The Life of Cicero. Volume II.

Even Horace wrote as though he believed in the anger of the gods – certainly as though he thought that public morals would be improved by renewed attention to them:

Delicta majorum immeritus lues,Romane, donec templa refeceris. – Od., lib. iii., 6.

15

See the Preface by M. Guerault to his translation of this oration, De Aruspium Responsis.

16

Ca. ix.: "Who is there so mad that when he looks up to the heavens he does not acknowledge that there are gods, or dares to think that the things which he sees have sprung from chance – things so wonderful that the most intelligent among us do not understand their motions?"

17

Ca. xxviii.: "Quæ in tempestate sæva quieta est, et lucet in tenebris, et pulsa loco manet tamen, atque hæret in patria, splendetque per se semper, neque alienis unquam sordibus obsolescit." I regard this as a perfect allocution of words in regard to the arrangement both for the ear and for the intellect.

18

Ca. xliv.: "There have always been two kinds of men who have busied themselves in the State, and have struggled to be each the most prominent. Of these, one set have endeavored to be regarded as 'populares,' friends of the people; the other to be and to be considered as 'optimates,' the most trustworthy. They who did and said what could please the people were 'populares,' but they who so carried themselves as to satisfy every best citizen, they were 'optimates.'" Cicero, in his definition, no doubt begs the question; but to do so was his object.

19

Mommsen, lib. v., chap. viii., in one of his notes, says that this oration as to the provinces was the very "palinodia" respecting which Cicero wrote to Atticus. The subject discussed was no doubt the same. What authority the historian has found for his statement I do not know; but no writer is generally more correct.

20

De Prov. Cons., ca. viii.

21

Ca. xiii.

22

Ca. xiv.

23

Ca. xviii.

24

Pro C. Balbo, ca. vii.

25

Ibid., ca. xiii.

26

Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ca. vii.

27

There was no covenant, no bond of service, no master's authority, probably no discipline; but the eager pupil was taught to look upon the anxious tutor with love, respect, and faith.

28

In Pisonem, xxvii. Even in Cicero's words as used here there is a touch of irony, though we cannot but imagine that at this time he was anxious to stand well with Pompey. "There are coming on the games, the most costly and the most magnificent ever known in the memory of man; such as there never were before, and, as far as I can see, never will be again." "Show yourself there if you dare!" – he goes on to say, addressing the wretched Piso.

29

Plutarch's Life of Pompey: "Crassus upon the expiration of his Consulship repaired to his province. Pompey, remaining in Rome, opened his theatre." But Plutarch, no doubt, was wrong.

30

We may imagine what was the standing of the family from the address which Horace made to certain members of it in the time of Augustus. "Credite Pisones," De Arte Poetica. The Pisones so addressed were the grandsons of Cicero's victim.

31

Quin., ix., 4: "Pro dii immortales, quis hic illuxit dies!" The critic quotes it as being vicious in sound, and running into metre, which was considered a great fault in Roman prose, as it is also in English. Our ears, however, are hardly fine enough to catch the iambic twang of which Quintilian complains.

32

Ca. xviii., xx., xxii.

33

"Quæ potest homini esse polito delectatio," Ad Div., vii., 1. These words have in subsequent years been employed as an argument against all out-of-door sports, with disregard of the fact that they were used by Cicero as to an amusement in which the spectators were merely looking on, taking no active part in deeds either of danger or of skill. —Fortnightly Review, October, 1869, The Morality of Field Sports.

34

Ad Att., lib. iv., 16.

35

Ad Div., ii., 8.

36

See the letter, Ad Quin. Frat., lib. iii., 2: "Homo undique actus, et quam a me maxime vulneraretur, non tulit, et me trementi voce exulem appellavit." The whole scene is described.

37

Ad Fam., v., 8.

38

Ad Quin. Frat., ii., 12.

39

Ad Att., iv., 15.

40

Val. Max., lib. iv., ca. ii., 4.

41

Horace, Sat., lib. ii., 1:

Hor. "Trebati,

Quid faciam præscribe." – Treb. "Quiescas." – Hor. "Ne faciam, inquis, Omnino versus?" – Treb. "Aio." – Hor. "Peream male si non Optimum erat."

Trebatius became a noted jurisconsult in the time of Augustus, and wrote treatises.

42

Ca. iv.: "Male judicavit populus. At judicavit. Non debuit, at potuit."

43

Ca. vi.: "Servare necesse est gradus. Cedat consulari generi praetorium, nec contendat cum praetorio equester locus."

44

Ca. xix.

45

Ad Fam., i., 9.

46

Ca. xi.

47

Ad Fam., lib. ii., 6: "Dux nobis et auctor opus est et eorum ventorum quos proposui moderator quidem et quasi gubernator."

48

Mommsen, book v., chap. viii. According to the historian, Clodius was the Achilles, and Milo the Hector. In this quarrel Hector killed Achilles.

49

Ad Att., lib. iv., 16.

50

Ad Fam., lib. vii., 7.

51

Vell. Pat., ii., 47.

52

We remember the scorn with which Horace has treated the Roman soldier whom he supposes to have consented to accept both his life and a spouse from the Parthian conqueror:

Milesne Crassi conjuge barbara

Turpis maritus vixit? – Ode iii., 5.

It has been calculated that of 40,000 legionaries half were killed, 10,000 returned to Syria, and that 10,000 settled themselves in the country we now know as Merv.

53

Ad Quin. Frat., lib. ii., 4, and Ad Att., lib. iv., 5.

54

"Interrogatio de ære alieno Milonis."

55

Livy, Epitome, 107: "Absens et solus quod nulli alii umquam contigit."

56

The Curia Hostilia, in which the Senate sat frequently, though by no means always.

57

Ca. ii.

58

Ca. v.

59

Ca. xx., xxi.

60

Ca. xxix.

61

Ca. xxxvii.: "O me miserum! O me infelicem! revocare tu me in patriam, Milo, potuisti per hos. Ego te in patria per eosdem retinere non potero!" "By the aid of such citizens as these," he says, pointing to the judges' bench, "you were able to restore me to my country. Shall I not by the same aid restore you to yours?"

62

Ad Fam., lib. xiii., 75.

63

Ad Fam., lib. vii., 2: "In primisque me delectavit tantum studium bonorum in me exstitisse contra incredibilem contentionem clarissimi et potentissimi viri."

64

Cæsar, a Sketch, p. 336.

65

Ibid., p. 341.

66

He reached Laodicea, an inland town, on July 31st, b. c. 51, and embarked, as far as we can tell, at Sida on August 3d, b. c. 50. It may be doubted whether any Roman governor got to the end of his year's government with greater despatch.

67

No exemption was made for Cæsar in Pompey's law as it originally stood; and after the law had been inscribed as usual on a bronze tablet it was altered at Pompey's order, so as to give Cæsar the privilege. Pompey pleaded forgetfulness, but the change was probably forced upon him by Cæsar's influence. – Suetonius, J. Cæsar, xxviii.

68

Ad Div., lib. iii., 2.

69

Ad Att., lib. v., 1.

70

Abeken points out to us, in dealing with the year in which Cicero's government came to an end, b. c. 50, that Cato's letters to Cicero (Ad Fam., lib. xv., 5) bear irrefutable testimony as to the real greatness of Cicero. See the translation edited by Merivale, p. 235. This applies to his conduct in Cilicia, and may thus be taken as evidence outside his own, though addressed to himself.

71

The Roman Triumvirate, p. 107.

72

Cæsar, a Sketch, pp. 170, 341.

73

Professor Mommsen says no word of Cicero's government in Cilicia.

74

I cannot but refer to Mommsen's account of this transaction, book v., chap. viii.: "Golden fetters were also laid upon him," Cicero. "Amid the serious embarrassments of his finances the loans of Cæsar free of interest * * * were in a high degree welcome to him; and many an immortal oration for the Senate was nipped in the bud by the thought that the agent of Cæsar might present a bill to him after the close of the sitting." There are many assertions here for which I have looked in vain for the authority. I do not know that Cicero's finances were seriously embarrassed at the time. The evidence goes rather to show that they were not so. Had he ever taken more than one loan from Cæsar? I find nothing as to any question of interest; but I imagine that Cæsar treated Cicero as Cicero afterward treated Pompey when he lent him money. We do not know whether even Crassus charged Cæsar interest. We may presume that a loan is always made welcome, or the money would not be borrowed, but the "high degree of welcome," as applied to this especial loan, ought to have some special justification. As to Cicero's anxiety in borrowing the money I know nothing, but he was very anxious to pay it. The borrowing and the lending of money between Roman noblemen was very common. No one had ever borrowed so freely as Cæsar had done. Cicero was a lender and a borrower, but I think that he was never seriously embarrassed. What oration was nipped in the bud by fear of his creditor? He had lately spoken twice for Saufeius, once against S. Clodius, and against Plancus – in each case opposing the view of Cæsar, as far as Cæsar had views on the matter. The sum borrowed on this occasion was 800,000 sesterces – between £6000 and £7000. A small additional sum of £100 is mentioned in one of the letters to Atticus, lib. v., 5., which is, however, spoken of by Cicero as forming one whole with the other. I can hardly think that Mommsen had this in view when he spoke of loans in the plural number.

75

M. C. Marcellus was Consul b. c. 51; his brother, C. Claudius Marcellus, was Consul b. c. 50, another C. Claudius Marcellus, a cousin, in b. c. 49.

76

Mommsen calls him a "respected Senator." M. De Guerle, in his preface to the oration Pro Marcello, claims for him the position of a delegate. He was probably both – though we may doubt whether he was "respected" after his flogging.

77

Ad Att., lib. v., 11: "Marcellus foede in Comensi;" and he goes on to say that even if the man had been no magistrate, and therefore not entitled to full Roman treatment, yet he was a Transalpine, and therefore not subject to the scourge. See Mr. Watson's note in his Select Letters.

78

Ad Div., lib. ii., 8.

79

Ad Att., lib. v., 13.

80

Ibid.: "Quæso ut simus annui; ne intercaletur quidem." It might be that an intercalary month should be added, and cause delay.

81

Ad Div., lib. viii., 2: "Ut tibi curæ sit quod ad pantheras attinet."

82

Ad Att., lib. v., 14.

83

Ad Div., lib. iii., 5.

84

Ad Att., lib. v., 15.

85

Ibid., 16.

86

Ad Att., lib. v., 17.

87

Ad Div., lib. iii., 6.

88

Ad Div., lib. xv., 1.

89

Ibid., iii., 8.

90

Ad Div., lib. viii., 8.

91

Ad Div., lib. viii., 10.

92

Ibid., ii., 10.

93

This mode of greeting a victorious general had no doubt become absurd in the time of Cicero, when any body of soldiers would be only too willing to curry favor with the officer over them by this acclamation. Cicero ridicules this; but is at the same time open to the seduction – as a man with us will laugh at the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases who are seated around him, but still, when his time comes, will be pleased that his wife shall be called "My Lady" like the rest of them.

94

Ad Div., lib. ii., 7.

95

Ad Att., lib. v., 2.

96

Ad Div., lib. xv., 4.

97

Ibid., xv., 10, and lib. xv., 13: "Ut quam honorificentissimum senatus consultum de meis rebus gestis faciendum cures."

98

Ad Div., lib. viii., 6.

99

Ibid., 7.

100

Ibid., iii., 7.

101

Ibid., 9.

102

The amount seems so incredible that I cannot but suspect an error in the MS. The sum named is two hundred Attic talents. The Attic talent, according to Smith's dictionary, was worth £243 13s. It may be that this large amount had been collected over a series of years.

103

Ad Att., lib. v., 21.

104

Ibid., vi., 1. This is the second letter to Atticus on the transaction, and in this he asserts, as though apologizing for his conduct to Brutus, that he had not before known that the money belonged to Brutus himself: "Nunquam enim ex illo audivi illam pecuniam esse suam."

105

In the letter last quoted, "Flens mihi meam famam commendasti." "Believe," he says, "that I cling to the doctrines which you yourself have taught me. They are fixed in my very heartstrings."

106

See the former of the two letters, Ad. Att., lib. v., 21: "Quod enim prætori dare consuessent, quoniam ego non acceperam, se a me quodam modo dare."

107

Ad Att., vi., 1: "Tricesimo quoque die talenta Attica xxxiii., et hoc ex tributis." On every thirteenth day he gets thirty three talents from the taxes, the talent being about £243. Of the poverty of Ariobarzanes we have heard much, and of the number of slaves which reached Rome from his country. It was thus, probably, that the king paid Pompey his interest.

Mancipiis locuples eget æris Cappadonum rex. – Hor. Epis., lib. i., vi.

Persius tells us how the Roman slave-dealer was wont to slap the fat Cappadocian on the thigh to show how sound he was as he was selling him, Sat. vi., 77. "Cappadocis eques catastis" is a phrase used by Martial, lib. x., 76, to describe from how low an origin a Roman knight might descend, telling us also that there were platforms erected for the express purpose of selling slaves from Cappadocia. Juvenal speaks also of "Equites Cappadoces" in the same strain, Sat. vii., 15. The descendant even of a slave from Cappadocia might rise to be a knight. From all this we may learn what was the source of the £8000 a month which Pompey condescended to take, and which Cicero describes as being "ex tributis."

108

Ad Att., lib. vi., 2.

109

Ad Att., lib. vi., 3.

110

Ad Div., lib. viii., 11.

111

Ad Att., lib. vi., 4, 5.

112

Ad Div., lib. ii., 15: "Scito me sperare ea quæ sequuntur."

113

Ibid.

114

Ad Att., lib. vii., 1.

115

Ad Att., lib. vi., 8.

116

Ad Att., lib. xi., 1.

117

Appius and Piso were the last two Censors elected by the Republic.

118

Ad Div., lib. ii., 15.

119

Appian, De Bell. Civ., lib. ii., 26. The historian tells us that the Consul built a temple with the money, but that Curio had paid his debts.

120

Mommsen, book v., ca. ix.

121

Ad Att., lib. vii., 1: "Video cum altero vinci satius esse quam cum altero vincere."

122

Ad Att., lib. vii., 2: "Adolescentem, ut nosti, et adde, si quid vis, probum."

123

Ad Att., lib. vii., 20-23.

124

Ibid., lib. viii., 4.

125

Ibid., lib. viii., 7.

126

Copy of letter D, enclosed in letter to Atticus, lib. viii., 11.

127

Ad Att., lib. ix., 10.

128

Ibid., lib. ix., 12.

129

Ad Att., lib. x., 4.

130

Ad Att., lib. xi., 5.

131

Horace, Sat., lib. i., sat. 5.

132

Ad Att., lib. xi., 7.

133

Ad Div., xiv., 16.

134

Ad Att., lib. xi., 24.

135

Ad Att., lib. xi., 24.

136

Ibid., lib. xi., 20-22.

137

Ad Div., xiv., 22, 20. The numbers going the wrong way is only an indication that the letters were wrongly placed by Grævius.

138

Ad Att., lib. xi., 22

139

Oratoriæ Partitiones, xvii., xxiii.

140

De Officiis, lib. i., ca. xxxi.: "Catoni cum incredibilem tribuisset natura gravitatem, eamque ipse perpetua constantia roborasset, semperque in proposito susceptoque consilio permansisset, moriendum potius quam tyranni vultum aspiciendum fuit."

141

This was Lucius Volcatius Tullus.

142

But it is now, I believe, the opinion of scholars that Wolf has been proved to be wrong, and the words to have been the very words of Cicero, by the publication of certain fragments of ancient scholia on the Pro Marcello which have been discovered by Cardinal Mai since the time of the dispute.

143

Ad Div., iv., 11.

144

Pro Marcello, ii.

145

Pro Ligario, i.

146

Pro Ligario, iii.

147

Ad Fam., lib. iv., 14.

148

Ad Div., lib. ix., 16.

149

Ad Att., lib. xii., 7.

150

Ibid., 32.

151

Ad Div., lib. xvi., 21.

152

Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. xiv., 28.

153

Ad Div., lib. vi., 18.

154

Ad Att., lib. xii., 12.

155

Ibid., 18, 28.

156

Ad Att., lib. xii., 14.

157

Ibid., 18, 28.

158

Ad Att., lib. xiii., 28.

159

Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ca. xxxvii.

160

Ad Att., lib. xiii., 44.

161

Ad Att., lib xiii., 42.

162

Pro Rege Deiotaro, ii.

163

Ibid., ca. xii.: "Solus, inquam, es, C. Cæsar, cujus in victoria cecide it nemo nisi armatus."

164

Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, lib. iii., 16: "Itaque, omni Senatu necato, reliquos sub corona vendidit," he says, and passes on in his serene, majestic manner.

165

Quint., lib. x., vii.: "Nam Ciceronis ad præsens modo tempus aptatos libertus Tiro contraxit."

166

Horace, Epis., lib. i., 1: "Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis prælucet amænis."

167

Ad Att., lib. xiii., 52.

168

Ad Div., lib. vii., 30.

169

Mommsen, book v., xi.

170

He left Brundisium on the last day of the year.

171

Shakspeare, Julius Cæsar, act i., sc. 2.

172

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 9, 15.

173

Quintilian, lib. vii., 4.

174

These words will be found in M. Du Rozoir's summary to the Philippics.

175

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 1.

176

Ibid., 14: "Quam oculis cepi justo interitu tyranni."

177

Morabin, liv. vi., chap. iii., sec. 6.

178

Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., ca. lviii.

179

Mommsen, book v., xi.

180

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 4.

181

Ibid., lib. xiv., 6.

182

Ibid., lib. xiv., 7.

183

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 9.

184

Ibid., lib. xiv., 11.

185

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 13.

186

Ad Div., lib. xvi., 23.

187

Ad Div., lib. ix., 11.

188

Ad Att., lib. xiv., 21.

189

Ad Att., lib. xv., 21.

190

Ibid., lib. xv., 26.

191

Ad Att., lib. xv., 27.

192

Ibid., lib. xvi., 1.

193

Ibid., lib. xvi., 5.

194

Ibid., lib. xvi., 2.

195

Ad Att., lib. xvi., 7.

196

Phil., i., 5: "Nimis iracunde hoc quidem, et valde intemperanter." "Who," he goes on to say, "has sinned so heavily against the Republic that here, in the Senate, they shall dare to threaten his house by sending the State workmen?"

197

Brutus, Ciceroni, lib. ii., 5: "Jam concedo ut vel Philippici vocentur quod tu quadam epistola jocans scripsisti." I fear, however, that we must acknowledge that this letter cannot be taken as an authority for the early use of the name.

198

Phil., i., ca. vii.

199

Ibid., i., ca. viii.

200

Ibid., i., ca. x.

201

The year of his birth is uncertain. He had been Consul three years back, and must have spoken often.

202

Ad Div., lib. xii., 2.

203

It may here be worth our while to quote the impassioned language which Velleius Paterculus uses when he chronicles the death of Cicero, lib. ii., 66: "Nihil tamen egisti, M. Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis, erumpens animo ac pectore indignatio), nihil, inquam, egisti, mercedem cælestissimi oris et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando, auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu M. Ciceroni lucem solicitam, et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem, te principe, quam sub te triumviro mortem. Famam vero gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum memoriam; dumque hoc vel forte, vel providentia, vel utcumque constitutum, rerum naturæ corpus, quod ille pæne solus Romanorum animo vidit, ingenio complexus est, eloquentia illuminavit, manebit incolume, comitem ævi sui laudem Ciceronis trahet, omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in eum factum execrabitur; citiusque in mundo genus hominum, quam ea, cadet." This was the popular idea of Cicero in the time of Tiberius.

204

Ad Div., lib. xii., 23.