July 26, 2025 • 42 mins
Dive into the captivating life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, an influential orator, statesman, philosopher, and correspondent who emerged as a new man in the chaotic final years of Romes republican government. In this biography, acclaimed novelist Anthony Trollope delivers a passionate defense of Ciceros virtues against critics who question his political and personal strength. Trollopes personal approach offers a unique glimpse into his own thought process and era, as well as those of Cicero. Volume I explores Ciceros formative years, his ascension through the courts and state offices to the Consulship, and his subsequent exile. This version omits footnotes and appendices, which mostly consist of bibliographical citations, Latin quotations, and substantial extracts from other works, unless they are explicitly referred to in the main text. Catch up with Volume II after this.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter seven of the Life of Cicero, Volume one. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by Philippa Jevons. The Life of Cicero,
Volume one by Anthony Trollop, Chapter seven Cicero as Edyle
(00:21):
and Pritor side note BC sixty nine eight at thirty eight.
The year after the trial of Berries was that of
Cicero's edyleship. We know but little of him in the
performance of the duties of this office, but we may
gather that he performed them to the satisfaction of the people.
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He did not spend much money for their amusements, although
it was the custom of edyles to ruin themselves in
seeking popularity after this fashion. And yet when two years
afterwards he solicited the pritorship from the people, he was
three times elected as first pritor in all the committee,
three separate elections, having been rendered necessary by certain irregularities
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and factious difficulties to all the offices one after another.
He was elected in his first year, the first year
possible in accordance with his age and was elected first
in honor, the first as prit or, and then the
first as consul. This, no doubt, was partly due to
his compliance with those rules for canvassing, which his brother
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Quintus is said to have drawn out, and which I
have quoted. But it proves also the trust which was
felt in him by the people. The candidates, for the
most part, were the candidates for the aristocracy. They were
put forward with the idea that thus might the aristocratic
rule of Rome be best maintained. Their elections were carried
on by bribery, and the people were for the most
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part indifferent to the preceding, whether it might be a Eries,
or an Antony or a Hortensius. They took the money
that was going, they allowed themselves to be delighted with
the games, and they did as they were bid. But
every now and then there came up a name which
stirred them, and they went to the voting pens or
villiers with a purpose of their own. When such a
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candidate came forward, he was sure to be first. Such
had been Marius, and such had been the Great Pompey,
and such was Cicero. The two former were men successful
in war, who gained the voices of the people by
their victories. Cicero gained them by what he did inside
the city. He could afford not to run into debt
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and ruin himself during his edelship, as had been common
with Edyles, because he was able to achieve his popularity.
In another way, it was the chief duty of the
ediles to look after the town generally, to see to
the temples of the gods, to take care that houses
did not tumble down, to look to the cleansing of
the streets, and to the supply of water the markets
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were under them, and the police, and the recurrent festivals.
An active man with common sense, such as was Cicero,
no doubt did his duty as edyle well. He kept
up his practice as an advocate during his years of office.
We have left to usk the part of one speech
and the whole of another spoken during this period. The
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former was in favor of Fonteus, whom the Gauls prosecuted
for plundering them as proprietal, and the latter is a
civil case on behalf of Caiquina, addressed to the recuperatures,
as had been that for Marcus Tullius. The speech for
Fonteus is remarkable as being as hard against the provincial
Gauls as his speech against fairies had been favorable to
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the Sicilians. But the Gauls were Barbarians, whereas the Sicilians
were Greeks. And it should be always remembered that Cicero
spoke as an advocate, and that the praise and censure
of an advocate require to be taken with many grains
of salt. Nothing that these wretched Gauls could say against
a Roman citizen ought to be accepted in evidence. All
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the Romans, he says, who have been in the province
wish well to Fontaeus. Would you write, believe these Gauls
led by what feeling by the opinion of men? Is
the opinion then of your enemies of greater weight than
that of your fellow citizens? Or is it the greater
credibility of the witnesses? Would you prefer, then, unknown men
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to known, dishonest men, to honest foreigners, to your own countrymen,
greedy men, to those who come before you for nothing,
men of no religion, to those who fear the gods,
those who hate the Empire and the name of Rome,
to allies and citizens who are good and faithful In
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every word of this. He begs the question so as
to convince us that his own case was weak, And
when he makes a final appeal to the pity of
the judges, we are sure that Fantaeus was guilty. He
tells the judges that the poor mother of the accused
man has no other support than this son, and that
there is a sister, one of the virgins, devoted to
the service of Vesta, who, being of the virgin, cannot
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have sons of her own, and is therefore entitled to
have her brother preserved for her. When we read such
arguments as these, we are sure that Fanteus had misused
the gauls. We believe that he was acquitted, because we
are told that he bought a house in Rome soon afterward,
but we feel that he escaped by the too great
influence of his advocate. We are driven to doubt whether
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the power over words, which may be achieved by a
man by means of natural gifts, practice, and erudition, may
not do evil instead of good. A man with such
a tongue as that of Cicero will make the listener
believe almost whatever he will, and the advocate is restrained
by no horror of falsehood. In his profession alone, it
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is considered honorable to be a bulwark to deception and
to make the worse appear the better cause. Cicero did
so when the occasion seemed to him to require it,
and has been accused of hypocrisy and consequence. There is
a passage in one of the Dialogues de Oratore which
has been continually quoted against him because the word phibbs
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has been used with approval. The orator is told how
it may become him to garnish his good story with
little white lies mendakiunkulis. The advice does not indeed refer
to facts, or to evidence, or to arguments. It goes
no farther than to suggest that amount of exaggeration which
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is used by every teller of a good story in
order that the story may be good. Such men dakiunkula
are in the mouth of every diner out in London,
and we may pity the dinner parties at which they
are not used. Reference is made to them now, because
the use of the word by Cicero, having been misunderstood
by some who have treated his name with severity, has
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been brought forward in proof of his falsehood. You shall
tell a story about a very little man, and say
that he is only thirty six inches. You know very
well that he is more four feet high. That will
be a mendacunculum. According to Cicero, the phrase has been
passed on from one enemy to another, till the little
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FIBs of Cicero's recommending have been supposed to be direct
lies suggested by him to all advocates, and therefore continually
used by him as an advocate. They have been only
the garnishing of his drolleries. As an advocate. He was
about as false and about as true as an advocate
of our own day. That he was not paid, and
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that our English barristers are paid for the work they do,
makes I think no difference either in the innocency or
the falseness of the practice. I cannot but believe that
hereafter an improved tone of general feeling will forbid a
man of honor to use arguments which he thinks to
be untrue, or to make others believe that which he
does not believe himself. Such is not the state of
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things now in London, nor was it at Rome in
Cicero's time, there are touches of eloquence in the plea
for Fonteus, but the reader will probably agree with me
that the orator was well aware that the late governor,
who was on his trial, had misused those unfortunate gauls.
In the year following that of Ciro's edelship were written
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the first of his epistles which have come to us.
He was then not yet thirty nine years old BC.
Sixty eight, and during that year and the next seven
were written eleven letters, all to Atticus. Those to his
other friends, ad familiarees, as we have been accustomed to
call them, ad diversos as they are commonly called, now
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began only with the close of his consular year. How
it has come to pass that there have been preserved
only those which were written after a period of life
at which most men cease to be free correspondents, cannot
be said with certainty. It has probably been occasioned by
the fact that he caused his letters to be preserved
as soon as he himself pass deceived. How great would
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be their value? Of the nature of their value, it
is hardly possible to speak too highly. I am not prepared, indeed,
to agree with the often quoted assertion of Cornelius Nepos
that he who has read his letters to Atticus will
not lack much of the history of those days. A
man who should have read them and nothing else, even
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in the days of Augustus, would not have learned much
of the preceding age. But if not for the purpose
of history, the letters generally have, if read aright, been
all but enough for the purpose of biography with a
view to the understanding of the man's character. They have,
I think been enough from them. Such a flood of
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light has been turned upon the writer, that all his nobility,
and all his defects, all his aspirations, and all his
vacillations have been made visible. We know how human he was,
and how to he was only human, how he sighed
for great events and allowed him to think sometimes that
they could be accomplished by small maneuvers, How like a
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man he could be proud of his work and boast,
how like a man he could despair and almost die.
But I wish it to be acknowledged by those who
read his letters, in order that they may also read
his character, that they were, when written private letters, intended
to tell the truth, and that if they are to
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be believed in reference to his weaknesses. They are also
to be believed in reference to his strength. If they
are singularly transparent as to the man, opening, especially to Atticus,
the doors of his soul more completely than would even
any girl of the nineteenth century when writing to her
bosom friend. They must be taken as being more honestly true.
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To regard the aspirations as hypocritical, and only the meaner
efusions of his mind as emblematic of the true man
is both unreasonable and uncharitable. Nor I think will reader
grasp the way to see the truth who cannot teach himself.
What has in Cicero's case been the effect of daring
to tell to his friend an unvarnished tale. When with
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us some poor thought does make its way across our minds,
we did not sit down and write it to another.
Nor if we did, would an immortality be awarded to
the letter. If one of us were to lose his all,
as Cicero lost his all when he was sent into exile,
I think it might well be that he should for
a time be unmanned. But he would either not write,
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or in writing, would hide much of his feelings on
losing his tullia. Some father of to day would keep
it all in his heart, would not mournder out his sorrows.
Even with our truest love for our friends, some fear
is mingled which forbids the use of open words. Whether
this be for good or evil, I will not say,
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but it is so. Cicero, whether he did or did
not know that his letters would live, was impeded by
no such fear. He said everything that there was within him,
being in this, I should say, quite as unlike to
other romans of the day as he was to ourselves.
In the collection as it has come to us, there
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are about fifty letters not from Cicero, written to Cicero
by his brother, by Decimus Brutus, by Plancus, and others.
It will, I think, be admitted that their tone is
quite different from that used by himself. There are none, indeed,
from Atticus, none written under terms of such easy friendship
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as prevailed when many were written by Cicero himself. It
will probably be acknowledged that his manner of throwing himself
open to his correspondent was peculiar to him. If this
be so, he should surely have the advantage, as well
as the disadvantage of his own mode of utterance. The
reader who allows himself to think that the true character
of the man is to be read in the little
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sly things he said said to Atticus, but that the
nobler ideas were merely put forth to cajole the public,
is as unfair to himself as he is to Cicero.
In reading the entire correspondence the letters from Cicero, either
to Atticus or to others, it has to be remembered
that in the ordinary arrangement of them made by Grivius,
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they are often incorrectly placed in regard to chronology. In
subsequent times, efforts have been made to restore them to
their proposition, and so they should be read. The letters
to Atticus and those ad diversos have generally been published
separately for the ordinary purpose of literary pleasure. They may
perhaps be best read that way. The tone of them
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is different. The great bulk of the correspondence is political
or quasi political. The manner is much more familiar, much
less severe, though not on that account indicating less seriousness
in those written to Atticus than in the others. With
one or two signal exceptions, those to Atticus are better
worth reading. The character of the writer may perhaps be
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best gathered from divided perusal, but for a general understanding
of the facts of Cicero's life, the whole correspondence should
be taken as it was written. It has been published
in this shape as well as in the other, and
will be used in this shape in my effort to
portray the life of him who wrote them. Side note
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BC sixty eight it at thirty nine. We have three
letters written when he was thirty eight, in the year
after his edelship. In the first, he tells his friend
of the death of his cousin Lucius Cicero, who had
traveled with him into Sicily, and alludes to the disagreements
which had taken place between Pomponia, the sister of Atticus,
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and her husband Quintus Cicero. Our Cicero's brother, Marcus. In
all that he says of his brother, makes the best
of him. That Quintus was a scholar and a man
of parts. There can be no doubt out one too,
who rose to high office in the republic. But he
was arrogant of harsh temper, cruel to those dependent on him,
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and altogether unimbued with the humanity, which was the peculiar
characteristic of his brother when I found him to be
in the wrong, says Cicero in his first letter, I
wrote to him as a brother whom I loved, but
as to one younger than myself, and whom I was
bound to tell of his fault. As is usual with correspondence,
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half the letter is taken up with excuses for not
writing sooner. Then he gives commissions for the purchase of
statues for his Tusculan villa, of which we now hear
for the first time, and tells his friend how his
wife Terentia sends her love, though she is suffering from
the gout. Tullia, also, the dear little Tullia deliciai nostra,
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sends her love. In the next he says how a
certain house which Atticus has intended to purchase, had been
secured by Pontaeus for one hundred and thirty thousand sesterces
something over a thousand pounds, taking the sesterce at tuppence. This,
no doubt, was part of the plunder which Fonteus had
taken from the gauls Quintus is getting on better with
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his wife then he tells his friend very abruptly, that
his father died that year on the eighth day before
the Canons of December, on the twenty fourth of November.
Some question as to the date of the old man's
death had probably been asked. He gives further commissions as
to statues, and declares of his tusculan villa that he
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is happy only when he is there. In the third letter,
he promises that he will be ready to pay one
kinkius one hundred and seventy pounds on a certain day
the price probably of more statues, and gives orders to
his friend as to the buying of books. All my
prospect of enjoying myself at my ease depends on your goodness.
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These were the letters he wrote when he had just
ceased to be edyle. From the next two years five
letters remain to us, chiefly noticeable from the continued commissions
given by Cicero to Atticus for statues. Statues and more
statues are wanted as ornaments for his Tusculanum. Should there
be more than are needed for that villa, he will
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begin to decorate another that he has, the Formianum near Kayata.
He wants whatever Atticus may think proper for his palaestra
and gymnasium. Atticus has a library or collection of maps
for sale, and Cico engages to buy them, though it
seems that he has not at present quite got the
money he reserves. He says all his little comings in
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windemiolas what he might make by selling his grapes, as
a lady in the country might get a little income
from her spare butter, in order that he may have
books as a resource for his old age. Again, he
bids Atticus not to be afraid, but what he Cicero
will be able to buy them some day, which if
he can do, he will be richer than Crassus, and
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will envy no one his mansions or his lawns. He
also declares that he has betrothed Tullia, then ten years old,
to Caius Piso, son of Lucius Piso Frugi. The proposed marriage,
which after three years of betrothal, was duly solemnized, was
considered to be in all respects desirable. Cicero thought very
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highly of his son in law, who was related to
Calpurnius Piso, one of the consuls of that year, so far,
everything was going well with our orator side note BC
sixty seven eight. At forty he was then candidate for
the Pritor ship, and was elected first. As has been
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already said, it was in that year too that a
law was passed in Rome, at the instance of one Gabinius,
a tribune, authorizing Pompey to exterminate the pirates in the Mediterranean,
and giving him almost unlimited power for this object. Pompey
was not indeed named in this law. A single general,
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one who had been consul, was to be approved by
the Senate, with exclusive command by sea and for fifty
miles on shore. He was to select as his own
officers a hitherto unheard of number, all of senatorial rank.
It was well understood when the law was worded that
Pompey alone could fill the place. The Senate opposed the
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scheme with all its power, although seven years before it
had acknowledged the necessity of some measure for extirpating the pirates.
But jealousies prevailed and the Senate was afraid of Pompey. Gabinius, however,
carried his law by the votes of the people, and
Pompey was appointed. Nothing tells us more clearly the wretched
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condition of things in Rome at this time than this
infliction of pirates, under which their commerce was almost destroyed.
Sulla had re established the outside show of a strong government,
a government which was strong enough to enable rich men
to live secure surely in Rome, but he had done
nothing to consolidate the empire. Even Lycullus in the east
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had only partially succeeded, leaving Mithridates still to be dealt
with by Pompey. Of what nature was the government of
the provinces under Sullah's aristocracy? We learn from the trials
of Erries, and of Pontaeus and of Cataline the Mediterraneans
swarmed with pirates, who taught themselves to think that they
had nothing to fear from the hands of the Romans.
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Plutarch declares to us no doubt with fair accuracy, because
the description has been admitted by subsequent writers. How great
was the horror of these depredations. It is marvelous to
us now that this should have been allowed, marvelous that
pirates should reach such a pitch of importance, that Erries
had found it worth his while to sacrifice Roman citizens
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in their place Pompey went forth with his officers, his fleets,
and his money, and cleared the Mediterranean in forty day.
As Plutarch says, Floras tells us that not a ship
was lost by the Romans, and not a pirate left
on the seas. In the history of Rome. At this
time we find men of Mark whose characters, as we read,
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become clear to us, or appear to become clear. Of
Marius and of Sullah, we have a defined idea. Caesar,
with his imperturbable courage, absence of scruples, and assurance of success,
comes home to us. Cicero, I think we certainly may
understand Cataline, Cato, Antony, and Brutus have left their portraits
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with us. Of Pompey, I must acknowledge for myself that
I have but a vague conception his wonderful successes seem
to have been produced by so very little power of
his own. He was not determined and venomous, as was Marius,
not cold blooded and ruthless as was Sullah. Certainly not confident,
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as was Caesar, not humane, as was Cicero, not passionate,
as Catiline not stoic, as was Cato not reckless as
was Antony, nor wedded to the idea of an oligarchy,
as was Brutus. Success came in his way, and he
found it, found it again and again, till fortune seemed
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to have adopted him. Success lifted him higher and higher,
till at last it seemed to him that he must
be a suller, whether he would or no. But he
could not endure the idea of a rival. Sullah I
doubt whether ambition would have prompted him to fight for
the empire of the Republic. Had he not perceived that
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that empire would fall into Caesar's hands, did he not
grasp it himself, it would have satisfied him to let
things go. While the citizens called him magnus and regarded
him as the man who could do a great thing
if he would, if only no rivalship had been forced
upon him. Caesar did force it on him, and then,
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as a matter of course, he fell. He must have
understood warfare from his youth upward, knowing well the purposes
of a Roman legion and of Roman auxiliaries. He had
destroyed Sertorius in Spain, a man certainly greater than himself,
and had achieved the honor of putting an end to
the servile war. When Spartacus, the leader of the slaves
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and gladiators, had already been killed, he must have appreciated
at his utmost the meaning of those words kiways Romanus.
He was a handsome man, with good health, patient of labor,
not given to luxury, reticent, I should say, ungenerous, and
with a strong touch of vanity, a man able to express,
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but unable to feel friendship, with none of the highest
attributes of manhood, but with all the second rate attributes
at their best. A capable, brave man, but one certain
to fall crushed beneath the heel of such a man
as Caesar, and as certain to leave such a one
as Cicero in the lurch. It is necessary that the
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reader should attempt to realize to himself the personal characteristics
of Pompey, as from this time forward Cicero's political life,
and his life now became altogether political, was governed by
that of Pompey. That this was the case to a
great extent is certain. To a sad extent, I think
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the two men were of the same age. But Pompey
had become a general among soldiers before Cicero had ceased
to be a pupil among advocates. As Cicero was making
his way towards the front, Pompey was already the first
among Romans. He had been consuls seven years before his
proper time, and had lately, as we have seen, been
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invested with extraordinary powers in that matter of putting down
the pirates. In some sort, the mantle of Sulla had
fallen upon him. He was the leader of what we
make all the Conservative Party. If, which I doubt, the
political governance of men was a matter of interest to him,
he would have had them governed by oligarchical forms. Such
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had been the forms in Rome, in which though the
votes of the people were the source of all power,
the votes hardly went further than the selection of this
or that oligarch. Pompey no doubt felt the expediency of
maintaining the old order of things in the midst of
which he had been born to high rank, and had
achieved the topmost place, either by fortune or by merit,
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for any heartfelt conviction as to what might be best
for his country or his countrymen, in what way he
might most surely use his power for the good of
the citizens. Generally, we must, I think, look in vain
to that Pompey, whom history has handed down to us.
But of all matters which interested Cicero, the governance of
men interested him the most. How should the great Rome
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of his day rise to greater power than ever, and
yet be as poor as in the days of her
comparative insignificance. How should Rome be ruled so that Romans
might be the masters of the world in mental gifts
as well as bodily strength, in arts as well as
in arms. As by valor so by virtue, he too
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was an oligarch. By strongest conviction, his mind could conceive
nothing better than consuls, pritles, censors, tribunes, and the rest
of it, with, however, the stipulation that the consuls and
the pritus should be honest men. The condition was no
doubt an impossible one. But this he did not or
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would not see. Pompey himself was fairly honest. Up to
this time. He had shown no egregious lust for personal power.
His hands were clean in the midst of so much
public plunder. He was the leader of the Conservative Party,
the optimatees or Bonnie as Cicero indifferently calls them, meaning
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as we should say, the upper classes, who were minded
to stand by their order, believed in him, though they
did not just at that time wish to confide in
him the power which the people gave him. The Senate
did not want another Sullah, and yet it was Sulla
who had reinstated the Senate. The Senate would have hindered
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Pompey if it could, from his command against the Pirates,
and again from his command against Mithridates. But he nevertheless
was naturally their head, as came to be seen plainly
when seventeen years afterward, Caesar passed the Rubicon, and Cicero
in his heart acknowledged Pompey as his political leader while
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Pompey lived. This I think was the case to a
sad extent, as Pompey was incapable of that patriotic enthusiasm
which Cicero demanded. As we go on, we shall find
that the worst episodes in Cicero's political career were created
by his doubting adherents to a leader whom he bitterly
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felt to be untrue to himself and in whom his
trust became weaker and weaker to the end. Then came
Cicero's pritorship. In the time of Cicero, there were eight triitles,
two of whom were employed in the city, and the
six others in the provinces. The Prito urbanus was confined
to the city and was regarded as the first in authority.
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This was the office filled by Cicero. His duty was
to preside among the judges and to name a judge
or judges for special causes. Side note BC sixty six
It at forty one. Cicero, at this time, when he
and Pompey were forty or forty one, believed thoroughly in Pompey.
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When the great general was still away winding up the
affairs of his maritime war against the pirates, there came
up the continually pressing question of the continuation of the
Mithridatic war. Lucullus had been absent on that business nearly
seven years, and though he had been at first grandly victorious,
had failed at last His own soldiers, tired of their
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protracted absence, mutinied against him, and Glabrio, a later consul,
who had been sent to take the command out of
his hands, had feared to encounter the difficulty. It was
essential that something should be done. And one Manilius, a tribune,
a man of no repute himself, but whose name has
descended to all posterity, in the Oration pro Lege Manilia,
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proposed to the people that Pompey should have the command.
Then Cicero first entered, as we may say, on political life.
Though he had been Kwaistoor and Edyle and was now prietor,
he had taken a part only in executive administration. He
had had his political ideas and had expressed them very
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strongly in that matter of the judges, which, in the
condition of Rome, was certainly a political question of great moment.
But this he had done as an advocate, and had
interfered only as a barrister of to day might do, who,
in arguing a case before the judges, should make an
attack on some alleged misuse of patronage. Now, for the
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first time he made a political harangue, addressing the people
in a public meeting from the rostra. This speech is
the Oration pro Lege Mennilia. This, he explains in his
first words. Hitherto his addresses had been to the judges udices.
Now it is to the people cuirites. Although Cuirites, no
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sight has ever been so pleasant to me as that
of seeing you gathered in crowds. Although this spot has
always seemed to me the fittest in the world for
action and the noblest for speech. Nevertheless, not my own will, indeed,
but the duties of the profession, which I have followed
from my earliest years, have hitherto hindered me from entering
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upon them the best path to glory, which is open
to any good man. It is only necessary for our
purpose to say, in reference to the matter in question,
that this command was given to Pomby in opposition to
the Senate. As to the speech itself, it requires our
attention on two points. It is one of those choice
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morsels of polished latinity which have given to Cicero the
highest rank among literary men, and have perhaps made him
the greatest writer of prose which the world has produced.
I have sometimes attempted to make a short list of
his chef devre of his tidbits. As I must say,
if I am bound to express myself in English, the
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list would never allow itself to be short, and so
has become almost impossible. But whenever the attempt has been made.
This short ration, in its integrity, has always been included
in it. My space hardly permits me to insert specimens
of the author's style, but I will give in an
a penny two brief extracts as specimens of the beauty
(32:03):
of words in Latin. I almost fancy that, if properly read,
they would have a grace about them, even to the
ears of those to whom Latin is unknown. I venture
to attach to them in parallel columns my own translation,
acknowledging in despair how impossible I have found it to
catch anything of the rhythm of the author. As to
(32:23):
the beauty of the language, I shall probably find no opponent.
But a serious attack has been made on Cicero's character,
because it has been supposed that his excessive praise was
lavished on Pompey with a view of securing the Great
General's assistance in his candidature for the consulship. Even Middleton
repeats this accusation, and only faintly repels it. Monsieur du rossoirs,
(32:48):
the French critic declares that in the whole oration there
is not one word which was not dictated to Cicero
the prit or by his desire to become consul, and
that his own elevation was in his thoughts all through,
and not that of Pompey. The matter would be one
to us but of little moment, were it not that
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Cicero's character for honesty as a politician depends on the
truth or falsehood of his belief in Pompey. Pompey had
been almost miraculously fortunate up to this period of his
life's career. He had done infinitely valuable service to the state.
He had already crushed the Pirates. There was good ground
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for believing that in his hand the Roman arms would
be more efficacious against Mithridates than in those of any
other general. All that Cicero says on this head, whatever
might have been his motive for saying it, was at
any rate true. A man desirous of rising in the
service of his country, of course, adheres to his party.
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That Cicero was wrong in supposing that the republic, which
had in fact already fallen, could be re established by
the strength of any one man, could be bolstered up
by any leader, has to be admitted that in trusting
to Pompey as a politician, he leaned on a frail read,
I admit, but I will not admit that in praising
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the man he was hypocritical or unduly self seeking. In
our own political contests, when a subordinate member of the
cabinet is zealously serviceable to his chief, we do not
accuse him of falsehood, because by that zeal he has
also strengthened his own hands. How shall apatriots do the
work of his country unless he be in high place,
(34:33):
And how shall he achieve that place except by cooperation
with those whom he trusts. They who have blamed Cicero
for speaking on behalf of Pompey on this occasion seem
to me to ignore not only the necessities, but the
very virtues of political life. One other remarkable oration Cicero
made during his pritorship, that namely in defense of Aulus
(34:56):
Cluentius Habitus. As it is the longest, so is it
the most intricate, and on account of various legal points,
the most difficult to follow. Of all his speeches, But
there are none, perhaps which tell us more of the condition,
or perhaps I should say, the possibilities of life among
the Romans of that day. The accusation against Roscius Amarinus
(35:20):
was accompanied by horrible circumstances. The iniquities of Varies as
a public officer who had the power of blessing or
of cursing a whole people were very terrible, but they
do not shock so much as the story here told
of private life. That any man should have lived as
did Opianicus, or any woman as did Sassia, seems to
(35:42):
prove a state of things worse than anything described by
Juvenal one hundred and fifty years later. Cicero was no
doubt unscrupulous as an advocate, but he could have gained
nothing here by departing from very similitude. We must take
the picture as given us as true, and acknowledged that
though law processes were common, crimes such as those of
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this man and of this woman were not only possible,
but might be perpetrated with impunity. The story is too
long and complicated to be even abridged, but it should
be read by those who wished to know the condition
of life in Italy during the latter days of the
Republic Side note b c. Sixty five It at forty two,
(36:29):
in the year after he was Brital in the first
of the two years between his pritorship and consulship b. C.
Sixty five, he made a speech in defense of one
Caius Cornelius, as to which we hear that the pleadings
in the case occupied four days. This, with our interminable
cause celebre does not seem much to us. But Cicero's
(36:50):
own speech was so long that in publishing it he
divided it into two parts. This Cornelius had been tribune
in the year but one before, and was accused of
having misused his power. When in office. He had incurred
the enmity of the aristocracy by attempts made on the
popular side to restrain the Senate, especially by the stringency
(37:12):
of a law proposed for stopping bribery at elections. Cicero's
speeches are not extant. We have only some hardly intelligible
fragments of them, which were preserved by Asconius, a commentator
on certain of Cicero's orations. But there is ground for
supposing that these Cornelian orations were at the time matter
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of as great moment as those spoken against Ferries, or
almost as those spoken against Cataline. Cicero defended Cornelius, who
was attacked by the Senate by the rich men who
desired office, and the government of provinces. The law proposed
for the restriction of bribery at elections, no doubt attempted
to do more by the severity of its punishment than
(37:55):
can be achieved by such means. It was mitigated, but
was still, admits by Cicero, to be too rigorous. The
rancor of the Senate against Cornelius seems to have been
due to this attempt. But the illegality with which he
was charged and for which he was tried, had reference
to another law suggested by him, for restoring to the
(38:15):
people the right of pardon, which had been usurped by
the Senate. Caius Cornelius seems to have been a man
honest and eager in his purpose to save the republic
from the greed of the oligarchs. But, as had been
the Grachai, ready in his eagerness to push his own
authority too far in his attempt to restrain that of
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the Senate, a second tribune, in the interest of the Senate,
attempted to exercise an authority which undoubtedly belonged to him,
by inhibiting the publication or reading of the proposed law.
The person whose duty it was to read it was stopped.
Then Cornelius pushed aside the inferior officer and read it himself.
(38:57):
There was much violence, and the men who brought the
accusation about Cornelius, two brothers named Comynie, had to hide
themselves and save their lives by escaping over the roofs
of the houses. This took place when Cicero was standing
for the pritor ship, and the confusion consequent upon it
was so great that it was for a while impossible
(39:18):
to carry on the election. In the year after his pritorship,
Cornelius was put upon his trial, and the two speeches
were made. The matter seems to have been one of
vital interest in Rome. The contest on the part of
the Senate was for all that made public life dear.
To such a body not to bribe, not to be
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able to lay out money in order that money might
be returned tenfold one hundredfold, would be to them to
cease to be aristocrats. The struggles made by the Grachi,
by Livius Drusus, by others whose names would only encumber
us here by this Cornelius, were the expiring efforts of
those who really desired an honest report public. Such were
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the struggles made by Cicero himself, though there was present
always to him an idea with which, in truth, neither
the demagogues nor the aristocrats sympathized. That the reform could
be effected not by depriving the Senate of its power,
but by teaching the Senate to use it honestly. We
can sympathize with the idea, but we are driven to
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acknowledge that it was futile, though we know that this
was so. The fragments of the speeches, though they have
been made intelligible to us by the argument or story
of them prefixed by Asconius in his notes, cannot be
of interest to readers. They were extant in the time
of Quintillian, who speaks of them with the highest praise.
(40:44):
Cicero himself selects certain passages out of these speeches as
examples of eloquence or rhythm, thus showing the labour with
which he composed them, polishing them by the exercise of
his ear as well as by that of his intellect.
We know from Asco that this trial was regarded at
the time as one of vital interest. We have two
(41:06):
letters from Cicero, written in the year after his pritleship,
both to Atticus, the first of which tells us of
his probable competition for the consulship. The second informs his
friend that a son is born to him, he being
then forty two years old, and that he is thinking
to undertake the defense of Catiline, who was to be
accused of peculation as proprietal in Africa. Should he be acquitted,
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says Cicero, I should hope to have him on my
side in the matter of my canvas. If he should
be convicted, I shall be able to bear that too.
There would be six or seven candidates, of whom two,
of course, would be chosen. It would be much to
Cicero to run, as our phrase goes, with the one
who among his competitors would be the most likely to
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succeed Catiline, in spite of his then notorious character in
the teeth of the evils of his government in Africa,
was from his birth, from his connections, and from his
ability supposed to have the best chance. It was opened
to Cicero to defend Catiline as he had defended Fonteus,
and we know from his own words that he thought
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of doing so, but he did not, nor did Cicero
join himself with Catiline in the canvassing. It is probable
that the nature of Cataline's character and intentions were now
becoming clearer. From day to day. Catiline was tried and acquitted, having,
it is said, bribed the judges end of Chapter seven
Chapter seven of the Life of Cicero, Volume one. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by Philippa Jevons. The Life of Cicero,
Volume one by Anthony Trollop, Chapter seven Cicero as Edyle
(00:21):
and Pritor side note BC sixty nine eight at thirty eight.
The year after the trial of Berries was that of
Cicero's edyleship. We know but little of him in the
performance of the duties of this office, but we may
gather that he performed them to the satisfaction of the people.
(00:41):
He did not spend much money for their amusements, although
it was the custom of edyles to ruin themselves in
seeking popularity after this fashion. And yet when two years
afterwards he solicited the pritorship from the people, he was
three times elected as first pritor in all the committee,
three separate elections, having been rendered necessary by certain irregularities
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and factious difficulties to all the offices one after another.
He was elected in his first year, the first year
possible in accordance with his age and was elected first
in honor, the first as prit or, and then the
first as consul. This, no doubt, was partly due to
his compliance with those rules for canvassing, which his brother
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Quintus is said to have drawn out, and which I
have quoted. But it proves also the trust which was
felt in him by the people. The candidates, for the
most part, were the candidates for the aristocracy. They were
put forward with the idea that thus might the aristocratic
rule of Rome be best maintained. Their elections were carried
on by bribery, and the people were for the most
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part indifferent to the preceding, whether it might be a Eries,
or an Antony or a Hortensius. They took the money
that was going, they allowed themselves to be delighted with
the games, and they did as they were bid. But
every now and then there came up a name which
stirred them, and they went to the voting pens or
villiers with a purpose of their own. When such a
(02:08):
candidate came forward, he was sure to be first. Such
had been Marius, and such had been the Great Pompey,
and such was Cicero. The two former were men successful
in war, who gained the voices of the people by
their victories. Cicero gained them by what he did inside
the city. He could afford not to run into debt
(02:28):
and ruin himself during his edelship, as had been common
with Edyles, because he was able to achieve his popularity.
In another way, it was the chief duty of the
ediles to look after the town generally, to see to
the temples of the gods, to take care that houses
did not tumble down, to look to the cleansing of
the streets, and to the supply of water the markets
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were under them, and the police, and the recurrent festivals.
An active man with common sense, such as was Cicero,
no doubt did his duty as edyle well. He kept
up his practice as an advocate during his years of office.
We have left to usk the part of one speech
and the whole of another spoken during this period. The
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former was in favor of Fonteus, whom the Gauls prosecuted
for plundering them as proprietal, and the latter is a
civil case on behalf of Caiquina, addressed to the recuperatures,
as had been that for Marcus Tullius. The speech for
Fonteus is remarkable as being as hard against the provincial
Gauls as his speech against fairies had been favorable to
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the Sicilians. But the Gauls were Barbarians, whereas the Sicilians
were Greeks. And it should be always remembered that Cicero
spoke as an advocate, and that the praise and censure
of an advocate require to be taken with many grains
of salt. Nothing that these wretched Gauls could say against
a Roman citizen ought to be accepted in evidence. All
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the Romans, he says, who have been in the province
wish well to Fontaeus. Would you write, believe these Gauls
led by what feeling by the opinion of men? Is
the opinion then of your enemies of greater weight than
that of your fellow citizens? Or is it the greater
credibility of the witnesses? Would you prefer, then, unknown men
(04:16):
to known, dishonest men, to honest foreigners, to your own countrymen,
greedy men, to those who come before you for nothing,
men of no religion, to those who fear the gods,
those who hate the Empire and the name of Rome,
to allies and citizens who are good and faithful In
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every word of this. He begs the question so as
to convince us that his own case was weak, And
when he makes a final appeal to the pity of
the judges, we are sure that Fantaeus was guilty. He
tells the judges that the poor mother of the accused
man has no other support than this son, and that
there is a sister, one of the virgins, devoted to
the service of Vesta, who, being of the virgin, cannot
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have sons of her own, and is therefore entitled to
have her brother preserved for her. When we read such
arguments as these, we are sure that Fanteus had misused
the gauls. We believe that he was acquitted, because we
are told that he bought a house in Rome soon afterward,
but we feel that he escaped by the too great
influence of his advocate. We are driven to doubt whether
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the power over words, which may be achieved by a
man by means of natural gifts, practice, and erudition, may
not do evil instead of good. A man with such
a tongue as that of Cicero will make the listener
believe almost whatever he will, and the advocate is restrained
by no horror of falsehood. In his profession alone, it
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is considered honorable to be a bulwark to deception and
to make the worse appear the better cause. Cicero did
so when the occasion seemed to him to require it,
and has been accused of hypocrisy and consequence. There is
a passage in one of the Dialogues de Oratore which
has been continually quoted against him because the word phibbs
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has been used with approval. The orator is told how
it may become him to garnish his good story with
little white lies mendakiunkulis. The advice does not indeed refer
to facts, or to evidence, or to arguments. It goes
no farther than to suggest that amount of exaggeration which
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is used by every teller of a good story in
order that the story may be good. Such men dakiunkula
are in the mouth of every diner out in London,
and we may pity the dinner parties at which they
are not used. Reference is made to them now, because
the use of the word by Cicero, having been misunderstood
by some who have treated his name with severity, has
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been brought forward in proof of his falsehood. You shall
tell a story about a very little man, and say
that he is only thirty six inches. You know very
well that he is more four feet high. That will
be a mendacunculum. According to Cicero, the phrase has been
passed on from one enemy to another, till the little
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FIBs of Cicero's recommending have been supposed to be direct
lies suggested by him to all advocates, and therefore continually
used by him as an advocate. They have been only
the garnishing of his drolleries. As an advocate. He was
about as false and about as true as an advocate
of our own day. That he was not paid, and
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that our English barristers are paid for the work they do,
makes I think no difference either in the innocency or
the falseness of the practice. I cannot but believe that
hereafter an improved tone of general feeling will forbid a
man of honor to use arguments which he thinks to
be untrue, or to make others believe that which he
does not believe himself. Such is not the state of
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things now in London, nor was it at Rome in
Cicero's time, there are touches of eloquence in the plea
for Fonteus, but the reader will probably agree with me
that the orator was well aware that the late governor,
who was on his trial, had misused those unfortunate gauls.
In the year following that of Ciro's edelship were written
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the first of his epistles which have come to us.
He was then not yet thirty nine years old BC.
Sixty eight, and during that year and the next seven
were written eleven letters, all to Atticus. Those to his
other friends, ad familiarees, as we have been accustomed to
call them, ad diversos as they are commonly called, now
(08:38):
began only with the close of his consular year. How
it has come to pass that there have been preserved
only those which were written after a period of life
at which most men cease to be free correspondents, cannot
be said with certainty. It has probably been occasioned by
the fact that he caused his letters to be preserved
as soon as he himself pass deceived. How great would
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be their value? Of the nature of their value, it
is hardly possible to speak too highly. I am not prepared, indeed,
to agree with the often quoted assertion of Cornelius Nepos
that he who has read his letters to Atticus will
not lack much of the history of those days. A
man who should have read them and nothing else, even
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in the days of Augustus, would not have learned much
of the preceding age. But if not for the purpose
of history, the letters generally have, if read aright, been
all but enough for the purpose of biography with a
view to the understanding of the man's character. They have,
I think been enough from them. Such a flood of
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light has been turned upon the writer, that all his nobility,
and all his defects, all his aspirations, and all his
vacillations have been made visible. We know how human he was,
and how to he was only human, how he sighed
for great events and allowed him to think sometimes that
they could be accomplished by small maneuvers, How like a
(10:05):
man he could be proud of his work and boast,
how like a man he could despair and almost die.
But I wish it to be acknowledged by those who
read his letters, in order that they may also read
his character, that they were, when written private letters, intended
to tell the truth, and that if they are to
(10:25):
be believed in reference to his weaknesses. They are also
to be believed in reference to his strength. If they
are singularly transparent as to the man, opening, especially to Atticus,
the doors of his soul more completely than would even
any girl of the nineteenth century when writing to her
bosom friend. They must be taken as being more honestly true.
(10:47):
To regard the aspirations as hypocritical, and only the meaner
efusions of his mind as emblematic of the true man
is both unreasonable and uncharitable. Nor I think will reader
grasp the way to see the truth who cannot teach himself.
What has in Cicero's case been the effect of daring
to tell to his friend an unvarnished tale. When with
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us some poor thought does make its way across our minds,
we did not sit down and write it to another.
Nor if we did, would an immortality be awarded to
the letter. If one of us were to lose his all,
as Cicero lost his all when he was sent into exile,
I think it might well be that he should for
a time be unmanned. But he would either not write,
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or in writing, would hide much of his feelings on
losing his tullia. Some father of to day would keep
it all in his heart, would not mournder out his sorrows.
Even with our truest love for our friends, some fear
is mingled which forbids the use of open words. Whether
this be for good or evil, I will not say,
(11:56):
but it is so. Cicero, whether he did or did
not know that his letters would live, was impeded by
no such fear. He said everything that there was within him,
being in this, I should say, quite as unlike to
other romans of the day as he was to ourselves.
In the collection as it has come to us, there
(12:17):
are about fifty letters not from Cicero, written to Cicero
by his brother, by Decimus Brutus, by Plancus, and others.
It will, I think, be admitted that their tone is
quite different from that used by himself. There are none, indeed,
from Atticus, none written under terms of such easy friendship
(12:37):
as prevailed when many were written by Cicero himself. It
will probably be acknowledged that his manner of throwing himself
open to his correspondent was peculiar to him. If this
be so, he should surely have the advantage, as well
as the disadvantage of his own mode of utterance. The
reader who allows himself to think that the true character
of the man is to be read in the little
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sly things he said said to Atticus, but that the
nobler ideas were merely put forth to cajole the public,
is as unfair to himself as he is to Cicero.
In reading the entire correspondence the letters from Cicero, either
to Atticus or to others, it has to be remembered
that in the ordinary arrangement of them made by Grivius,
(13:20):
they are often incorrectly placed in regard to chronology. In
subsequent times, efforts have been made to restore them to
their proposition, and so they should be read. The letters
to Atticus and those ad diversos have generally been published
separately for the ordinary purpose of literary pleasure. They may
perhaps be best read that way. The tone of them
(13:43):
is different. The great bulk of the correspondence is political
or quasi political. The manner is much more familiar, much
less severe, though not on that account indicating less seriousness
in those written to Atticus than in the others. With
one or two signal exceptions, those to Atticus are better
worth reading. The character of the writer may perhaps be
(14:05):
best gathered from divided perusal, but for a general understanding
of the facts of Cicero's life, the whole correspondence should
be taken as it was written. It has been published
in this shape as well as in the other, and
will be used in this shape in my effort to
portray the life of him who wrote them. Side note
(14:26):
BC sixty eight it at thirty nine. We have three
letters written when he was thirty eight, in the year
after his edelship. In the first, he tells his friend
of the death of his cousin Lucius Cicero, who had
traveled with him into Sicily, and alludes to the disagreements
which had taken place between Pomponia, the sister of Atticus,
(14:47):
and her husband Quintus Cicero. Our Cicero's brother, Marcus. In
all that he says of his brother, makes the best
of him. That Quintus was a scholar and a man
of parts. There can be no doubt out one too,
who rose to high office in the republic. But he
was arrogant of harsh temper, cruel to those dependent on him,
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and altogether unimbued with the humanity, which was the peculiar
characteristic of his brother when I found him to be
in the wrong, says Cicero in his first letter, I
wrote to him as a brother whom I loved, but
as to one younger than myself, and whom I was
bound to tell of his fault. As is usual with correspondence,
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half the letter is taken up with excuses for not
writing sooner. Then he gives commissions for the purchase of
statues for his Tusculan villa, of which we now hear
for the first time, and tells his friend how his
wife Terentia sends her love, though she is suffering from
the gout. Tullia, also, the dear little Tullia deliciai nostra,
(15:51):
sends her love. In the next he says how a
certain house which Atticus has intended to purchase, had been
secured by Pontaeus for one hundred and thirty thousand sesterces
something over a thousand pounds, taking the sesterce at tuppence. This,
no doubt, was part of the plunder which Fonteus had
taken from the gauls Quintus is getting on better with
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his wife then he tells his friend very abruptly, that
his father died that year on the eighth day before
the Canons of December, on the twenty fourth of November.
Some question as to the date of the old man's
death had probably been asked. He gives further commissions as
to statues, and declares of his tusculan villa that he
(16:34):
is happy only when he is there. In the third letter,
he promises that he will be ready to pay one
kinkius one hundred and seventy pounds on a certain day
the price probably of more statues, and gives orders to
his friend as to the buying of books. All my
prospect of enjoying myself at my ease depends on your goodness.
(16:56):
These were the letters he wrote when he had just
ceased to be edyle. From the next two years five
letters remain to us, chiefly noticeable from the continued commissions
given by Cicero to Atticus for statues. Statues and more
statues are wanted as ornaments for his Tusculanum. Should there
be more than are needed for that villa, he will
(17:16):
begin to decorate another that he has, the Formianum near Kayata.
He wants whatever Atticus may think proper for his palaestra
and gymnasium. Atticus has a library or collection of maps
for sale, and Cico engages to buy them, though it
seems that he has not at present quite got the
money he reserves. He says all his little comings in
(17:40):
windemiolas what he might make by selling his grapes, as
a lady in the country might get a little income
from her spare butter, in order that he may have
books as a resource for his old age. Again, he
bids Atticus not to be afraid, but what he Cicero
will be able to buy them some day, which if
he can do, he will be richer than Crassus, and
(18:00):
will envy no one his mansions or his lawns. He
also declares that he has betrothed Tullia, then ten years old,
to Caius Piso, son of Lucius Piso Frugi. The proposed marriage,
which after three years of betrothal, was duly solemnized, was
considered to be in all respects desirable. Cicero thought very
(18:21):
highly of his son in law, who was related to
Calpurnius Piso, one of the consuls of that year, so far,
everything was going well with our orator side note BC
sixty seven eight. At forty he was then candidate for
the Pritor ship, and was elected first. As has been
(18:41):
already said, it was in that year too that a
law was passed in Rome, at the instance of one Gabinius,
a tribune, authorizing Pompey to exterminate the pirates in the Mediterranean,
and giving him almost unlimited power for this object. Pompey
was not indeed named in this law. A single general,
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one who had been consul, was to be approved by
the Senate, with exclusive command by sea and for fifty
miles on shore. He was to select as his own
officers a hitherto unheard of number, all of senatorial rank.
It was well understood when the law was worded that
Pompey alone could fill the place. The Senate opposed the
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scheme with all its power, although seven years before it
had acknowledged the necessity of some measure for extirpating the pirates.
But jealousies prevailed and the Senate was afraid of Pompey. Gabinius, however,
carried his law by the votes of the people, and
Pompey was appointed. Nothing tells us more clearly the wretched
(19:44):
condition of things in Rome at this time than this
infliction of pirates, under which their commerce was almost destroyed.
Sulla had re established the outside show of a strong government,
a government which was strong enough to enable rich men
to live secure surely in Rome, but he had done
nothing to consolidate the empire. Even Lycullus in the east
(20:06):
had only partially succeeded, leaving Mithridates still to be dealt
with by Pompey. Of what nature was the government of
the provinces under Sullah's aristocracy? We learn from the trials
of Erries, and of Pontaeus and of Cataline the Mediterraneans
swarmed with pirates, who taught themselves to think that they
had nothing to fear from the hands of the Romans.
(20:29):
Plutarch declares to us no doubt with fair accuracy, because
the description has been admitted by subsequent writers. How great
was the horror of these depredations. It is marvelous to
us now that this should have been allowed, marvelous that
pirates should reach such a pitch of importance, that Erries
had found it worth his while to sacrifice Roman citizens
(20:52):
in their place Pompey went forth with his officers, his fleets,
and his money, and cleared the Mediterranean in forty day.
As Plutarch says, Floras tells us that not a ship
was lost by the Romans, and not a pirate left
on the seas. In the history of Rome. At this
time we find men of Mark whose characters, as we read,
(21:15):
become clear to us, or appear to become clear. Of
Marius and of Sullah, we have a defined idea. Caesar,
with his imperturbable courage, absence of scruples, and assurance of success,
comes home to us. Cicero, I think we certainly may
understand Cataline, Cato, Antony, and Brutus have left their portraits
(21:37):
with us. Of Pompey, I must acknowledge for myself that
I have but a vague conception his wonderful successes seem
to have been produced by so very little power of
his own. He was not determined and venomous, as was Marius,
not cold blooded and ruthless as was Sullah. Certainly not confident,
(21:58):
as was Caesar, not humane, as was Cicero, not passionate,
as Catiline not stoic, as was Cato not reckless as
was Antony, nor wedded to the idea of an oligarchy,
as was Brutus. Success came in his way, and he
found it, found it again and again, till fortune seemed
(22:19):
to have adopted him. Success lifted him higher and higher,
till at last it seemed to him that he must
be a suller, whether he would or no. But he
could not endure the idea of a rival. Sullah I
doubt whether ambition would have prompted him to fight for
the empire of the Republic. Had he not perceived that
(22:39):
that empire would fall into Caesar's hands, did he not
grasp it himself, it would have satisfied him to let
things go. While the citizens called him magnus and regarded
him as the man who could do a great thing
if he would, if only no rivalship had been forced
upon him. Caesar did force it on him, and then,
(23:00):
as a matter of course, he fell. He must have
understood warfare from his youth upward, knowing well the purposes
of a Roman legion and of Roman auxiliaries. He had
destroyed Sertorius in Spain, a man certainly greater than himself,
and had achieved the honor of putting an end to
the servile war. When Spartacus, the leader of the slaves
(23:22):
and gladiators, had already been killed, he must have appreciated
at his utmost the meaning of those words kiways Romanus.
He was a handsome man, with good health, patient of labor,
not given to luxury, reticent, I should say, ungenerous, and
with a strong touch of vanity, a man able to express,
(23:44):
but unable to feel friendship, with none of the highest
attributes of manhood, but with all the second rate attributes
at their best. A capable, brave man, but one certain
to fall crushed beneath the heel of such a man
as Caesar, and as certain to leave such a one
as Cicero in the lurch. It is necessary that the
(24:06):
reader should attempt to realize to himself the personal characteristics
of Pompey, as from this time forward Cicero's political life,
and his life now became altogether political, was governed by
that of Pompey. That this was the case to a
great extent is certain. To a sad extent, I think
(24:27):
the two men were of the same age. But Pompey
had become a general among soldiers before Cicero had ceased
to be a pupil among advocates. As Cicero was making
his way towards the front, Pompey was already the first
among Romans. He had been consuls seven years before his
proper time, and had lately, as we have seen, been
(24:47):
invested with extraordinary powers in that matter of putting down
the pirates. In some sort, the mantle of Sulla had
fallen upon him. He was the leader of what we
make all the Conservative Party. If, which I doubt, the
political governance of men was a matter of interest to him,
he would have had them governed by oligarchical forms. Such
(25:08):
had been the forms in Rome, in which though the
votes of the people were the source of all power,
the votes hardly went further than the selection of this
or that oligarch. Pompey no doubt felt the expediency of
maintaining the old order of things in the midst of
which he had been born to high rank, and had
achieved the topmost place, either by fortune or by merit,
(25:31):
for any heartfelt conviction as to what might be best
for his country or his countrymen, in what way he
might most surely use his power for the good of
the citizens. Generally, we must, I think, look in vain
to that Pompey, whom history has handed down to us.
But of all matters which interested Cicero, the governance of
men interested him the most. How should the great Rome
(25:55):
of his day rise to greater power than ever, and
yet be as poor as in the days of her
comparative insignificance. How should Rome be ruled so that Romans
might be the masters of the world in mental gifts
as well as bodily strength, in arts as well as
in arms. As by valor so by virtue, he too
(26:16):
was an oligarch. By strongest conviction, his mind could conceive
nothing better than consuls, pritles, censors, tribunes, and the rest
of it, with, however, the stipulation that the consuls and
the pritus should be honest men. The condition was no
doubt an impossible one. But this he did not or
(26:37):
would not see. Pompey himself was fairly honest. Up to
this time. He had shown no egregious lust for personal power.
His hands were clean in the midst of so much
public plunder. He was the leader of the Conservative Party,
the optimatees or Bonnie as Cicero indifferently calls them, meaning
(26:58):
as we should say, the upper classes, who were minded
to stand by their order, believed in him, though they
did not just at that time wish to confide in
him the power which the people gave him. The Senate
did not want another Sullah, and yet it was Sulla
who had reinstated the Senate. The Senate would have hindered
(27:20):
Pompey if it could, from his command against the Pirates,
and again from his command against Mithridates. But he nevertheless
was naturally their head, as came to be seen plainly
when seventeen years afterward, Caesar passed the Rubicon, and Cicero
in his heart acknowledged Pompey as his political leader while
(27:40):
Pompey lived. This I think was the case to a
sad extent, as Pompey was incapable of that patriotic enthusiasm
which Cicero demanded. As we go on, we shall find
that the worst episodes in Cicero's political career were created
by his doubting adherents to a leader whom he bitterly
(28:00):
felt to be untrue to himself and in whom his
trust became weaker and weaker to the end. Then came
Cicero's pritorship. In the time of Cicero, there were eight triitles,
two of whom were employed in the city, and the
six others in the provinces. The Prito urbanus was confined
to the city and was regarded as the first in authority.
(28:23):
This was the office filled by Cicero. His duty was
to preside among the judges and to name a judge
or judges for special causes. Side note BC sixty six
It at forty one. Cicero, at this time, when he
and Pompey were forty or forty one, believed thoroughly in Pompey.
(28:46):
When the great general was still away winding up the
affairs of his maritime war against the pirates, there came
up the continually pressing question of the continuation of the
Mithridatic war. Lucullus had been absent on that business nearly
seven years, and though he had been at first grandly victorious,
had failed at last His own soldiers, tired of their
(29:09):
protracted absence, mutinied against him, and Glabrio, a later consul,
who had been sent to take the command out of
his hands, had feared to encounter the difficulty. It was
essential that something should be done. And one Manilius, a tribune,
a man of no repute himself, but whose name has
descended to all posterity, in the Oration pro Lege Manilia,
(29:32):
proposed to the people that Pompey should have the command.
Then Cicero first entered, as we may say, on political life.
Though he had been Kwaistoor and Edyle and was now prietor,
he had taken a part only in executive administration. He
had had his political ideas and had expressed them very
(29:53):
strongly in that matter of the judges, which, in the
condition of Rome, was certainly a political question of great moment.
But this he had done as an advocate, and had
interfered only as a barrister of to day might do, who,
in arguing a case before the judges, should make an
attack on some alleged misuse of patronage. Now, for the
(30:13):
first time he made a political harangue, addressing the people
in a public meeting from the rostra. This speech is
the Oration pro Lege Mennilia. This, he explains in his
first words. Hitherto his addresses had been to the judges udices.
Now it is to the people cuirites. Although Cuirites, no
(30:37):
sight has ever been so pleasant to me as that
of seeing you gathered in crowds. Although this spot has
always seemed to me the fittest in the world for
action and the noblest for speech. Nevertheless, not my own will, indeed,
but the duties of the profession, which I have followed
from my earliest years, have hitherto hindered me from entering
(30:59):
upon them the best path to glory, which is open
to any good man. It is only necessary for our
purpose to say, in reference to the matter in question,
that this command was given to Pomby in opposition to
the Senate. As to the speech itself, it requires our
attention on two points. It is one of those choice
(31:21):
morsels of polished latinity which have given to Cicero the
highest rank among literary men, and have perhaps made him
the greatest writer of prose which the world has produced.
I have sometimes attempted to make a short list of
his chef devre of his tidbits. As I must say,
if I am bound to express myself in English, the
(31:41):
list would never allow itself to be short, and so
has become almost impossible. But whenever the attempt has been made.
This short ration, in its integrity, has always been included
in it. My space hardly permits me to insert specimens
of the author's style, but I will give in an
a penny two brief extracts as specimens of the beauty
(32:03):
of words in Latin. I almost fancy that, if properly read,
they would have a grace about them, even to the
ears of those to whom Latin is unknown. I venture
to attach to them in parallel columns my own translation,
acknowledging in despair how impossible I have found it to
catch anything of the rhythm of the author. As to
(32:23):
the beauty of the language, I shall probably find no opponent.
But a serious attack has been made on Cicero's character,
because it has been supposed that his excessive praise was
lavished on Pompey with a view of securing the Great
General's assistance in his candidature for the consulship. Even Middleton
repeats this accusation, and only faintly repels it. Monsieur du rossoirs,
(32:48):
the French critic declares that in the whole oration there
is not one word which was not dictated to Cicero
the prit or by his desire to become consul, and
that his own elevation was in his thoughts all through,
and not that of Pompey. The matter would be one
to us but of little moment, were it not that
(33:08):
Cicero's character for honesty as a politician depends on the
truth or falsehood of his belief in Pompey. Pompey had
been almost miraculously fortunate up to this period of his
life's career. He had done infinitely valuable service to the state.
He had already crushed the Pirates. There was good ground
(33:28):
for believing that in his hand the Roman arms would
be more efficacious against Mithridates than in those of any
other general. All that Cicero says on this head, whatever
might have been his motive for saying it, was at
any rate true. A man desirous of rising in the
service of his country, of course, adheres to his party.
(33:49):
That Cicero was wrong in supposing that the republic, which
had in fact already fallen, could be re established by
the strength of any one man, could be bolstered up
by any leader, has to be admitted that in trusting
to Pompey as a politician, he leaned on a frail read,
I admit, but I will not admit that in praising
(34:12):
the man he was hypocritical or unduly self seeking. In
our own political contests, when a subordinate member of the
cabinet is zealously serviceable to his chief, we do not
accuse him of falsehood, because by that zeal he has
also strengthened his own hands. How shall apatriots do the
work of his country unless he be in high place,
(34:33):
And how shall he achieve that place except by cooperation
with those whom he trusts. They who have blamed Cicero
for speaking on behalf of Pompey on this occasion seem
to me to ignore not only the necessities, but the
very virtues of political life. One other remarkable oration Cicero
made during his pritorship, that namely in defense of Aulus
(34:56):
Cluentius Habitus. As it is the longest, so is it
the most intricate, and on account of various legal points,
the most difficult to follow. Of all his speeches, But
there are none, perhaps which tell us more of the condition,
or perhaps I should say, the possibilities of life among
the Romans of that day. The accusation against Roscius Amarinus
(35:20):
was accompanied by horrible circumstances. The iniquities of Varies as
a public officer who had the power of blessing or
of cursing a whole people were very terrible, but they
do not shock so much as the story here told
of private life. That any man should have lived as
did Opianicus, or any woman as did Sassia, seems to
(35:42):
prove a state of things worse than anything described by
Juvenal one hundred and fifty years later. Cicero was no
doubt unscrupulous as an advocate, but he could have gained
nothing here by departing from very similitude. We must take
the picture as given us as true, and acknowledged that
though law processes were common, crimes such as those of
(36:05):
this man and of this woman were not only possible,
but might be perpetrated with impunity. The story is too
long and complicated to be even abridged, but it should
be read by those who wished to know the condition
of life in Italy during the latter days of the
Republic Side note b c. Sixty five It at forty two,
(36:29):
in the year after he was Brital in the first
of the two years between his pritorship and consulship b. C.
Sixty five, he made a speech in defense of one
Caius Cornelius, as to which we hear that the pleadings
in the case occupied four days. This, with our interminable
cause celebre does not seem much to us. But Cicero's
(36:50):
own speech was so long that in publishing it he
divided it into two parts. This Cornelius had been tribune
in the year but one before, and was accused of
having misused his power. When in office. He had incurred
the enmity of the aristocracy by attempts made on the
popular side to restrain the Senate, especially by the stringency
(37:12):
of a law proposed for stopping bribery at elections. Cicero's
speeches are not extant. We have only some hardly intelligible
fragments of them, which were preserved by Asconius, a commentator
on certain of Cicero's orations. But there is ground for
supposing that these Cornelian orations were at the time matter
(37:32):
of as great moment as those spoken against Ferries, or
almost as those spoken against Cataline. Cicero defended Cornelius, who
was attacked by the Senate by the rich men who
desired office, and the government of provinces. The law proposed
for the restriction of bribery at elections, no doubt attempted
to do more by the severity of its punishment than
(37:55):
can be achieved by such means. It was mitigated, but
was still, admits by Cicero, to be too rigorous. The
rancor of the Senate against Cornelius seems to have been
due to this attempt. But the illegality with which he
was charged and for which he was tried, had reference
to another law suggested by him, for restoring to the
(38:15):
people the right of pardon, which had been usurped by
the Senate. Caius Cornelius seems to have been a man
honest and eager in his purpose to save the republic
from the greed of the oligarchs. But, as had been
the Grachai, ready in his eagerness to push his own
authority too far in his attempt to restrain that of
(38:36):
the Senate, a second tribune, in the interest of the Senate,
attempted to exercise an authority which undoubtedly belonged to him,
by inhibiting the publication or reading of the proposed law.
The person whose duty it was to read it was stopped.
Then Cornelius pushed aside the inferior officer and read it himself.
(38:57):
There was much violence, and the men who brought the
accusation about Cornelius, two brothers named Comynie, had to hide
themselves and save their lives by escaping over the roofs
of the houses. This took place when Cicero was standing
for the pritor ship, and the confusion consequent upon it
was so great that it was for a while impossible
(39:18):
to carry on the election. In the year after his pritorship,
Cornelius was put upon his trial, and the two speeches
were made. The matter seems to have been one of
vital interest in Rome. The contest on the part of
the Senate was for all that made public life dear.
To such a body not to bribe, not to be
(39:38):
able to lay out money in order that money might
be returned tenfold one hundredfold, would be to them to
cease to be aristocrats. The struggles made by the Grachi,
by Livius Drusus, by others whose names would only encumber
us here by this Cornelius, were the expiring efforts of
those who really desired an honest report public. Such were
(40:02):
the struggles made by Cicero himself, though there was present
always to him an idea with which, in truth, neither
the demagogues nor the aristocrats sympathized. That the reform could
be effected not by depriving the Senate of its power,
but by teaching the Senate to use it honestly. We
can sympathize with the idea, but we are driven to
(40:23):
acknowledge that it was futile, though we know that this
was so. The fragments of the speeches, though they have
been made intelligible to us by the argument or story
of them prefixed by Asconius in his notes, cannot be
of interest to readers. They were extant in the time
of Quintillian, who speaks of them with the highest praise.
(40:44):
Cicero himself selects certain passages out of these speeches as
examples of eloquence or rhythm, thus showing the labour with
which he composed them, polishing them by the exercise of
his ear as well as by that of his intellect.
We know from Asco that this trial was regarded at
the time as one of vital interest. We have two
(41:06):
letters from Cicero, written in the year after his pritleship,
both to Atticus, the first of which tells us of
his probable competition for the consulship. The second informs his
friend that a son is born to him, he being
then forty two years old, and that he is thinking
to undertake the defense of Catiline, who was to be
accused of peculation as proprietal in Africa. Should he be acquitted,
(41:30):
says Cicero, I should hope to have him on my
side in the matter of my canvas. If he should
be convicted, I shall be able to bear that too.
There would be six or seven candidates, of whom two,
of course, would be chosen. It would be much to
Cicero to run, as our phrase goes, with the one
who among his competitors would be the most likely to
(41:52):
succeed Catiline, in spite of his then notorious character in
the teeth of the evils of his government in Africa,
was from his birth, from his connections, and from his
ability supposed to have the best chance. It was opened
to Cicero to defend Catiline as he had defended Fonteus,
and we know from his own words that he thought
(42:13):
of doing so, but he did not, nor did Cicero
join himself with Catiline in the canvassing. It is probable
that the nature of Cataline's character and intentions were now
becoming clearer. From day to day. Catiline was tried and acquitted, having,
it is said, bribed the judges end of Chapter seven
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