CICKBO, MARCUS TOLLIUS. 



CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. 



iw 



kb elUat, and to account for hi* MquitUl on grounds altogether 

 fareifB to tb nwrita of the CM* ; another proof of the change that 

 bad takra place in Uie patriotic prosecutor of Verret. Hit conduct 

 i* not Us repnbeosible in the affair of Murena. who waa charged 

 with bribery. treating. and other violations of the law, in hi* late 

 lection to toe consulship. His guilt will not bo doubtful to a careful 

 reader of hi* advocate'* speech. The proeeeution waa supported by 

 ffelpioius and Gate, the former a man who ma; be looked upon as 

 abMs* the fonder of Roman law ai a science, and Cato certainly the 

 most beam of hia party. Yet Cicero, instead of grappling with the 

 charge, ifaeorads to a personal attack on the advocate* opposed to him, 

 rallying the profeerion of Sul| iciui aa trifling, and Uie principle* of 

 Oalo a* impracticable. Hi* defence amount* in fact to a defence of 

 Ike crime rather than the criminal, which wa* the more discreditable, 

 a* be hiowelf had only a few weeks before carried a new law againit 

 bribery. 



The aurerasof Cicero, in cruahing the Catilinarian conspiracy, would 

 probably have earned for him the unmixed good-will of the aristo- 

 cratic party, bad he not offended them by the vanity and presumption 

 which that race*** engendered, and which were the more offensive to 

 them in one whose origin they despised. So completely was he 

 crowd away by his tense of hi* service* to his country that he wrote 

 history of hi* consulship in Greek, and even sung his own glories 

 in Terse ; but the most decisive evidence of his unbounded vanity is 

 the extraordinary letter which he addressed to his friend Lucceius. 

 (Ad Kaiu.,' T. 13.) 



On the other side he had damaged liis reputation with the people 

 by his evident change of principles ; and the precipitate execution of 

 the conspirator*, without the form of a" trial, was an offence tgaiiut 

 the laws of the country which the sanction of the senate could not 

 justify. Already on his laying down bis offu-e there were symptoms 

 of that hostility which gradually increased, and in a few years drove 

 him in iliagisuii from the city which he had lately raved. 



Bat we must return for awhile to his forensic exertions. While 

 the associates- in the crimes of Catiline were, for the most part, 

 prosecuted and driven into banishment, it pleased the party of the 

 senate to screen P. Bulls, whose guilt is generally asserted by the 

 historian* of the time*. Horteusius snd Cicero were his advocates, 

 and the support of the Utter is reported to have been bought by a 

 loan of money, which Cicero required for a purchase he was then 

 making of a house on the Palatine HilL. To see this in its true light, 

 it should be recollected that the receipt of a fee was at variance with 

 the avowed principles of the Roman bar. The anecdote stands upon 

 the authority of A. Gellius, which might hare been insufficient, were 

 it not indirectly yet decisively confirmed by more than one passage 

 in Cicero* letter*. In the following year Quintus Cicero, the brother 

 of the orator, was appointed to the government of the rich province 

 of Asia, at successor to L. Flaocus, who c.ime home with the usual 

 reputation for extortion, for wbich'he was called to account two years 

 after. This L. Klaccus had been the chief prater in the consulship of 

 Cicero, snd in that capacity had been of great service in the detection 

 of the conspiracy, so that he bod a certain claim upon Cicero, which was 

 not neglected. But this trial was preceded by one of the same nature 

 which more nearly concerned the orator.* C. Antonius, who had been bis 

 colleague in the consulship, was recalled from the province of Macedonia, 

 where be bad presided for two years, and had to defend himself against 

 aa impeachment for the groat rapacity of which he had been guilty. 

 This province bad originally fallen to the lot of Cicero, who took 

 credit on many oecasioos for bis disinterestedness in transferring the 

 lucrative appointment to his colleague. He omitted to state that there 

 wa* a e*crs* agreement between them, by which Antonius bound 

 himself to make a pecuniary return to Cicero ; and the extortion of 

 which tbeproconanl bad been gnilty was in part owing to this obli- 

 gation. The very day on which Antonius waa condemned wot marked 

 by an event still more fatal to the peace of Cicero the adoption of 

 Clodius, bis enemy, into a plebeian family. The object of this cere- 

 render 



mony was to 



Clodios eligible to the tribunate, from which, as 



a itrioian, he was excluded ; and DO sooner was the obstacle removed 

 than be offered himself a* a candidate, and waa elected without oppo- 

 sition. After some little manoeuvring, the cause and object of which 

 are not very ineligible, be mad* public advertisement of several new 

 laws, which were all aimed at the authority of the senate; and among 

 them waa one to the effect that whoever took the life of a citizen un- 

 onU*Bn*d and without a trial should be interdicted from fire and 

 waur. Although Cicero waa not named in this law, it waa to 

 evidently aimed at bun, that it was ncoeasary for him at once to 



We have essllttd a mjrtctlou. affair which occurred thla aame year, (s.c. 

 ). The (arts art UMM : Omt Vrttlua, only known to u. before thin aa an 

 - r efCleere-a la the CattUaarian btulneaa, sad a* baring cndrarourcd to 

 , la smstad aa a conspirator agalnat Ponpey'a 

 rs, Including M. Brutoa, aa hia 



aad la thrown lato Jan. The Best day, bring again brought oat by 

 if . be !*!** Loctillo. and deara la the charge. That aame night he In 

 lras*W4 la Jail. WaU* *MM dnland he had bren iuborne.1 and then mur.h i. ,| 

 by CMar, ethers banevsal tW chart** taad* by VHliu*, and attributed I.I. drat h 

 totka 



i4. TW aartaoriilM are Cte., ad Alt.,' 11. 34 ; ' I'm Kralio,' 6J ; 

 In Valla.,' 10; wt., 'JaLCBMt,' 17 aad 10) Plutarch, I.ociil.,' <J ; Applsn, 

 M. dvV ll.j ; ixo*., ;-! and *.. 



decide upon the course he would punue. Some recommended him to 

 resist the law by force, bat when he found that Pompey was unwilling 

 to support him, he took the advioa of his friends Cato and HorU-usiun, 

 which coincided with the views of AUicus, and leaving Uie field to his 

 adversaries, went into voluntary exile. Leaving Home towards the 

 end of March (ac. 68), be proceeded to Vibo with the intention of 

 crossing over into Sicily, but from this he was prohibited by the 

 governor, Virxiliun, although he waa of the same political party, and 

 was under obligations to Cicero. He received about the same time 

 information from Rome that a special law had been passed, which 

 forbade him to appear within a distance of four hundred miles. Under 

 these circumstances he changed his route, and proceeded fiwt to 

 Brundisium, where he was hospitably entertained for some week', in 

 defiance of the law. He then crossed over to Dyrrachium, where he 

 was received by Plancius, the qmtor of the province, and conducted 

 by him to Threat! nnirii The conduct of Cicero iu his exile was such 

 as might have been expected from one whose mind bad been so 

 extravngautly elated in prosperity. He gave l.iiu-rlf up entirely to 

 despondency; spoke of his best friends as enemies in disguise, not 

 cvi u sparing AtUcus and Cato ; and no completely lost the control 

 of his feelings and his conduct, that his mind was supposed to be 

 deranged. In the meantime, his friends at Rome, whose fidelity be 

 doubted, were actively engaged in taking measures for his recall. 

 Already on the 1st of June an unsuccessful motion wax made in the 

 senate to tbat effect. The election, too, of his friend L< ntulua 

 Spinther to the consulate, offered a brighter prospect for the ensuing 

 year, but iu the interval there occurred a littla incident which gave 

 him frenli uneasiness. Some of his enemies had published an onition, 

 which he had composed some years before in an angry moment, 

 against an eminent senator, and had shown privately to his intimate 

 friends. Its appearance at so untoward a moment alarmed Cicero, 

 who imagined tbat it bad been destroyed, and bo wrote to Atticus 

 requesting him to disavow it. " Fortunately," says he, *' I never had 

 any public dispute with him, and as the speech U not written with my 

 usual care, I think you may convince the world that it is a forgery." 



Towards the end of the year his residence at Thessalonica became 

 disagreeable to him, and indeed he thought dangerous. His enemy 

 Piso had been appointed governor of Macedonia, and the troops who 

 were to serve under him were already expected. Even before this, 

 some of the accomplices of Catiline, who were living in Macedonia as 

 exiles, had been plotting, it was said, against the life of Cicero. He 

 therefore found it safer to remove to Dyrrachium, where ho had 

 friends, although it fell within the distance prohibited by the law. 

 His residence upon this coast afforded an opportunity likewise for an 

 interview with Ms friend Atticus, who was in the habit of visiting a 

 favourite estate near Buthrotum. While Cicero was harassing him- 

 self with perpetual fears and suspicions, his cause was proceeding 

 prosperously at Rome. The tribunate of Clodius terminated in 

 December; the new tribunes were, almost without exception, 

 fri'-mlly to his recall ; and on the first day of the new year the new 

 consul Lentulus moved the senate for his restoration. His opponents 

 however were not yet driven from the field. The tribunitial veto was 

 employed more than once to check the proceedings. Scenes of riot 

 and bloodshed disgraced the streets of Rome. Yet at last, on the 

 25th of May, a decree in his favour passed tbe senate ; and on the 

 4th of August a law, in confirmation of the decree, was carried by 

 the people in the great meeting of the Centuries. Cicero, in anticipa- 

 tion of these measures, had embarked for Italy on the very day 

 the decree of the senate was passed, and landed tbe next day nt 

 Brundisium, where he was received by his daughter Tullia. The 

 inhabitants of the city were profuse in the honours they paid him, 

 and when the news, that tho law had passed the Centuries, summoned 

 him to Rome, the inhabitants of the cities through which ho pawed 

 flocked in crowds to congratulate him. 



Cicero's return wot, what he himself calls it, the beginning of a new 

 life to him. He hod been made to feel in what hands the weight of 

 power lay, and how dangerous it was to lean on tbe support of his 

 sristocratical friends. Pompey had served him on the late occasion of 

 his recall from exile, and had acted with the concurrence of Caear, so 

 that it wan a point of gratitude as well as prudence to be more observ- 

 ant of them than ho had hitherto been. To the former he took an 

 early opportunity of showing his gratitude by proposing tbat he should 

 be commissioned to provide for a better supply of corn at Rome, where 

 tbe unusual price of bread had already occasioned serious disturbances. 

 For this purpose he recommended that Pompey should be invested 

 with absolute power over all the public stores and corn-rents of the 

 empire for five years. Tho proposition was readily accepted, and a 

 vote passed that a law to that effect should be brought before the 

 people. This law was favourably received by all parties, and Pompey 

 named the proposer of tho law the first among his fifteen assistant 

 commissioners ; an appointment which the latter accepted, with the 

 stipulation tbat he should not be called away from Rome. Meanwhile, 

 although Cicero was restored to bis former dignity, there was a diffi- 

 culty in the restitution of his property. The chief delay was about 

 bis house on the Palatine Hill, which Clodius had contrived to 

 alienate, u he hoped, irretrievably, by demolishing tho building and 

 | dedicating a temple upon the ground to the goddess Liberty. The 

 senate therefore could only make a provisional decree, that If the 



