The Life of Cicero. Volume II.

But his heart is truly in other matters, and he bursts out, in the same letter, with enthusiastic praise of the line of conduct which Atticus has laid down for him: "But that which is more to me than anything is that I should live so that even that fellow Cato cannot find fault with me. May I die, if it could be done better. Nor do I take praise for it as though I was doing something distasteful; I never was so happy as in practising this moderation. The thing itself is better to me even than the reputation of it. What would you have me say? It was worth my while to be enabled thus to try myself, so that I might know myself as to what I could do."

Then there is a long letter to Cato in which he repeats the story of his grand doings at Pindenissum. The reader will be sure that a letter to Cato cannot be sincere and pleasant as are those to Atticus and Cælius. "If there be one man far removed from the vulgar love of praise, it is I," he says to Cato.96 He tells Cato that they two are alike in all things. They two only have succeeded in carrying the true ancient philosophy into the practice of the Forum. Never surely were two men more unlike than the stiff-necked Cato and the versatile Cicero.

b. c. 50, ætat. 57.

Lucius Æmilius Paullus and C. Clodius Marcellus were Consuls for the next year. Cicero writes to both of them with tenders of friendship; but from both of them he asks that they should take care to have a decree of the Senate passed praising his doings in Cilicia.97 With us, too, a returning governor is anxious enough for a good word from the Prime-minister; but he does not ask for it so openly. The next letter from Cælius tells him that Appius has been accused as to malpractices in his government, and that Pompey is in favor of Appius. Curio has gone over to Cæsar. But the important subject is the last handled: "It will be mean in you if I should have no Greek panthers."98

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1

As I shall explain a few pages farther on, four of these speeches are supposed by late critics to be spurious.

2

See Mr. Long's introduction to these orations. "All this I admit," says Mr. Long, speaking of some possible disputant; "but he will never convince any man of sense that the first of Roman writers, a man of good understanding, and a master of eloquence, put together such tasteless, feeble, and extravagant compositions."

3

Pro Cn. Plancio, ca. xxx.: "Nonne etiam illa testis est oratio quæ est a me prima habita in Senatu. * * * Recitetur oratio, quæ propter rei magnitudinem dicta de scripto est."

4

Quintilian, lib. xi., ca. 1, who as a critic worshipped Cicero, has nevertheless told us very plainly what had been up to his time the feeling of the Roman world as to Cicero's self-praise: "Reprehensus est in hac parte non mediocriter Cicero."

5

Ad Att., lib. iv., 2. He recommends that the speech should be put into the hands of all young men, and thus gives further proof that we still here have his own words. When so much has come to us, we cannot but think that an oration so prepared would remain extant.

6

I had better, perhaps, refer my readers to book v., chap. viii., of Mommsen's History.

7

"Politique des Romains dans la religion;" a treatise which was read by its author to certain students at Bordeaux. It was intended as a preface to a longer work.

8

Ad Div., lib. i., 2.

9

Ad Div., lib. i., 5: "Nosti hominis tarditatem, et taciturnitatem."

10

Ad Quintum Fratrem, lib. ii., 3.

11

Ibid., lib. ii., 6.

12

Ad Att., lib. iv., 5.

13

Ad Div., lib. v., 12.

14

Very early in the history of Rome it was found expedient to steal an Etruscan soothsayer for the reading of these riddles, which was gallantly done by a young soldier, who ran off with an old prophet in his arms (Livy, v., 15). We are naively told by the historian that the more the prodigies came the more they were believed. On a certain occasion a crowd of them was brought together: Crows built in the temple of Juno. A green tree took fire. The waters of Mantua became bloody. In one place it rained chalk in another fire. Lightning was very destructive, sinking the temple of a god or a nut-tree by the roadside indifferently. An ox spoke in Sicily. A precocious baby cried out "Io triumphe" before it was born. At Spoletum a woman became a man. An altar was seen in the heavens. A ghostly band of armed men appeared in the Janiculum (Livy, xxiv., 10). On such occasions the "aruspices" always ordered a vast slaughter of victims, and no doubt feasted as did the wicked sons of Eli.

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.