MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 213 



points of character, which redeem the weaknesses of his political 

 conduct ; for, hearing that Ca?sar had retorted on Quintus the charge 

 which the latter had brought against himself, he wrote a pressing 

 letter in his favour, declaring his brother's safety was not less precious 

 to him than his own, and representing him not as the leader, but as 

 the companion of his voyage. 1 



Now too the state of his private affairs reduced him to great per- Private 

 plexity ; the sum he had advanced to Pompey had impoverished him, ^^ rass " 

 and he was forced to stand indebted to Atticus for present assistance. 2 

 These difficulties led him to take a step which it has been customary 

 to regard with great severity the divorce of his wife Terentia, Divorces 

 though he was then in his sixty-second year, and his marriage with Terentia, and 

 his rich ward Publilia, who was of an age disproportionate to his Pubuiia. 

 own. 3 Yet, in reviewing this proceeding, we must not adopt the 

 modern standard of propriety, forgetful of a condition of society which 

 reconciled actions even of moral turpitude with a reputation for honour 

 and virtue. Terentia was a woman of a most imperious and violent 

 temper, and (what is more to the purpose) had in no slight degree 

 contributed to his present embarrassments by her extravagance in the 

 management of his private affairs. 4 By her he had two children, a His children, 

 son, born the year before his consulate, and a daughter whose loss he 

 was now fated to experience. To Tullia he was tenderly attached, nrief at the 

 not only from the excellence of her disposition, but from her love of u^Tos! 111 *' 

 polite literature; and her death tore from him, as he so pathetically A.C. 46. 

 laments to Sulpicius, the only comforts which the course of public 

 events had left him. 5 At first he was inconsolable ; and, retiring to 

 a little island near his estate at Antium, buried himself in the woods, secedes from 

 to avoid the sight of man. 6 His distress was increased by the un- P ublic life - 

 feeling conduct of Publilia ; whom he soon divorced for testifying joy Divorces 

 at the death of her step-daughter. On this occasion he wrote his * >ublllia - 

 Treatise on Consolation, with a view to alleviate his mental sufferings ; 

 and, with the same object, he determined on dedicating a temple to 

 his daughter as a memorial of her virtues and his affection. His 

 friends were assiduous in their attentions ; and Caesar, who had treated 

 him with extreme kindness on his return from Egypt, signified the 

 respect he bore his character, by sending him a letter of condolence 

 from Spain, 7 where the remains of the Pompeian party still engaged 

 him. Caesar had shortly before given a still stronger proof of his 

 favour, by replying to a work which Cicero had drawn up in praise 

 of Cato ; 8 but no attentions, however considerate, could soften Cicero's 

 vexation at seeing the country he had formerly saved by his exertions, 

 now subjected to the tyranny of one master. His speeches, indeed, 

 for Marcellus and Ligarius, exhibit traces of inconsistency; but for 



1 Ad Atticum, xi. 8, 9, 10 and 12. 2 Ibid. xi. 13. 



3 Ad Fam. iv. 14 ; Middleton, vol. ii. p. 149. 4 Ibid. 



5 Ad Fam. iv. 6. 6 Ad Atticum, xii. 15, &c. 



7 Ibid. xiii. 20. 8 Ibid. xii. 40 and 41. 



