Cicero

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23.1.1
However, there were those who were ready to abuse Cicero for what he had done, and to work him harm, and they had as leaders, among the magistrates-elect, Caesar as praetor, and Metellus and Bestia as tribunes. When these assumed office, Cicero having still a few days of consular authority, they would not permit him to harangue the people, but placing their benches so as to command the rostra, would not suffer or allow him to speak; instead, they ordered him, if he wished, merely to pronounce the oath usual on giving up office, and then come down.
23.2.1
Cicero accepted these terms and came forward to pronounce his oath; and when he had obtained silence, he pronounced, not the usual oath, but one of his own and a new one, swearing that in very truth he had saved his country and maintained her supremacy. And all the people confirmed his oath for him. At this Caesar and the tribunes were still more vexed and contrived fresh troubles for Cicero. Among other things, a law was introduced by them for calling Pompey home with his army, in order, forsooth, that he might put down the arbitrary power of Cicero.
23.3.1
But Cato, who was tribune at this time, was a great help to Cicero and to the whole state, and opposed the measures of the other tribunes with an authority equal to theirs and a greater good repute. For he easily put a stop to their other projects, and so highly extolled the arbitrary power of Cicero in a speech to the people, that they voted him the greatest honours ever conferred and called him the father of his country. For he was the first, as it seems, to receive this title, after Cato had given it to him before the people.
24.1.1
So at this time Cicero had the greatest power in the state, but he made himself generally odious, not by any base action, but by continually praising and magnifying himself, which made him hateful to many. For there could be no session either of senate or assembly or court of justice in which one was not obliged to hear Catiline and Lentulus endlessly talked about.
24.2.1
Nay, he even went so far as to fill his books and writings with these praises of himself; and he made his oratory, which was naturally very pleasant and had the greatest charm, irksome and tedious to his hearers, since this unpleasant practice clung to him like a fatality. But nevertheless, although he cherished so strong an ambition, he was free from envying others, since he was most ungrudging in his encomiums upon his predecessors and contemporaries, as may be gathered from his writings.
24.3.1
There are also many sayings of his on record which prove this; for instance, he said of Aristotle that he was a river of liquid gold, and of the dialogues of Plato that Jupiter, were it his nature to use human speech, would thus discourse, Theophrastus, too, he used to call his own special delight. And when he was asked which of the speeches of Demosthenes he thought the best, he replied, the longest.
24.4.1
And yet some of those who pretend to be imitators of Demosthenes dwell much upon an expression which Cicero used in a letter to one of his friends, to the effect that in some parts of his speeches Demosthenes nods; but of the great and admirable praises which he often bestows upon him, and of the fact that those speeches of his own to which he devoted most labour, namely, the speeches against Antony, were entitled by him Philippics, they say nothing.
24.5.1
Moreover, of the men of his own time who were famous for eloquence or learning, there is not one whom he did not make more famous by what he said or wrote in favour of him. For Cratippus the Peripatetic he obtained the Roman citizenship from Caesar, now in power, and he also induced the council of the Areiopagus to pass a decree requesting him to remain at Athens and discourse with the young men, and thus be an ornament to the city.
24.6.1
Furthermore, there are letters from Cicero to Herodes, and others to his son, in which he urges them to study philosophy with Cratippus. But Gorgias the rhetorician he censured for leading the young man into pleasures and drinking parties, and banished him from his son’s society.
24.7.1
This is almost the only one of his Greek letters (there is also a second, addressed to Pelops of Byzantium) which was written in a spirit of anger; and Gorgias he properly rebukes, if, as he was thought to be, he was worthless and intemperate; but towards Pelops he shows a mean and querulous spirit for having neglected to obtain for him certain honorary decrees from the Byzantians.
25.1.1
These complaints were characteristic of ambition, as well as the fact that he was often led on by the cleverness of his speech to disregard propriety. For instance, he once served as advocate for Munatius, who was no sooner acquitted than he prosecuted a friend of Cicero’s, Sabinus, whereupon, it is said, Cicero was so transported with anger as to say: Was it, pray, on your own merits, Munatius, that you were acquitted, and not because I spread much darkness about the court when before there was light?
25.2.1
And again, he gained great applause by an encomium on Marcus Crassus from the rostra, and then a few days afterwards as publicly reviled him, whereupon Crassus said: What, did you not stand there yourself a day or two ago and praise me? Yea, said Cicero, exercising my eloquence by way of practice on a bad subject.
25.3.1
Again, Crassus once said that no Crassus had lived in Rome to be older than sixty years, and then tried to deny it, exclaiming, What could have led me to say this? You knew, said Cicero, that the Romans would be delighted to hear it, and by that means you tried to court their favour. And when Crassus expressed his satisfaction with the Stoics because they represented the good man as rich, Consider, said Cicero, whether your satisfaction is not rather due to their declaration that all things belong to the wise.
25.4.1
Now, Crassus was accused of covetousness. Again, one of the sons of Crassus who was thought to resemble a certain Axius, and on this account had brought his mother’s name into scandalous connection with that of Axius, once made a successful speech in the senate, and when Cicero was asked what he thought of him, he answered with the Greek words Axios Krassou.
26.1.1
When Crassus was about to set out for Syria, wishing that Cicero should be a friend rather than an enemy, he said to him in a friendly manner that he wished to dine with him; and Cicero readily received him into his house. But a few days afterwards, when some friends interceded with him for Vatinius, saying that the man sought reconciliation and friendship (for he was an enemy), It surely cannot be, said Cicero, that Vatinius also wishes to dine with me. Such, then, was his treatment of Crassus.
26.2.1
Now, Vatinius himself had swellings on his neck, and once when he was pleading a case Cicero called him a tumid orator. Again, after hearing that Vatinius was dead, and then after a little learning for a surety that he was alive, Wretchedly perish, then, said Cicero, the wretch who lied!
26.3.1
And again, Caesar once got a decree passed that the land in Campania should be divided among his soldiers, and many of the senators were dissatisfied, and Lucius Gellius, who was about the oldest of them, declared that it should never be done while he was alive; whereupon Cicero said: Let us wait, since Gellius does not ask for a long postponement.
26.4.1
There was a certain Octavius, too, who was reputed to be of African descent; to this man, who said at a certain trial that he could not hear Cicero, the orator replied: And yet your ear is not without a perforation. And when Metellus Nepos declared that Cicero had brought more men to death as a hostile witness than he had saved from it as an advocate, Yes, said Cicero, I admit that my credibility is greater than my eloquence.
26.5.1
Again, when a certain young man who was accused of having given his father poison in a cake put on bold airs and threatened to cover Cicero with abuse, That, said Cicero, I would rather have from you than a cake. There was Publius Sextius, too, who retained Cicero as an advocate in a case, along with others, and then wanted to do all the speaking himself, and would allow no one else a word; when it was clear that he was going to be acquitted by the jurors and the vote was already being given, Use your opportunity today, Sextius, said Cicero, for to-morrow you are going to be a nobody.
26.6.1
Publius Consta, too, who wanted to be a lawyer, but was ignorant and stupid, was once summoned by Cicero as witness in a case; and when he kept saying that he knew nothing, Perhaps, said Cicero, you think you are being questioned on points of law. Again, in a dispute with Cicero, Metellus Nepos asked repeatedly Who is your father? In your case, said Cicero, your mother has made the answer to this question rather difficult.
26.7.1
Now, the mother of Nepos was thought to be unchaste, and he himself a fickle sort of man. He once suddenly deserted his office of tribune and sailed off to join Pompey in Syria, and then came back from there with even less reason. Moreover, after burying his teacher Philagrus with more than usual ceremony, he set upon his tomb a raven in stone; whereupon Cicero remarked: In this you have acted more wisely than is your wont, for he taught you to fly rather than to speak.
26.8.1
And again, when Marcus Appius prefaced his speech in a case by saying that his friend had begged him to exhibit diligence, eloquence, and fidelity, And then, said Cicero, are you so hard-hearted as to exhibit none of those great qualities which your friend demanded?
27.1.1
Now, this use of very biting jests against enemies or legal opponents seems to be part of the orator’s business; but his indiscriminate attacks for the sake of raising a laugh made many people hate Cicero. And I will give a few instances of this also. Marcus Aquinius, who had two sons-in-law in exile, he called Adrastus.
27.2.1
Again, Lucius Cotta, who held the office of censor, was very fond of wine, and Cicero, when canvassing for the consulship, was a-thirst, and as his friends stood about him while he drank, said: You have good reason to fear that the censor will deal harshly with me—for drinking water. And when he met Voconius escorting three very ugly daughters, he cried out:— It was against the will of Phoebus that he begat children.
27.3.1
Again, when Marcus Gellius, who was thought to be of servile birth, had read letters to the senate in a loud and clear voice, Do not marvel, said Cicero, he too is one of those who have cried aloud for their freedom. And when Faustus, the son of the Sulla who was dictator at Rome and placarded many people for death, got into debt, squandered much of his substance, and placarded his household goods for sale, Cicero said he liked this placarding better than his father’s.
28.1.1
As a consequence of this he became odious to many; and besides, the partisans of Clodius combined against him on the following ground. Clodius was a man of noble birth, young in years, but bold and presumptuous in spirit. This man, being in love with Pompeia, Caesar’s wife, got into his house secretly, by assuming the dress and guise of a lute-player; for the women of Rome were celebrating in Caesar’s house that mysterious rite which men were not allowed to witness, and no man was there;
28.2.1
but being still a beardless youth Clodius hoped without being noticed to slip through to Pompeia along with the women. But since he got in at night and the house was large, he lost his way in the passages; and as he was wandering about, a maid of Aurelia, Caesar’s mother, caught sight of him and asked him his name. Being thus compelled to speak, he said that he was looking for an attendant of Pompeia named Abra, whereupon the maid, perceiving that his voice was not that of a woman, raised a cry and called the women together.
28.3.1
These shut the doors, searched carefully all about, and found Clodius, who had taken refuge in the chamber of the girl with whom he came into the house. The affair having become noised abroad, Caesar divorced Pompeia and had an action for sacrilege brought against Clodius.
29.1.1
Now, Cicero was a friend of Clodius, and in the affair of Catiline had found him a most eager co-worker and guardian of his person; but when Clodius replied to the charge against him by insisting that he had not even been in Rome at the time, but had been staying in places at the farthest remove from there, Cicero testified against him, declaring that Clodius had come to his house and consulted him on certain matters; which was true.
29.2.1
However, it was thought that Cicero did not give his testimony for the truth’s sake, but by way of defence against the charges of his own wife Terentia. For there was enmity between her and Clodius on account of his sister Clodia, whom Terentia thought to be desirous of marrying Cicero and to be contriving this with the aid of a certain Tullus; now, Tullus was a companion and an especial intimate of Cicero, and his constant visits and attentions to Clodia, who lived near by, made Terentia suspicious.
29.3.1
So, being a woman of harsh nature, and having sway over Cicero, she incited him to join in the attack upon Clodius and give testimony against him. Moreover, many men of the better class bore witness against Clodius for perjury, recklessness, bribery of the multitude, and debauching of women. And Lucullus actually produced female slaves who testified that Clodius had commerce with his youngest sister when she was living with Lucullus as his wife.
29.4.1
There was also a general belief that Clodius had intercourse with his other two sisters, of whom Tertia was the wife of Marcius Rex, and Clodia of Metellus Celer; the latter was called Quadrantia, because one of her lovers had put copper coins into a purse and sent them to her for silver, and the smallest copper coin was called quadrans. It was with regard to this sister in particular that Clodius was in evil repute.
29.5.1
However, since the people at this time set themselves against those who combined and testified against him, the jurors were frightened and surrounded themselves with a guard, and most of them cast their voting-tablets with the writing on them confused. But nevertheless those who were for acquittal appeared to be in the majority; and some bribery also was said to have been used.
29.6.1
This led Catulus to say, when he met the jurors, It was indeed as a measure of safety that you asked for your guard; you were afraid that someone would take your money away from you. And Cicero, when Clodius told him that as a witness he had found no credit with the jurors, said: Nay, twenty-five of the jurors gave me credit, for so many voted against you; and thirty of them gave you no credit, for they did not vote to acquit you until they had got your money.
29.7.1
Caesar, however, when summoned as a witness, gave no testimony against Clodius, and denied that he had condemned his wife for adultery, but said that he had put her away because Caesar’s wife must be free not only from shameful conduct, but even from shameful report.
30.1.1
But Clodius, having escaped his peril, and having been chosen tribune, at once began to attack Cicero, arraying and stirring up against him all things and all men alike. He won the favour of the people by benevolent laws, got large provinces voted to each of the consuls (Macedonia to Piso, and Syria to Gabinius), brought many of the poorer class into organized political activity, and kept armed slaves about his person.
30.2.1
Now, of the three men who at that time had most power, Crassus was an out-and-out foe of Cicero, Pompey was dallying with both, and Caesar was about to set out for Gaul with an army; into Caesar’s favour, therefore, Cicero insinuated himself (although Caesar was not a friend, but an object of suspicion owing to the affair of Catiline), and asked to accompany him on his campaign as legate.
30.3.1
But no sooner had Caesar granted the request than Clodius, seeing that Cicero was thus escaping his tribunicial power, pretended to be desirous of a reconciliation, and by laying the chief blame upon Terentia, and always speaking of Cicero in friendly terms and using kindly expressions about him, as one who bore him no hatred or even ill-will, but had moderate complaints to make of him in a friendly way, he altogether took away his fear, so that he declined the office of legate under Caesar and again applied himself to public matters.
30.4.1
But at this conduct Caesar was exasperated, and encouraged Clodius against Cicero, and completely alienated Pompey from him, while he himself testified before the people that he did not think it right or lawful that men should be put to death without a trial, as in the case of Lentulus, Cethegus, and their accomplices. For this was the denunciation made against Cicero, and to this he was summoned to make answer. And so, being in peril of prosecution, he changed his attire, and with his hair untrimmed went about supplicating the people.
30.5.1
But Clodius met him everywhere in the streets, with a band of bold and insolent men about him, who made many unbridled jests upon Cicero’s change of attire, and often pelted him with mud and stones, and so interfered with his supplications to the people.
31.1.1
However, in the first place, nearly the whole body of knights changed their attire with Cicero, and as many as twenty thousand young men escorted him with their hair untrimmed and joined in his suppliant entreaties to the people; and besides, when the senate had met in order to pass a vote that the people should change their dress in token of public calamity, and the consuls had opposed it, and Clodius was in arms about the senate-house, not a few of the senators ran out, rending their garments and crying aloud.
31.2.1
But since this sight awakened neither pity nor any mercy, but Cicero was obliged either to go into exile or to appeal to force and the sword against Clodius, he begged for aid from Pompey, who had purposely got out of the way and was staying at his country seat in the Alban hills. First Cicero sent Piso, his son-in-law, to entreat for him; then he went up thither himself also.
31.3.1
Pompey, however, on learning of his coming, could not endure to see him, for he felt a strong sense of shame towards the man who had made great struggles in his behalf and had often adopted a political course to please him; but since he was Caesar’s son-in-law, at his request he proved false to his old obligations, slipped out by another door, and so ran away from the interview. Thus betrayed by him and left desolate, Cicero fled for refuge to the consuls.
31.4.1
Gabinius was always severe with him, but Piso dealt with him more gently, advising him to stand aside and yield to the impetuous assaults of Clodius, to submit to the change in the times, and to become once more a saviour of his country when she was involved in seditions and misfortunes through Clodius.
31.4.2
After getting such answer to his appeal, Cicero took counsel with his friends: Lucullus urged him to remain in the city, believing that he would prevail; but others advised him to go into exile, believing that the people would quickly long for him when they were sated with the folly and madness of Clodius.
31.5.1
This Cicero decided to do; so he took the statue of Minerva which had long stood in his house, and which he honoured exceedingly, carried it to the capitol, and dedicated it there with the inscription To Minerva, Guardian of Rome; then, accepting an escort from his friends, about midnight he slipped out of the city, and set out on foot through Lucania, desiring to reach Sicily.
32.1.1
But as soon as it was known that he had fled, Clodius caused a vote of banishment to be passed upon him, and issued an edict that all men should refuse him fire and water and that no man should give him shelter within five hundred miles of Italy. Now, most men paid not the slightest heed to this edict out of respect for Cicero, and escorted him on his way with every mark of kindness;
32.2.1
but at Hipponium, a city of Lucania, which is now called Vibo, Vibius, a Sicilian, who had profited much from Cicero’s friendship and particularly by being made prefect of engineers during his consulship, would not receive him in his house, but sent him word that he would assign him his country-place for residence; and Caius Vergilius, the praetor of Sicily, who had been on most intimate terms with Cicero, wrote him to keep away from Sicily.
32.3.1
Disheartened at this treatment, he set out for Brundisium, and from there tried to cross to Dyrrhachium with a fair breeze, but since he met a counter-wind at sea he came back the next day, and then set sail again. It is said, too, that after he had put in at Dyrrhachium and was about to land, there was an earthquake accompanied by a violent convulsion of the sea. Wherefore the soothsayers conjectured that his exile would not be lasting, since these were signs of change.
32.4.1
But although many people visited him out of goodwill, and the Greek cities vied with one another in sending him deputations, still, he passed his time for the most part in dejection and great grief, looking off towards Italy like a disconsolate lover, while his spirit he became very petty and mean by reason of his misfortune, and was more humbled than one would have expected in a man who had enjoyed so lofty a discipline as his.
32.5.1
And yet he often asked his friends not to call him an orator, but a philosopher, because he had chosen philosophy as an occupation, but used oratory merely as an instrument for attaining the needful ends of a political career. But public opinion has great power to wash away reason, like a dye, from the soul of man, and by force of familiar association to impress the feelings of the vulgar on those who engage in political life, unless one is right well on his guard when he engages himself in things external, and is resolved to participate only in the things themselves, and not in the feelings attendant upon them.
33.1.1
As for Clodius, after driving Cicero away he burned down his villas, and burned down his house, and erected on its site a temple to Liberty; the rest of his property he offered for sale and had it proclaimed daily, but nobody would buy anything. Being therefore formidable to the patricians, and dragging along with him the people, who indulged in great boldness and effrontery, he assailed Pompey, attacking fiercely some of the arrangements made by him on his expedition.
33.2.1
The disgrace which this brought upon Pompey led him to reproach himself for his abandonment of Cicero; and changing front he used every effort to effect Cicero’s return, and so did his friends. But since Clodius opposed himself to this, the senate decided to ratify no measure that came up in the mean time and to do no public business, unless Cicero should be permitted to return.
33.3.1
During the consulship of Lentulus, however, when the disorder went on increasing, so that tribunes were wounded in the forum and Quintus the brother of Cicero lay unnoticed for dead among the slain, the people began to change their minds, and Annius Milo, one of the tribunes, first ventured to prosecute Clodius for violence, and many joined themselves to Pompey both from the people and from the surrounding cities. With these Pompey came forth, drove Clodius from the forum, and summoned the citizens to the vote.
33.4.1
And it is said that the people never passed any vote with such unanimity. The senate, too, vying with the people, wrote letters of thanks to all the cities which had ministered to Cicero during his exile, and decreed that his house and his villas, which Clodius had destroyed, should be restored at the public cost.
33.5.1
Thus Cicero came home in the sixteenth month after his exile; and so great was the joy of the cities and the eagerness of men to meet him that what was said by Cicero afterwards fell short of the truth. He said, namely, that Italy had taken him on her shoulders and carried him into Rome. And there Crassus also, who was his enemy before his exile, now readily met him and was reconciled with him, to gratify his son Publius, as he said, who was an ardent admirer of Cicero.
34.1.1
After allowing only a short time to pass and watching for an opportunity when Clodius was absent from the city, Cicero went up with a great company to the capitol, and there tore away and destroyed the tablets of the tribunes, in which were the records of their administration. When Clodius brought charges against him for this and Cicero argued that it was illegal for Clodius to pass from the ranks of the patricians into the tribunate, and that therefore none of his acts was valid, Cato was indignant and spoke against Cicero;
34.2.1
not that he approved of Clodius, nay, he was actually displeased at his political course, but he set forth that it was a strange and violent measure for the senate to vote the abrogation of so many acts and decrees, among which were those for his own administration in Cyprus and Byzantium. This led to an antagonism between him and Cicero which came to no open manifestation, but made their friendly treatment of one another less marked.
35.1.1
After this Clodius was killed by Milo; and Milo, being prosecuted for murder, engaged Cicero as his advocate. But the senate was afraid that at the trial of Milo, who was a man of repute and high spirit, there might be a disturbance in the city, and therefore intrusted the superintendence of this and the other trials to Pompey, who was to furnish security for the city and the courts of justice.
35.2.1
So Pompey, while it was still night, posted his soldiers on the heights so as to command the forum, and Milo, fearing that Cicero might be disturbed at the unusual sight and conduct his case less successfully, persuaded him to be brought in a litter to the forum and to wait there quietly until the jurors assembled and the court-room was filled.
35.3.1
Now Cicero, as it would seem, was not only without courage under arms, but also felt fear when he began to speak, and in many trials he hardly ceased quivering and trembling after his eloquence had become high and sustained. When he was to plead for Licinius Murena in a case brought against him by Cato, and was ambitious to surpass Hortensius, whom had made a successful plea, he took no rest at all during the night before, so that his lack of sleep and his great anxiety did him harm, and he was thought inferior to himself in his plea.
35.4.1
And so at this time, when he came out of his litter to plead Milo’s cause and saw Pompey stationed on the heights as in a camp, and arms flashing all around the forum, he was confounded and could scarcely begin his speech, for his body quivered and his voice faltered; whereas Milo showed the good courage of a brave man at the trial and had not deigned to let his hair go untrimmed or to change his attire to a dark one; and this seems most of all to have contributed to his condemnation. However, Cicero’s behaviour led men to think him devoted to his friends rather than cowardly.
36.1.1
He became also one of the priests whom the Romans call Augurs, in place of the younger Crassus, who had died among the Parthians. Then the lot gave him Cilicia as his province, with an army of twelve thousand men-at-arms and twenty-six hundred horsemen, and he set sail, with instructions to keep Cappadocia friendly and obedient to King Ariobarzanes.
36.2.1
This he accomplished and arranged satisfactorily without war, and seeing that the Cilicians, in view of the Parthian disaster to the Romans and the uprising in Syria, were in an agitated state, he pacified them by his mild government. Gifts he would not receive, not even when the kings offered them, and he relieved the provincials from the expense of entertainments; but he himself daily received men of pleasing accomplishments at banquets which were not expensive, although generous.
36.3.1
His house, too, had no door-keeper, nor did anyone ever see him lying a-bed, but early in the morning he would stand or walk in front of his chamber and receive those who came to pay him their respects. It is said, moreover, that he never ordered any man to be chastised with rods or to have his raiment torn from him, and that he never inflicted angry abuse or contumelious punishments.
36.4.1
He discovered that much of the public property had been embezzled, and by restoring it he made the cities well-to-do, and men who made restitution he maintained in their civil rights without further penalties. He engaged in war, too, and routed the robbers who made their homes on Mount Amanus; and for this he was actually saluted by his soldiers as Imperator.
36.5.1
When Caelius the orator asked Cicero to send him panthers from Cilicia for a certain spectacle at Rome, Cicero, pluming himself upon his exploits, wrote to him that there were no panthers in Cilicia; for they had fled to Caria in indignation because they alone were warred upon, while everything else enjoyed peace. On his voyage back from his province he first touched at Rhodes, and then gladly spent some time at Athens in fond remembrance of his old pursuits in that place.
36.6.1
Then, after associating with men who were foremost for their learning, and after greeting his old-time friends and intimates, and after receiving from Greece the tokens of admiration that were his due, he returned to Rome, where a violent inflammation, as it were, was already forcing matters on towards the civil war.
37.1.1
Accordingly, when the senators were voting him a triumph, he said he would more gladly follow in Caesar’s triumphal procession if matters could be settled; and privately he gave much advice to Caesar by letter, and much to Pompey in person by way of personal entreaty, trying to mollify and pacify each of them. But when things were past healing, and Caesar was advancing upon the city, and Pompey did not stay there, but abandoned the city in the company of many good men, Cicero did not take part in this flight, and was thought to be attaching himself to Caesar.
37.2.1
And it is clear that his judgement drew him strongly in both directions and that he was in distress. For he writes in his letters that he knew not which way he ought to turn, since Pompey had honourable and good grounds for going to war, while Caesar managed matters better and had more ability to save himself and his friends; he therefore knew from whom he should flee, but not to whom he should flee.
37.3.1
And when Trebatius, one of the companions of Caesar, wrote him a letter stating that Caesar thought he ought above all things to range himself on his side and share his hopes, but that if he declined to do this by reason of his age, he ought to go to Greece and take up a quiet life there out of the way of both, Cicero was amazed that Caesar himself did not write, and replied in a passion that he would do nothing unworthy of his political career. Such, then, is the purport of his letters.
38.1.1
But when Caesar set out for Spain, Cicero at once sailed to Pompey. The rest of Pompey’s followers were glad to see him, but when Cato saw him, he privately blamed him much for attaching himself to Pompey. In his own case, Cato said, it was not honourable to abandon the line of public policy which he had chosen from the beginning; but Cicero, though he was of more service to his country and his friends if he remained at home without taking sides and accommodated himself to the issue of events, without any reason and under no compulsion had made himself an enemy of Caesar, and had come thither to share in their great danger.
38.2.1
By these words the purpose of Cicero was upset, as well as by the fact that Pompey made no great use of him. But he was himself to blame for this, since he made no denial that he was sorry he had come, made light of Pompey’s preparations and showed a lurking displeasure at his plans, and did not refrain from jests and witty remarks about his comrades in arms; nay, although he himself always went about in the camp without a smile and scowling, still he made others laugh in spite of themselves.
38.3.1
And it will be well to give a few instances of this also. When Domitius, then, was advancing to a post of command a man who was no soldier, with the remark that he was gentle in his disposition and prudent, Why, then, said Cicero, do you not keep him as a guardian of your children?
38.4.1
And when certain ones were praising Theophanes the Lesbian, who was prefect of engineers in the camp, because he had given excellent consolation to the Rhodians on the loss of their fleet, What a great blessing it is, said Cicero, to have a Greek as prefect! Again, when Caesar was successful for the most part and in a way was laying siege to them, Lentulus said he had heard that Caesar’s friends were gloomy, to which Cicero replied: You mean that they are ill-disposed to Caesar.
38.5.1
And when a certain Marcius, who had recently come from Italy, spoke of a report which prevailed in Rome that Pompey was besieged, And then, said Cicero, did you sail off that you might see with your own eyes and believe? Again, after the defeat, when Nonnius said they ought to have good hopes, since seven eagles were left in the camp of Pompey, Your advice would be good, said Cicero, if we were at war with jackdaws.
38.6.1
And when Labienus, insisting on certain oracles, said that Pompey must prevail, Yes, said Cicero, this is the generalship that has now cost us our camp.
39.1.1
However, after the battle at Pharsalus, in which Cicero took no part because of illness, had been fought, and Pompey was in flight, Cato, who had a considerable army and a large fleet at Dyrrhachium, asked Cicero to take the command in accordance with custom and because of his superior consular rank. But Cicero rejected the command and was altogether averse to sharing in the campaign, whereupon he came near being killed;
39.2.1
for the young Pompey and his friends called him a traitor and drew their swords upon him, and that would have been the end of him had not Cato interposed and with difficulty rescued him and sent him away from the camp. So Cicero put in at Brundisium and tarried there, waiting for Caesar, who was delayed by his affairs in Asia and Egypt.
39.3.1
But when word was brought that Caesar had landed at Tarentum and was coming round by land from there to Brundisium, Cicero hastened to meet him, being not altogether despondent, but feeling shame to test in the presence of many witnesses the temper of a man who was an enemy and victorious. However, there was no need that he should do or say anything unworthy of himself.
39.4.1
For Caesar, when he saw him approaching far in advance of the rest, got down and embraced him and journeyed on for many furlongs conversing with him alone. And after this he continued to show him honour and kindness, so that in his reply to the encomium upon Cato which Cicero wrote he praised Cicero’s eloquence and his life, as most resembling that of Pericles and Theramenes.
39.5.1
Now, the discourse of Cicero was entitled Cato, and that of Caesar Anti-Cato.
39.5.2
It is said also that when Quintus Ligarius was under prosecution because he had been one of the enemies of Caesar, and Cicero was his advocate, Caesar said to his friends: What is to prevent our hearing a speech from Cicero after all this while, since Ligarius has long been adjudged a villain and an enemy?
39.6.1
But when Cicero had begun to speak and was moving his hearers beyond measure, and his speech, as it proceeded, showed varying pathos and amazing grace, Caesar’s face often changed colour and it was manifest that all the emotions of his soul were stirred; and at last, when the orator touched upon the struggles at Pharsalus, he was so greatly affected that his body shook and he dropped from his hand some of his documents. At any rate he acquitted Ligarius under compulsion.
40.1.1
After this, when the government had been changed to a monarchy, Cicero abstained from public affairs and devoted his time to those of the young men who wished to study philosophy, and mainly from his intimacy with these, since they were of the highest birth and standing, he was once more very influential in the state.
40.2.1
He made it his business also to compose and translate philosophical dialogues, and to render into Latin the several terms of dialectics and natural philosophy; for he it was, as they say, who first, or principally, provided Latin names for phantasia, synkatathesis, epokhe, and katalepsis, as well as for atomon, ameres, kerton, and many others like these, contriving partly by metaphors and partly by new and fitting terms to make them intelligible and familiar.
40.3.1
His facility in verse-making, too, he employed to divert himself. It is said, indeed, that when he applied himself to such work, he would make five hundred verses in a night.
40.3.2
During this time, then, he lived for the most part at his country-seat in Tusculum, and he used to write to his friends that he was living the life of Laertes, either jesting, as was his wont, or because his ambition filled him with a desire for public activity and made him dissatisfied with the turn things had taken.
40.4.1
He rarely went down to the city, and then only to pay court to Caesar, and he was foremost among those who advocated Caesar’s honours and were eager to be ever saying something new about him and his measures. Of this sort is what he said about the statues of Pompey. These Caesar ordered to be set up again after they had been thrown down and taken away; and they were set up again. What Cicero said was that by this act of generosity Caesar did indeed set up the statues of Pompey, but firmly planted his own also.
41.1.1
He purposed, as we are told, to write a comprehensive history of his native country, combining with it many Greek details, and introducing there all the tales and myths which he had collected; but he was prevented by many public affairs which were contrary to his wishes, and by many private troubles, most of which seem to have been of his own choosing.
41.2.1
For in the first place he divorced his wife Terentia because he had been neglected by her during the war, so that he set out in lack of the necessary means for his journey, and even when he came back again to Italy did not find her considerate of him. For she did not come to him herself, although he tarried a long time at Brundisium, and when her daughter, a young girl, made the long journey thither, she supplied her with no fitting escort and with no means; nay, she actually stripped and emptied Cicero’s house of all that it contained, besides incurring many large debts.
41.3.1
These, indeed, are the most plausible reasons given for the divorce. Terentia, however, denied that these were the reasons, and Cicero himself made her defence a telling one by marrying shortly afterwards a maiden. This he did, as Terentia asserted, out of love for her youthful beauty; but as Tiro, Cicero’s freedman, has written, to get means for the payment of his debts.
41.4.1
For the girl was very wealthy, and Cicero had been left her trustee and had charge of her property. So since he owed many tens of thousands he was persuaded by his friends and relatives to marry the girl, old as he was, and to get rid of his creditors by using her money. But Antony, who spoke of the marriage in his replies to Cicero’s Philippics, says that he cast out of doors the wife with whom he had grown old, and at the same time makes witty jibes upon the stay-at-home habits of Cicero, who was, he said, unfit for business or military service.
41.5.1
Not long after Cicero’s marriage his daughter died in child-birth at the house of Lentulus, to whom she had been married after the death of Piso, her former husband. His friends came together from all quarters to comfort Cicero; but his grief at his misfortune was excessive, so that he actually divorced the wife he had wedded, because she was thought to be pleased at the death of Tullia.
42.1.1
Such, then, were Cicero’s domestic affairs. But in the design that was forming against Caesar he took no part, although he was one of the closest companions of Brutus and was thought to be distressed at the present and to long for the old state of affairs more than anybody else. But the conspirators feared his natural disposition as being deficient in daring, and his time of life, in which courage fails the strongest natures.
42.2.1
And so, when the deed had been accomplished by the partisans of Brutus and Cassius, and the friends of Caesar were combining against the perpetrators of it, and it was feared that the city would again be plunged into civil wars, Antony, as consul, convened the senate and said a few words about concord, while Cicero, after a lengthy speech appropriate to the occasion, persuaded the senate to imitate the Athenians and decree an amnesty for the attack upon Caesar, and to assign provinces to Cassius and Brutus.
42.3.1
But none of these things came to pass. For when the people, who of themselves were strongly moved to pity, saw Caesar’s body carried through the forum, and when Antony showed them the garments drenched with blood and pierced everywhere with the swords, they went mad with rage and sought for the murderers in the forum, and ran to their houses with fire-brands in order to set them ablaze. For this danger the conspirators were prepared beforehand and so escaped it, but expecting others many and great, they forsook the city.
43.1.1
At once, then, Antony was highly elated, and all men were fearful that he would make himself sole ruler, and Cicero most fearful of all. For Antony saw that Cicero’s power in the state was reviving, and knew that he was attached to Brutus and his party, and was therefore disturbed at his presence in the city. And besides, they had previously been somewhat suspicious of one another because of the marked difference in their lives.
43.2.1
Fearing these things Cicero at first was inclined to sail to Syria with Dolabella, as his legate; but the consuls elect to succeed Antony, Hirtius and Pansa, who were good men and admirers of Cicero, begged him not to desert them, and undertook to put down Antony if Cicero would remain at Rome. So Cicero, who neither distrusted nor trusted them altogether, let Dolabella go without him, and after agreeing with Hirtius and Pansa to spend the summer at Athens, and to come back again when they had assumed office, set off by himself.
43.3.1
But there was some delay about his voyage, and, as is often the case, new and unexpected reports came from Rome, to the effect that Antony had undergone a wonderful change and was doing and administering everything to please the senate, and that matters needed only Cicero’s presence to assume the best possible complexion; he therefore blamed himself for his excessive caution and turned back again to Rome.

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