both I and the children' shall away from hence. But one of these is more certain than the other' : I shall not however be in a hurry ; I shall wait for your advice, and for the letter which I desired you would send by Cepha- lions, unless you have already sent another. When you say, not that you had heard it from any other quarter ; but that you thought within yourself, I should be induced to go up, if the question of peace were agitated ; it has never entered into my mind that any question of peace can be agitated, ■while it is most certainly his wish, if possible, to V This place was olose to Arpunmi. It is mentioned book iv. letter 7. z In resisting Cfflsar's wishes ahout going to Rome. See hook ix. letter 18. » Distinguished by (he vigorous measures adopted in the Catilinarian conspiracy by Cicero, who was then consul. b Who is here meant is uncertain. He appears to have been bought over by Cffisar, and probably a tedious spealcer, by what is said of his siunming up. »: Namely, that I should guit Italy, now that Cgesar assumes tyrannical authority. i An Athenian : to which title not only Atticus but Cicero might reasonably aspire, from his attachment to Athens. « His son and nephew. * His own departure was more certain than that of the toys. e See hook ix, letter 19. deprive Pompeius of his army and province : unless perhaps that summary speaker'' can persuade him to be quiet, whilst the negotiators go backwards and forwards. I see nothing now that I can hope, or think possible to be done : yet this deserves the attention of an upright man, and is a great political question ; whether one should enter into the coun- sels of a tyrant, when he is going to deliberate on some good cause. Therefore if it should happen that 1 am summoned (which I do not regard : for I told him what I should say upon the subject of peace', which he strongly reprobated), but yet if it should happen, let me know what you think I ought to do. Nothing has yet occurred which is more deserving of consideration. I am glad you were pleased with Trebatius's report ; he is a good man, and a good citizen ; and your own repeated expres- sion of " excellent well," is the only thing that has hitherto given me satisfaction. I eagerly expect a letter from you, which I imagine has already been sent. YouJ and Sextus have main- tained the same dignity which you recommend to me. Your friend Celer is more eloquent than wise. What you heard from TuUia about the young men is h-ue. What you mention about M. Antonius', appears to me not so bad in fact as in sound. This irresolution, in which I now am, is as bad as death : for I ought either to have acted with freedom among the ill-disposed ; or, even at some hazard, to have joined the good party. " Let ns either follow the rash measures of the good ; or let us lash the boldness of the wicked'." Both are attended with danger : but the course I take is not dishonourable, and yet is not safe. I do not think lAiat he'" who sent his son to Brundisium on the subject of peace (about which I entertain the same sentiments as you, that it is a palpable pretence, and that war is preparing with all vigour) is hkely to be appointed. Of this, as I hoped, no mention has hitherto been made". I have therefore the less occasion to write, or even to think what I should do, in case I were appointed. ^ I apprehend this to allude to the hii'ed peace-maker mentioned in the former part of this letter, and to be spo- ken in mockery of his tedious speeches, suvimarius being equivalent to perorasse. ' See book ix. letter 18. J The following part of this letter seems to he a postscript subsequent to the receipt of one from Atticus, to which it alludes. ^ It is doubtful to what this alludes : and indeed it is doubtful if the text be correct. ' I suspect this sentence to be & quotation produced in illustration of what immediately precedes ; otherwise it is odd that the same observation should be repeated with so little variation. '» Perhaps Balbus ; the younger Balbus, who was his nephew by birth, being his son by adoption. See book viii letter 9. " I understand this to mean that no mention had been made of appointing anybody to negotiate with Pompeius i and he was glad of it, not because he did not wish for peace, but because he saw that all overtures for that pur pose would be insincere on the part of Caesar, and only " designed either to allay the clamours of some well-meaning persons In Italy, or to embarrass and cast an odium upon Pompeius. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUE, 737 LETTER II. I RECEIVED your letter the 5th of April, which was brought by Cephalion ; and had designed to remain the following day at Mintumse, and thence immediately to embark ; but I stopped at my brother's house in Arcanum, that, till the arrival of some surer information", I might be less ob- served, and yet everything might be done^ which could be done without me. The warbler is now herei, and 1 am eager to be off; no matter whither, or by what passage. But this will be for my con- sideration with those who understand it'. Con- tinue, as far as you can, to assist rae with your counsels, as you have hitherto done. The state of affairs is incapable of being disentangled : every- thing must be left to fortune. I struggle without any hope. If anything better should occur, it will be a surprise. 1 hope Dionysius has not set out to come hither, as my daughter TuUia wrote me word. Not only the time is unsuitable ; but I do not care to have my troubles, great as they are, made an CTchibitiori to one who is not friendly. I do not however wish you to quarrel with him on my account. LETTER m. Though I have really nothing to tell you, yet this is what I wanted besides to know " : whether Csesar was set out* ; in what state he left the city, and whom he had appointed over different districts and offices ; whether any commissioners had been sent by decree of the senate to treat with Pom- peius and the consuls on the subject of peace. Wishing therefore to know this, I have for that purpose sent this letter ; and I shall be obliged to you to inform me about this, and anything which it may concern me to know. I shall wait in Arcanum till I hear. This is the second letter I have dictated to you this same 7th of April, having written a longer the day before with my own hand". They say that you were seen in the court^ ; not that I mean to accuse you ; for I am myself open to the same accusation^. I am expecting to hear from you, yet do not know very well what I should expect. However, if there is nothing, I shall be glad to hear e^en that. Caesar by letter excuses me for not going up, and says that he takes it in good part. I do not regard what he adds, that TuUus and Servius have complained of his not granting the same liberty to them as to me. The silly men ! who would send their sons to besiege Cn. Pompeius, yet hesitate themselves to go into the senate. But I send you a copy of Cffisar's letter^. ° InTormation rcBpecting Cfesar's proceedinss, as appears by the subsequent letter, ' P Preparatory to his embarkation. 1 See boolc ix. letter 18. ' The captain of the vessel, and others acquainted with naval alfairs. " This refers to the preceding letter, * To go to Spain against Pompeius'a lieutenants. " This longer letter was the first of this book. ' The regia was properly the court of the chief priest ; but it must here be underetood of some place where Csesar hold his court, ^ Hiiving met Ciesar at Formiae. » This has not come down to us; LETTER IV. 1 HAVE received several letters from you the same day, all full of information ; one particularly, which is equivalent to a volume, deserves to be repeatedly read, as I do?. I assure you that your pains have not been thrown away, and that I am extremely obliged to you. And as long as you can, that is, as long as you know where to find me, I earnestly beg that you will continue to write very frequently. But let us at length make an end, if possible, or some moderation, which is cer- tainly possible, of the wailing which I daily utter; For I now no longer think of the dignity, the honours, the state of life, which I have lost ; but what I have enjoyed, what I have done, in what reputation I have lived ; and, even in these cala- mities, what difference exists between me, and those on whose account I have lost everything; These are they who, unless they had driven me from the country, thought they could not obtain the indulgence of their wishes ; of whose associa- tion and wicked combination you see the issue.- The one^ burns with fury and wickedness, and, instead of relaxing, is daily growing more violent ; first he drove him*^ from Italy ; now he endeavours to persecute him in another'' quarter, to plunder him in another'^ province : nor does he any longer refuse, but in some measure demands, that, as he is, so also he may be called, a tyrant. The other ; he, who formerly would not so much as raise me up when I was prostrate at his feet ; who said he could do nothing contrary to Csesar's will ; having escaped from the hands and sword of his father- in-law'', is preparing war by sea and land, not indeed without provocation ; but however just, or even necessary, yet ruinous to his fellow -citizens, unless he conquers ; calamitous even if he does conquer. Great as these generals are, I do not set their actions, nor their fortune, before my own, however flourishing they may seem, however affiicted I. For who can ever be happy, that has either abandoned his country, or enslaved it.' And if, as you remind me, I have rightly said in my book*j that nothing is good but what is honourable, nothing evil but what is base ; then assuredly each of those men is most wretched ; both of whom have always preferred their own power and their private advantage before their country's prosperity and honour. I am therefore supported by an excellent conscience, when I reflect that I have either rendered the greatest services to my country when it was in my power ; or certainly have never thought of it but with reverence ; and that the republic has been overthrown by that very storm which I foresaw fourteen years ago '. I ' shall go then with this conscience accompanying me, in great affliction it is true ; yet that, not so much on my own or on my brother's account, (for our age, whether well or otherwise, is already spent) as on account of the boys, to whom I some- 7 This little irregularity of construction is not to bo condemned in a familiar letter, and seemed to be equally admissible in English as in Latin, z Ciesar. "^ Pompeius, l Greece, = Spain. ^ Ca;sar, e Probably alluding to his treatise on Government, but contained also in his Paradoxes, f At the time of his coneulatc. SB 738 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO times think it was due to have transmitted also our free constitution. One of these 8^, being better disposed, does not so prodigiously torment me : but the other ^ — O sad affair ! In my whole life nothing ever happened more vexatious '. Spoiled by my indulgence, he has gone such lengths as I dare not mention : but I am expecting to hear from you ; for you said you would write faUy when you had seen him. .All my kindness towards him has been tempered with much severity ; nor is it a single or small fault that I have suppressed, but many and great ones. And his father's lenity should rather have called forth his affection, than been so cruelly slighted. The letter he wrote to Caesar gave me so much pain, that I never men- tioned it to you ; but we see how it has soured his own behaviour. But of this journey, and affecta- tion of duty, I cannot venture to speak as it de- serves. I only toiow that, after the interview with Hirtius, he was sent for by Csesar, and talked with him about my mind being entirely alienated from his measures, and my design of leaving Italy : and even this I mention with timidity. No blame however attaches to me : the fear is for his natural disposition. It was this that corrupted Curio, and Hortensius' son ; not any fault of their parents. My brother is dejected with sorrow, and afraid not so much for his own life as for mine. To this, to this evil, bring consolation, if you can find any. I should wish particularly that his wife may either receive the reports that have been brought to me as false, or suppose them to be less than they are. If they are true, I know not what may be likely to ensue in this condition and flight. If we had yet a free government, I should not be at a loss respecting either the severity or the indulgence to be used. Either anger, or grief, or fear, has prompted me to write this with more asperity than accords with either your or my affection towards him. If what I have heard be true, you will pardon me ; if false, I shall be very glad to have you pluck from me this error. But however this be, you will impute nothing to the uncle, or to the father. When I had written so far, I received a message from Curio, that he would call upon me ; for he had arrived in Cumauum the evening before, that is, the 13th. Therefore, if I collect from his conversation anything to tell you, I will add it to my letter. Curio passed by my house, and sent nie word that he would come presently. He went to address the people at Puteoli ; and having done so, he returned, and was with me a considerable time. O foul affair ! You know the man ; he concealed nothing. In the first place, nothing is more cer- tain than that all who had been condemned by the Pompeian law will be restored' ; accordingly he is to make use of their services in Sicily. He made no doubt of Csesar's getting possession of Spain ; that he would then pursue Pompeius with his army, wherever he might be j and that his death would be the termination of the war. Nothing could be nearer accomplished k : that Csesar had , e His own son. S Qulntus' son. i He appears to have been paying court to CKsar, at the expense of his father and uncle. It was the more vexa- tious to Cicero, hecauae he had been endeavouring to Iceep well with Ca-sar, hoth for his own sake, and for that of his country. i Sou book ix. lettor U. wisted in the transport of his anger to have had the tribune Metellus ' put to death ; and if this had been executed, a great slaughter must have ensued ; that many had advised a slaughter ; and that he abstainedfrom cruelty, not by inclination, or natural disposition, but because he thought that clemency was popular ; but that if he lost the affections of the people, he would become cruel ; and he was much disturbed when he understood that he had given offence to the populace in the affair of the treasury™. In consequence of which, though he had determined to harangue the people before he left the city, he did not venture to do so, and set out with Ms mind greatly agitated. Upon my asking him what he foresaw ; what conduct" ; what republic ; he plainly acknowledged that there was no hope remaining. He " was afraid of Pompeius's fleet ; and said that if it should be col- lected, he should quit Sicily. What, said I, are those six fasces of yours ? If they are granted by the senate, why are they covered with laurel p ? If by Caesar, why are there six 9 ? "I wished," says he, " to get them by a surreptitious decree of the senate, for it could not be done otherwise ; but now he is become much more hostile to the senate, and says, * From me everything shall proceed.' They are six, because I did not choose to have twelve, as I might." I then said, how much I wished that I had asked Caesar for what 1 understand Philippus has obtained • ; but I was ashamed, be- cause he had not obtained anything" from me. " He would willingly have granted it to you," says he; " but suppose yourself to have obtained it ; for I will inform him, as you yourself shall please, of our having talked together about it : but what does it signify to him where you are, since you refuse to come into the senate ? Yet now you would have given him no offence on that account, if you had not been in Italy." To which I replied, that I sought for retirement and solitude, especially on account of my lictors. He applauded my conduct. Well, then, said I, my way to Greece lies through your province', since the coast of the Adriatic is occupied by soldiers. " What," said he, " could be more desirable for me ?" And he added a great deal with much liberality. So that this is now settled, that I can sail not only safely, but openly. The rest he postponed to the next day, in which if there should be anything worth relating, I will let you know it. There are some things, however, which I omitted to ask ; as, whether Caesar would wait for an interregnum ? or — ^how can I pronounce" ^ This, agreeably to the custom of the Latin language, applies to what follows. 1 This Metellus had opposed |Cffisar in his plunder of the public treasury. See hook vii. letter 12. ■" Cssar had forcibly seized the public money in the treasury at Rome, the tribune Metellus in vain resisting him. n The word exemplum in this place seems to mean " what character Caesar would exhibit." See book vii. letter 20. » Curio. See letter 7 of this book. P The laurels were attached by the soldiers, in conse quence of some signal victory gained over an enemy. 1 The consuls and proconsuls had twelve liotois given them by the senate, the proprietors had only six. ' Licence to live where he pleased. s CKsar had not been able to prevail with Cicero in wishing him to go to Rome. See book ix. letter 18 ' Sicily. » Or act from his own authority, as if he were a tmg. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 739 it ? He said that the consulate had been offered to himself, but that he had declined it for the next year. There are other circumstances, also, about which I shall inquire. In conclusion, he sware, what he would easily accomplish, that Csesar ought to be most friendly towards me., "For what, I say", has Dolabella written to me?" I asked what ? He' asserted, that when he had written to desire that I would go to Rome, Csesar expressed the greatest thankfalness, and not only approved, but was even glad that I had acted as I did. What think you .' I have resumed my composure. For that suspicion of domestic calamity, and of the conversation with Hirtius, has been greatly relieved. How I wish him" to prove worthy of us ! And how I invite myself to find some excuse"^ for him ! But it is necessary to have some communication vrith Hirtius. There must be something ; but I should be glad if it might turn out to be inconsider- able. And yet I wonder he should not have come back. But we shall see how it is. You will let the Oppii give credit to Terentiay. This is now the only thing to be apprehended in the city*. Assist me, however, with your advice, whether I should go by land to Rhegium, or should embark from hence. But since I do not go immediately, I shall have something to write to you, as soon as I have seen Curio. Pray take care, as usual, to let me know how Tiro goes on'. LETTER V. Of my general intention I conceive I have already written to you explicitly enough ; respect- ing the day, nothing can be said with certainty, but that it will not be before the new moon. Curio's discourse the next day came to the same amount, unless that he still more openly gave me to understand that he saw no end to this state of things. The charge you impose upon me of regu- lating the young Quintus, is an Arcadian under- taking^. However, I will leave nothing untried ; and I wish you would do so too : but I shall not spare him. I wrote immediately to Vestorius about Tullia' ; and indeed she pressed me ear- nestly. Vectenus has spoken to you more reason- ably than he wrote to me ; but I cannot sufficiently express my surprise at the carelessness of the incription ^, For upon hearing from Philotimus ^ I understand these to be the words of Curio, so that inquam means Curio saitU ' Dolabella. w Young Quintus. ^ This I conceive to be the meaning of the original, which has been variously interpreted, and, as is too fre- quent in obscure texts, imwarrantably altered. y See note °» on book viii. letter 7. * The want of money is the only thing to be appre- hended for Terentia ; tlie number of other females of dis- tinction doing away any impropriety in her remaining there. See book vii. letter 1 4. * It will be remembered that Tiro was left ill at Patrse. I' In the original is the word Arcadia, which is probably taken from an oracle reported in the first book of Herodo- tua's history, discountenancing, as a work of great diffi- culty, a meditated attack of Arcadia by the Lacedemonians. See letter 12 of this book. ^ It is uncertain to what this alludes ; but seems, by what follows, [see letter 13 of this book,] most probably to relate to an advance of money. ^ This may probably allude to Vectenus having called that I might purchase that cottage from Canuleius for 50 sestertia (400/.), and might have it for less, if I applied to Vectenus ; I did apply to him to get some abatement, if he could, from that sum. He engaged to do so ; and sent me word a little while ago, that he had bought it for 30 sestertia (240/.), and desired I would let him know to whom I would have it assigned ; that the money was to be paid the 13th of November. I wrote to him rather angrily, yet with a familiar joke. But now, as he acts with liberality, I do not mean to find fault with him, and have written to tell him that I had been set right by you. I shall be glad to hear what you intend about your journey, and when. April 17. LETTER VL Nothing now stops me but the season, 1 shall use no cunning in my proceedings', happen what may in Spain. Nevertheless keep my counseL I have explained to you all my intentions in a former letter, for which reason this will be short ; besides, I am in a hurry, and busy. Respecting young Qnintus, " I take all pains' " — you know the rest. The advice you give me is both friendly and pru- dent ; but everything will be easy, if I can only guard against hims. It is an arduous task. There are many excellent'' points about him : but nothing plain, nothing candid. I wish you had undertaken to manage the young man ; for his father, by his over-indulgence, undoes whatever I do. If 1 could act vrithout the father's interference, I could ma- nage him. This you can do'. But 1 forgive him. It is, I say, an arduous task. I have been con- fidently told that Pompeius is going through Illyrium to Gaul'. I must now consider how and which way I shall proceed. LETTER Vn. I ouiTE approve your going to Apulia and Sipontum, and that appearance' of uusettledness, and do not consider you to be under the same circumstances as myself. Not but we have both the same duty to perform in the republic ; but that is not the question. The straggle is, who shall be king ; in which the more moderate king has been driven out, he who is the better and honester of the two, who must conquer, or the very name of the Roman people will be extinguished : yet if he conquers, he will conquer after the manner and example of Sulla. In this struggle, therefore, it is Cicero by the title of " Proconsul," [see letter II of this book,] in consequence of which Cicero in return called him monetaliSf or " money-stamper." Cicero seems to have been displeased with the abrupt manner in which Vectenus had concluded the purchase, and fixed the day of payment, without consulting him. ^ Shall not wait to see how things turn out in Spain. f This alludes to a passage in Terence, where an old man exposes the pains he has taken to educate his son. s Young Quintus. h See letters 10 and 12 of this book. ' Cicero was living with his brother Quintus, whereas Atticus was beyond the reach of his influence. J I suppose on his way to Spain ; but it was not true. k Atticus, not willing to ofi"end Cffisar by abruptly quitting Italy, seems to have intended to pass some time irregularly in the south-eastern pai'ts previously to his departure. 3B2 740 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO not for you openly to espouse either party, but to bead to the times. But my case is a different one, being under such obligations that I cannot bear to appear ungrateful. I do not, however, think of going into the field ; but of retiring into Malta, or some other place of equal insignificance. You will say, " By this you do not help him, towards whom you wish to show your gratitude : nay, perhaps he would rather have wished you did not go." But about this we shall see afterwards. Let me but get out ; which Dolabella and Curio enable me to do at a better season, the one by the Adriatic sea, the other by the straits of Sicily'. I have had some hopes that Servius Sulpicius might wish to converse with me" ; and I sent myfreed-man Philotimus to him with a lettei'. If he will act a manly part, it may prove a valuable meeting ; if otherwise, I shall still maintain the same character as I used to do. Curio has been staying with me, thinking that Cfiesar is dejected by the popular displeasure, and himself diffident about Sicily, if Pompeius should have set sail. I have given the young Quintus a rough reception. I find it was avarice, and the hope of a handsome present. This is bad enough, but I trust there is nothing of that baseness which I had apprehended". This fault I imagine you will attribute not to my indulgence, but to his natural disposition, while I endeavour by discipline to regulate him. You will arrange with Philotimus what you think best abcut the Oppii of Velia". I shall consider Epirus as my ownP ; but I think of taking a different course. LETTER VIII. The state of things admonishes, and you have pointed out, and I see myself, that it is time to put an end to our writing upon such subjects as it might be hazardous to have intercepted. But as my daughter TuUia frequently writes to me, begging me to wait the event of what is doing in Spain, and constantly adds that you are of the same opi- nion, which indeed I perceive by your letters ; I have thought it not unsuitable to let you know my sentiments upon that subject. I think the advice would be prudent, if I meant to shape my conduct |by the fate of Spain, which you say I ought to do. For it must necessarily happen, either that Csesar /is driven out of Spain, which I should exceedingly / desire ; or that the war is protracted ; or that he, as he seems confidently to expect, seizes upon Spain. If he is driven out, with what grace or honour shall I then go to Pompeius, when I Imagine Curio himself 1 will go over to him .' If the war is protracted, for what am I to wait, or how long ? It remains, that if we are beaten in Spain, I should be quiet. But upon this point I think otherwise. "^For I would sooner desert him"' a conqueror, thau conquered and doubtful (instead of confident) of I Dolabella aud Curio were Cicero's friends, and held commands in those parts respectively. ™ Servius Sulpicius was ,a senator of great respect, a friend of Cicero's, and a favourer of peace, but of a timid character. 1 See letter 4 of this book. See book viii. letter 7. and book vii. letter 13. P This must be supposed to be in answer to some letter from Atticus, offering Sicero the free use of his place in Epirus. 1 Wlio is of Caesar's party. r Caisar. his affairs. Inasmuch as I foresee executions if he is victoiious, and violation of private property , and the recall of exiles, and cancelling of debts, and honours bestowed upon the basest men, and a king, dom such as not only no Roman, but not even any Persian can bear, is it possible for my indignation to be silent .' Can my eyes sustain the sight of my delivering my opinion * in the company of Gabiaius ? And even of his being called upon to speak first ? In the presence of your client Clselius ? In that of C. Ateius's client Plaguleius ? And the rest ? But why do I enumerate my enemies ? while I cannot without pain see in the senate my own connexions', whom I have myself defended, nor act amongst them without shame. What if it is by no means certain that I should be allowed to do so ? For his friends write me word that he is far from being satisfied with me, because I have not gone into the senate. However, I cannot en- tertain a thought of recommending myself to him, and that with some risk, with whom I refused to be united even with recompense. Then consider this, that the whole contest is not to be decided in Spain ; unless you suppose that, upon losing this, Pompeius will throw up his arms ; notwith- standing his whole plan is Themistoclean" For he deems him who is in possession of the sea to be necessarily master of affairs. Hence, without ever striving to keep Spain by itself, he has always made naval preparations his principal care. He will accordingly sail, when the season is fit, with a prodigious fleet, and will come to Italy ; where what shall I be, sitting idle ? For it will no longer be allowable to be neuter. Shall I then oppose his fleet ? What evil can be greater, or even so great ? What indeed can be baser ? Have I feebly^ and alone borne his wickedness against the absent ; and shall I not bear it in company with Pompeius and the other chiefs ? But if, setting aside duty, we consider only the danger ; there is danger from those", if I do wrong ; from him'^, if I do right: nor can any plan be devised in these troubles which is free from danger. There can therefore be no doubt but I shoidd avoid doing anything base with danger, which I would avoid even with safety. Should I not have crossed the sea along with Pom- peius ? It was not in my power ; there is the account of the days. Besides (to confess the truth, without that concealment which I might use), one thing deceived me, which perhaps ought not, but it did deceive me ; for I thought there would be peace ; and if this had taken place, I did not care to have Caesar angry with me, at the time that he would be reconciled to Pompeius. For I had already felt the effects? of their union. It was through fear of this that I fell into this dilatoriness. But I shall obtain every purpose if I make ' haste : if I delay, I shall lose it. And yet, my Atticus, certain au- guries inspire me with confident hope ; not the auguries of our college » collected by Appius, but " In the senate. * Recalled from banishment by Caesar's authority. 1 Who retired before the Persians from Athens, to con quer them at sea. ' The text IS probably corrupt. 1 offer this interpreta tion as what appears the least exceptionable. "■^ Pompeius's party. x Caesar. y Mlien Pompeius assisted Clodius's views by reason ol his own connexion with Casnr. » To quit Italy, • The college of augurs. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 741 those of Plato on the subject of tyrants. For I do not see by what means he can long remain with- out falling off himself, even without any exertion on our part : since fresh and flourishing, in the space of six or seven days, he became the object of the bitterest hatred to that same indigent and abandoned multitude ; having so soon lost the pre- tension of two things ; of clemency, in the case of Metellus ^ ; of wealth, in the affair of the trea- sury ^. Now what companions or ministers can he employ, if the provinces, if the republic is to be governed by persons, no one of whom has been able to regulate his own patrimony for two months? There is no enumerating all the particulars, which you will readily comprehend ; only place them in your view, and you will presently understand that such a kingdom can hardly last six months. If I am mistaken in this, 1 shall bear it, as many ex- cellent men, distinguished in the republic, have borne it : unless you imagine that 1 would rather die like Sardanapalus in his bed *, than in a The- mistoclean exile : who being, as Thucydides says, " the ablest to apprehend things present, after the shortest consultation ; and far the best to con- jecture of things to come, what was likely to take place ;" yet fell into those straits, which he would have avoided, if nothing had deceived him. Though he was one who, in the words of the same author, " eminently foresaw advantages and disadvantages, while they were yet in obscurity ;" yet he did not see either how to escape the envy of the Lacedemo- nians, or that of his own fellow-citizens, nor what he was promising to Artaxerxes. That night would not have been so calamitous to the prudent Africanus ; nor that day of Sulla's superiority so sad to the shrewd C. Marius ; if nothing had deceived them. Nevertheless I support my opinion by the augury I have mentioned. This does not deceive me ; nor will it turn out otherwise. He must fall either by his enemies, or by himself, who indeed is his own worst enemy. I hope this may happen during my life, though it is time for me to think of that eternal, not of this short life. But should anything happen to me sooner than I expect, it signifies little whether I see it done, or foresee that it will be done. ^ This being so, it is not to be borne, that I should submit to those against whom the senate armed me with authority to see that the republic received no detriment 'f To you I commend all my concerns ; though such is your affection to- wards me that they need not my commendation. In fact I have nothing to tell you ; for I sit here only waiting for an opportunity to sail. Yet no- thing ever so demanded to be told, as that of all your multiplied kindnesses none was 'at any time more acceptable to me than the sweet and assiduous at- tention you have bestowed on my dear TuUia. She is herself highly gratified by it ; and I no less so. Her excellence is indeed wonderful. How does she bear the public misfortunes ! How her own do- mestic embarrassments ! And what a courage does she show at my departure ! Call it natural affec- tion, or the completest imion of minds ; yet she b Whom he had wished to kill. See letter 4 of this hook. c The plunder of which showed that he was in want of money. d Sardanapalus was an Assyrian king distinguished for his effeminacy. c In his consulship. would have me do what is light, and be well esteemed. But of this too much, lest I call forth my own sensibility. If you hear anything certain about Spain, or anything else, while I remain in Italy, you will write to me. And at my departure, I shall perhaps send again to you ; and the rather, because Tullia seemed to think you would not at present leave Italy. I must manage to get An- tonius's consent, as well as Curio's, to my residing at Malta, without taking a part in this war. I wish I may find him as accommodating and kind to me as Curio. He ' is said to be coming to Mi- senum the 2d of May, that is to-day ; but he has sent before an ungracious letter, of which I inclose a copy. Antonius, Tribune of the People, Proprteior, to Cicero, Imperaior. Unless I had a great regard for you, indeed much greater than you imagine, I should not have minded the report which is spread about you, especially as I do not believe it ; yet loving you as I do, I cannot dissemble that the very rumour, however unfounded, greatly affects me. I cannot think that you will cross the sea, considering your affection for Dolabella and your daughter, that accomplished woman, and the esteem in which you are held by all of usb, to whom indeed your dignity and splendour are almost dearer than to yourself. But I have not thought it the part of a friend to be indifferent to what is said even by ill-disposed persons ; and I have acted with the greater zeal, because I consider the task imposed upon me to be the more difficult, owing to the offence which has arisen between us'', rather from my jealousy than from any injury on your part. For I would have you believe that, excepting my Csesar, nobody is dearer to me than you, and that at the same time I am persuaded Cgesar esteems M. Cicero among his best friends. Therefore I beg you, my Cicero, to take no hasty step, — but to distrust the attach- ment of one', who first injured you that he might afterwards confer a kindness ; and on the other hand not to run away from one ' who, though he should not love you (which, however, cannot be the case), yet would wish you to be in safety and in honour. I have expressly sent to you my intimate friend Calpumius, that you may be assured of the great interest I take in your life and dignity. The same day Philotimus brought the following letter from Csesar. C(Baar, Imperaior, to Cicero, Imperator. Though I was persuaded that you would do nothing rashly or imprudently, yet I have been moved by common report to write to you, and to request, by the intimacy between us, that you would not in this declining state of affairs take any step which you did not think it necessary to take in their sound state. For you will both inflict a severer blow on our friendship, and less well con- sult your own advantage, if you appear to be ^ Antonius. ff Us of Caesar's pai'ty. i" Antonius had heen a candidate for the augurship in opposition to Cicero. i Pompcilis, J Cxsar. 742 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO influenced not by the course of events (for every- thing seems to have fallen out most favourable to us, most adverse to them), nor by attachment to the cause (for that was the same when you judged it proper to abstain from their counsels), but by condemnation of some act of mine, — than which you can do nothing more painful to me. That you may not do it I beg of you, by the right of our friendship. Besides, what can be more proper for a good and peaceable man and a good citizen than to abstain from civil broils ? This some who would wish it cannot do because of the danger j you, to whom the testimony of my hfe and the assurance of my friendship are well known, will never find anything either more secure or more honourable than to abstain from all hostility. April 16. On my journey. LETTER IX. The arrival of PhUotimus (what a fellow he is ! how silly ! how often misrepresenting in favour of Pompeius !) has frightened to death all my com- panions. As for myself, I am become callous. None of our people entertained a doubt of " Caesar's having checked his progress ;" whereas he is said to advance with the utmost speed : and that " Pe- treius had joined Afranius," though he brings no intelligence of the kind. In short it was even beUeved that Pompeius was passing with a great force through lUyrium into Germany ; for this was confidently asserted. I am of opinion, therefore, that I ought to get away to Malta, till we see what is done in Spain. From Csesar's letter it appears as if I might almost do this with his consent ; for he says that I can do nothing more honourable or more safe than to withdraw from all contention. You will say then, " where is that resolution which you professed in your last letter." It is here, and it is unaltered. But I wish it were possible to de- termine only at my own risk. The tears of my family sometimes soften me, when they eptreat me to await the issue of the war in Spain. The boys could not without great emotion read a letter from M. Cselius written in a lamentable strain, and en- treating me to wait for the same event, and not to betray so rashly my fortunes, my only daughter, and all my connexions. My own son, indeed, is of greater spirit, and for that very reason affects me the more, and seems to be anxious only about my reputation. To Malta, therefore : thence whi- ther it shall seem prudent. Do you, however, even now let me hear from you, especially if there is any news of Afranius. If I have any conversa- tion with Antonius, I will let you know what has been done ! but, as you advise, I shall be cautious in trusting him ; for"" the means of concealing my design are both difficult and dangerous. I expect Servius on the seventh of May, for whom I shall wait, at the desire of Postumia' and the young Servius. I rejoice to hear that your ague is better. I send you a copy of Cselius's letter. ^ This relates to the expediency of obtaining Aiitonius's consent to Cicero's departure, since it was both difficult and dangerous to attempt it by stealth. ^ Postumja was the wife of Bervius Sulpicius, the person here intended. Claims to Cicero. I AM distressed by your letter, in which you show that your thoughts are engaged about nothing but what is sad. What this is you do not expressly say ; nevertheless you sufficiently declare the nature of what you contemplate. I therefore write this letter to you without loss of time, to beg and beseech you, Cicero, by your fortunes, by your children, not to adopt any measure prejudicial to your happiness and security. For I call the gods, and men, and our friendship, to witness that I have told you beforehand, and have given you this counsel not hastily, but have informed you after being with Csesar, and knowing what his disposition would be should he gain the victory, — if you ima- gine that Csesar will continue to observe the same moderation in liberating his adversaries and sub- mitting to their conditions, you are mistaken. His thoughts, and indeed his declarations, breathe nothing but what is severe and cruel. He went away much out of humour with the senate, and thoroughly provoked by the opposition to his wishes'". There will assuredly be no room for mercy. Therefore, if you have any regard for yourself, for your only sou, for your family, for your remaining hopes, — if I, if that excellent man your son-in-law °, have any weight with you, you ought not wilfully to disturb their fortune, — so that we should be obUged to hate, or relinquish, that cause in the success of which our happiness con- sists, or else entertain the impious wish of injuring you. Lastly, think what offence you must already have given** by your delay. But now, to oppose Csesar in the time of victory, whom you were un- willing to offend while his cause was doubtful, and to join those in their flight whom you refused to follow as long as they resisted, is the height of foUy. Take care that while you are ashamed to be wanting in the duties of the best citizen, you are not too negligent in choosing what is the best course. But if I cannot entirely prevail with yon, at Ie"st wait till it is known how we go on in Spain ; which, I announce to you, will be ours upon the arrival of Csesar. What hope they may have after Spain is lost I know not : and what can be your object in uniting with a desperate cause, I cannot for my life discover. This, which without saying it you gave me to understand, Csesar had heard ; and as soon as he had asked me how I did, he mentioned what he had heard about you. I professed my ignorance ; but begged him to wiite to you in such a manner as might be most likely to induce you to stay. He takes me with him to Spain. If this were not so before I went to the city, wherever you were, I would have run down to you and argued the point with you in person, and used my utmost endeavour to keep you. Con- sider, Cicero, again and again, that you may not utterly ruin yourself and all your family, nor plunge yourself, with your eyes open, into a situa- tion from whence you see no retreat. But if the language of the best citizens affects you, or if you cannot bear the insolence and haughtiness of certain persons, you may choose, I thin k, some town free ^ The motions in the senate for permitting Cssar to take the money out of the treasury were stopped by the intercession of the tribune L. Metellus. Cssar, however, got possession of it by force. See letter 4 of this book. " Dolabella o To Pompeius. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 743 from war while these matters are deciding, which will presently he concluded. If you do this I shall think you have acted wisely, and you will give no offence to Csesar. LETTER X. Blind that I am, not to have foreseen this ! I sent you Antonius's letter. Having repeatedly written to him that I entertained no designs against Csesar's measures, — that I was mindful of my son-in-law, mindful of our friendship, — that if I thought otherwise I might have been with Pompeius, but ttiat I wished to be out of the way, because I did not like to be running about with my lictors, — that this measure, however, was not even now de- termined. To these observations see how super- ciliously he replies : — " How true are your professions ! For one who wishes to be neuter remains in his country ; he who goes away appears to pass judgment upon one of the parties. But I am not the person to determine whether anybody is at liberty to go away or not. Cssar has laid this duty upon me, that I should suffer nobody at all to leave Italy. My approving your intention is, therefore, of little consequence, as I have no authority to remit anything. I think you should apply to Caesar, and ask leave from him. I do not doubt but you vrill obtain it, especially as you promise to observe the relations of our friendship." Here is a Spartan despatch' for you ! I shall by all means deceive the man. He was to come on the evening of the third, that is to-day ; there- fore to-morrow he may perhaps call upon me. I shall endeavour to appear in no hurry'. I shall give out that I mean to apply to Csesar : I shall conceal myself somewhere with very few attendants, and shall certainly fly away from hence in spite of these people. I wish it may be to Curio' ; this I say to you, God willing. I have received a great additional uneasiness. Something worthy of me " shall be accomplished. I am exceedingly sorry for your dysury. Attend to it, I beseech you, while it is yet recent. I was pleased with your account of the people at Marseilles' ! I beg to be informed of everything you may hear. I should like Sicily, if I might go openly ; which I had obtained from Curio. I wait here for Servius, as I am requested by his wife and son, and as I think it expedient. This fellow takes Cytheris " with him in an open carriage ; a second conveys his wife ; and there are besides seven others together, of his girls think you or boys ? See by how vile a death we perish ; and doubt, if you can, of the havoc he" will make, whether he come back conquered or conqueror. P The original is expressed in two Greek words, signify- ing a particular Idnd of cipher used hy the government of Sparta, to which their generals were expected to pay implicit obedience. 1 The text is evidently corrupt ; but I read it with the least alteration — Tentabo autem nihil jjroperare. ' " 1 should be glad to get to Sicily under the command of Curio ;" who, though of Caesar's party, was personally attached to Cicero. From thence Cicero would proceed to Malta. 3 This is said perhaps from a feeling of some dissatisfac- tion at the part he had hitherto acted, t They shut their gates against Caesar. ° Cytheris was Antonius's mistress. V Caisar. But I, if there should be no ship, will go even in a cock -boat, to snatch myself from the violence of these people. I will write more after I have seen him. I cannot help loving our young nephew, though I plainly see that I am not loved by him. I never saw anything so intractable, so set against his family, so absorbed in his own conceit. What an incredible weight of troubles ! I will, however, and do, take pains to correct him ; for he has ex- cellent abilities^, but requires great attention to his temper. LETTER XI. After sealing my last letter, I did not choose to deliver it to the person I had intended, because he was not one of my own servants. For this reason it was not delivered that day. In the mean time PhUotimus arrived, and brought me yours ; in which what you say about my brother certainly shows a want of steadiness ; but has nothing insincere, nothing fraudulent, nothing that may not be turned to good, nothing that you may not by a single word lead whither you will. In short, he is affectionate towards all his friends, even those vrith whom he often quarrels ; and me he loves better than himself. I do not blame him for sending a different* account to you about your nephew, and to the mother about her son. What you mention about the journey, and about your sister, is vexa- tious, and the more so, because my time is so contracted that it is not in my power to remedy it ; for remedy it I certainly would. But you see in what troubles and difficulties I am. The money concerns are not such (for I often hear from him) that he does not'wish to pay you, and is earnest to do so. But if Q. Axius, in this my flight, does not repay me thirteen sestertia (IflO/.) which 1 lent to his son, but excuses himself on account of the times ; if Lepta, if others do the same ; I cannot forbear wondering, when I hear from him that he is pressed for some 20 sestertia (160?.). For you see the difficulties. He has ordered, however, that the money may be provided for you. Do you think him slow, or backward, in such affairs ? Nobody is less so. But enough about my brother. Respecting his son, it is true that his father always indulged him : but indulgence docs not make one deceitful, or covetous, or without natural affection ; though it may perhaps create haughtiness, and arrogance, and moroseness. Accordingly he has these faults also, which arise from indulgence : but they are supportable ; for why should I add, at his time of life .' But the former, which to me who love him are more grievous than these very cala- mities in which I am placed, are not the effects of our tenderness ; no, they have roots of their own ; which, however, I would pluck out if it were possible. But the times are such that I must put up vfith everything. My own son I easily restrain j for nothing is more tractable ; and it Is in compas- sion to him that I have hitherto adopted less vigorous counsels ; and the more he wishes me to exert myself, the more I am afraid of injuring him. Antoni us arrived yesterday evening. He ma y w See letter 12 of this book. " I understand this to mean difTerent from that which Cicero had given in the preceding letters. Some suppose that he means Quiutus had given one account to Atticua another to Pomponia, 744 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO perhaps soon call upon me ; or he may not even do that ; as he wrote to explain his wishes. But you shall know immediately what is done. I must now conduct everything secretly. "What shall I do about the boys ? Shall I trust them to a small row-boat ? What inclination do you imagine I shall have for sailing ? For I reriiember, even in summer time, how uneasy I was sailing with that open vessel of the Rhodians)" : what do you sup- pose then will be the case in this severe season with a little barge ? It is every way a sad state. Trebatius is with me, a thoroughly honest man, and good citizen. What monstrous things does he relate ! Immortal gods ! Does Balbus also think of coming into the senate ? But I shall to-morrow get him to carry a letter to you himself. I am ready to believe Vectenus is kindly disposed towards me, as you say. I had joked with him a little angrily for having written to me so peremptorily about providing the money ^. If he received this otherwise than he ought, you will soften it. I addressed him coiner, because he had addressed me proconsul. But since he is an honest man, and friendly towards me, I am ready also to be friendly towards him. LETTER XII, What will become of me ? Or who is there not Only more unfortunate, but more disgraced, than I am ? Antonius says that he has received orders * about me by name. He has not however yet seen me, but mentioned this to Trebatius. What can I do now ? Nothing prospers with me ; and what has been considered with the greatest care, turns out the most unhappily. For when I had gained Curio, I thought I had obtained everything. He had written to Hortensius'' about me; and Reginus was entirely with me. I never suspected that Antonius would have anything to do with this sea '^. Which way shall I now turn myself ? I am beset on all sides. But enough of lamentation. I must sail then unseasonably, and creep unobserved into some merchant-ship. I must not let it seem as if I were stopped with my ovm concurrence'*. I must endeavour to get to Sicily ; which if I accomplish, I shall pursue something further. Let but things go on well in Spain. Though about Sicily itself, I wish the news may be true ; but hitherto nothing has happened favourably. It is reported that a concourse of Sicilians assembled round Cato, entreating him to resist, and promising everything ; and that he was moved by it, and began to levy troops. I do not believe it, however illustrious be its author. That the province might be kept, I know. But we shall soon have news from Spain. We have here C. Marcellus intent upon the same purpose «, or excellently feigning it : though I have not seen him myself, but hear it from one who is intimate with him. Pray let me hear if you have anything new. If I make any y See took vi. letter 8. » See letter 5 of this book. •* To prevent Cicero from leaving Italy. ^ Hortensius had a command on the south coast. ^ The southern, or Tyrrhenian sea. <* It must not have the appearance of a plan concerted between him and Ceesar for the purpose of his remaining in Italy. " Of quitting Italy. attempt, I will immediately write to you. I shall deal severely with young Quintus : I wish I may be able to do any good. But do you tear the letters in which X have said anything harshly of hiro, for fear of some disclosure : I will do the same with yours. I am waiting for Servius, yet do not expect from him any sound advice. You shall know whatever is the result. It must doubtless be confessed that I have committed errors. But is it once only .' and on one occasion .' Nay, everything, the more it has been considered, the more impru- dently has it been done. But, as Homer says, " what is past, we must let be, however sorry :" in what remains, let us only not rush on our ruin. You bid me be circumspect in my departure. In what respect should I be circumspect ? All the accidents that can occur are so manifest, that if 1 would avoid them, I must sit down in shame and grief ; if I should neglect them, I am in danger of falling into the hands of abandoned men. But see in what great difficulties I am. I sometimes think it would be desirable to sustain even some severe injury from these people, that it may appear how hateful I am to the tyrant. If the course I had hoped were open to me, I would have accom- plished something, as you wish and exhort, that should justify my delay. But the guard that is kept is surprising ; and I have some suspicions even of Curio himself. I must act therefore either by force or by stealth : and if by force, I shall perhaps have to contend also with the season. But by stealth, is by stealth from these people ; in which if there should be any failure, you see what disgrace impends. But I am drawn on, and must not recede through fear of some outrage, . I often think with myself about Cselius' ; and, should I have any similar opportunity, I shall not let it shp. I hope that Spain is steady. The affair of Marseilles, as it is noble in itself, so is it an argu- ment with me that all is right in Spain ; for they would not show such resolution if it were other- wise ; and they would know the truth, being so near and vigilant. You rightly take notice of the disapprobation expressed in the theatre. I perceive also, that the legions which he took up in Italy are very much dissatisfied. But yet nothing is more hostile, than he is to himself. You justly fear his breaking out into violence. If he is driven to despair, he will certainly do so. This increase the propriety of effecting something in the same spirit as Caelius, but I should hope with better success. But everything in its turn : whatever is done first, you shall immediately know it. I will, as you desire, do what I can for the young man*, and will support the weight of the whole Pelopon- nesus' : for he has good parts, if there were but any disposition susceptible of instruction. Hitherto he shows none ; yet there may be ; or virtue is not to be taught ; which I can never believe. 'The CKlius here spoken of has been supposed to be one C. Cffilius Caldus, who endeavoured, but in vain, to check the progress of Sylla in the fomier civil wai-s ; but I do not find that this conjecture rests on any certain fmmda- tion. See letter 14 of this book. s Young QuintuB. i This probably alludes to the same thing, as when, in letter 6 of this book, he mentions Arcadia, which was a part of the Peloponnesus; meaning that no difficulty should deter him. TO TITUS POiMPONIOS ATTICUS. 745 LETTER XIIT. Your letter was particxilarly acceptable txi my dear Tullia, and indeed to me. Your letters always bring sometbiug agreeable with them. Write, therefore ; and if you can offer any ground of hope, do not omit it You need not be alarmed at Antonios's lions'. Nothing is pleasanter than this man. Listen to « trait worthy of a minister of state. He summoned the council of tenJ from the free towns ; and the four magistrates came to his residence early in the morning. First, he was asleep till nine o'clock : then, upon being told that the Neapolitans and Cumans weie arrived (for Csesar was displeased with these people) , he ordered them to come again the next day, as he wanted to bathe, Jind was taking a lavement. This he did yesterday : and to-day he has determined to go over to ^naria*^. He promises to recall those that have been banished*. But omitting these matters, let me say something about myself. I have had a letter from Axius™. I am obliged to you for what you have done about Tiro. I am quite satisfied with Vectenas. I have paid the money" to Vestorius. Servius is said to have slept at Min- tumee the 6th of May ; to-day he was to lodge with C. Marcellus in Litemium ; he Will therefore reach me early to-morrow, and will furnish me with matter for writing to you ; for I now find nothing to say. I am surprised that Antonius should not so much as send a message to me, especially as he has always been very civil. I suppose he does not choose to deny before my face his having received a harsh command concerning me. But I should not ask any favour** ; nor, if I obtained it, should I place any reliance upon it. Yet I must devise something. Pray let me know if anything is done in Spain ; for it might be heard by this time ; and everybody is anxious, as supposing that, if things go right, there will be no farther trouble- But for my part, I neither think that the preserva- tion of Spain will decide the business, nor its loss render it desperate. I imagine Silius, and Ocella, and the others, are obliged to delay their departure. I perceive too tbat you are hindered by CurtiusP ; though I suppose you have** a passport. * Antonius is reported, but at a subsequent period, to have yoked lions to his carriage. He may at least have sbown a fondness for them, and carried them about with him at this time. Cicero seems to mean that Antonius himself assumed so little of the character of the lion, that he condescended to amuse himself with low humour, be- neath the dignity of his situation. i The municipia, or towns admitted to the freedom of Roman citizens, were usually governed by a council of ten, and had besides four executive magistrates. ^ A small island near the coast of Campania, since called Iscbia. * See above, letter 4 of this book. " See letter 11 of this book. " The word money is not in the original, but seems to be the most probable completion of the sentence, and at the same time explanatory of what was said letter 5 of this book. Should not ask leave to depart. P Perhaps some debtor, from whom Atticus could not recover his money. 1 In the original there appears to have been some Greek word, which has undergone such mutilation from copyists and commentators, as to bafBle all reasonable interpreta- tion. The 17th letter of this book, which seems to have reference to this, makes it probable that Ciceio meant in LETTER XIV. O WRETCHED existence ! For to remain so long in fear, is a greater evil than the thing itself which is feared. Servius, as I before mentioned, having arrived the 7th of May, came to me the next day. Not to detain you unnecessarily, we came to no conclusion. I never saw anybody more disturbed by apprehension ; nor in truth did he fear anything that was not a just cause of fear. That man** was angry with him, this* by no means pleased; and the victory of either party was to be dreaded, owing to the cruel disposition of the one', the audacity of the other", and the pecuniary difficultiesof both, from which they can never be extricated but through the property of private individuals. This he said with so many tears, that I wondered they had not been dried up by such protracted misery. As for me, even this weakness of the eyes, which prevents my writing with my own hand, is unattended with any weeping^, though it is often so troublesome as to keep me awake. Collect, therefore, what consola- tion you can, and send it me ; not from books and philosophy ; for that I have at home ; though somehow the remedy is less powerful than the disease : but do you rather find out what relates to Spain, and to Marseilles. Servius brings a suf- ficiently good report on these subjects, and says there is good authority for that of the two legions''. Let me then hear this from you, if you can, and other things of the same kind. Something must necessarily be known in a few days. But I revert to Servius. We adjourned our conversation to the next day. But he is loath to go out of the country. He would sooner bear whatever might happen, in his bed. He has a painful scruple arising from his son's joining the army before Brundisium^. This, however, he positively asserted, that if the exiles were restored, he would go into banishment himself. To this I repUed, that that would certainly take place; and that what was now doing was not at all better ; and I produced many instances. But this, instead of giving him encouragement, increased his fear ; so that now it seems necessary rather to keep him in ignorance of my purpose, than to invite him to do the same. Therefore, there is not much to be expected from him. I shall think of Cgelius, according to your suggestion. LETTER XV. While Servius was vrith me, Cephalio arrived with your letter, on the tenth ; which brought us great hope of better things respecting the eight cohorts ; for they also which are in these parts, some manner to signify "apassportj^whichis there called diploma ; whence it may be suspected that the word here might have been StVXco/ia. ^ Pompeius would be angry with him for having sent his son to join Csesai-'s anny before Bnmdisiura. s CsEsar was displeased with his having moved the senate not to approve of the expedition to Spain against Pompeius's lieutenants; as Cicero had informed him he should himself do if he went to Rome. See book is letter 18. * Pompeius. ^ Csesar. '^ As if the very source of his tears was exhausted, w See letter 12 of this book. ^ See book ix. letter 19. THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO are said to waver. On the same day Punisulanus brought another letter from you, corroborating the same circumstance. On the subject of his own business I satis^ed him amply, giving him to un- derstand all his obligation to you. He has not yet paid me. He owes me a considerable sum, and is not supposed to be rich. He now says thathe wiU pay it ; but that one, who is in his books, delays : that, when this is paid, if there should be sufficient at your y house, you may send it by the messengers. Bhilotimus's freed-man, Eros, will tell you how much it is. But let us return to greater matters. That Cselian business, which you wish for, ripens apace ; and I am distracted with doubt whether I should wait for a favourable wind. There wants but a standard, and people will flock to it ^. I am quite of your mind in thinking it best to go openly *, and I think to set off accordingly : but I shall first wait for another letter from you. Nothing is to be got from Servius's opinion : every objection is raised to every proposal. He is the only man T have known of a more timid disposition than C. Marcellus, who regretted that he had been made consul. How dishonourable ! He is said too to have confirmed Antonius in his opposition to my de- parture, that he might himself, I suppose, remain with the better grace. Antonius set out for Capua the tenth. He sent me word that he was prevented from waiting upon me by shame, because he thought I should be angry with him. I shall go then, and in the manner you advise, unless any hope should previously be afforded of sustaining some more im- portant character ''. But this can scarcely happen so soon. -Ulienus the prstor however thinks that one of his colleagues will be appointed, if I am not. I care not who it is, so there be but some- body. I am pleased w-ith what you mention about your sister. I take pains about young Quintus j and hope things are better. As for my brother Quintus, I assure you he is making every exertion to pay the interest that is due ; but he has hitherto squeezed nothing out of L. Egnatius '. Axius '' modestly applies for 12,000 (100/.); for he has frequently written to desire I would advance to Gallius whatever he wants. But if he had not written, could I do otherwise ? In truth I have repeatedly promised : but this money he wants im- 7 Atticus, we have seen, succeeded to the property of Caecilius, who was a sort of banker ; and I imagine the same business to have been continued on Atticus's account. Hence I understand this passage to mean, that if Funisu- lamig, after the money that was o\ving to liim should have been paid, had enough at Atticus's banliing-house to answer Cicero's claims, it might be sent do^vn to him. [See boolc viii. letter 7, note •".] This receives consider- able weight from what occurs in several lettere of book xii., from which it appears that Atticus was a long time engaged with his accounts, so as to show that they must have been voluminous and intricate. 2 This may either mean, that there were many people dissatisfied with CEcsar, and ready to unite under any leader in opposition to him : or, that many people were desirous of leaving Italy as soon as an opportunity offered . " See letter 12 of this book. "I must act, therefore, either by force or by stealth." •» Of being a negotiator for peace. c See book vii. letter 18. •i Axius is mentioned before, in letter 11 of this book, as o^ving Cicero 13,000 sestertii on account of his son, who is probably the same Gallius here spoken of. And now he says, that Axius, instead of repaying the money, boi'rows 12,000 more, and wants it immediately. mediately. I wish people ' would have considera. tion for me in these troubles. May the gods confound them ! But of this at some other time. I rejoice at your being freed from your ague, and also Piha. While the stores and other things are putting on board, I mean to run down to Pom- peianuqi. I should be glad if you would make my acknowledgments to Vectenus for his attention. If you have anybody to send, let me hear from you before I go. LETTER XVI. I HAD just sent you a letter on a variety of sub- jects, when Dionysius came to me at an early hour. I should not only have shown myself ready to for- give him, but should have remitted the whole, if he had come in the temper of mind you described. For in the letter I received from you at Arpinum, yon said that he would come, and would do whatever I desired. Now I desired, or rather wished, to have him with me. This he had positively refused, when he came to Formianum, which occasioned me to write to you angrily about him. He said very little ; but the amount of his harangue was, that I would forgive him ; that he was so embarrassed with his own affairs, that he was unable to go with me. I replied in a few words, but felt great vexa- tion. I saw clearly that he despised my present fortune. What think you ? Perhaps you will be surprised ; but I must tell you that I reckon this among the greatest vexations of these times. I would have him continue your friend. The wishing you this, is wishing that all may go well with you : tor just so long will his attachment last. I trust my design will be unattended with danger ; for I shall both dissemble, and mean to keep a sharp look-out. Let but the passage be such as I wish ; for the rest, so far as it is under the control of prudence, due care shall be taken. While I remain here, I should be glad if you would write me word not merely of what you know, or have heard, but also of what you foresee will happen. Cato, who might have kept Sicily without any difiiculty, (and if he had kept it, aU respectable people would have flocked to him) went from Syracuse the 24th of April, as Curio wrote me word. I wish, what is said, that Cotta may keep Sardinia. There is such a report. If it be so, poor Cato ! In order to lessen any suspicion of my departure, or of my design, I went to Pompeianum the 12th, that I might remain there, while the things requisite for the voyage were got ready. Upon my arrival at the house, information was brought me that the cen- turions of three cohorts which are at Pompeii wished me to go thither the next day ; it was my friend Ninnius communicated this to me ; that they wished to deliver themselves and the town to me. But I, look you, was off on the morrow before it was light, that they might not so much as -see me. For what was there in three cohorts ? What if there had been more ? How were they furnished ? There occurred to me the same ideas upon that Cielian attempt which I read in the letter I received from you the same day, as soon as I arrived at Cuma- num ; and yet it might only have been done to try me. I therefore removed all suspicion. Upon my « Adjuvarent seems to be used absolutely, in the man- ncr explained in book iv. letter 3, note '. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 747 return 1 find Hortensins has been here, and called to pay his respects to Terentia. He used very honourable language towards me. But I suppose I shall see him ; for he sent his servant to say that he would call upon me. This is better than my col- league ' Antonius, whose mistress is carried in a litter in the midst of his lictors s. Since you are free from the ague, and have shaken off not only the disease but even the languor attending It, let me see you in Greece looking quite well. In the mean time let me hear something from you. LETTER XVII. HoRTENSirs came to me the 14th, after my letter was written. I wish the rest of his conduct may correspond with this. His attention towards me is inconceivable, and of this I mean to avail myself. Afterwards came Serapio' with your letter. But before I opened it, I told him that yon had already written to me about him, as you had done. Then, when I had read the letter, I entered upon the rest very fully ; and in truth I am much pleased with him, for he seems to be at once a man of learning and of probity. I think of employing his vessel also, and taking him with me. The weakness of my eyes has frequent returns, and though not very troublesome, yet it prevents my writing. I am glad your healdi is now both re- stored from its old complaint, and strengthened against any fresh attacks. I wish I had Ocella' here : for these matters seem to be rather more feasible. At present I am stopped by the equinox, which is very much out of its natural course '. If this blows gently, I hope Hortensius will continue in the same disposition, for hitherto nothing could be more kind. You are surprised at my having spoken of a passport', as if I were charging you with I know not what offence ; and can- not imagine how it shoidd have come into my mind. But as you had mentioned an intention of going away, and I had understood tha,t nobody was permitted to go without one, therefore I concluded you had one ; as likewise because you had got a passport for the boys. This was the reason of the f See letter 15 of this book, where Antonius is said to have gone away without seeing Cicero. He was Cicero's colleague in the college of augurs. B See letter 10 of this hook. ^ Hortensius had a command under Cffisar ; and Cicero hoped to facilitate his design of sailing by his connivance. See letter 12 of this book. > Serapio seems to have been recommended to Atticus as a tutor to the two young Ciceros. ' i He is mentioned in letter 13 of this book, and may probably have been mentioned in some letter from Atticus. ^ Previously to the reformation of the calendar, the esti- mated periods of the year had gi-own into great disorder ; so that the equinoctial winds, which might favour Cicero's voyage, had not yet blown. See letter 18 of this book. ' Seo letter 13 of this book. opinion I expressed. But I should be glad to know what you think of doing, and above all if there is yet any news. May 16. LETTER XVIII. My dear Tullia was brought to bed the 19th of May of a seven months' child. I rejoice in her safe delivery. The child is very weakly. The calms have hitherto delayed me surprisingly, and have been a greater impediment than the watch which is kept over me. For Hortensius's professions are all icQe words, so that he must be a most base man. He has been corrupted by the freed-man Salvius. Henceforward therefore I shall not write to inform you what I am going to do, but what I have done. For all the CorycEei" seem to listen to what I say. But stiU if there is anything from Spain, or any- thing else, pray continue to write ; and do not expect to hear from me till I arrive at my destina- tion, unless I send to you on my passage. But I write even this with fear : so slowly and difficultly has everything hitherto been done. As I laid ill the first beginning, so the rest follows. I am now proceeding to Foi-mise. The Furies will perhaps pursue me by the same route. From the conver- sation which Balbus had with you, I do not ap- prove of Malta. Do you then doubt of his reckon- ing me among the number of the enemies .' I have written myself to Balbus, telling him that you had informed me of his good-will, and of his suspicion. For the one I have returned my thanks ; on the other subject you must excuse me to him. Did you ever know anybody more unfortunate ? I say no more, that I may noc also distress you. I am worried to death with thinking that a time is ar- rived, when neither courage nor prudence can any longer avaU me. n> The banditti of Moimt Corycus were noted for their secret intelligence ; from whence the term Corycjei was used proverbially to signify any spies or discoverers of Becrets. — Erasm. Adag. [7n the interval between the tenth and eleventh books of Cicero's letters, it appears that he actually quitted Italy theWth of June, and passed over to JDyrrachiam, with his brother and the two young Ciceros, to join Pompeius. In the mean time- Ccesar had made himself niaster of Spain, • and having been created dictat-or at Rome, marched to Brundisium, and thence embarked the ith of January in pursuit of Pompeius. At first Pompeius obtained some advantage overCeesarb^oreDyrrachium, but was soon after totally defeated in the memorable battle of Pharsalia. Cicero was not present on this occa- sion, but remained at Dyrrachium out of health, and out of spirits. After this defeat Pompeius's party dispersed. The greater part went to renew the war in Africa, whi- ther Ccesar also followed them. Some retiredinto Greece; but Cicero returned to Brundisium about the end of October, and from thence wrote the 5th letter of tlui following book.'] 743 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO BOOK XI. LETTER I. I HAVE received from you a sealed packet" brought by Anteros ; but from which I have been able to learn nothing of my domestic affairs, about ■which I am deeply concerned. For he ° who has had the management of them is not there, nor do I know where in the world he is. But I place all hope of my reputation and private concerns in your kindness, which I have so often experienced. This if you wiU extend to me in these sad and desperate times, I shall bear with a better heart the dangers which are common to me with the rest ; and that you will do so I conjure and entreat you. I have two-and-twenty hundred sestertia(17,600i.) in cistophorii'inAsia; by exchanging which money you will easily support my credit. Had I not thought that I left it quite clear, trusting to him ' whom you have long since ceased to trust, I would have waited a little longer, and not left my private affairs in embarrassment. The reason of my writing to you so late, is, that I have been late in finding what I had to apprehend. 1 beg you again and s^ain to take me wholly under your protection; that if those, with whom I am ', are safe, I may escape along with them, and may owe my safety to your kindness. LETTER n. T EECEiTTED your letter the 4th of February, and the very same day I formally accepted the inherit- ance * according to the will. Out of my many sad troubles one is removed, if, as you say, this inheritance is adequate to the support of my credit and reputation ; which, however, even without this, I understand that you would have defended from your own means. As to what you mention respecting the dower ', by all the gods I conjure you to take the whole affair under your manage- ment, and to protect that poor creature " (who is suffering by my fault and negligence) out of ray property, if I have any ; or by any means you can employ without putting yourself to inconvenience. Do not, I beseech you, suffer her to remain, as you say, destitiite of everything. On what expenses has the produce of the farms been consumed ? No- body ever told me that those sixty sestertia (480/.) which you mention had been deducted from her ^ Not a regular letter ; which might perhaps be occa- sioned by the risk atteading it. See the conclusion of the following letter. Philotimus. P See book ii. letter 6. The cistopJiori appear to have been the current coin of Asia Minor ; and this sum was probably saved dui-ing his government of Cilicia. 1 Philotimus. r The Pompeians, whose safety here mentioned relates to their property, not to their persons. This and the three following letters appeal" to have been written from Dyrrachium. s Accepting it before witnesses within a certain time specified by the will. t The dower of his daughter on her marriage with Dola- bella. " TuUia, who appeaxs to have been brought into diffi- culties by her husband's extravagance. dower ; for I never vrould have suffered it. But this is the least of the injuries which I have received ', and which my grief and tears prevent me from detailing to you. Of the money which I had in Asia, I have drawn out nearly one half". I thought it would be safer where it is than with the public renters\ When you exhort me to keep up my spirits, I wish you could suggest anything that might enable me to do so. But if to my other miseries is added that also which Chrysippus said was in contemplation (you have not mentioned it) respecting my house ", who is there more wretched than myself ? 1 pray and beseech you, pardon me. I cannot write any more. You see how greatly I am afflicted. If this were common to me with the rest, who seem to be in the same case, my fault would not appear so/ great, and would therefore be the more tolerable. There is now no source of comfort ; unless you devise something, if indeed anything can be devised, that I may not be ex- posed to any peculiar calamity and insult. I have been later in sending back the courier, because there was no opportunity of sending. I have received from your agents seventy sestertia (560?.) in money, and the clothing * that was wanted. I should be glad if you would write in my name to whom you think proper : you know my friends. If they expect my seal, or signature, you may tell them that I have avoided this, on account of the watch that is kept '. LETTER III. What is doing here you will be able to learn from the bearer of this letter, whom I have kspt the longer because I have been in daily expectation of something new ; though at present I have no other reason for writing, than that, about which you desired an answer, respecting what I would have done relative to the first of July''. Either alternative is attended with difficulty in such difiS- cult times ; the risk of so large a sum ; or, in this doubtful issue of events, that breaking off^ which y From his wife Terentia, probably through the agency of Philotimus. w He placed it in tlie bands of Egnatius, a banker al Rome. See letter 3 of this book. ^ The farmers of the taxes in Asia, of whom frequent mention is made in tlie early books of these letters. See book i. letter 17, note c. 7 It was proposed to take from Cicero his house in Bome, on account of bis going over to Pompeius. * Probably for his slaves. ° Cicero being now withPompeius's army .itDyrrachium, was under the restriction of military discipline, and, it is probable, might be watched with some jeaJousy. 1> This was probably the day on which some portion of his daughtei"*s fortune became due to Dolabella. Cicero, as well as TuUia, was dissatisfied with Dolabella, and me- ditated a divorce. But considering Dolabella's credit with Csesar.Ht was difficult to determine, in the present doubt- ful state of affairs, whether to incur the danger of losing so large a sum, if he paid it ; or to cut the matter short by suing for a divorce, and thereby making Dolabella his enemy. c The expression is probably borrowed from Attious, and means the separating his daughter from her husband. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, ■749 you mention. Therefore as other things, so this especially I commit to your protection and kind- ness, and to her judgment and inclination. I should have done better for my poor daughter, if I had formerly deliberated with you in person, ra- ther'' than by letter, on the subject of my own security and circumstances. When you deny that any peculiar disadvantage attaches to me, though this affords no consolation, yet there are many peculiar circumstances which you must see to be, as they are, very grievous, and which I might easily have avoided. But these very things will be less, if, as has hitherto been done, they are lightened by your care and attention. The money is with Eg- natius. Let it remain on my account, as it is, (for things cannot long continue in their present state), that I may be able to see what is most expedient ; though I am in want of everything ; because he also ' with whom I am is in difficulties, and I have advanced him a large sum of money, thinking that when matters are settled, this may likewise be an honour to me. I should be glad, if there are any per- sons to whom you think I ought to write, that you would execute this, as you have done before. Pre- sent my compliments to your family, and take care of your health. In the first place make every care and provision for what you mention ; that nothing may be wanting to her ' for whom you know how uneasy I am. From the camp, June 13th. great hope ". Oiir friend Brutus " engages zeal- ously in the cause. So far I have been able to write with caution. Farewell. Respecting the second payment °, pray consider with all attention what is to be done ; as I observed in the letter which I sent by Pollex. LETTER IV. I RECEIVED a letter by Isidorus, and two of later dates. From the last I find that the estates have not been sold s. You will therefore see that she ^ may be supported through you. With respect to Frusinas ', if only I survive, it will be a con- venient possession for me. You desire me to write, but I am prevented by want of matter, for I have nothing worth writing ; entirely disapproving, as I do, both what happens, and what is doing. I wish I had formerly consulted you in person, rather than by letter. I support your cause here among these people as well as I can. Celer will tell you tlie rest. I have hitherto declined all office, the more so because it was impossible to do anything as became me and my circumstances J. You ask what new has happened : you will be able to learn from Isidorus. What remains does not appear to be more difficult ■'. I should be glad to have you take care (as you promise, and as you do) of what you know I have especially at heart'. I am worn with anxiety, which has also brought on extreme bodily weakness. As soon as this is removed, I shall join the leader of the business, who is in ^ That is, on the propriety of his own going to join Pompeius. See the following letter. * Pompeius. ' Tullia. B Estates by which he proposed to relieve Tullia from her embarrassment, i Tullia ' The name of an estate. See letter 13 of this book. J The subsequent part of the letter appears to have been written after that affair of Dyrraehium in which Ca?sar was worsted. The vicinity of the ai-niies made Cicero very cautious and reserved in what he wrote. ^ There did not appear any reason why Pompeius should not be equally successful in any subsequent engageraent. ' His daughter's comfort. LETTER V. I CANNOT without the greatest pain describe to you what causes, how bitter, how grievous, how unexpected, have moved me, and compelled me to act from a certain -impulse of mind, rather than from consideration. They were such as have produced the effect you perceive f. I therefore neither know what to tell you about my concerns, nor what to ask of you. You see the result and sum of the business. I have understood from your letters, both from that which you wrote in conjunction with others, and from that which was in your own name, (what indeed I perceived by myself), that your declining influence made you look out for some new means of defending me. As to what you propose of my coming nearer, and travelling through the towns by night, I do not well see how that can be dene ; for I have not such convenient resting-places, that I can pass in them all the day-time ; nor is it of much consequence for the purpose of your inquiry, whether people see me in the towns or on the road. But yet I will consider, among other things, how this can best be done. My uneasiness both of mind and body is beyond belief, and makes me incapable of writing many letters : I have only answered those which X received. I wish you would write to Basilus, and to whomsoever you think proper, also to Servilius, in my name. That 1 should have written nothing to you in so long an interval, you will understand to arise from want of matter to write upon, not from want of inclination. Re- specting your inquiry about Vatinius, I should not want his services, nor anybody's else, if they could find how to assist me. Quintus was at Patrse 'i, in a disposition very hostile towards me. To the same place his son went from Corcyra. I imagine they are since gone from thence along with the rest '. LETTER VL I PERCEIVE your anxiety not only about your own, and the common calamities, but more parti- cularly about me, and my affliction. And this my affliction is so far from being lessened, that it is even increased by associating yours with it. How- ever, you see with your usual prudence to what source of consolation I am most open. For you approve of my determination % and declare that at ni Pompeius received great hope from his recent success. n This is more particularly mentioned, because Brutus was personally hostile to Pompeius, who had caused the death of Brutus's father under Sulla's administration. The second instalment of his daughter's dower. p That he should have returned to Brimdisium after the battle of Pharsalia. 1 In the Peloponnesus. r To make theii' peace with Ca;sar. See letter 6 of this boolc- B Of coming to Italy. 730 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO such a time I could have done nothing better. You add also (what, though of less weight than your own judgment, yet has some weight with me) that the step which I have taken is approved by others also ; that is, persons of consideration. If I thought this, I should be less afflicted. " Believe me," you say. I do believe you ; but I know how de- sirous you are that my distress should be lightened. I have never regretted my withdrawing from the army : there was such a cruel spirit, such a co- operation with barbarous nations, that a proscrip- tion was contemplated not individually, but col- lectively ; so that it was determined by common consent that the property of you all should be the prey of his victory ; of you all, I say ; for there was no thought even of you unmixed with cruelty. I shall never repent of my good-will • ; I do re- iient of the measures I adopted ^. I could wish that I had retired to some remote town till I was sent for. I should have created less observation, and should have received less vexation. I should not be exposed to this present trouble". To lie miserably at Brundisium, is every way painful. How can I advance nearer, as you advise, without the lictors, which the people gave me, and which can never be taken from me but by violence. These with their fasces I lately mingled for a time in the crowd, as I approached the town, through fear of some insult from the soldiers. I contrived to get home in time "■. I want you now to go to Oppius ; and, provided it be thought right to ad- vance with these lictors, I imagine they will au- thorise me to consider of it ". For so they engage ; that CseSar will have regard not only to the pre- servation of my dignity, but even to the increase of it ; and they exhort me to be of good courage, and to entertain the best hopes. They give me the strongest assurance of what I should more readily credit if I had remained at home. But I am entering upon things that are past. Consider then, I beg you, what remains, and consult about it with these people ; and, (if you think it expedient, and it meets with their approbation,") that Caesar may be the more inclined to approve what I do, let it appear to be at their suggestion. Let Trebonius, Pansa, and any others, be admitted to this consul- tation, and let them write to inform Caesar that what I have done, has been at their suggestion. I am quite alarmed at TuUia's illness and debility. I understand you are very kind to her, for which I am greatly obliged to you. I never had any doubt about Pompeius's fate y. For all princes and peo- ple were so impressed with the desperate state of his affairs, that wherever he had gone, I supposed this would happen. I cannot help lamenting his fall ; for I knew him to be a man of integrity, virtue, and dignity. Should I offer to console you about Fannius '• ? He talked mischievously about ' Of having: wished to serve Pompeius. 1 The cruel disposition manifested in Pompeius's army made Cicero repent of having joined them. T His detention at Brundisium, and the imcertainty of his reception by Cassar's party. w This passage has been variously tortured. I give what appears to me to be tlie most natural interpretation, without vouching for its correctness. * How he should advance with his lictors and theirfasces, 7 He was treacherously mm-dered in Egypt. ^ Perhaps he was recently dead. Cicero seems to imply that his conversation respecting Atticns was such as en- titled him to little regret. your remaining. And L. Lentulus had already promised himself Hortensius's house, and Caesar's gardens, and Baiae. Just the same is done on this side, excepting that the other was boundless ; for everybody who had staid in Italy was esteemed in the number of enemies. But some time or an- other I shall be glad to talk over these matters with my mind more at ease. I hear that my brother Quintus is gone into Asia to make his peace. Of his son I have heard nothing. Inquire of Dig. chares, Caesar's freed-man, whom I have not seen, but who brought that letter from Alexandria. He is reported to have seen him either on his journey, or already in Asia. 1 look for your letter, as the occasion demands ; and hope you will take care to let it be brought to me with all expeditio.i. November 28. LETTER Vn. I THANK you for your letter, in which you have accurately stated everything which you supposed to concern me. It is settled therefore, according to the opinion you give me from these people, that I should continue to be attended by the same lictors, as it was granted to Sestius : though I apprehend he did not retain his original lictors, but had others given him by Caesar. For I understand that he * disallows such decrees of the senate, as were passed subsequently to the departure of the tribunes. If therefore he chooses to be consistent vrith himself, he may still approve of my lictors. But what have I to do with lictors, who am almost ordered to quit Italy .' For Antonius sent me the copy of a letter he had received from Caesar, in which it was stated that he had heard of Cato's and L. Metellus's arrival in Italy, with the design of living openly in Rome ; that he did not like this, from fear of its occasioning some disturbance ; andtiiat all should be excluded fromltaly, exceptthose whose case he shouldhimself have heard : and he expressed himself on this subject with great warmth. There- fore Antonius wrote to me requesting that I would pardon him, but that he was not at liberty to dis- obey these instructions. Upon this I sent L. Lamia to explain to him that Caesar had desired Dola- bella to write to me, pressing me to come to Italy as soon as possible, and that I had come agreeably to his letter. He then Issued an order to except me and Laelius by name ; which I was sorry for, as he might have excepted us in fact, without pub- licly naming us. O the many heavy causes of uneasiness ! which you kindly endeavour to alle- viate, and not without effect ; for you do indeed lessen my affliction by the very circumstance of your taking such pains to lessen it ; and this I trust you will not think it burdensome to do very often. You will especially attain your purpose, if you can bring me to think that I have not entirely lost the good opinion of respectable people. Yet what can you do in this respect ? Nothing, truly. But if circumstances should give you any opportu- nity, this will afford me the best consolation. It cannot be done at present ; but if anything should arise in the course of events ; like what has hap- pened now. For it was said that I ought to have gone with Pompeius, but his fate lessens the re- TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 761 proach of having neglected that duty. So of all things nothing is more censured, than that I should not have gone into Africa : but I considered that the republic ought not to be defended by the bar- barous troops of a faithless nation, especially against an army that had gained repeated victories. This perhaps will not be approved. For I hear that many good men are arrived in Africa ; and I know there were many before. I am very much pressed on this subject. Here then I stand in need of some favourable chance. It may be that some, or possibly all of them, may prefer their safety to the issue of war. For if they persevere, and gain their cause, you see in what a condition I shall .be. You will say, what will be their condition if they are defeated ? It will at least be a more honourable wound. These considerations distract me. You do not say why yon do not prefer Sulpicius's de- termination to mine : for though it is less glori- ous than Cato's, it is however exempt both from danger and from remorse. The last thing to be con- sidered, is the situation of those who are in Greece. However, these are so far better off, than I am, that they are together in considerable number ; and whenever they come to Italy, they will come to their own home. Continue, as you do, to soften these matters, and to conciliate as many as you can. When ybu excuse yourself", I am well aware of your reasons, and consider it for my interest that you should be there ■", if it be only to manage for me, as you have hitherto done, what can be managed, with those in authority. In the first place I should be glad if you would attend to this : I apprehend there are many who have or will accuse me to Csesar, as either repenting of the step I have taken ', or disapproving what is done. And though both are true, yet these persons assert it oiit of ill-will towards me, not that they have any knowledge of its being so. But that Balbus and Oppius may defend me against all such attacks, and by their frequent letters may confirm Caesar's kind disposition ; that this may effectually be done, you will use all diligence. Another reason why I should be sorry to have you leave Rome is, that you say you have been entreated " — O sad business ! What should I write ? or what should I desire r I shall be very short, for my tears burst forth. I commit it to you, and beg you to take it under your care. Only see that, at such a time, it involve you in no difficulty. Pardon me, I beseech you : I can dwell no longer on this subject for my tears and grief. I will only say, that nothing can be more gratifying to me than your affection towards her. You do kindly in undertaking to write to whom you think it proper. I have met with a person who saw Quintus the son at Samos, the father at Sicyon. Their excuse is easily made. I wish they, who have seen Csesar before me, may be as ready to promote my interest with him, as I should be to promote theirs, if I had any opportunity. When you ask me to take it in good part, if there should be anything in your letter that vexes me, I do take it in the very best part ; and request you to tell me everything without disguise, as you do ; and to do it as often as possible. Farewell. December 19. ^ From going to Cicero. c At Rome. ^ In coming to Italy. * Entreated byTulliatoassisther. Theword "entreated," which includes the rest, is no doubt borrowed from LETTER VIII. Though you perceive indeed how greatly I am afflicted, yet you will know it from Lepta and Trebatius. I pay severely the penalty of my rash- ness ^ which you would fain persuade me is pru- dence : nor do I prevent your disputing the point, and writing to me as often as possible. For your letters afford me some comfort at this time. You must use every exertion through those who wish well to me, and have influence with Csesar, parti- cularly through Balbus and Oppius, that they may write on my behalf with all diligence. For, as I hear, I am attacked both by some in person, and by letters. These must be met, as the importance of the occasion demands. Furnius s is there very unfriendly towards me ; and Quintus has sent his son not only to make his own peace, but to accuse me. He gives out that I have traduced him to Csesar ; which is refuted by Caesar himself and all his friends ; and yet he does not cease, wherever he goes, to heap jiU sorts of reproaches upon me. Nothing ever happened to me so unaccountable, nothing in all these troubles so painful. Some atrocious things were related to me by those who had heard him talking openly at Sicyon in the hearing of many people. You know his manner ; perhaps you have experienced it. It is ell turned against me. But I add to my uneasiness by speak- ing of it, and make you uneasy too. Therefore I return to my subject, and beg you to let Balbus send somebody expressly for this purpose i". I should be glad if you would write in my name to whom you think fit. Farewell. December 27. LETTER IX. I HAVE indeed acted both incautiously, as you observe, and more hastily than I ought, and am out of all hope', being kept by these exceptions' to the edicts. If they had not been made, through your care and kindness, I might be at liberty to go into some unfrequented place : now I cannot even do this. What advantage is it to have arrived before the tribunes enter upon their oflice'', if the coming at all is of no advantage .' What can I hope from him', who has never been a friend to me ; since I am already undone and crushed by this law ? Balbus's letters to me become daily less encouraging ; and there may probably be many AtticUB's own expression. Tullia had been neglected by her husband Dolabella, and left at Rome in want of every- thing. f In coming to Brundisium. S Fxunius is probably mentioned, like Quintus, as one who used to be Cicero's friend, and whom it was therefore the more grievous to have against him on this occasion. ^ To counteract the calumnies of evil-minded persons. 1 All hope of being able to leave Brundisium. J See letter 7 of this book. He could not, without oifend- ing Csesar, refuse to use his permission of remaining in Italy. ^ Lest they might have published some law of exclusion. But he derived little benefit from his return to Italy, while he thought it unsafe to proceed through the coimtry amidst CjEsar's adherents with his lictors, and unworthy of him to relinquish them. 1 Csesar, upon whose conduct Cicero could not depend in hie present circumstances. 762 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO from many quarters to Caesar against me. I am ruined by own fault. No part of my troubles has been brought on by accident ; everything is the effect of folly. For when I saw the nature of the contest ; that all was unprepared, and feeble, against troops in the highest order ; I separated '^ from them (what could I do ?), and adopted counsels not so much bold, as allowable ° for me beyond other men. I yielded to my friends, or rather I obeyed them. Of one of them, him whom you° commend to me, you will see the disposition from his own letters which he has sent to you and to others, and which I should never have opened but from the following circumstances. A parcel was brought to me, which I undid, to see if there was any letter for myself ; which there was not. There was one to Vatinius, and another to Ligurius, which I ordered to be taken to them. They presently called upon me burning with grief, crying out upon the perfidy of the man. They read to me the letters^ filled with all sorts of calumnies against me. Ligurius was quite in a rage, saying that he knew Caesar had hated him ; yet had not only shown him kindness, but had also given him so much money, out of regard to me. After receiving this shock, I was desirous of knowing what he had written to others ; for I considered that it would be prejudicial to himself, if this great guilt of his should be generally known. I found they were all of the same kind. I have sent them to you, that if you think it desirable for him that they should be delivered, you may deliver them ; no harm will accrue to me ; for as to their being opened, I imagine Pomponia has his seal. It was his using this bitterness when we first set sail, which so affected me, that I was afterwards quite sunk : and now he is said to be solicitous not so much for himself as against me. Thus am I pressed by all circumstances ; which I am hardly able, or rather quite unable, to bear p. Amongst these distresses tliere is one equivalent to all the rest, that I shall leave my poor daughter plundered of her patri- mony, and all her fortune. I should therefore be particularly glad to see you, as you promise ; for I have nobody else to whom I can commend her ; as 1 understand her mother is threatened with the same dangers'! as myself. But if you should not find me, yet let this be a sufficient commendation, and do you, as far as you can, mollify her uncle towards her. I write this on my birth- day ; when I wish that I had never been born ; or that my mother had produced nothing afterwards. I am prevented by tears from writing more. TO The word scivei'am in this place evidently comes from scisco, and though I do not find any corresponding eignl- fication of it, I suspect it is here equivalent to desciveram, and have translated it accordingly. n It would have argued more courage to join either of the contending parties ; but Cicero was excusahle in not joining Pompeius, by the hope of acting as a. mediator of peace ; and his obligations to Pompeius were such as for- bade his CO operating with Ciesar. Q,uintus, in whose favourlsupposeAtticusmighthave written to Cicero upon finding him angry at his brother's behaviour. P Has not this expression, as well as what immediately follows, allusion to thoughts of destroying himself? such as we find him uttering imder the affliction of bis banish- ment in the third book. 1 The danger of having her goods forfeited. LETTER X. To my inconceivable distresses there has been a fresh addition from what has been related to me respecting the two Quintuses. P. Terentius, a friend of mine, has had a good deal to do as deputy contractor for the customs and revenues in provincial Asia. He met with Quintus the son at Ephesus the 13th of December, and particularly invited him to his house through friendship to me. Having made inquiries from him about me, he said the young man informed him that he was very angry with me, and showed him a roll of paper containing a speech which he intended to make to Cfiesar against me. Terentius said what he could to check his senseless conduct. Afterwards, at Patrse, Quintus the father tg/lked to him a great deal in a similar strain ef slander. You are acquainted with his extravagance by the letters which I sent you. I am sure this must give you pain ; to me it is most distressing, and the more so, because [ imagine there will be no room for me even to expostulate with them. On the state of things in Africa, I hear accounts veiy different from what you mention. For they say nothing can be more steady, or better prepared ; add to this, Spain'^, and the disaffection in Italy, the declining strength and zeal of the legions, and the confusion in the city^. Where can I find any tranquillity S but while I am reading your letters? which would no doubt be more frequent, if you had anything to offer by which you thought my cares could be lessened. But I beg you not to omit writing to me whatever happens ; and those" who are so cruelly hostile to me, you may blame at least, if you cannot hate them ; not with the expectation of doing any good ; but to let them see that you love me. I will write more to you when you have answered my last letter. Farewell. January 31, LETTER XL I AM so exhausted with the torment of my great distresses, that if there were anything upon which I ought to write to you, I should not easily be able to execute it ; much less then, when I have nothing to tell you, when especially there is not even any prospect of things becoming better. So that I am no longer anxious even for your letters, though they always bring something agreeable with them. Therefore continue to write, whenever you have an opportunity of sending. I have nothing to reply to your last, which I received now a long time ago. For in this interval I find that everything is changed ; the right cause has acquired strength, and I pay the heavy penalty of my folly ^. I must procure for P. Sallustius thirty sestertia (240/,), which I received from Cn. Sallustius. I shall be r Since Caasar's rapid subjection of Spain, fresh insui'rec- tions had broken out there. " Considerable disturbances had arisen between tlie tribunes. * In consequence of Cicero's retm*n to Italy he had as much to apprehend from the success of Pompeius's party, as from that of Caesar's. II Alluding, no doubt, to his brother and nephew. T Pompeius's party was in considerable force in Africa and Spain, and Cicero sxispected that he had acted preci- pitately in offending them by his return to Italy. TO TITUS rOMPONIUS ATTICUS. irss obliged to you to see that they are provided with- out delay. I have written about it to Terentia. Even this is now almost gone. I wish therefore you would arrange with her, that I may have enough for present use. I shall perhaps be able to take it up here, if I only know that it will be sup- plied at Rome. But without knowing that, I have not ventured to do so. You see the state of all my affairs. There is no sort of misfortune which I do not suffer and apprehend. And the misery of this is the greater, in proportion to the greatness of my folly. He" does not cease to slander me in Greece ; so that your letters have been of no avsul. Fare- well. March 8. LETTER XII. Cephalio delivered your letter to me the 8th of March in the evening ; and the same day in the morning I had despatched a messenger with a letter to you. Nevertheless, upon reading your letter, I have thought it right to make some reply, especially as you e.xpress yourself doubtful what excuse I shall make to Csesar for my going away at the time when I quitted Italy. I have no occa- sion for any new excuse: for I have repeatedly told him by letter, and have sent word by several persons, that I was unable, if I wished it, to bear the reflections that were made upon me ; with many things to the same effect. There was nothing that I less wished him to suppose, than that I had not acted upon my own judgment in a thing of such moment. Afterwards, upon hearing from Balbus Cornelius the younger, that he conceived my bro- ther Quintus to have been the trumpet to my march, for so he expressed himself, before I knew what Quintus had been writing to so many people about me ; though he had said, and done, many severe things to me in person, yet I wrote notwithstanding^ to Ceesar in these words : " I am no less anxious for my brother Quintus, than for myself ; but in my present situation I cannot ven- ture to commend him to you. So much however I shall venture to ask of you, that I beg you will not suppose he has done anything to lessen my duty and affection towards you ; but has always rather contributed to unite us together ; and has been the companion, not the adviser, of my going away. Therefore in other matters you will attri- bute to him whatever your kindness and the friend- ship between you demands. That I may be no detriment to him in your esteem, I earnestly entreat of you again and again." If then I should have any meeting with Csesar, though I do not doubt but he will be kind towards him, as he has already declared, yet I shall behave in the same manner as I have alway.s done. But, as 1 see, I have much more reason to be concerned about Africa ; which you represent as being daily con- firmed in the hope of making terms, rather than of victory. I wish this were so : but I understand it is very much otherwise, and apprehend that you are yourself of that opinion, only write differently, not with a view to deceive me, but to encourage me ; especially when to Africa is joined Spain like- »■ Quintus. ^ The text appears to be faulty. I bave supposed, with Grafvhig, that it ought to be mJtilominus. wise?. Respecting your recommendation of writ- ing to Antonius and others ; if you think it neces- sary, I should be glad if you would do this which you have often done before. For nothing occurs to me that I ought to write. If you hear that I am unreasonably broken in spirit, what thinkyou, "■ when you find these noble ^ actions of my son-in- law added to my former troubles ? However, I hope you vrill not cease to write to me, as often as you can, although you should have nothing to write about. For your letters always bring me some comfort. I have formally accepted Galio's legacy. I^uppose it was a simple inheritance, since no form has been sent me. March 8. LETTER XIIL I HAVE hitherto received no letter by Muraena's freed-man. P. Siser brought that which I am now answering. What you mention about the letter of the elder Servius, and what you say of certain people having brought information of Quintus's arrival in Syria, are neither of them true. In reply to your inquiry, how those, who have come hither, are, or have been affected to- wards me, I have understood that nobody has manifested any disrespect. But how little this signifies to me, I am quite sure you can judge. In my present grief everything is intolerable to me ; and nothing more so, than that I find myself in a situation, where the only things that are appa- rently desirable*, are what I have always disap- proved. P. Lentulus the father is said to be at Rhodes ; the son at Alexandria ; and C. Cassius, it appears, is gone from Rhodes ta Alexandria. Quintus offers me some explanation by letter, but in terms more bitter than his heaviest accusation. For he says that he has understood from your letters, that you were displeased with his having written to several people so unkindly about me ; and that he is sorry he should have given you any uneasiness, but that he had done what was right. Then he details most foully the causes of his doing so. But neither at this time, nor before, would he have manifested his hatred towards me, unless he saw me to be every way distressed. I wish that even by travelling in the night, as you proposed. I had approached nearer to you. I can now form no conjecture either when, or where, I am likely to see you. There was no occasion for your writing to me about the co-heirs of Fufidius : for what they ask is just in itself ; and whatever you had done I should have been satisfied with it. You have long since known my wish of redeeming the Frusinian estate '■; though at that time my affairs were in a better condition, and I did not think my case so desperate ; yet I have still the same wish. You will consider how this may be accomplished. And I should be glad, as far as 7 Seo letter 10 of this book. > Dolabella was at this time tribune, aud wished to pass several seditious acts, in which he was opposed by Trebel- lius, another tribune ; from whence arose great contention and disturbances in Rome. * The success of Caesar's party, from which he thought he had now less to apprehend, than from that of Pompeius, which would be irritated against liim in consequence of his withdrawing from them. t" See letter 4 of this book. 3C rfi4 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO you can, that you would secure me supplies for myi [' necessary expenses. What means I had, I presentedj \ to Pompeius at a time when I tjiought I did id I prudently. For which purpose I then both took' ' it from your bailiff, and borrowed elsewhere ; while Quintus complained by letter that I had given nothing to him ; though he never asted me, nor have I beheld the money myself. But I wish yoa would see what there is, that can be done", and what advice you can give me about everything ; for you know the state of my affairs. My affliction prevents my writing more. If there is anything, which you think should be written to anybody in my name, I should be glad if you would do it as usual. Whenever you have an opportunity of send- ing a letter to me, I hope you will not omit it. Farewell. LETTER XIV. I AM far from being offended with the honest truth conveyed in your letter ; In which you do not even attempt to console me, as formerly, under the general, and particular calamities, which I suffer ; but acknowledge that it can no longer he done. For things are not now, as they were before, when, to say nothing more, I thought I had com- panions and associates. But all who were sup- posed to be making their peace in Greece and in Asia, both those who knew the state of aifairs'', and those who did not, are said to be going into Africa. So that, besides Lselius, I have no partner in my fault = ; and even he is so far better off, as he has been received'. About myself however, I do not doubt but Csesar has already written to Balbus and to Oppius ; from whom I should have heard, if there had been anything good ; and they would also have spoken with you. But I wish you would confer with them upon this subject, and let me know what answer they give you. Not that a grant of safety from Caesar can have any assur- ances ; but yet it will afford an opportunity of consideration and forecast. Though I dread the sight of everybody, especially with such a son-in- law'' J yet in such great troubles I do not see what else' I should wish for. Quintus still goes on), as both Pansa informs me and Hirtius. He'' too is said to be on his way to Africa with the rest. I will write to Minucius the father, and will send your letter. I will let you know if he does any- thing'. I wonder that you should have been able to send thirty sestertia (240/.), unless it have arisen from the Fufidian estate. Yet I see it is so ■». I c About redeeming the estate at Frusinas, and providing for bis necessary expenses, as well as about bis brother and every):bing else. d Tbe reverses wbich Cffisar bad suffered, and the rising hopes of tbe Pompeian party. e Tbe fault of baving retiumed to Italy, instead of joining the republican troops collecting in Africa. f Has been kindly received by Caesar's partisans in Italy. g Because Cicero's chief apprehension now was from the success of the Pompeian party. ^ Dolabella, of whose conduct he was ashamed. * "What I can wish for, besides a protection from Caesar. i Continues to calunmiate me. ^ Q.uintus. t li be will advance me any money. °> That AtticuB had directed Minucius to let Cicero have look for you ; whom I should be particularly glad to see, if it can any how be managed ; for the occasion demands it. The last act is already draw- ing to a conclusion" j when it is easy to judge more soundly what everything really is°. Fare- well. LETTER XV. As you produce sufficient reason why I cannot see you at this time, pray what ought I to do ? For Csesar seems to hold Alexandria in such a manner P that he is ashamed even of writing about what is done there. But it looks as if the opposite party would soon pass over from Africa*; the Greeks ', also, wiU return from Asia to join them, or will remain in some neutral place. What, therefore, do you think I ought to do ? I see that it is a difficult question : for I am alone, or with one other, and can neither return to that party nor derive any degree of hope from this. But I am desirous at least of knowing what you think ; and this among other things made me wish to see you, if it could be done. I informed you before that Minucius had furnished me with only twelve ses- tertia (100?.) ; I should be glad if you could secure the payment of the rest, ftuintus has written to me not only without asking pardon, but with great bitterness : the son with a degree of hatred which is surprising. No sort of evil can be imagined 'with which I am not assaulted. Yet everything is more tolerable than the sense of my own error, which is» both strong and constant. If I were to have those companions in my error which I expected, yet it would be but a slender consolation. But every body's conduct besides admits of some excuse ; mine admits of none. Some have been captured, some intercepted, so as not to call in question their attachment,— especially when, upon being at U- berty, they have rejoined their party. Ev^n those who voluntarily delivered themselves up to Fufius' can only be charged with timidity ; and there are that money, which he would replace with Minucius's cor- respondent at Rome. " So I understand the original, which is concise and thence obscure. It may he worth while here to advert to the force of tbe present passive, expressive of that which is in the act of being done. Tbe want of a correspondent tense in English has sometimes occasioned a misapprehen. sion of the just meaning in both Greek and Latin authors; as Luke ix. 51, 'Ej/ T^p aufiiT\7jpovdal ras Tjjaepas ava- \^ip€a>s aiiTov — "When tbe days of his being received up into heaven were drawing towards their accomplish^ ment" — not, as in tbe common translation, "when the time was come," " This seems to me to have been generally misunder- stood ; I conceive it to allude to tbe denouement of a stage play, like what is said afterwards in letter 19 of this book, *' Jam enim mibi videtur adesse extremum." P Cafsar, seduced by the charms of Cleopatra, was engaged in a war to support her cause in Egypt against her brother Ptolemjeus. 1 Egypt and Africa are generally distinguished by the Roman writers, tbe latter signifying that part wbich waa reduced to a Roman province. Here, the party in Africa means the army attached to Pompeius's cause, who were in force m the neighbourhood of Carthage, from whence Cicero apprehended they might make an attack upon Italy. r These Greeks are those of Fompeiu8*6 party, who bad fled into Asia Minor after tbe battle of Pharsalia. s Cesar's lieutenant in Greece. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS 766 many of various descriptions who, whenever they apply to them, will readily be received. You fteed the less wonder, therefore, that I cannot support such a weight of affliction : for my error alone admits of no reparation, — and perhaps Leelius's ; but how does that help me ? They say that C. Cassius has' changed his intention of going to Alexandria. These things I detail to yon, not that you can remove my trouble, but that I may know whether you have anything to offer about what preys upon me. In addition to all the rest is my son-in-law, and these other matters, of which I cannot write for weeping. I am vexed too about .£sopus' son". In short I am completely miser- able. But to return to my iirst point ; what do you think is to be done ? Should I try to come nearer to you unobserved i or shoiild I cross the sea .' For it is impossible to remain here much longer. Why can nothing be settled about the Fuhdian estates ? For the nature of the conditions was such as is not usually disputed ; since the portion which appears too little may easily be made up by a valuation. It is not without reason that I make these inquiries ; for I suspect the co-heirs may think my situation very doubtful, and may on that account keep the business in suspense. Farewell. May 14. LETTER XVI. It is not by my fault at this time (though before I have been faulty enough) that I derive no con- solation from that letter' : for it is written in a meagre style, and bears strong marks of not coming from Csesar, which I imagine you must have perr ceived. About meeting him, I will do as you advise ^ ; for there is no great expectation of his arrival ; and those who come from Asia say that nothing has been heard aboiit peace, — in the hope of which I have fallen into this error*. I see nothing to be hoped, — now, especially, when such a wound has been received in Asia, in Illyricnm, in the affair of Cassius y, in Alexandria itself, in Rome, in Italy. For my part, even if he should come back notwithstanding the war^ in which he is still said to be engaged, yet I apprehend the business will be settled' before his return. As to what you mention of a certain degree of joy being excited in all good people upon the news of Caesar's letter, you indeed omit nothing which you think can be any source of comfort ; but I cannot persuade myself that any good man would think my safety worth the begging it of Caesar, and the rather be- t He had purposed to go to Alexandria to make bis peace with Caesar. " ^^sopus the actor had been received into familiarity by Cicero, hut his son was a profligate. ' A letter pretending to come from Cssar. * Atticus Beems to have advised him not to put himself forward in saluting Cffisar on his return. * The error of returning to Italy after the battle of Pharsalia, when he had expected that the opposite parties would have made peaee. 7 (i. Cassius liunginus had been left in the command of Spain, where the people and -soldiers revolted to the Pompeian party. In the other provinces here mentioned Cxsar's troops had met with some check. " The war in Egypt. * Cicero was apprehensive of the army in Africa getting possession of Italy, m opposition to Ctesar. cause I have now no companion in such a course. Those in Asia wfut for &ie issue of events ; th@ .Greeks afford a hope of pardon to Fufius himself". These people had at first the same fear as I, and adopted the same resolution ; but the delay at Alexandria has righted their cause" and overset mine. Therefore I still request of you, as in my former letters, that if you see anything in my ruined condition which you think I ought to do, you will inform me. If I am received by Cesar's party (which you see is not the case), yet as long as the war lasts I am uncertain what I should do or whither I should go. But if I am cast off, the difficulty is still greater. I look, therefore, for a letter from you, and beg you will write explicitly. With regard to your advice of writing to ^uintus on the occasion of this letter, — I would do it if the letter gave me any satisfaction. Though somebody wrote to me lately in the following terms : "In these troubles I am not sorry to be at Fatrse. I should be there with more satisfaction if your brother spoke of you in a way that I liked to hear." When you say that he complained of my not writ- ing to him, — I once only received a letter from him, to which I sent an answer by Cephalic, who was detained several months by contrary weather. I have before mentioned to you that Quintus the eon had written to me with great rudeness. The last thing I have to beg of you is, that if you think it right, and can undertake it, you would join with Camillus in speaking to Terentia about her will ''. The times require that she should consider of it, and give satisfaction where it is due. I have un- derstood from Philotimns that she is guilty of some great " misconduct, which 1 can scarcely beheve. But at all events, if anything can be done, it must be looked to. I long to hear from you about everything, especially what you may say about her. Upon this I want your opinion, even if you have nothing to propose ; for I shall consider that as conclusive. June 3. LETTER XVII. I SEND this by another person's messenger who is in a hurry to set off : for this reason it will be the shorter, and because I am going to send one of my own. My dear TuUia came to me the twelfth of June, and acquainted me with the numerous instances of your attention and kindness to her, and brought me three letters. But I not only b I understand this to mean that Fufius, who had been left in Greece, and to whom the Greeks had sued for par- don, now rested the hope of bis own pardon from the reviving afc^ndancy of the Pompeians, upon the interces- sion of these very Greeks. » By CKsar's delay at Alexandria the Greeks had time to recover from their first alarm, and to observe the actual progress of affairs. Cicero, who had acted upon the pro- sumption of Casar's superiority, now found himself in a difficult strait. <1 Terentia's conduct and extravagance had now made Cicero resolve upon a divorce. And in such a case, where there were children, it was the custom for each party to make a settlement by will on their common offspring, proportioned to their several estates. For when a wife was not guilty of infidelity, her dowry was restored to her. e This misconduct probably related to her appropriation and waste of Cicero's property. See book vi. letter 4-, note F, and letter 22 of this book. 3 3 756 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO could not take that pleasure which I ought in the virtue, gentleness, and affection of an exemplary daughter, but was even touched with inconceivable grief at the thought of such a mind being involved in so sad a fortune, — and that by no fault of hers, but by my egregious folly. Now, therefore, T neither expect consolation from you, which I know you are anxious to administer, nor advice, for which there is no room. I perceive, indeed, both by your former letter and by the last, that you have tried everything. 1 think of sending Cicero ' to Csesar with Sallustius. I see no reason why I should detain TuUia here any longer in such a state of general affliction : I therefore mean to send her back to her mother as soon as she will let me. In return for your letter of consolation «, suppose me to have said what your own understanding suggests as proper for the occasion. What you mention of Oppius's conversation'' is quite consonant with my suspicion ; yet, speak as I might, I should never persuade these people that I approved of their conduct. However, I will observe what moderation 1 can ; though I see not what it signifies to me if 5 should incur their displeasure. I find you have just cause to prevent your coming to me, — for v/hich I am very sorry. Nobody brings any account of Caesar's departure from Alexandria. It is certain that no person has come from thence since the 15th of March, nor has any letter been received from him since the 13th of December ; by which you see that the affair of the letter ' dated Febru- ary 9 (which, even if it were genuine, would be of little account), is not true. I understand that L, Terentius is come from Africa, and has arrived at Paestum. I should like to know what intelligence he brings, and how he got awayj, and what is doing in Africa. He is reported to have been despatched by Nasidius, If you iind out how this is, I wish you would let me know. Respecting the ten ses- tertia (80/.), I will do as you direct. Farewell. June 14. LETTER XVm. There is yet no rumour of Csesar's departure from Alexandria ; on the contrary, it is believed that he is fully occupied. I shall not, therefore, send my son, as I had intended ; and must beg of you to extricate me from hence ^ : for any penalty is better than continuing here. Upon this subject I have written to Antonius, and to Balhus, and to Oppius. For whether there be war in Italy by land or by sea, it is by no means desirable for me to be here. Both of these may possibly happen ; certainly one of them. I learned from your account f His son. g The text here is obscure, and perhaps faulty ; but I think it intelligible without any conjeetural emendations, wliich should never be admitted imneeessai'ily. h The context leads one to suppose that Oppius, who was of Csesai''3 pai-ty, objected to Cicero's freedom of speech. i That, of which Cicero speaks in letter 16 of this hook. J Scipio, who had the command of the sea-coast, pro- hibited all passengers, through tear of their establishing an intercourse with Ciesar. ^ Cicero was still at Brundisium, whence he could not depart without danger of giving oifence by retaining his lictors, or of dishonouring his rank by dismissing them. See above, letter 6 of this book. of Oppius's conversation what was their plan ' of proceeding ; but I beg you to make them alter it. I expect nothing whatever but what is miserable ; yet nothing can be worse than my present situation. I wish you, therefore, to speak to Antonius and those others, and to expedite this business as you can. Write to me about everything as soon as possible. Farewell. June 20. LETTER XIX. {GrtEv. XXV.) I EEADiLY assent to your letter, in which you say, in many words, that you have no advice to offer that can be of service to me. There is assuredly no consolation that can alleviate my suffering. For nothing has happened by accident, else it might be borne : but I have occasioned everything by those errors and distresses of both mind and body, which I wish my nearest con- nexions'" had chosen to heal rather than to aggra- vate. Since no hope is afforded me either of your advice or of any consolation, I will not hereafter ask it of you. I trust, however, that you will not cease to write, — but will let me know whatever occurs to your mind, whUst you have anybody to send or there is anybody to send to ", — which will not be very long. There is a doubtful report of his° having left Alexandria ; which arose from a letter of Sulpicius, and has received confirmation from all the subsequent accounts. Whether it be true or false is of so little moment to roe, that I know not which I should prefer. What I wrote to you some time since about theP will I wish they could place among the adverse letters. I am quite distressed at the wretched means of this poor creature'!; I think nothing ever happened like it, — and wish you could point out to me any way in which I might assist her. 1 see the same difficulty which there was in giving advice before. But this object disturbs me beyond everything. I was blind in the second payment of her fortune. I wish somebody else, — but it is now past. I beg you, in these ruinous circumstances, if anything can be raised arid got together out of my plate, with some part of my furniture, so as to be in security, that you would pay attention to it. For things seem to be drawmg to a conclusion without any conditions of peace ; and the present state, even without aa enemy, is incapable of subsisting. You may take an opportunity, if you think fit, of talking with Terentia upon these matters. I cannot write all that I feel. Farewell. July 5th. 1 This probably relates to Ca;sar's lieutenants in Italy, who acted, he says, as if they wei-e determined to keep him shut up in Brundisium, being perhaps un^villing to determine anything about his lictore till they should receive instructions from Caesar. He applies to Atticiis to procure authority for his removal witliout compromising his dignity. >» Alluding in the first place to his brother, and perhaps also to Dolabella and Terentia. " Said in a sort of despau- of his being able to support his troubles. See letter 9 of this book, note P. " Cicsar. P See letter 16 of this book. The subsequent line is of very doubtful interpretation. It may perhaps allude to some expression of Atticus, or his friends, calling the letter of Cicero in which he spoke of his will, as one of bis croaking letters. q His daughter TuUia ; for ir the vei-y next, and several other letteis, he speaks of her in similai' terms. TO TITUS POMPON lUS ATTICUS. m LETTER XX. (Grcev. xxiii.) Camili.ds has informed me that you had spoken to him on the subject, about which I wrote' to beg you would communicate with him. I am now ex- pecting to hear from you ; though if it is otherwise than it ought to be, I do not see how it can be altered : but having received a letter from him', I want one from you also ; and conclude that you had not learned all you wished, — provided only that you are well ; for you mentioned your being attacked with some kind of indisposition. One Acusius arrived from Rhodes the 24th of June, and brought word that Quintus the son had set out to join Caesar the 29th of May ; and that Philoti- mus had arrived at Rhodes the day before with a letter' for me. You will hear Acusius himself, — but he travels slowly ; in consequence of which I shall deliver my letter to a more expeditious mes- senger. AVhat may be in Caesar's letter I know not ; but my brother Quintus highly congratulates me. To say the truth, so great has been my error that I can obtain nothing, even in imagination, which can be tolerable to me. I entreat you to think about this poor creature", and (what I lately mentioned to yon) that something may be made up to secure her from want, and likewise about this will. I wish also that I had attended before to that other business ', but I was afraid of everything. There was nothing better in this deplorable situa- tion than a separation. I should then have done something, like one alive"", — whether the cause assigned were the law for expunging debts, or the nightly violences, or his commerce with MeteUa, or all together \ Her property would not then have been lost, and I should have appeared to feel a becoming indignation. 1 well remember your ' letter ; but I remember also that time : though anything was preferable. Now he seems himself to threaten it' ; for I hear such things respecting the state of the republic* ; O gods ! My son-in- law especially ! That he should do this ; even expunge all former debts ! I think with you, therefore, that a bill of divorce should be sent. He will perhaps demand the third instalment of her dower. Consider, therefore, whether I should wait till it originate with himself, or whether I shovid anticipate him. If it be any how possible, even by travelling at night, I will try to see you. I hope you will write to me upon these matters, and anything else which it may concern me to know. Farewell. ' Namely, the urging Terentia to make her will. See letter 16 of this hook. » The context appears sufficiently to warrant the reading with Manutius, ab illo. The text of this letter seems to he faulty in several parts. ' From Cxsar. " TuUia. ' The business of his daughter's divorce. ^ Alive to his situation. * Ajiy, or all of these offences on the part of Dolabella, would have justified Cicero in suing for a divorce for bis daughter. y In which it is to be supposed that Atticus advised Tullia'B divorce. ' By his conduct, regardless of all propriety. * The text is very imcertain. LETTER XXL {Grav. xix.) Having an opportunity of writing by your ser- vant, I would not let it slip, though I have nothing to say. You write to me less frequently than you used, and shorter, — which I impute to your having nothing that you think I can like to read or to hear. But if there is anything, of whatever kind it may be, I should wish you to let me know it. The only thing that would be desirable for me is, if anything can be done respecting a peace, — of which in truth I entertain no hope. Yet since you some- times slightly mention it, you compel me to hope for what is hardly within the compass of my wishes, Philotimus is expected the middle of August : I know nothing more about him. I shall be glad to receive your answer to what I mentioned to you in a former letter"". I have yet time enough in the midst of calamities to use some precaution, though 1 have hitherto never used any. Farewell. July 22. LETTER XXIL {Grav. xxiv.) What you some time since mentioned to me, and what you have twice repeated in your letters to TuUia about me, I perceive to be true. And I am the more miserable (though my wretchedness appeared to admit of no addition) because I not only must not resent the great injury I have received ' \ but cannot even lament it with impu- nity. Therefore I must try to bear it. But when I have borne it, yet all the calamities are to be sus- tained, which you caution me to prevent ^. For such is the offence I have committed, that in every state of affairs, and under every party, it is likely to be attended with the same consequence '. But I shall proceed in my own hand', since what follows demands secrecy. See, I beseech you, even now about the will. The idea of its having been made at the time when she began to inquire, did not I imagine strike you (else she would not have asked), neither did it strike me. Yet, as if it were so, having once entered upon the subject, you may advise her to entrust it to somebody, whose for- tune is exempt from the hazard of this war. I should like, above all, that it might be to you, if she is of"the same mind. I conceal from the poor creature that in this I am apprehensive of that other dangers, I am well aware that nothing can be sold now ; but things may be laid by and secreted, so as to escape that ruin which hangs ^ This probably alludes to Cicero's speaking too freely upon the state of affairs ; which is meD.tioned more dis- tinctly in the latter part of this letter, and was before noticed in letter 17 of this hook. *= His not being at liberty to quit Brundisium. ^ The danger of giving offence to Caesar. e Cicero conceived that Cjeaar was so much displeased with his having joined Fompcius, and the Pompeians with his having deserted them, that his own ruin would ensue either way. f The former part of his letter being written by an amanuensis. g The confiscation of his property, in apprehension of which he wished to have Terentia's settled by will, and 768 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO over us. For when you say that my own property will be ready for lay use, and yours for Terentia ; yours I grant ; but what can there be of mine ? Respecting Terentia however (to pass by all other grievances, which are innumerable), what can be worse than this ? You had written to her to send a bill of exchange for twelve sestertia {lOOl.), this being what remained out of the silver. She sent me ten sestertia (80^.), and added that this was all which remained. You see what a person would do in a large concern, who could purloin this little from a small one. Philotimus has not only not arrived, but has not even acquainted me by letter, or by message, what he is doing. Some, who are come from Ephesus, relate that they saw him there going to law about some disputes of his own, which it is probable may be put off till Caesar's arrival. So that I imagine he either has nothing which he thinks it of importance to deliver quickly to me (in which case I am the more neglected) ; or, if he has anything, he does not trouble himself to convey it to me till all his own business is finished. AU this gives me great uneasiness ; yet not so much, as per- haps it ought ; for I apprehend nothing signifies less to me, than what is brought from thence ''. Why I think so S I am persuaded you know. When you caution me about accommodating my countenance and language to the time ; difficult as this is, I would however command myself, if I thought it at all signified to me. When you say in your letter that you think the business of Africa may be set- tled!, I wish you had added why you think so. No reason occurs to me to suppose that it can be done ; but if there should be anything, which has a ray of consolation, I hope you will write to acquaint me with it: or if, as I perceive, there should be nothing, write to tell me even this. If I should soon hear anything, I will write to you. Farewell. August 6th. LETTER XXIII. (Graiv. XX.) On the 16th of August arrived C. Trebonius from Seleucea Pieria, after a voyage of twenty- seven days. He reported that he had seen Quin- tus, the son, and Hirtius, with Csesar, at Antioch ; and that they had obtained all that they asked on behalf of Quintus without any diflaculty. At which I should the more rejoice, if this concession afforded me any assurance of hope. But there are other things to be feared, and from other quarters; and what is granted by Csesar, as by a master, is still under his control. He has also pardoned Sal- lustius' ; and indeed is said to refuse nobody. Which itself is suspicious that inquiry may only be deferred. M. son to Quintus Gallius, has restored Sallustius' slaves. He came to transport the legions into Sicily; and brings word that Csesar is pre- placed in the hands of Bomo trustee, who would not be exposed to the same ruin. •t From Caesai'. See letter 20 of this hook. * Because he thought himself equally doomed to suffer from the success of either party. i The war in iifriea may he terminated by negotiation. t Perhaps the same, with whom Cicero had thought of sending his son. See letter 17 of this book. sently going thither from Patrse. If he does, I ' shall go to some place nearer Rome, as I wish I had done before. I am longing to receive your answer to the letter in which I lately requested your advice. Farewell. August 17. LETTER XXIV. {Grisv. xxi.) On the 27th of August I received your letter, dated the 21st; and the pain arising from ftuintus's former misconduct, which I had now laid aside, I felt most severely upon reading his letter. Though you could not any how avoid sending me the letter, yet I would rather it had not been sent. In answer to what you say about the will, you must judge what can be done, and how. About the money, she" wrote as I informed you before. If there is occasion, I must draw from the resource you mention. It is not probable that Csesar will reach Athens by the 1st of September. Many things are said to detain him in Asia, especially Pharnaces ". The 12th legion, to which Sulla came in the first instance, is reported to have driven him away by stones °. They do not suppose that any of (hem wUl stir. It is expected that Caesar will proceed directly from Patrae to Sicily : but if this ' be true, he will be under the necessity of coming hither. And I wish he had come before : for I should then have got away somewhere or other. Now I am afraid of being obliged to wait, and among other things to bear in misery the unhealthiness of this place. What you advise of my taking care to act suitably to the time, I would do, if circumstances permitted, and if it were any how possible. But amidst such great offences on my part, and such great iiljuries on the part of my relations', I can neither do anything with becoming dignity, nor wear the appearance of it. You compare the times of Sulla : when everything was conducted splen- didly in its kind, though a little intemperately in the manner. But I lay aside "■ all considerations of this sort; and much rather prefer what may be advantageous to the community, with whose inter- est I have united my own. I should hope however that you will write to me as often as you can, par- ticularly as nobody else writes : but if everybody 1 It may seem at first contradictory, that Cicero should here speak of removing from Brundisium, when in the preceding letter he regrets his inability to do so. But probably his stay at Brundisium may have been thought proper, in order to salute Csesar on his arrival ; and this reason would cease when Casar should pass into Sicily and Africa without touching in Italy. m Terentia. See letter 22 of this boot. n Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had successfully opposed Cscsar's forces in Asia Minor under Cn, Bomitius Calvinus. o Thoy refused to go into Africa till they should have received therr pay. See letter 25 of this book. P This account of the troops refusing to march. q Alluding to Terentia, to Quintus, and to Dolabellfl. whose behaviour had very much vexed and mortified his too irritable mind. r Atticus had probably recommended the necessity of temporising, as in the times of Sulla ; to which I under- stand Cicero to reply, that the cases are not similar ; and that at all events his own views were directed to the publio good, not to his private security. Literally thus—" But these things are of such a kind as I must forget." TO TITUS- POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 769 wrote, yet I should be very anxious for your letters, fou say that Csesar will be more disposed to forgive Quintus at my intercession ; but I before wrote Tou word, that he at once granted to Quintus the son everything he desired, without any mention of me '. Farewell. LETTER XXV. (^GriBV. xxii.) Balbus's messenger delivered the packet ' to me very carefully. For" you write as if you were afraid I may not have received those letters, which I wish indeed had never been delivered to me : for they increased my affliction ; and into whose ever hands they had fallen, they would have communi- cated nothing new. For what is so universally known, as hisT animosity against me, and this style of his letters ? "Which 1 imagine Csesar transmit- ted to these persons, not because he was offended with Quintus's baseness, but for the sake of making my misfortunes more public. For when you say that you are afraid they may injure him ", and that you are endeavouring to remedy this, Caesar did not even wait to be asked about him*. This I am not sorry for ; I am more sorry that my own < See Letter 23 of this book. t This packet contained copies of Quintus's letters, which seem to have been transmitted to Italy by Cssar's direction. " This explains the reason of Cicero's mentioning the safe delivery of the packet. ▼ Quintus's. ^ Quintus, ^ Forgave him without waiting to be entreated. See letter 23 of this boolc requests should have no effect. Sulla, as I con- jecture, will be here to-morrow witli Messala. They are hastening to Csesar after being driven away by the soldiers, who refuse to go anywhere till they have received their pay. He ? will there- fore come hither, which was not expected. But it win be some time first ; for he travels so as to spend several days in the principal towns. And, do what he will, Fharnaces will occasion some delay. What therefore do you think I ought to do ? For my health already supports with difficulty the effect of this unwholesome air, which occasions additional uneasiness in my distress. Shall I beg these people^, who are going to him, to make my excuses ? And shall I proceed nearer to Rome ? Pray consider this ; and, what in spite of my repeated entreaties you have not hitherto done, assist me with your advice. I know it is a thing of difficulty ; yet do it as may be in these troubles. It is besides of great consequence to me to see you : I shall have gained something, if that happens. You will attend to the business of the will, as you mention. y Cssar. 2 Sulla and Messala. {A few days after Cieero had sent this last letter, Ctssar unexpectedly arrived in Italy. He landed at Tarentum in September, and on the first notice of his setting for- wards towards Rome, Cicero set out on foot to meet him. Casar no sooner saw him, than he alighted and ran to embrace him ,• then walked with him alone, coiiversing familiarly with him for some time. Cicero followed Csesar to Rome. At the end of the year Ccssar embarked for Africa, to pursue the war c^ainst Scipio and the other Pompeian gerberals.J BOOK XII. LETTER 1. It is now the eleventh day since we parted, aiid I scrawl these few lines, on the point of g'oing from home before dawn. I design to get to-day to Anagninum, to-morrow to Tusculanum, and to spend there one day ; so that on the 28th I shall observe our appointment. And I wish I may be able to run immediately afterwards to the embrace of my dear Tullia, and to get a kiss of Attica ». Pray write to me all about her ' ; that while I stay in 'Tusculanum, I may know what she prattles ; or, if she is in the country, what she writes to you. In the meantime either send her, or give her, my love, and likewise to Pilia ; and though we shall soon meet, yet write to me if you have anything to say. While I was folding up this letter, the messenger, who had travelled all night, came to me with yours. Upon reading which, I have been much concerned at Attica's indisposition. I have learned from your letter everything else, which I e"xpected. But as to what you say of the fire in the morning ', it is a greater sign of age to waver • Attious's daughter. » What relates to Attica. •^ It ia reasonable to suppose this may refer to some ex- pression of Atticus joking with Cicero for wanting a fire in the morning, like an old man ; to which Cicero replies, in memory. For I had fixed the 29th with Axius, tjie 30 th with you, and the day of my arrival with Quintus, that is the 28th. This is all I have to say to you : there is nothing new. What need of writing then .' What i When we are together, and prattle about anything that comes into ouf heads, the very talking, even if it is about nothing, has a' sweetness in the conversation itself. LETTER n. Here, however'', it is rumoured that Marcus has perished by shipwreck j that Asinius has been delivered \ip alive into the hands of the soldiers = ; that fifty ships have been carried into Utica by this adverse wind ; that Pompeius ' is not to be found, nor has he been in the Balearic islands s, as that it is a greater sign of age fco lose one's memory, as Atticus appears to have done in making some mistake respecting the arrangement of the days after Cicero should have retm-ned to Rome. d It is to he presumed that this refers to a previous letter received from Atticus, in which he might have said there was no news. ^ The Pompeians. ' The son of Cn. I^ompeius Magnus. S Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica. 760 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Patienus affirms. But there is no authority for anything. I send you what has been talked of in your absence. In the meantime games are to be celebrated at Prseneste : there will be Hirtius, and all that party *■ ; and the games are to last eight days. What feasting ! What gaiety 1 While this is going on, the business ' has perhaps been settled. O marvellous men ) 1 But Balbus is building : for what cares he ? Yet. if you consider, for one who studies not what is right, but what is agreeable '', has he not done well ? " And are yon asleep all this while ? Tt is time you should explain your purpose, if you mean to do anything^." If you ask what I think, I think the proper pur- pose of life is, to be useful "'. But why should I say much ? I shall presently see you ; and, as I hope, from the road straight to me ; when we will together appoint a day for Tyrannio ", and arrange anything else that is to be done. LETTER III. Excepting yourself, I believe nobody is less of a flatterer than I am ; or if we are either of us occasionally so towards anybody, at least it is never towards each other. Listen to me, then, when I say this without any deceit : that I wish I may die, my Atticus, if not only my Tusculanum (where I am otherwise very happy), but the islands of the blessed spirits ° are so precious in my sight, that I could be content always to be there without you. Therefore, to- attribute to you the same feeling (which, indeed, is the case), let these three days' of which you speak be endured patiently ; but I should be glad to know whether you come to-day immediately from the auction, or on what day. In the mean time, I occupy myself with my books, and am sorry that I have not got Vennonius's history. However, not to be silent about my affairs, there are three ways of recovering that debt which is granted*! me by Csesar; either by purchasing at h Csesar's pai-ty. > The business of the war in Africa. J To he given to sports at such a time. ■* Agreeably to the majtims of the Epicui-eans, wliich Atticus had adopted. 1 I understand the foregoing to be addressed to Cicero in the person of Atticus, to which Cicero subjoins his reply. m Conformably with what he says in his first boolc De Legibus, c. 20. " Quippe cum antiqul omnes, quod secun- dum naturam essct, quo jMraremw- in vita, boniim esse decreverint." And Be Fin, iv. 6, " Summum bonum est — omnibus, aut maxiinis rebus iis, quas secundum naturam sint, fruentem vivere." » To read together some work which Tyrannio had lately written. See letter 6 of this book, o Called also the Fortunate Islands, into which the spirits of good men were supposed to pass after death. They are believed to be the same as the Canaries, These were formerly only casually and imperfectly known, and had ascribed to them beauties which they never really P TIoc triduum probably refers to Atticus's own expres- sion in some former letter, putting ofp his visit to Cicero for three days. It may be observed that Cicero was a very early riser, often ^vi'iting his letters before it was light ; he may very well, therefore, have sent to Atticus at Rome, only about twelve miles distant, to know if he might expect him that day, ^ It having been seen that at the approach of the war Cicero was indebted to C^sar, it is not probable that he could subsequently have become his creditor. I am iu- the sale (I would rather lose it : thougn indepen- dent of its baseness, I imagine this would itself be to lose it) ; or by assignment from a broker at a year's credit (who is there, that I could trust ? Or when would that Metonic' year arrive ?) ; or by Vectenus's agreement for one' half. Think about it. I am afraid, after all, that this man may make no sale ; but that he may hasten to add his applause at the conclusion of the games, lest a person of such importance' should be disregarded. Butit" shall be attended to. LETTER IV. Your letter was most acceptable and delightful to me. How say you ? I have recovered my holiday". For I was troubled at Tiro's account of your having appeared to him to be flushed. I shall add, therefore, one day more, as you propose. Respecting Cato, it is a problem tit for Archi- medes". It is impossible for me to write what your companions* will read, not merely with satis- faction, but even with patience. For even if I should refrain from mentioning the opinions he has de- livered, and all that zeal and wisdom which he showed on behalf of the republic ; if I should drily attempt to commend his dignity and firmness ; this itself may be worth hearing ; but such a man cannot justly be praised, unless it is set forth that this state of things which is now established he saw while it was yet future, and strove to prevent ; and that he might not see it accomplished, relin- quished his Ufe. Of these things what is there that I can render palatable to Aledius ^ ? But pray take care of your health, and that prudence, which you show in everything, show especially in your own recovery. LETTER V. " Qdintus the father for the fourth time'," or rather for the thousandth time, shows his want of sense in taking pleasure at his son and Statins being dined to think, therefore, that this debt to Cicero may have been due from one of Pompeius's party, whose gooils were confiscated, but out of which Caesar may have per- mitted Cicero to indemnify himself. See letter 21 of this book, note f, ^ Alluding to the cycle of 19 years invented by Meto, la which time it was calculated {but not correctly) that the sun and moon would return to the same positions about the earth, " Being content to receive one-half of the debt, as it is probable Vectenus might have done on some similar occasion. t Said ironically, importing that this partisan of Cesar's, whoever he was, might be glad to push himself into notice by his applause, and escape the discharge of his debt. ^ The recovery of his money. ' Probably Cicero might have designed to go up to Rome on occasion of his friend's illness, but upon receiving a good account, determined to prolong his holidays another day. w It was a problem of exceeding diificulty to write hia proposed panegyric upon Cato so as not to offend CaDsar. ^ Of Csesar's party. y Some one studious of pleasing Csegar. He is mentioned again, letters 23 and 24 of this book. ^ The original is part of averse of Ennius,quotedbyAul. Gell. X. 1, " Quintus pater quartum fit consul." TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 761 madeLupercans", to see his family loaded with this double disgrace. I may add also Philotimus as a third. What singular folly ; if my own'' were not still greater. But what face can he have to ask you to defray his expenses for this purpose ? Sup- pose him to have come to no " dry spring," but to Pii-ene"^ itself; or, as you say, to drink in your fountain " the emerging flood of Alpheus '' j" espe- cially under his great embarrassments. Where can this end ? But it is his affair. I am much pleased with my *'Cato :" but so was Bassus Lucilius^ with his performances. About Cselius ' you will inquire, as you mention ; I am quite ignorant. Not only his ability, but his character should be known. You will let me know if you have any doubts about Hortensius and Virginius ; though, as far as I see, you will not easily iind anything more desirable. You will negotiate with Mustella, as you mention, when Crispus arrives. I wrote to Aulus, to tell him that I had explained to Piso what I knew for certain about the gold. For I agree with you that this business is protracted too long, and that every- thing should now be got together from all parts. I plainly perceive that your whole time and attention is taken up with my concerns ; and that your desire of coming to me is prevented by my busi- ness. But I consider you as actually with me, not only because you are conducting my affairs, but also because 1 seem to see how you conduct them. For no hour of your occupation passes without my knowledge. I iind that Tubulus ^ was prator in the consulship of L. Metellus and Q. Maximus. Now I wish to know under what consuls P.Scsevola, the Pontifex Maximus, was tribune of the people. [ imagine it was under the next, Csepio and Pom- peius ; for he was prsetor under P. Furius and Sex. Atilius. You will give me, therefore,' the date of his tribunate ; and, if you can, let me know with what crime Tubulus was charged. Pray see, too, whether L. Libo (he who accused Ser. Galba) was tribune of the people in the consulship of Censorinus and Manilius, or in that of T. Quintus and Manius Acilius. For I am perplexed by the Fannian a The Lupercans were those who conducted the festivi-* ties of the Lupercalia, instituted in honour of Pan, on which occasion they ran about the streets almost naked. There were formerly two companies of Lupercans, to whom Cffisar had lately added a third, into which people were desiroiis of heing admitted ; bu t Cicero thought this flattery unbecoming his family. Statius was a freed-raan of Quintus's. •* By his own folly he probably means the pai't he had acted in the civil war, with which he always appears to he dissatisfied. c An abimdant spring near Corinth, sacred totheMuses. ^ The original is taken from Pindar, who thus charac- terises the fountain Arethuse, feigned to he derived from the river Alpheus in the Peloponnesus, passing under the sea and rising up in Sicily. Cicero means to say that it was absurd for his brother, who was considerably embar- rassed in his fortune, to incur such an expense, and to rely upon Atticus's resources. * Some obscure author, whose works pleased nobody but himself. ' This part of the letter seems to allude to Cicero's nego- tiations with different bankers, or brokers, about the sale of his plate, which he wished to exchange for gold, either to be secreted or taken with him, in case of insurrection, or count^er-revolution, e This and what follows probably alludes to Cicero's treatise " De Finibus," on which he was then engaged, and doubtful of some circumstances and dates mentioned in the second book; epitome of Brutus, or rather Brutus's epitome of Fanuius's history. I wrote what I found in the latter part of that work ; in following which I called this Fannius, who wrote the history, son-in- law to Lselius : but you demonstratively refuted it. Now Brutus and Fannius refute you. I had under- stood from Hortensius, who is good authority, that it was as Brutus states. Disentangle, therefore, this matter. I have sent Tiro to meet Dolabella. He will return to me the thirteenth ; and I shall hope to see you the next day. I perceive the great interest you take in my dear Tullia ; and that this may always be the case I earnestly entreat you. So, then, all is stUl open to consideration '' ; for so you write word. Though I wished to avoid the beginning of the month', and to escape the ledger of the Nicasios', and I have my own accounts to make up ; yet nothing is of suificient moment to make me absent myself from you ; being actually at Rome, and hoping very soon to see you ; though every day the hours seem long whilst I am expect- ing you. You know that I am no flatterer, and say, therefore, something less than I feel. LETTER VI. With respect to Caelius, pray take care that there is no defect in the gold, I know the way of these things ''. But the loss from the exchange is quite enough ; and if to this is added the gold itself — But what am I saying ? You will see after it. Here you have something in Hegesius's style', which Varro commends. I come now to Tyrannio™. What say you .' Is this true .' and without me ? How often have I, when I was at leisure, yet re- frained from reading it without you ? How, there- fore, can you excuse this ? There is but.one way ; by sending me the book, which I particularly beg you to do ; though the book itself will not delight me more than I have been delighted with your admiration of it. For I love everybody that shows his attachment to his countrymen " ; and am pleased with your great admiration of so subtile a specu- lation. Though indeed your observations are all of that kind ° ; for you are fond of that science by which alone the understanding is nourished. But pray, what is there in that acute and deep research, which has reference to the ultimate principle f of ^ I understand this to relate to his daughter's divorce. ' This is supposed to be owing to his unwillingness to appear in the senate convened by order of Casar on tho first of August. J The meaning of this is uncertain, but most probably relates to the payment of interest to some usurers of this name, if he should be obliged to borrow money. ^ I understand this to mean, I know how liable gold is to be adulterated, 1 Some author, whose manner of writing haro some resemblance to the preceding sentence, perhaps the inter- ruption and interrogation. ™ See letter 2 of this book. n Atticus, though not properly an Athenian, is elsewhere considered as such : — " ita enim se Athenis coUoeavit, ut sit pxne unus ex Atticis," [De Fin. v. 2,] as indeed his name implies. Cicero's meaning in this place is, that Atticus, by his approbation of Tyrannio's subtiUy in rea- soning, shows his attachment to the taste of his country- men the Athenians. Distinguished by niceness of judgment and acuteness, by which the mind is exercised. p Cicero being at this time engaged in his treatise '* Do FinibuB," 782 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO morals ? However, this is a long inquiry ; and you are engaged, perhaps, in some business of mine ; and instead of that dry basking ' which you overdid on my lawn, I shall expect to be enter- tained with ointments and elegances. But, to go back to my former subject : if you love me, send the book ; for it is truly yours since it has been sent to you. " Have you so much leisure from your affairs, Chremes'," that you can read also my " Orator ? " Well done I I am much obliged ; and shall be still more so, if not only in your own copy, but in those for other people, you will get your librarians to insert Aristophanes in the place of Eupohs '. Ceesar, I imagine, meant to rally you upon using the word qiMBSO, which, however, is quaiat and pleasing. At the same time he so insists upon your being under no anxiety, that I can have no doubt of his intention '. I am sorry that Attica's indisposition" should continue so long ; but as she has now no shivering, I hope all is going on as we could wish. LETTER VII. I HATE made a short note of everything that you desire, and have delivered it to Eros ; indeed, more than you ask ; and amongst other things what relates to my son, the first notice of whose wish I received from you. I talked freely with him : and, if it is convenient to you, should be glad if you would inquire about it from himself. But why should I delay to inform you ? I explained to him that by my desire you had applied to him to know whether there was anything that he wished or wanted ; and that you had acquainted mewith his wish of going to Spain ', and his want of a liberal allowance. With respect to his allowance, I told him I would do as much as Publius, or the flamen Lentulus, had done for their sons. Respecting Spain, I mentioned two objections ; one, the same that occurred to you, that I was fearful of incurring reproach. Was it not enough to have relinquished our arms in support of the Pompeian party? Must we also take arms against it ? The other objection was, that he would be mortified by seeing his cousin admitted to greater familiarity and favour. I would rather he should enjoy my liberality than his own liberty. Yet I gave my consent : for I understood that you did not greatly object to it. I must think about it again and again, and I beg you to do the same. It is a great thing, and one that involves no difficulty to remain quiet : the other is very doubtful. But we vpill consider of q This probably alludes tp some conversation on the foundation of moral duty, held at Cicero's house during the time of their basking in the sun, as was usual among the ancient Romans. Tiie word ahusus es seems to imply that Atticus had carried this to a prejudicial extent : the ointments and elegances mentioned are intended to designate Atticus's politeness compared with Cicero's drier statement ; ointments being often used previous to basking. r This is a verse of Terentius. 8 Cicero, in his piece entitled " Orator," had, it seems, erroneously put Eupolis for Ai'istophanes. * Atticus had applied to CiEsar to spare the estates of the people about Buthrotum, which were threatened with confiscation for their attachment to Fompeius. " See letter 1 of this book. * To join Caesar's army against Pompeius* sons. it. About Balbus I had made a memorandum, and think of doing so, as you advise, as soon as he comes back. But if his coming is delayed, I shall at all events wait three days. 1 omitted tc mention also that DolabeUa is with me. LETTER Vin. Many persons approve of this measure respect- ing Cicero ". He" is a very proper companion. But we must previously see about this first pay- ment ?, for the day approaches, and he^ travels quickly. Pray write to inform me what news Celer brings of Caesar's transactions with the candidates ; whether he intends to go himself into the Campus Fsenicularius °, or into the Campus Martins. And I should like to know whether it is necessary to be at Rome at the comitia ; for I must needs satisfy both Pilia ^, and especially Attica. LETTER IX. {Grav. X.) This is sad indeed about Athamas'. Tour concern is natural, but ought to be moderated. There are many ways of consolation ; of which the properest is, to let reason do that which time will do. But let us take care of Alexis*^, that counter- part of Tiro, whom I have sent back sick to Rxime j and if there is any epidemical sickness on the Qttirinal hill *, let us transfer him with Tisamenus' to my house. All the upper part of the house is unoccupied, as you know. I think this is worth considering. LETTER X. (Grffiu. xi.) I AM sorry for poor Sejus : but whatever happens in the course of nature must be borne with patience. For indeed what are we ? Or how long are we likely to regard these things ? Let us consider ^ Cicero the son. It probably relates to his going to Athens to complete his studies, instead of joining Caesar's ajmy, which seems to have been returning from Spain. X It appears elsewhere that the son was accompanied to Athens by L. Montanus, who is probably therefore the person here intended. See letter 53 of this book. y It is uncertain to what this alludes. z It is probable that this may mean Csesar, on bis return from the Spanish war. a This may perhaps mean, whether Caesar will appoint the magistrates '*in a field of fennel," that is, in Spain, or suffer them to be regularly elected in the " field of Mars," or Campus Martins at Rome ; for both Plinius and Dioscorides take notice of fennel {fj.dpa9pov, faeniculuro) being particularly cultivated in Spain ; and Strabo men- tions a place in Spain called " the fennel plain," from this circumstance. ■^ Celer, who was a candidate probably for the prjetor- ship, is supposed to have been a relation of Pilia's, perhaps her brother, whom Cicero would not fail to support if there should be a free election. For Attica he often play- fully professes his affection. « A slave of Atticus's, who was just dead. ^ Another slave, and amanuensis. ' The district of Home where Atticus lived. ^ A third slave of Atticus, who might wait upon Alexis, or who might himself be ill. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. ?63 what more nearly concerns ourselves, (yet not much either), what I should do about the senate s. Not to omit anything, Cffisonius has written to me to say that Posthumia, Sulpicius'swife, is come to his house. I have already told you that I have no thoughts at present of Pompeius Magnus's daugh- ter^. The other whom you mention, I believe you know. I never saw anything more disgusting. But I shall presently see you : therefore when we meet. After I had sealed my letter, I received yours. I hear with pleasure of Attica's cheerful- ness, yet partake of your anxiety. LETTER XI. {GrtBv, ix.) I AssTTRE yon I am very well pleased with being here", and that, more and more every day, but for the reason J which I mentioned in a former letter. Nothing can be pleasanter than this retreat, if it were not a little interrupted by the son of Amyn- tas^. What a tiresome loquacity I In other respects, you can imagine nothing more delightful than the house, the coast, the view of the sea, and, in short, the whole together. But even this does not require a long letter, and I have nothing par- ticular to tell you, and am very sleepy. LETTER XIL On the subject of the dower^ I want you so much the more to clear me from all imputation. Balbus's delegation of his authority is quite royal™. Make an end by any means. It is discreditable for the business to lie in this state of suspense. The i^e of Arpinas" may be very proper for the deification o, but I fear it will not be thought to confer the same degree of honour p. It lies out of s To avoid either oflFending Cassar or acting in a manner xmbecoming his former character and connexions. ^ Previous to this time Cicero had divorced his wife Terentia, and was thinking of marrying again, which he soon after did. * Probably at Astura. See letters 19 and 40 of this hook. To this place Cicero retired after the death of his daughter, who died in childbirth. J Perhaps the absence of Atticus. See letter 10 of this book, which may not improbably be the letter alluded to ; the order of these short letters (many of them little more than notes, and without a date) having been apparently deranged in many instances. It would be a laborious and fruitless task to endeavour to rectify it. ^ Philippus, so called from Philippus, king of Macedo- nia, who was the son of Amyntaa He is mentioned again, letters 16 and 18 of this book. * It seems to me most probable that this may relate to the repayment of Terentia's dower upon her divorce. " It is quite uncertain to v^hat this alludes ; most proba- bly to some debt due from Cicero, the care of which Balbus had delegated to some third person. It may be that the discharge of this prevented the immediate payment of the dower. " Arpinas was a place inland, but surrounded by a divi- sion and re-union of the river Fibrenus before it falls into the Liris.— De Legibus, ii. 3. ° This must allude to his design of deifying his daughter TuUia, who had lately died, though nothing has yet been said of that event. It is probable that the letter may have been misplaced. See letter 18 of this book. P Arpiaas, though in many respects very proper for the erection of a, temple consecrated to his daufhtei', yet lay the way. My wish therefore is for the gardens'* ; which I will, however, examine on my arrival. About Epicurus' it shall be as you please ; though I incline to this latter kind of persons^. It is incredible how eagerly some people desire the other. To the ancients therefore ; for this is free from invidiousness *. I have nothing to tell you ; but I have determined, nevertheless, to write every day for the sake of eliciting your answers ; not that I expect anything from them, but yet I some- how do expect. Therefore, whether you have anything to say or nothing, yet write something ; and take care of yourself. LETTER Xm. I AM not easy about Attica, though I rely upon Craterus's" opinion. Brutus's letter is sensible and friendly', but made me shed many tears. This retreat^ is less worrying to me than that con- course of people. I want nobody but you. How- ever, I occupy myself in study with the same ease as if I was at home*. Yet the same violence of grief presses and hangs upon me ; not that I indulge it, but still I do not resist it. Respecting what you mention of Appuleius^, I apprehend there is no occasion for any exertion on your part, or on that of Balbus and Oppius, to whom he pledged himself, and desired I might be informed that he would not give me any trouble. Never- theless, get me excused from day to day on account of my health. Leenas had promised to do this. Engage^ C. Septimius and L. Statilius. In short, nobody that you ask will refuse to swear. But if there is any (Ufficulty, I will go up myself, and will swear to a continual sickness. For as I must absent myself from these meetings, I would rather it should appear to be done by law than by grief. I should be glad if you would call upon Cocceius ; for he does not perform what he promised. I wish to buy some place to hide and shelter my affliction. too much out of common observation to do her the honour he desired. q The gardens in the vicinity of Rome. f Cicero has been shown before to be at this time engaged in his book " De Finibus," in which he discusses in a dia- logue the opinions of different philosophers respecting the constitution of moral virtue, and seems to have consulted Atticus upon the person whom he should mtroduce to support Epicurus's doctrines s By "this latter kind " I conceive to be meant not " more recent," but on the contrary, those who had been some time dead, but whom he had eventually named last among dif- ferent descriptions of persons. * By introducing only ancient characters he would occar sion no ill-will. ^ Craterus was a physician of eminence at Rome, ' A letter of condolence on the death of Tullia. ^ At Astura, near Antium. * Among his books, in his usual residence at Rome. See letter 42 of this book. y This Appuloius appears to have been lately incorpo- rated into the college of augurs, on which occasion several festivals were held, from which Cicero desired to be ex- cused. * It seems to have been necessary for three of the college to attest the incapacity of one from attending ; he therefore desires Atticus to apply to C. Septimius and L. Statilius, in addition to Laenas. See letter 14 of this hook. 764 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIQS CICERO LETTER XIV. I WROTE to you yesterday about excusing me to Appuleius. I imagine there is no difficulty. Whomsoever you call upon, nobody will refuse. But speak to Septimius, and Lsenas, and Statilius; for there must be three. Lcenas promised me to manage the whole. As to what you mention of being called upon by Junius'*; assuredly Cornifi- cius is a rich man : however, I should like to know when it is that I am said to have been bound ; and whether for the father or for the son. Never- theless, as you say, see Cornificius's agents, and the surveyor*^ Appuleius. In wishing me to be restored from my affliction, you act as you always do ; but you are witness that I have not been wanting to myself. For there is nothing written by anybody on the lessening of affliction, which I have not read at your house. But my grief over- comes all consolation. I have even done what nobody ever did before me, written for my own consolation. I will send the book to you, if the clerks have transcribed it. I assure you, no com- fort is equal to it. I write all day long ; not that 1 expect any good from it, but for the time I am pre-occupied ; not effectually indeed, for the vio- lence of my grief presses me ; but yet I am soothed ; and I strive by all means to compose not my mind only, but, if possible, my very countenance. In doing which I sometimes think I am doing wrong, sometimes I think I should do wrong if I omitted it. There is some relief in retirement : but it would be much better if you were here. This is the only reason of my removal. For, in regard to my distress, it suits well. Yet this also is a source ~of regret ; that you can no longer entertain the same regard for me ; those qualifications in which you used to take pleasure are gone. I wrote to you before about Brutus's letter to me. It was sensibly written, but afforded me no comfort. What he wrote to you of his coming hither ; that I should like ; lor such appears to be his affection that it could not fail of doing me some good. If you have any intelligence, I hope you will write to me, especially to inform me when Pansa'= sets out. I am concerned about Attica, yet I rely upon Craterus. Do not let Pilia despond. Your own accustomed anxiety is enough for everybody. LETTER XV. As it is not thought right to make a general excuse to Appuleius, you will take care that it is renewed from day to day. In this solitude I have no intercourse with anybody ; but penetrate in the morning into a thick rough wood, from whence I^ do not go out before evening. Next to you, nothing is more pleasing to me than solitude. There all my conversation is with books. Even this is interrupted by tears, which I resist as much as I can ; but hitherto I am unequal to it. 1 will ^ This Junius seems to have called upon Atticus, as Cicero's friend, about some money due from Cornificiua, for whom Cicero had been surety. '" This is evidently a different person from that Appu- leius mentioned in the beginning of the letter. *= He had been appointed to succeed Brutus in the government of Cisalpine Gaul. write an answer to Brutus, as you advise. You shall have the letter to-morrow, and will forward it when you have an opportunity. LETTER XVL I WOULD not have you neglect your own con- cerns to come to me. I will rather go to some place nearer, if you should be prevented much longer. Though, indeed, I should not have re- moved out of your sight, unless I had found that nothing was of any use to me ; yet if there was any alleviation, it was only in you; and as soon as there can be from anything, it will be from you. Now, however, I cannot bear the very circumstances of being without you : but I do not approve of staying in your house ; nor can I stay in my own ; nor if I were anywhere near, should I still be with you ; for the same cause would prevent your being with me, which prevents you now. As yet nothing has been more agreeable to me than this solitude, which I wish Philippus may not destroy"^, for he arrived yesterday evening. Writing and study do not assuage my grief, but they interrupt it. LETTER XVIL Ma-RCianus has informed me that my excuse has been made to Appuleius by Laterensis, Naso, Lsenas, Torquatus, and Strabo. I should be glad if you would get letters written to them expressive of my thankfulness. As to what Flavius says of my having been surety for Cornificius more than five-and-twenty years ago, though the deiaulter is rich, and Appuleius is a liberal appraiser, yet I should be glad if you would find out from the books of the joint securities, whether it is really so. For previously to my being sedile I had no intercourse with Cornificius. I do not, however, mean to deny it ; but I should like to know the truth. You may also call upon the agents, if you think proper. Though what does it signify to me ? Nevertheless^ — You will inform me of Pansa's departure when you know it. Give my love to Attica, and pray take good care of her. My respects to Pilia. LETTER XVIIL Whilst I avoid all recollections which by a certain sting exasperate my pain, I refrain from advising with you ; but trust you will excuse me in this matter, whether I am doing right or wrong. For some of those authors, which I now chiefly read, say, that it is a duty to do what I have fre- quently mentioned to yon, and what I would fain have you approve. I speak of the temple^; which I request you to consider in proportion to the affection you bear me. I have no hesitation about the kind of building, being satisfied with Cluatius's design; nor about the thing itself, which is deter- This, bciii? pnih.ihly :i relation of that Publilia whom he-had lately taken to his second ^vife, may liave excited the greater snspicion and indignation in Terentia. J Aslura. I* It is unecrtaiQ to what this alludes; perhaps some occasion of Ciecm's acting ub a. judge, fruni which Atiicua may have got bim cxcuse Terentin's. 1 That so Terentia might consider him in her will. Sec letter 19 of this book. So far as his duty is concerned. See letter 19 of this book. P By the appraisement of property. See letter 21 of this book, note o. 1 Namely, that it is not equitable to take away the shives from duintus, who seems tn have agreed with Castrieius about a price for them, but could not immediately procuio the money. - ' To Africa. See letter 24 of this book. ' The son of TuUia and of Cornelius Lentulus Colabclla. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 7C9 will let me know if you have anything to tell me after having seen him. I do not wish to avoid Brutus, yet I do not expect to derive from him any consolation. But there are reasons why 1 should not like to be at Rome at this time ; if these con- tinue, I must devise some excuse to Brutus ; and, as things now are, they seem likely to continue. Pray bring this business of the gardens to some conclusion. The chief object is what you know. Another consideration is, that I want something for myself. For I can neither bear to live in the world nor to beat a distance from you. For this my design I find nothing more suitable than that place. Upon this subject 1 am persuaded of your concur- rence ; and the more so because I think (and I understand you are of the same opinion) that I am regarded with great affection by Oppius and Balbus. I would have you communicate to them how earnestly, and why, I wish for these gardens ; but that it can only be done when that Faberian business is settled. Find out therefore whether they will sanction it ' ; or how far they can be induced, if 1 forego part of my claim upon early payment ; for I despair of getting the whole. In short you will discover if they are disposed to give me any assist- ance towards this design. If they will, it is a great point gained ; if not, let us strive by any means to accomplish it. Consider it as that ancient " repose of old age," as you expressed it, or as my tomb. Nothing more is to be thought of that place at Ostia. It I cannot get this, I must try about Damasippus's. Lamia's I conceive to be unattain- able. LETTER XXX. I THINK what I shall say to you ; but there is really nothing. The same day atter day. I am much obliged to you for going to see Lentulus. Let him have what servants, and what number you think right. Respecting Silius's inclination to sell, and respecting the price, you seem to apprehend, in the first place, that he may not choose it ; and, in the next place, that he may not accede to the terms. Sica is of a different opinion ; but I agree with you. However, I have written to Egnatius, as he wished. 1 have no objection to your speaking with Clodius according to Silius's desire ; and this is better than that I should write to Clodius, as he asked me to do. With regard to Castricius's slaves", I think it best that Egnatius ^ should manage it ; as you mention that you suppose will be done. Pray see that the account is settled with Ovia ". Since you say that it was night '^ when you wrote, I shall expect something more in to-day's letter. ' Whether Oppius and Balbus, who were concerned jointly with Faberius in conducting Caesar's affairs, would undertake to promote the payment to Cicero, especially if he consented to relinquish part of his claim or, prompt payment of /the remainder. See letter 47 of this book. n See letter HB of this book. V Egnatius was a banker employed by both Marcus and Quintus Cicero. In this transaction the latter was con- ucmcd. " SeeleUpr21of thisbook. ' It is to be supposed tbat,Atticus had alleged this as a roason for abruptly concluding his letter LETTER XXXI. Sica will be surprised at Silius's having changed his mindi'. For my part, I am more surprised at your saying, that if I should suggest a different purchase, (which he will not hear of, having des- tined it to some other purpose,) you think he may be induced to sell. For he imputes to his son the cause of his refusal ; which seems to me not unreasonable, considering that his son is everything he could wish. You ask me what is the highest price I would give ; and how much I prefer these gardens to those of Drusus. I have never been there. The Coponian villa' I know to be old, and not large, and that it has a noble wood. But I know the produce of neither ; which however I think it would be prudent to ascertain : though either of them are valuable to me from my parti- cular circumstances, not from the computation of their real worth. But I would have you consider whether it is in my power to purchase them. If I could sell the Faberian property, I should not hesitate to conclude even on prompt payment for Silius's, if only he can be induced to sell. If he refuses to sell, I would apply to Drusus on the terms which Egnatius told you he demanded. Hermogenes* may also be a great assistance to me in making a prompt payment. Do you only admit of my being in the disposition of one who is desirous of purchasing : yet while I am a slave to my wishes and my grief, I am willing to be directed by you. I have received a letter from Egnatius'', should he have any conversation with you, you will let me know ; for it will be most convenient to negotiate through him ; and this I think should be done, for I do not see how it is possible to come to any conclusion with Silius. Compliments to Pilia and Attica. I have written this with my own hand. Pray think what is to be done. LETTER XXXIL PuBLiLiA" has written to me to say that her mother, in a conversation with Pnblilius ^, agreed to come with him to visit me ; and she adds, that if I would permit her, she would come at the same time. She uses many entreaties for this purpose, and begs me to write in answer. You see how embarrassing this is. I rej)lied that I was even more afflicted, than when I Ijad told her I wished to be alone ; and therefore was not disposed to let her come to me at this time. Ithpught, if I made no reply, that she would come with her mother. Now I do not think she will : for it was evident that the letter was not her own. But I wish to avoid altogether, what I see will happen, that they should come to me. There is only one way of avoiding 7 See letter 25 of this book. ^ Supposed to be the same as Drusus's. » A debtor of Cicero's. See letter 25 of this book. ^ This letter probably respected the sale of Drusus's place. But it may be observed that Egnatius, as Cicero's agent, had some concern with Silius likewise, and with Castricius, as appears by the preceding letters ; though the latter was on Quintus's account. c Cicero, after being divorced from Terentia, had mar- ried Publilia. ■I Brother to Publilia. • 3 D 770 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO it ' ; which I do not like ; but it is necessary. I now therefore beg you to find out how long I may remain here, without being molested. You will manage this, as you mention, with prudence. I wish you would propose to Cicero, provided it appears to you reasonable, that he should accom- modate the expenses of this foreign residence to the rents arising from Argiletus and Aventinus ^ which would easily have satisfied him, if he had been at Rome, and hired a house, as he thought of doing. And when you have made this proposal to him, I should be glad if you would arrange the rest in such a maaner, that I may out of those rents supply hioi with what is necessary. I will engage that the expenses of neither Bibulus, nor Acidinus, nor Messala, who I hear are to be at Athens, will exceed the receipts from those rents- I wish you therefore first to see who are the people to hire them, and at what rate ; then, that there may be somebody^r who will pay to the day ; like- wise what provision and equipage is wanted by the way. At Athens there can certainly be no occasion for horses ; and I have at home more than can be wanted for his use on the road; as you also observe. LETTER XXXm. I SHOULD like, as I told you in my letter yester- day, if Silius prove such as you suppose, and Drusus be unaccommodating, that you should make overtures to Damasippus. He has, I think, allotted portions on the shore, of I know not how many acres, at a fixed price, with which I am not acquainted. Whatever arrangements you make, you will let me know. I am very anxious about my little Attica's health ; and should even fear there was some mismanagement ; but that the integrity of the tutor, and attention of the physician, and the regularity of the whole family in every way, forbid me to entertain such a suspicion. Take care then. I can say no more. LETTER XXXIV. Here I could remain contentedly for one in trouble, even without Sica ; for Tiro is better. But since you say that I must take care I am not molested (by which I understand that you are unacquainted with the certain day of their journey **) I have thought it more convenient foe me to go thither '. And 1 perceive that you are of the same opinion. To-morrow therefore to Sica's villa near Rome ; thence, as you advise, I think of going into the neighbourhood of Ficulea. Respecting what you wrote to me, as I am coming up myself, we will see about it together. I am most sensible of your kindness, diligence and prudence, both in the management of my affairs, and in consulting and advising me in the letters you send. fl By going himself to see them. See letter 34 of this iMok, ' Argiletus and Aventinus were districts of Rome. t Somebody to collect the rents, and pay them regularly. >> See letter 32 of thia hook. ' To Borne. LETTER XXXV. Should you have come to any understanding with Silius, I shall be glad to be informed of it the very day that I arrive at Sica's house ; and especially what part he wishes to have excepted. For when you mention the boundary, we must take care that it be not the very place, for the sake of which, as you know, I have been led to think of the whole business. I send you a letter from Hirtius, which is both recent and kindly written. Before I last parted from you, it never entered into my mind that a sum was to be distributed to the people, equal to the excess above a certain expense allowed by law to be laid out on a monument. This would not much afiect me, but that somehow (perhaps foolishly) I should not like it to be called by any other name, than that of a temple. But however I may vrish this, I doubt if I shall be able to attain it without altering the situation J. Pray consider how this is. For though I am less impatient, and have nearly collected myself; yet I stand in need of your counsel. Therefore I entreat you again and again more earnestly, than you like, or bear to be entreated by me, to embrace this subject with your whole heart. LETTER XXXVL I TViSH to have " temple : from this I am not to be diverted. I am anxious to avoid the appear- ance of a monument ; not so much on account of the legal penalty, as that I may accomplish the deification. This I might do by erecting it near the house ; but, as I have often said, I am afraid of a change of possessors. In an open field, wherever I should erect it, it seems probable that it may retain the respect of posterity. You must bear with this weakness of mine ; for such I ac- knowledge it to be. I cannot communicate, not even with myself, so freely as with you. If the thing, the place, the design, meets your approba- tion, I beg you to read over the law and send it to me. If any method of avoiding it should occxu", 1 shall avail myself of it. If you write to Brutus, unless you think it improper, scold him for object- ing to be in Cumanum on account of the reason which he mentioned to you ; for, to my apprehension, he could do nothing more uncivil. If you think it right to proceed in the affair of the temple, as I have begun, I should be glad if you would exhort and quicken Cluatins ''. For, even if another situ- ation appear preferable, I imagine I shall still want his advice and assistance. To-morrow you will perhaps be at your villa'. LETTER XXXVIl. Yesterday I received two letters from you; one by Hilarius, dated the day before, — the other by the messenger on the same day. The same day also I received one from .^gypta the freed-man, J There were already many monuments erected in theiie gardens on the other side of the Tiber, amongst which it would be difficult to distinguish the temple he proposed to consecrate to his daughter. li See letter 18 of this boot. 'Near Home. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS.' 771 saying that Pilia and Attica were quite well. This last was delivered to me the thirteenth day. I thank you for sending me Brutus's letter. He wrote also to me. This letter I send you, and likewise a copy of my answer to it. Kespecting the temple, if you find nothing for me in the gar dens (which you may surely find, if you have that regard for me which you certainly have), I highly approve your proposal about Tusculanum. How- ever judicious you may be in your plans, as indeed you are, yet, unless you took a real interest in my obtaining what I so ardently wish, that idea could never have come so appositely into your mind. But somehow I require notoriety. Therefore you must accomplish for me the possession of these gardens. The most frequented are Scapula's ; besides, there is the vicinity to where you are, that it may not occupy the whole day to go thither. For this reason I should exceedingly wish you to confer with Otho", if he is in Rome, before your de- parture. If there is nothing to be had, though you are used to bear with my folly, yet I shaU go on till I make you quite angry; for Drusus at least is disposed to sell. If then there is anything else, it will not be my fault if I do not buy it ; but in this I beg you to take care that I commit no error. The surest way of taking care is, if I can accom- plish anything about Scapula's gardens°. I wish you likewise to inform me how long you will stay in your villa near Rome. I have need of your favour and your influence with Terentia ; but you will do as you think right : for I know that where anything concerns me you take more interest in it than I do myself. Hirtius has written to me that Sex. Pompeius" has left Corduba and fled into the more northern provinces of Spain, and that Cnseus has fled I know not whither, for it is of little con- sequence. I know nothing more. He dates his letter from Narbonne, the 18th of April. You wrote to me doubtfully about the shipwreck of Caniniusj let me know therefore if any certain intelligence has arrived. With respect to your calling me from my sadness, you will greatly relieve me if you can find a place for the temple. Many things occur to my mind in favour of the deifica- tion ; but I am greatly in want of a situation. Again, therefore, see Otho about it. LETTER XXXVIII. I HAVE no doubt you were very busy, which was the reason of your not sending me any letter : but he was an idle fellow not to attend your convenience when he was sent for that very purpose. At this time, unless anything has detained you, I imagine you are in your villa. I continue writing here all day without any relief, but yet with some distraction of attention. Asinius Pollio has written to me on the subject of our unnatural relation p. What the younger Balbus lately intimated pretty plainly, and Dolabella more reservedly, he has openly declared. I should be deeply concerned if there were any ™ Otho might probahly be one of Scapula's heirs. " It was to be expected that Scapula, being lately dead, his heirs would be obliged to sell these gardens in order to divide the property. o Seitus. and Gna3us Pompeius were the sons of Cnsus Pompeius Magnus. P Young Q. Cicero, room for new sources of grief. But can anything be more abominable .' What a dangerous man ! Though for my part — but I will restrain my feel- ing. Let me hear from you, as you may be at leisure ; for there is nothing that presses. As to what you say, that I ought now to show the firm- ness of my mind,. — and that some speak of me more severely than either you or Brutus write : if any persons suppose that my mind is broken and has lost its energy, let them know the extent and kind of studies in which I am engaged, — and I conceive, if they are men, they will think either that I do not deserve reproof, having so far roused myself as to bring my mind disengaged to the dis- cussion of difficult questions ; or if I have chosen this method of diverting my grief, which is at once the most liberal and the most worthy of a man of learning, that I ought rather to be commended. But while I do everything that I can for my relief, do you effect that', for which I perceive you are not less earnest than I am. I seem to owe this to myself, and to be incapable of ease till I have dis- charged it, or seen a prospect of discharging it, — that is, till I have a place such as I want. If Scapula's heirs, as you say that Otho told yon, mean to have the gardens divided into four parts and valued, there is indeed no room for a purchaser. But if they are to be publicly sold, we will see what can be done. That Publician place, belonging to Trebonius and Cusinins, was oflered me : but you know it is a mere barn ; and I do not approve of it at all. Clodia's I hke ; but apprehend it is not to be sold. Though you say you quite revolt from Drusus's gardens, yet I must be content with those, unless you can find something else. The building I do not regard j for I shall build nothing more than I should do otherwise. The 4th and 5th books of Antisthenes's Cyrus please me like the other works of the same author, who is more ingenious than learned. LETTER XXXIX. When the messenger arrived vrithout a letter from you, I supposed the reason of your not writing to be that you had written the day before what I answered in that letter. Yet I had expected to hear something relating to the letter of Asinius Pollio. But I measure your leisure too much by my own. However, unless there should be some- thing of importance, I would not nave you thihk it necessary to write till you are quite at liberty. I would do as you advise about the messengers, if there were any letters of consequence, as there were formerly j when, during the shorter days, yet the messengers constantly returned to their time. And there was something, as Silius, Drusus, and some other matters. Now, if it were not for Otho, there would be nothing to write about : even that is deferred. Yet I find relief when I talk with you in my absence ; and still more when I read your letters. But since you are out of town (for so I suppose), and there is no particular occasion for writing, our correspondence may rest till something new occurs. 1 The procuring a proper situation for a temple to be consecrated to bis daughter. r72 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XL. What will be the nature of Caesar's censure' in opposition to my commendation, I see from the book which Hirtius has sent me, in which he col- lects together the faults of Cato, while he speaks very highly of me. I have, therefore, sent the book to Musca, that he might give it to your librarians, — for I wish to have it made public ; and that this may be the sooner done, I should be glad if you would give directions to your people. I often attempt to compose something in the way of advice', but I cannot please myself. In this I am countenanced by the address of Aristotle and of Theopompus to Alexander. But what resem- blance is there between the two cases ? They wrote what was at once honourable to themselves and agreeable to Alexander. Can you devise any- thing of such a kind ? As for me, I can suggest nothing. When you say that you fear my influence and authority may be lessened by this my grief, I know not what people should either blame or re- quire. Is it that I should not grieve .' How is that possible .' That I should not sink under it ? Who ever did so less ? While I remained at your house, whom did I exclude? Who, that came, could be offended with me ? From you I went to Astura. Those lively spirits who find fault with me cannot read so much as I wrote. How well, is nothing to the purpose : but the kind of writing was such as nobody with a broken spirit could execute. I have been thirty days in my gardens*. Who ever found a want of access to me, or of free conversation ? And now I am so engaged in read- ing and in writing, that my attendants find it more difficult to bear their leisure than I to bear my labour. If anybody asks why I am not at Rome ? Because it is the recess. Why I am not in any of my farms, which are suitable to such a time ? Because I could not easily bear so much company. Therefore I remain, where he" who possessed that excellent place at Raise used every year to spend this season. When I come to Rome, neither my looks nor conversation will subject me to reproof. I have lost for ever that gaiety with which I used to season the sadness of these times ; but there will be found no want of constancy and firmness either in my mind or speech. Respecting Scapula's gardens, it seems possible, partly by your influence partly by mine, to get them submitted to public auction. Unless this is done I shall be excluded. But if we come to an open sale, my desire of pos- session will outweigh Otho's wealth : for as to what you mention about Lentnlus, it does not rest upon that. Let but the Faberian business^ be settled, and continue to exert yourself as you do, and I shall get what I want. In answer to your inquiry how long I shall remain here, — it will be a few days ; but I am not certain : as soon as I have determined, I will write to you. Do you likewise let me know how long you mean to stay in your villa. The very day on which I send this I have also received, both by letter and by word of mouth, the SEime account you mention of Filia and of Attica. * Caesar wi'ote a piece called '* Antl-Cato," in answer to Cicero's panegjTic, called *' Cato." a Tu Cseaar, and probably at Atticus' suggestion. See letter 44 of this book. * At Astura. " It is uncertain of whom he speaks. " See letter 29 of this book. LETTER XLI. I HAVE nothing to say ; yet I wish to know where you are, — and, if you are gone, or going, out of town, when you mean to return. You will therefore inform me. And respecting my move- ments, which you desire to know, I have de- termined to be at Lanuvium on the 14th, and from thence to go the day following either to Tus- culanum or to Rome ; which I do, you shall know the same day. You know bow querulous misfor- tune is, — ^not indeed towards you ; but yet I am grown very impatient about the temple : and unless this is, I do not say completed, but unless I see it in progress, I will venture to say (and you will receive it as you are accustomed), my vexation will vent itself upon you, however undeservedly. But you will bear with me in writing this, as you do, and have borne with all my weaknesses. I should be glad to have you collect all your consolations in this one object. If you ask, what it is I wish for ? First Scapula's gardens, then Clodia's ; afterwards, if Silius refuses and Drusus is unreasonable, those of Cusinius and Trebonius ; I believe they belong now to Terentius ; I know they did belong to Rebilus. But if you prefer Tusculanum, as you have signified in some of your letters, I shall not object to it. This then is what you must accomplish, if you wish me td be comforted; whom you now accuse more severely than is natural to you ; but you do it from your great atfection, and overcome perhaps by my foolishness. Yet if yon wish me to be comforted this is the greatest comfort ; or, i£ you would know the truth, the only one. If you have read Hirtius's letter, — which I consider as a specimen of the censure that Ceesar has written upon Cato, — I should like you to inform me, at your convenience, what you think of it. To return to the subject of the temple ; unless it is finished this summer, which is yet all before us, I shall not think myself free from guilt ". LETTER XLII. (Grwv. xliii.) I HAVE determined to sleep at Lanuvium on the 14th, as I mentioned to you before ; from thence I shall go either to Rome or to Tusculanum. You shall know both beforehand. You do rightly in taking no notice of the relief which this business may justly afford me ; it being such, believe me, as you could not suppose. The thing itself shows how earnestly I desire it, when I venture to confess it to you, who, I suspect, do not very much approve of it : but in this you must bear with my weakness. Bear with it? Nay, you must even forward it. About Otho 1 dare not hope ; perhaps because I wish it. Besides, the purchase exceeds my ability, especially in opposition to one who is both desirous of having it, and rich, and one of the heirs. Next to this I should like Clodia's. But if these cannot be had, conclude what you will. I consider myself bound by a stricter obligation than anybody ever was by that of a vow. You will see, likewise, the Trebonian gardens, notwithstanding the owners are w In letter 18 of this book he had said that he.considered himself as bound by a vnw. He alludes to the same thins likewise in letter 4-2 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 773 absent j and as I mentioned to you yesterday, you will think also about Tusculanum. The summer must certainly not be sufiiered to slip away without doing something. LETTER XLTII. (Grffiii. Book xiii. Letter xxvi.) I ENTiBELY approvB of what you mention about Virgilius's portion*. You will therefore dct ac- cordingly. That is my first wish^ ; next to that, Clodia's i and if I can get neither, I fear I may become outrageous and rush upon Drusus. I know no moderation in my desire of that object, which you know. Therefore at intervals I incline to Tusculanum. For anything is better than not to have it finished this summer. In my present state, I have no place where I can be more at my ease than at Astura. But as those who are with me hasten away (I suppose because they cannot bear my sadness) ; though I should be very well content to remain ; yet, as I mentioned to you, I shall go from hence, that I may not appear de- serted. But which way? ToLanuvinm? I try^ to go to Tusculanum ; but will immediately let you know. You will bring your writing" to an end. For my own part, it is not to be believed how much I write in the day ; and even in the night ; for I get no sleep. Yesterday also I accomplished a letter to Csesar, because you seemed to vrish it. And if you thought it expedient, there is no harm in its being written. As things are at present, there is no necessity for sending it ; but this shall be as you please. I will however send you a copy of it, perhaps fromLanuvium, unless it happens that I go to Rome. But you shall know to-morrow. LETTER XLIV. I AM very well pleased that Hirtius should have written to you with sympathy about me, for he has done it kindly ; and I am still better pleased that you should not have sent me his letter, for you have done it even more kindly. I wish the book, which he sent me upon Cato, to be published by your librarians for this reason, that his praise may be exalted by the censure of that party. In acting through Mustella you have a person extremely proper, and one who has been kindly disposed towards me ever since the Pontian ** business. Therefore get something done'^. What else, but to secure access to a purchaser** ,'' This may be done through any of the heirs. And I apprehend Mus- tella' will do it, if you ask him. You will thus ^ Vii-gllius was one of the lieii's of Scapula, together with Otho, Mustella, and Crispus. y Scapula's gardens. ^ His difficulty consisted in overcoming his repugnance to visit a place which sadly reminded him of his daughter. * Atticus seems to have been engaged in settling his accounts, with which these letters, literas, were probably connected. Compare this with what he repeats in the following letter, sed quceso confice, et te vacuum redde nobis. !> Perhaps some person whom Cicero had defended, or otherwise assisted, c In Ending a place f» erect a temple to TuUia. d To got Scapula's gardens exposed to public sale. c Mustella appears to have been one of Scapula's heirs. procure for me the place which I wish, for the purpose which I have at heart ; and besides, " a repose for my old age'." For those of Silius, and of Drusus, do not appear to me sufiiciently respectable for a family residence. How would it become one to remain for any length of time in such a villa as that.' I should therefore prefer, first, Otho's J and, next to that, Clodia's. If nothing can be done, either some stratagem must be practised upon Drusus ^, or 1 must be content with Tusculanum. In shutting yourself up at home, you have acted prudently. But pray use despatch, and restore yourself to me free from care. I shall go from hence, as I before-mentioned, to Lanu- vium on the 14th, and the day following to Tus- culanum. For I have subdued my mind'', and perhaps conquered it, if only I can persevere. You shall know therefore, perhaps to-morrow, at all events the day after. But pray, how is this ? Philotimus affirms that Pompeius is not shut up in Carteia ; about which Oppius and Balbus sent me the copy of a letter to Clodius Patavinus, declaritg that they believed it to be true ; but that -a great war is still maintained'. He is in the habit of being a complete. FulviniasterJ ; but yet, if you have any intelligence, let me know it. I want also to know what is the truth respecting Caninius' shipwreck''. LETTER XLV. While I have been here', I have completed two long treatises : for T have no other means of deviating, as it were, from the path of wretched- ness. Even if you have nothing to say, which I foresee will be the case, yet I wish you to tell me that, if only it is not in these terms. The accounts of Attica are excellent. I am concerned about your languor"", notwithstanding you say it is nothing. In Tusculanum I shall have the advan- tage of more frequently hearing from you, and sometimes seeing you. In other respects things are more supportable at Astura ; nor are the objects, which revive my grief, more distressing here than everywhere else" ; though in truth, wherever I am, they are with me. I wrote to you about your neighbour" Cffisar, because 1 had learned f In the original is the same Greek word which was explained in letter 25 of this book, note '. fS Some artifice to induce him to sell his gardens at a reasonable pi-ice. See letter 41 of this book. ^ Forced himself to return to Tusculanum, which he had hitherto avoided, as containing many objects calcu- lated to renew his grief for Tullia. See letters 45 and 46 of this book. ' In Spain. J A partial interpreter of events in favour of his own, that is, of Pompeius's party. [See book x. letter 9.] Such as had been notoriously some person of the name of Fu vius or Fulvinius. I" See letter 37 of this book. 1 At Astura. ™ In the original is a Greek word of doubtful significa* tion, but probably meaning a languor which created an indifference towards everything. n This I conceive to be the just meaning of tiie word magis in this place. On the contrary, at TusmUanum there were many circumstances to remind him of his daughter. " A statue had lately been ereoted to Caesar in the tem- ple of Quirinus, near Atticus's house, which was on the Quirinal hill. 774 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO it from your letter. I would rather have him comrade with Quirinus than with PublicP Safety. Let Hirtius be made publie' ; for I was of the same opinion, which you mention, that while our friend's genius is applauded, his attempt to censure Cato would be derided. LETTER XLVI. I HAVE never complained of your not writing ; for I perceive what you mention'. Besides I sus- pect, or rather know, that you can have had nothing to say. On the 8th I supposed you to be out of town, and concluded that there was nothing. I shall nevertheless send to you almost every day ; for I would rather send in vain than that you should have nobody to take your letters, in case there shoiUd be anything with which you think I ought to be acquainted. On the 8th I received your empty letter, as you call it ; for what had you to write about .' Yet, such as it was, it was not unpleasant to me to know even this, that you had no news. You mentioned, however, something about Clodia. Where then is she .' or when will she come ? That place pleases me so well, that, next to Otho's % I like nothing better. But I do not suppose either that she will sell ; for she takes pleasure in it, and is in no want of money : and as for the other, you are aware of the difficulties. Yet pray let us try, that we may devise some means of gratifying my wishes. I think of leaving this place to-morrow, and going either to Tusculanum or home', and afterwards perhaps to Arpiuum. When I know for certain, I will write to you. It had occurred to me to remind you of doing the very thing which you are doing ; for I thought you could more conveniently transact the same business at home, without suffering yourself to be inter- rupted. LETTER XLVIL {Grcev, xlvi.) I HOPB to conquer my feelings, and to go from Lanuvium to Tusculanum. For I must either renounce for ever that estate (since the same painful sensations will remain, only in a less de- gree) or I know not what it signifies whether I go there now, or ten years hence. Since the being thus reminded, is nothing more than what con- stantly wastes me day and night. What then, you will say, do your studies afford no relief .' In this respect I fear they may even do the contrary ; as I might otherwise perhaps be more insensible. For to a cultivated mind nothing is without feeling and interest. p Near to the temple of Quirinus was situated the temple of Public Safety ; and Cicero means to say that he should he sorry to have any tyrant in a place of safety. q Hirtius's essay, mentioned in letter 40 of this book. r That you are very busy. s The same that is elsewhere called Scapula's, Otho being one of the heirs. See letter 37 of this book. t To his house at Rome. I have thought it right to pre- serve the character of the original by a literal translation. He uses the word in the game sense elsewhere. LETTER XLVin. (Grtsv, xlvii.) Do then, as you mention, so that you put your- self to no inconvenience. For two words will be sufficient. Or I will go up, if it is necessary. This therefore as you can. About Mustella do as you propose ; though it is a great undertaking". For this reason I more incline to Clodia. But in either case the Faberian account must be settled ; about which there will be no harm in your having some conversation with Balbus ; and indeed letting him know, what is the truth, that I am desirous of purchasing, and unable to do it without the dis- charge of that debt, and do not dare to engage upon an uncertainty. But since Clodia is to be at Rome, and you consider it so desirable, I look wholly that way ; not that I should not prefer the other ; but it is a great concern, and an arduous contest with one who is eager, who is rich, who is heir. Though in point of eagerness I will yield to nobody : in other respects I am inferior. But of this when we meet. Make' public Hirtius's book, as you do. Respecting Philotimus ", I also thought the same. I foresee that your house will become more valuable from having Csesar for your neighbour". I am expecting the return of my messenger to-day. He will bring me an account of Pilia and Attica. LETTER XLIX. {Gray, xlviii.) I CAN easily believe that you are glad to be at home. But I should like to know how much remains to be done ; or whether you have already finished. I am expecting you in Tusculanum ; and the rather, because you wrote word to Tiro, that you were coming immediately, and added that you thought it necessary. While you were here, I was very sensible how much good you did me ; but I am much more sensible of it since your departure. Therefore, as I mentioned to you in a former letter, I will either go wholly to you ; or you shall come to me, so far as it will be consistent with your occupations. LETTER L. (Gr" Piso. " See book xii, letter 19. He was at this time in Spain, fighting with the sons of Pompeius. P His letter to Cssar. 1 It appears to me that Cicero, in his letter before-men- tioned, had anticipated this, and wished to prevent it. r Caesar's friends must be attended to, who objected to many parts of his letter, [see letter 27 of this book,] and probably to what he had said on this subject. » The sentiments expressed in his letter. ' The same who is called Spintber. See book xii. let- ter 63. 778 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO conceive what you can write about, unless, per- haps, about Mustella, or unless you have seen Silius. Brutus came to Tusculanum • yesterday, past four in the afternoon ; to-day, therefore, he will call upon me. I wish it had been while you were here. I desired he might be informed that you had waited for him as long as you could ; that you would come when you heard of his arrival ; and that I would, as I do, give you immediate notice of it. LETTER VIII. I HAVE positively nothing to say to you ; for it is not long since you left me ; and soon after you re- turned my triple tablets '. I shall be obhged to you to let the parcel be taken to Vestorius, and todesire somebody to inquire if any farm belonging to (J. Fa- berius" in the neighbourhood of Pompeii or of Nola is to he sold. I should be glad if you would send me Brutus's epitome of Cselius's history ', and get from Philoxenus Panffitius's treatise on Prudence. I shall see you on the 15 th with your family. LETTER IX. You had just gone away yesterday, when Tre- batlus came ; and soon after, Curtius ; the latter to pay his compliments ; but on being invited, he stayed. Trebatius continues with me. This morn- ing DolabeUa came. We had a long conversation till the day was far advanced. I can describe nothing more attentive or more affectionate^. We came at length to the subject of young Quintus, of whom he related many particulars not to be re- peated or named ; and one thing of such a liind, that, unless the whole army knew it, I should not only not venture to dictate to Tiro, but not even to write it myself — But I check myself. Torquatus arrived very seasonably, while DolabeUa was with me ; and DolabeUa in the kindest manner explained the terms I had used in discoursing with him ^ ; for I had just been discoursing most urgently, which seemed to be gratefully received by Tor- quatus. I am longing to know if you have heard anything of Brutus ". Though Nicias supposed it to have actually taken place, but that the divorce was not approved ; for which reason I am the more ^ Brutus had a villa in the neighboiurhood of Tusculum, not far from Cicero's. ^ The Romans carried about with them little tablets of wood, or ivory, covered with wax, called pugillares, on which they wrote with a stilus. These tablets consisted of two, three, or more leaves, and were accordingly called duplices, triplius, &c. Cicero, it may be supposed, had written to Atticus on one of these consisting of three leaves, which Atticus had retm'ned with his answer. ■^ The same of whom mention is made, book xii. let- ter 25, and elsewhere. ^ Brutus may probably have epitomised several histo- ries. In book xii. letter 5, we read of his epitome of Pan- nius's History ; and Plutarch has reported, that on the evening previous to the battle of Pharsalia, he was en- gaged in making au abridgment of Polybius. y DolabeUa had married Cicero's daughter, whose death he 80 deplored. It is doubtful whether a divoi^e between them had taken place or not ; at least there seems to have been no iU-will between the parties. 2 On the subject of Torquatus. * Who repudiated his wife Clodia, and was going to mari-y Porcia, Gate's daughter. Cicero hoped that Cato's popularity might obliterate any disapjlrobation excited }yy this divorce. anxious, as well as you ; that if any offence is taken, this may heal it. I am obhged to go to Arpinum, as it is necessary for me to regulate those small farms ; and I am apprehensive that I may not be able to get away, if I wait tiU Caesar comes ; of whose arrival DolabeUa entertains the same opinion which you formed from Messala's letter. When I get there, and find what business is to be done, I wUl write to inform you about the time oi my return. LETTER X. I AM not surprised that you should be deeply concerned about Marcellus ', and apprehensive of all kinds of danger. For who would be afraid of what had never happened before, and what human nature seemed incapable of committing ? So that everything is now to be feared. But do you '^ of all people transgress the evidence of history, by saying that I am the only consular** remaining? What ! do' you make no account of Servias .' Though this has no weight with me, especially as I think the condition of the others ^ no way inferior. For what am I ? Or what can I be, either at home or in pubUc ? In fact, unless it had occurred to my mind to occupy myself in WTiting, I should not know which way to turn myself. I think I must do, as you mention, to DolabeUa, and take some subject of more common and pubUc interest. I must at all events compose something; for he earnestly desires It. If Brutus has come to any conclusion ', you will take care to let me know it. I think he should conclude it as soon as possible, if only he has made his determination : for he will thus either extinguish or appease all idle talk. There are some who even talk to me about it. But he will conduct this best himself, especially if he also consults with you. It is my intention to go from hence the 2'2d. For here I have nothing to do ; nor indeed there, nor anywhere ; theref, how- ever, there is something. I expect Spinther to- day ; for Brutus has sent to inform me. In his letter he exculpates Caesar on the death of Mar- cellus. But no suspicion would fall upon him, even if he had been kiUed insidiously. Now, how- ever, when it is clear that it was done by Magius, is not the whole to be imputed to his insanity ? I am at a loss to understand this '' ; therefore you wiU explain it ; though I have no further doubt, excepting about what may have been the cause of Magius's madness ; for whom he had even been surety at Sunium. It was perhaps that very circum- stance ; for he was insolvent. I imagine he may have asked something from MarceUus, and Mar- cellus may have replied, with that firmness which was natural to him, that '* things seen near, and at a distance, have not the same aspect'." b He had been killed near Athens by P. Magius Chilo, one who had been his friend. c "Who are usually so accurate. A A senator who had been consul. It does not moan literally the only one ; but that he was the only one who could support the dignity of the situation. e Those who have died in supporting the republic ' About his marriage. S At Arpinum. See letter 9 of this book. l" To understand why Brutus should exculpate Casar. ' The original is part of a verse of Eiuripides. It means that MarceUus had now become acquainted with Magiiis's TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 779 LETTER XL I IMAGINED the removal to Arpinum to be a slight matter ; bat I find it quite otherwise, since I have been separated further from you. It was however expedient, both for the salce of reletting the farms, and to avoid imposing on our friend Brutus so great a burden of civility J. Hereafter we shall be able better to cultivate a mutual friendship in Tusculanum ''. But at this time, when he was so good as to visit me dally, and I was unequal to go to him, he was deprived of all comfort in his Tusculan villa. If, then, Serviliai is arrived ; if Brutus has concluded anything", or even if he is resolved upon it ; when they go " to meet Caesar ; in short, whatever occurs, which I ought to know, you will inform me. Converse with Piso ", if you can : you see how ripe the business p is. Yet do not put yourself to inconvenience. LETTER Xn. Your accounts of my dear Attica have much affected me ; yet at the same time they have af- forded me comfort. For your own consolation, expressed in the same letters, is a sufficient warrant for the relief of my anxiety. You have famously sold the speeches in favour of Ligarius. Hence- forward whatever I publish, I shall employ you to proclaim. As to what you say about Varro, you know that my compositions used formerly to con- sist of orations, or something of that kind, in which it was impossible for me to introduce Varro's name. But since I entered upon these philosophical inquiries, Varro has already given me notice of a great and weighty address i : two years have elapsed, while that Callipides'' in his continual course has not advanced a foot. In the mean time I prepared myself, as he desired, to make him a return " ac- cording to the same measure* — or better if I could," for so Hesiodus adds. I have now pledged to Brutus, with your approbation, that treatise on the Foundation of Moral Duty, with which I am very well pleased. And you have assured me of his kind acceptance of it. I may as well, therefore, remove from my Academical Disputations the pre- sent speakers, who are distinguished characters distreesed fortunea, which before he did not know, when he engaged to be his surety. Some have supposed this quotation to belong to the following letter ; in which case it would mean that Cicero, since his removal to Arpinum, found the actual separation from Atticus more grievous than he had expected in distant contemplation, i In calling every day upon Cicero, who had not suffi- ciently recovered his spirits to wait upon Brutus in return. ^ Brutus, as well as Cicero, appears to have had a resi- dence in the neighbourhood of Tusculum. I Brutus's mother. w Relating to his marriage with Porcia. II This is generally supposed to mean Bmtus; but it seems to me more reasonable to understand it generally of people going to meet CfEsar on his return from Spain. About the gold he was to provide in exchange for Cicero's plate. See book xii. letter 5. P The sale of Scapula's gardens was approaching. 1 His treatise on the Latin Language, which was after- wards published and inscribed to Cicero. ' This was a proverbial expression taken from some person who was busily employed, but made little progress. * The original is part of a ver^e from Hesiodus. indeed, but by no means philosophical, and dis- course with too much subtilty, and substitute Varro in their place. For there are the opinions of Antiochus, to which he is much attached. I can find a place for Catulus and LucuUus elsewhere, if you approve of these persons ; and I shall be glad if you win write in answer to me upon this subject. 1 have received a letter from Vestorius about Brin- nius's auction'. He says that the business has without any dispute been referred " to me, to take place on the 24th of June. For they supposed that I should be in Rome, or in Tusculanum. You will therefore tell either your friend S. Vettius, my co-heir, or my friend Labeo, to defer a little the sale, as I shall not be in Tusculanum till about the 7th of July. You have with you Eros', as well as Piso. Let us think, with all our minds, of Scapula's gardens. The day is at hand. LETTER Xm. In consequence of the letter you wrote to me about Varro, I have taken the Academy" entirely out of the hands of those distinguished personages, and transferred it to our friend ; and from two books I have made it into four. These are longer than the others were, though there are several parts left out, I am very desirous of hearing from yon, who understood that he was pleased with my de- sign. I want also to know who it was that you understood excited his envy ; unless perhaps it was Brutus. That was the only thing which remained*. But yet I should like much to know. In truth, unless my self-love deceive me, those books have come out in such a manner, that there is nothing of the same kind like them even in Greek. You will patiently bear the loss of your copy ' having been transcribed to no purpose. This, however, will be far more brilliant, more condensed, and better. I am now in doubt which way to turn '. I am desirous of gratifying Dolabella's wishes j but can find no proper subject. At the same time " I respect the Trojans • :" and if I should find some- thing, I do not see how I can escape reproach, I must either give it up therefore, or I must devise something else. But why do I regard these trifles ? How, I beseech you, does my dear Attica, for whom I am very anxious ? But I frequently recur to your letter, and feel satisfaction in it ; yet I look for further accounts. t Cicero appears to have been one of several heirs to Brinnius, whose property, as usual, was to be sold and divided. « It was usual for one of the legatees to be appointed to conduct the sale. See book L letter 10. ▼ Cicero's agent. See letter 2 of this book. ^ His books on the philosophy of the Academy. Sea letter 12 of this book, X As if he had said that the envy excited by the dedica- tion of his former work to Brutus, was the only thing that could bo added to enhance the satisfaction he had in his treatise '* De Pinibus," y Of the *' Academica" in the first edition. * What work I shall next undertake, ft The original is from Homer, and has Ijeen more than once quoted before. [See hook ii. letter 5, and book vii, letter I.] The meaning is, that he had too much respect for honest citizens to write anything unbecoming the republic. '?80 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XIV. Ekinnius's freed-man, my co-heir, wrote to me to say, that, if I pleased, he and Sabimis Albius, two joint heirs, would come to wait upon me. I entirely disappro-ve of it ; the inheritance is not worth it. Besides, they may easily attend the day of the sale, which is the llth; if they will come to me in Tusculanum on the morning of the 8th, the day after my arrival. Or if they wish to put it off longer, they may do it for two or three days, or as long as they please ; for it makes no difference. Therefore unless they are already set out, I would have yon stop them. Let me know if there is any news of Brutus ; or if you have any intelligence of Csesar ; or if there is anything else. I should wish you to consider again and again whether you ap- prove of sending to Varro what I have written ; though there is something also which concerns yourself ; for you must know that you are intro- duced as a third personage in that dialogue 'i. I think then we should consider, notwithstanding the names are already inserted. But they may either be erased or altered. LETTER XV. Pbay, how is my Attica ? For I have had no letter from you these three days. This is not to be wondered at, as nobody came from Rome, and possibly there was no reason for writing. In con- sequence I have myself nothing to write about. But the day on which I dehver this to Valerius, I am expecting one of my people, who if he arrives, and brings anything from you, I am persuaded X shall be at no loss what to say. LETTER JiVII. On the 27th I hope to receive something from Rome ; not that 1 had given any particular direc- tions. Therefore, send something by your own people. I must repeat the same inquiries ; what Brutus intends ? or if he has taken any steps ? and whether there is anything from C^sar .' But what are these things ? which I care little about : I want to know how my Attica does. Though your letter, which is already too old, bids me hope the best, yet I look for some recent information. LETTER XVIII. Yon see the advantage of being near '. Let us then conclude the purchase of the gardens s. While I was in Tusculanum I seemed to be talking with you ; so frequent was the intercourse of our letters. But that will presently be the case again'. In the mean time, at your suggestion, I have completed the books to Varro with some acuteness. Still I wait for your answer to what I wrote to you : first, by what means you understood that he wished it of me ; since he, who is himself so great a writer, never addressed' anything to me : then, who it is that he envied, unless perhaps Brutus J. For if he does not envy him, much less Hortensius ', or those who speak upon the republic. I wish you listinctly to inform me in the first place, whethei you continue in the same mind, that I should send him what I have written, or whether you think there is no occasion for it. But of this when we meet. LETTER XVL Though I went in pursuit of streams and soli- tudes, that I might better be able to support myself, I have hitherto not stirred a foot out of the house ; such great and continued rains, have we had, I have transferred that whole Academical composition to Varro. It had at first been in the names of Catulus, LucuUus, and Hor.tensius, After- wards, as this appeared unsuitable, owing to these persons being, not indeed unlearned, but notori- ously unversed in such subjects, as soon as I got home I transferred those dialogues to Cato and Brutus. Your letter about Varro is just arrived. The opinions of Antiochus could be more fitly sup- ported by nobody. Yet I should wish you to inform me, in the first place, whether you think anything should be inscribed to him ; then, if you think so, whether this is the properest thing. AVhat of Servilia ? Is she yet arrived ? Is Brutus doing anything ' ? or when ? What is heard of Csesar .' I shall be in Tusculanum on the 7th, as I mentioned ''. You will settle with Piso ''i if you can. ^ The " Academica " being written in the form of dialogues, c About li.s marriage. ** See letter 12 of this book, « See letters 4 and 1 1 of this book. LETTER XIX. My secretary Hilarus, to whom I had given a letter for you, was just gone on the 28th, when the messenger arrived with your letter dated the day before ; in which it was particularly gratifying to me that my Attica begs you not to be uneasy, and that you say there is no danger. Your authority, I see, has famously recommended the Ligarian oration. For Balbus and Oppius wrote to me to say that they were extremely pleased with it, and had in consequence sent it to Csesar, as you men- tioned to me before. In the case of Varro, I am not moved by any apprehension of appearing vain- glorious' ; for I had determined to include no Uving characters in my dialogues'" ; but since you inform me that Varro is desirous of it, and sets a great value upon it, I have composed this work, and f This is probably said in reply to some observation of Atticus. e Which have the advantage of being so near to Rflme. See book xii. letter 37. ^ He should soon be in Tusculanum again. i Never provoked me to write by first addressing any of his. numerous works to me. i See letter IX of this book. l! To whom Cicero had inscribed a book of Philosophy ; or those in whose names the dialogue is maintained in his treatise on the Republic. 1 I do not insert Varro's name through fear of being cen- sured for adopting the gi'eat names of persona deceased, " See book xii. letter 12, TO TITUS POMPONiUS ATTICUS. 781 completed the whole Academical discussion in four books ; I know not how well, but with such care, that nothing can exceed it. In these, what had been excellently collected by Antiochus against the doctrine of incomprehensibility, I have attributed to Varro ; to this I reply in my own person, and you are the third in our conversation. If I had made Cotta and Varro disputing with each other, as you suggest in your last letter, mine would be a mute character. This has a good effect in old peo- ple ; as Heraclides has done in several books ; and I in the six books on Government. I have three books also on Oratory, with which I am much satisfied ; and in these likewise the characters are such, that it became me to be silent. For the speakers are, Crassus, Antoflius, Catulus the old man, C. Julius brother to Catulus, Cotta, and Sulpicins. The discourse is supposed to be held while I was a boy, so that it was impossible for me to sustain any part in it. But what I have lately written are in the manner of Aristotle, where the conversation is so managed, that he himself has the principal part. I have finished the five books on the Foundation of Moral Duty, so as to give the Epicurean doc- trine to L. Torquatus, the Stoical to M. Cato, the Peripatetic to M. Piso ; for I considered that their being dead would preclude all jealousy. These Academics, as you know, I had discussed in the persons of Catulus, LucuUus, and Hortensius; but in truth the subject did not suit their characters ; being more logical than what they could be sup- posed ever to have dreamed of. Therefore, when I read your letter about Varro, I seized it as an inspiration. Nothing could be more adapted to that species of philosophy, in which he seems to take particular delight ; or to the support of such a part, that I could manage to avoid making my own sentiments predominant. For the opinions of Antiochus are extremely persuasive, and are so carefully expressed, as to retain the acuteness of Antiochus, with my own brilliancy of language, if indeed I possess any. But consider again and again whether you think these books ought to be attri- buted to Varro. Some things occur to me upon the subject j but these when we meet. LETTER XX. I HAVE received from Csesar a letter of condo- lence, dated April 30th, from Seville. I have not heard what has been promulgated about extending the city"; and should be glad to know. I am pleased that my services are kindly received by Torquatus, and shall not fail to increase them. It Is impossible for me now to add to my Ligarian oration anything about Tubero's wife and daughter- in-law ; for the speech has been widely dissemi- nated ; nor have I any wish to defend Tubero, who is wonderfully fond of accusing people. You have had truly a fine exhibition °. Though I am very well satisfied with this place', yet I am desirous of seeing you, and shall accordingly return, as I.in- tended. I imagine you have had a meeting with my brother, and I want therefore to know what you ° See letter 33 of this book. Probably alluding to some application, or perhaps al- tercation between Tubero and these ladies before Atticus. P Arpinum. have done '. I am in no trouble about my reputation, whatever I may foolishly have written to you at that time. There is nothing better (for there is no other just object of care) than this'; that every- body through his whole life should not deviate a hair's breadth from a right conscience. Observe liow philosophically I talk. Do you suppose I am engaged in these speculations to no purpose .' I should be sorry to have you vexed ; for it was no- thing". And, to return again to the same point, do you think that I have altogether any other care than that I may not be deficient towards him*? Or is this my object forsooth, that I may appear to preserve the public opinion? "For on these things there is no dependence"." I wish I were able to bear my domestic troubles' as easily as I can disregard these. But you suppose me to have wished something which has not been accomplished. Is it not allowable, then, to have one's own opi- nion ? But, however, what was then done* I can- not help approving ; and yet I can very well lay aside ail care about it, as indeed 1 do. But more than enough of trifles. LETTER XXI. I DELIVERED a long letter to Hirtius, which I had just written in Tusculanum. To that, which you sent me there, I shall reply at some other time ; at present I wish to advert to others. What can I say about Torquatus, till I have heard something from Dolabella ? As soon as that happens, you shall immediately know. I expect a messenger from him to-day, or at farthest to-morrow, who shall be sent on to you as soon as he arrives. I am expecting to hear from Quintus ; for when I was setting out from Tusculanum on the 24th, as you know, I sent a messenger to him. To return to my business ; that expression of yours, which had wonderfully pleased me, now exceedingly dis- pleases ; for it is altogether a nautical term, as indeed I knew; but I thought that when the rowers were ordered inhibere, ' ' to back their oars," they suspended their motion. Yesterday, however, upon the arrival of a vessel at my villa'', I learnt that this was not the case ; for they do not suspend them, but move them in another manner. This is quite different from the Greek eTroxh- Therefore 1 Towards reconciling Cicero and .ftuintus. See the ninth and following letters of book xi. r So I understand this passage, which has been variously interpreted by diiferent commentators. 8 I conceive this alludes to some expression fallen from Atticus, probably on the occasion of Quintus Cicero. ' This seems to be\vritten under a sense of philosophical propriety, by which he was taught to be anxious about nothing but his own conduct. ^ In the original ia a fragment only of a Greek sentence, which,^in our ignorance of the remainder, must be supplied by conjecture. ' Meaning, no doubt, his'affliction for his daughter, as well as his concern about Terentia and Quintus. w Respecting his conduct towards his brother, who seemed to take offence at Cicero's advancing money to Pompeius, while he suffered Quintus to remain in difficul- ties. [See book xi. letter 13.] I am aware that the latter part of this letter has been very differently interpreted, and supposed by some able commentators to relate to Cicero's success in the forum, for which I see no sufficient grounds. 'E On the banks of the Llris, or Oarigliano. 782 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO let it stand in the book, as it was. Mention this also to Varro, unless he has already altered it. For there is no better word than I had used before, and which is warranted by the authority of LuouUus. Carneades also makes the guard of the boxer, and the action of the charioteer holding in his horses, to correspond with ^Troxif i but the backing the oars is attended with motion, and that a consider- able one, while the ship is turned round to the stern. You see how much more I care about this, than either about public rumour ? ; or about Pollio ^ : let me hear also about Pansa ", if any- thing certain is known ; for I imagine it has been made public ; and if there has been any news of Critonius, or anything ascertained respecting Me- tellus and Balbinus. Tell me, is it your pleasure to publish my writings first, without my leave ? Not even Hermodorus did this, who used to divulge Plato's books ; from whence came the proverb, " Hermodorus deals in words'*." How is this ? Do you think it right that anybody should have it before Brutus, whom I addressed at your sugges- tion ^. For Balbus wrote me word that he had transcribed the fifth book of the Foundations of Moral Duty from you ; in which I have not indeed altered much ; yet something. But you will do well to keep back the others ; that Balbus may not receive them uncorrected, or Brutus when they are stale. But enough of these matters, that I may not seem to be diligent about trifles. Though now these things are the greatest with which I have to do. For what else is there ? I am using such despatch in sending to Varro what I have written at your suggestion, as already to have forwarded it to Rome to be transcribed. You may, if you please, have it immediately ; for I have written to my clerks to let yours, if you wished it, have the liberty of copying it ; but you will keep it private till I see you ; as you always do with great care, when 1 have desired it. But in consequence of my having omitted to mention this to you, Cserellia, glowing with a wonderful passion for philosophy, copies from your people, and is in the possession of these same books on the Foundations of Moral Duty. And I assure you (subject indeed to human fallibility) that she did not receive them from my people ; for they were never oat of my sight ; and they wei'e, besides, so far from making tw-o copies, that it was with diffictilty they completed one. I do not however impute any fault to your clerks ; and that I would have you understand ; for I had omitted to say that I did not yet wish them to get abroad. What ! still upon trifles ? For upon subjects of importance I have nothing to say. I agree with you about Dolabella. Let the co-heirs'", as you mention, come to Tusculanum. Balbus has written to me about Caesar's arrival, that it will not be before the 1st of August. The account of Attica is excellent, that she has less fever, is quieter, and bears her illness with patience. As to what you say upon that subject for our con- y "What the public may say of him, as in the preceding letter. ^ He had been left by CiBsar in Spain. t> It is uncertain to what this relates. 1* Hermodorus made a traffic of publishing in Sicily the lectures he had heard from Plato. c His treatise " De Finibus" is addressed to Brutus, and is that of which Cicero here speaks. ii See letter 14 of this book. sideration ", in which I take no less interest than you ; so far as I know, I greatly approve of the gentleman, his family, and fortune. What after all is the chief thing, I am not personally ac- quainted with him ; but I hear favourable reports from Scrofa. He likewise lives very near you, if this is anything to the purpose ; and is more noble ' than his father. When we meet therefore — and it will be with a mind disposed to approve. For in addition to what I have said, I have a re- gard for his father, as I believe you know, and greater than not only you, but than he is aware of; and that, both deservedly, and of long standing. LETTER XXIL It is not without reason that I ask so particur larly what you think best about Varro. Some things occur to me, which I shall reserve till we meet. I have been very glad to interweave your name, which I shall do frequently ; for it was by your last letter that I first understood you did not object to it. About Marcellus ? I had before heard from Cassius ; and Servius sent me the particulars. What a sad affair ! To come back to my first sub- ject ; there is no place, where I would rather have my writings remain, than with you. But I should like not to have them sent abroad, till we both ap- prove of it. I exempt your clerks from all blame, and do not mean to find fault with you ; notwith- standing what I wrote to you, that Caarellia had some, which she could only have had from you. I was aware of the propriety of grati^ng Balbus ■■; I only wished that it might not be given to Brutus when it was grown stale, or to Balbus when it was imperfect. I will send the books to Varro, if you think it right, as soon as I have seen you. Yon shall know the cause of my hesitation when we meet. In calling upon the assignees, you have done quite right. I am sorry you should have so much trouble about your grandmother's estate. The case of our friend Brutus is very vexatious ; but it is the condition of human life. The ladies' are a little unreasonable in bearing such hostile disposi- tions, while neither of them are chargeable with dereliction of their duty. There was no occasion to call upon my secretary Tullius. If there had been, I would have sent you word. For nothing has been deposited with him under the title of a vow' ; though he has some money belonging to me, which I have determined to apply to this purpose. So that both I told you rightly where it was ; and he rightly denied having anything under that title. But let us at once enter upon this business ^. For the consecration of men", I do not e The choosing a husband for Attica. f Owing, I suppose, to his mother's family. e See letter 10 of this book. fa On account of his influence with Csesar. » Meaning probably Servilia and Porcia, the mother and wife of Brutus. j To be applied to the discharge of a vow, for such he considered his resolution of erecting a temple to his daughter. li The temple. * Though groves were often consecrated to heathen gods, yet, in the case of deifying men, something more open to view was preferable. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 783 quite approve of a grove, because it is too unfre- quented ; notwithstanding it has a reputation of sanctity. But this also shall be as you think pro- per ; for you are my guide in everything. I shall be at Tusculum, as I appointed"; and I wish you could be there the same day. But if anjtjiing- should prevent you (as many thin^sjni^),'at least the next day, when the ca-hr€irsare to come, by whom it would be crner to be beset without you. Again another letter without a word about Attica ; but this I pla''e among the best signs. I find fault with this ; not that you, but that she should not so much as send her compliments. But do you make my very best compliments both to her, and to Pilia ; do not however give a hint of my being offended. I send Caesar's letter, in case you should not have read it. LETTER XXIII. To the letter which I received from you yester- day in the forenoon, I immediately replied ; I now answer that of the afternoon. I wish Brutus had rather sent for me ; which was more reasonable, considering the sudden and distant journey upon which he was going ° ; and, to say the truth, under our present feelings, when we are incapable of en- joying each other's society (for you know in what principally consists the pleasure of living together) I should readily have acceded to our meeting' in Rome, rather than in Tusculanum. The books to Varro were no impediment ; for they have been re-made *•, as you have seen ; they only wait to have the errors of the clerks corrected. You know my hesitation about these books ; but you are answerable. Those which I am to send to Brutus, are likewise in the hands of the transcribers. Get my business settled, as you mention ; though Tre- batius tells me they all make those deductions. What do you think these people will do ! You are well acquainted with the house. Conclude it then in affability. You cannot believe how much I disregard such concerns. I assure you in the most solemn manner, and would have you believe me, that my paltry possessions are more plague than pleasure to me ; and that I am more dis- tressed by having nobody !■ on whom I should bestow them, than gratified by having them to use. Trebatius also said that he had mentioned the circumstance ^ to you. But perhaps you were afraid I should be sorry to hear it. That indeed was kindly intended ; but, believe me, I do not now care about such matters. Therefore enter into negotiation, and clip it as you will, and make an end of it. Rouse them, call, speak to them, as if you thought you were speaking with that Scaeva '. » July 7. See letter 12 of this iook. n Perhaps to meet Cffisar on his way from Spain. It heing generally agreed that the word dffecti must be erroneous, I hare supposed, with the least alteration, that it ought to he r^ecti; a word sufficiently appropriate, if it is considered that the work had heen altogether Te-Qast, the characters changed, and the nmnher of books extended from two to four. See letter 13 of this book, P Alluding to his daughter, who hi_d been in distress, and formerly wajited his assistance. See book xi. letter 20. 1 The deductions in payment. ' It is uncertain who this is. The name occurs again, book xiv. letter 10, and is there supposed to signify one of Cfesar's soldiers who had enriched himself by the plunder Do not suppose that they, who are in the habit of grasping at what does not belong to them, will re- mit anything of their just dues'. Take care only about the day ' ; and eveq that with civility. LETTER XXIV. What is this which I hear from Hermogenes Clodius, that Andromenes had told him he had seen Cicero " at Corcyra ? For I suppose it must have been known to you ". Has he then sent no letter even by him ? Or has he not seen him .' Let me know how this is. What more should I say to you about Varro ? The four books are in your pos- session, and I shall be satisfied with whatever you do. I am restrained by no " respect for the Tro- jans'" ;" why should I ? I was rather afraid how well he might himself* like it. But since you un- dertake it, I shall rest at ease. LETTER XXV- Respecting the deductions' I have already replied to your very accurate letter. You will make an end of it therefore, and without any hesitation, or revision. It is proper and expe- dient that this should be done. About Andro- menes ^, I had supposed it must be as you say, otherwise you would have known it, and mentioned it to me. While you write so much about Brutus, you say nothing of yourself '. But when do you suppose he will come to Tusculanum ? For on the 14th I am going to Rome. What I meant to say to Brutus (but what I perhaps . expressed indis- tinctly, since you mention your having read it) was, that I had understood from your letter, that he wished me not to go up at this time merely for the sake of waiting upon him. But as the appointed time of my going ■> is so near, I beg that you will take care that this may be no impediment to his coming to Tusculanum for his own convenience. For I had no intention of calling upon him about the sale, since you alone are quite sufficient in a business of that kind. But I wanted him to attest my will " • which I should now prefer executing at another time, that I may not seem to have come fo Rome for that purpose''. I have accordingly written to- Brutus, what I really thought, that there of the opposite party. The sense seems to require that it be some person of more power than principle. 3 Persons who have got money by unjustifiable means, will not relinquish justifiable advantages. * That the money may be ready at the time it is wanted. » His son. * AtticuB having possessions in Corcyra, and frequent communication with that country. n' In the original is the same fragment of a verse so often quoted before. [See letter 13 of this hook.] The meaning is, that he had no need to fear giving offence. * Varro. 7 See letter 23 of this book. 2 See letter 24 of this book. * That is of your coming to Tusculanum, as well as Brutus. l" To attend Brinnius's sale. See letter 14 of this book. e Wills were anciently performed with great solenmity. — Taylor.'C. L. p. 64. d That Brutus may not imagine I go up now expressly to get his attestation, and should therefore he disappointed if he were not to be there. 78i THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLTUS CICERO v/as no occasion for his being there on the ISfch ®. I should be glad then if yoa would manage this whole business so, that I may not in the least in- terfere with Brutus's convenience. But what is it that you are at length afraid of, because I desire the books to be given to Varro on your responsibi- lity? Even now, if you have any doubt, let me know it. In elegance of style they have not been surpassed. I should like Varro, especially as he desires it ; but he is, as you know, '' a stern man, and one who might easily take exception without just cause ^." Accordingly I often picture to my- self his countenance, complaining, it may be, that my part is more copiously defended in those books than his ; though you will perceive that this is not the case, if ever you get into Epirus, and have leisure to examine them. For at present I give way to your correspondence with Alexio s. I do not however despair of their meeting with Varro's approbation ; and after being at the expense of large paper *>, I shall not be sorry to have that de- sign adhered to. But I say agaia and again, that it must be on your responsibility. Therefore if you have any hesitation, let us transfer it to Brutus ; for he also is an Antiochian '. O variable Academy, and like itself ; now here, now there J. But, pray how did you like my letter to Varro ? May I die, if I ever study any work, as I have done this. I have not even dictated to Tiro, who is used to write down whole sentences ; but to Spintherus, syllable by syllable. N- B. The 26ift letter was before inserted in its proper place, after the ^M of book xii.] LETTER XXVII. Respecting the letter to Csesar", I was always of opinion that it ought first to be submitted to his friends. Otherwise I should have been not only wanting in attention to them, but should also have exposed myself to some danger, in case of his being offended with me. They have acted ingenu- ously ; and I take it kindly that they have not concealed what they thought. Especially they have done "w^ell in suggesting so many alterations, that the writing it afresh is more than the occasion de- mands. On the subject of the Parthian war, however, what ought I to have considered, but what I supposed him to wish ? For what other argument could my letter admit, besides flattery? Had I wished to recommend what I thought best, should I have wanted matter ? Therefore the whole letter is unnecessary. For where the ad- vantage to be gained cannot be great ; and a e The day of Briiinius' sale. See letter 33 of this book. f The original is taken from Homer. & AtticuB's bailiff in Epirus. h A presentation copy written on large and handsome paper. i See letter 19 of this book. J He compares his own variableness in changing the address, to the variable nature of the Academic philosophy, which he professed, ever bending to circumstances, and adopting probability in the place of fixed principles. ^ See book xii. letter 40. This letter appears to have been a letter of advice on public affairs, which made Cicero anxious to have the approbation of some of Caesar's party ; by which is probably to be understood Balbus and Oppius, who were likeivise friends to Cicero. failure, even if it be not great, may be productive of vexation ; what need is there of running the risk } Especially when I consider, that having written nothing before, he would expect that I should write nothing till the whole war was at an end. I am even apprehensive that he may imagine I wished this to be as a soother for my " Cato^" In short, I repented of having written, and nothing could fall out more to my mind, than that my labour was not approved. Besides, I should have exposed myself to the calumnies of Caesar's ad- herents, and among them to those of your rela- tion °^. But I return ° to the subject of the gardens. I would by no means have you go thither but with perfect convenience to yourself ; for there is no hurry. "Whatever be the result, let us use our endeavours about Faberius. Respecting the day of sale, however, when you know anything, you will inform me- As the messenger, who came from Curaanum, reports that Attica is quite well, and says that he has a letter for you, I send him on to you without delay. LETTER XXVIII. As you were to inspect the gardens to-day, I shall hear to-morrow what you have thought of them. About Faberius you will let me know, when he is arrived. Respecting the letter to Ctesar, believe me when I swear that I cannot do it. Not that the baseness of it deters me ; (though it ought exceedingly ; for how base is flattery ?) since it is base for me even to be alive. But, as I was saying, it is not this baseness that deters me; I wish it was ; for I should then be what I ought to be : but nothing occurs to my mind. For with regard to the exhortations of those eloquent and learned men° to Alexander, you see on what sub- jects they are employed. They are addressed to a young man inflamed with the love of the truest glory, and asking for advice in the pursuit of lasting praise. It is easy to speak in an honour- able cause. But what can I do ? Yet I carved out from my wooden materials something that might look like an image ; and in this, because there were some things a little better than what are doing, and have been done, they are censured. But I by no means regret this ; for if that letter had been delivered, believe me, I should be sorry for it. What ? Do not you see how that very disciple of Aristotle, with all his understanding and all his moderation, after he got the title of king, became haughty, cruel, intemperate ? And do you suppose this man p from amidst his pro- cessions, the comrade of Quirinus^, will be pleased with this temperate letter of mine ? But let him rather want what is not written than disapprove what is written. In short, as he pleases. That 1 To counteract any displeasure Caesar might have con- ceived from Cieero*s panegyric on Cato. "1 Young Qnintus Cicero. » It may be observed, that the expression of returning to the subject, is often used to mean, not returning to Avhat had been said before in the same letter, but return- ing to any subject previously mentioned, especially if it be one of frequent recurrence. o Aristotle and Theopompus. See book xii. letter 40. P CiEsar q See book xii. letter 46. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 785 Archimedean problem', which once stimulated me, and which I referred to you, is past. Now, indeed, I wish for that issue or any issue', much more ardently than 1 formerly dreaded it. Unless some- thing else prevent you, I shall be very glad to see you here. Nicias has been earnestly sent for by Dolabella, for I read the letter ; and though it was against my inclination, yet it was at my instance that he went. This in my own hand. bella's debty is on the point of being liquidated, so that I may trust to paying in ready money. Enough about the gardens. To-morrow I hope to see you, unless some business prevent j which I wish may be Faberius's. However, if you can. LETTER XXIX. While 1 was inquiring of Nicias different things relating to literary people, I fell, as it were, by chance upon the subject of Talna'. He made no great account of his abilities, but said that he was modest and prudent. He added, however, what I did not like, that he said he knew he had lately paid his addresses to Cornificia, the daughter of Qnintus", who was an old woman, and had been married several times ; but the match was not approved by the ladies, who found out that his property did not exceed 800 sestertia (0400/.). This 1 have thought it right you should know. I have learned about the gardens, both from your letter and from Chrysippus'. In the house, with the dulness of which I was well acquainted, I understand there has been little or no alteration. However, he speaks well of the larger bath, and says that out of the smaller may be constructed some winter apartments'". A covered place for exercise must therefore be added ; which, if it is made as large as that inTusculannm, will not cost much more than half the price, in this place. But for that temple which I want, nothing seems more appropriate than the grove with which I was for- merly acquainted ; but at that time it was little frequented ; now I hear it is very much so : there is nothing that I should prefer to it. On this subject I entreat you to bear with my extravagance. It remains, that if Faberius pays me that debt, I would not have you make a question about the price. I would have you outbid Otho. At the same time I do not suppose he will exceed the bounds of reason ; for I think I know the man. But I hear he has been so roughly treated, that I do not think he will care to be a purchaser. What ? Would he suffer .' — But why do I reason about it ? If you settle this Faberian account, let me have it though at a dear rate : if not, I must not think of it even at a cheap one. Let us try Clodia there- fore, from whom I entertain hope, both on account of their being much cheaper, and because Dola- >■ This probably means the embarrassment in which he found himself upon his return to Italy after the defeat of Pompeius, of which he speaks so much in book xi,, when ne doubted what steps he ought to take to conciliate CEesar, and dreaded the effects of bis displeasure. s Banishment, or death, now appears more desirable to him than a life of sorrow and dissatisfaction, after the loss of his daughter, and loss of the freedom of the state. * It seems probable that this may have been somebody whom Atticus thought of as a husband for Attica. " Quintus Comiiicius. * An architect under Cyrus, of whom mention was for- merly made. See book ii. letter 3. "^ The ancient Romans used to have summer and winter aDartments, the latter of which Plinius calls hibernacula. Bp. ii. 17. * It ia uncertain to what rough treatment Cicero refers. LETTER XXX. I RETURN you Cicero's^ letter. O hard-hearted man, who are not moved with his dangers " ! He accuses me also. I should have sent you his letter; for as to the other respecting his achieve- ments, I take it to be a copy of yours. I have sent a messenger to Cumanum to-day, to whom I have entrusted your letter to Vestorius, which was brought by Pharnaoes. I had just despatched Demea to you, when Eros arrived. But there was no news in the letter he brought, excepting that the sale"" would be in two days. Therefore after that", as you mention ; and I wish the Fabe- rian business may previously have been settled. Eros, says he'', will not come to-day; but thinks he may to-morrow morning. You must pay him attention ; though such flattery is not far removed from guilt. I shall hope to see you the day after to-morrow. Find out, if you can, who were the ten commissioners sent to Mummius'. Polybius does not mention their names. I remember only the consular Albinus, and Sp. Mummius, and think I have heard Hortensius name Tuditanus. Rutin Libo's annals it appears that Tuditanus was made praetor fourteen years after Mnmmius's consulship ; which does not accord. 1 think of writing some political congress, supposed to be held at Olympia, or where you will, after the manner of your friend Dicsearchus. LETTER XXXI. On the morning of the 28th I received by Demea' a letter dated the day before, by which I might expect you either to-day or to-morrow. But I apprehend that longing, as I do, for your arrival, I shall myself be the occasion of stopping you. For I cannot suppose the Faberian business will be so soon despatched (even if it is in train) but that it will meet with some impediment. When you are at liberty therefore k ; as you are still likely to be kept. I shall be glad if you will send me the books of Dicsearchus, which you mention, and likewise his Korci/Sains ''. About the letter to y Due to Cicero. z Young Quintus's. See letter 2 of this book. ^ This is said ironically of the dangers he had magnified in his campaign with Csesar in Spain. ^ Can this mean the sale of Scapula's gardens ? c After the sale you will come to me. d Faberius. <3 See letters 4 and 6 of this book. f It appears by the preceding letter that Cicero had sent this Demea before to Atticus, and it is to be supposed that he brought hack a letter from Atticus to Cicero, which is that spoken of. The expression of the text is liable to the same ambiguity as that in the translation. e The sense is obvious, that he wished Atticus to come to him as soon as he was at liberty. I have thought the conclusion of the sentence was sufflcicntly clear, without adding to the original. h Meaning his book upon the descent into Trophonius'a cave, which was before mentioned. See book vi. letter 2^ , BE 78(5 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Caesar I am quite determined. And the very thing which they say he mentions in his letter, that he will not go against the Parthians till affairs at home are settled, is the same that I advised in my letter. But were it otherwise, whichever he chose to do, he might, with my consent. For does he wait for this forsooth ? And will he do nothing but by my advice ? Let us, I beseech you, have done with this, and be at least half-free ; which we may yet be by saying nothing, and keeping quiet. But speak to Otho, as you propose ; and make an end, my Atticus, of that business '. For I can find no other- place where I can be with you, arid yet not be in the forum. With regard to the price, this has occurred to me. C. Albanius is tlie nearest neighbour ; who bought of M. Pilius 1000 acres, as well as I remember, for 11,500 sestertiaJ (92,000/.) ; and everything is now lower. But my wishes are to be taken into the account ; in which I am Ukely to have no rival besides Otho. Even upon him you will be able to make some impres- sion ; and the easier, if you have the assistance of Canus ''. O silly gluttony' ! Let him suppose that I maintain the sternness of a father". You will reply to his letter, if there is anything you wish to say. LETTER XXXIL Having received a second letter from you to- day, I did not care to leave you with only one in return. Do as you mention in regard to Faberius ; for on him depends the whole success of my design. Had not this design been in agitation, (believe me in this, as in everything else,) I should not trouble myself. Therefore, as you do (for nothing can exceed this) urge, insist, accomplish. I should be glad if you would send me both books of Dicae- archus on the Soul, and likewise that on the Descent °. I do not find his Tripoliticon, or the letter which he sent to Aristoxenus. I now par- ticularly want those " three books ; they would be convenient for the subjectr which I have in con- templation. The ' ' Torquatus' '9 is at Rome : I have desired it may be sent to you.' The " Catulus" and ' ' Lucullus' ' ' I imagine you have had before ; but T have made new introductions to these books, which I wish you to have, containing an euloglum upon each of these persons ; and there are some other additions. You have not quite understood what I » Of the gardens. i I conceive the figures ought to be interpreted Centies decies quinquies. See book 1. letter 2, note J. ^ Q. Gellius Canus was an early friend of Atticus, men- tioned by Com. Nepos. ' This probably alludes to some account, received through Atticus, of his son's expensive living. ^ That is, Putet me patris tueri partes. At that time parents used great severity towai'ds their children ; for whom Plutai-ch therefore recommends the interference of an uncle. — See Pint. ITepl $t\a5€\(/)ias near the end. ^ Entitled KttTtfjSaffiS, or the Descent into the Cave of Trophonius. See letter 31 of this book. The two treatises on the Soul, and that upon the Descent. P Probably his Tusculan Questions. 1 A treatise of Cicero's, so called from Torquatus being the principal character namei in it : perhaps the first book of his treatise " De Finibus." See letter 5 of this book. ' The original names of two books of his *• Acaderaica." See letter 12 of this book. wrote to you about the ten commissioners ; which I suppose was owing to my writing by abbrevia- tions. For I meant to inquire about C. Tuditanus, who I heard from Hortensius had been one of the ten. But in Libo's annals I see that he was prae- tor in the consulship of P. PopiUius and P. Rupi- lius. Could he then have been a commissioner fourteen years before he was prsetor .' Unless indeed he became quaestor extremely late, which I do not think was the case ; for I observe that he had no difiiculty in taking the curule ■ offices at the regular times. I knew that Posthumius was one of them, whose statue you say you remember at the Isthmus. It is he who was with Lucullus; for whom I have to thank you, as a very proper personage at that congress'. You will find out then the others if you can ; that I may have a splendid assemblage of characters. LETTER XXXIII. Strange negligence ! Can you suppose that Balbus and Faberius had ever once told me the declaration'^ was given in ? Moreover, it was by their direction that I sent up on purpose to make my declaration, which they said it was proper to do. Itwas madeby thefreed-nian Philotimus. I believe you are acquainted with the clerk ^ : but you will write to him, and that without delay. I have sent a letter to Faberius, as you advise ; and imagine you will have had some communication with Balbus to-day in the capitol. I have no scruple in regard to Virgilius". I have no reason for it on his own account ; and if I should purchase, of what will he have to complain ? But you must take care, that, being in Africa, he does not act the same part as Caelius*. You will see about the account with Crispins y. But if Plancus thinks of it^, there may be some difficulty. You and I are both of us desirous that you should come to me ; but this business must not be left. This is indeed good news, that you hope Otho may be gained". Respecting the valuation, as you say, when we have entered upon the negotiation; though his letter only relates to the quantity of land. Con- clude with Piso"" if you can. I have received Dicsearchus's book, and expect the Karipams- Give instructions to somebody about the commis- » The praetors, consuls, censors, and chief jediles, were allowed to use particular carriages, currus, from whence they were called curule offices. * Which Cicero proposed to introduce in some new trea- tise. See letter 30 of this book. ^ A declaration of each person's property was given in to the censors every fifth year ; and in the interval, every new accession was registered by the praetor. The declara. tion hei-e spoken of may probably relate to some assignment of Faberius's property to Cicero. ^ The secretary whose business it was to receive tbe declaration. «■ Virgilius, one of the co-heirs of Scapula, appears to hate been in Africa in support of Pompeius's party, in consequence of which it is probable his share may have been confiscated. s In surrendering upon condition of recovering his pro- perty. This Caelius is supposed to be a different person from him mentioned in letter 3 of tliis bctpk y jMentioned in book xii. letter 24. ^ Designs to purchase the gardens. « Sec letter 31 of this book. '• Bee book xii. letter 5, TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 787 sioners'. He will find it in the book which con- tains the decrees of the senate in the consulate of Cn. Cornelius and L. Mummius. Your conjec- ture about Tuditanus is very probable; that, as he was at Corinth, (for Hortensius did not men- tion it inconsiderately,) he was then either quaestor or military tribune ; and I rather suppose this to have been the case. You will be able to ascertain this from Antiochns. Learn also in what year he was quaestor, or military tribune. If neither agrees, then, whether he was in the number of the lieutenants or of the pages " ; provided he was in that war at all. I was speaking of Yarro, and behold the wolf in. the fable'. For he came to me, and at such a time, that I invited him to stay ; but did not use so much violence as to tear his coat ' ; for I remember that expression of yours ; and they were a large company, and I was not prepared. Nevertheless, soon after came C. Capito with T. Carrinas. Their coats I scarcely touched s ; yet they stayed, and it fell out very well. But Capito, by chance, entered upon the subject of enlarging the city ^ ; that the Tiber was to be brought from the MiUvian bridge at the foot of the Vatican hills ; that the Campus Martins was to be built up, and the Vatican plain to be converted into another Campus Martina. " What do you say ? " cried I. " I am going to the auc- tion, that, if I can with propriety, I may purchase Scapula's gardens." " Take care how you do it," says he ; "for the law will certainly be car- ried, as it is Csesar's wish." I heard him very patiently, but should be sorry to have it take place. But what say you ? You know Capito's diligence in seeking out news. He is not inferior to Camil- lus. Let me hear about the business of the 15th' j for it is that which brings me up. I had Ukewise some other affairs, which, however, I can easily transact two or three days later. But I by no means wish you to be harassed with travelling. I also forgive Dionysius. As to what you say about Brutus, 1 have set him quite at liberty, as far as relates to me ; for I wrote to him yesterday to say that I had no occasion for his assistance on the I5thi. LETTER XXXIV. I CAME to Astura the 2Sth'', having stopped throe hours at Lanuvium to avoid the heat. I should be glad if you could without much trouble get me excused from going to Rome before the 5th' ; which you can do through Egnatius. But, above all, my principal" concern is, that you = Whoso names he mshed to know. See letter 30 of this book, ' Young men of family who went for inEtruction in the suite of the provincial governors. •^ As he spake of him, in he came, ' I suppose this to allude to some joking expression formerly used by Atticus, e He did not press them to stay, '' See letter 20 of this book. ' See letter 25 of this book. The day of Brimiius' sale. J In the text is Idib, Mai., but it has justly been sus- pected that this is an error, or false interpolation. The month intended was probably July, the time of Briunius' sale. Probably in July, after his return from Aipinura. Of August, ™ I prefer the making Maximum begin the sentence; for Oicero nowhere else joins it v/ith Egnatius. should complete the arrangement with Publilias" while I may be considered as absent. Write me word what is said about this. " As if the people cared forsooth"." In truth, I apprehend not; for it is an old story. But I wanted to fill the page. Why should I say more ? as I shaU presently be with you, unless you put it off. For I have already written to you on the subject of the gardens. LETTER XXXV. O DiSGRACErcL circumstance ! Your name- sake' is enlarging the city, which he never saw till within these two yeai%, and which he thinks too little even to hold him. I expect to hear from you upon this subject. You say that you will present the books 1 to Varro as soon as he arrives. He has got them then by this time, and all doubt is at an end. Ah ! if you could know what risk you run' ! imless my letter has perhaps stopped you. But you had not received it when you wrote last. I am anxious to know therefore how the affair stands. LETTER XXXVL Though what you tell me of Brutus's affection, and your walk together, is nothing new, but the very same that I have often heard before ; yet the oftener, the more agreeable. And it is the more gratifying to me, because you take pleasure in it; and the more certain because it comes from you. LETTER XXXVII. I SEND you this second letter to-day. Nothing can be more convenient or more suitable than what you mention about Xeno's debt, and the forty ses- tertia (300/.) from Epirus ». The younger Balbus spake of that business' to me in the same manner. There is nothing new, but that Hirtius disputed sharply with Quintus" in my behalf ; while he ' con- tinued everywhere, and especially in company, to utter many calumnies first about me, then about his own father. But nothing of what he said was so plausible, as that we were both exceedingly hostile towards Csesar ; that we were not to be trusted ; and that I was even to be guarded against. It was quite formidable ; but that I knew our king was aware of my having no spirit left. He said n Respecting his divorce from Fublilia, and the repay- ment of her dower. 1 A well-known expression in the " Andria " of Teren- tius. P This was probably some surveyor, at whose suggestion Cffisar may have thought of extending the city. q The "Academica," addressed to Varro, Which, though done at Atticus' suggestion, yet Atticus seems to have been afraid of recommending. See letter 26 of this book, r Said in pleasant mockery of his friend's timidity. » This money due to Atticus from his estates in Epirus, and a debt from Xeno at Athens, [see book v. letter 10,] was proposed to be transferred to young Cicero in Athens, and repaid by his father at Bome. t The calumnies of young C^tuntus, who was with the army in Spaiu, See book xii. letter 38. « The nephew, V Quintus. 3E 2 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO too that I was severe towards my son Cicero ; but of that as he pleases. I am glad I gave to Lepta's messenger my panegyric on Porcia^" before I received your letter. You will take care, therefore, if you have any regard for me, that if it is sent to Domitiiis and Brutus, it may be sent in this form". You will continue to give me daily information about the gladiators J", and other subjects that are blown about, as you call it. I should be glad, if you think well of it, that you would call upon Bal- bus and Offilius about advertising the sale^. I spake to Balbus myself, who agreed to it. I imagine Offi- lius has a written account of all the property. Baibus has also. But Balbus wished for an early day, and at Rome ; if Csesar's arrival should be delayed, the day might be "put off. But he seems to be just here. Therefore take the whole into consideration; for Vestorius has signified his acquiescence \ LETTER XXXVIIL As I was writing before dawn against the Epicu- reans *>, by the same lamp and labour"^ I scrawled something to you, and sent it before it was light. Afterwards, having slept again, when I got up at sun-rise I received a letter from your sister's son**, which I send you. The beginning of it is very reproachful ; but perhaps " he did it without con- sideration*^." It runs thus: " I am sorry for everything that can be said discreditably of you." Meaning that many things might be said against me, though he professed not to approve it. Can anything be more foul ? But you shall read the rest, and judge for yourself; for I inclose it to you. You mentioned sometime since, that he was struck with the daily and continual commendations of our friend Brutus, such as many persons have told me he bestows upon me. He ' has said some- thing about it to me, and I imagine to you, which you will let me know. What he may have written to his father about me, I cannot tell. But observe how dutifully he speaks of his mother: "In order," says he, " that I might be with you ^ as much as possible, T wished to have a house hired for me, and so I told you ; but you have not done it, so that we shall be less togetner. For I cannot bear to see that house; you know why." The reason ^^ Cato's sister, who had lately died. She was mother to Domitius. See letter 48 of this book, which should have preceded this. ^ In the corrected form in which Cicero had sent it pre. vioiisly to his hearing from Atticus on the siihject. y To he exhibited upon Cseaar's return from Spain. ^ It is not certain what sale is here intended ; possibly that of Cluvius's property. [See letter 45 of this book.] Balbua probably acted as Csesar's agent. a That is, his readiness to have it take place at an early day. iJ The 2d book of his Tusculan Questions, on which he was at this time engaged. c Writing before it was liglit, he of course wrote by a lamp. The expression " lamp and labour" was familiar to the Romans ; and though not so in English, it seemed de- sirable nevertheless to preserve it in the ti-aiislation. •^ Quintiis. e I suspect the Greek expression in the original to be taken from some former letter of Atticus, '\\Titten in ex- tenuation of his nephew's misconduct. f Quintus the younger. e His father, to whom this letter was written. his father gives, is his aversion to his mother. Now help me, my Atticus, with your advice, " Shall I mount the lofty wall of justice'' ?" that is, shall I openly spurn him, and cast him off? *' Or shall I use the crooked paths of dissimulation?" For I may add with Pindar—" to say the truth, my mind is divided." The former is more suitable to my disposition ; but perhaps the latter to the times. Whatever be your opinion, be assured that mine is the same. I am most apprehensive of his intrud- ing upon me in Tusculanum. It would be easier managed in a greater concourse. Shall I remove' then to Astura? What if Caesar should suddenly arrive ? Help me, I beseech you, with your advice. I will do as you determine. LETTER XXXIX. O VANITY beyond belief J ! To tell his father that he must absent himself from home on account of his mother ! How dutiful ! But his father already relaxes, and says that his son had reason to be angry with him. I will, however, follow your advice ; for I see you prefer the crooked ''. I will go to Rome, as you recommend, though against my inclination ; for I am deeply engaged in writing. By the same opportunity, you say I shall see Brutus, But were it not for that other reason ', this circumstance ™ would not bring me up : for he does not come from whence I could wish"; nor has he been long absent, or ever written to me. But yet I want to know how his journey has turned out °. 1 should be glad if you would send me the books which I before mentioned to you, especially those of Phsedrus, entitled Uepio- To be out of Q,uintus*s way. J I have supposed it ought to be written tncredibikm. ^ This relates to the crooked paths of dissimulation men- tioned in the preceding letter. 1 To avoid eneoimtering his nephew in Tusculanmii. n> The meeting Brutus. " Cicero did not approve of Brutuss paying court to Caesar by going so far to attend him on his return to Rome. ° One object of his journey seems to have been the ob- taining the praetorship through Cesar's favoiu?. P Commentators are not agreed about the text, and it is in vain to conjectm-e what these books might be. 5 This may probably allude to something previously said by Atticus. It appears to be meant of Gaisar, who having occasioned the death of so many good citizens, could only find in the regions of the dead any deserving that name, i ' It seems most probable that this may mean some library, or gallery, belonging to Brutus, so called from the temple at Athens, and in which he might, by the advico of Atticus, have placed statues, or pictures, of his ances- tors Brutus and Alijila, the assertors of their country's liberty, the fii-st against Tarquinius. the second against Q. Melius, TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 789 of Ahala and Brutus ? But what can he do ? I am pleased with what follows % that not even he ', who has been the source of all our atrocities, thinks well of our nephew. I had feared that even Bru- tus might entertain affection for him : for so. he intimated in the letter he wrote in reply to mine. I wish he " had tasted some of his ' stories. But, as you say, when we meet. Yet what do you advise .' that I should go up ? or stay ? To say the truth, I am both entangled in my books, and unwilling to receive him ^ here. I understand his father is gone to-day to meet him at the Acrono- man rocks*. It is surprising how angry he went ; so that I was obliged to check him. But I am myself easily changed. Therefore I must hereafter take care how I conduct myself J. But consider what you think of my going up ; and, if it can be clearly seen to-morrow, let me be informed of everything early in the morning '. LETTER XLI. I HAVE sent to Quintus the letter for your sister. Upon his complaining of the quarrel between young Quintus and his mother, (on which account he told his son that he would remove from his house *,) I mentioned that he had written a very proper letter to his mother, but none to you. He was surprised at the first circumstance j but with regard to you, he said the fault rested with him- self, as he had repeatedly written to his son in terms of severity respecting your \mldndness towards him. But upon his saying that he relented, I told him (after reading your letter recommend- ing'' dissimulation) that I should not be angry vrith him. For then came on the mention of Cana ". And indeed, if that proposal should be adopted, if became necessary. But, as you observe, some attention must be paid to our own dignity ; and we ought both to be in the same mind, though his offence towards me is thegreater and more notorious. But if Brutus brings anything conciliatory, we must not hesitate. When we meet, however : for it is a thing of some moment, and requires caution. To-morrow therefore °, unless I receive from you some further leave ^ of absence. * In Atticus's letter. t Cxaar, ^ Brutus. ' Quintns' stories against Cicero. w Quintus. * Tlie text is uncertain, and tlie place nnlniowii. y So 1 conceive the sentence ought to be completed ; meaning that he must he earefnl how he reproached his nephew, whom he might soon after have occasion to defend, as in the present instance. ^ Early on the day after to-morrow. He wanted to receive from Atticus an early account of everything relat- ing to Casar's approach, that be might regulate his mea- sures accordingly, ' See letter 37 of this hook. ' Sec letter 38 of this book. c To be proposed as a match for Quintus. ■* It was necessary to dissemble his displeasure. * I shall see you in Rome. ' Some intimation that I need not so soon go up to Rome. See letter 43 of this bock. LETTER XLII. He s came to me, and was very much dejected ; upon which I said, but what makes you so thoughtful ? Do you ask, says he, one who has a journey to perform ; aud a journey to the war, and that a dangerous and a disgraceful one''? What then obliges you to go? said I. My debts, he replied ; and yet I have not even enough to sup- port me on the road. In this place 1 borrowed something from your eloquence, and held my tongue. But, he went on to say, I am most of all vexed about my uncle. On what account ? said I. Because, says he, he is angry with me. Why do you suffer it ? I said. (For I chose rather to say so, than, why do you give occasion for it ?) I will not suffer it, says he ; for I will remove the cause of it. You do rightly, said I ; but if it is not troublesome, I should be glad to know what the cause may be. Because, whilst I was deliberating whom I should marry, 1 did not satisfy my mother, and so did not satisfy him, But at present there is nothing I so much wish ', and am ready to do what they desire. J. hope it will turn out weU, said I, and I commend you. But how soon ? I am indifferent about the time, said he, since I approve of the thing. But I think, said I, that it should be before you set out ; for so you will give satisfaction also to your father. I will do, says he, as you advise. So ended this dialogue. But hark you : you recollect that my birth-day is the 3d of January ; you will accordingly be with me. Just as I had finished my letter, see here, Lepidus begs me to come up. I imagine the augurs have nothing to do in the way of consecrating a temple. But let us go '. I shall therefore see you. LETTER XLIII. I SHALL certainly avail myself of this delay of a day ; and you have done very kindly to let me know it, and in such a manner as to write yourself immediately from the sports, and to let me get your letter at a time when I did not expect it. I have indeed some business to transact in Rome, but I can do it two days later. LETTER XLIV. Your letter was most pleasing, however un- pleasant the circumstance of the procession ''. But yet it is not unpleasant to know everything, even that affair of Cotta'. The populace indeed behaved s Young Quintus. Ii Against the Parthians, by whom Crassiis had been defeated and slain. > As to give them satisfaction. J Here follow two Greek words, probably corrupted, aud rendered little more intelligible by the conjectures of com- mentators. k The procession here spoken of seems to have been that called Circensian, exhibited in the Circus Maximus, where the images of the gods were drawn along with great pomp previously to the exhibition of the games. On this occasion Caesar's image was also drawn next to that of Victory, by an adulatory decree of the senate. 1 It is supposed that Cotta, even at this time, began to speak of making Caesar a king, on pretence of some ohsciu-e prophecy that the Parthians could only be conquered by a king. 790 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO nobly in giving no applause even to the statue of Victory, on account of its bad neighbour ^, Brutus has been with me, and wished me very much to write something to Csesar ; to which I agreed ; but on con- dition that he would see the procession °, And have you ventured to present the books to Varro ° ? 1 am anxious to know what he may think of them. But when will he read them ? I quite approve of your conduct about Attica p. It is something to have the mind elevated with the sight, as well as with the awe and celebrity, of the ceremony. I should be glad if you would send me Cotta i. Libo I "have with me, and I had Casca before. Brutus has informed me upon the authority of T. Ligarius, that the naming of L. Curfidius in the Ligarian speech is my mistake ; but, as they say, an error of memory. I knew that Curfidius was very intimate with the family of Ligarius ; but I see that he had died previously. Therefore give instructions to Pharnaces, Antasus, and Salvius', to erase that name from all the copies. LETTER XLV. Lamia was with me after you left me ; and he brought me a letter he had received from Csesar, which, though it was dated antecedently to those brought by Diochares ', yet plainly declared his intention of coming before the Roman games '. At the end of it he desired that Lamia ° would make every preparation for the games, so that he might not hurry up to no purpose. By this letter there seemed to be no doubt of his arriving before that time ; and Lamia said that Balbus upon reading that letter was of the same opinion. I find I have some additional holidays ' ; but how many, do, if you love me, let me know. You will be able to learn from Baebius, or from your other neighbour Egnatius. When you exhort me to employ those days in expounding philosophy, you urge one who is already running. But you perceive that I must spend that time with Dolabella. Were I not detained by Torquatus's business"', I should be able to run down to Puteoli ^, and return in time. Lamia, it seems, had heard from Balbus that there was a large sum of money in the house r, which ought to be divided as soon as possible ; and a great m Caesar. ° From which he would be^able to judge how high Caesar was raised above the level of any modest address. See letter 28 of this book. o See letter 25 of this book. P In taJdng her to the Cireensian procession. q Cotta, Libo, and Casca, here mentioned, seem to mean certain works of which they were respectively the authors, as we say familiarly Locke, or Pope, meaning the books written by them. ■* Atticus's librarians or clerks. s A freed-man of Cassar. See book xL letter 6. t These began September 4. u Lamia was at this, time sedile, to which office was attached the care of the public games. V That the necessary time of his going to Borne was postponed. w It has appeared by some former letters that Cicero wantcdtoserve his friend Torquatus through the influence ofDolabella. See letter 9 of this book. ^ To take possession of part of Gluviue's property, to which he had succeeded. See letter 46 of this book. 7 Cluyius's house. amount of plate, besides the lands ; that an auction ought to take place at the earliest time. I wish you would write me word what you think best to be done. For my own part, if I had to choose out of all, I could not easily find anybody more diligent, or more ready, or more friendly towards me, than Vestorius ; to whom I have written very par. ticularly, and imagine that you have done the same. This appears to me sufficient. What say you ? For the only thing I am afraid of is, that I may seem too negligent- I shall therefore hope to hear from you. LETTER XLVL PoLLBX* told me he would be back by the 13th of August, and accordingly came to me at Lanu- vium the 12th. But he is rightly called Pollex, not Index'. You will learn therefore from himself I called upon Balbus : for Lepta, who was anxious about the games '■, brought me to him by force, in that Lanuvian villa which he has given up to Lepidus. From him the first thing I heard was this — " A little while ago I received that letter, in which he strongly confirms his intention of return- ing before the Roman games." I read the letter. There is a great deal about my " Cato" ■=, from the repeated perusal of which he says that he is grown more copious ; whilst from the reading of Brutus's ** Cato" he appears to himself eloquent. From him"* I learned the inheritance of Cluvius's property. negligent Vestorius ! A free * inheritance, before witnesses', within sixty days. 1 was afraid it would be necessary to send for him &. Now I must send to desire he will accept by my order. This same Pollex may therefore return''. I have also had some liberal conversation with Balbus about Clu- vius's gardens, in which he promised to write to Csesar immediately. He said that Cluvius had charged Titus Hordeonius with a legacy of 50,000 sestertii (400/.) to Terentia, with the expense of a monument, and several other things ; but that there was no charge upon me. Pray, gently reprove Vestorius. What can be more discredits able, than that Plotins the perfumer should so long before have informed Balbus of everything by his slaves ; and that he ' should not have informed me even by my own. I am sorry for Cossinius, for I had a great regard for him. If anything should remain after paying my debts and my purchases, I will send it to Quintus ; but I apprehend these will oblige me even to contract new ones. I know nothing about the house at Arpinum. * This appears to have been one of Cicero's messengeifl [see book xi. letter 4] ; perhaps the same who, in book TJii. letter 5, is called Pollux. ' Pollex in Latin signifies the thumb, index the fore- finger. Index likewise signifies one who gives information. Cicero, by saying he was no index, insinuates that hfl brought little information. b He wanted to have the charge of the games to be cele- brated in honour of Caesar's return. c His panegyric upon Cato. Brutus likewise published something on the subject of his uncle Cato. •1 Balbus. « A free inheritance might probably mean one unin- cumbered with conditions. f It was to be accepted before mtnesses. ff Vestorius. h To Puteoli ' Vestorius, TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 791 There is no occasion for your accusing Vestorius. For after I had sealed this letter, my messenger arrived in the night, and brought me a letter from him written with great exactness, and likewise a copy of the will. LETTER XLVII. As soon as your servant Agamemno touched upon the subject, not of my going up, (though I would have done that also, if it had not been for TorquatuSj) but of my writing; I immediately stopped my business, laid aside what I had in hand, and have executed what you desired. I shall be glad to have you made acquainted with the account of my expense J through Pollex. For it would not be creditable to me to leave him •* in distress this first year, whatever may have been his conduct. Afterwards I shall regulate matters more carefully. This same Pollex must be sent back to accept* on my behalf. It was impossible for me to go to Puteoli ™, as well for the reasons I mentioned to you", as on account of Caesar's approach. Dola- bella writes word that he will come to me the 14th. How irksome is it to be subject to a master ° I Yesterday evening Lepidns wrote to me from Antium, where he was staying, — for he has the house which I sold. He requests me with great earnestness to attend the senate on the first ; that I should greatly oblige both himself and Csesar. J. imagine it is nothiog, else Oppius would probably have said something to you, — forBalbusisilL How- ever, I would rather go up to no purpose, than be away if there should be any real occasion. I should be sorry for it afterwards. Therefore to- day I shall be at Antium ; . to-morrow before noon I shall reach home p. If nothing prevents you, I wish you and Filia would dine with me on the 31st. I hope you have settled every thing with PublUius^. I shall run back to Tuscnlanum on the 1st ; for I would radier everything should be arranged with them'' in my absence. I send you my brother Quintus's letter ; not a very kind reply to mine, but yet such as may give you satisfaction, so far as I can judge. You will see. LETTER XLVIII. Yesterday in the midst of noise* I fancy I heard something about your coming to Tuscula- num ; which I wish, and wish again ; yet with your own convenience. Lepta requests that, if his i The expenses he had been at for his son at Athens. k Cicero's son. 1 To accept formally Cluvius's bequest. See letter 46 of this book. ™ The seat of Clavius's estate. " Respecting Torquatus. See letter 45 of this book. <* This has been variously interpreted. I understand it to be expr^sive of his indignation at being obliged to sub- mit to the directions of Dolabella and Lepldus, in order to conciliate Ca»sar*B. favour. P By home, he here and elsewhere means his house in Rome. 1 Brother to Cicero's second wife. See letter 34 of this book. ' The family of Publilia, respecting the re-payment of her dower. " At Rome. affairs demand it, I will go up, — for BabuUius is dead. Ciesar, I believe, inherits one twelfth, though nothing has yet transpired. Lepta succeeds to a third ; but he is afraid he may not be allowed to take possession of the inheritance. There is no reason for this ; but, however, he is afraid. If therefore he sends for me, I shall hasten up, — else I shall not go before it is necessary. Send back Pollex as soon as you can. I have sent you the panegyric on Porcia ' corrected ; and I have done it the sooner, that if it should happen to be sent to her son Domitius^ or to Brutus, it may be sent in this form. If you can conveniently do it, I should be greatly obliged to you to attend to this ; and I wish you would send me the panegyric" of M. Varro and of Lollius, especially Lollius's, for the other I have read, yet I want to look at it again, — for there are some parts which I hardly recollect. LETTER XLIX. 1 MUST first send my compliments to Attica', who, I suppose, is in the country ; then give my best compliments to Pilia likewise. Let me hear of Tigellius, if there is anything new ; for, as Gal- lus Fabins informs me, he brings against me a mosc unjust charge of having deserted Phamea, after undertaking his cause. This I undertook, not with my good liking, against the young Octaviuses, the sons of Cnaeus ; but I agreed to it out of regard to Fhamea. For, if you remember, he had promised me through you, to assist me in my canvass for the consnlship, i£ there should be any occasion, which I looked upon in the same light as if I had actually made use of him. He came to me, and said that the judge had appointed to hear his cause on the very day when it was necessary for me to attend the council aboat my friend Sestius by the Pompeian law : for you know the days for those judgments are fixed. I replied that he could not be ignorant of my obligations to Sestius ; that if he had taken any other day whatever, I would not fail him. Upon this he went away angry. I believe I told you about it. However, I did not make myself uneasy, nor did I think it necessary to pay atten- tion to the unmerited displeasure of one with whom I was unconnected. I mentioned however to Gallus, when I was lately at Rome, what I had heard, but without naming the younger Balbus '". Gallus, as he writes word, had some business of his own. He says that Tigellius suspects me of hav- ing injured him from a consciousness of infidelity towards Phamea. I therefore send you this detail, that, if you can, you may learn something about this friend * of mine. Do not be in any trouble about me?: it is well, if anybody be allowed to t See letter 37 of this book. ™ Likewise upon Porcia. T The particidar occasion of this appears, by letter 50 of this book, to have been Attica's recovery from some illness, on which he congratulates both her and her mother. * From whom it is to be presmned that Cicero had he-u-d of something said or done unkindly by Tigellius towards him. ^ This seems to me to mean Tigellius, and is to be under- stood sneeringly. Tigellius was grandson to Phamea.— Ep. Fam. vii. 24. y Tigellius was a singer in the train of Cssar. Cicero says that he had nothing to apprehend from his hostility. !r92 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO hate at liis own free-will^ ; it has an appearance of not being entirely slaves. Though indeed, as you perceive, those people'^ are rather slaves to me, if paying attention be the test of servitude. LETTER L. Having been advised in some of your letters to write to Cassar in a more copious manner, and having lately understood fromBalbus in Lanuvium, that he and Oppius had written to Csesar, and in- formed him of my having read and greatly com- mended his book against Cato, I have written a letter to Csesar, on the subject of this book, to be delivered to Dolabella. But I sent a copy of it to Oppius and Balbus, and have desired them not to let ray letter be delivered to Dolabella, unless they approve of the copy. They have replied to me, that they never read anything better, and they ordered the letter to be given to Dolabella. Vesto- rius has written to me to direct theBrinnian estate '■ to be surrendered on my part to one Hetereius, his servant ; in order that he *= might himself properly surrender to him '■ that" at Puteoli. If you approve of this, send that servant to me. I imagine Vesto- rius will also have written to you. On the subject of Caesar's coming, I have heard from Oppius and Balbus the same as from you. I am surprised you shouldyet have had no communication withTigellius, if it be only to know how much he has received '. I am curious to know, though I care not a farthing. You ask what I think about going to meet himS: what think you of my going as far as Alsium ? I have even wi-itten to Muraena about receiving me ; but I apprehend he is gone forward with Matius. I shall therefore apply to Sallustius. Just as I had written this last line, Eros has informed me that Muraena made him the kindest answer. I shall therefore lodge with him, — for Silius has no beds : and Dida, I believe, has his house quite full. LETTER LL I FORGOT to send you a copy of my letter to Caesar, which was not, as you suspect, because I was ashamed of your seeing it, lest in ridicule I should be called Mipillus •>. In faith, I have writ- ten no otherwise than to one on a par and equality ; for I think well of that book', as I told yon in person. I wrote therefore without flattery, and yet so that I think he will read nothing with more pleasure. I am now at length satisfied about Attica : therefore congratulate her again. Tell me all about Tigellius, and as soon as you can, — ■ for I am in great doubt. I can inform you that Quintus comes to-morrow ; but whether to me or z That any one, a^ Tigellius, should be pei-mitted to love or hate, but at his master's will. » Cajsar's followers, in imitation of their leader, paid great attention to Cicero. b See letter U of this book. c Vestorius. ^ Hetereius. (^ Cluvius's estate. See letter 46 of this book. f From CjEsar. S Ca:sai', who was on his retiu'n from Spain. ^ The meaning of this is not exactly known. It proba- bly alludes to some story that hab since been lost. i Csesai-'s " Anti-Cato." See the preceding letter. to you I am uncertain. He wrote rne word that he should come to Rome the 25th ; but I have sent to invite him >, though it obliges me to go presently to Rome, that he may not arrive before me. LETTER LII. O THE troublesome guest i" 1 But I had no reason to repent of it : for it turned out vei-y pleasantly. Upon his arrival at Philippus's on the evening of the second day of the Saturnalia ', the house was so filled with soldiers, that there was scarcely space left for Caesar himself to dine. There were 2000 people. I was indeed disturbed at thinking what would be the case the next day™. Barba Cassius came to my assistance, and set a guard. An encampment was formed in the fields ; the house was secured. On the third of the Saturnalia, he remained at Philippus's till one in the afternoon, and did not admit anybody, I imagine he was settling his accounts with Balbus : then he walked on the beach. After two o'clock he went into the bath ; then he heard about Ma- murra " : he never changed countenance : he was anointed, and sa6 down to table, following an emetic course". So he ate and drank without reserve, and in good-humour ; sumptuously indeed, and with due preparation ; and not only that, but " with good conversation well digested and sea soned, and, if you ask, cheerfuUyP." His attend ants were besides entertained at three tables very plentifully. Nor was anything wanting for the in- ferior freed-men and slaves ; while those of higher condition were elegantly served. In short, I thought myself a man ' again. Yet my guest was not one to whom you would say — " Pray come to me in the same manner when you return." Once is enough. There was nothing of importance in the conversation, but a great deal of liberal learning. In short, he was highly pleased, and enjoyed himself. He said he should pass one day at Puteoli, and one at Baise. You have here the account of my hospitality or forced ' entertainment, which was hateful to me, I say, not disagreeable. I shall stay here* a little while, then go to Tuscu- lanum. As he passed Dolabella's villa, the whole body of armed men ranged themselves on each side of his horse ', which was done nowhere else. This I heard from Nicias. In the interval between this and the subsequent book, Cmar had been killed by a conspiracy of distinguished men Jealous of their country's liberty. At the head of these were M. Brutus and C. Cassius the prtstors.'i 3 At Cicero's house in Rome. ^ This may be considered as spoken by Cicero in antici- pation of Casar's visit. 1 The 21st of December. "" When Cicero was to receive him. » Mamurra had realised a great fortune in Csesar's ser- vice. It is supposed that CatuUus's verses on Maimura may have been read, reflecting also upon Cxsar. A course prescribed to such as were using vomits, which seoms to have been familiar to the ancient Romans. P The preceding sentence is a verse of Lucilius. 1 It put him in mind of former times under a free government. r In the original is a Greek word signifying a forced reception for the retinue of a prince. s At Astura. ' This was probably intended as a mark of honour. TO TITUS I'OMPONIUS ATTICUS, 790 BOOK XIV. LETTER I. I HAVE been to call upon the person" about whom I spoke to you this monuBg. He said no- thing could be more ruinous ; that the state could never be settled. For if he', with all his abilities, found no way of doing it, who will now find any ? lu short, he said that aU. was ruined. I know not if it be so. But he affirmed, with apparent satis- faction, that in less tiian twenty days there would he an iusurrection in Gaul; that, for his own part, since the 15th of March **" he had conversed with nobody besides Lepidus ; in conclusion, that it was impossible things should stop here. O prudent Oppius ! who does no less regret Csesar, while he says nothing that can give offence to any honest man. But enough of this. Whatever new occurs (and I expect a great deal), I beg you will not fail to write. Among other things, whether this is certain about Sextus ^ : but above all about our friend Brutus ; of whom Caesar used to say (as I heard from him with whom I have been), that '* it is of great importance what he wishes ; for what- ever he wishes, he wishes strongly." He? took notice of this, when he* spoke for Deiotarus at iS'ice, *' that he seemed to speak with great ve- hemence and freedom." Likewise (for I like to write everything as it occurs) very lately, when I was at his house by desire of Sestius, and sat down till I was called, he* said : *' Can I doubt of my being greatly hated, when 51. Cicero is obliged to wait, and cannot get an audience at bis own con- venience ? Yet if anybody is gracious, it is he ; nevertheless I doubt not that he hates me bitterly." This he ** told me, and much more of the same kind. But to my purpose. Whatever may happen, not only of great, but also of little moment, yon will inform me. On my part I wiU omit nothing. LETTER n. Yesterday I received two letters from you. By the first I learned the circumstances of the theatre, and Fublius*= ; good indications of the con- currence of the populace. The applause, which was given to L. Cassius, has even some pleasantry**. The other letter is upon the subject of Bald Cape ^, « ^latius. See letters 3 and 4 of this book. " Caesar. * The day on which Caesar had been killed. X Sextus Fonii>eius, who had collected a considerable force in Spain. y C%sar. ^ Brutus. ■ Cffisar ^ 3Iatius. c Probably some actor, who may have been cheered in the theatre for allusion to the downf^ of tyranny. See letter 3 of this book. ^ L. Cas&iua being applauded not for any merit of his own, but because his brother C. Cassius had been one of those concerned in killing Cssar. ^ There is no doubt of Matius being intended under the name of Madams, which in Greek signifies baldj the sub- sequent wctrd fia signifj'ing a. bald hr;ad, or naked headland, sudii as usuidly protects a harbour. But in tbi-^ instance it afforded so little hope of tranquillity, that Cicero did not remain there ; Matius being evidently hos- which affords however no safe harbom-, as you suppose. For I went on, though not so far as I had intended, being detained a long time in conver- sation. What 1 wrote to you, obscurely perhaps, was this ; he said that Csesar had observed to him, upon the occasion of my being kept waiting, when I went to him at Sestias's request : ** Can 1 now be so foolish as to suppose this easy man vfill be friendly to me, after he has been kept so long waiting for my convenience ?" You have then a " bald cape " very unfriendly to tranquillity ; that is, to Brutus. T am going to-day to Tusculanum, to-morrow to Lanuvium ; thence I mean to pro- ceed to Astura. Everything is ready for Pilia's reception * i but I want likewise to see Altica, though I forgive you^. My compliments to both of them. LETTER in. Your letter is still peaceful I wish this may last ; for Matius said it was impossible. And my workmen, mark you, who went to purchase corn, returned empty-handed, and brought a strong report from Rome that all the com was taken to Antonius's house. This is certainly a false alarm, or you would have written to inform me. Balbus's freed-man Corumbus has not yet been here. The name is familiar to me ; for he is said to be a clever architect. You seem to have been employed to countersign ^ not without reason ; for so these people would have us think '. 1 do not know why they should not feel it also in their heart. But what are these things to me ? However, scent out Antonius's real disposition. T suspect him rather of solicitude about his table, than of designing any mischief. If you have anything of importance, let me know it ; or if not, tell me the indications of popular feeling, and the sayings of the actors J. Compliments to Filia and Attica. LETTER IV. What news do you suppose I can have at La- nuvium ? But I imagine that you there ^ must every day receive some fresh intelligence. The times are pregnant with business. For when Matins^ is so indisposed to peace, what think you of others ? I am grieved indeed that (what never tile to Brutus, from whose cause alone tranquillity could be expected. f At Cumanum. Sec letter 1? of this book. S Forgive you for keeping her with you. t To set his seal as witness to the^vills of some of Caesar's party, who wished to secure Cicero's friendship by their bequests, to which Atticus was privy. i Think them to be Cicero's friends. It alludes to some- thing previously mentioned by Atticus. i It seems to have been customary for the comic actors to insert passages calculated to catch the public mind. See book ii. letter 19. k At Rom& 1 Matius had on a former occasion been mentioned as a person of moderation and prudence, supposed to be a friend to peace. See book ii. letter 2. 794 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO happened in any qther state) together with liberty the republic should not have been restored. What is talked of, and threatened, is dreadful. I am afraid also of hostilities in Gaul, and what Sextus' may attempt. But whatever happens, this 15th of March is a consolation. Our heroes ", as far as lay in them, have acted gloriously and magnifi- cently. What remains to be done, requires sup- plies and forces, of which we have none. I write this, thatif there is anything new, (for everyday I ex- pect something), you may immediately let me know it ; and if there is nothing new, yet that, according to custom, our correspondence may suffer no inter- ruption. I will take care it shall not on my part. LETTER V. Having used abstinence before you were seri- ously indisposed, I hope that all is now as I could wish ; yet I should be glad to know how you do. It is a good sign, that Calvena '■ is uneasy at buing suspected by Brutus. But this is no good sign, that the legions are coming with their ensigns from Gaul. What do you think of those which have been in Spain ? W!!I they not make the same demands " ? What of those which Annius took over P .? I should have said Caninius, but it was a slip of the memory. There 'will be great confu- sion excited by this gamester '^. For that con- spiracy of Csesar's freed-men might easily be put down, if Antonius were right-minded. Mine was a foolish scrupulousness in declining to get an honorary legation ■■ before the adjournment, that I might not seem to desert this swell of affairs, from which, if it were possible for me to remedy it, I certainly ought not to withhold my services. But you see the magistrates, if indeed they deserve the name, you see however the minions of the tyrant in authority ; you see his veteran troops at our side ^ ; all which are unstable * things ; while they", who ought not only to be protected, but exalted, by the guards of the whole world, are rewarded neither with praise nor love, but confined within their own walls '. Yet, after all, it is they that are happy : the state that is wretched. But I should be glad to know what effect the approach of Octavius " produces ; whether people flock to him ; whether there is any apprehension of usurpation. I do not think it ; but yet, whatever happens, I wish to know it. I write this to you on the 12th,' setting out from Astura. 1 Sextus Pompeius in Spain. ni The conspirators against Caesar. ° Matius, whom he had before called Madarus in letter 2 of this hook, hoth words being indicative of baldness. It is not improbable that Atticus may first have used Mada- rus, derived from the Greek, which was familiar to him ; and that Cicero may have iavented the corresponding word Calvena from the Latin. o Of what Caesar had promised them. P To Greece, preparatory to the war which Csesar was going to wage with the Parthians. 1 Antonius. ■^ An authoritative leave of absence from the senate, frequently alluded to in the earlier boohs of these letters. " Having lands given them in Campania and other neigh- bouring districts. t Not to be relied upon. ^ The conspirators against Ciesar. ^ They withdrew from the public fei-ment excited by Ca:sar's death. w Better knoMn afterwards by the name of Augustus. LETTER VL I RECEIVED your letter on the 12th at Fundi, while I was at dinner. In the first place therefore I was glad to hear that you were better ; then that you made a better report of public affairs ; for I did not like that approach of the troops. About Octavius I am very indilferent. I am curious to hear something of Marius ", whom I supposed to have been put death by Cffisar. Antonius's inter- view with our heroes y passed off very well for the occasion. Hitherto, however, nothing gives me pleasure besides the 15th of March. Here at Fundi, where I am with my friend Ligur, I am distracted at seeing Sextilins's farm in the pos- session of that rascal CurtUius ; and what I say of him, I say of the whole tribe. For what can be more sad, than to look upon the very things which made us hate him ^ ? Are we also to have for two years the consuls and tribunes of the people, which he chose .' I am quite at a loss to know what part I can take in public affairs. Nothing was ever so inconsistent, as that the destroyers of the tyrant should be praised to the skies, while the acts of the tyrant are defended. But you see the consuls ; you see the other magistrates (if they deserve the name) ; you see the want of energy in the good. In the country towns the people are exulting with joy. It cannot be told how much they are de- lighted, how they flock about me, how eager thejr are to hear every word relating to that affair. » Y(fe in all this time no decrees are passed. For such t the state of our government, that we are afraid m the very people we have defeated. I write this during my dessert. I will write more fully on public affairs another time. Let me on your part hear hov7 you do, and what is going forward. LETTER VII. On the 14th I saw PauUus in Caieta, who in- formed me about Marius, and mentioned some other things relating to the republic, which were indeed very sad. There has been nothing from you, for none of my people have arrived. But I hear that our friend Brutus was seen near Lanuvium. Where does he intend to fix himself ? For while I wish to be acquainted with everything else, so particularly with what concerns him. I write this the 15th, on the point of leaving Formiannm, that from thence in another day 1 may reach Pu- teolanum. I have received from Cicero a letter smacking of the ancient style, and of considerable length. The rest may possibly be feigned ; hut the style of his letter shows that he has acquired some learning. Now I earnestly beg you to take care, as I lately mentioned to you, fjiat he may not be left in want of anything. This concerns my credit and dignity, as weD as my duty ; and I understand that you are entirely of the same opi- nion. If then thei-e is an opportunity, I think of going into Greece in the month of July. I hope everything may be more favourable. But the times being such that it is impossible to say certainly what may be proper for me, what allowable, what ^ See book xii. letter 60. y The conspirators. z Casar. ft Cffisar's death. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 19B expedient ; pray take care that I may support him honourably and handsomely. You will take into your consideration, as usual, this, Mid whatever else concerns me ; and you will write to me aU that is interesting, or» if there is nothing, what oomes into your head. LETTER VIIT. When you wrote, you supposed me to be al- ready in one of my houses on the coast ; and I received your letter on the IGtli at the little cottage at Sinuessa'^ . About Marius it is quite right, though I must needs grieve for the grandson * of L. Crassus. I rejoice also that our friend Brutus is so well satbfied with Antonius ^. For as to what you say of Junia's*^ having brought a letter written in a temperate and friendly manner ; Paullus^ gave me one that he had received irom his brother ; at the conclusion of which he mentions that a plot had been formed against him, of which he had certain information. I did not like this, much less did he. I am not sorry for the queen's s flight ; but J want you to inform me what is become of Clodia^. You will take care about the Byzantians, as about everything else, and will send for Pelops to come to you. As soon as I have seen into the business of Baise *, and that assemblage, about whom you wisn to be informed, I will write, as you desire, that you may know everything. 1 am anxiously expecting what the Gauls, what the Spaniards, what Sextus will do. This you will tell me, who tell me everything. I am glad that the reason of your silence was nothing but a slight indisposition ; for I seem, as I read your letters, to feel a tem- porary ease. Always write to me everything that relates to Brutus, where he is, and what are his intentions. I hope he may now safely walk alone all over the city. But yet I should like to knowJ, ^ Sinucssa is on the sea-coast, whithei' Atticus'B letter had been sent. It appears, from book xvi. letter 10, that Cicei'o had a house there. c This pretender had been put to death by Antonius. Had he been the person whose name he assumed, he would have been grandson to L. Crassus. See book xli. letter 50. ^ Brutus's ^reement with Antonius was likely to lead to peace. e This Jmiia was sister to Brutus, and wife to M. Lepi- dus, who had the government of Transalpine Gaul. The letter must probably have been from Lepidus, the friend of Caesar, to Brutus. The good understanding of the oppo- site parties apparent from this letter, would be destroyed by plots, or the suspicion of plots, such as is afterwards mentioned. ' L. JBmilius Paullns, brother to Lepidus. s Cleopatra, who had followed Csesar to Borne, and now fled upon the event of his assassination. 1* To what this alludes, or the following mention of the Byzantians, is not known. » When Cicero speaks of " the business" of Bais, he may be supposed to mean the conversation and idle talk, Baix being notorious for idleness. And this sense receives confirmation from the word Chorum^ which I have rendered " assemblage," but which in the original means properly " a troop of dancers or singers." The expressions may probably be borrowed from Atticus, who seems often to have indulged in a little good-humoured bantering, seasoned also with terms newly invented or newly applied. [See book iv. letter 8.] It is to this that Cicero alludes [see letter 14 of this book] when ho says Joca tua plena /acetiarum. ' See letter 5 of this book. LETTER IX. I HAVE learned a great deal about the republic from your letters, several of which I received at the same time by Vestorius's freed-man. To your questions I shall reply briefly. In the first place, I am greatly delighted with the Cluvian inherit- ance ^ ; but as to what you ask, why I sent for Chrysippus* ; I had two cottages in ruins, and the rest were so crazy, that not only the lodgers, but the very rats had left them. Some people would call this a calamity ; for my part, I do not think it even a disadvantage. O Socrates, and ye of the Socratic school"', I shall never be sufficiently thankful to you. Ye immortal gods ! how totally do I disregard such things. But, however, I have got such a plan for building, by the recommenda- tion and assistance of Vestorius, that this loss will be a real gain to me. There is a great con- course here ; and, as I am told, it will be still greater. Two, indeed, are the pretended" consuls elect. O gracious gods ! The tyranny survives, though the tyrant is dead. We rejoice in the death of the victim, whose acts we defend. How severely, therefore, does M. Curtius accuse us, as if it were a disgrace to live ! And not without reason. For it had been better to die a thousand times than to suffer such a state of things, which seems likely even to be permanent. Balbus also is here, and is much with me. He had received a letter from Vetus", dated the 31st of December, stating that at the time he was besieging Csecihus p, and had almost taken him, Pacorus the Parthian came up with a large army, by which means CEecilius had been snatched from him, and he had lost many of his men ; in which affair he accuses Volcatius. Thus a war in that quarter appears imminent. But let Dolabella and Nicias ^ see to this. At the same time Balbus gave me more favourable accounts of Gaul. He had a letter twenty days after its date, saying that the German!, and those nations, upon hearing about Csesar, had sent deputies to Aurelius, who was left in the command by Hirtius, professing their submission to such orders as they should receive. In short, everything wore the appearance of peace, contrary to what Calvena' had said. LETTER X. Is it so, then ? Has my and your Bfutus found this fruit of his exertion, that he should be shut up in Lanuvium ? That Trebonius should proceed to his province through by-ways ? That all the acts, writings, sayings, promises, thoughts of Caesar, ^ See book xiii, letter 46. * An architect, mentioned likewise book xiii. letter 29. "» Whose philosophy Cicero had adopted. n Hirtius and Pansa, who had been appointed by Caesar, not elected by th e votes of the people according to the laws of the republic. o C. Antistius Yetus, one of Cesar's generals. P Caeeilius was of Pompeius's party ; after the battle of Pharsalia he had raised an army in Syria, and was besieged in Apamea. q' Dolabella was going into SjTia to conduct the war against the Parthians, andNieias accompanied him, being attached by familiarity and friendship. r Matius. See letter 6 of this book, note n, IOC, THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO should hiive greater forte than if he were himself alive ? Do you remember how I demanded, on that very first capitoline ' day, that the senate should be summoned by the pnetors' into the capitol ! Ye immortal gods ! "What operations might then have been effected ; while all good, or tolerably good people were exulting ; and the rogues were confounded ? You lay the blame on the 18th of March". But what could have been done then ? We were already rained. Do you remember exclaiming that the cause was ruined, if he should be buried with funeral honours ? Yet he was burned in the pubUc forum, and extolled to excite pity ; and slaves and beggars were sent with torches against our houses. What followed ? That they dared to say, " Do you oppose the nod of CiEsar.'" These, and other things of the same kind, I am unable to bear ; therefore I think of changing my country for another. But has your windy cohc entirely left you .' As far as I could judge by your letters, it seemed to be so. I come back to the Tebassi ', the Scsevas, the Frangos. Do you imagine that they expect to hold their pos- sessions, while our authority still subsists ? For thay gave us credit for more valour than they have found. Will these, forsooth, be lovers of peace, and not rather authors of plunder ? But what I said to you about Curtilius " and the Sextilian estate, I say about Censorinus, about Messala, about Plancus, about Postumius, about the whole set. It were better to have died when he ^ died (which I wish^ had happened), than to witness these things. Octavius arrived in Naples the ISth". There Balbus saw him the following morning, and the same day came to me in Cumanum, and said that he » was going to enter upon his inheritance ''. But, as you say, he must have a great contest- radical" with Antonius. Your Buthrotian"! affair is, as it ought and shall be, an object of ray care. You ask if the Cluvian inheritance' has already produced a hundred sestertia (800/.). It seems to approach to this ; but in the first year I have cleared eighty (640?.). Quintus the father has written to me in vexation about his son, principally owing to the fondness he now shows to his mother, s Day of transactions in the capitol, when, Caesar being assassinated, the conspirators took refuge there, and were joined "by all the most respectable people. t Brutus .-md Casaius were praters. " On whicli day was passed the decree confirming Cffisar's acts, and tlie grants of land made to his veteran troops. ^ These are names of obscure persons enriclied by Cssar out of tlie confiscated property of his enemies. •■•' See letter 6 of this book. ^ CECsar. y I have in the translation adopted the conjectural emendation of Gronovius, who proposed to substitute utinam in the place of nunqiiam. 2 Of April. a Octavius. l* CiEsar's fortune, which Antonius had hoped to appro- priate to himself. «= The Greek word in the original is probably a coinage of Atticus. See letter 8 of this book, note ' . •• Atticus had considerable possessions at Buthrotum in Epirus ; in consideration of which, he had not only got that country exempted from proscription, but had paid to CiEsar's officers a large sum in discharge of the contribu- tions demanded of the inhabitants. This he was anxious to have ratified by the consuls according to the law for ratifying Caesar's acts. See Appendix, No. 1. e See book xiii. lotter 46. towards whomhe was before so undeservedly hostile'. He has sent me some flaming letters against him. What he is doing, if you know, and have not yet left Rome, I should be glad if you would inform me ; and indeed, if there is anything else. I am infinitely delighted with your letters. LETTER XI. The day before yesterday I sent you a longer letter. I shall now reply to the contents of your last. I should in truth be very glad to let Brutas occupy Astura s. You speak of the intemperance of those people : did you expect it to be otherwise ? For my part, I look for yet greater things. When I read the harangue about " so great a man," about so "distinguished a citizen," 1 am unable to bearit. Though these things may now make one smile, yet remember, the custom of pernicious harangues is so cherished, that those our gods, not heroes, will live indeed in eternal glory, but not without envy, not even without danger. Yet they have a great consolation in the consciousness of the noblest and most famous deed. But what consolation is left for us, who, when our king is killed, are yet not free ? But let fortune see to this, since reason does not rule. I am pleased with what you tell me of Cicero. I wish all may go on well. The care you take to supply him amply for his use and orna- ment is very grateftdto me, and I beg you to con- tinue it. Respecting the Buthrotians you judge very rightly, and I do not forget that concern. I will also undertake all legal actions which I per- ceive daily to become easier. With regard to the Cluvian inheritance (since the interest you take in my affairs exceeds even my own), the rents amount to a hundred (800/.). The downfalls has not lessened the property ; I do not know if it may not have improved it. I have with me here Balbus, Hirtius, and Pansa. Octavius has lately arrived at the neighbouring house of Philippus. He is entirely devoted to me. Lentulus Spinther is coming to me to-day, and goes away to-morrow morning. LETTER XII. MY Atticus, I fear this ISth of March maybe productive of no other issue than a transitory joy, followed by the penalty of odium and grief. What is it that I hear from thence ' ? What do I witness here ' ? A noble act indeed, but fruitless ! You know how much I am attached to the people of Sicily, and how honourable I esteem that patronage. Cajsar conferred upon them many benefits, to which I did not object, though their admission to the rights of Latium was too much. However, let that pass. But see now, Antonius, in consideration of a large sum of money, has promulged a law, said to have been proposed by the dictator in the comitia, by which the Sicilians are made Roman citizens, f See book xiii. letter 3S. It appears that Qulntus the father had lately been divorced. S See letter 15 of this book. ■' This alludes to the ruinous state of some cottages belonging to the Cluvian property, mentioned in letter 9 of this book. i i-'rom Rome. J At Baiae. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 797 of which there was never any mention during his life. Nay, is not the case the same with my friend Deiotarus "^ ? He is worthy indeed of any kingdom ; but not through the influence of Fulvia *. There are six hundred things of the same kind. But I come back to my purpose. In a cause so clear, so well attested, and so just, as that of Buthrotum ™, shall we obtain no satisfaction ? We may the more expect it, the more he "^ thus dispenses. Octavius conducts himself here in a manner very respectful and fi-iendly towards me. His own people saluted him as CBEsar**; out PhilippusP did not, therefore neither did I. I do not think it possible for him to be a good citizen, so many people are about him, who threaten the death of our friends. Theyi say these things are not to be borne. What think you, when this boy "" shall come to Rome, where our liberators cannot be in safety ? Famous indeed they will always be, and happy too in the conscious- ness of what they have achieved. But we, unless I deceive myself, shall lie in disgrace. I wish, therefore, to get away, where " I may hear nothing of the Pelopidse %" as the poet says. I do not like even these consuls elect, who have, however, forced me to declaim ' ; so that I am not permitted to be at rest even at this watering-place. This is owing to my too great complaisance. Formerly it was almost necessary ; but now, whatever be the state of things, the case is altered. For a good while past I have had nothing to write to you ; yet I write, not because I can afford you any pleasure by this letter, but that I may elicit yours. Do you, if there is anything about other matters, but especially whatever occurs relative to Brutus, let me know it. I write this on the 2'2d", while I am at table at Vestorius's house, a man unused to ai'gument, but sufficiently versed in arithmetic^ LETTER XIII. Your letter of the 19th was delivered to me on the seventh day after. You ask, and even suppose that I do not myself know, whether I am most pleased with the hills and prospect, or with the walks on the level beach ^'. And indeed, as you k See book v. letter 17. He had been deprived of his kingdom of Armenia by Ca'sar. 1 Antonins's wife. See book xvi. letter 3. ^ See letter 10 of this book, note '^. n Antonius. He had been adopted by Caesar, in consequence of which it was usual to fake the name after it had been ratified in the assembly. P L. Philippus had married Atia, mother to Octavius, and niece to Casear. 1 Oetavius's friends say that the conspirators ought not to go iin punished. ' Octavius was at this time about eighteen years old. 8 This is part of a sentence from a play of Accius, quoted more at length book xv, letter 11, meaning, "where I may hear nothing of these people.'* * It was customary for distinguished orators to declaim on some subject proposed, for the edification of younger men. " Of April. ' He was occasionally employed by Cicero in some money transactions, and may perhaps have been a scri- vener, or money agent, at Puteoli. See book xiii. letters 4r> and 46. w This must be supposed to allude In his recent acquisi- tion of Cluvius's estate at Puteoli. say, the beauty of both is such, that I doubt which is to b£5 preferred. But " we have other cares than those of entertainments, and see with dread a pro- digious mischief gathering, and stand in doubt whether we shall be saved, or perish^^." For though you send me great and pleasing intelligence of D. Brutus^ having joined his troops, in whom my best hopes reside ; yet, if a civil war breaks out, as it certainly will if Sextus remains in arms, which I am confident he will, what part I ought to take I know not. For it will not now be allowable, as it was in Caesar's war, to move neither to one side nor the other. But whomsoever this set of scoun- drels supposes to have been pleased with Csesar's death (and we have all most openly showed our joy), him they will hold to be in the number of their enemies. And this consideration leads to a most extensive slaughter. It remains for me, then, to join the army of Sextus ^, or perhaps of Brutus. An odious measure, at once foreign from our age, and exposed to the uncertain issue of war. So that we may in some measure say to each other, " My child, to you are not granted warlike opera- tions ; do you rather employ yourself in the lovely works of speech'^." But this must be left to fortune, which in such circumstances is of more avail than reason. Let us, however, see to that, which ought to be in our own power ; that what- ever happens we may bear it with fortitude and self-possession, and may remember that it is the condition of humanity : and let us still derive great consolation from literature, and not a little also' from the 15th of Mareh. Take now upon yourself the consideration of what constitutes my present solicitude, so many things occur to my mind both ways. I am going, as I had arranged, with a nominal appointment* to Greece. I may thus in some measure escape the danger of the impend- ing conflict, but am likely to incur blame for desert- ing the republic at so difficult a crisis. Should I remain, I foresee that I must be exposed to great' risk ; but I conceive it may happen that I may be able to be of use to the republic. The following considerations are of a private nature ; that 1 think it may be vQi-y advantageous for the confirmation of my son, that 1 should go thither ; nor indeed had I any other object in view at the time when I determined to get from Csesar an honorary lieu- tenancy. You will take this whole business, there- fore, into your consideration, as you use to do where you think me to be concerned. I come now to your letter, in which you say it is rumoured that I am going to sell the property which I have at the lake ^ ; and to convey to Quintus that little place at an extravagant price, that the rich Aquillia, as young Quintus told you, may be introduced there '■■. But I have no thought of selling it, unless I should find something which I like better ; and Q,uintus has, at this time, no wish to purchase ; for he has w The original is from Homer. ^ Deeimus Brutus was a relation of M. Brutus, and had the government of Cisalpine Gaul. 7 Sextus Pompeius in Spain. ^ The original is a little altered from an address of Jupiter to Venus in the Iliad of Homer, a An honorary lieutenancy, See letter 5 of this book. l> The Lucrine lake, in the neighbourhood of Baise and Puteoli. See letter IGof this book, c Quintus the son supposed that his father might marry Aqviillia. See letter 17 of this book, 798 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO enough to do in the repayment of his wife's dower*, in which he is under great obligations to Egnatius. And as for taking another wife, he is so far from it, that he declares nothing is more delightful than a single bed. But enough of this. I revert to the wretched, or rather the lost republic. M. Antonius has written to me about the restoration of Sextus Clodius " ; how honourably, as far a^ relates to me, you will see by his own letter, of which I send you a copy ; how profligately, how basely, how DjischieTously (so that I sometimes almost wish for Caesar again), you will easily believe. For things which Csesar would never either have done, or suf- fered, are now brought forward from his forged instructions. I have treated Antonius with all civility ; for having once persuaded himself that he was at liberty to do what he chose, he would not the less have done it for my disapprobation. Therefore I send you likewise a copy of my answer. Antonius Consul to Cicero. It has happened from my occupations, and your sudden departure, that I have been prevented from treating with you personally upon the following business ; and in consequence am apprehensive that my absence may lessen the weight I might have with you. But if your goodness corresponds with the opinion I have always entertained of you, I shall sincerely rejoice. I begged of Csesar to restore Sex. Clodius ; and I gained my suit. It was my intention, even then, to use his kindness only on the condition of your acceding to it ; which makes me the more earnest that I may now be per- mitted to do it with your consent. But if you show yourself unmoved by his miserable and ruined for- tune, I shall not contend against you, however I may seem bound to support Caesar's will. Yet in truth, if you are disposed to regard me with huma- nity, with prudence and charity, you will easily be persuaded ; and will be glad that P. Clodius \ a. youth of the fairest hopes, should think that, when it was in your power, you did not persecute his father's friends. Let it, I entreat you, appear that you engaged in hostility with his father for the republic's sake ; and you will not despise this family. For we more honourably, and more readily, lay aside the quarrels which have been taken up in the name of the republic, than those of private pique. Suffer me then to instil into this youth, even now, these sentiments, and to teach his tender mind that quarrels are not to be transmitted to posterity. Though I know well that your fortune, Cicero, is exempt from all danger ; yet I apprehend you would rather pass a tranquil and honourable old age, than one of vexation. Lastly, I ask this favour of you by my own right, having done every- thing in my power for your sake. Should I not obtain your consent, so far as I .am concerned, jl shall not give this boon to Clodius ; that you may xmderstand how great your authority is with me, and may for that reason be the more easily conci- liated. ^ Having lately put away his wife Pomponia. « He had been a partisan of P. Clodius, and banished for having headed an uproar at the time of P. Clodius's death. ' Son of that P. Clodius who had been so inveterate against Ciceix), and the author of his banishment. Anto- nics had married hie mother Fulvia, widow of P. Clodius. Cicero to Antonius, Consul. What you negotiate with me by letter, I should for one reason only have wished to negotiate in person ; that you might have perceived not by my words alone, but also by my countenance, and eyes, and forehead, as they say, the affection I bear you. For having always loved you, as indeed I was con- strained to do, first by your attention, afterwards also by the favours I received, so in these times the republic has attached me to you in such a man- ner, that I hold nobody dearer ; and the letter you have written full of affection and consideration, makes me feel not that I am doing a kindness to you, but receiving one from you ; while in your request you refuse to serve my enemy, though your own relation, against my consent ; when you have it in your power to do so without any difficulty. But, my Antonius, I not only concede this to you ; but such are the expressions you use, that I consi- der myself most liberally and honourably treated. And though in any case 1 should think it right freely to grant this to you, I am glad to do it also in consideration of my own feelings and disposition. For I never entertained any bitterness, nor any- thing that partakes of austereness or severity, beyond what the necessity of the republic demanded. To which I may add, that against Clodius « him- self I never showed any signs of anger ; and have always made it a rule, not to persecute an enemy's friends, especially those without power ; and not to deprive ourselves of the protection they afforded- Respecting young Clodius, I consider it to be your business to imbue his tender mind, as you say, with these sentiments, that he may not suppose any hostility to remain between our families. In my contentions with P. Clodius I supported the pub- lic cause ; he his own. The republic has passed its judgment upon our struggles. If he were living, I should now have no quarrel remaining with him. Therefore, since you ask this of me in such a man- ner, that, notwithstanding your power, you refiise to make use of it without my consent, pray give this also to the young man, if you think fit ; not that my age has any danger to apprehend from his youth ; or that my dignity has to fear any opposition ; but that you and I may be mutually united together more than we have hitherto been. For owing to the intervention of these hostilities, your heart has been more open to me, than your bouse. But enough of this. I have only to say, that I shall always, without hesitation, and with the greatest zeal, do whatever I think will please you, or contribute to your advantage ; of which 1 beg you to be thoroughly persuaded. LETTER XIV. Repeat again those same words to me''. Has our young Quintus worn a chaplet in the public' e Sextus Clodius, for whom Antonius had ^vritten to him. ^ The text is borrowed from a play of Pacuviua ' The ParHia were celebrated the 21st of April ; but Cffisar having received the news of a vietory gained in Spain on the eve of this annual festival, appointed addi- tional gamo6 to be observed ever after in memory of that event- Young Quintus wore a chaplet on this occasion to show hie attachnrfat to Csesar, TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICU8. 799 games ? Was he tlie only one ? though yon add Lamia, which I am surprised at ; but I wish to know who there were besides. I am quite sure however there could be nobody who was not a bad citizen. Yet let me hear the particulars. It hap- pened that I had despatched to you my letter of the 26th written at considerable length, about three hours before I received yours full of important matter. I need not tell you how heartily I laughed .at your pleasantry and wit on the Vestorine ■■ heresy, and the Puteolan custom of the Pherios. But let us turn to what more immediately concerns the public. You defend the party of Brutus and Cas- aius, as if I reproached them, whom I cannot sufficiently praise. But T summed up the faults of the times, not of the men. For after the tyrant has been removed, I see the tyranny continue. So that what he ^ would not have done, is now done ; as in the case of Clodius ; respecting whom I am confident that he not only would not have done it, but would not even have suffered it. Rufio Ves- torianus ™ will follow, (who was never written Victor",) and others. Who will not ? We could not bear to be the slaves of the man himself ; yet we yield obedience to his memorandums. For on the 18th of March ° who could absent himself from the senate ? But suppose that tliis might in some manner have been possible ; yet, when we had assembled, could we freely deliver our opinions ? Was it not necessary by all means to support the veteran soldiersP, who were present, and armed, while we had nothing to protect us .' How little I was pleased with that session i in the capitol, you are witness. What then .' Was that the fault of the Brutuses'.? By no means indeed of those Brutuses ; but of other Brutuses •, who think them- selves cautious and prudent ; who were satisfied with feeling a secret joy ; while some even expressed their congratulations ; but none remained firm. But let us omit what is past ; let us support these people with every care and protection ; and, as you teach us, let us he content to think ourselves happy in the 15th of March ; which to our friends indeed, those more than mortal men, has given an access to heaven ; but has not given freedom to the Roman people. Recollect your own prediction. Do you ^ Alluding to Cicero's 12th letter, in the conclusion of which he speaJ^s of Vestorius as more versed in arithmetic than in philosophical reasoning. What is meant by the Puteolan custom of the Pherios is not so easily explained ; but may probably be a witticism of the same kind, drawn from the circumstance of the Pherios being perhaps brokers at Puteoli. * Cassar. "1 See book v. letter 2. " Atticus may have erroneously written his name RuGo Victor ; bat Cicero says he should rather be distinguished by the name of Vestorianus, having been implicated in some dispute with Vestorius, but without obtaining a vic- tory over him, and therefore not entitled to the appellation of Victor. On that day the senate had been summoned by An- tonius, and passed the decree for the ratification of Cxsar's acfe P "Whom Ciesar had rewarded with the confiscated estates of the Pompeians. 1 Where Brutus and most persons of condition assembled after the assassination of Csesar. ' Brutus's party. ■ No fault of those who exerted themselves to restore the republic ; but of others, who refused to support them, after professing attachment to the cause of liberty. not remember how you exclaimed that everything was lost, if he should have a public funeral? You said it wisely ; and you see what has flowed from that circumstance. As to what you mention, that Antonius was to bring forward the subject of the provinces on the first of June, of which he was himself to have the two Gauls, with extension ot the ordinary time in both : will it be allowed to vote freely ? If it is, I shall rejoice at the recovery of our liberty ; if not, what do I get by this change of masters, besides the pleasure with which my eyes beheld the just fall of the tyrant .' You say that the temple of Ops ' has been plundered ; which I foresaw at that time. Verily we have been set free by excellent men, and yet are not free. So the praise is theirs, the blame our own. And do you exhort me to write history ? To collect together the wicked acts of these people, by whom we are even now besieged? Can I avoid commending those same persons, who have employed you to countersign" ? Not that the paltry interest weighs with me ; but it is hard to visit with reproach people, whoever they are, that are kindly disposed. But about all my designs, as you mention, I think I shall be able to decide more certainly on the 1st of June, on which day I shall be in Rome, and will use my utmost endeavours, with the help of your authority and influence, and the perfect jus- tice of the cause, that a decree of the senate may be obtained in the case of the Buthrotians, such as you describe. What you bid me consider, I will consider ; though in my last letter I had referred the consideration to you. But you are for restoring to your neighbours^, the Marsilians, their property ; as if the republic were already re-established. It may perhaps be possible to do this by arms, in which what strength we possess I know not ; by authority it is impossible. LETTER XV. The short letter, which you afterwards" wrote, was indeed very pleasing to me, about Brutus's letter to Antonius, and the other to you. Things wear a better appearance than they have hitherto done. But 1 must consider where I am, and which way I should even now proceed^. My charming Dolabella ! For I now call him mine ; before, believe me, I hai} some doubt. This is an affair of deep contemplation. From the Tarpeian rock J ! On the cross ! Throwing down the pillar ! Con- t In which Caesar had collected a large sum of money for the prosecution of the Parthian war. " See letter 3 of this book. T It is probable some deputies from Marseilles might be living in the neighbourhood of Attieus's house at Rome, suing for the restoration of what Caisar had taken from them when they refused to join his party. ^ Atticus had probably so called it in his letter. X It having been his intention to pass over to Greece See letter 13 of this book. • 7 Dolabella had exerted himself in his capacity of con- sul to check the forwardness of those who had raised a monument io Caesar, and erected a pillar inscribed *' To the father of his country." Some he caused to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock {an ancient form of capital pun- ishment in Home) ; others, slaves, he ordered to be cruci- fied ; at the same time throwing down the pillar and monu- ment, and ordering the groimd on which they stood to be new paved. 800 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO trading for the new paving of the ground ! In short, it is quite heroic. He seems to have put an end to that affectation of regret^, which was already making daily progress, and which I feared, had it continued, would have been dangerous to our deliverers. I now entirely concur with your letter, and hope for better things ; though I cannot hear those persons, who, while they pretend to be friends to peace, support his * wicked acts. But all can- not be done at once. Things are beginning to go better than I had expected. I shall not, however, go abroad, till you think I can do it with propriety. I will certainly nowhei'e be wanting to my Brutus. Even if there were no friendship between us, I would do it in acknowledgment of his great and distinguished virtue. I give up to Pilia my whole house '', and ail that it contains, being myself on my way to Pompeianum this 1st of May. I wish you would persuade Brutus to occupy my house at Astura'^. LETTER XVL I SEND this letter the 3d of May on the point of embarking from the Cluvian gardens in a row-boat, after having put onr dear Pilia in possession of my house on the Lucrine lake, with the servants and purveyors. The same day I threaten our friend PsEtus's potted cheese "■, and proceed in a few days to Pompeianum ; whence I shall afterwards return by sea to these royal "^ domains of Puteoli and Cumse. O places greatly to be desired in all other respects ! but from the number of troublesome visitors almost to be shunned. But to come to the point ; how noble is this conduct of my Dolabella ! What matter it affords for contemplation ! For my part, I do not cease to praise and to encourage liim. You do well to inform me in all your letters, what you think of the thing itself, and what of the man. Our friend Brutus, I suppose, might now wear even a golden crown in the middle of the forum. For who would dare to insult him, with a cross, or the Tarpeian rock' before his eyes? Especially amidst such great applause and appro- bation of the lowest people. Now, my Atticus, resolve me of my doubts. I should like, when I have fully satisfied Brutus, to make an excursion into Greece. It is of great moment to Cicero, or rather to me, or 1 may say to both of us, that I should look upon him in his studies. For Leonidas's letter, which you sent me, affords me no great satisfaction. I shall never be content with com- mendations such as these ; "as things are at pre- sent." It is the testimony of one who feels no confidence, but rather mistrust. I had desired Herodes to write to me in detail ; but I have hitherto heard nothing from him. I fear he may have had nothing which he thought would give me pleasure to hear. I am much obliged to you for having written to Xeno ; for my duty and reputa- . ^ The display of their regret for Cssar. » Cajsar's. b His house at Cumanum, on the borders of the Lucrine lake. [Sec letters 16 and 17 of this book.] Pilia probably went on account of her health. See book xv. letter 1. c This proposal is mentioned before. See letter 11 of this book. d The same expression is used before. [See book iv. let- ter 8.] It seems to. mean only a cheap and homely dish. f Expressive of the satisfaction he took in them. ' See Icttci- 15 of this book. tion, are both concerned in his having no want unsupplied. I hear that Flamma Flaminius is in Rome. I have written to him to say that I had desired you to speak with him about the business of Montanus B ; and I shall be glad if you will take care that my letter is delivered to him ; and will yourself, at your convenience, have some conversa- tion with him. I conceive if the man has any sense of shame, he vrill provide against the possi- bility of any expense being incurred on his account. You have acted very kindly towards me in letting me know that Attica was well, before I knew of her indisposition. LETTER XVII. I CAME to Pompeianum the 3d of May, having, the day preceding, as I before wrote you word, established Pilia in Cumanum. There, whilst I was at dinner, your letter was delivered to me, which you had given to your freed-man Demetrius, the 30th of last month. In this are contained many things prudently done, yet such that, as you your- self observe, every design appears subject to the control of fortune. Upon these subjects, therefore, we can only speak as occasion offers, and when we are together. Respecting the affair of Buthrotum, I wish I may have an opportunity of seeing Anto- nius, which will be a great step. But it is not expected that he will deviate from the Capuan road, whither I fear he is gone to the great prejudice of the republic**. L. Csesar", whom I saw yesterday at Naples very far from well, was of the same opinion. This business must therefore be entered upon, and completed on the 1st of JuneJ. But enough of this. Young Quintushas written a most bitter letter to his father, who received it upon our arrival at Pompeianum. The substance of it was that he would not tolerate Aquillia as his step- mother. That however might perhaps be borne. But what think you of this ? That from Csesar he had received everything ; nothing from his father ; and for what was to come he looked to Antonius. How lost to all sense of honour ! But I will think what can be done. I have written letters to our friend Brutus, to Cassius, and to Dolabella ; of which I send you copies ; not with a view to deliberate about sending them, for I am clearly of opinion they should be sent ; but because I doubt not that you will agree with me. I beg you, my Atticus, to supply my son with what you think right, and to allow me to lay this burden upon you. I am very thankful for what you have hitherto done. That unpublished work of mine** has not yet been polished, as I designed. What you wish to have interwoven in it requires another separate volume. But, believe me, I think there was less danger in speaking against those wicked practices during the life of the tyrant than since his death. For he somehow bore with me surprisingly. Novr, s See book xii. letter 53. •» He went to secure the co-operation of the veteran troops, who had been established in that neighbourhood. i This Lucius Csesar appears, by the following letter to Dolabella, to have been Antonius's uncle by his mother's side. J The senate had been appointed to meet on this day. See letter 14 of this book. k His Anecdotes, or secret Memoirs and Observations on Public Affairs. See book ii. letter 6. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 801 whichever way I move, I am called back to observe not only the acts of Caesar, but his very thoughts. Flamma being arrived, you will see about Mon- tanus : I think his business ought to be in a better state. Cicero to his Dolabella, Consul. Though I am satisfied, iny Dolabella, with the glory you have gained, and derive abundantly great joy and delight from it ; yet I cannot help acknow- ledging that my pleasure is enhanced by the common opinion which supposes me to have a share in your praises. I have seen nobody' — and I meet with numbers every day ; for there are a great many excellent men who come into these parts" on account of their health, besides many of my friends from the neighbouring towns ; all of whom, while they extol you to the skies with the loudest praises, presently return the greatest thanks to me. For they say they cannot doubt but that it is in consequence of my instructions and advice that you show yourself so excellent a citizen, and so distinguished a consul. To whom, though I might most truly reply, that what you do, you do from your own judgment and inclination, and that you need nobody's advice ; yet I neither quite assent, lest 1 should seem to lessen your praise, if it were all owing to my counsels ; neither do I strongly deny it ; for, you know, I am more than enough covetous of glory. Besides, it is not unbecoming your dignity (what was thought honourable to Agamemnon himself, the king of kings) to have some Nestor in forming your counsels ; while to me it is most glorious that you, a young consul, should flourish in praises as the pupil of my institution. L. Csesar, when I saw him sick at Naples, though he was suffering from pains all over his body, yet, almost before he saluted me, " O my Cicero," said he, " I congra- tulate you upon having such influence with Dola- befia ; which, if I had with my sister's son ", we might already be safe. Congratulate also and thank your Dolabella, who, since your own con- sulship, is the only one whom I can truly call a consul." He went on to say a great deal about the case, and the part you had taken ; and declared that nothing was ever done more noble, nothing more famous, nothing more salutary to the repub- lic : and in this all with one voice agree. I must beg you then to let me enter upon this false inhe- ritance, as it were, of another's glory, and in some measure to become a partner in your praises. But in truth, my Dolabella, (for hitherto I have been joking,) I would sooner transfer to you all my own praises, if indeed I have any, than draw off any part from yours. For having always had that affection for you, of which you are the best judge ; yet with these actions I am so wonderfully inflamed, that no affection ever was stronger. For nothing, believe me, is more becoming, nothing more beau- ful, nothing more lovely, than virtue. I have always, as you know, loved M. Brutus for his great abilities, his sweet disposition, his distinguished probity and firmness ; yet the 15th of March pro- * The following part of the sentence being differently turned, there is left a sort of hiatus in the construction, which is no blemish in a letter, even if it he thought one in a more studied composition. "i The neighbourhood of BaiBi ° Aiitonius, duced such an accession to my love, that I won- dered there should have been any room for the increase of what seemed already at the full. Who would have thought that any addition could have been made to the love I bare you ? Yet such is the addition, that I seem to myself now at length to love, before only to have liked. Why, then, should I exhort you to regard your own dignity and glory ? Should I propose to you the exam- ples of eminent men, as they do who use exhort- ations ? I have nobody to propose more eminent than yourself. It is yourself you must imitate ; with yourself you must contend. ' It is not allow- able for you now, after such noble deeds, not to be like yourself. Which being the case, exhortation is needless. We ought rather to congratulate you. For that has happened to you which has happened I believe to nobody else, that the utmost severity of punishment has not only been inflicted without exciting ill-will, but has even been popular j and, while it has gratified every good man, it has like- wise pleased every one of the lowest class. If this were the effect of chance, I would congratulate your good fortune ; but it is the effect of your own greatness of mind, your understanding, and judg- ment. For I have read your speech, than which nothing can be more prudent. So step by step have you gone back to the cause of what was done, and again returned from it ; that the case itself, by the confession of everybody, was ripe for your animadversion. You have saved therefore both the city from danger, and the state from fear ; and have conferred a benefit not merely temporary, but of lasting example. You ought, consequently, to understand that the republic reposes on you ; and that those persons, from whom it has derived a commencement of liberty, are by you not only to be protected, but rewarded with honours. But on these matters I hope very soon to say more in person. Since it is you who preserve the republic and us, take especial care, my Dolabella, of our own safety. LETTER XVIII. Yon repeatedly attack me because I appear too extravagaijtly to extol this action of Dolabella's. But while I certainly approve of what has been done, I have been led by more than one of your letters to this high strain of commendation. Dola- bella, however, has whoUy forfeited your opinion by the same cause, which has likewise made me very much his enemy. The modest man ! He ought to have paid the 1st of January, and he has not paid yet ; though he was set free from an enor- mous debt by the hand of Faberius", and begged from him the assistance of Ops p. For it is allow- able to jest, that you may not think me too much disturbed. It was early on the 8th that I sent my letter ; and I received yours the evening of the same day in Pompeianum, by a quick conveyance o This Faherius appears to have been a clerk to Ciesar, and since made a tool of Antonius to insert in Cssar's in- structions what he thought fit. It was by such means that Antonius got possession of Ciesar's money ; with some of which he bought Dolabella's concurrence in his schemes. p CsEsar's treasure had been secured in the temple of Opi : and in Latin the same word signifies also assistance, from whence arises the matter of Cicero's jest^ a r 802 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO of two ' days. But, as i sent you word the very same day, I wrote a sharp letter to Dolabella ; and if this has no effect, yet I apprehend he will not resist my personal application.' I imagine you have settled the Albian account. What you have furnished me from the Patulcian account is most acceptable, and like everything you do. I thought Eros, whom I had left, was made for settling such affairs, which have got into confusion by his great mismanagement. But I must see about this with him. You will take upon yourself, as I have often mentioned to you, the whole concern of Monta- nus's business. I am not at all surprised at Ser- vius's desponding conversation with you at the time of his departure ; nor do I in any respect yield to him in despondency. If our friend Brutus, that excellent man, does not go into the senate on the 1st of June, I do not understand what he means to do in the forum. But he knows best. By what I perceive to be going on, I judge there has not been much gained by the 15th of March. Therefore I think daily more and more about going into Greece. For I do not see how I can be of any use to my Brutus, who, as you say, is himself thinking of leaving the country. I am not at all satisfied with Leonidas's letter. Respect- ing Herodes, I agree with you. I should like to have read Saufeius'sP account. I design to leave Fompeianum the 10th of May. LETTER XIX. On the 7th of May while I was in Fompeianum I received two letters from you, one the sixth, the other the fourth day after their dates. I shall reply to them in their order. I am very glad that Bamaeus should have delivered my letter to you so seasonably. You will manage with Cassius as you do everything else. How fortunate that I should have written to him upon the very point you advise four days before, and shouid have sent you a copy of my letter 1 But while I was in despair about Dolabella's deficiency, or paylessness ' (to use your own expression), behold Brutus's letter and yours ! He is thinking of quitting the country. But I see a different haven' nearer to one of my age ; into which I should like better to be con- veyed, while our Brutus is flourishing, and the republic established. But now, as you say, there is no choice. For you agree with me that my age is unsuitable to arms, especially to those of civil wars. Antonius wrote to me only about Clodius' ; that my gentleness and kindness was gratifying to himself, and would be a source of great satisfaction to me. But Pansa seems to be outrageous on the subject of Clodius, and likewise on that of Deio- tarus ; and uses severe language, if you choose to What is expressed in Latin the third day, is really the next day hut one. In this sense it is used in the Gospels on the occasion of our Lord's resurrection ; and so in fact it is always used hy Roman authors. P Some letter on the subject of the young Cicero from Saufeius, who may probably have been at this time at Athens. 1 The original Greek may perhaps have been a word of Atticus's coining, of which 1 have endeavoured to express the meaning in a similar manner in English. ' Death, Cicero was at this time in his 63d year. B This is probably in reply to some question of Atticus upon the sul^ect of Antonius's letter. believe him. This, however, is not so well in my mind ; that he vehemently reprobates this act of Dolabella's. Respecting those who wore chap- lets' ; your sister's son, upon being accused by his father, wrote in answer, that he had worn a chap- let in honour of Caesar ; and had put it off on account of his mourning j in short, that he was ready to bear every reproach, for that he loved Csesar even dead. I have written to Dolabella very explicitly, as you wished me to do. I have also written to Sica. I would not put this trouble upon you ; and should be sorry to have him angry with you. I know Servius's manner of talking", in which I see more of alarm than of wisdom. But since we are all alarmed, I assent to Servius. Publilius' has been trifling with you. For Cserel- lia^'' has been sent hither by these people to nego- tiate with me. But I soon persuaded her that what she asked was not only not agreeable to me. but not even admissible. If I see Antonius, I will use all diligence about Buthrotum, I come now to your last letter (though on the subject of Ser- vius I have already replied) that I exalt Dolabella's deed. In truth, I think it could not have been better in such a case, and at such a time. But whatever I attribute to him, I do it from your letters. Yet T agree with you that it would be a better deed, if he paid me what he owes. I wisjr^ Brutus would occupy Astura. You commend me for making no determination about going abroad tin I see how things are likely to turn out ; but I have changed my purpose. However, I shall do nothing till I see you. I am pleased with Attica's returning thanks to me about her mother, to whom I have given up my whole house and stores ; and I hope to see her again on the 11th. Give my compliments to Attica ; I will take good care of PUia. LETTER XX. I WENT by sea from Fompeianum to my friend LucuUus's on the lOth, where I arrived about 9 o'clock ; and upon quitting the vessel I got your letter dated the 7th, which your messenger was said to have carried to Cumannm. The next day I received another through Lucullus about the same hour on which I had arrived ; and I received one on the 9th dated from Lanuvium. Hear, there- fore, my reply to all of them. In the first place, I am much pleased with what has been done in my concerns respecting both the payment and the business of Albius. But with regard to your Buthrotum, Antonius came to Misennm while I was in Fompeianum ; and he had left it again before I heard of his being there. From thence he went to Samnium ; so that I can give you Uttle hope of ray meeting him. The business of Buth- rotum must therefore be managed at Rome. h. Antonius's^ harangue is quite horrible ; Dola- • See letter 14 of this book, n See letter 18 of this book. ^ See book xii letter 32. '» See book xiii. letter 21. It may be supposed that she was sent to negotiate a reconciliation between Cicero and Publilia. ^ He was brother to M. Antonius, and at this time one of the tribunes of the people. He proposed to make a fur- ther pant of lands to the people, to secure their support for his brother ; in which he was opposed by Dolabella. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 803 bdla's excellent. Now* let Mm keep the money to himself if he will but pay it on the 15th. I should be sorry if Tertulla' were to miscarry ; for Cassius's need to be reared as well as Brutus's. I should be glad to know what is become of the queens, and also of the young Cffisar*. I have done with your first letter, and come now to the second. About the Quintuses and Buthrotum, when I come, as you say. I am much obliged for your advances to Cicero. You think I am mis- taken in supposing that the republic depends upon Brutus ; but so it is. It will either cease to exist, or it will be preserved by him or his party. To your advice of my sending up"" a written speech, let me, my Atticus, reply by a general maxim on these subjects, in which I am pretty well versed. There never was any poet or orator who thought anybody superior to himself. This is the case even with bad ones. What do you think then of Brutus, who has both genius and learning ? Of whom also I have had some experience lately ou the subject of his edict. I composed one at your request. I liked mine ; he liked his own. Nay, when I had addressed to him my treatise on the best style of oratory, which I was induced to do almost at his earnest solicitation, he wrote word, not to me only, but to you also, that what I recom- inended he did not approve. Therefore, leave everybody, I beg, to write for himself. " Every one his own wife, mine for me ; every one his own taste, mine for me." I cannot say much for the style of this, being taken from Attilius, a very harsh poet. I wish only that he - may be allowed to address the people at all ; for if be is allowed to remain in the city in safety, the cause is ours. For either nobody will follow the leader of a new civil war ; or those will follow who may easily be overpowered. I come to the third letter. I am glad that Brutus and Cassius were pleased with my letter; and have in consequence written to them again. With regard to their wish that Hir- tius may be made better through me ; I use my best endeavours, and he talks most honourably ; but he lives and is domesticated with Balbus, who talks honourably likewise i you must judge what you are to believe. I see you are greatly pleased with Dolabella ; I am exceedingly so. I lived with Pansa in Pompeianum ; who quite convinced me of his upright sentiments, and his desire of peace ; but 1 see clearly that some people are seeking for an occasion of war. I approve of the proclamation of Brutus and Cassius. You ask me to take upon myself the consideration of what I think they ought to do. But opinions depend upon the time ; which fluctuates every hour. That first act of Dolabella's, and this speech in oppo- sition to Antonlus, seem to me to have done much. The cause was utterly sinking. Now we appear likely to have a leader ; which is the only thing the free towns and all good people want. You speak of Epicurus, and venture to pronounce that one should abstain from polities'*. Poes not the dear look of my Brutus deter you from such lan- guage ? Q. the son, as you mention, is the right hand of Antonius. Through him therefore we shall easily carry what we wish*. If, as you sup- pose, L. Antonius should bring forward Octavius, I am anxious to know how he will address the people. I write this in haste ; for Cassius's mes- senger is setting off immediately. I am going presently to pay my compliments to Filia ; then by water to feast with Vestorius. Best compli- ments to Attica. ' In consideration of Ms patriotic conduct. 7 Wife of Cassius. * Cleopatra. » The sou of Cleopatra by Cesar, b For the use of Brutus. •= Brutus. <> It will be recollected that the leading principle of Epicimxs's philosophy ^vas to consult our own ease. LETTER XXI. Soon after I had delivered to Cassius's messenger my letter to you on the 11th, my own messenger arrived, and (what was like a prodigy) without any letter from you. But it presently occurred to me that you must have been at Lanuvium. Eros hastened, that I might get a letter from Dolabella. He did not write about my business', for he had not yet received mine ; but it was in answer to that of which I sent a copy to you, and was well ex- pressed. As soon as I had despatched Cassius's messenger, I received a visit from Balbus. Gracious gods ! how easily might you perceive his dread of quiet ! You know the man, how reserved he is ; but yet he spake freely of Antonius's designs, who was going round to the veteran soldiers, to secure the ratification of Caesar's acts, and to make them swear to enforce them everywhere ; for which pur- pose the Duumviris were to examine them every month. He complained also of his own unpopu- larity ; and his whole conversation showed his attachment to Antonius. In short, there is no relying upon anything •*. To me it is no longer doubtfiil that affairs tend to war. For that deed' has been done with a manly spirit, but with the prudence of ■ a child. Who did not see that there was left an heiri to the kingdom ? What could be more absurd ^ "To fear this ; to have no appre- hension about the other'." Nay, at this very time there are many inconsistencies ; as that Pon- tius's Neapolitan villa should be held by the mother' of the tyrant-killer. I must read again and again my " Cato the Elder"," which I sent you,— for age makes me peevish ; I am out of humour with everything : but my life has had its course °, let younger men see to it. You wiU continue to watch over my concerns as you do. I write or rather dictate this while the dessert is upon the table at Vestorius's. I intend to-morrow to be with Hir- tius ; and thus forsooth I hope to bring over to the honest party one of the five that are left ° ! It " Respecting Buthrotum. f The payment of his debt to Cicero. ff The colonial towns of Italy were governed by two ma- gistrates, called duumviri, in imitation of the Komaii consuls, and they were subject to the Roman laws. h For Balbus had talked honourably of serving the re- public. See letter 20 of this book. ' The asBassination of Csesar. i Antonius. tt The original is a verse of which notice has before been taken. See book xii. letter 5d. 1 Servilia, who had been a favourite of Caesar, and re- ceiTed a grant of land forfeited by some of the Pompeian party. I" Cicero's essay on Old Age, so entitled. » He was now about G3. o I have endeavoured to give what appears the most probable signification of the Greek word of the text. I sua- 3 F2 804 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO is a great delusion. There is no one of them irho does not dread a state of quiet. Let me then put wings to my feet ; for anything is better than to engage in war. Fray give my best compliments to Attica. I am eager for Octavius's speech, and anything else there may be, — particularly whether Dolabella's money begins to chink P, or if he has altogether cancelled my account. LETTER XXn. Having understood from Pilia that a messenger was to be sent to you on the 15th, I have immediately scrawled something. In the first place, then, I wish you to know that I go from hence to Arpinum the 17th of May, — so that hereafter you will direct thither if there is anything, though I shall myself presently be at Rome. But I wish, before I arrive, to find out more accurately what is likely to happen; though I fear my conjectures may prove too true : for it is sufficiently clear what they aim at. My pupil ', who dines with me to-day, is greatly at- tached to him whom our Brutus stabbed ; and, if you ask me, I plainly perceive they dread a state of quiet. This position they hold and openly maintain, — that he who has been killed was a most distinguished man, and that the whole state is thrown into disorder by his death ; that what he pect that many of these words are borrowed from Atticua, who may possibly have designated by the appellation of ireVTeXotTTot some five principal supporters of Cesar's party, one of whom might be Hirtius. From irevreXonroi Cicero may humorously have derived TreVTeXOfirSy, V If he is preparing to pay me. 1 Hirtius. See letter 12 of this book. did would be without effect as soon as we lay aside our fears; that his own clemency was his ruin, without which nothing of the kind could have hap- pened to him. What occurs to me is, that if Pompeius *" comes up with a firm army, which is probable, there will certainly be war. The very idea and thought of this disturbs me : for what was formerly allowed to you • will not now be allowed to me. I have not concealed my joy • ; besides, they are fond of charging me with ingra- titude. So that what was formerly allowed to you and many others will on no account be allowed. Must I declare myself then, and go into the field ? It is better to die a thousand times, especially at this age. The I5th of March, therefore, is not so great a consolation as it was, because of the great blunder that it embraces. Still those young" men "by their other well-doings put out this reproach '." But if you have any better hope, since you both hear more and are admitted to their counsels, I wish you would write to me, and at the same time consider what I should do about a votive legation''. Many people in these parts warn me not to attend the senate on the first, as soldiers are said to be secretly engaged for that day, and expressly against the conspirators, who, I apprehend, will be safer anywhere than in the senate. ' Sextus Pompeius. ■ To take no part in the civil war. * Joy at Caesar's death. " The conspirators, who were all much younger than Cicero. ▼ The original is a verse from some imknown Greek poet. ^ A leave of absence on some fictitious appointment. See letter 5 of this book, and elsewhere. BOOK XV. LETTER I. O SAD news of Alexiou". It is not to be be- lieved how much I am afflicted ; and that, not on account of what most persons suggest, asking what physician I should employ. For what have I now to do with a physician .' Or if I should want one, is there such a scarcity ? What I have lost is his affection towards me, his kindness and gentleness. This consideration also affects me j what is not to be feared when so temperate a man, so consummate a physician, is unexpectedly carried off by the violence of disease .' For all this the only conso- lation is, that it is the condition of our birth that we should submit to whatever is incident to humanity.. Respecting Antonius, I have already written to say that I had not met with him ; for he came to Misenum while I was in Pompeiannm, and was gone again before I knew of his arrival. But it happened that Hirtius was with me in Puteolanum when I read your letter. I read it to him, and entered upon the subject. In what re- ^ This physician was before mentioned. Sec book vii. letter 2. ! This no doubt regards the business of Butbrotnm. lates to the first part? he was not less earnest than myself; and in conclusion he appointed me the arbiter not only of this business but of his whole consulship. With Antonius I will so manage, as to let him understand that if he satisfies me in this affair I will give myself wholly to him. I hope Dolabella is at home ^. Let us come now to our friends ", of whom you say you entertain good expectations in consequence of the moderation of their proclamations. But I learned Hirtius's real sentiments when he left me on the I6th to go from Puteolanum to Naples for the sake of meeting Pansa. For I took him aside and counselled him in favour of peace. He could not deny that he was desirous of peace ; but he feared the arms of our friends no less than those of Antonius. He confessed it was not without reason that both parties had a guard ; but for his own part he was afraid of the arms of both : in short, there is no- thing sound. About young Quintus I agree with you. Your letter to his father was extremely handsome, and could not fail of being most agree- able. I h ad no difficulty in sa tisfying Cserellia, who » That is, at Rome, where he could forward the business. • Brutus and Cassias. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. did not appear very solicitous '' ; and if she were, assuredly I should not be so. I am surprised you should have listened at all to the lady", who you say was so troublesome to you : for as to my having spoken well of her before her friends, in the hearing of her three sons and her daughter, " the same person does not always utter Sue same thing''." What is this ? What is it that should make me walk about in an assumed character ? Is not old age of itself a character sufficiently disgusting ? What Brutus requests, that I would go to him previously to the first ", he has mentioned also in a letter to me, and I may probably do so ; but I cannot at all tell what he wants : for what counsel can I give him who am in need of counsel myself? While he has consulted his own immortalisation better than our tranquillity. The report about the queen' will soon be extinguished. Pray remember about Flamma s, if there is anything you can do. Yesterday I sent you a letter as I was going from Futeolanum ; and 1 turned aside to Cumanum, where I saw Pilia almost, well : I saw her besides at Baulos near Cumae ; for she had come to attend a funeral, at which I likewise assisted. Cn. LucuUus, my intimate friend, was carrying his mother to her grave. That day, therefore, I staid in Sinuessanum, and the next morning setting out for Arpinum I scrawl this letter. I have nothing new, however, to tell you, or to ask you ; unless, perhaps, you think what follows to be of any consequence. Our Brutus has sent me the speech he delivered at the meeting in the capitol, and has desired me to cor- rect it (but not with a view to excite applause) before he publishes it. The speech is written with great elegance of sentiments and expression, so that nothing can exceed it. Yet, if I had had the same cause to conduct, I should have treated it with more warmth ; you see what the subject is, and who is the person that speaks. 1 have, there- fore, been unable to correct it; for in the style which our Brutus prefers, and agreeably to his judgment of the best method of speaking, he has so well succeeded in this oration that nothing can be more elegant. But I alone, whether rightly or not, am of a different opinion. I wish, however, that you would read the speech, — unless you have read it already, — and would let me know what you think of it ; though I fear you may be misled by your name'', and may be over-attic in your judg- ment : but if you will call to mind the thunders of Demosthenes, you will understand that what is consummately attic may be strongly expressed. But of these things when we meet. I did not care to let Metrodorus go to you either without a letter, or with a letter that contained nothing. '' About Cicero's taking bacJc Fublilia. See book xiv, letter 19. e PublUia's mother. <• The oiigiual is in Greek, and seems to be quoted as a proverbial sentence. It means that thei'e is now no reason why he should disguise his real sentiments, although -he may have done so before. Old age is bad enough, without making it worse by assuming a false character. e The first of June, on which day he designed to go to Rome, where the senate was summoned. ' Cleopatra. What was the report alluded to, is uncer- tain, s In the affair of Montanus. Bee book xiv. letter W. ^ Atiicus. It will be recollected that the Attic style was esteemed the perfection of good writing. LETTER II. On the 18th, on my way from Sinuessanum, after I had sent my letter to you and had proceeded from Cumse to Viscianum, I received yours from the messenger. There was more than enough in it about Buthrotum. For you do not, nor can you, take a greater interest in that business than I do. It is thus proper for you to attend to my concerns and me to yours. I have accordingly undertaken this so, that I shall esteem nothing of superior obligation '. 1 learned from your letter, and from others, that L. Antonius had made a scurvy harangue ; but what was the nature of it I do not know, for you said nothing. About Mene- demus J it is quite right. Quintus ^ must assuredly be dictating what you write. I am glad you approve of my reason for declining to compose what you asked of me ', and you will approve it still more when you have read the speech, about which I wrote to you this morning. What you mention about the legions is perfectly true" ; but you do not seem sufficiently to have considered what you can hope to have done by the senate in the affair of our Buthrotians. As far as my opinion goes (for I see so much), I do not think we" shall long subsist : but even if we are disappointed of this resource", you will not be disappointed about Buthrotumi". I feel as you do on the subject of Octavius's speech ; and am not pleased with the preparations for his games i, and the appointment of Matius and Fostumius to conduct them. Sasema' is a fit colleague for them. But all these people, as you perceive, are as much afraid of peace as we are of war. I should be glad if I could relieve Balbus from the odium he has incurred " ; but he does not himself believe it to be possible : there- fore he turns his attention elsewhere. I am glad that you derive comfort from the first Tusculaa Disquisition ; for there is no resource either better or readier'. I am not sorry that Fiamma speaks so fairly. What may be the case of the Tyndari- tani", in which you are so earnest, I know not ; yet I will give them my support'. These transac- » How well he fulfilled this promise is manifested by bis letters still extant to Flancus and Capito. See Ap- pendix. 3 It is not known to what this alludes. The name occurs again letter 4 of this book. ^ This evidently relating to something said in Atticus's letter, it is no wonder that it should no longer be intel- ligible. ' See hook xiv. letter 20. ™ This is supposed to allude to some legions which An- tonius had lately recalled from Macedonia. ° The senate. I understand this to mean, " even if we have not the senate to support us.'' p We shall be able to accomplish om* purpose through Antonius. 1 Games that had been promised by Ceesar, and were now celebrated by OctaviUs to gain the aifections of the populace. ' Sasema, Matius and Postumlus, were all partisans of Csesar 5 Balbus, though friendly to Cicero, was attached to Cssar, and therefore suspected of ill-will to the cause of . Brutus and the republic. See book xiv. letter 20. ' The first Tusculan Disquisition is upon the contempt of death. " A people of Sicily. V So this imperfect sentence ought probably to be com- pleted. 806 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO tions seem to move this one-of-tlie-five", especially the expenditure of the money". I am sorry for Alexion ; yet having fallen into so severe an illness, I think that he has been kindly dealt with. I should like to know who are his heirs in the second degree'', and what is the date of his will. LETTER m. I RECEIVED two letters from you on the 22d in Atinas, in answer to two of mine. One was dated the 18th, the other the 21st. To the earliest there- fore first. Pray come to Tusoulanum, as you pro- pose. I mean to be there the 27th. When you say that we must submit to the conquerors, I do not agree with you ; for many things appear to me preferable. As to what you recoUeot to have been done in the temple of Apollo during the consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus " ; neither the case nor the time is similar ; especially as you mention that Marcellus and others are taking their departure. I must therefore find out and determine on the spot, whether I can safely remain in Rome. These new meetings alarm the inhabitants " ; for we are placed in great straits. But let these things be disre- garded ; I can look upon still greater with uncon- cern. I have been made acquainted with Calva's will, a base and sordid fellow. I thank you for the care you take about Demonicus's accounts, I have already written very particularly to DolabeUa about Marius, if only my letter has been delivered. For his sake I wish him success, as indeed I ought. I come now to the more recent letter. I have learned what I wanted about Alexion ''. Hirtius is n your interest". I wish Antonius were worse than he is ''. You mention Quintus the son. A volume of evils ! Of the father we will speak when we meet. I am desirous of assisting Brutus in everything I can. I see you entertain the same opinion of his speech that I do. But I do not quite understand what you wish me to write, as if it were a speech delivered by Brutus ; when he has himself published his own. How can this be? Would you have it as against a tyrant, who had been justly killed ? I shall have much to say, and much to write ; but it must be in another manner and time. The tribunes have done well about Csesar's chair '. And excellent the fourteen rows of knights. I am glad Brutus has been at my house, provided he was pleased, and staid as long as he liked. ^ Hirtius. See book xiv. letter 21, note o. * Antonius's expenditure of the money taken from the temple of Opa. 7 After the faUure of the first heirs. * At the breaking out of the civil war^ when the senate united with Pompeius, and invested the consuls with extraordmary authority to provide for the safety of the republic. a The meetings of the veteran soldiers in the country towns. b See letter 2 of this book. c On the subject of Buthrotum. ^ This must be supposed to relate to some passage in Atticus's letter, where he mentioned that Antonius was ill. c It had been decreed, in flattery to Caesar, that he should have a gilt chair in the senate and public places. Octavius ivished to have this chair placed, in memory of Caesar, at the games, but the tribunes forbade it ; on which account they seem to have been applauded by the knight« in the theatre, where they sat in fourteen rows of benches reserved by law for their exolusiye use. LETTER IV. On the 23d about two o'clock a messenger arrived from Q. Fufius with a. letter containing something about my restoring myself to him ' ; as silly as usual ; unless, perhaps, whatever we dislike is apt to appear silly. I replied in a manner that I think you would approve. He brought me two letters from you, one of the 22d, the other the 23d. I shall answer the latter first. " And the legion e ?" I applaud the circumstance. And if Carfulenus too ; the streams, as they say, will run upwards \ You take notice of the factious coun- sels of Antonius. I wish he may act through the populace, rather than through the senate ; and I imagine this is likely to be the case. But to me all his measures have a warlike tendency. If indeed Decimus Brutus's province is snatched away, whatever I may think of his strength, it seems impossible to be done without a war. But for this I do not wish, now that assurance • is given to the Buthrotians. You may smile ; but I am sorry that this should not rather have been accomplished by my attention, diligence and influence. When you say that you do not know what is to become of our friends J, the same doubt has long since given me concern ; so that the consolation I de- rived from the 15th of March already appears foolish. For we have shown a manly spirit, but, believe me, a childish prudence. The trep has been cut down, not torn up by the roots ; and you see accordingly how it sprouts. Let us have recourse then to the Tusculan Disquisitions, since you often appeal to them. We must endeavour* to conceal this from Saufeius ; for my part I will never tell. You say that Brutus has written to inquire on what day I should go to Tusculanum. As I before mentioned to you, the 27th ; and I hope to see you there as soon as possible ; for I apprehend I shall be obliged to proceed to Lanu- vium ^, where there will be a great deal of talking. But I shall see about it. I revert now to the earlier letter, of which I pass over that first part relative to the Buthrotians, which is lodged in my inmost soul ; if only, as you say, there is any opportunity of acting. You seem quite earnest on the subject of Brutus' speech, by urging it again so copiously. Should I then support the same cause for which he has written ? should I write without his invitation ? No interference can be more disrespectful. But, f This expression may probably be copied from Fofius's letter. e This is copied fromAtticus's letter, and no doubt aUadea to the martial legion under the command of Carfulenus, which deserted from Antoniiis at this time. ^ The original is a Greek proverbial expression, signi- fying that it would be beyond all expectation ; for Carfu- lenus had been a firm friend to Cssar. In fact he did not join Brutus, but Octavius. i May not this refer to the unwarranted assertion of some foolish person saying that he would be answerable for the safety of the Buthrotians ? which Cicero pleasantly ridicules. Had a war broken out, it might be expected that Antonius would bo othermse employed than in settling soldiers in Buthrotum. i The conspu-ators. ^ This is said in jest, with reference to Sauf eius's attach ment to the sect of Epicurus ; while the Tusculan Disqui- sitions are conducted upon principles totally opposite. It will be remembered that Atticus was also an Epicurean. ' Brutus andCassius were at Lanuvium. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICDS. 8o!r Bay you, something in the manner of Heraclides". To that indeed I do not ohject ; bat the subject must be well considered, and we must wait for a riper season of writing. For, whatever you may think of me, (and I should certainly wish you to think the best possible,) if things remain as they promise, (you will bear what I am going to say,) the 15th of March affords me no satisfaction. For he " would never have returned ; and we should not have been compelled by fear to confirm his acts. Or (to adopt Saufeius's maxims °, and renounce those Tusculan Disquisitions to which you also invite Vestorius p) so gracious towards me was he (whom even dead may the gods confound !) that, since we have not by his death regained our liberty, there was no reason, at -my age, to dislike him for a master. I blush, believe me. But I have already written, and will not erase it. I could have wished the report about Menedemus had been true ; and wish that about the queen may be so. The rest when we meet ; especially what measures our friends should pursue ; what also ourselves, if Antonius means to beset the senate with soldiers. If I had given this letter to his messenger, I was afraid he might open it. I have therefore sent on purpose ; for yours required an answer. , 1 How much I wish you could have given Brutus your assistance ! I will therefore write to him. I have sent Tiro to Dolabella. with a letter and instructions. Desire him to come to you^-and if you have anything to say, write what you please. But see here ! most provokingly, L. Csesar begs me either to go to bim at The Grove ', or to let him know where he may find me ; for Brutus wished him to have some conversation with me. A. hateful and fruitless job ! I think however I shall go, and from thence to Rome, unless 1 change my present purpose. I send you this in few words, for there is yet nothing from Balbus. I am there- fore expecting to hear from you, and not only what has been done, but also what vrill be done. LETTER V. The messenger that went to Brutus has brought back letters from him and Cassius. They earnestly desire my opinion ; Brutus, indeed, which of the two plans ■ he should adopt. O sad state of affairs ! I have positively nothing to say, and therefore think of maintaining silence, unless you suggest something different. But if anything occurs to ™ Hera^lides appears to have written a took of political dialogues, which has not come down to us. Book xiii. letter 9. n Cffisar would probably never have returned safe from his projected Parthian expedition. This appears to be said partly in reference to the actual danger of the war, which had already been fatal to Craesus's army ; and partly in reference to the unstable and invidious nature of Casaar's power. See book x. letter 8. o Themaximsof the Epicureans, who profess to consult only their own ease. P This must allude to something said, very likely in jeat, by Atticus. ■t There is every reason to think this must be the begin- ning of a sepai-ate letter. ■Tt Near to Aricia, where Cffiaar had built a house. See book vi. letter 1. " Whether he should go up to Rome the 1st of June ; or should retire from Italy. you, pray write. Cassius strongly begs and en- treats me to make a good citizen of Hirtius. Do you think he is in his senses ? 'Tis the fuller and the coals '. I send you his letter. What you say respecting a decree of the senate for the provinces of Brutus and Cassius ", is repeated by Balbus and by Hirtius ; and the latter purposes himself to bring it on ; for he is already in Tuscnlanum. He strongly advises me to keep away. He does this on account of the danger, which he says threat- ened him also. But for my part, even if there were no danger, I am so far from caring to prevent Antonius* suspicions of my dissatisfaction at his success, that the wish of avoiding him is of itself a reason why I am unwilling to go to Rome. Our friend Varro has sent me a letter, which he received from I know not whom (for he had erased the name)i in which it was mentioned, that those veteran soldiers, whose claims "^ were rejected, (for some of them were dismissed,) talked very sedi- tiously, so that whoever was thought to have opposed their interests, would be in great danger at Rome. Besides, how should I manage my going, my returning, my countenance, my step, amongst that party ^. And if, as you say, L. An- tonius is to go against Decimus *, the rest against our friends ?, what should 1 do .' or how should I conduct myself.' 1 have therefore determined, as matters now stand, to absent myself from that city in which 1 have not only fiourished with the highest dignity, but have enjoyed some share of it even under subjection. Yet I am not so much resolved to go out of Italy, (upon which I must deliberate with you,) as not to go up thither ^ LETTER VL Our friend Brutus has written to me, and like- wise Cassius, that I might use my authority to secure Hirtius, whom they knew to have been hitherto well affected, though they could not en- tirely depend upon him. For I apprehend he is displeased with Antonius, but still attached to that cause. However, I wrote, recommending to him the dignity of Brutus and Cassius ; and wish you to be acquainted with his answer, in case you should draw fi:om it the same conclusion as I do, that the opposite party are even now afraid of our friends' possessing more spirit than they really have. " Hirtius to his Cicero. " You ask if I am yet returned from the coun- try j or whether, at a time when everybody is in activity, I am amusing myself in idleness. I likewise have quitted the city ; for I thought it more useful to absent myself. I write this settmg off to Tusculanum. And I would not have you suppose me so strenuous as to return on the 6th ; for I see nothing that demands my attention, the t In the uncertainty of a doubtful text, I read 6 yraipelis &v8paKas, " the fuller attempting to clean coals ;" for he considered it a fruitless endeavour to reclaim him from Csesar's party to favour Brutus and Cassiua. 1 To whom provinces would naturally be decreed, as to praetors, at the expiration of their office. » Claims of a portion of land. " Caesar's friends; X Decimus Brutus. 7 M. Brutus, and the other conspirators. > To Rome. THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO appointments being provided for so many years ». As Brutus and Cassius may obtain anything of me through you, so I wish that by you they may as easily be Induced to enter into no intemperate counsels. For you say that, at the time they wrote to you, they were retiring. Whither ? or where- fore ? Stop them. I beseeech you, Cicero ; and suffer not all these things to perish, which must be utterly ruined by plunder, by fire, by slaughter. Only, if they have any cause of fear, let them be upon their guard ; but let them attempt nothing more. In good truth they will gain no more by violent counsels than by gentle ones, provided they are prudent. For this state of things, which is passing on, is not of a nature to last ; but by opposition it presently assumes a power of doing mischief. Write to me in Tusculanum, and let me know what hopes you have of them." This is Hirtius'S letter ; to which I replied, that they entertained no intemperate designs ; and this I confidently affirmed. This, such as it is, I wished you to know. Since sealing my letter 1 have heard from Balbus that Servilia had returned, and confirmed the opinion that they would not go out of the country. I am now expecting a letter from you. LETTER VII. I THANK you for the letters you sent me, which indeed gave me much pleasure ; especially that of our friend Sextus"". Ifou will say, " because he commends you." I think indeed that may be one reason ; but yet before I came to that part, I was exceedingly pleased both with his sentiments in regard to the republic, and with the accuracy of his writing. The peace-maker Servius ', with his little clerk, seems to have acted as an ambassador, and to be afraid of any captious proceeding. But he ought to have considered, that " it was no struggle of right," but what fellows'^. Let me hear also from you. LETTER VIIL After yon left me I received two letters from Balbus ; no news. Also one from Hirtius, who represents himself to be highly offended with the conduct of the veteran troops. I am anxious to know what they will do about the first of March '. I have therefore sent Tiro, and several others with him, that whatever happens you may write to me by one of them. I have besides written to Antonius about an honorary legation, lest being an irritable man, he might be offended had I applied only to Dolabella. Bat as he is said to be difficult of 3 Cffisar, preparatory to his Parthian expedition, had nominated the magistrates for several years in advance. i> This is generally supposed to mean Sextus Peduceus, of whom mention is made, book vii. letter 13, and book x. letter 1. c Servius Sulpicius, a distinguished lawyer, who may perhaps on that accoimt be represented as attended by his clerk. He is mentioned before. See book x. letter 14. ^ The original is from Bnnius — " it is no struggle of right, but rather of arms ; they aim at a kingdom, and proceed by main force." — Aul. Gell. xx. 10. *^ Commentators have not without reason suspected some error of the text It ought probably to be ^^a■itten •' the J st of June." If that is nut the case, it must relate to some- thing no longer imderstood. access, I have written to Eutrapelus to present my letter to him, as having occasion for such an ap- pointment. A votive legation is more honourable ; but I may make use of both''. Again and again I beg you to take care of yourself. I wish you could come to me ; but if you cannot, we will attain the same end by letter. Grseceius sends me word, that C. Cassius had informed him there were men provided to be sent armed to Tusculanum. This does not appear to me probable ; but yet it is right to be upon one's guard, and to go about from one villa to another b. To-morrow will produce some- thing to direct us in the consideration of this business. LETTER IX. On the evening of the third I received a letter from Balbus, saying that the senate was to meet on the 5th, for the purpose of appointing Brutus in Asia, Cassius in Sicily, to purchase corn for the use of the city. Wretched business ! first, that they should receive any commission from these people ; then, if any, that it should be such a lieutenant's commission''. I know not if it is better than sitting by the Eurotas". But these things chance must govern. He says that at the same time a decree is to be passed for the allot- ment of the provinces to them, and to file rest of praetorian rank. This certainly is better than that Persic' portico. For I would not have that distant Lacedsemon supposed to mean Lanuvium. Do you laugh, you will say, in such a state of affairs ? What should I do ? I am tired of weeping. Immortal gods ! how the first page of your letter disturbed me ! But what was that collision of arms in your house ? I am glad however that this storm soon passed over. I am anxious to know what you have done with your commission'', at once so sad and difficult of consultation. For it is indeed quite inextricable ; so beset are we by all the troops. As for me, Brutus's letter, which you say you have read, has so disturbed me, that though I was before at a loss, yet I am become duller than ever through f A votive legation granted by the two consuls, and an honorary lieutenancy from Dolabella. A votive legation was a nominal appointment in discharge of a vow. See letter 1 of this book. s To avoid being surprised. It should be mentioned, however, that the text in this place is vei-y doubtful. Ir. the Epist. ad Fam. xi. 20. D. Brutus admonishes Cicero to be upon his guard — cautum, et insidias viiantem. ^ During the time of their prastorship it is probable they could not be sent abroad but by some commission of this kind, which may have been devised by the friends of peace. i The Eurotas was a river of Lacedasmon. The expres- sion is probably a proverbial one, signifying, " to remain inactive," as Brutus aud Cassius were doing at Lanuvium. The Romans used to give great names to their canals :— • *' ductus aquarum isti Nilos et Euripos vocant." — De leg. ii. 1. J Having previously applied the name of Eurotas to the stream that flowed by Lanuvium, he goes on in the same figure of speech to call the portico of Lanuvium by the name of a portico at Lacedsmon ; and concludes ironi- cally, that he would not have Atticus suppose him to mean Lanuvium ; thus humorously giving the true interpreta- tion of his own metaphor. ^ 'Atticus appears to have been solicited to go to Lanu- vium for the purpose of advising with his friend Brutus in the present difllcult situation. See letter 10 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 809 distress of mind'. But I will write more when I am informed of what has been done. At present I have nothing to say, and the less, because I am doubtful if you will get this letter. For it is uncertain whether the messenger will see you. I am very anxious to hear from you. LETTER X. How affectionately is Brutus's letter written ! How unlucky this time, when you are prevented from going to him ! But what can I write ™ ? Should I advise him to accept the offer of these people ? What more disgraceful ? To attempt any thing .' They dare not, neither can they. Come then, should I advise them to remain quiet ? Who can answer for their safety ? And if any violent measures are adopted with regard to Decimus, what will become of our friends, even if nobody offers to molest them? Not to celebrate the games" .' What more dishonourable ? To exact corn ! How does it differ from that appointment of Dion" ? Or what olFice in the state is more contemptible ? In such a situation of things, counsel is not safe even for the person who gives it. This however I might disregard, if I were doing any good. But to enter upon it without any prospect of advantage ; while he listens to the advice or even the entreaties of his mother, why should I interfere .' I will however think what kind of letter I can write ; for I cannot bear to be silent. I will presently send therefore either to Antium or to Circs8i f. LETTER XL I CAME to Antium on the 26th. Brutus was glad to sec me. Afterwards in the presence of several persons, and of Serviliai, TertuUa', and Portia', he asked what I thought. Favonius also was there. I had meditated upon this as I went along, and gave it as my opinion that he should accept this corn commission in Asia ; that nothing now re- mained for us to do but to secure ourselves ; in which was involved the protection also of the republic itself. After I had entered into this dis- course, Cassius came in ; upon which I repeated the same sentiments. At this place Cassius with animated looks (you would say Mars himself was breathing) declared he would not go into Sicily. " Shall I accept an offer which is intended as an insult ? " " What then do you propose to do .'" said I. To which he replied, that he would go into Greece. " And what," said I, " will you do, Brutus.'" " I will go to Rome," said he, "ifyou advise it." " But I do by no means advise it, for you will not be safe." " But if I could be safe, would you then approve it .'" " So much so that I would not have you go away at all, neither at this time, nor into a province after your praetorship. But I do not advise you to trust yourself in the city." I added what will readily occur to you, why he would not be safe. A great deal was then said, ' It is probable that Atticus may have asked Cicero's opinion. m To Brutus. J' This was the customai'y duty of the city praetor. » Dion appears to have been formerly sent out of Sicily byDionysius under colour of some embassy, but really from the desire to remove one whom he feared, P To which places Brutus was going. 1 Brutus's mother. r Cassius's wife. ■ Brutus's wife. and especially by Cassius, complaining of the oppor- tunities which had been lost ; and he heavily accused Decimus. I said we oyght not to dwell upon what' was past ; though at the same time I agreed with him. And having entered upon the consideratiou of ■ what ought to have been done ; without however saying anything new or anything more than is said every day ; (for I did not touch upon the subject of having omitted to strike anybody else " ;) but only that the senate ought to have been assembled, and the people more powerfully excited while their affections were yet warm : ** It is taking the man- agement of the whole republic," exclaims your female friend"; "this I never heard anybody advance." I checked myself". At length Cassius seemed disposed to go into Sicily ; (for ServiUa engaged that the mention of the corn should be expunged from the decree ;) and our friend '^ was soon driven from that idle' talk ; for he said that he acquiesced. He determined therefore that the games should be celebrated in his name, but without his being present. And he appeared will- ing to proceed into Asia from Antium. Not to tire you ; I had no satisfaction in that visit, besides the consciousness of having dpne my duty. For it was not to be suffered that he should leave Italy without my seeing him. E.xcepting for this debt of affection and kindness, I might say to myself — "What is the use of your coming hither, O prophet ^ ?" I found the vessel' shattered, or rather gone to pieces. Nothing was done with wisdom, nothing with prudence, nothing with regularity. So that if I before did not hesitate, yet still less do I now hesitate to fly away from hence ; and that as soon as possible ; " where I may hear neither of the deeds nor the nameof thePelopidse''." But while I think of it, let me inform you that Dolabella has appointed me his lieutenant from the 2d of April". I was told of it yesterday even- ing. A votive appointment you did not like ; and indeed it was absurd, that having bound myself by vows " if the republic should subsist," I should now discharge them when it is overturned. Besides, the honorary legations have, I think, a definite period by the Julian law ; and it is not easy to a legation of this kind ^ to add leave to go in and out when you please ; which is now granted to me. And the right which this licence gives me for five years is charming. Though why should I think of five years .' The business appears to me to be con- tracted within a little space ''. But let me not utter ill omens. ' That what is here said refers to Decimus only, appears from the context ; for Cicero himself immediately proceeds to the consideration of their pa^t errors. " Meaning that Antonius ought to have been killed as well as Cfesar. v Servilia. vf So I understand it, upon the authority of Cicero: " Re- primam jam, et non insequar longius." — De Leg. ii. 18. ^ Brutus.. ' y About going to Rome. ^ The original is a verse taken from some unknown Greek author. a The vessel of the state, a metaphor not unfrequent among Roman authors. *> A verse of the poet Accius, quoted before. See book xiv. letter 12. c It is uncertain whether there is any error in this date, or whether there may have been some I'eason for the com- mission being antedated, <1 One that is obtained for the discharge of a vow. e That is, the cause of the republic is reduced to a short term. 810 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LETTER XIL This is good news about Buthrotum, But I had already sent Tiro with a letter' to Dokbella as you desired. What harm ? I thought I had written suflSciently distinctly about our friends at Antium ^, that you needed not to doubt of their remaining quiet, and accepting Antonius's insulting offer. Cassius scorned the business of the corn, which Servilia engaged to get expunged from the decree of the senate. But our friend'', with all his dignity, said he would go into Asia, after he had agreed with me that he could not safely reside in Rome. For he thought it better to exhibit the games without being present. He was collecting vessels, and pre- paring for his passage. In the mean time they designed to remain in the same neighbourhood. Brutus talked of going to Astura". L. Antonius kindly indeed by letter desires me not to make myself uneasy J, I acknowledge this as one favour received ; and may perhaps receive a second, unless he should come to Tusculanum. How intolerable are these negotiations^ ! which however are tole- rated'. Which of Brutus's party™ is to blame for this"? There is, I am persuaded, no want of sense, no want of spirit in Octavianus ° ; and he seemed to be affected as we could wish towards our heroes. But it is matter of deep consideration what reliance can be placed on his age, his name^, his succession, his education. His stepfather^, whom I saw at Astura, thought he was not to be trusted. But he must be cherished however, if for no other reason, that he may be disunited from Antonius. It is well done of Marcellus, if he directs our own's own'; who seemed to me to be much attached to him. He* did not place much reliance on Pansa and Hirtius. They' have a good natural disposition, if it is but firm". f TTpon the subject of Buthrotum, about which Attieus appears now to have had some satisfactory assurance, per- haps through the instrumentality of Dolabella. See letter 14 of this book. e Brutus and Cassius. •» Brutus. i To Cicero's house. See letter 3 of this book, and book xiv. letter ] 9. i Under the apprehension of his Tusculau villa being seized. See letter 3 of this book. ^ That we should be forced to negotiate for our security. ' Antonius being suffered to proceed with impunity. ™ So the word BruU is to be imderstood. See book xiv. letter 14, " For sufiFering Antonius to live. The same who is before called Octaviue ; but his adoption into Ceesar's family having been confirmed, he took the name of C, Julius OBesar Octavianus, that of Augustus being added afterwards, p The name and inheritance of Ceesar. 1 Philippus. See book xiv. letter IS. ^ It is consonant with Atticus'a manner to suppose that he may thus have designated the yoimg Quintus, meaning Cicero's own brother's own son. ' Philippus. t Pansa and Hirtius. ^ He intimates the same thing in letters 1 and G of this book, and again in letter 22. I know not if any apology might be expected for giving a new interpretation to the concluding sentences of this letter. Suffice it to say, that I was dissatisfied with the explanation of former commen- tators, and always incline to resist the itch of conjectural emendations, the oflfspring of idleness and vanity. At the same time I should add, that both Middleton and Mongault apply this to Octavianus* LETTER XIIL On the 24th I received two letters from you, I shall reply to the earliest first. I agree with you that I should neither take the lead, nor close the rear; but should nevertheless favour them^. I have sent you my speech, and leave the keeping and the publication of it to your discretion. -But when shall we see the time that you will think it may be produced ? I do not understand how the truce you mention can possibly take place. It is better to use no opposition ; which is the policy 1 mean to adopt. When you say that two legions have arrived at Brundisium, you get all informa- tion first^ : write me word therefore of everything you bear. I am expecting Varro's Dialogue. I now approve of undertaking something in the manner of Heraclides^, especially as you anticipate it with so much delight : but I wish to know of what kind you would have it. As I mentioned to you before, or formerly, (since you prefer this expression,) you have, to tell you the truth ?, made me the more desirous of writing, by adding to your own opinion, which was well known to me, the authority of Peduceus, which is always great, and of the first weight with me. I wUl endeavour therefore to prevent your charging me either with idleness, or want of attention. Vectenus and Faberlus I cherish, as you advise. I suspect ClEelius of no evil design, although — But what has he done ? On the subject of maintaining our freedom, than which assuredly nothing is sweeter, I agree with you. Behave so to Gallus Caninius ? The wicked man^ ! What else can I call him ? Should I call him the cautious Marcellus ? Such would I call myself ; yet not so very cautious. I have now replied to your longer and earlier letter ; but what shall I reply to the shorter and more recent one, except that it was most delicious ? The news from Spain is excellent. Might I but see my Balbilius* safe, the support of my old age, I may say the same of Annianus, considering the atten- tion I receive from Visellia ''. But these things are subject to the lot of human nature. You say that you know nothing of Brutus ; but Selicia inforois me that M. Scaptius '^ is arrived, and that he is to come to her, not with any display, but privately ; and that I should know everything ; which I will immediately communicate to you. In the mean time you mention, in the same letter, that a servant of Bassus is come, who brings intelligence of the Alexandrian legions being in arms ; that Bassus is sent for ^, and Cassius is expected. What say you P ^ The party of Brutus and Cassius. w Though Cicero was now in the neighbourhood of Puteoli, and consequently much nearer to BnindiBium, yet news from thence had arrived at Rome before it reached him. * See letter 4 of this book. 7 The text has been variously tortured. I would poiot it thus — Ad scribendum, dicere tibi vere, ficisti me aerio- rem, &c. i. e. ut possim dicere tibi vere. * This appears to me to relate to Marcellus, whatever he may have done ; otherwise I see not how the following expression, cautum Marcellum, should come to be in the accusative case, unless indeed it be copied from Attieus. '^ I apprehend the word Balbilius is but a diminutiva from Balbus, and so afterwards Annianus for Anniua. ^ This must be some relation of Annius. c See book v. letter 91. ^ To put himself at the head of the Alexandiian legion TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 811 The repubGc seems to be recovering its rights. But we must not presume beforehand. You know the unsteadiness of these troops ■*, and their habits of plunder. Dolabella is the best of men. Though while I am writing at my dessert, I hear that he is come himself to Baise, yet he wrote to me from Formianum a letter, which I received upon quittin the bath, saying that he had done everything to th utmost about the payment. He accuses Yectenu of shuffling, as such people are accustomed to do but adds that my friend Sestius has taken the whole business upon himself. He is an excellent man, and very much attached to me ; yet I want to know what Sestius should be able to do in this affair more than any one of us. If however there should be anything beyond my expectation, you will take care to inform me. But if, as I imagine, it is a lost case, you will nevertheless write ; for such a circumstance will not affect me. Here I amuse myself with philosophical speculations, (for what else can I do ?) and copiously explain what relates to our duty, addressing myself to Cicero. For on what subject can a father more properly speak to his son ? Afterwards I shall proceed to something else. In short, there shall remain some fruit of this excursion. Varro was expected to-day or to- morrow. But I am hastening away to Pompeia- num ; not that anything can be more beautiful than this place ; but there I shall be less molested by visitors. Pray let me know what accusation is brought in the case of Myrtilus, who I hear has suffered punishment ; and whether it is quite clear by whom he was corrupted. While I write this, I imagine the speech wUl just have been delivered to you. I am almost afraid to hear what you may think of it. Though how does it concern me, if it is not to come out till the republic is restored ? About which what are my hopes" I dare not write. LETTER XIV. On the 26th I received a letter from Solabella, of which I send you a copy. In this he says that he has done everything that you could wish. I immediately wrote to him in return with the fullest expression of my thanks. But that he might not be surprised at my writing twice on the same sub- ject, I gave it as a reason, that I had not before been able to have any personal communication with you. Not to detain you, the follovfing is a copy of my letter : — " Cicero to his Dolabella, Consul. " Having before heard by letter from my friend Atticus of your great libersdity and extreme kind- ness towards him ; and having it also under your own hand, you that had done what we desired, I wrote to express my thanks to you in such terms, that you might understand you could not have conferred upon me a greater favour. But Atticus having since come himself to me at Tusculanum for this single purpose of returning you his thanks, through me, for the extraordinary attention and great kindness he had experienced from you in the Buthrotian affair ; I could not refrain from repeat- * This seems the most natural interpretation, though not supported by commentators ; who have followed each other in applying the words to Antonius and his party. ^ Meaning that he had no hope at all, but avoided the iU omen of saying go- ing the same to you more distinctly in this letter. For of all the marks of your affection and civility towards me, my DolabeUa, vfhich are very great, let me assure you that I esteem this the highest and most grateful, by letting Atticus see my regard for you, and yours for me. For the rest, though the settlement of Buthrotum has been your work, and we are naturally inclined to support the fruits of our own exertion, yet I wish again and again to recommend both the cause and the city to your patronage, that you may be pleased to cover it with your authority and assistance. You will confer a lasting^ security on the Buthrotians ; and will save Atticus and me from much trouble and anxiety, if for my honour's sake you will let them always remain under your protection. Which again and again I earnestly entreat you to do." Having finished this letter, I devoted myself to my coinpositions, which I fear may in several places call for your little red marks ^, so discomposed am I, and occupied with deepK thoughts. LETTER XV. C0N70UND L. Antonius ! if he molests the Buth- rotians. I have drawn up my attestation ^, which you may countersign when you please. If L. Fadius tlie sedile demands the money belonging to the people of Arpinum, deliver up even the whole of it. (I wrote to you in a former letter about the 1 10 sestertia (9001.) which were to be provided for Statins'.) If therefore Fadius asks for it, I wish it to be given to him ; but to nobody besides Fadius. I think there is some other deposit at my house, which I have written to Eros to give back J. The queen'' I hate. Ammonius, the voucher of her promises, knows that I am justified in what I do. They ' were all connected with learning and becoming my character, so that I should not mind declaring them in the public assembly. Sara, in- dependently of my knowing him to be a bad man, was besides insolent to me. For once only I saw him in my house, when asking him civilly what he wanted, he said he came to look for Atticus. But of the haughtiness of the queen herself, when she was in the gardens on the other side of the Tiber, I cannot speak without great pain. Let me, then, have nothing to do with such people, who seem to think not so much that I have no spirit, as that I have scarcely common feeling. Eros's mismanage- ment, as I conceive, is an obstacle in the way of my going abroad. For while I ought to have abundance, from the balance which he drew the fifth of April, I am under the necessity of borrowing. And what was received from the produce of my estate, I sup- posed to have been laid by for that temple "". But * Atticus appears to have been in the habit of marking with red wax such passages as he disapproved. See booh xvi. letter 11. 8 Respecting, no doubt, the state of public affairs, h To Caesar's covenant respecting the Buthrotians. See Appendix. To L. Plancus. * Statius appears to have been a freed-man of Q. Cicero. See book v. letter 1; and hook xv. letter 19, 3 This settlement of Cicero's accounts seems to have been made preparatory to his going into Greece. See letter 17 of this book. ' Cleopatra. 1 The promises he had received from Cleopatra, it may be, of books, or statues. m In which he proposed to consecrate his daughter's memoi-y. Sec book zli. letter 18, &o. 812 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO I have given instructions about these matters to Tiro, whom I have sent to Rome on that account, I did not care to trouble you, who had alreadv trouble enough. The more modest my Cicero is', the more I feel for him. For upon this subject he mentioned nothing to me, to whom he ought par- ticularly to have written ; but he wrote to Tiro to say, that since the first of April, when the year ends, he had received nothing. You were always of opinion, agreeably to your natural disposition, and thought also that it concerned my dignity, that he should have from me not only a liberal, but also a handsome and ample allowance. Therefore I wish you would manage (what I can transact through nobody else, or I would not trouble you), that there may be paid by exchanges at Athens what is sufficient for his yearly expenses. Eros will furnish the money for this purpose. I send up Tiro ; therefore you will » be so good as to take care about it, and write me word if anything occurs to you upon the subject. LETTER XVL At length a messenger is arrived from Cicero with a letter written, in good truth, after the ancient manner ", which of itself shows some degree of proficiency. Other people likewise give me good accounts. Leonidas, however, still uses the same expression of "hitherto p." But Herodes gives him the highest commendations. What think you ? Though these should prove mere words, I am gra- tified to receive them on this subject, and gladly become a credulous hearer. If you have heard anything from Statins that concerns me, 1 should be glad to be informed of it. I assure you this place ' is beautiful, and quite retired ; and, if you wish to write anything, free from interruption. But I know not bow it is, " Sweet home ^." Accordingly my steps revert to Tusculanum '. For, after all, this rude scene would soon grow tiresome. I am> besides afraid of the rains, if my prognostics ' are true ; for the frogs are exercising their rhetoric. I beg you to let me know where, and on what day, I can see our friend Brutus. LETTER XVn. I RECEIVED two letters on the 14th, one dated that day, and one the day before. Therefore to the earUest first. You will inform me about Brutus, when you know yourself. I had heard of the pre- tended alarm of the consuls " ; for Sica, very affec- tionately indeed, but with unnecessary agitation, brought me an account of that suspicion. But what is it you say, " that we must be content with w hat is offered"?" For not a word has been n Cicero sent up his confidential freed-man Tiro with directions to communicate with Atticus upon the allowance for his son at Athens. o See book xiv. letter 7. P This refers to book xiv, letter 16. q Pompeianum. 1' The original is part of a Greek proverb. s Though Pompeianum belonged to Cicero, yet he was most at home in Tusculanum. * Cicero had translated the '* Prognostics " of Aratus. '^ Under pretence of personal danger the consuls appear to have surrounded themselves with a guard, perhaps to excite hostile feelings towards the conspirators. " The original is a Greek proverbial expression, quoted before, book yi. letter 5. It probably alludes here, as in the former instance, to the partial payment of some debt. mentioned by Siregius". I am not pleased with this. I have been vexed about your neighbour Pletorius, that anybody should have heard it before me. You have acted quite right in the case of Syrus. I imagine you will easily stop L. Antonius » through his brother Marcus. I forbade the money to be given to Antro, or to anybody, except J L. Fadius the sedile ; but you had not then received the letter. It cannot either safely or properly be done otherwise. "With regard to the deficiency of 100 sestertia (800/.) to be provided for Cicero, I should wish you to inquire of Eros what is become of the rent of the houses ^. I am not displeased with Arabic's conduct in the affair of Sitius. About my journey I think nothing, till I have settled my accounts " ; in which I believe you agree with me. I have replied to your first letter : now hear what I have to say to the other. You act as you always do, in assisting Servilia, that is Brutus ''. I am glad you do not trouble yourself about the queen, and especially that you approve of my conduct. I have been informed by Tiro of the state of Eros's accounts, and have sent for him. I am much obhged by your engaging that Cicero shall be in no want. I hear great things of him from Messala, who called upon me on his return from them *= at Lanuvium. And indeed his own letter is so affec- tionately and classically written, that I might read it to a public audience, for which I think he deserves the more indulgence. Sestius, I imagine, is not sorry about Bucilianus ''. If Tiro comes to me, I think of going to Tusculanum. But I beg you to inform me without delay whatever happens which it may concern me to know. LETTER XVIII. Though I thought I had sufficiently explained to you on the 15th what I wanted, and what I wished you to do if it was convenient to you ; yet after I had set out, and was passing over the lake ', 1 determined to send Tiro to you, that he might be present at the transactions^ which were in agi- tation. And I have also w ritten to Dolabella to ^ Nothing is known of Siregius, or several other names which occur in this letter ; they may probably have been connected with Cicero only in his private and pecuniary transactions. == From giving trouble to the Buthrotians. See letter 15 of this book. 7 See letter 15 of this book. ^ This may possibly allude to the houses mentioned book xii. letter 32, from the rents of which he proposed to defray his son's expenses at Athens. a In the text is inserted a Greek letter, the meaning of which has been much disputed. It seems to me most pro- bable that it is used for " accounts," being the first letter of the word \6yos. ^ Atticus had given to Servilia a sum of money for Brutus's use, probably the same which is mentioned in Com. Nepos's life of Atticus, amounting to 100 sestertia, or ami. Prom the same author it appears, that afler Brutus was in Epirus, he sent him another present of 300 sestertia, or 2400i. c The conspirators. ^ Sestius and Bucilianus were the names of two of the conspirators. What particular circimistance is here al- luded to, is not known : perhaps the collecting vessels to transport himself and hie adherents to Epirus. See book xvi. letter 4. = The Lucrine lake, from his house at Ciunse. See book xiv. letters J(j and 17. f Probably his money transactions. See letter 16 of this book. TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS, 813 say, that, if he thought fit n, I should be glad to set olF; and I have asked him about the mules of burden ^ for the journey. Let me beg' that in these matters (since 1 understand you are very much occupied, partly about the Buthrotians, partly about Brutus, the providing for whose games I sus- pect devolves wholly upon you, and in great measure also the conduct of them) that therefore in an affair J of this kind you will give 'me a little of your assist- ance ; for much will not be requisite. Things ap- pear to me to tend to slaughter, and that at no great distance. You see the men ; you see the arms that are collected. I do not think myself by any means safe. If you think otherwise, I wish you would write to me ; for I would much rather remain at home, If I can do it with propriety. LETTER XIX. What further attempt'' is to be made in the case of the Buthrotians ? For you mention that you have been waiting in vain. And what does Brutus say of himself? I am truly sorry you should be so detained ; for which we may thank the ten' men. It is a troublesome business, but must be borne, and is most acceptable to me. Kespecting the employment of arms, I never saw anything more open. Let me be off, then ; but, as you say, we will talk of it together. What Theo- phanes wants I cannot tell : for havmg written to me, I answered him as I could ; but he says he wishes to come to me, partly about his own affairs, and partly about something that concerns me. I am impatient to hear from you. Pray see that nothing is done" rashly. Statius has written to me to say that Q. Cicero had strongly affirmed to him in conversation that he could not bear these jiroceedings, and that he was resolved to go over to Brutus and Cassius. I want now to understand this ; for what it means I am unable to explain. He may design something in a fit of passion against Antonius ; he may aim at some new glory ; it may be all a sudden impulse ; and assuredly so it is. But yet I have my fears ; and his father is much disturbed ; for he knows what that person" formerly s Cicero being appointed his lieutenant was obliged to wait for Dolabella'a sanction. ^ Going in the capacity of lieutenant to the consul, he was entitled to a supply of mules. ' This must be understood, upon which the following sentence depends. J Relating to the settlement of his aifairs previous to quitting the country. It This may either mean an attempt on the part of L. Antonius and others to molest the Buthrotians, [see letter 15 of this book,] or an attempt on the part of Atticus to secure, them. I incline to the former explanation. The letter being in answer to one from Atticus, several parti- culars in it are rendered obscure from our ignorance of the circumstances to which they allude. 1 This expression is probably a humorous one, taken from the decemviri, or ten persons, by whom the laws of Rome were framed ; and applied, perhaps by Atticus in the first instance, to some ten people distinguished by their disregard for the republic, who at this time, it may be, threatened to divide and appropriate Cicero's property. See letter 8 of this book. )° Probably said in relation to the designs of evil-minded persons on Cicero's property. ' " Perhaps Dolabella. See book xiii. letter 9, where the /' very same Greek expressions are applied to young Quin- tuB'e conduct. said of him to me ; things not to be revealed. In short, I do not know what he is at. I am to re- ceive from Dolabella such despatches " as I please ; that is, none at all. Tell me ; did C. Antonius wish to be made a septemvir p .' He was undoubt- edly worthy ' of it. It is, as you mention, with regard to Menedemus. You will let me know every- thing. LETTER XX. I HAVE returned my thanks to Vectenus, — foi- nothing could be more kind. Let Dolabella's de- spatches be what you please; only let me have something, or at least a message to Nicias ' : for who, as you say, did not before understand this arrangement' ? Do you suppose that any sensible man now entertains a doubt but that it is a journey of despair, not of business ? You say that men, and good ones too, already speak of the republic being in extremity. For my part, the very day on which I heard that tyrant' called in the assembly " a most eminent man," I began to distrust. But when I was with you at Lanuvium, and saw that our friends had only so much hope of life as Anto- nius had been pleased to afford them, I quite despaired. Therefore, my Atticus, I would have you receive this" with the same firmness with which I write it : that species of destruction, by which you are likely to fall', you will esteem dis- graceful, and almost denounced against us by Antonius. From this snare I have determined to withdraw, not for the purpose of flight, but in the hope of a better death. The fault rests wholly with Brutus. You say that Pompeius"' has been received at Cartheia. Now therefore they must send an army against him. To which camp then should I betake myself ? for Antonius cuts off any middle course. That camp is weak ; this is wicked. It is time therefore to hasten away. But help me with your advice, whether I should go frdm Brundisium, or from Puteoli. Brutus adopts a hasty but prudent counsel^. I am much con- cerned : for when shall I see him again ? But we must bear the afflictions incident to humanity. You are yourself unable to see him. The gods confound this man who is dead y, for having ever molested Buthrotum ! But, leaving what is past, let us consider what is yet to be done. Though I o Going in the capacity of Dolabella's lieutenant, he might be supposed to bear despatches. P One of the seven commissioners appointed for the dis- tribution of forfeited or waste lands to the soldiers. q This is to be understood as said in derision, the com- missioners being persons of no reputation. >• Nicias was the intimate friend of Dolabella, and being to accompany him in his province of Syria, [see book xiv. letter 9.] he had probably already set out before him on that expedition. 9 The text appears to be faulty in this place. I have given what I conceive to be the meaning. t Caesar. See book xiv. let,ter 11. » What follows. " The text has been supposed to be corrupt. It may perhaps relate to Cicero's apprehension of Antonius's power and cruelty, which Atticus may have declared his determination to abide. Had we Atticus's letters, the sense would probably be clear. w Sextus Pompeius, who still retained a powerful army in Spain. x In reth-ing from Italy. y C«sar. So before, letter 4 of this book. 814 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO have not yet seen Eros, yet from his letter, and from what Tiro has ascertained, I am pretty well master of his accounts. You say that I ought to borrow two hundred sestertia (1600^.) for five months, — that is, to the first of November. The payment of the money due from Quintns will fall upon that day. I should be glad therefore (as Tiro assures me you would not wish me to go up to Rome expressly for this purpose) that, if you do not object to such a business, you would find out from whence the money can be procured, and contract for it on my behalf. This is what is wanting for the present. I must inquire more particularly about the balance from himself^ ; and in this, about the rents of the dowry " estate, which, if they are regularly paid to Cicero, though I wish him to have a liberal allowance, yet will be nearly suffi- cient for him. I am aware that I must also have money for my journey ; but the former may be paid out of the estates as it becomes due ; what I want for myself must be had at once. And though I apprehend that he who is afraid of mere shadows'" is driving on to slaughter, yet I shall not set off till my accounts are cleared. But whether they are unravelled or not, I will examine with you. I have thought it proper to write this with my own hand ; and have accordingly done so. About JF'adius, as you mention : but to nobody else ^. I shall hope to have an answer from you to-day. LETTER XXI. I HAVE to acquaint you that Quintus, the father, is exulting with delight ; for his son has written to say that he had wished to go over to Bru- tus for this reason ; that Antonius having pressed him to get him made dictator, and to occupy some fortress, he had refused to do it ; and he refused from fear of vexing his father, from which time Antonius had been his enemy. ' But afterwards," says he, " I recollected myself '', being apprehensive that in his anger towards me, he might do you ^ some injury ; therefore I have pacified him ; and indeed have received from him a promise of four hundred sestertia (3200Z.) certain, with the hope of the restf." Statius writes word that he is desirous of living with his father ; and, what is surprising, he e is also glad of it. Did you ever know a more confirmed profligate than he is ' ? I quite approve of your hesitation in the affair of Canus >. I had suspected nothing about the debts ; but supposed ^ Bros. « This appears to be the same estate mentioned in letter 1 7 of this booli, and may have been part of Terentia's dower, settled perhaps upon her son. b Antonius. See letter 17 of this book. c See letter 15 gf this book. <1 Prom fear of irritating Antonius he checked his deske of joining Brutus. e His father. f What was further necessary to discharge his debts. e Statius himself, who was freed-man and steward to Qulntus, and had, by his influence with the father, excited the jealousy and hatred of the sun. ^ This appears to he said of young Quintus, whose story Cicero distrusted, thinking that it was a trick to get money from his father. > See book xiii. letters 41 and 42, where Cana may pro- bably be the daughter of Canus here mentioned. It will be recollected that she was proposed as a wife for young Quintus. the dower J to have been entirely repaid. What you defer, that you may speak with me personally, I shall be anxious to hear. You may keep the mes- senger as long as you please ; for I know you are busy. About Xeno you have managed admirably. I will send you what I am writing, as soon as it is finished. You mentioned to Quintus that you had written to him ; but nobody brought the letter. Tiro says that you do not now approve of Brundisium'', and that you talked something about soldiers. But I had already fixed upon Hydruntum -. I was in- fluenced by your five hours' passage. But what a long voyage is this " ! However, we vrill see about it. I received no letter from you on the 21st ; for now what news is there ? You will come then as soon as you are able. I hasten my departure, that Sextus " may not first arrive, whom they report to be on his way. LETTER XXIL I REJOICE with you upon the departure" of young Quintus. He will give us no further trouble P. I am ready to beheve that Fansa talks favourably ; for I know that he has always united himself with Hirtius. I suppose he may be very friendly towards Brutus and Cassius, if he can find his advantage in it ; but when will he go near them ? Likewise an enemy to Antonius ; but when ? or why ? How long are we to be trifled vrith f the first" I received a letter from Octavianus. He is attempting great things : he has gained over to his party all the veterans who are at Casilinum and Calatia P, — and no wonder ; for he gives a bounty °^ That is, it is right for me to be near Rome^ where I must soon expect to be buried. ° At Rome. In the interval between the time of writing the preceding letter and this, Cicero had gone up to Home, where he arrived August 31, and was received with great compliments and congratulations. The following day, Sept. 1, he was solicited by Antonius to attend the senate ; but excused himself on the pretence of fatigue ; but really because he knew it was fruitless to resist the proposal of Antonius to decree divine honours to CBesar. Antonius in rage threatened to pull down his house. Thereupon, on Sept. 2, Cicero pronounced his first Philippic against Antonius ; and before the end of the month he retired to the neighbourhood of Naples, where he composed bis second Philippic, distinguished for the free exposure of Antonius's character. He still continued in the same neighbourhood when he wrote the present letter in the month of November. *> The first of November. p Places in the neighb^ui'hood of Capua. of 500 denarii (16?.). He thinks of going through the other colonies. He plainly aims at making himself the head of an army to be brought against Antonius. Accordingly, I see that in a few days we shall be in arms. Whom then should I follow? Consider his name i, consider his s^e ; and he requests to have first some conversation with me secretly either at Capua or npt far from Capua. But it is childish to suppose that this can be done secretly. I informed him by letter that this was neither necessary nor possible to be done. He sent to me one Ceesina of Volaterra, a friend of his, who brought word that Antonius was advancing towards Rome with the legion of Alaudans^ — that he demanded contributions from all the free towns, — and was conducting alegion" withmilitary ensigns. He consulted me whether he should march to Rome with 3000 veterans, or should maintain the post of Capua, and prevent Antonius's approach, — or should go to meet the three Mace- donian legions which are advancing along the upper coast, and which he hopes are in his interest. They refused to receive Antonius's bounty, as this person relates, — and bitterly insulted him, and left him whilst he was haranguing them. In short, he ' assumes the command, and thinks that 1 ought to support him. I, for my part, advised him to go to Rome ; for I thought he would have with him both the city populace, and, if he could gain their confidence, likewise the most respectable citizens. O Brutus, where are you ? What a fine opportunity" do you lose ! I did not foresee exactly this : but I fully expected something of the kind. Now I want your counsel. Shall I go to Rome ? or shall I remain where I am ' ? or shall I retire to Arpinum .' For that place pos- sesses great security. To Rome I think ; in case I should be wanted if anything decisive occurs. Resolve me this, therefore : I never was in greater perplexity. LETTER IX. I BECEivED two letters in one day from Octa- vius. He now wants me to go immediately to Rome, and says that he is desirous of acting by the authority of the senate ; to which I replied, that the senate could not meet before the first of Janu- ary, which I believe to be the case''. But then he adds, " by your advice." In short, he presses hard, and I try to excuse myself. I cannot trust his youth ; I do not know his real intentions ; I do not care to do anything without your friend Fansa *. I am afraid of Antonius's power, and 1 Cssar. ^ This was a legion first raised by Casar in Gaul. Tliey were so called from a Gallic word signifying " the cr&sted lark," in imitation of which this legion wore a crest of feathers on the helmet. So the name of Plantagenet is said to be derived from a sprig of broom, which the prince Geoffry of Anjou wore on his helmet. Lyttelton's H. 2. vol. i. 149. 8 Of fom* legions from Macedonia, three r^ected hia orders, and one joined bim. ' Octavianus. » Of restoring the republic V In the neighbourhood of Naples. w Owing probably to the absence, or timidity, of mcst of the respectable members. See letter 11 of this book. * He was one of the consuls elect; accordingly Cicero thought it better to wait till ha should have entered on hisoffica TO TITUS POMPONIUS ATTICUS. 823 imwiUing to go from the coast?, and at the same time should be sorry to be out of the way upon any great occasion. The proceeding of this young man displeases Yarro more than me. He has steady troops ; he may have Brutus' ; and he acts openly, arranging and mustering his army at Capua. Already I see war. Write in answer to this. I am surprised that my messenger should have left Rome on the first without a letter from you. LETTER X. 1 ARRIVED at my house in Sinuessa the 7th of November ' ; and it was generally reported that Antonius was to sleep at Casilinum the same day ; which made me alter my plans. For I had in- tended to go straight to Rome by the Appian road, in which case he would easily have overtaken me ; for they say that he travels with the speed of Caesar ^. I therefore turned aside from Minturnse towards Arpinum, with the design of sleeping on the 9th •= either at Aquinum, or in Arcanum. Now, my Atticus, enter into my present concern with your whole mind, for it is a thing of great mo- ment. There are three parties to choose : whether I should remain at Arpinum, or should approach nearer, or should go to Rome. Whatever you advise I will do. But as soon as possible. I anxiously look for a letter from you. The 8th, in the morning at Sinuessanum. LETTER XL On the 5th ^ I received two letters from you, one dated the 1 st of this month, the other the day before. First then for the earliest. I am glad that you approve of my work " ; wherein the brilliant passages which you have selected derive additional brilliancy from your judgment ; for I was afraid of those little red *" marks of yours. Your observa- tion about Sica e is very just ; but it is with diffi- culty that I restrain myself. I will however mention it without any disrespect to Sica or to Septimia ; only so, that children's children may know, without any Lucilian fence'', that he has had children by the daughter of C. Fadius. And I shall be glad to see the day when this speech 7 From whence he might yet cross the sea, if Antonius's power should prevail. ^ This is generally supposed to mean Decimus Brutus, but perhaps without sufficient reason. ^ The date of this letter is generally acknowledged to be wrong. A comparison with the 13th letter of this book has induced me to adopt the dates of M. Mongault, which are alone warranted by the context. ^ See book viii. letter 9. « Mongault has shown how easily v. Id. is corrupted into a. Id. d The 5th of November. e His 2d Philippic. f Marks of disapprobation. See book xv. letter 14. s It seems Antonius had married Septimia, daughter to fadius and grand-daughter to a freed-man, consequently of inferior rank, and perhaps illegally so : for senators were prohibited from marrying libertins. [Taylor C. L. p. 304.] But while Cicero wished to state this in his severe charge upon Antonius, he did not wish to hurt the feelings of his friend Sica, who was probably in some way connected with Septimia. ^ Without .any 9ueh disguise, as the poet Lucilius used in his satires. may circulate so freely as to find its way even into Sica's house. But we have need of that time, when those ' triumvirs lived. May I die if it is not wittily said. I would have you read itJ to Sextus, and teU me what he thinks of it. He alone is as good as ten thousand to me. But take care that Calenus and Calvena "^ do not come in. When yoa say you are afraid of tiring me ; you tire me ? Nobody less. For as Aristophanes said of Arclii- lochns's Iambics ', so may I of your letters, that I like the longest the best. But you are advising me. Even if you were finding fault with me, I should not only bear it patiently, but should be pleased, as long as good sense and kindness are mingled with reproof. Accordingly I shall readily adopt your corrections, and put " the same right as Ru- brius's," instead of " as Scipio's ;" and in the matter of Dolabella's praises I will lessen their heap. Yet I think there is in that place a fine irony, when I represent him to have been in three engagements against Roman citizens. I like better too tiiat expression, " it is most unfit that this man should live," than, " what is more unfit .'" I am glad you like Varro's Peplographia. I have not yet got from him that Heraclidean work. In exhorting me to write, you show your friendship ; but let me assure you that I do nothing else. I am sorry for your cold, and beg you to apply to it your usual attention. I rejoice to think that " O Titus™" has been of use to you. The Anagnians" are, Mustella the captain of the gladiators, and Laco, who is a great drinker. I will polish up, and send you the book you desire. What follows is in reply to the latter of the two letters. The treatise on Duties, as far as Pansetius has gone, I have comprised in two books. There are three of his. But having in the beginning divided the considera- tion of duties into three kinds ; one, when we deliberate whether anything is honourable or base ; the second, whether it is useful or prejudicial ; the third, how we are to judge when these clash toge- ther (as in the case of Regulus °, it was honourable to return, and useful to remain) ; he has treated admirably of the two first j respecting the third he promises hereafter, but has written nothing. The subject has been prosecuted by Posidonius, whose book I have sent for ; and have written to Athene - dorus Calvus to give me the heads of it, which I am expecting. I wish you would urge him, and request him to do it as quickly as he can. In this i This ia apparently copied from some letter of Atticus But what three people or what time ia meant is uncer- tain. A. Gellius mentions that Neevius, a writer of plays, had animadverted so freely upon some leading persona, as to have been cast into prison by certain triimivirs ; but I know not if this can be the circumstance intended. — Aul. Gell. iii. 3. ' J Head his second Philippic to Sextua Peduceus. ^ Friends to Antonius, It was before seen that by Cal- vena -was meant Matins. See book xiv. letter 5. 1 Satirical poems. °> Cicero's incomparable treatise on Old Age, beginning with these words. n Mentioned m the second Philippic, where one is called •' the prince of gladiators," the other *' the prince off drinkers." o Who having been taken prisoner by the Carthaginiana, was sent to Rome to negotiate for his liberation on disad- vantageous terms. But he, exhorting the Romans to reject the terms of the Carthaginians, returned to Carthage, where he knew that the severefat punjabment would ho inflicted on him. 824 THE LETTERS OP MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO is treated of duties under particular circumstances. With regard to the title, I have no doubt of ica9riKov being duti/, unless you have anything to say to the contrary. But " of duties," is a fuller titL-. And I address my son Cicero, which seemed not unsuit- able. Nothing can be more clear than your ac- count of Myrtilus P. How poignant are your ob- servations on these peoplei ! Is it thus against D. Brutus ? The gods confound them ! I have not busied myself in Pompeianum, as I proposed ; first, on account of the weather, than which no- thing can be worse ; then, I have every day a letter from Octavianus, begging me to undertake the conduct of affairs, to come to Capua a second time to save the republic, at all events to go im- mediately to Rome. " They were ashamed to refuse, and afraid to venture '." He has however acted and still acts strenuously : and will bring a strong force with him to Rome ; but he is a mere boy. He thinks the senate may be assembled im- mediately. But who will attend ? Or, if he does, who in this uncertain state of affairs will choose to offend Antouius ? On the 1 st of January he may perhaps afford protection ; or things may come to a crisis before. The free towns are wonderfully inclined towards the boy. For on his way to Sam- nium he came to Cales, and slept at Theanus's. The greeting and exhortation was surprising. Would you have thought it ? On this account I shall go to Rome sooner than I had intended. As soon as I have fixed the time, I will write. Though I have not read the conditions (for Eros has not arrived), yet I shall be glad if you will conclude the business ^ on the twelfth. I shall be betterable to write to Catina', Tauromenium and Syracuse, if Valerius the interpreter sends me the names of those in power ; for they change at different times, and my own acquaintance are mostly dead. I have written a public letter, if Valerius will make use of it ; else he must send me the names. Balbus has written to me about the holidays set forth by Le- pidus". I shall wait till the 29th, and hope to hear from you. And by that time I expect to know the event of Torquatus's business ". I send you a letter from Quintus ^, that you may see how much he loves him \ whom he is sorry you should love so little. Give Attica a kiss for me on ac- count of her cheerfulness, which is the best sign in children. Farewell. LETTER XII. I SEND you the copy of a letter I have received from Oppius, because it shows his kindness. Re- specting Ocella y, while you hesitate and send me P See book xv. letter 13, where Cicero inquires into th6 nature of Myxtilus's ofFenee ; to this it is to be sup- posed that Atticus replied, and that Cicero here acknow- ledges it 1 Caesar's and Antonius's adherents. J" The original is taken from Homer, and was before quoted. [See book vi. letter 1.] In this place it is ob- viouslymeant to apply to himself. See letter l4of this book. s This relates, no doubt, to his money transactions. * These ai'e all places on the eastern coast of Sicily, where Valerius seems to have been canvassing for some appointment. The same person was mentioned, book i. letter 12. « See letter 2 of this book. V It is not laiown to what this alludes. ^v The father. ^ Quintus the son. y The name occurs before. [See book x. letters 13 and 17. 1 He appears to have been one of Pompeius's party. no answer, I have adopted a counsel of my own, and think of going to Rome on the 12th. I con- sidered that it was better for me to be there to no purpose, at t time when it was not necessary, than, if 1 should be wanted, to be-absent. Besides, I have some fear of being intercepted ; for he ' may arrive presently ; though there are various reports, and some that I should like to have veri- fied. But there is nothing certain. Yet whatever happens, I would rather be with you than remain at a distance, In anxiety both about you and about myself. But what can I say to you .' Be of good courage '. This is a lively sally'' on the subject of Varro's Heraclideum. Nothing ever amused me so much. But of this and other greater matters when we meet. LETTER XIII. What a strange chance : On the 8th having left Sinuessanum before it was light, and got by the dawn of day as far as the Tirene bridge at Min- turnse, where the road turns to Arpinas, I met the messenger just as I was " entering upon my long course'"." I immediately cried out, ** If you have anything from Atticus, give it me." But I was not yet able to read ; for I had sent away the torches, and the light was insufficient. But as soon as I could see, I first began to read the former of your two letters. It is elegant beyond everything. As I hope to be saved, I say nothing different from what I feel. I never read anything more kind. I will come then whither you call me, provided you assist me. But at first I thought nothing could be so irrelative to that letter, in which I had asked for your advice, as this answer; till I found another, in which you direct me, in the words of Homer, " to pass by the stormy Minas^ to the island of Psyria *=, keeping the Appian^road on the left." That day then I slept at Aquinum, rather a long journey, and a bad road ; I deliver this as I am setting out from thence the next morning ^. LETTER XIV. (Part of Letter xiii. in Grtsvitts^s Edition.) Eros's letter has obliged me to send up much against my will. Tiro will explain the business to you. You will consider what is to be done. I wish you besides to write frequently, and to inform me whether I may advance nearer ; for I should like better to be at Tusculanum, or somewhere in the suburb ; or whether you think 1 must go yet further off. There will every day be so mebody to 2 Antonius. a This probably refers to some expressions in Atticiis's letter, to which this is a reply, b Again referring to Atticus's letter. c The original is from Homer. d Meaning the Apennines. e Meaning Arpinas, situated at the conflux of tUeFibre- nus and Liris, and at the extremity intersected and sur- rounded by water, so as to be elsewhere calied an island. See book xii. letter 12. f The word " Appian" was inserted by Atticus to eluci- date the application of his Greek quotation. B What follows is so evidently a distmct letter, beaiinS a different date, that I have not scrupled to separate it. This was written November- 9, from Aquinum ■ the othur November 11 , from Arpinas. TO TITUS POMPONIDS ATTICUS. 826 take a letter. It is difficult, at this distance, to answer your inquiry, what I think you ought to dp. However, if they '' are upon an equality with each other, it will be best to remain quiet. But if ', — the mischief will spread, first to usJ, then generally. I eagerly expect your advice. I am afraid of being absent when I ought to be there, and yet I dare not go up. Of Antonius's movements I now hear something different from what I mentioned. I wish you therefore to explain everything, and let me know the truth. For the rest, what can I say to you ? I am inflamed with the love of history ''. For your encouragement stimulates me beyond be- lief. But it can neither be entered upon nor effected without your assistance. We will therefore con- sider of it together when we meet. At present I wish you would send me word, under what censors C. Fannius, the son of Marcus, was tribune of the people. For I seem to have heard that it was ^under P. Africanus and L. Mummius, and want to know if it is so. Send me a true and clear account of every change that happens. From Arpinas, the 11th'. — -♦ — LETTER XV. (Gi'ffiti. xiv.) I HAVE positively nothing to tell you. While I remained at Puteoli there was every day some- thing new about Octavianus, and many false reports of Antonius. But in answer to what yon mention, (for I received three letters from you on the 11th,) I perfectly agree with you. If Octavianus acquires influence, the acts of the tyrant will be established much more firmly than in the temple of Tellus", which will be unfavourable for Brutus. But if he is beaten, you see how insupportable Antonius will be. So that it is difficult to choose between them. this sad fellow, Sestius's messenger ! He pro- mised to be at Rome the day after he left Puteoli. When you admonish me to proceed gently, I assent, though I think differently from you. Neither Philippus nor Marcellus" have any weight with me ; for theirs is a different case ; or if it is not, at least it appears to be so ". But this young man, though he does not want spirit, wants authority. However, if I can prudently be at Tusculanum, consider whether that or this ' would be better when Antonius arrives. I shall be there with more satisfaction, because I shall know all that takes ' place. But, to pass from one subject to another, 1 have no doubt that what the Greeks call KoBrjKov, we call " duty." Why should you doubt about its being rightly applied to the state ? Do we not say " the duty of the consuls ?" " the duty of the senate .'" It suits admirably ; or give me a better ^ Antonms and Octavlus. ' That is, if Antoniua should have the superiority. J To Cicero and the other prominent supporters of the republic. ^ It must he supposed that Atticus had pressed him to undertake some history, probably the history of his own times. 1 November. "" Where the senate was induced to ratify Cesar's acts. ° It is to be presumed that Atticus had proposed to Cicero the examples of Thillppus and Marcellus. *> Philippus had married Octavianus's mother, andMar- cellua Octavianus's sister. p'^Vhether he might go to Tiisculanum, or should re- Tnai.Ti at Arpinas. word. This is sad intelligence about Nepos' son. In truth I am much concerned, and sorry for it. I did not know that there had been such a boy. I have lost Caninius, a man, as far as regards me, always very kind. There is no occasion for your speaking to Athenodorus*!, for he has sent me a very handsome abstract. Pray take every precau- tion about your cold. Quintus, the great-grandson of your grandfather, has written to my father's grandson ■■, that after the 5th of that month on which I distinguished myself*, he will lay open the state of the temple of Ops ', and that before the people. You will see, therefore, and write me word. I am anxious to know Sextus's opinion ". LETTER XVI. {Gnev. XV.) Do not suppose it is from indolence that 1 decline writing with my own hand ; yet in truth it is from indolence, for I have nothing else to allege. However, in your letters likewise I think I can trace Alexis '. But to come to my purpose : if Dolabella had not used me shamefully, I might perhaps have doubted whether I ought to relax or to contend for my utmost right. But now I am even glad that an opportunity is offered to me, by which he and everybody else may know that I have withdrawn my affection from him ; and I may publicly declare, that, both on my own account, and that of the republic, I hold him in aversion. For after having at my instance undertaken the defence of the republic, he has not only been bribed with money to desert it, but, as far as was in his power, he has contributed to ruin it. In answer to your question , how I mean to proceed when the day" arrives : in the first place I should like it to be so, that there may be no impropriety in my being at Rome ; about which, as about everything else, I will do as you think right. But upon the whole, I am disposed to act vigorously and sternly. And though it may seem to be in some measure discreditable to call upon the sureties, yet I would have you take this under your consideration ; for I may introduce agents for this purpose ; and the sureties will not resist the claim. Upon this I am confident the su-reties will be released. But I think it will be disgraceful in him ", especially as he has pledged himself in the debt, not to redeem his agents : and it becomes my own character to pro- secute my right without exposing him to extreme ignominy. I should be glad if you would inform me what is your opinion about this ; and doubt not but you will be able to settle the whole in some gentler manner. I come now to the republic. I have on many occasions experienced your pru- s See letter II of this book. ^ That is, Quintus the younger has written to young Cicero. Thishuinorous circumlocution, of which instances have before occurred in this correspondence, may probably have had a reference to something no longer understood. 8 The 5th of December, on which day Cicero in his con- sulship exposed and defeated the conspii'acy of Catiline. t Where was the public treasure, which Antonius had seized, 1 Scxtus Peduceus's opinion of Cicero's second Philippic. Sea letter 11 of this book. V Alexis was an amanuensis of Atticus. w The day appointed for Dolabella to pay Cicero. ' ^ Dolabella, 826 THE LETTERS OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO alence in political matters ; but nothing was eTer more prudent than the observation contained in your last letter. " For though at present this boy nobly resists Antonius, yet we must wait for the issue hereafter y." Yet what an harangue ? For it has been sent to me. He swears " by the hope of attaining his father's honours^ ;" and at the same time extends his hand towards the statue •. But let me not owe my safety to one like him ''. As you say, however, the surest test will be the tribunate of our friend Casca ' ; about which I told Oppius, when he was exhorting me to support the young man, and his whole cause, and band of veteran soldiers, that I could by no means do it, till I should be satisfied that he would not only not be an enemy to the tyrannicides, but would even be a friend to them. Upon his assurance that he would be so, why, said I, should we be in a hurry .-• For I can be of no use to him before the I st of January "• ; and we shall see his intentions before the middle of December in the case of Casca. He readily assented. So much, then, for this. I have only to add, that you shall have messengers every day ; and I imagine you will every day also have something to tell me. I send you a copy of Lepta's letter, by which that Stra- tyllax ' appears to me crest-fallen. But you will read it, and judge for yourself. After I had sealed my letter, I received yours and Sextus's '. Nothing could be more agreeable or more friendly than Sextus's letter. For yours was very short, having written so fully before. It is indeed with prudence and kindness that you advise me to remain in this neighbourhood, till I hear the event of the present commotions. But, my Atticus, the republic does not at this time affect me. Not that anything is or ought to be dearer to me ; but even Hippocrates forbids giving medi- cine when all hope is past. Therefore I lay aside such considerations. It is for my private affairs that I am now concerned. Say I so ? Yes, for my reputation. For though there is so great a balance, yet I have not actually received enough to pay Terentiae. Terentia do I say.' You know that some time ago I engaged to pay twenty-five sestertia (200/.) on the part of Mont anns ^. Cicero y The word postea in the original, if it is not an error, seems to have heen misplaced. 2 Caesar, his adopted father. a The statue of Cssar. t Like Cssar, who had erected to himself a tyranny upon the ruins of the republic. « Casca was the fist of the conspirators who struck Casar. He was now a candidate for the tribunate. •i When the new consuls would come into ofBce. e Various conjectures have been formed upon the mean- ing of this word. It seems to be most probable that it may have been the name of some character in a play, as we see it in the "Truculentus" of Plautus. Antonius is on all hands supposed to be the person intended by it. ' Sextus Peduceus. B See letter S of this book. b See book xil. letter 63. had very modestly requested this on his own faith. I promised with all readiness, which you also approved, and desired Eros to set apart a sum for that purpose. He has not only not done it, but Aurelius ' has been under the necessity of borrow- ing at a most exorbitant interest. Respecting the debt to Terentia, Tiro wrote me word that you said the money would accrue from Dolabella. I sup- pose he understood wrong, if anybody understands wrong ; rather, he did not understand at all. For you sent me Gocceius'si answer, as Eros did, almost in the same words. I must therefore come up into the very flame of civil commotion. For it is better to fall publicly than privately. To the other subjects, upon which you so sweetly write to me, in my present disturbed state of mind I am unable to reply as I used to do. Let me first extricate myselif from this care which presses me. Some means of doing this occur to me ; but I can come to no certain determination till I have seen you- But why cannot I be in Rome with as much propriety as Marcellus ? This, however, is not the question, nor do I much care about it. You see what it is that I care about ; and I shall accord- ingly go up. LETTER XVIL (Grav. xvi.) I HAVE read your very agreeable letter ; and send you a copy of what I have written to Plancus. I shall know from Tiro what passed between them. You will be able to give more attention to your sister when you cease to be occupied with this affair '". Presently after the conclusion of the above correspondence Cicero went up to Rome, where he used every exertion to rouse the people, the senate, the provincial gov&'nors, to support the cause of the republic. Octavius at Jirst Joined the republican armies against Antonius; but afterwards uniting with Antonius and Lepidus, formed that triumvirate, which extinguished the dying liberties of Rome, Having secured the military by promises, they proceeded to act without control, and to proscribe all who were offensive to them. Among these was Cicero, wfto was at that time at Tusculanum ; but thereupon hejled to Astura, and embarking there went along the coast to Formianum. Thence he was going again towards the shore to re-embark, when he was overtaken and kiUed, having ordered his servants to make no resistance. This happened twelve months after he had gone up to Rome, when he had nearly completed his 64(ft year. i Some agent on the part of Montanus, J An agent of Dolabella. ^ The affair of the Buthrotians. There is reason tO believe this short letter is misplaced in point of tune ; and that it, with those which are thrown together in the Appendix, belongs to the same pei'iod as the others con- tained in book XV. and beginning of book xvi. relative to Buthrotum. APPENDIX. LETTER I. M. Cicero to L. Plancus, Prator elect. I KNOW the great regard you bear to my friend Atticus, and to me your zeal is such, that in truth I consider myself to have few equally attentive and affectionate. For to the great, and long, and just friendship between our families, a great accession has been made by your disposition towards me, and mine towards you, equal and mutual. The case of Buthrotum is not unknown to you ; for I have often conversed with you about it, and detailed the whole affair to you. It happened in this manner : — As soon as we found that the Buthro- tian land was proscribed, Atticus became alarmed, and drew up a statement, which he gave me to pre- sent to Csesar ; for I was to dine with him that day. I gave Csesar the statement ; and he ap- proved the cause, and wrote back to Atticus, that what he asked was very just; but at the same time reminded him, that the Buthrotians must pay the remainder of the money at the time appointed, Atticus, who was anxious to save the city, paid the money out of his own property. Upon this we went to Csesar, and spoke in behalf of the Buthro- tians, and brought back a most liberal decree, signed by persons of the first distinction. After this had been done, 1 confess 1 was surprised that Csesar should permit the assembling of those who wished for the Buthrotian land ; and should not only permit it, but should appoint you to super- intend that business. Accordingly I spoke to him, and that repeatedly, so that he even accused me of want of confidence in his word. He likewise bid M. Messala, and Atticus himself, lay aside all apprehensions ; and openly declared, that he was unwilling to o£fend the minds of the claimants, while they remained in Italy; (for, as you know, he affected popularity;) but that, when they hadcrossed the sea, he would take care they shoidd be settled in some other place. This passed during his life : but after the death of Csesar, as soon as the consuls by a decree of the senate began to hear causes, this, which I have above written, was laid before them. They approved the cause without any hesitation, and said they would write to you. But I, my Plancus, though I do not doubt but the decree of the senate, and the law, and the decree of the consuls, and their letter, will have abundant autho- rity with you, and am conscious that for Atticus's own sake you would wish it ; yet in consideration of our acquaintance and mutual regard, I have taken upon me to request that of you, which your distin- guished kindness and gentle disposition would of themselves induce you to grant, that what I am confident you would do of your own accord, you will for my honour's sake do readily, liberally, aiid quickly. There is nobody more friendly, or moro agreeable, or dearer to me, than Atticus. Before, his property only was concerned, though that was to a large amount ; now his reputation is likewise implicated ; that what he gained by great solicita- tion and favour, both in the lifetime and after the death of Caesar, he may effectually obtain by your assistance. Should this be granted by you, I would have you believe that I shall entertain such a. sense of your kindness, as to consider myself under the greatest obligation. I shall make it a point to attend with zeal and diligence to whatever I think will please or interest you. Take care to preserve your health. LETTER n. Cicero to Plancus, Prasior elect, I HAVE already petitioned you by letter in behalf of the Buthrotians ; that, as their cause had been approved by the consuls, (who had legal authority to inquire, determine, and pass judgment on Csesar's acts,) you would promote that object, and would relieve my Atticus (for whom I know your regard), and me, (who am not less earnest), from our pre- sent anxiety. For everything being at length arranged, after great care, and much exertion and trouble, it remains with you to enable us as soon as possible to put an end to our solicitude. And indeed I know your prudence to be such, that you must see what great confusion will arise, if those consular decrees, which have been made respecting Csesar's acts, are not observed. On my part, though I disapprove many of Csesar's decisions, (which was unavoidable among such a multiplicity of business), yet for peace and quiet's sake I think it right to support them ; and I beUeve that you strenuously maintain the same opinion. But the purpose of my letter is not to persuade, but to ask. I ask you therefore, my Plancus, and beg you, with all the zeal and ardour of which I am capable, so to undertake, so to manage, so to conclude this whole affair, that what we have without any hesitation obtained from the consuls by the extreme goodness and justness of the cause, you wiU. not only permit us to enjoy, but will take pleasure In it, consider- ing the disposition you have often evinced towards Atticus, both in his presence and in mine. By so doing you will confer the greatest obligation on me, who have always been united to you both by incli- nation and family connexion. That you will do i this, I ardently request of you again and again. ^ 828 APPENDIX. LETTER III. Cicero to his CapitoK 1 NEVER expected to come before you as a sup- pliant ; but am not sorry that an opportunity is offered me of making trial -of your affection. You know my regard for Atticus. I beg you therefore to grant me this ; forget, for my sake, the part he once toolc in behalf of a friend, your adversary, when his character was at stake. In the first place, it is becoming your humanity to pardon this ; for everybody is bound to support his friends: then, if you love me (to say nothing of Atticus), grant this wholly to your Cicero, for whom you profess so much esteem ; that what I have always believed, I may now fully know, the reality of your affection. After Csesar by his decree (which I, with many persons of the first dignity, countersigned) bad exempted the Buthro- tians, and assured me that as soon as the claimants had crossed the sea he would write to assign them some other lands, it happened that he was sud- denly cut off. Upon this, as you know, (for you were present when the consuls were appointed by a decree of the senate to take Ccesar's acts into consideration,) the business was put off to the 1st of June. The decree of the senate was confirmed by a law passed on the 2d of June, giving to the consuls the cognizance of those matters, which Caesar had purposed, decreed, and enacted. The cause of the Buthrotians was laid before the consuls. Caesar's decree was recited, and besides, several documents of Csesar's were produced. The consuls by the judgment of their council decreed in favour of the Buthrotians, and appointed Plancus to carry it into execution. Now, my Capito (for I know the influence you possess wherever you are, especially with a man of Plancus's easiness and humanity,) strive, labour, or rather coax and per- suade Plancus, who, I hope, is well disposed, to be still better disposed through your means. Indeed it seems to be a thing of such a kind, that without favour to anybody, Plancus would of himself, agreeably to his own disposition and prudence, not hesitate to maintain the decree of the consuls, to whom the inquiry and determination was referred both by the law and by the decree of the senate ; especially as, if this sort of cognizance were invali- dated, the acts of Csesar would seem to be called in question ; which not only those who are interested, but also those who disapprove them wish, for tran- quillity's sake, to confirm. Nevertheless, it is of consequence to me that Plancus should do this cheerfully and freely, which he certainly will if you exert that gentle spirit which I have often experienced, and that sweetness, in which nobody equals you. I earnestly request you to do so. LETTER IV. Cicero to C. Cupiennius. I HAD a great esteem for your father, and he ■always showed me extraordinary attention and kindness ; nor indeed have I ever doubted of your i Probably the same who £s mentioned, book xiii. letter 33. affection towards me. I, on my part, have not been deficient in cultivating it. I therefore request of you the more urgently to aid the city of Buth- rotum, and to exert your influence that our friend Plancus may lose no time in confirming and carry- ing into effect the decree of the consuls, which they madein favour of the Buthrotians, agreeably to the authority given them both by the law and by the decree of the senate. This, my Cupiennius, I ear- nestly request of you again and again. LETTER V. , Cicero to Plancus, Prator elect. Excuse me, if after I have written to you in detail about the Buthrotians, I address you again upon the same subject. It is not, my Plancus, that I have any distrust either of your liberality, or of the friendship between us ; but in an affair of such moment to my Atticus, (in which now even his reputation is concerned, that it may be seen he is able to secure that to which Csesar consented, and which we, who were present at the decrees and rescripts of Csesar, witnessed and countersigned, — especially as the whole power of execution rests with you) ; that, what the consuls decreed agree- ably to the decrees and rescripts of Csesar, I say not, you should execute, but should execute with zeal and readiness ; this will be so grateful to me, that nothing can be more so. Though I hope that by the time you receive this the request I had made in a former leffier mayTSE-akeadygranted, yet I shall not cease to importune you/tiTl I hear that it is done ; to which I look forward with great hope. Then I trust I shall write in a different strain, and shall have to return you thanks for your important favour. Should this be conferred, I would have you believe not so much that Atticus, (who is deeply interested), as that I (who am not less ear- nest Uian he) shall be obliged by it. Farewell. LETTER VI. Cicero to Capita, I DOUBT not you will be surprised, and even dis- pleased, that I should address you again upon the same subject ; but an affair is at issue of great mo- ment to Atticus, my intimate friend, to whom I am bound by every tie. I know your zeal for your friends, and theirs too for you, and it is in your power to render me essential service with Plancus. I am well acquainted with your kindness, and know the influence you have with your friends. Nobody can do us more service, on this occasion, than you. And the cause is as good as one ought to be which the consuls have decreed on the judg- ment of the council, having taken cognizance of it agreeably to the law and the decree of the senate. But I consider everything to rest in the liberaUty of your friend Plancus ; who I think, while for your friendship's sake, and for the republic's sake, he will carry into effect the decree of the consuls, so for my sake will be glad to do it. Assist me then, my Capito ; for which again and again I earnestly entreat you. Farewell. INDEX CICERO'S LETTEES TO ATTICUS. N. E THE NDMERAL LETTERS DENOTE THE JBOOK, THE FIGURES THE LETTER, Aledius, ii. 4 ; xii. 23 Alexio, XV. I ' Alexis, vii. 2 Amalthea, i. 13, 16 Antonius, C, i. 12 Antouius, M., x. 13 Appius, V. 15 ; vL 1 ; viii. 1 Appuleius, xii. 17 Arpinum, ii. 11 ; xii. 12; xvi. 13 Aquillia, xiv. 17 Ai-buscula, iv. 15 Archias, i, 1 6 Ariobarzaaes, v. 1 8 ; vi. 1 Attica, vi. 4 ; xii. 1 AtticuB.i. 17; iii. 30 ; iv. 16 ; vi. 1 B. Balbds, XV. 2 Bibulus, li. 19 ; v. 16, 20 Boopis, ii. 9 Britannia, iv. 16 Brutus, VI. 1 ; v. 18 ButhrotuiDj i. 1 ; xiv. 10 ; xv. 4 Cjecilius, i. 10, 12; iii. 20 - Cffisar, vii. 11 ; x. 4, 12 Ca:sar, L., vii. 13 Catilina, i. 1 1 Cato, i. 14.f iv. 1 ; xii, 4 Catulus, ii. 24 CicerOj canvass for cons, i. liU with Pompeius, i. 16; ■witH Clodius, ii. 1 ; son bom, i. 11 ; banished, iii. ; returns, iv. 1 ; to Cilicia, T. andvi. ; in Campania, vii. 11; interview with Csesar^ ix. 18; at Brundisium, xi.5;Tullia's death, xii. 14; entertains Caesar, xiii. 52 Cicero, M., fil. xiv, 16 Cicero, Q., i. 5 Cicero, Q., fil. vi. 2 ; x. 4, 1 1 ; xiv. 1/ ; xvi. 1, 5 Clodius, i. 12, 16 ; ii. 22 ; iv. 3 Ciassus, i. 14, 16 Considinsj ii. 24 Crasaipes, iv. 5 Curio, ii. 18 ; x, 4 Curius, vii. 2 Cybistra, v. 18 Cytheris, x, 10 D. Deiotarus, V. 17 ; xiv. 12 Dicffiarchus, ii. 2, 12 Dionysius, iv. 1 1 ; viii. 4 ; ix. 15 Dolabella, vii. 3 ; xiv. 1 7 Domitius, iv. 16; viii. 11; ix. 1 E. Egnatihs, iv. 12 ; vi. 1 ; vii. 18 ; x. 15 F. Herennius, i. 18 Hermeracles, i. 6 Hircus, vii. 1 Hirlius, xiv. 20 History, xiv. 14 Hortensius, ii. 25 ; v. 2 ; vi. 7 Hortensius, fil., vi, 3 LABIENDST-Vii, 12 Lentulus, iv. 6 Lucceius, i. 7 M Makius, xii. 49 Matins, ix. 12 Ahimmius, i. 18 ; iv. 18 Messala, j, 14 Mescinius, vi. 7 Motcllus, i. 18 Milo, iv. 3 ; V. 8 Montanns„ xii. 52 N. NiciAs, xii. 26 OcTAVIUS, XV. 12 Oppius, vii. 13 ; viii. 7 ; x. 16 ; xiii. 23 P. Patron, v. 11, 19 , Phamaces, xi. 21 Phemius, v. 20 Philippus, xii. 18 Pbilotimus, v. 8 ; vi. 4 ; ^i. 1 ; X.9 Pindenissus, V. 20 Piso, i. 13 Pollux, viii. 5 Pompeius, i. 14, 19 ; ii. 19, 21 ; iv, 9;v. 9; vii. 10; xi. 6 Pomponia, v. 1 Pontinias, v. 6, 21 Publilia, xii. 32 S. Sampsiceramus, ii. 14 Scaptius, vi. 2 Servius, x. 14 Sica, iii. 2 Statius, vi. 2 Taurus (mons), v. 21 Terentia, xi. 22. Tertulla, xiv. 20 Tiro, vi. 6 ; vii. 2 Tullia, i. 8; iv. I, 5 : vi. 7 ; s. Varro, ii. 20 ; iv. 16 ; xiii. 25 Vatinius, ii. 9 Vectenus, x. 5, 15 Vettius, ii. 24 LONDOTf: BEADBDBT AMD EVANS, PBIHTEHB, WHITEFRIABS.