16 - Beacon Lights of History - Ancient Achievements by John Lord

In the third installment of the Beacon Lights of History series, Lord delves into the remarkable achievements of the ancient world, exploring pivotal developments in law, the fine arts, and science. He brings to life iconic figures such as Cicero and Cleopatra, revealing their enduring impact on history. Summary by KHand.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section sixteen of Beacon Lights of History, Volume three, Ancient
Achievements by John Lord. The LibriVox recording is in the
public domain recording by k Hand Cicero, Part one one
O six to forty three b c. Roman literature. Marcus

(00:21):
Tullius Cicero is one of the great lights of history
because his genius and influence were directed to the conservation
of what was most precious in civilization among the cultivated
nations of antiquity. He was not a warrior, like so
many of the Roman senators, but his excellence was higher
than that of a conqueror. He was doomed by his

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literary genius to an immortality, and was confessedly the most
prominent figure in the political history of his time, next
to Caesar and POMPEII. His influence was greater than his power,
reaching down to our time. And if his character had faults,
let us remember that he was stained by no crimes
and vices in an age of violence and wickedness. Until

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lately he has received almost unmixed praise. The fathers of
the Church revered him to Erasmus as well as to
Jerome and Augustine. He was an oracle in presenting this
immortal Bata factor. I have no novelties to show. Novelties
are for those who seek to upturn the verdicts of
past ages by offering something new rather than what is true.

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Cicero was born b. C. One o six in the
little suburban town of Arpinham, about fifty miles from Rome,
the town which produced Marius. The period of his birth
was one of marked national prosperity. Great military roads were built,
which were a marvel of engineering skill. Canals were dug,
sails whitened the sea. Commerce was prosperous. The arts of

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Greece were introduced, and its literature also Elegant. Villas lined
the shores of the Mediterranean. Pictures and statues were indefinitely
multiplied everything indicated in inc trees of wealth and culture.
With these triumphs of art and science in literature, we
are compelled to notice likewise a decline in morals. Money
had become the god which everybody worshiped. Religious life faded away.

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There was a general eclipse of faith, an Epicurean life
produced in Epicurean philosophy. Pleasure seeking was universal and even
revolting in the sports of the amphitheatre. Sensualism became the
convertible word for utilities. The Romans were thus rapidly advancing
to a materialistic millennium, an outward progress of wealth and industries,

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but an inward decline in those virtues on which the
strength of man is based, accompanied with seditions among the people,
luxury and pride among the nobles, and usurpations on the
part of successful generals. When Cicero began his memorable career,
he was well born, but not of noble ancestors. The
great peculiarity of his youth was his precocity. He was

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an intellectual prodigy, like Pitt, Macaulay and Mill. Like them,
he had a wonderful memory. He early mastered the Greek language.
He wrote poetry, studied under eminent professors, frequented the forum,
listened to the speeches of different orators, watched the posture
and gesture of actors, and plunged into the mazes of

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literature and philosophy. He was conscious of his marvelous gifts,
and was of course ambitious of distinction. There were only
three ways at Rome in which a man could rise
to eminence and power. One was by making money, like army,
contractors and merchants, such as the equits, to whose ranks
he belonged. The second was by military service, and the

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third by the law. An honorable profession. Like Caesar. A
few years younger than he, Cicero selected the law. But
he was a new man, not a patrician as Caesar was,
and had few powerful friends. Hence his progress was not
rapid in the way of clients. He was twenty five
years of age before he had a case. He was

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twenty seven when he defended Roschius, which seems to have
brought him into notice, even as the fortune of Erskine
was made in the Greenwich Hospital case and that of
Daniel Webster in the case of Dartmouth College. To have
defended Roschius against all the influence of Sulla, then the
most powerful man in Rome, was considered bold and audacious.

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His fame for great logical power rests on his defense
of Milo, the admiration of all lawyers. Cicero was not
naturally robust. His figure was tall and spare, his neck
long and slender, and his mouth anything but sensual. He
looked more like an elegant scholar than a popular public speaker.
Yet he was impetuous, ardent, and fiery, like Demosthenes, resorting

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to violent gesticulations. The health of such a young man
could not stand the strain on his nervous system, and
he was obliged to leave Rome for recreation. He therefore
made the tour of Greece and Asia Minor, which every
fashionable and cultivated man was supposed to do. Yet he
did not abandon himself to the pleasure of cities more
fascinating than Roman itself, but pursued his studies in rhetoric

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and philosophy under eminent masters, or professors, as we should
now call them. He remained abroad two years, returning when
he was thirty years of age and settling down in
his profession, taking at first but little part in politics.
He married Tarantea, with whom he lived happily for thirty years.

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But the Roman lawyer was essentially a politician, looking ultimately
to political office, since only through the great public offices
could he enter the Senate, the object of ambition to
all distinguished Romans, as a seat in Parliament is the
goal of an Englishman. The Roman lawyer did not receive
fees like modern lawyers, but derived his supports from presents

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and legacies when he became a political leader, a man
of influence with the great his presence were enormous. Cicero
acknowledged late in life to have received what would now
be equal to more than a million of dollars from
legacies alone. The great political leaders and orators were the
stipendiaries of Eastern princes and nobles, who wanted favors from

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the Senate, and who knew as well how to reward
such services as do the railway kings in our times.
Before Cicero then could be a senator, he must pass
through those great public offices which were in the gift
of the people. The first step on the ladder of
advancement was the office of quist, which entailed the duty

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of collecting revenues in one of the provinces. This office
he was sufficiently influential to secure being sent to Sicily,
where he distinguished himself for his activity and integrity. At
the end of a year, he renewed his practice in
the courts at Rome, being hardly anything more than a
mere lawyer for five years. When he was elected an edile,

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to whom the care of the public buildings was entrusted.
It was while he was dyle elect that Cicero appeared
as the public prosecutor of Verus. This was one of
the great cases of antiquity, and the one from which
the orator's public career fairly dates. His residence in Sicily
had prepared him for this duty, and he secured the

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conviction of this great criminal, whose peculations and corruptions would
amaze our modern New Yorkers and all the rings of
our great cities combined. But the Prayer of Sicily was
a provincial governor, more like Warren Hastings than Tweed. For
this public service, Cicero gained more ecclay than Burke did
for his prosecution of Hastings, since Hastings, though a corrupt man,

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laid after Clive the foundation of the English Empire in India,
and was a man of immense talents, greater than those
of any who has since filled his place. Hence the
nation screened Hastings. But Varies had no virtues and no
great abilities. He was an outrageous public robber, and hoped
from his wealth and powerful connections to purchase immunity for

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his crimes in the hands of such an order as Cicero,
he could not escape the penalty of the law. Powerful
as he was even at Rome. This case placed Cicero
above Hortensius, hitherto the leader of the Roman bar It
was at this period that the extant correspondence of Cicero began,
which is the best picture we have of the manners

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and habits of the Roman aristocracy at the time. History
could scarcely spare those famous letters, especially to Atticus, in
which also the private life and character of Cicero shine
to the most advantage, revealing no vices, no treacheries, only egotism,
vanity and vacillation, and a way that some have of
speaking about people in private, very differently from what they

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say in public, which looks like insincerity. In these letters,
Cicero appears as a very frank man, genial, hospitable, domestic
witty who cisce sciety and conversation must have been delightful.
In no modern correspondence do we see a higher perfection
in the polished courtesies and urbanities of social life, with

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the alloy of vanity, irony and discontent. But in these
letters he also evinces a friendship which is immortal, and
what is nobler than the capacity of friendship. In these
he not only shines as a cultivated scholar, but as
a great statesman and patriot, living for the good of
his country, though not unmindful of the luxuries of home,

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in the charms of country, retirement, and those enjoyments which
are ever associated with refined and favored life. We read
here of pictures, books, medals, statues, curiosities of every kind,
all of which adorned his various villas, as well as
his magnificent palace on Mount Palatine, which cost him what
would be equal in our money to two hundred and

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fifty thousand dollars to keep up this townhouse and some
fifteen villas in different parts of Italy, and to feast
the greatatest nobles like Pompey and Caesar would imply that
his income was enormous, much greater than that of any
modern professional man. And yet he seems to have lived,
like Bacon and our Webster, beyond his income, and was

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in debt the greater part of his life. Another flaw
in his character. For I do not wish to paint
him without faults, but only as a good as well
as a great man. For his times, his private character
was as lofty as that of Chatham or Canning, if
we could forget his vanity, which after all, is not
so offensive as the intellectual pride of Burke and Pitt,

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and of Sundry other great lights who might be mentioned,
conscious of their gifts and attainments. There is something very
different in the egotism of a silly and self seeking
aristocrat from that of a great benefactor, who has something
to be proud of, and with whose private experiences the
greatest national deeds are connected. I speak of this fault

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because it had been handled too severely by modern critics.
What were the faults of Cicero compared with those of
Theodosius or Constantine, to say nothing of his contemporaries like Caesar,
before whom so much incense has been burned. At the
age of forty, Cicero became Praterer or supreme judge. This office,
when it expired, entitled him to a provincial government, the

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great ultimate ambition of a senator, since the administration of
a province, even for a single year, usually secured an
enormous fortune. But this tempting offer he resigned, since he
felt he could not be spared from Rome in such
a crisis of public affairs, when the fortunate generals were
grasping for power and the demagogues were almost preparing the
way for despotism. Some might say he was a far

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sighted and ambitious statesman who could not afford to weaken
his chances of being made consul by absence from the capital.
This great office, the consulship, the highest in the gift
of the people, which gave supreme executive control, was rarely conferred,
although elective upon any but senators of ancient family and
enormous wealth. It was as difficult for a new man

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to reach this dignity under an aristocratic constitution as for
a commoner a hundred years ago to become Prime Minister
of England. Transcendent talents and services scarcely sufficed. Only generals
who had won great military fame or the highest of
the nobles stood much chance. For a lawyer to aim
at the highest office in the state without a great

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family to back him would have been deemed as audacious
as for a man such as Bourke to aspire to
a seat in the cabinet. During the reign of George
the Third, a lawyer at Rome like a lawyer in London,
might become a lord, chancellor or prader, but not easily
a prime minister. He would be defeated by aristocratic influence
and jealousies. Although the people had the right of election,

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they voted at the dictation of those who had money
and power. Yet Cicero obtained the consulship, probably with the
aid of senators, which he justly regarded as a great triumph.
It was a very unusual thing. It was more marvelous
than for a Jew to reign in Great Britain, or
like Mordecai in the court of a Persian king. The

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most distinguished service of Cicero as consul was to ferret
out the conspiracy of Cataline. Now this traitor belonged to
the very highest rank in a senate of nobles. He
was like an ancient duke in the British house of peers.
Was no easy thing for a plebeian consul to bring
it to justice. So great a culprit. He was more
formidable than Essex in the reign of Elizabeth, or Bason

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Pierre in the time of Richelieu. He was a man
of profligate life, but of marketability and boundless ambition. He
had a band of numerous and faithful followers, armed and desperate.
He was also one of those oily and aristocratic demagogues
who bewitched the people, not as in our times, by sophistries,
but by flatteries. He was as debouched as Mirabeau, but

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without his patriotism. Though like him he aimed to overturn
the Constitution by allying himself with the democracy the people
whom he despised. He gained by his money and promises,
and he had powerful confederates of his own rank, so
that he was on the point of deluging Rome with blood,
his aim being nothing less than the extermination of the
Senate and the magistrates by assassination and a general division

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of the public treasure with personal assumption of public power.
But all his schemes were foiled by Cicero, who added
unwearyingly activity to extraordinary penetration. For this great and signal service,
Cicero received the highest tribute the state could render. He
was called the savior of his country, and he succeeded
in staving off for a time the fall of his

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country's liberties. It was a mournful sight to him to
see the ascendancy, which demagogues had already gained, since it
betokened the approaching destruction of the Constitution, which good or bad,
was dear to him, and which, as an aristocrat, he
sought to conserve. Cicero's evil star was not Cataline, but Clodius,

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another aristocratic demagogue, whose crimes he exposed. Although he failed
to bring him to justice, Clodius was shielded by his
powerful connections, and he was besides a popular favorite as
well as a petted scion of one of the greatest families.
Clodius showed his hostility to Cicero and sought revenge by
artfully causing the people to pass or revive a law

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that whoever had inflicted capital punishment on a citizen without
a trial should be banished. This seemed to the people
to be a protection to their liberties. Now, Cicero, when consul,
had executed some of the conspirators associated with Cataline, for
which he was called the savior of his country. But
by the law which was now passed or revived by

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the influence of Clodius, Cicero was himself a culprit. And
it would seem that all the influence of the Senate
and his friends could not prevent his exile. He appealed
to his friend POMPEII, but Pompey turned a deaf ear,
and also to Caesar, but Caesar was then outside the
walls of the city in command of an army. In fact,
both these generals wished him out of the way, although

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they equally admired and feared him, for each of them
was bent on being the supreme ruler of Rome. So
it was permitted for the most illustrious patriot which Rome
then held, to go into exile. What a comment on
the demoralization of the times. He was the best, the
most gifted, and the most accomplished man of the republic,

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a man who had rendered invaluable and acknowledged services, that
man of consular dignity, and one of the leaders of
the Senate, sent into inglorious banishment on a mere technicality
and for an act which saved the state, and the
magnanimous Caesar and the illustrious Pompeii allowed him to go.

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Where was salvation to a republic which banished its savior
and for having saved it. The heart sickens over such
a fact. Although it occurred two thousand years ago, when
the citizens of Rome saw that great man depart mournfully
from among them and to all appearance forever, for having
rescued them from violence and slaughter, and by their own act,

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they ought to have known that the days of the
republic were numbered. But this only a few far seeing
patriots felt. And not only was Cicero banished, but his
palace was burned and his villas confiscated. He was not
only disgraced, but ruined. He was an exile and a pauper.
What a fall, What an unmerited treatment? Very few people

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conceive what a dreadful punishment it was in Greece and
Rome to be banished, or, as the formula went, to
be interdicted from fire and water, the sacred fire of
the hearth, the lustrial water, which served for sacrifices. The
exile was deprived of these by being forced to extinguish
the hearth fire, the elemental fundamental religion of a Greek

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and Roman. He could not deprived of this hold property.
Having no longer a worship, he had no longer a family.
He ceased to be a husband and father. His sons
were no longer in his power. His wife was no
longer his wife, and when he died he had not
the right to be buried in the tombs of his ancestors.
Is it to be wondered that even so good and

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great a man as Cicero should bitterly feel his disgrace
and misfortunes. Is it surprising that philosopher, as he was
he should have given way to grief and despondency. He
would have been more than human not to have lost
his spirits and his hopes. How natural were grief and
despair in such complicated miseries, especially to a religious man.

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Chrysostom could support his exile with dignity, for Christianity had
abolished the superstitions of Greece and Rome. As to household gods,
Cicero could not. He was not great enough for such
a martyrdom. It is true we should have esteemed him
higher had he accepted his fate with resignation. No man
should yield to despair. Had he been as old as Socrates,

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and had he accomplished his mission, possibly he would have
shown more equanimity. But his work was not yet done.
He was cut off in his prime and in the
midst of usefulness, from his home, his religion, his family,
his honor, and his influence. He was utterly ruined. I
think the critics make too much of the grief and
misery of Cicero in his banishment. We may be disappointed

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that Cicero was not equal to his circumstances, but we
need not be hard on him. My surprise is not
that he was overwhelmed with grief, but that he did
not attempt to drown his grief in books and literature.
His sole relief was in pathetic and unmanly letters. The
great injustice of this punishment naturally produced a reaction. Nor

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could the Romans afford to lose the services of their
greatest orator. They also craved the excitement of his speeches,
more thrilling and delightful than the performance of any actor,
so he was recalled. Cicero ought to have anticipated this.
It seems, however, he had that unfortunate temperament which favors
alternate depression and exhilaration of spirits without measure or reason.

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His return was a triumph, a grand ovation, an unbounded
tribute to his vanity. His palace was rebuilt at the
expense of the state, and his property was restored his
popularity was regained. In fact, his influence was never lost,
and because it was so great, his enemies wished him
out of the way. He was one of the few
to retain influence after they have lost power. The excess

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of his joy on his restoration to home and friends
and property and fame and position was as great as
the excess of his grief in his short exile. But
this is a defect in temperament, in his mental constitution,
rather than a flaw in his character. We could have
wished more placidity and equanimity. But to condemn him because
he was not great in everything is unjust. End of

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Section sixteen.