Jio 



CICERO, MAKCUS TULLIUS. 



CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS. 



246 



friends. On the other hand, should the Pompeiana ultimately succeed 

 (and they were already talking confidently of coming over from Africa 

 into Italy), he was sure to be treated as a deserter, for he well knew 

 that while Cffisar pardoned even his enemies when they 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. After a long series of 

 mortifications, he was cheered at last by a kind letter from Csesar him- 

 self, and still more when Caesar landed at Brundisium after his success- 

 ful expeditions in the east, and gave him a reception which at once 

 removed his fears and induced him to follow the conqueror to Rome. 

 About the end of the year Caesar embarked for Africa, and again the 

 empire was in suspense; for the name of Scipio was thought ominous 

 and invincible on that ground. Cicero, to relieve his mind, now shut 

 himself up with his books, and entered into a close friendship with 

 Varro ; a friendship which was consecrated by the mutual dedication 

 of their learned works to each other of Cicero's 'Academic Questions' 

 to Varro, of Varro's ' Treatise on the Latin Language" to Cicero. One 

 of the fruits of this leisure was his dialogue on famous orators, called 

 ' Brutus," in which he gives a short character of the chief orators of 

 Greece and Rome. But though the work was finished at this time, it 

 was not made public till the year following after the death of his 

 daughter Tullia. 



He now parted with his wife Terentia, who had lived with him 

 more than thirty years ; and whatever may have been the causes or 

 pretexts for this separation, he exposed himself to no little suspicion 

 l.y marrying, almost immediately after, a youn ward named Publilia, 

 poesewmig much beauty and very considerable property, over which 

 he Lii'l been placed as trustee by her father's will. Terentia subse- 

 quently married Sallust, the historian, and even after his death again 

 '1 the marriage state once, if not twice. She is said to have 

 lived to the age of 103. Amid these domestic troubles, Cicero 

 perhaps found gome consolation in the marked attention paid to him 

 by Cseoar, who returned victorious from Africa in the summer of 

 11.0. 46 ; hut any gratification he may have derived from this source 

 must have been diminished by his consciousness of the offence he was 

 giving to hjs former friends through his close intimacy with the dic- 

 tator. The panegjric which he composed about this time in honour 

 of Cato has indeed often been alleged as a proof of his being no 

 teinporiser; but if the treatise had come down to us, we should pro- 

 bably have found that Cicero had succeeded moat happily in blending 

 his eloge upon the conquered with a well-tempered flattery of the 

 conqueror. That he possessed this happy and useful talent is apparent 

 I'pitn the speech he delivered at this time in favour of Ligarius, and 

 the defence of Marcellus might be put in evidence to the game effect, 

 if there were not strong grounds for doubting the authenticity of the 

 oration bearing that name. At the end of the year Caesar was called 

 away in great haste into Spain to oppose the sous of Pompey ; and 

 youug Cicero requested his father's permission to go to Spain, that he 

 might serve under Caesar with his cousin Quintus, who was already 

 gone thither. Cicero objected to his serving in arms against their 

 former friends, and thought it more desirable that he should go to 

 Athens to devote a few years to philosophy and literature. Soon after 

 he had parted from his son, whom he was doomed never again to see, 

 he was oppressed by the severest affliction, the death of his daughter 

 in child-bed. Tullia had been thrice married ; first to Piso, who died 

 about the time of Cicero's return from exile, and than to Crassipes. 

 For her third marriage with Dolabella both parties qualified them- 

 selves by a divorce from their consorts ; and at the time of her death 

 arrangements for another divorce had been carried so far that her 

 father was already applying for payment of an instalment upon her 

 dowry. 



In this new grief Cicero drew little comfort from the condolence of 

 his friends. All the relief that he found was in reading and writing, 

 mid he composed a treatise 'Of Consolation' for himself, which was 

 much read by the fathers of the Christian Church, especially Lac- 

 tantius, to whom we are indebted for the few fragments that remain. 

 His domestic grief was completed by the misery of his ill-assorted 

 marriage which he was happy to dissolve after a union of less than a 

 year. In this desolate condition he fled as usual to bis book", and no 

 period of his life produced a richer literary harvest. He has himself 

 given us a list of the works which he wrote in this and the following 

 year. ('De Div.,' ii , 1.) The 'Orator' completed his rhetorical 

 works, forming a sort of supplement to his three books entitled ' De 

 Oratore,' and the ' Brutus." His philosophical writings of this period 

 were, the ' Hortenaiug,' so called in honour of his deceased friend, in 

 which he recommends the study of philosophy ; four books hi 

 defence of the Academy, dedicated, as has been already mentioned, to 

 Varro; five books entitled 'De Finibus,' and addressed to Brutus, in 

 which he contrasts the opinions of the different sects of philosophy 

 on the subject of the snmmum bonum ; the Tusculau disputations, 

 in the same number of books, on a variety of points which involve 

 the happiness of human life ; three books on the Nature of the Gods ; 

 one on Divination, or the art of seeing into futurity; another on Fate ; 

 anrl the beautiful treatise on Old Age. These were followed by on 

 essay on Olory, which has been lost since the invention of printing; 

 the ' Topica,' addressed to his friend Trebatius ; and the ' De Officiis,' 

 which was dedicated to his son. 



The publication of these works extended over the years 45 and 44 



B.C. In the autumn of the former of these years Caasar returned 

 from Spain, and Cicero was induced to quit his retirement and come 

 to Rome, where he soon after exerted his talents in the service of an 

 old friend, Deiotarus, king of Galatia, who had incurred the displeasure 

 of Cojsar by his firm support of the Pompeians, and indeed was 

 charged with having formed a plot to assassinate Caesar a few years 

 before. Cicero failed in obtaining pardon for his friend ; but his 

 intimacy with the Dictator seemed daily to be increasing, when the 

 Ides of March changed the whole face of affairs. Cicero was present 

 at the scene of assassination in the senate-house, where he hud the 

 pleasure, he tells us, of seeing the tyrant perish ; but the conspirators 

 were grievously disappointed in the results of their crime. As soon 

 as the first stupor had passed away, the public indignation drove the 

 murderers from Rome, and Cicero himself deemed it prudent to make 

 a temporary retreat. He proceeded first to Rhegium, then crossing to 

 Sicily, on the 1st of August he arrived at Syracuse, whence he sailed 

 next day, and was driven back by cross winds to Leucopetra. Here 

 he met with some people lately from Rome, who brought him news of 

 an unexpected turn of affairs there towards a general pacification, so 

 that he was induced to set out immediately on his return. He touched 

 at Velia, where he had his last interview with Brutus, and arrived at 

 the capital on the 31st. The senate mot the next morning, but 

 Cicero, not finding things in the favourable state which he expected, 

 was unwilling to meet Antony, and excused himself from attending, 

 as being indisposed by the fatigue of his journey. The next day 

 Antony was absent, and Cicero delivered the first of those orations 

 which he called Philippics, as being rivals of the invectives which 

 Demosthenes directed against the King of Macedon. The violence of 

 this harangue committed him with Antony, and he again retired for 

 security to some of his villas near Naples, where he composed and 

 published the second Philippic. This speech, if that name can be 

 given to what was never spoken, was a furious invective, well charged 

 with falsehood, against the whole life of Antony, and was supposed 

 to have been the chief cause of Cicero's death. The departure of 

 Antony for Cisalpine Gaul left Rome again open to Cicero, who 

 returned there on the 9th of December, and ten days after delivered 

 his third Philippic, the chief object of which was to procure the 

 sanction of the senate to the late proceedings of Octavianus in oppo- 

 sition to Antony. Having effected this object, he passed into the 

 forum and harangued the people upon the same subject in his fourth 

 Philippic. The ten other speeches bearing this name were delivered 

 from time to time in the senate or the forum, to excite the people of 

 Rome against Antony and his friends; but the prospects of the 

 oligarchy were finally disappointed by the treachery of Octavianug 

 and Lepidus in joining their arms to Antony, and thus sharing the 

 whole power of the state among them. The proscription which 

 followed, though it can in no way be justified, was levelled against 

 men who had been themselves assassins, or the avowed advocates and 

 panegyrists of assassination. Cicero himself had lauded the murderers 

 of Caesar as the greatest benefactors of their country ; nay, it is 

 doubtful whether he wag not himself privy to the conspiracy, though 

 he may have wanted the courage to use the dagger himself ; and after- 

 wards wheii he found Antony in his way, he repeatedly expressed 

 his regret that the conspirators had not served up one more dish at 

 the glorious feast of the Ides of March. Cicero was at his Tusculan 

 villa with his brother and nephew when he received the news of the 

 proscription, and of their being included in it. He fled to Astura on 

 the coast, where he found a vessel ready to receive him, iu which he 

 immediately embarked, but was compelled by the weather to land 

 again the game day near Circeii. The following day he embarked a 

 second time, but again landed at Caieta, whence he proceeded to his 

 Formian villa. In the middle of the night his slaves informed him 

 of the approach of the soldiers who were intrusted with the murderous 

 commission ; he made an attempt to escape in a litter, but being over- 

 taken in a wood, the scene was speedily finished. The assassins cut 

 off his head and hands, gays Plutarch, and carrying them to Kome, 

 presented them to Antony, who had them fixed up on the rostra in 

 the forum. Cicero was killed on the 7th of December, in the year 

 B.o. 43. 



The works of Cicero have been repeatedly published in mass, as 

 well as separately, but perhaps the best edition of his entire writings 

 is that by Orellius. Of his separate works the following editions 

 deserve particular notice. The ' Variorum,' as it is called, by Graovius, 

 containing the Orations, the Letters ad Kamiliares and ad Atticum, 

 with one volume of his Philosophical Works. The notes of Manu- 

 tius are exceedingly valuable. 2, ' De Divinatione et de Fato,' G. H. 

 Moger; 3, 'De Legibus," Moser et Creuzer; 4, 'De Natura Deorum," 

 by the same; 5, Ditto, by Heindorf; 6, ' De Republica,' by Moser; 7, 

 'Oratio pro Cluentio,' by Classen; 8, 'Pro Milone,' by Orellius, 1826; 

 9, ' Pro" Plancio,' by Wunder ; 10, ' Orationes Philippic*,' by Werns- 

 dorff ; 11, ' The Orations," by Garatoni, at Naples ; and the ' Orations,' 

 3 vola. 8vo, and ' Cato Major sive de Seuectute, Loclius sive de Arni- 

 citia, et Epistolao Seleetao,' by Mr. G. Long. To those who value a 

 correct text, Wunder's Collation of the Erfurdt Manuscript, published 

 at Leipzig in 1827, will be of great service. The critical writings of 

 Madvig of Copenhagen are also deserving of study, together with his 

 excellent 'Disputation on Asconius.' Mention has been made of the 

 doubts as to the genuineness of certain of the Orations. F. A . Wolf has 



